North Texas Clinches NCAA Bid

It took a see-saw battle to determine the Sun Belt’s NCAA bid.
Troy and North Texas after an almost cautious start threw caution to the wind in the first half and pushed a pace that led to a few sloppy plays and quite a bit of fast paced scoring. At the break Troy led 40-38.
The pace [...]

Clark Wins Scoring War to lead MT to NCAA Tournament

Alysha Clark broke her Sun Belt Tournament scoring record with 48 points. The Blue Raiders defeat UALR 70-68 to clinch an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament, as Butler’s three for UALR misses.
Clark was named tournament MVP. Setting the tournament scoring record in each game you play is an impressive path to the award.

It’s 1 vs. 2

Based on seeding Day one of the Men’s tournament produced two upsets out of five games as #8 FAU fell to #9 USA and #10 ULM beat  #7ULL.  Day two saw the higher seeds go 3-1 with #6 Denver beating #3 seed MT. Day three belonged to the favorites with #1 Troy advancing to face [...]

Photos from day one

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Video

Inside Summit Arena for ASU – UALR
UNT leads FIU 33-31 with 15:03 left.
Quick video tour of Convention Center Court.

How to pick a tournament site

With the seemingly never-ending debates about tournament sites and I mean that, we as fans have been hashing it out since the days when the event was in Biloxi, I thought I would try to look at the factors that carry the real weight when selection is done.
First, any site is going to have to [...]

Tournament Prep

It’s a shame the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is one of the newspapers that places its content behind the pay wall because today’s edition has a great article on what is being done to get ready for the two court format. The article is by Jeff Slatton, the UALR beat writer. I’d suggest following him @JeffreySlatton on [...]

Some odd complaining

Some odd complaints about the Sun Belt Tournament.
First there are the complaints about two courts. Hey I agree but here is the deal. The schools loved Hot Springs last year and wanted all the teams to make the trip. There are two choices once you make that decision. Two courts or add two days to [...]

Some thoughts on realignment and TV deals

One thing about fighting a bad cold is that it gives you some time to think. I had planned to spend this weekend installing the new Beltboard and new version of The Den but I’m just not up for it.
So instead, some realignment thoughts.
#1. I’m not sure that the Pac-10’s hiring of Kevin Weinberg may [...]

96 isn’t 31 better for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, make what we have better.

Reports are swirling that the NCAA is close to expanding the field for the men’s basketball tournament to 96 teams from the current 65. The reason is money. The NCAA can opt out of the CBS contract after this season and try to get more money.
There are a few problems with the idea.