Traditionally, in women's basketball, the more exciting conferences play their tournaments early. Unlike the men, who save their best for last, as the ACC and SEC crown champs on Selection Sunday, the ladies dole out those league titles days before the brackets are finalized.

This season, though, it seems the women did save their very best for the penultimate day of action, as the Big 12 concluded its season Saturday with two teams who had never before even advanced as far as the title game, but who both came out looking like champions.

Continue reading "Super Sophomores Shine Saturday" »

Posted by Jeff Lippman at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One more major conference crowns its champion Saturday as the Big 12 reaches its championship. Eight other conference tourneys will come to a close today, as the total number of automatic bids swells to 24 out of 31.

We're just two days away from Selection Monday, with many teams sitting on pins and needles waiting to find out where their tourney fate takes them. If you are Maryland or LSU right now, you're wondering if you'll get that two seed and where you'll have to travel. If you are Temple or Auburn, however, you are wondering if you will have some place to travel at all.

Continue reading "The Final Major" »

Posted by Jeff Lippman at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Before I get into today's topic, I'd just like to show a little remorse for my college basketball fan-dom.

As a Florida alum and a long-time Maryland fan on the men's side, last night saw both teams lose in their opening round conference tournament games. They both played themselves off the bubble. Congratulations, I've nothing to root for come March. I better have a strong bracket.

OK, I'm done venting.

Today's topic is the Mountain West, where as many as three teams from this mid-sized conference enjoyed AP rankings at some point this season. But this isn't about one of those teams. No, this is about a Mountain West school who was never ranked this year. In fact, before the MWC Tournament started, they hadn't won a single game since Dec. 4.

Continue reading "Climbing A Mountain" »

Posted by Jeff Lippman at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)