Hoos demanding a ‘big name’ basketball hire, this time, for its oft-vacant head coaching position, were thrilled when Hoo AD Craig ‘Sing to me, Tubby’ Littlepage announced that he had hired Tony Bennett as the new Hoo coach. Littlepage in 2005 attempted to hire Tubby Smith and four years later was still trying, quite impressed [...]

Okay, let’s see a show of hands. When you filled out your NCAA brackets, how many picked Villanova and Michigan State in the Final Four? Anybody? I see a couple of hands, but not many. I was breezing along, having a pretty good tournament. Sure, I had made a couple of mistakes, such as vastly [...]

Paul Woody, esteemed sports columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, has come up with a terrific idea. In a piece of investigative brilliance that rivals Woodward and Berstein’s Watergate coverage, Woody has exposed to all the world, or at least the dwindling number of people still reading the rapidly-downsizing T-D, that the Hoos don’t have a [...]

The respite between rounds of the NCAA Tournament does afford the opportunity to take a look at the sporting life goings-on around the rest of the region. From Hooville to Lynchburg to the land of sand, scrub pines and Strawgraspers, there is humor to be gleaned. Finding low comedy from Hooville might seem like RUTS, [...]

It was not exactly the stuff of Little Johnny’s tournament dreams. Of the seven ACC teams that marched off to do battle in the NCAA Tournament, four were home after their first game, while a fifth was bounced in its second. To add insult to injury, both of the league’s NIT entrants were gone by [...]

Hoo Athletic Director Craig ‘Tubby, you still out there?’ Littlepage announced that basketball coach Fallback Dave had been run out of town on a rail resigned, effective just as soon as security could get him off the Grounds immediately. In announcing the leitaoing of Fallback Dave, Littlepage said, “[Fallback Dave] has been a lousy coach [...]

As usually happens this time of year, the NCAA has decided to conduct a basketball tournament. Once again, that august body’s Selection Committee closeted themselves in a luxury hotel, not emerging until they had thoroughly screened and vetted both the potential teams and room service options. We have the Final Sixty-Five. The NCAA Tournament will [...]

Florida State President T. K. Wetherell pronounced that he was “confused” over NCAA interpretations of penalties due from FSU’s latest scandal, this one involving academics. The NCAA had placed Florida State on probation due to the cheating scandal involving 61 Noles in 10 sports. Wetherell’s ‘confusion’ stemmed from the NCAA ordering the school to vacate [...]

When last week began,  there appeared to be three ACC teams chasing perhaps two spots in the NCAA Tournament. Five losses in six games later, the chances of the conference placing more than half its membership roster in the Big Dance have gotten considerably more remote. A Lawrence Welk show had fewer popping bubbles. Virginia [...]

The games dwindle down to a precious few. The exhibition portion of the basketball season is about to end. Teams continue to jostle for positions and seedings in what the media folks continue to assure us is the only reason to even play basketball, the NCAA Tournament. Cries of ‘We’re Number 66′ are not considered [...]