2009 conference tournaments – Rush The Court

Big East Tourney 2009 Retrospective

nvr1983 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:39:38 +0000

By Ray Floriani

NEW YORK CITY – The Big East Tournament is over. Louisville is crowned champion. Few might argue if you were to call this the greatest Big East postseason get together to date. It was five days of memorable moments. A fitting send off gift to Mike Tranghese the long time commissioner who served with class and excellence.

We should have known this would be an interesting tournament. From the first game on Tuesday when we had winless DePaul knock off Cincinnati in the opener.

During the [...]

WAC Tournament Semifinals Wrapup

rtmsf — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:20:51 +0000

Kevin McCarthy of Parsing the WAC and Sam Wasson of bleedCrimson.net are the RTC correspondents for the WAC.

The semifinal games featured the top two seeds Utah State and Nevada taking on the five and six seeds New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech. NM State and La. Tech were attempting to become the lowest seeds to ever face each other in the conference tournament finals. It was not to be however as both Utah State and Nevada held serve. Utah State defeated New Mexico State on a baseline jumper by Tyler Newbold with 3.1 seconds remaining to [...]

Six OTs in New York, Revisited

rtmsf — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:56:19 +0000

Ray Floriani of College Chalktalk is the RTC correspondent for the MAAC and NEC Conferences, but he found himself in MSG on Thursday night for the Big East classic between Syracuse and UConn.

NEW YORK CITY – It has been billed a classic. Some are calling it the greatest college basketball game ever. What ever the opinion, the 6 OT UConn-Syracuse marathon was discussed quite frequently on Friday. The game was almost missed by yours truly. In the spring I officiate girls’ lacrosse and had a mandatory state meeting in Millburn, New Jersey. The [...]

Hey Kid, I’ll Give You $20 to Carry This Package For Me…

rtmsf — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:11:56 +0000

One of the very best things about college sports other than the cheerleaders and the dance teams are the mascots. And while you’ll never, ever see a cute blonde pixie getting in the face of a competitor, it’s fairly common for mascots to get involved in tomfoolery and hijinks. Case in point: last night at the WAC Tournament with seven seconds left in a one-pt game, Utah St.’s “Big Blue” confronted New Mexico St.’s “Pistol Pete” and ripped off his mustache, leading to a row during a timeout in the middle of the court. From the AP report:

WAC Quarterfinal Recap & Semifinal Preview

nvr1983 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:39:57 +0000

Kevin McCarthy of Parsing the WAC and Sam Wasson of bleedCrimson.net are the RTC correspondents for the WAC.

Note: Rush the Court will be live-blogging tonight’s WAC Semifinals, which starts at 8:30 PM ET.

The quarterfinals of the 2009 WAC Tournament are in the books and the league’s top two seeded teams–Utah State and Nevada–advanced. The #3 and #4 seeds Idaho and Boise State? Not nearly as fortunate. Each session brought its own upset as in the tournament’s first game #5 seed New Mexico State upended #4 seed Boise State. The Broncos had won the first [...]

Sun Belt Conference Tourney Wrapup

nvr1983 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:18:41 +0000

Toppers Return to The Dance As we predicted last time around, Western Kentucky will represent the Sun Belt Conference in the Big dance this year. This was no surprise to avid Belt followers. However, what was a surprise was the opponent they faced in the finals – South Alabama.

South Alabama came into the tournament as the sixth seed, and slid into the finals after winning their first two games by a combined total of five points. One of their opponents was Troy, who’s magical run came to a close by just three points. [...]

Majerus the Academician

rtmsf — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 05:35:20 +0000

Ray Floriani of College Chalktalk is the RTC correspondent for the MAAC and NEC Conferences. He is bouncing around the Northeast this week visiting several championship week venues.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – Rick Majerus can coach. There was never a doubt over that. The St.Louis mentor also has opinions and doesn’t mind voicing them. At the Atlantic Ten Tournament opening round in Atlantic City on Wednesday Majerus took the opportunity to once again be heard. His Billikens just won a thrilling 62-60 overtime game against LaSalle. He spoke generically about being ‘fortunte to win’ [...]

Big 10 Wrapup & Tourney Preview

nvr1983 — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:43:02 +0000

Josh & Mike from Big Ten Geeks are the RTC correspondents for the Big Ten Conference.

