Stardate 113-20110228 - Like Sonny Liston
BOSTON -- There was never any master plan to any of it. The four-stage season and its familiar rhythms were formed by generations of pushes and pulls, and the best concepts became traditions. Putting the non-conference games at the beginning, holding separate league round-robins and eliminators, the bid-based gateway to Madness, storming courts, cutting down nets..

Dribblings 12/18/2004 (RPI Ain't Nothin' But A Hockey School Edition)
Winthrop 70, East Carolina 55 (story) - With embarrassing losses to D2 teams and potential school-poaching by the Atlantic Sun, it hasn't been the Big South's day, their week, their month, or even their year. But Winthrop has been a big bright spot, running out to a 7-2 record that includes two wins over power-conference teams - last night's victims were the C-USA's East Carolina Pirates.

The Fantastic Five
When the starting five take to the floor, there are all the matematically insignificant digits - 1, 3, 4, 5. There's even a double-zero out there. Low numbers are usually indicative of a new squad, since they're usually the first ones to be sewn together and assigned. You might think this team might be right off the boat, maybe even born yesterday.

Game 7-058 - Rice at Marshall
INDIANAPOLIS -- Things were different eight years ago. Folks were afraid of SARS. Valerie Plame was still anonymous. People still had AOL e-mail addresses. This website, Bally Basketball, and Willow Smith's recording career weren't even figments of imagination yet. But in 2003, a huge TV sports network had a dream..

Game! Of! The! Night! Jan 19 - Hofstra at Old Dominion
The CAA went into the New York area to raise the league's visibility, so it's odd that of all the good-but-not-great teams that make up the league's core this year, Hofstra has received the least love. They won nine of ten against the middle of the RPI table in late December and early January, and are coming off a triple overtime barnburner against UNCW.