Running 2023-24 NCAA Basketball Thread

Caitlin Clark vs. Georgia Amoore lived up to the hype last night. Tremendous showcase for women's hoops.

 

Caitlin Clark has the sizzle and is one hell of a shooter, obviously.

Meanwhile, Mackenzie Holmes at Indiana is a remarkable post player, but without the same flash. Ms. Fundamentals.

The Indiana-Iowa Big Ten battles this year are going to be appointment viewing.

 

It is interesting to think that the women's game might really be benefitting from the players staying in school longer - no one and dones - I mean, how many posts on this thread are about the women's game vs. the men's game. I see a men's score these days, I don't know the players, I don't know which team is supposed to be good - I see LSU losing to Colorado I KNOW it's a big deal. By the same token, had to be reminded that UConn won the men's title last year.

 

The 1972-73 and 73-74 UR-Tech (still VPI at the time) games at the Robins Center are two of the best games I've ever seen or covered. Pretty sure they played home-and-home at least one of those years. Regional rivalries used to be the heart of college basketball. It's a shame they are disappearing.

 

Yeah, and real basketball actually being played in that arena in Charlotte. Imagine that.

 

There are people who get dressed up for Mardi Gras in the French Quarter who aren't as over-the-top as Kim Mulkey,

 

My Griffins win at St. Bonaventure. Good times!

 

Some kids from Cullowhee give Micah Shrewsberry a wonderful welcome in South Bend. Lot of work to do for the Irish.

 

I imagine the Cook Out on Highway 107 was a happening place.

You really have to want to go to Cullowhee to get to Cullowhee. If you're just driving between Franklin and Waynesville, that exit zips by in a hurry.

(An aside: The Enka Jets are one of my favorite North Carolina high school nicknames.)

 

Geno getting beat in the perfect place. Think maybe NCSU's women should be ranked? Just maybe?

(And maumann ... the moniker game was strong on Friday night HS football in North Carolina. The Rampants from J.H. Rose traveled down near the border and beat the Scorpions from North Brunswick on Friday.)

 

In Rocky Mount, they were always referred to as "Greenville Rose," like "Wilson Hunt." I understand the city-school nomenclature if you have two schools in the same area like two Kennedy High Schools in the East Bay, but that seemed peculiar to me.

1. We never called the schools in our coverage area "Rocky Mount Rocky Mount" or "Nashville Northern Nash" or "Pinetops Southwest Edgecombe."

2. When I just said "so they're playing Rose," the answer was always "you mean Greenville Rose?" Like there were 10 other schools Down East named Rose.

But the same with all the Wilmington schools, too. Michael Jordan went to Wilmington Laney.

 

Most have finally dumped the city designation. But someone should have cured the cranial-rectal fusion when they got around to naming two relatively new high schools.

In Jacksonville, they named a new high school Northside ... yes, the same name a school in Beaufort County possesses in a little spot called Pinetown. So now, it's Northside-Jacksonville (sometimes, I go with Jax) and Northside-Pinetown. Then, when they closed the old Williamston High in Martin County, they built a Riverside High School. Oops ... there was already a Riverside in Durham. So there's now a Riverside-Martin and Riverside-Durham.

Just stupid ... and short-sighted, even for North Carolina. It's already enough that so many of the new schools in the metro areas have names that sound like subdivisions (Mallard Creek in Mecklenburg County, Cedar Ridge in Orange County ... and Wake County now has Green Hope and Green Level high schools).

And while we're on the city nomenclature, I originally had Southern Nash's dateline as "Bailey" years ago. Was told that was wrong, that it was "Stanhope." Now coming back to find out that it's in ... Bailey. Huh.

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Back on topic ... how about the Wolfpack?