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Tuesday Truths: “Undivided attention” edition
“Good game. You’re shorter than you look on TV.” (USA Today) Welcome, casual fan. Some play call, huh? Turning to what truly matters, here’s a 60-word synopsis of the college hoops season so far:...
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Tuesday Truths: “On the shoulders of giants” edition
(newsobserver.com) It may have been pure chance that the genius who invented the very idea of advanced stats also happened to be: a) the most successful college basketball coach not named “John Wooden”...
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Tuesday Truths: “Give it to the big man” edition
This week 15 honorees were named for a first-ever Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award watch list. The award, which will be given in April to the player named as the nation’s most outstanding center, is one of...
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Tuesday Truths: “Yet another 2 x 2 matrix” edition
I for one don’t fret about successful slow-paced teams like Wisconsin or Virginia causing other teams to go slow. If other coaches do indeed choose to decelerate, my happiness in watching their games...
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Tuesday Truths: “Lessons of history” edition
Jahlil Okafor says Kent Benson’s two-point percentage is too low. Kentucky is trying to do something that hasn’t occurred in 39 years, and assuming UK continues to progress toward that goal (starting...
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Tuesday Truths: “Final reality” edition
They’re getting ready in Indy. There are at least two problems with focusing on who does and does not get a No. 1 seed. The first problem is that 13 of the last 16 No. 1 seeds have failed to make the...
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Leaving early can be more rational than you think
Olivier Hanlan is a major-conference player leaving school after his junior season. That may not turn out well. Leaving after his senior season may not have either. (USA Today) Each spring when a...
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The 30-second clock’s a long-overdue solution to a problem we may not have
The last time an adjustment was made to the shot clock was in 1994, when Glenn Robinson was the reigning player of the year. It’s been a while. Last week the NCAA’s rules committee exceeded my loftiest...
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A preface to shot-clock pessimism
As hoops fans we demand that candidates take a stand on the new shot clock. And we vote. I don’t know what will happen when the 30-second shot clock is introduced to the college game this November, and...
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Your first look at the AP preseason top 10
The Cameron Crazies magnanimously congratulate North Carolina’s Marcus Paige on his team’s upcoming No. 1 ranking. I suppose sticklers for quote-unquote accuracy will read my headline and object that...
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Your first look at the AP preseason top 25
There is no AP preseason top 25 yet, but here’s one guess at what it might look like when it arrives next month. (This is not my top 25. This is a forecast of how my colleagues will vote in the AP top...
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One working definition of a major conference
Can we do better than a Potter Stewart definition? Last week I posted a piece at ESPN Insider where I pointed out that the new-look no-football Big East has recorded a pretty nice collective KenPom...
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Alleged extreme cheating turns out to have zero measurable effect (a...
Former Louisville director of basketball operations Andre McGee. (UMKC photo) The Louisville basketball program stands accused of hiring an escort service to entertain Cardinal recruits and players...
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The category 5 roster
A roster like this only comes along once every 1.8 seasons in Division I. Unless of course it’s 2015, when there were two such rosters. (Robert Deutsch/USA Today) Last March at the Sloan Conference in...
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Three questions for the Iowa Caucus of hoops
He looks uncertain. That makes two of us. (AP/Charlie Niebergall) The Big Ten/ACC Challenge happens very early in the season — perhaps even too early — and its results are hungrily overanalyzed by...
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Elite freshmen, playing time, and Bill Self
Cheick Diallo (right) before he was eligible. He often looks like this now that he’s eligible, too. (Rich Sugg, Kansas City Star) After a protracted battle with the NCAA, Cheick Diallo became eligible...
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The new clock’s making conference games faster and therefore higher-scoring
A triple-overtime game with 102 possessions and 215 total points? That’ll do. (Mike Gunnoe, Topeka Capital-Journal) In the offseason the NCAA introduced a whole host of rule changes and/or “no, this...
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Tuesday Truths: “We can be heroes” edition
“Just for one day.” Not a bad anthem for mid-majordom. Today marks a first for Tuesday Truths. A branch office of the venerable franchise has been opened in Bristol, and per-possession Truths for the...
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Tuesday Truths: Mott the Hoople edition
This “Simpsons” clip from three years ago coincidentally included a cameo from Alan Rickman along with the Bowie-authored “All the Young Dudes.” More recently Daniel Radcliffe’s deft tribute to...
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Continuing coverage from the offensive rebound’s deathbed
Offensive boards have disappeared at Vanderbilt. Will they ever come back? It’s no secret that the offensive rebound is dying, both at the professional and collegiate levels. Barring a seismic...
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