SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – I have covered national championship college basketball teams coached by Denny Crum, Joe B. Hall, Bob Knight, Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith. I covered an ABA championship team coached by Hubie Brown. And now I’ve covered an NCAA Division II national championship team coached by Scotty Davenport.
All were special, each memorable in […]

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My bracket went into the dumper the first day of the NCAA tournament so even I don’t care what I think about the Final Four. There is no such thing as a Cinderella anymore. Put all the ratings systems in the shredder. I’ve already forgotten the name of the numbers geek ESPN tried to pawn […]

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Ordinarily I’m not a critic of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament committee. I don’t always agree with their selections and seedings, but I can usually see their logic. This year, though, the committee did such a lousy job that it deserves the beating it has been taking in the media.
There was no justification […]

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When he was playing for Michigan’s notorious “Fab Five” in the early 1990s, Jalen Rose was a trashing-talking, quote-delivering machine. He was the media’s “go-to” guy and the group’s “front man,” just as Smokey Robinson was for the Miracles. The other four – Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson – and their […]

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It’s too bad for longtime Kentucky hoops fans that the greatest victory in Morehead’s history had to come at the expense of Louisville. Then again, from the Eagles’ standpoint, it made their remarkable achievement just a little sweeter. Had the 13th-seeded Eagles upset any other No. 4 seed, it wouldn’t have been quite as fulfilling.
Like […]

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This may come as a shock to fans under the age of 35, but basketball was never meant to be a contact sport. At its best, it should come closer to poetry or ballet than any other team sport. It should be a blur of constant movement, the ball whipping from player to player […]

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Happy Osborne has been to Kansas City so many times they’ve probably named a steak after him at the Golden Ox. It’s a wonder the city council hasn’t asked him to start paying resident property taxes. When he checks out of his hotel after his Georgetown (Ky.) College basketball team has played in another NAIA […]

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The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) was founded in 1927 by the immortal Forrest “Phog” Allen of Kansas, direct descendent of founder James Naismith, as a way to rally support against a radical rules proposal that would have virtually eliminated the dribble.
For years, the organization has held its annual convention in conjunction with the […]

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