ncaa tournament – Rush The Court

Eight Key Questions for the Sweet Sixteen

Matthew Eisenberg — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:31:00 +0000

What started with 68 is now down to just 16.

While the opening two rounds of the NCAA Tournament brought the usual surprises, the Sweet Sixteen is not without familiar faces. Three #1 seeds and a pair of #2 seeds are joined by the powerful programs of Florida State and Villanova, a quartet of Pac-12 teams, a pair of mid-majors, and of course, Syracuse. Here are eight questions that could define each match-up:

Saturday’s Games

#8 Loyola (Chicago) vs. #12 Oregon State (2:40 PM EST, CBS), If Oregon State can limit its turnovers, do the Beavers have enough firepower to pull off [...]

16 Questions For First Round Saturday of the NCAA Tournament

Matthew Eisenberg — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 19:37:44 +0000

After 16 games of wall-to-wall NCAA Tournament action on Friday, another 16 games are set to tip on Saturday. Here are questions I have for each game that will be played on First Round Saturday.

#1 Gonzaga vs. #16 Play-In Winner of Appalachian State/Norfolk State: What will a senior Corey Kispert look like in the NCAA Tournament? In Corey Kispert’s first two seasons at Gonzaga, he averaged 6.1 points per game in 24.8 minutes across seven NCAA Tournament games. No longer a secondary option, Kispert is poised to shatter his previous averages.#1 Michigan vs. #16 Play-In Winner of Mount St. [...]

16 Questions for First Round Friday of the NCAA Tournament

Matthew Eisenberg — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 19:53:08 +0000

With the first round of the NCAA Tournament now just days away, here is a question I have for each of Friday’s 16 match-ups.

#1 Illinois vs. #16 Drexel: Can the Illini’s Trent Frazier and Adam Miller begin the Tournament by finding their three-point shot? The Illini duo of Frazier and Miller made 36.7 percent of their three-point attempts in the season’s opening 22 games. Down the stretch over the final seven games, Frazier and Miller were a combined 16-of-55 (29.1%) from beyond the arc.#1 Baylor vs. #16 Hartford: Will Baylor be back to its pre-COVID pause self or will the [...]

Big East Bubble Watch: Volume III

Justin Kundrat — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 17:59:00 +0000

There’s only one week to go, which means no more fringe teams. Georgetown has played its way out of the discussion following a pair of losses, while Providence has solidified its place in the NCAA Tournament by cleaning up its home games. We’re oh so close to Selection Sunday, so let’s do one more round of bubble watch before the Big East Tournament kicks off tomorrow. Below is Rush the Court’s second bubble evaluation of the Big East. All figures below are from WarrenNolan.com.

Locks

Two of the Best Big East Teams are NCAA Locks (USA Today Images)

Creighton: 23-7 (13-5); NET: 11; [...]

Rushed Reactions: NCAA Tournament, Championship Game

rtmsf — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 05:22:12 +0000

RTC continues its coverage of the NCAA Tournament to its conclusion tonight. Using social media to share information, we produced a Rushed Reactions thread in Twitter for the National Championship game. Click within the tweet below to see the entire RR thread.

#1 Virginia 85, #3 Texas Tech 77 (OT).

RUSHED REACTIONS: VIRGINIA 85, TEXAS TECH 77 (OT). 1. Hands are shaking… Just an incredible Natty game that was going to end w 2 deserving teams but only 1 w/ a trophy. The back/forth affair of the last 5 mins + OT was legendary. One of the best [...]

ACC Conversation: Sweet Sixteen Preview

The ACC Team — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 19:11:44 +0000

Rush the Court ACC microsite writers Brad Jenkins, Matt Auerbach and Mick McDonald got together this week to take a look back at the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament while also looking ahead to this week’s regional action.

Tony Bennett hope that Kyle Guy regains his shooting touch and leads Virginia to its first Final Four since 1984. (Amber Searls/USA TODAY Sports)

Brad Jenkins: Here we go. The ACC proved its strength at the top by putting five teams in the Sweet Sixteen. But before we discuss the outlook for those schools, any thoughts on the league’s two early exit squads — Louisville and Syracuse?

Mick [...]

Rushed Reactions: NCAA Tournament, First Round

rtmsf — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 03:47:46 +0000

Over the weekend RTC had correspondents reporting in real time from the Columbus, Columbia, Hartford, San Jose and Salt Lake City pods. Using social media to share information, we produced Rushed Reactions threads in Twitter for each game in those locations. Click within each tweet to see the entire RR thread for each game. Have a look below.

#12 Oregon 72, #5 Wisconsin 54.

RUSHED REACTIONS: #12 OREGON 72, #5 Wisconsin 54. Let's see how second upset of the day went down here in #ncaasanjose…

— RTC South Region (@RTCSouthRegion) March 22, 2019

#1 Virginia 72, #16 Gardner-Webb 56.

