yale – Rush The Court

16 Questions About Thursday’s First Round Games

Matt Eisenberg — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 16:55:36 +0000

With tip-off of the First Round of the NCAA Tournament just around the corner, here are 16 questions to get you ready for all the action on Thursday.

Here We Go… (USA Today Images) 1) Gonzaga vs. 16) Fairleigh Dickinson: Will Gonzaga spring back to life after its surprising loss to Saint Mary’s? The Zags shot 2-of-17 from beyond the arc in the WCC championship game, but a deep Tournament run will require better shooting from the likes of Zach Norvell, Josh Perkins, and Corey Kispert (collectively, 37.3 percent on the season).2) Kentucky vs. 15) Abilene Christian: When Kentucky misses shots, will [...]

Ten Questions to Consider: Conference Races Heating Up

Matt Eisenberg — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 15:01:56 +0000

Football season is now completely in the rear view mirror and the casual fan is welcomed to a weekend of college basketball highlighted by the #1 vs. #2 Duke/Virginia rematch along with numerous other heavyweight contests. Here are 10 questions I have for this weekend’s loaded slate of action.

It’s Part Two of Potentially Four Duke-Virginia Match-ups This Season (USA Today Images) Which elite team’s defense improves upon a lackluster performance in the first match-up? (Duke @ Virginia, Saturday 6 PM EST, ESPN) In Duke’s 72-70 win over Virginia last month, the two teams combined to shoot 67.1 percent from inside the [...]

Morning Five: 12.15.17 Edition

nvr1983 — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 13:37:02 +0000

We were surprised to hear that Charlotte had fired Mark Price yesterday morning partly because we had almost forgotten that he was coaching there and that it is still so early in the season. It turns out we weren’t the only ones who felt the same way as Price also was reportedly stunned (presumably just for the firing part) by the sudden announcement. The former Georgia Tech great finished with a 30-42 record in a little over 2 seasons including a 3-6 start this year. The firing might not be that surprising given Price’s record since we still consider Charlotte a decent [...]

Examining the Conference Unbeatens: Which Teams Can Go the Distance?

Tommy Lemoine — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 15:01:55 +0000

With one month left in the regular season, it’s no longer too early to consider which of the remaining conference unbeatens have a legitimate chance to enter March without a loss. So let’s dig in. (Chances of going unbeaten based on KenPom win probabilities).

Mark Few Appears to Have It All Figured Out (USA Today Images)

Gonzaga (25-0, 13-0 West Coast). America’s only remaining undefeated team, Gonzaga tops almost every relevant poll and metric thanks to nearly three full months of flawless basketball. Of the Bulldogs’ 25 wins, 22 have come by double-figures, including an astonishing 26.6-point margin of victory [...]

O26 Early Impressions: Takeaways From First 10 Days

Tommy Lemoine — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 21:01:20 +0000

With Feast Week now upon us and two weekends of college hoops in the books, let’s take a step back and reflect on what we’ve learned, which teams have impressed, and why Florida Gulf Coast’s loss at Michigan State was unforgettable… for all the wrong reasons.

To this point, Saint Mary’s center Jock Landale has been nothing short of excellent. (USATSI)

The West Coast Conference looks even better than expected. We ranked Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s #1 and #2 in our preseason Power 13, respectively, with Brigham Young also cracking the list. Each has lived up to—perhaps even exceeded—expectations in the [...]

Where 2016-17 Happens: Reason #17 We Love College Basketball

rtmsf — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 15:01:48 +0000

As RTC heads into its 10th season — Season X, if you will — covering college basketball, 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 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 Friday, November 11. You can find all of this year’s released posts here.

#17 – Where There’s a First For Everything Happens.

We also encourage you to re-visit the [...]

Rushed Reactions: #4 Duke 71, #12 Yale 64

Chris Stone — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 21:59:42 +0000

Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCEastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCSouthregion and @RTCWestregion.

Three Key Takeaways:

Grayson Allen Led Duke to Coach K’s 23rd Sweet Sixteen (USA Today Images)

Grayson Allen and Brandon Ingram are a potent one-two punch. After an opening round victory that saw Marshall Plumlee score 23 points, Allen and Ingram accounted for 76 percent of Duke’s offensive production in scoring a combined 54 points in the second round win. With two legitimate number one scoring options, the Blue Devils [...]

Rushed Reactions: #12 Yale 79, #5 Baylor 75

Chris Stone — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 22:47:22 +0000

Three Key Takeaways:

Yale’s Justin Sears slams one home during the first half against Baylor. (Credit: AP/ Charles Krupa)

Yale is very fun… and very good. Yale is an entertaining group of basketball players as well as people. Justin Sears is quick-witted at the dais and Brandon Sherrod skipped a year of basketball to sing in an a cappella group, but this team is also very capable of making [...]

