Tom Izzo said something interesting this week, which is neither strange nor rare, but it caught my attention as it pertains to Michigan State and the end of this season. As teams around the country get set to play their final home games of the year and bid farewell to their seniors, the only Spartan to be honored on Sunday afternoon after the Northwestern game will be center Derrick Nix. This means two things. First, it means the Spartans will return plenty of talent next year, and should be a contender to reach the Final Four and fight for the Big Ten title after playing a bit better than most expected this year. (Granted, there’s a chance — albeit a small one — that it could be the last home game for junior Adreian Payne and/or freshman Gary Harris, but that’s a different conversation for a different time.) Second, it means Nix’s time in green and white is drawing to a close. “You realize you get to this point of time and for the first time think, ‘What am I gonna do?'” Izzo said of what his lone senior is going through as his college career ends. It was an eventful four years for Nix, from Shaq-like free throws to being suspended to being a captain his senior year and his postgame tweets. It was nothing if not colorful.

Derrick Nix will be the only Michigan State player honored on Senior Day on Sunday against Northwestern.

Nix arrived on campus fresh off a Class A state championship (alongside Keith Appling) and with Michigan Mr. Basketball honors. He also was not fit for the program he was entering. Nix topped out near 340 pounds in high school and arrived on campus with a body fat percentage of nearly 25 percent. He struggled to get up and down the floor, didn’t have much leaping ability and in watching his high school highlight tapes, you wondered how he would be able to run with the Spartans. At the time of Nix’s senior year at Detroit Pershing, Michigan State’s big men were far taller than they were wide — Tom Herzog and Idong Ibok made Goran Suton look like a bowling ball — and Delvon Roe was a freshman with plenty of athletic potential. Nix was set to be the odd man out. Read the rest of this entry »

1. We’ve long been Rick Barnes apologists here on the Big 12 microsite. He’s an easy target for criticism, often slammed for not reaching his potential and wasting NBA talent at Texas. The word “overrated” is thrown around a lot with Barnes, and during this difficult season, he’s now in even more trouble from a public opinion standpoint. But at least one person agrees with us that it’s perhaps overkill to lay so much blame on Barnes for this season. Nobody’s claiming that Barnes is Bob Knight, but he’s done a terrific job in Austin for a sustained period of time. Myck Kabongo problems aside, he also had a roster solely consisting of freshmen and sophomores and knew he’d have some growing pains. When the NCAA suspended Kabongo for much of the season, the problems intensified, and it resulted in a disaster of sorts. Give Barnes some time to sort out his program. After a decade of winning at Texas, he deserves at least that much.
2. Bill Self has never endured the kind of struggles Barnes has gone through this year, but they’re similar in the respect that they’ve both won at several schools. Self, of course, has won a little bit more, and his journey from Oral Roberts to Tulsa to Illinois to Kansas has been an interesting one. It’s easy to point to what Self has accomplished in Lawrence, but sometimes, it’s nice to take a step back and look at the big picture. It’s refreshing to hear him talk about the early days at Oral Roberts, too, and it’s especially intriguing to consider the alternate possibilities in his career path. Had Self gotten the Missouri job in 1999, there’s no telling what the college basketball universe would look like right now.
3. Staying with the coaching theme, here’s a look at Lon Kruger, another renowned coach in the world of hoops. If there’s anyone who epitomizes the trite phrase “he-wins-everywhere-he’s-been,” it’s Kruger. He has his Oklahoma team on the verge of the NCAA Tournament, which isn’t a surprise to anybody. It is surprising, however, that it took only two years for Kruger to create a new culture of winning in Norman. Wyoming transfer Amath M’Baye and the freshmen additions have helped, but he’s gotten his returnees to buy in as well. At this point, he’s successfully cleaned up the mess created by the Jeff Capel fallout.
4. If Kansas State wins at Oklahoma State this weekend, it’ll clinch at least a share of the Big 12 title. It’ll take the outright crown with a Kansas loss. With a Jayhawks victory, though, the “tie” in the standings will be a “tie” in name only. Kansas swept its in-state rival, so it’ll be the real champion and the top seed. Of course, that won’t stop the Wildcats from celebrating, as long as they win themselves this weekend. And hey, the year Kansas won a national title in 2008, it tied Texas atop the standings but lost to the Longhorns in the head-to-head matchup (though they played only once — in Austin). At this point, Bruce Weber will take any hardware he can get in his first season in Manhattan.
5. West Virginia has clearly fallen this season — wanna know why? Here’s a pretty good assessment of the situation. Entering the 2012-13 season, the Mountaineers weren’t league contenders by any means, but they weren’t considered slouches, either. They had big-time transfers, an improving sophomore class and a team seemingly capable of playing for an NCAA Tournament berth. That hasn’t happened, and it’s interesting to look at some of the recruits who did not pan out and left Bob Huggins a little thin.

