As important as the blue-bloods are to college basketball — Tobacco Road, Big Blue Nation, Rock Chalk, etc. — it’s the little guys, the mid-majors, that so often give the sport its vibrancy and leave lasting impressions in March. In fact, the Other 26 leagues constitute a majority in college hoops, helping create a vast landscape of players and programs that make each season unique and full of seemingly endless possibility (as of right now, any one of 343 teams can win the National Championship). This microsite aims to provide a panoramic of that landscape through thoughtful, timely and engaging analysis over the course of the season. We will shed light on the unknown superstars, the underappreciated performers and the soon-to-be-Cinderellas that make the Other 26 great. And we hope to have some fun doing it, because after all, this is mid-major basketball and, well, just look at Kyle O’Quinn’s face…

Gear up for an exciting season at the Other 26 microsite. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Be sure to check out our preview materials over the (less than four!) weeks leading up to opening tip-off, which will touch on every league in the O26 world and keep you updated as the season approaches. Some must-reads include:

• Top of the Class – Regional Previews: in which we examine the best O26 teams, players and coaches in each geographic section of the country.
• Poll Critiques: in which we break down the noteworthy, the intriguing and the downright peculiar among O26 teams in preseason conference rankings.
• O26 Preseason Awards: our O26 All-Americans, Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Team of the Year.

Bookmark us, follow us on Twitter (@other26hoops) and enjoy all that the Other 26 have to offer. Now watch Mercer bust some moves.

Back in October of last year, we asked you to join us for what was expected to be a great season for the Big Ten, and the last six months certainly didn’t disappoint. We couldn’t have asked for a better year from one of the best conferences in college hoops and we at RTC are very thankful to you for checking out our work at the Big Ten Microsite.

The Big Ten Had a Phenomenal Season

The Big Ten writers – Deepak Jayanti, Joey Nowak and Kevin Trahan – would like to thank you for your time during the 2012-13 season. We will see you back here in October!

After months of hype (scroll to bottom), the much-talked about March Madness hubsite featuring Billy Packer and Bobby Knight was finally unveiled to the public today. [Ed. Note: In the interest of full disclosure, RTC is an affiliate of Fantasy Sports Ventures, the company that owns and operates the Knight/Packer site.] The site, which promises to feature analysis from two of the most well-known (and controversial) figures in college basketball history, is still in a little light on content right now, but it should be one of the more interesting sites on which to follow the NCAA tournament (after your morning stop to Rush the Court, of course).  Fwiw, we got 38 right on the trivia challenge, doing well on the seeding questions but less so on the historical records of points scored, etc.

While some people may detest the existence of both individuals, we’re actually looking forward to hearing what they have to say about the NCAA Tournament in an unfiltered medium as they are probably two of the more knowledgeable college basketball analysts in recent years (I can’t remember either leaving the likely #1 overall seed off their preseason top 25). Honestly, Bobby Knight might be one of my favorite college basketball personalities. Some people may think he went over the line at times as a coach, but I have no issue with anything he did and I respect the fact that he ran a clean program (remember that Indiana fans?) and graduated his players. As for Packer, sure, we’ve had our issues with him in the past (ok, maybe more than a few issues), but we’re not sure what March would be like without some authority figure taking shots at the Cinderella.  Somebody has to be the bad guy, right?

RTC is growing and we’re in dire need of an intern who has a love for college hoops and a keen sense of how to aggregate and analyze news from various RSS feeds.  We can’t pay you any actual funds, but if you’re in college, we may be able to work with your school to provide credit for the few hours a week you’d be giving us.   If you’re looking to move into blogging and/or writing, working at RTC could boost your career prospects, and if things work out on the initial tasks, there is also a possibility of writing assignments going forward. 

Send a one-paragraph description of yourself to rushthecourt@yahoo.com and why your skills and talents would make for a good fit at RTC.  Please refer specifically to how you keep up with sports news (particularly college basketball news) and how you would analytically distinguish between hundreds of daily stories to isolate key issues and trends in the news. 

And if you look at all similar to this prospective intern, please send a photo. 

Hello again, everybody, and welcome to our new home, rushthecourt.net!

This was a long overdue move, but thanks to the encouragement of several of our correspondents, the fine folks at Fantasy Sports Ventures and affiliates, as well as technical assistance from The Blog Doctor, we consider ourselves to be all growed up and ready to take on the interwebs sans our security blanket known as wordpress.com.

That is, until you guys crash the site when we put up another ridiculous Ugly Floors post.

Shirt/Tie or Pants? You Choose.

Seriously, though, we like to think of ourselves as a legitimate source of college hoops analysis and commentary, so we figured it was time to start acting like one.  So we’re suiting up (ok, maybe not a suit/tie combo, but we’ll consider a dress shirt, unbuttoned at the collar) and we’re ready to move into the extended adolescence of this joint.

And if you can find the old site, you can find this one, because, well, you should have been re-directed here.  Go ahead, try it.

Not much else has changed other than the fact we’re now affiliated with FSV, who will provide RTC an opportunity to network within their vast cache of sites and blogs to improve our daily content around here for you, the readers.   Take a look at some of the names on their affiliate list and you’ll see why this was an easy decision for us.

So whether this is your first time to RTC or you’re a long-time reader, we welcome you to our new home like Greg Paulus defending in the paint – with open arms and nary a hint of resistance.