Checking In On Likely One-Bid Leagues

Andrew Gripshover — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 15:01:24 +0000

When the Ivy League tipped off last Friday night, it was official: Conference play was underway everywhere, in power conferences and low majors alike. While only a handful of games in March will ultimately matter for those teams in leagues without legitimate at-large candidates, the regular season will still define the favorites to win automatic tournament bids in the smaller conferences. Some leagues have a clearly defined top dog, while others have a handful of teams battling for that status. Either way, if you like March chaos, there are low major teams out there you should absolutely be rooting for to hold serve and [...]

Other 26 Previews: Ivy League

Michael James — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 14:01:39 +0000

Michael James is the RTC correspondent for the Ivy League. You can also find his musings on Twitter at @ivybball.

Reader’s Take

Take Our Poll

Top Storylines

With Alex Rosenberg back in the mix, is it Columbia’s year? (USA TODAY Sports)

Unusual Suspects – The last time Harvard failed to receive a first-place vote in the preseason Ivy media poll, Cornell was wrapping up its three-peat in a season that would see the Big Red ultimately advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Five Ivy titles and four NCAA appearances later, the Crimson finds itself slotted fourth while the first-place votes were split as evenly [...]

Where 2015-16 Happens: Reason #24 We Love College Basketball

rtmsf — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 19:31:08 +0000

Here we go… headfirst into another season heralded by our 2015-16 edition of Thirty Reasons We Love College Basketball, our annual compendium of YouTube clips from the previous season completely guaranteed to make you wish 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 Friday, November 13. We’ve captured what we believe were the 30 most compelling moments from last season, some of which will bring back goosebumps and others of which will leave you shaking your head in astonishment. You can find all of this year’s [...]

O26 Weekly Awards: Harvard, Jalen Cannon, Jim Les & Rice

Tommy Lemoine — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 16:01:34 +0000

Throughout the season, the Other 26 microsite will run down our weekly superlatives, including team, player, coach and whatever else strikes our fancy in that week’s edition.

O26 Team of the Week

Harvard. One could argue that Harvard’s season was at stake against Yale on Saturday, or at least close to it. The Crimson, 4-1 in Ivy League play, faced the prospect of falling two games back of the undefeated Bulldogs and severely damaging their hopes for a fourth-straight outright conference title. A victory for Tommy Amaker’s group would even up the records with a return game in Cambridge still ahead on [...]

Checking in on… the Ivy League

Michael James (@ivybball) — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 16:31:46 +0000

Michael James is the RTC correspondent for the Ivy League. You can also find his musings on Twitter at @ivybball.

Looking Back

Home Unsweet Home – We’re over a quarter of the way through the 2015 edition of the 14-Game Tournament and an alarming trend just will not yield. Home teams are just 6-9 (0.400 – lowest of any conference in the nation) in league games thus far this season with both Cornell-Columbia and Harvard-Dartmouth splitting their travel partner series by winning on the other’s home floor. While Yale managed to sweep its travel partner showdown with Brown, it followed the same [...]

Checking In On… the Ivy League

Michael James (@ivybball) — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 17:01:35 +0000

Michael James is the RTC correspondent for the Ivy League. You can also find his musings on Twitter at @ivybball.

Looking Back

Rising Tide Keeps Rising – Despite a rocky start to the 2014-15 campaign, the Ivy League is poised to set more records in terms of league quality. Currently, the league sits at No. 13 both in the Pomeroy Ratings and the Massey Composite Ratings, a broad survey of all of the different ranking systems available for college basketball. The Ivies have also cracked .500 in their average Pythagorean Winning Percentage, which means that if all of the league’s teams played [...]

O26 Weekly Awards: SFA, John Brown, Marvin Menzies & NJIT…

Tommy Lemoine — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 16:01:03 +0000

Throughout the season, the Other 26 microsite will run down our weekly superlatives, including team, player, coach and whatever else strikes our fancy in that week’s edition.

O26 Team of the Week

Stephen F. Austin. The Lumberjacks’ season began (in earnest) with a home loss to Northern Iowa – the team’s first defeat in its own building since February 15, 2012 – and a pair of road losses to Xavier and Baylor. All respectable games to drop, sure, but the latter two weren’t even close, as SFA was bludgeoned by margins of 18 and 16 points, respectively. They certainly weren’t the types [...]