Columbia hoping continuity means more wins

The Ivy League was pretty good last season, but 2011-12 is over. Three of the top teams will return fewer than half of their possession minutes after the tumultuous offseason at Harvard. The league’s talent has been pretty depleted. Just six players had over 15% possession minutes last season.

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BU’s move gets everyone thinking… again

Boston University is leaving America East for the Patriot League in July of 2013. That’s almost exactly a year from now and it’s going to make for one interesting final season. The biggest problem though is that it’s dragged America East right back into the conference realignment conversation. Is Stony Brook going to jump to the CAA now that BU is leaving? I don’t know, but my guess is that this move doesn’t actually change much. What it should do though is make America East very nervous.

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A tourney helps the teams that weren’t good enough

I haven’t had much to say about the Ivy League’s ultimately doomed dalliance with the idea of having a conference tournament because on one hand I really like the purity of the round-robin format. On the other hand, I really enjoy postseason basketball. Elimination games are what makes the NCAA tournament so special and why championship week might be even more fun. (Or it may be the Jerome.) How much would adding a tournament really impact the Ivy League race? Let’s look at it somewhat scientifically.

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Where does the Ivy League go from here?

The Ivy League announced today a two-year extension to its contract with NBC Sports Network (formerly known as Versus, etc.). Even though it is an extension, this deal is big news, because it includes the opportunity for NBC Sports Network to televise men’s basketball and lacrosse games as well. This isn’t just football anymore. The basketball brethren are about to get a little more exposure. That’s great, but where does the league go from here? I’ve got a few questions.

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Congrats to The Mid-Majority on 800 Games!

The Mid-Majority has been working towards a goal this season of 800 crowd sourced recaps. Today it hit that goal with this piece about Zack Rosen and Penn at Harvard. A lot of people (122 in fact) contributed recaps along the way. I put 15 stories up there from my travels around college basketball this season. If you’re interested in local hoops (and I assume you are) I’d also recommend the work of Gary Moore and Raymond Curren. Congrats to everyone who worked on the project. It’s great to have such a collection of stories from around the nation.