Before Wednesday night, Miami had yet to lose a single game at home. Granted, they hadn’t lost many games period, but the BankUnited Center has witnessed nothing but triumphs during this breakthrough season for Jim Larranaga’s squad. In Coral Gables, Michigan State, Duke, Virginia, and North Carolina had all fallen to the Hurricanes. So, naturally, Georgia Tech, a team trying to avoid the worst record in the conference, was the team that finally bested the Hurricanes at home. It doesn’t make much sense on the face of things, but there does seem to be something about these Yellow Jackets.

Brian Gregory May Have A Long Way To Go At Georgia Tech, But They Have Shown Signs Of Progress

After last night, Georgia Tech had three conference victories on the road. That might not seem like much, but it’s only one fewer win than Duke and North Carolina, the same as NC State, and one more than Virginia. For as poorly as Georgia Tech has played (and given that they only have three conference victories at home, let me stress that they have played poorly), the Yellow Jackets have honestly been one of the better teams in the conference on the road. Sure, three wins isn’t much to hang your hat on, but these victories do stand as true accomplishments in an otherwise disappointing season.  Defeating Miami at home is a singular achievement that no one else in the conference or out of it can match, unless a slumping Clemson team surprises us all over the weekend. Sure, defeating Virginia Tech at home isn’t all that special, but beating Wake Forest at Joel Coliseum has been challenging this year. Miami, Virginia, and NC State couldn’t do it, and Duke came within five points of falling short as well. Why has such an otherwise disappointing team been so (relatively) effective on the road?

Read the rest of this entry »

1. The postgame scene at Assembly Hall after Indiana’s loss to Ohio State on Tuesday night was… well, it’s tough to really describe it. “Odd” doesn’t really do it justice. Following the loss, The Hoosiers held a ceremony for their departing seniors and cut down the nets to celebrate clinching a share of the Big Ten title, thanks to a Michigan win over Michigan State two days earlier. IU won, but it lost. It was celebrating, but the scene was depressing. It’s strange that IU was so set on having a net-cutting ceremony that it didn’t wait until the Big Ten Tournament, when it would have made a lot more sense.
2. Michigan State still has a lot to play for this season, including a Big Ten title and a subsequent run in March Madness. However, the Spartans got some good news for next season when they found out forward Branden Dawson plans on returning for his junior year. Dawson is likely a future NBA player and he has improved and lived up to his potential considerably since stepping on campus two falls ago. Staying an extra year gives him the chance to make the jump to elite and becoming a certain first round pick. This news potentially extends a long streak of MSU players not leaving early, dating back to Shannon Brown’s departure in 2006.
3. Despite its early-season hype, Ohio State quickly dropped into the second tier of the Top 25 due to quite a bit of inconsistency from its young players. Outside of Deshaun Thomas and Aaron Craft, the Buckeyes have struggled to find contributors on both ends of the floor. Now, however, OSU is rolling on a four-game winning streak after taking down Indiana in Bloomington. The most encouraging sign is that the Buckeyes are doing it without dominance from Thomas, who has recently been in a scoring slump. If OSU can win without Thomas carrying them, who’s to say they can’t go on a run in March if he finds his groove?
4. The Big Ten race is confusing. Five teams can potentially still win a share of the conference title, and depending on a number of different scenarios, we will likely see multiple-way ties for first place in the conference. This chart from The Only Colors is by far the best way to tell how any potential ties will be broken up. Since the Indiana-OSU and Michigan-Purdue games have already been played, the number of possibilities has since narrowed, but Indiana, Ohio State and Wisconsin still all have a chance to get the No. 1 overall seed, even though Indiana is far and away the favorite.
5. Sunday’s loss to Purdue was a tale of two halves for Wisconsin, just as it was for Badgers’ guard Traevon Jackson. Jackson had been playing well recently, and he continued that trend in the first half against the Boilermakers. But he struggled in the second half, particularly with his passing the ball. While he had problems earlier in the year with his passing, he looked like he had gotten the issue fixed in recent games. Before the Purdue game, Jackson had three of his most efficient offensive games of the season, which also turned out to be some of Wisconsin’s most efficient games this year. In order for the Badgers to be effective down the stretch, Jackson can’t play like he did in the second half on Sunday.

