As Ray pointed out last week, Season X has finally bid adieu to one of the Mid-Majority’s betes noires: the guarantee game, in which one of our own earns a much-needed paycheck (and a likely loss) for visiting a power-conference …
In the early years of NCAA basketball, Our Game had its unquestioned capital in New York City. The finest players and smartest coaches came up through the five boroughs, and an NIT victory at Madison Square Garden was the pinnacle …
I know it’s not scientifically proven, but everyone who’s spent a decent chunk of time with an iPod on shuffle knows that the little music robot has some kind of psychic connection with its owner’s mood. It was no surprise, …
I’ve carried on a lifelong love affair with New Orleans, and at least part of it has to do with Ledell Eackles. It’s also been inspired by a love of jazz and an affinity with cocktail culture and proximity to …
Wherever you may be, Thanksgiving inspires thoughts of home. For me, that’s also inspired a lot of thinking about the Northern Iowa Panthers in the last week. As I’ve mentioned, my current home is almost as far from a mid-major …
“God created man. Zadar created basketball.” — Apocryphal Croatian saying There’s plenty that’s exceptional about Our Game, circa 2013. Advanced stats and sci-fi cameras
In the entire history of NCAA basketball, only one guy has scored more points than Freeman Williams. That other guy, you know: Pistol Pete Maravich, college ball’s all-time leading scorer, a legend at every level of the game.
The second week of November is a great time to be a basketball fan. As I write this, Bally is perched behind me keeping an eye on LIU-Brooklyn’s effort at an Assembly Hall upset, and this morning I brushed my …
(See Tuesday’s Part One to learn how we got here.) At the end of the 1969-70 season, Marquette coach Al McGuire turned down the team’s invitation to the NCAA Tournament, protesting the selection committee’s choice to send the Warriors to …
On October 4, 1951, the New York Herald Tribune published the greatest lede ever written. It lay at the top of Red Smith’s dispatch from the Polo Grounds, where a one-game playoff for the National League pennant had been decided …