The Season That Was Politicians often talk about “Two Americas” – there’s the super-rich, lighting Cuban cigars with $100 bills, and then there’s the rest of us. Well, this year, there were “Three Big Tens.” First, there was Michigan State, who won the conference title in a walk by four games. That’s the largest margin in a very long time (over 10 years). And just like this little credit crisis hasn’t forced Warren Buffett to fly coach [Ed. Note: [...]

RTC Live: Atlantic 10 Tournament

rtmsf — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:26:02 +0000

3/14 Update: The Championship Game between Duquesne and Temple begins tonight at 6pm EDT. See you there!

CCT’s Interactive Tournament Daily Journal: Final – Duquesne (7) versus Temple (4)

3/13 Update: Tonight CCT will be live-blogging the semifinals, with Xavier-Temple the early game at 6:30 pm and Dayton-Duquesne in the nightcap. Enjoy!

CCT’s Interactive Tournament Daily Journal: Day 3

3/12 Update: The quarterfinal round promises to have several good games. Here is today’s liveblog, courtesy again of our friends at College Chalktalk.

CCT’s Interactive Tournament Daily Journal: Day 2

RTC Live is pleased [...]

Big West Tourney Preview

rtmsf — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:00:47 +0000

Ryan ZumMallen of LBPostSports is the RTC correspondent for the Big West and SEC Conferences.

The Big West Tournament will kick off tonight at the Anaheim Convention Center, and anyone who claims they know who will be crowned on Saturday is either: (1) lying, or (2) not familiar with the way the season has gone thus far. The fact is that any Big West team is capable of beating any other team, and seeding means little in making your predictions.

Top seed Cal State Northridge won the regular season title outright, but have faced [...]

Conference USA Wrapup & Tourney Preview

rtmsf — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:31:08 +0000

Memphis passed its last regular season road test and now only has a few games to go to return to the “promised land” that they’ve never really left.

While the Tigers’ dominance over the rest of CUSA is nearly unparalleled in the history of modern college basketball, it doesn’t mean that every other team is chopped liver. Basically anything can happen in a tournament setting and the Tigers have endured a few close calls this year.

So here are the teams as they are seeded and some pertinent info:

#1: Memphis Tigers

Ryan ZumMallen of LBSportsPost is the RTC correspondent for the Big West and SEC Conferences.

A lot of people have written off the SEC as an also-ran. It’s lacked a Top 20 presence most of the season and doesn’t figure to make a lot of noise in The Dance. LSU, South Carolina and Tennessee are looking like the only teams that have earned themselves a Tournament spot – save, of course, a surprising SEC Tournament champion. But in a conference boasting the likes of Jodie Meeks, Nick Calathes, Ole Miss’ Terrico White and others, it’s entirely plausible [...]

Big 12 Wrap & Tourney Preview

rtmsf — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:06:14 +0000

Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Big 12 and MVC Conferences.

Kansas didn’t rebuild, they reloaded this season. After questions whether this team would be able to be as good as they were last season with basically only Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich, this new class has gelled together and Bill Self was able to prove that he is one of the best developers of talent in the nation and also the Big 12 Coach of the Year. As I said in my preseason predictions, Kansas could fly under the [...]

MAAC Tournament Notes

rtmsf — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:16:12 +0000

Ray Floriani of College Chalktalk is the RTC correspondent for the MAAC and NEC Conferences. He found himself in Albany last weekend witnessing the MAAC Championship.

ALBANY, NY – Following Siena’s quarterfinal win , Canisius coach Tom Parrotta was asked about the Saints’ Kenny Hasbrouck. “He made some big plays in the first half to keep us at bay,” Parrotta said. “That’s what seniors do.” The play of Hasbrouck is probably the best or primary reason Siena cut down the nets last night following the 77-70 MAAC championship victory over Niagara at the Times Union Center. The [...]

March Madness Indeed

nvr1983 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:03:53 +0000

With all the college basketball news floating around the Internet right now I also missed an interesting piece of news about the Robert Morris basketball team and I’m sure the administration at wishes I had. According to police reports, Mezie Nwigwe, the Colonials’ leading scorer (6.5 PPG) off the bench, was involved in an altercation that left 2 men with minor injuries. Apparently Nwigwe was with 3 of his teammates (Jeremy Chappell, Rob Robinson and Velton Jones) when the fight allegedly happened at 2:20 AM on Saturday. Although Nwigwe was not arrested he was issued a court summons [...]