1. Arkansas coach Mike Anderson made a return to Missouri on Tuesday night, but it certainly wasn’t the homecoming he had in mind. Missouri thumped Anderson’s Razorbacks by 30 points, and it certainly seemed personal. Anderson maintains that he left the Tigers in good shape after building the program into a contender in the Big 12. “When I got here it was empty,” Anderson said. “It was like, ‘Man, they’ve got a program over there?’ All of a sudden now it’s changed. I think that’s good. So the time has to be right to talk about it. That’s good.” The loss did more than sting Anderson’s ego, but severely dismantled Arkansas’ NCAA hopes. The Razorbacks needed to plead their case to the selection committee with a strong road victory, but the 30-point loss probably all but determined that Anderson will be watching his former team in the Big Dance while his new one heads to the NIT.
2. Missing the NCAA Tournament could have serious financial implications for Kentucky coach John Calipari. Last year, the coach made an additional $800,000 in bonuses and incentives, of which $700,000 were directly tied to success in the NCAA Tournament. Calipari’s deep Tournament runs have become expected in Lexington, and he has been handsomely rewarded as a result. His Wildcats have advanced to at least the Elite Eight in every year he has been there, including two Final Four runs and a national championship team last season. However, it is not as though the head coach will struggle to make ends meet without a performance-driven incentive. He makes $3.8 million dollars in base pay, and he just signed on for an extension to take him through the 2018-19 season. The only problem here is that it doesn’t seem that it is the head coach that needs the incentive to succeed in this particular equation.
3. Florida senior guard Mike Rosario sat on the bench for the final 12 minutes of the Gators’ victory over Alabama on Saturday. And being the mature player he is, Rosario says he understands. “I wasn’t playing the way my team needed me to play,” Rosario said. “I wasn’t playing what coach would say is the right way. Sometimes you’ve got to look at it as it not being about an individual. It’s about the team. That game, I wasn’t playing the right way, so I had to give our team what we needed.”Regardless of maturity level, every player wants to be out on the court. The 27 minutes he played on Saturday was the first time he’s played under 30 minutes in a game since a February 9 blowout of Mississippi State. Expect Rosario to be on the court when it matters, though, and his mature handling of this situation demonstrates why this team needs his leadership when the going gets tough.
4. Florida coach Billy Donovan downplayed the significance that a No. 1 seed has on the outcome of the NCAA Tournament, and he uses his Gators from last season as a perfect example. “Does it make a difference? I don’t know,” Donovan said.  “I mean, you could look at the numbers and say the better seeding you have, the more likelihood there is to advance. But, I mean, we’re a No. 7 seed last year with an opportunity to go to the Final Four. We’ve got to go out and play regardless of what the number is next to our name.” The Gators are in the hunt for a No. 1 seed, but there isn’t a single NCAA Tournament venue site within 700 miles of Gainesville (that is, until the Final Four in Atlanta). In terms of a geographic advantage for Florida, there isn’t really one available. Even as a top seed, UF could be paired with a No. 2 seed that is closer to the venue site, removing any real advantage they would have in advancing.
5. After losing to Georgia on Saturday, Tennessee understands it is in a position where it must win its remaining two regular season games for a chance to hear its name on Selection Sunday. “We’re in the exact same spot as last year so we know what we need to do,” Tennessee’s leading scorer Jordan McRae said. “We don’t like to label games must-wins, but these next two games, we’ve got to win.” The coach agrees. “Just get Ws and keep moving forward,” coach Cuonzo Martin said. UT has won six of its last seven games, but at this point another loss would be difficult to explain.

