What’s Trending: Conference Tournament Weekend
Posted by Matt Eisenberg on March 18th, 2019What’s Trending is a column examining the week that was in college basketball social media. Matthew Eisenberg (@matteise) is your weekly host.
The second week of conference tournaments began with many questions, the biggest of which focused on a certain 6’7″, 285-pound freshman in Durham, North Carolina. For the past few weeks, questions about Zion Williamson and whether he would — or should — return to play for Duke have been thrown around by nearly everyone. It took the superstar forward all of two minutes of game time to show everyone that he is indeed back…
The storylines involving Zion continued in Duke’s ACC Tournament quarterfinal match-up against Syracuse. In the past, it was Duke — paging Grayson Allen — as the centerpiece of any tripping story. This time, however, it was Syracuse’s Frank Howard taking his turn to extend his leg a little further than necessary…
“I love playing with Duke, I love my teammates.”
The Zion experience carried into the ACC Tournament semifinal match-up against North Carolina. The Tar Heels had dominated the first two Zion-less games, but after scoring 29 points and grabbing 10 rebounds through the first 39 minutes, it was Zion’s final two points and rebound that made the biggest difference…
Scoring, rebounds, steals… oh, Zion can pass the ball pretty well too…
In the non-Zion Williamson category of the ACC Tournament, the basketball world was gifted a dancing Virginia Tech head coach Buzz Williams…
…a frantic possession and game-winning basket by Florida State’s Terance Mann…
…and everyone’s favorite, allegations of NCAA violations…
On the topic of NCAA violations, the SEC Tournament included LSU’s Will Wade releasing a statement where he made a plea to get back on the sideline. LSU General Counsel Tom Skinner fired back with, “as a university and employer, we need to hear our employee say, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong,’ or explain the circumstances or admit he did not do something wrong. We’ve been unable to get to that point. We have no choice, in terms of institutional control, to not suspend someone.”
On the court, Tennessee’s Admiral Schofield began the Volunteers’ SEC Tournament action with a poster over Mississippi State…
LSU’s Skylar Mays came up with a dunk that had LSU fans jumping for joy…
…but it was ultimately Florida’s Andrew Nembhard who allowed Florida to move on and send LSU home.
Florida’s run through the SEC Tournament came to an end on Saturday, literally at the hands of Auburn….
In the other semifinal, the SEC Tournament delivered a gem between Tennessee and Kentucky…
During Wednesday’s opening round of the Big Ten Tournament, Nebraska’s Tim Miles had the spotlight on him after his Huskers toppled Rutgers…
…after beating Maryland on Thursday, Miles got his shot at redemption…
After the second win in as many days, Big Ten Twitter was quick to point out this fact that fans in Bloomington, Indiana, were not happy to read…
The Big East Tournament will be remembered for this sequence in Seton Hall’s semifinal win over Marquette…
Meanwhile, at the end of the tournament it was once again Villanova that walked away as the champion… AGAIN.
Tournament week in Las Vegas began with the West Coast Conference Tournament where St. Mary’s earned an automatic bid by getting the best of Gonzaga.
…and it continued with the Pac-12 Tournament where all eyes were on Bill Walton doing Bill Walton things…
…and it ended with Oregon winning the Pac-12 Tournament to steal a bid from a team on the bubble.
As players play for an opportunity to keep their season going, these tournaments bring up stories that need to be shared. The emotion in the face of Old Dominion headcoach Jeff Jones makes the Monarchs an easy team to root for…
While there is so much to love and appreciate with college basketball, there was one thing that continues to outshine the product on the floor. Officiating throughout tournaments leaves fans wondering…
And as painful as questionable calls can be, the monitor review process will almost assuredly come up time and time again next week. Getting the correct call is important, but too often these reviews kill any flow to a game. Add in the fact that they act as de facto timeouts for teams that often do not have any to call and you have a situation that creates more problems than it solves.
