Appreciate Greatness

Tipoff

In a sport dominated by the unpredictable, that hails the underdog story, there are those teams that are perennial contenders. The UConn women’s basketball team will be seeking its 14th consecutive trip to the Final Four this year. The Gonzaga men’s basketball team just appeared in its 25th straight West Coast Conference Tournament Championship game on Tuesday night. With their success comes tired arguments over whether that success is bad for the sport. The debate over how good or bad these premier programs are for the sport often misses the point, that greatness is rare and worth celebrating.

The 2020 ESPN limited series, Last Dance, documenting the rise and final NBA Championship run of the 1990’s Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan was wildly popular, showing just how much cultural sway “His Airness” holds to this day. Few players in any sport have become cultural icons in American pop culture. Fans loved to tune in to Last Dance to reminisce about the good days, just as they loved to tune in to watch it when it happened. A single star can do that for a sport.

Due to turnover and the allure of the NBA, college basketball rarely has those transcendent stars that become widely popular among even casual sports fans. There are only a handful of Zions or Steph Currys. It is the programs, and coaches, that most often carry the cache in college basketball. Rather than tear down Gonzaga for dominating a conference or UConn for being the standard for women’s basketball, college basketball fans should celebrate these perennial winners here and now, rather than waiting for the documentary.

The Mixtape 

The Field of 68 team puts out lots of great content each week. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

• It takes a big man to admit when they were wrong. Jeff Goodman logged into After Dark with Archie and Sean Miller to apologize to Penny Hardaway. Following a 75-61 victory over Houston on Sunday, Memphis now has the best squad in the AAC (and earned Team of the Week in Thursday Superlatives, below). Good on Jeff for owning up to his previous criticisms of Penny.

• The major conference tournaments are underway. Rob Dauster, Jeff Goodman, and Jeff Prohm went through the six major conferences, including ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC. Does Coach K go out on top in Brooklyn? Will Jay Wright win it all over at MSG? What about the tournaments taking place outside of New York? Our guys break down the odds and pick their winners and sleepers.

• It’s March, baby! On the DTF podcast, Rob Dauster, Terrence Oglesby, and John Fanta recap the UNC ruining Coach K’s farewell to Cameron Indoor Stadium; previews the conference tournaments; and shares the Field of 68 Postseason Awards.

On Monday, Field of 68 released its own Postseason Awards, including National Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Freshman of the Year, and All-American teams. Check out the full list.

Thursday Superlatives

Each week, we will shine a light on a team and an individual player that has captured the hearts of the world of college basketball.

• Team of the Week: Memphis

  • Who would have guessed that the hottest team entering the postseason would by Penny Hardaway’s Memphis Tigers? On January 20th, the Tigers were 9-8 and coming off 3 straight losses in conference. Since then, Memphis is 10-1 with two wins over the American Athletic Conference regular season champs Houston. Health has certainly been a factor, although the absence of highly-touted freshman Emoni Bates has notably coincided with the win streak that has put Memphis in place for the first NCAA tournament appearance of Hardaway’s tenure as head coach.

• Player of the Week: Peter Kiss, Bryant

  • The nation’s leading scorer introduced himself to a wider audience on Tuesday night. Kiss, a senior guard for Bryant and the nation’s leading scorer, put on a show in a… raucous… environment as the Bulldogs clinched the Northeastern Conference Tournament Title over Wagner. Kiss is an expressive player, as evidenced by this clip of him shimmying after a dunk. When the brackets are revealed on Sunday, make sure to note where Kiss and Bryant will play in the first round. There could be a March Madness star in the making here.

Box Score

Basketball can be told through the numbers. We take a look at some of the numbers from the last week of college hoops.

• 663. Tom Izzo surpassed Bobby Knight when Michigan State defeated Maryland on Sunday. With 663 wins, Izzo now owns the record for most wins by a men’s basketball coach at a program in the Big Ten. (Michigan State Men’s Basketball)

• 40. The Kentucky women’s basketball team capped off an incredible run - winning 10 straight, taking down 3 top-20 teams, and stunning #1 South Carolina along the way - to clinch their first SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament Title on Sunday. Dre-una Edwards hit a 3 from the top of the key with 4.2 second left to cap it off, coming back from down 15 to secure the victory. The title was the first for the Wildcats in 40 years. (AP News)

• 30. Loyola-Chicago clinched the Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball tournament on Sunday. First-year head coach Drew Valentine, 30 years old, will be the younger head coach to reach the NCAA men’s basketball tournament since 2004 with then-VCU head coach Jeff Capel, 29 years old at the time. (Jared Berson, ESPN Stats & Info)

• 25. On Tuesday night, Gonzaga men’s basketball team played in and won the West Coast Conference Tournament Finals. It was the 25th consecutive season in which the Bulldogs played in the title game. (ESPN Stats & Info)

• 2. It was a double-dipper for Longwood as both the men’s and women’s basketball teams won their respective Big South tournament championships. Each team will be making their first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament. (ESPN Women’s Hoops and NCAA March Madness)

Around the Rim

This section highlights some of the best writing on college basketball to hit the web. Consider these your extra credit assignments for spring semester.

• Busting Brackets | NCAA Basketball: 2022 potential bid-stealers heading into conference tournaments

• FiveThirtyEight | Aliyah Boston And Caitlin Clark Are Both Redefining Basketball Greatness

• The Athletic | For the love of the game: The odyssey of the 7-year college basketball players