1. Winston-Salem Journal: The freshman of the year race will say a lot about the voters involved. There are four plausible winners: Olivier Hanlan, Rasheed Sulaimon, Devin Thomas and TJ Warren. Each one says something about the voter: Hanlan is the most important to his team’s scoring (high usage); Sulaimon is a key piece for a top team on both ends of the floor; Warren is the efficiency guru’s dream; but Thomas has intangibles. I don’t know whether he’s a leader, but he’s often the only spark Wake Forest has on a given night. Thomas crashes the boards and plays with effort regardless of the score. In the end, Hanlan deserves the award, though it’s true he has more opportunities to shine than Sulaimon or Warren. If Sulaimon has a monster game against North Carolina, he could take the award just by overcoming his recency bias.
2. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Speaking of awards, Daniel Miller won’t win Most Improved Player, but he should be in contention. Last season Miller was a bumbling liability everywhere but in rebounding. This year, he’s much more efficient offensively. He’s still not looking for his own shot, but he’s cut down on turnovers and increased his field goal percentage. If he improves along the Richard Howell trajectory (still a big if), Miller could be a very important piece next season.
3. South Florida Sun Sentinel: Miami started ACC play in dominant fashion. It’s ending the year looking mediocre. A lot of people are quick to point the finger at Reggie Johnson, who hasn’t been on top of his game. But Miami could just be regressing. The Hurricanes won plenty of close games (especially through the middle of conference play) and lost none. Now, some of those games are going the other way. There are two ways of looking at this phenomenon: (1) close games are coin flips; or (2) Miami doesn’t have the same swagger it had earlier in conference play. The first isn’t cause for concern; the second is.
4. Washington Post: North Carolina’s smaller lineup gave Maryland fits. But the Terrapins struggle to find their flow offensively. The real test for the Tar Heel’s wing-heavy lineup is this Saturday against Duke. The Blue Devils are an elite offense with an elite big man (and a stretch four to help with double-teams). But win or lose, the Tar Heels will be in the Big Dance. Maryland, however, isn’t in nearly as good shape. The Terrapins need to do some work in the conference tournament.
5. ESPN: Well, we may be getting a taste of conference realignment  a little early, as Notre Dame may join the ACC as soon as this summer, according to Brett McMurphy. That’s good news for the ACC, as it will lock Notre Dame into an agreement instead of just waiting for a better offer to come hit you in the face.

