"The Stack" 3-3-17
The Chicago Bulls got by the Golden State Warriors who were without Kevin Durant 94-87 Thursday night in Chicago.
David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
Baylor women's basketball head coach Kim Mulkey gave a public tearful apology Thursday following her comments last Saturday that put her and Baylor under plenty of heat regarding the recent sexual assaults that have plagued the university.
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
The Stack is back on this Friday and normally today would be the last blog of the week, but not when March rolls around. We’ll have very short blog posts on Saturday and Sunday, but we will have them with conference tournament previews and championship game picks too as the first bids are clinched and teams can start dancing. Sounds like the New York Jets are releasing wide receiver Brandon Marshall to save some room in the salary cap. Who didn’t see that coming? Now let’s find out what else is in “the stack” for today, Friday, March 3rd:
Basketball talk
So it looks like the Golden State Warriors are in some trouble with no Kevin Durant. Actually, they aren’t in any trouble (at least I don’t think so) at this point, but I’m sure there are some nervous people in the bay area and bandwagons all over the country as the Warriors lost to the Chicago Bulls 94-87 last night. The two teams scored a combined 29 points in the fourth quarter. Didn’t the Warriors just put up 50 points on the Clippers in the third quarter last week? That’s kind of rough. That’s back-to-back losses now for the Warriors. It will be interesting to see how they respond.
Speaking of teams that are struggling, put the Wisconsin Badgers firmly in that category. They lost a head scratching game to Iowa 59-57. Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon hit a three-pointer with nine seconds left. Overall, the Hawkeyes closed the game on a 7-0 run. Wisconsin has now lost five of six and the red hot Minnesota Golden Gophers are coming to town this weekend. I’m sure the Badgers will play their best game and beat Minnesota. That’s what happens to Minnesota sports teams. Still though, Wisconsin is not looking good at this point with Selection Sunday two weeks away.
Staying in college basketball, how do you not love freaking March? Conference tournaments are underway and it’s pure madness. Look at what Campbell did in the Big South conference tournament yesterday. The seven seed in the Big South took down the two seed, UNC-Asheville 81-79 thanks to Chris Clemons dropping in 51 points. That ties a season high in college basketball with Mike Daum of South Dakota State. He was spectacular. Asheville had a great chance to win this conference tournament. Now they are done. And in the same conference, six seed Radford took down the three seed Liberty 56-52. Unbelievable. And the madness is still happening to teams in the regular season too. Look at what happened in the MEAC yesterday. Maryland-Eastern Shore rallied to take down Morgan State 67-66 and North Carolina A&T, the worst team in the MEAC beat the best team, North Carolina Central 68-63. What?! This is March baby. Got to love it.
Finally before we get to some more conference tournament previews, Baylor women’s head basketball coach Kim Mulkey gave a tearful apology Thursday for her wording she used after Baylor’s game last Saturday in which she told the Baylor faithful that if someone said they would never let their daughter go to Baylor they should “knock them right in the face.” We talked about it earlier this week and how wrong Mulkey was with her comments. She has received plenty of heat and rightfully so. Mulkey has bugged me for years, but in light of what has gone on with the Baylor football team and the number of rape and sexual assault allegations, perhaps someone at Baylor needs to tell Mulkey to choose her words more wisely or just stop talking about what’s been going on, because she dug herself a major hole this week. To her credit, she has no apologized, but one can only wonder when she may say something else she will later regret.
Colonial Athletic Association tournament preview
No championship games to decide tournament bids today, but a quartet of conference tournaments tip off today including the CAA from North Charleston, South Carolina. I’ve been on the UNC Wilmington Seahawks since the beginning of the season. They impressed me last year when they played Duke in the NCAA Tournament. They’ve had a few hiccups in conference play this year, but I think they get the job done. Their style of offense is fun to watch.
Prediction winner: UNC-Wilmington
Horizon League tournament preview
Valparaiso looked like they were the team to beat by leaps and bounds in the Horizon League, but a leg injury to star Alec Peters that will keep him out the remainder of the year has quieted that hope. The tournament tips off today in Detroit (this isn’t Detroit, thank you Paul Allen), and all eyes will be on this Valparaiso squad and how they respond. Oakland is the top seed, but they are going to have to potentially get past a dangerous Northern Kentucky squad in their first game if Northern Kentucky wins their opening game. Is Northern Kentucky even eligible this year for the NCAA Tournament? I would hope so, because if not there is no reason for them to be in this tournament. The winner of Oakland-Northern Kentucky wins this tournament…unless Valpo does.
Predicted winner: Oakland
Southern Conference tournament preview
The SoCon tournament tips off today in Asheville, North Carolina, (they’re still holding postseason tournaments in North Carolina this year?) and it really makes me want a SoCo 7 or SoCo root beer. That’s an alcoholic drink for those that didn’t know. What the heck happened to Chattanooga? I thought they would run away with this conference and here they are for the four seed. I don’t really trust any team in this conference. I think I’ll take either the Mocs or Eastern Tennessee State to pull off the win. What do you think about that?
Predicted winner: ETSU
West Coast Conference tournament preview
Finally, the WCC tournament tips off today in Las Vegas. It is just one of at least three tournaments taking place in Sin City. What’s up with that? That’s a lot of college basketball to gamble on. Don’t gamble on anyone other than Gonzaga winning this one. Even though BYU stunned them in the regular season finale, this Gonzaga team will be more focused now knowing they need to win it all to get a one seed. They win this tournament pretty convincingly.
Predicted winner: Gonzaga
Coming up Saturday: conference tournament previews plus championship game picks.
