\"So what are they going to call it? NonPower5Madness.com?\"
While most that support mid-major basketball think it to be a bad idea, and that includes myself, the Southern Conference announced its support for the expansion of the NCAA Tournament from a 68-team field to 76 teams Tuesday morning by commissioner Michael Cross. Most of us have several questions, and it’s hard to know exactly […]
Leading up to the 2026 MAAC Tournament in Atlantic City, Brendan Coyle was struggling. The sharpshooter who made 94 threes at a 39% clip in his junior season had dipped below 30% as a senior. When he walked on to play for Carm Maciariello in 2022-23, and then redshirted, he probably didn’t envision his career […]
Jake Hall and Uriah Tenette were unknown commodities coming into the 2025-26 season as freshmen at New Mexico. They were signed to UC San Diego by head coach Eric Olen, who took the pair with him to the Lobos when he took the gig. A year later, they’ve become two of the biggest names in […]
Four schools in four years. Playing college basketball into your mid-20s. Maybe even your late-20s. Coming back to school after an excursion in the pros. All that seems crazy … because it is. In fact, 64% of Mid-Major Madness fans believe limiting transfers is a good idea. This question stemmed from President Donald Trump signing […]
INDIANAPOLIS — The two weeks in between Mary Washington’s win over Trinity in the national semifinal and the Division-III National Championship Game in Indianapolis against Emory felt like an eternity for sophomore guard Colin Mitchell. In Emporia, 124 miles south of UMW’s Fredericksburg campus, three days on from helping the Eagles clinch a spot in […]
A year ago, I wrote about my three favorite mid-major coaching hires from that cycle. It featured Eric Olen (New Mexico), Bryan Hodgson (South Florida) and Lennie Acuff (Samford). We now know that Olen made the NIT semifinals in year one, Hodgson made the NCAA Tournament in year one and is off to Providence, and […]
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NCAA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Mid-Major fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys. Please take our survey The current wild, wild west nature of college athletics may be coming […]
“One Shining Moment” has played. The 2025-26 college basketball season has come to a close. With that, the final ranking of the Men’s Other Top 25 has been compiled. Utah State closes the season atop the ranking. The Aggies won the Mountain West regular season and tournament championships. They were the only team from the […]
Princeton, who played in a seventh straight NCAA Tournament, closed the 2026 as the No. 1 team in the Women’s Other Top 25. The Tigers finished 26-4 and garnered a 9-seed for the second time in the last three seasons. The Ivy League owned the top two spots in the final ranking as Columbia surged […]
INDIANAPOLIS – Jim Crutchfield notoriously doesn’t watch much basketball outside of his own Nova Southeastern teams, but one has to imagine that the legendary coach cracked a smile as Easton Bazzoli led Gannon to the program’s first ever national championship. While Bazzoli never worked for Crutchfield, he picked up Crutchfield’s famed “System,” and continued it […]
Tonight, graduate senior forward Ben Humrichous will take the floor on the nation’s biggest stage as Illinois prepares to play in its sixth Final Four with a shot at the program’s first ever National Championship on the line. Humrichous’ journey to Indianapolis is about as unique as any you’ll find on the court this weekend, […]
We will get another mid-major in the Final Four – at some point. It’s been bleak. No mid-majors making even the second weekend, let alone the third weekend for a second straight year. We’re just three years removed from TWO mid-majors in the Final Four. We love you San Diego State and Florida Atlantic. Now, […]
INDIANAPOLIS — Brad Underwood turned over every stone to build Illinois’ 2025-26 roster. His embrace of recruiting internationally – specifically in the Balkan region – has brought much fanfare, as has being one of just two high-major programs to offer Keaton Wagler a scholarship. But his roster wasn’t the only part of his program that […]
INDIANAPOLIS – Alec Millender and Dwayne Koroma committed to UConn the same week in May. Most Husky fans had no idea who they were, but they were both seeking the same thing. Millender, who played for IU Indy last season as a senior for over 30 minutes per game, shot Koroma a direct message asking […]
INDIANAPOLIS — Anthony Dell’Orso only played nine minutes in Arizona’s Regional Final victory over Purdue. He made one field goal, but it was the most important shot of the game. With the Wildcats on a run, he sprinted to the right wing in transition, and Jaden Bradley fed him an underhand pitch. He calmly drilled […]
INDIANAPOLIS – On Nov. 3, we started with 280 Division-I mid-major programs. On April 3, we are down to just one remaining. The Tulsa Golden Hurricane defeated New Mexico inside Hinkle Fieldhouse on Thursday night to grab its 30th win of the season and advance to Sunday’s NIT Championship Game against Auburn, which took down […]
There hasn’t been a mid-major team in the women’s NCAA Tournament since the first round. But as the tournament has come down to the Final Four there are still several mid-major connections for the four teams in Phoenix – particularly among the coaching staffs. UConn None UCLA Tony Newnan – Associate Head Coach Newnan was […]
INDIANAPOLIS — Three years ago, Dusty May and his players were adamant that Florida Atlantic wasn’t a Cinderella. The word itself almost seemed to trigger them. But with the perspective of time gone by, seeing the Owls cut down the nets at Madison Square Garden and head to the Final Four is one of the […]
The story of the man who has led Michigan to the 2026 Final Four almost didn’t start. To get here, Yaxel Lendeborg — the Wolverines’ 6-foot-9, do-everything, superstar forward — took the path less traveled, to say the least. Academically ineligible throughout most of his high school career, Lendeborg only played 11 games of varsity […]
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NCAA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Mid-Major fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys. Remember the days of two mid-majors in the Final Four? That was only three years ago. […]
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The buzzer wasn’t the only sound that went off as the final seconds of Iona’s season ticked off the clock in a first-round MAAC Tournament loss to Sacred Heart on Thursday, March 5. You had to cover your ears to avoid the loud growl and roar of the elephant that had […]
5,970 miles traveled and just 41 hours in New York City. That sums up the last 10 days for the Columbia women’s basketball team, who is set to take the floor for the WBIT semifinals against Wisconsin in the WBIT semifinals this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. ET at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kan. So, […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A year and a half on from Hurricane Helene, I-40 in some areas between North Carolina and Tennessee is still down to just one lane in each direction. The hurricane changed the communities and families in those Appalachian regions of the states, but passing through that section in either direction will take […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the court with the Big East Player of the Year and multiple five-star recruits, it was a small guard from Spokane, Wash., who averages under seven points per game and hadn’t scored all day, who took the final shot. But to anybody following St. John’s closely over the course of the […]
After two days of thrillers, we now have an NIT final four as they converge upon Hinkle Fieldhouse. Of the four, we have three No. 1 seeds with the lone three-seed being the Redbirds of Illinois State. The other three, Auburn, Tulsa and New Mexico have had their battles, but of the crowd, SBNation fans […]