1. An ugly fight broke out at Tuesday night’s Notre Dame-St. John’s game between the Red Storm’s Sir’Dominic Pointer and Irish freshman Cam Biedscheid. After battling over a rebound, Pointer appears to take a swing at Biedscheid, who then retaliated. Despite the fact that Pointer seemed to be the aggressor in this situation, Pointer and Biedscheid will both miss their teams’ next games because both engaged in the fight.  Mike Brey tried to appeal Biedscheid’s suspension to the conference to no avail: “There’s no appeals process, which is disappointing… Once it’s deemed a fight, which it was, and he was throwing punches, it is what it is.”
2. Mike Brey seems about ready to hop off the conference realignment carousel. With the news that the Catholic 7 will be breaking away from the Big East to become… the Big East… it is unclear whether Notre Dame next year will stick around with UConn, Cincinnati, and friends, or join the Catholic 7 for a season, or head to the ACC a season early. If the ACC will have the Irish, that solution seems to make the most sense, but then again, this is conference realignment. Sense was checked at the door years ago.
3. James Robinson has flown a bit under the radar this season for Pitt nationally, but those in the program hold the freshman in very high esteem. Former Panthers great Brandin Knight sees great potential in the young point guard: “He’s just one of those guys that you get the feeling that there’s something special about him… He has the poise and he really understands the game. He’s very mature beyond his years.”  Robinson averages 6.1 points and 3.5 assists per game in 26.7 minutes of action for Pitt, and in the team’s last game against Villanova he scored 14 points in the overtime win.
4. Villanova has had a number of statement wins this season, but coming into Wednesday night the Wildcats were still not a sure thing for the NCAA Tournament. Knocking off Georgetown last night should help secure Nova’s spot in the Big Dance. The game with the Hoyas was an ugly affair, with three Georgetown players fouling out and the Wildcats hitting 30 free throws while the Hoyas could only muster four there. The win keeps Villanova from entering postseason play on a multiple game slide, and sets them up well for next week’s Madison Square Garden processions.
5. Another day, another weird story coming out of Syracuse. Moments after the Orange defeated DePaul Wednesday evening, the school’s official Twitter account published a message speculating that it could be Jim Boeheim’s last game as Orange head coach with a link to a blog post, which stated that according to “sources,” Syracuse was under investigation by the NCAA and Syracuse athletic director Daryl Gross had asked Boeheim to step down. After the game, Syracuse released the statement that the story was completely false, as most who read it had assumed, but the larger story here is that there has been a long line of social media incidents stemming from the official Syracuse University accounts. Last year, one of the student interns who runs @SyracuseU tweeted about the upcoming DaJuan Coleman decision before the center had formally made his college choice between Syracuse, Kentucky, and Ohio State — a clear violation of NCAA rules. There have been numerous other instances of similar mistaken tweets. On an individual level, these tweets seem like minor mistakes, but when taken as a group, it shows that the school needs to take their social media presence more seriously.