RUSHED [...]

What’s Trending: NCAA Tournament Edition

Matt Eisenberg — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 20:45:18 +0000

What’s Trending is a column examining the week that was in college basketball social media. Matthew Eisenberg (@matteise) is your weekly host.

Looking back at the first two rounds of the 2019 NCAA Tournament has to begin with the opening weekend’s most memorable game. In Sunday afternoon’s UCF vs. Duke game, there was much more to it than the average #1 vs. #9 match-up. How would the battle of Zion Williamson vs. Tacko Fall unfold? How would the pupil (Johnny Dawkins) fare against his teacher (Coach K)? Williamson definitely had to earn his 32 points — the superstar freshman shot just [...]

NCAA Tournament Instareaction: Big Ten Edition

Tommy Lemoine — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 04:53:38 +0000

Below is a review of how the selection process concluded for each Big Ten team and what they should expect in the first few rounds of the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Michigan State looks to carry its momentum into the Dance. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images) Michigan State, #2 seed, East Region. Michigan State backed up its regular season conference co-title by beating Michigan on Sunday en route to the Big Ten Tournament title. It was the Spartans’ third win over the Wolverines in three weeks, giving them more Quadrant 1 wins than any team in America. Their reward? A potential date with #1 overall [...]

NCAA Tournament Instareaction: Big East Edition

Brad Cavallaro — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 03:29:11 +0000

Here are some early reactions to each of the four Big East teams’ draws in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Marquette Received the Highest Big East Seed in the NCAA Tournament (USA Today Images)

#5 Marquette. Marquette is slotted in the dreaded #5/#12 match-up and will face media darling Murray State as a result. The Racers are led by a future NBA lottery pick in point guard Ja Morant, an exceptional athlete, ambidextrous finisher, and elite passer. The backcourt match-up between he and Markus Howard will be worth the price of admission, but also look out for Shaq Buchanan and his 13.0 PPG [...]

What’s Trending: Conference Week Madness is Underway!

Matt Eisenberg — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 14:01:37 +0000

What’s Trending is a column examining the week that was in college basketball social media. Matthew Eisenberg (@matteise) is your weekly host.

Let the NCAA Tournament ticket punching begin!

https://twitter.com/br_CBB/status/1104579515672678401

Jon Rothstein eloquently describes the month of March perfectly. It’s time to sit back and enjoy all that college basketball will bring us…

Dear college basketball,Thank you in advance for the next month. There will be twists, turns, incredible highs, and agonizing lows.NOTHING in sports delivers like March Madness and for that, we are grateful.Sincerely,America

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 10, 2019

After 14 consecutive years at the top of the Big 12, [...]

What’s Trending: The NCAA Tournament is Closer Than You Think

Matt Eisenberg — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 14:01:45 +0000

What’s Trending is a column examining the week that was in college basketball social media. Matthew Eisenberg (@matteise) is your weekly host.

Saturday marked the initial release of the Selection Committee’s top 16 seeds for the upcoming NCAA Tournament. While the choices lacked much in the way of surprise, the release was followed by five of those teams losing later that day.

If the tournament started today… pic.twitter.com/amdEdgODcB

— March Madness TV (@MarchMadnessTV) February 9, 2019

Earlier in the week, the college basketball world was reminded of the drama that comes along with NCAA violations, as Arizona decided to place assistant [...]

Big East Logjam is a Major NCAA Tournament Concern

Brad Cavallaro — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 18:01:51 +0000

After Providence and Marquette earned a pair of wins on Wednesday night, many Big East observers noticed an interesting wrinkle in the conference standings: every team from third to 10th place had four losses. With over one third of conference play already in the books, this level of parity is both astonishing and extremely rare. A clearer hierarchy among those eight teams will likely develop over the next few weeks, but the corollary to the unusual situation is that such parity is extremely concerning for the Big East’s position in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Marquette is One of Two Big East [...]

Where 2018-19 Happens: Reason #1 We Love College Basketball

rtmsf — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 16:01:50 +0000

As RTC heads into its 12th season covering college hoops, it’s time to begin releasing our annual compendium of YouTube clips that we like to call Thirty Reasons We Love College Basketball. These 30 snippets from last season’s action are completely guaranteed to make you wish the games were starting tonight rather than 30 days from now. Over the next month you’ll get one reason per day until we reach the new season on Tuesday, November 6. You can find all of this year’s released posts here.

#1 – Where FINALLY Happens.

We also encourage you to re-visit the entire archive of this feature from the 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 preseasons.

Where 2018-19 Happens: Reason #3 We Love College Basketball

rtmsf — Sun, 04 Nov 2018 16:01:44 +0000

#3 – Where Splayed Out Happens.

We also encourage you to re-visit the entire archive of this feature from the 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 [...]