1. Maybe it’s the extra week in March before Selection Sunday this year or maybe it’s something else, but the last couple of nights of basketball have brought us a handful of bizarre incidents that seemingly have little to no relationship with common definitions of sanity. Everyone is already well-aware of the peculiar net-cutting ceremony that Indiana held for sharing a Big Ten title after a tough home loss to Ohio State on Tuesday night. That seemed to set the train to crazytown rolling. Last night, Syracuse‘s official Twitter account made this rather interesting statement: “Did I just watch Jim Boeheim’s last game in the Carrier Dome? One source says yes.” That source claimed that the school was in trouble with the NCAA and Boeheim had been asked to step down, and, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard, turned out to be a 19-year old student at a local community college who stood by his story. He claimed that he was also correct about the Bernie Fine case and Dion Waiters turning pro. Syracuse, for its part, deleted the volatile and widely mocked tweet and later issued a statement that said the tweet was “inadvertently and mistakenly sent out. Nothing contained in the tweet or the blog link is accurate or true.” Smoke/fire or the nonsensical writings of a kook? Nothing would shock us at this point.
2. The other weird thing that occurred during last night’s action went down after most people in the country were in bed, but with about five minutes remaining in the game and Stanford holding a 19-point lead on the road at rival California, a scuffle ensued during a loose ball situation. Most of the players on the floor got involved in one way or another, but the real problem arose when three Stanford assistant and one Cal assistant came off the bench to help break things up. A bunch of technical fouls were handed out (three on each team’s players), but in a rule application that only makes sense in some alternate universe, the four assistants who left the bench to act as peacemakers were summarily ejected from the game. It turns out that the head coach is the only person allowed to leave the bench under any circumstances, which means that the NCAA’s seat belt rule clearly needs some further modification to account for situations such as these. All we can wonder is: What’s on top for tonight?
3. The state of New Jersey is back in the NCAA’s good graces — at least for the time being — with a US District Court judge’s decision to provide a permanent injunction upholding a law that bans sports betting within the state. You may recall that last year the NCAA enjoined the state from hosting any of its championship events as a result of its passage of a law allowing sports gambling despite a federal law preempting it. The NCAA as a result on Wednesday released a memo stating that Garden State universities may again hold NCAA championship games and events within its borders. For many sports this academic year, the change comes too late, as several schools were not allowed to host home games and were forced to play elsewhere instead. Additionally, the 2015 East Regional of the NCAA Tournament was awarded to Syracuse’s Carrier Dome rather than Newark’s Prudential Center, which is potentially a major loss in revenue as a result of the NCAA’s ban. Of course, an injunction is just that, an injunction. It does not carry the force of law if the case is ultimately adjudicated and comes out in favor of the state. At that point, we presume that New Jersey will once again ban its championship events there. Cat and mouse, anyone?
4. The much-discussed split between the Catholic 7 and the Big East is expected to happen today. Reports from late last night suggest that the seven schools will leave the conference on June 30, keep the Big East name, and have the right to play their conference tournament at Madison Square Garden. [Ed. Note: Who is negotiating on behalf of the Big East? Billy Hunter?] The addition of other schools (reported to be Butler and Xavier as well as probably Creighton) to the Catholic 7 would make a ten-team conference for next season with the possibility of the addition of two more teams (possibly Dayton and St. Louis) for the 2014-15 season. As we have stated before, the basketball power of the original Catholic 7 seems to have been blown out of proportion (only Georgetown is a great program with the others ranging from solid such as Marquette and Villanova to DePaul, which is DePaul). The addition of the other schools will have a significantly bigger impact on the overall quality of the conference and should make it one of the top conferences in the country.
5. With the Catholic 7 and the Big East (or whatever we are supposed to call them) on their way to forming earlier than expected it appears that Notre Dame might be able join the ACC next year if it can find a way to exit the Big East. The Irish are able to do this because unlike Louisville (headed to the ACC) and Rutgers (headed to the Big Ten) they are not joining for football allowing the new conference more flexibility in scheduling games. Notre Dame had previously indicated that they intended to stay in the Big East until the end of the 2013-14 season if the Catholic 7 remained part of the conference, but with the reports that that group will leave on July 1 it now appears that Notre Dame will try to follow suit in departing the crumbling conference early. As it currently stands Notre Dame needs to provide 27-month notice to avoid an exit fee (yes, Notre Dame doesn’t have to pay an exit fee; shocking that the Irish are given a different set a rules to play by). The Big East has offered Notre Dame the possibility to exit even earlier if they agree to schedule football games against Big East schools, but their commitment to join the ACC in sports other than football already required them to commit to play five games annually against ACC football teams making any further commitments unrealistic. We are not sure what Notre Dame can do to do get out of the Big East any earlier, but if they need to pay some money that contract with NBC would go a long way to paying the exit fee although it may not make financial sense since their football program would not be impacted.

Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn. 

Tonight’s Lede. Two Questionable At-Large’s Cash In. At the end of a long season, after a mixed bag of wins and losses leaves you wanting more, every now and then the schedule throws you a lifeline. Teams get big resume-boosting opportunities right in their own home gyms. Sometimes they take advantage; other times not. Villanova and Iowa State were blessed with such propositions in their respective home confines Wednesday night, with Oklahoma State visiting Hilton Coliseum and Georgetown making its way to the Wells Fargo Center. With Tourney ticket-punching affairs hanging in the balance, their agendas were simple. Win and you’re in.

Your Watercooler Moment. Bubble-Dwellers Score Big.

Taking out a top-half seed like Oklahoma State will make waves in the at-large picture (AP)

When national player of the year candidates meet desperate bubble teams, I’ll take the latter every time and never think twice. Arguably the best player in college basketball over the past few weeks, Georgetown’s Otto Porter, came upon a collective force he could not overcome in Philadelphia, PA. That force was Villanova’s home court advantage and added motivational edge, and the Wildcats – having already knocked off Syracuse, Louisville and Marquette at home this season – were not about to let this golden opportunity slip away. Sure, Jay Wright’s team could have busted off a few Big East Tournament wins and maybe, maybe snuck into the field after a loss Wednesday night. Instead, thanks to the efficient offense of JayVaughn Pinkston and solid defensive work on Porter, Villanova can go into Selection Sunday feeling optimistically comfortable about its position in the field. The other big bubble game didn’t feature a top-five team. A National POY candidate was in the building, though, and not even Marcus Smart could hold down the Cyclones’ potent offense in Ames. Like the Georgetown win, ISU’s triumph should get them over the hump (ISU’s case is thornier than Villanova’s, no doubt), provided it takes care of business Saturday at West Virginia. It’s never smart to make definitive statements about who’s in and who’s out before the selection committee gets together and sets in stone the field of 68. The committee has been known to make some puzzling decisions from time to time. And I don’t consider myself skeptical when I say the selection process will render more than a few dumbfounding choices this season. But on Wednesday night these two teams may have eliminated the possibility of selection day robbery altogether. Their profiles look worthy.

Also Worth Chatting About. Uh, Miami?

One of the main takeaways from Saturday’s loss at Duke, besides Ryan Kelly’s marvelous return, was the way Miami hung tough for 40 minutes, battled the Blue Devils every step of the way, and came one three-point shot away from sending the game into overtime. Miami came away with a loss, but if you’re Jim Larranaga you head back to Coral Gables feeling like your team not only managed the pressures of a brutal environment with poise and aplomb, but also nearly knocked off arguably the best team in the country (I don’t subscribe to this notion, but it’s out there) on a night when its newly-healthy senior forward miraculously returned from a weeks-long absence to play one of the best games in program history. It happens. Conference games are hard to win on the road. And besides, Miami still had the ACC regular season crown to bank on, right? All it had to do was win one of its final two regular season games to clinch its first outright conference title since moving to the ACC; easy stuff. On Wednesday night Georgia Tech was anything but “easy” at the BankUnited Center. The Yellowjackets stunned Miami, delaying its outright conference title and shaking up the ever-fluid NCAA Tournament seeding permutations, but more than anything else, Georgia Tech handed the Hurricanes their first truly worrisome lost of the conference season (shout out to Florida Gulf Coast!). Mere weeks away from the opening round, Miami will need to assess its mistakes and roll into the tourney riding the same confidence and momentum it had throughout most of league play.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bennet Hayes is a regular contributor for RTC. You can find him @HoopsTraveler on Twitter. Night Line runs on weeknights during the season, highlighting a major storyline development from that day’s games.

The Miami Hurricanes spent January and February making believers out of skeptics, filling a bandwagon that had never, ever been even close to full. It takes no stretch of the imagination to believe in a Duke or a Carolina team that races out to a hot ACC start, but Miami? A program with just six NCAA Tournament appearances in its history? For us to trust the Canes, they had to be spectacular – and spectacular they were. Thirteen ACC wins in a row, including a sweep of UNC and a blowout win over Duke, practically sealed the ACC regular season title, and all this before the first day of March. They looked like the best team in the league, and a legitimate national title contender to boot.

Jim Larranaga Could Not Have Loved Miami’s Effort This Evening, But The Canes And Their Head Man Still Harbor Large Tournament Hopes

Both those proclamations may still be true, but back-to-back losses to begin the most important month in college basketball will again have the magnifying lenses hovering over the Canes. The loss at Cameron on Saturday (by just three points and with Ryan Kelly not only active but also having the game of his life) did little to damage Miami’s long-term prognosis. They still looked like the tough, veteran team that had ripped through this ACC slate — no problems there. But with that defeat now a part of a losing streak after tonight’s egregious home loss to Georgia Tech, we start to worry a little bit. There are questions again, and the doubt seeps back in with disturbingly little difficulty, because why did we really believe in the Miami Hurricanes to begin with?

Read the rest of this entry »