The men’s college basketball National Championship is tonight as UConn takes on Purdue in what should be an epic battle between two elite teams. We’re coming off an exciting weekend in college basketball with two Final Fours and a National Championship as the women’s game shared (or stole) the spotlight. South Carolina finished as undefeated champions knocking off Caitlin Clark and Iowa in a highly anticipated, intense matchup. Over the last few weeks, we’ve celebrated the current state of college basketball with many intriguing storylines and enjoyed the madness that March (and April) provides….
Category Archives: The UNPACKIN’ it Devotional
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Do I Need to Change My Mind?
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Diverting the Spotlight
Continue ReadingBy Matt Osborne, Staff Writer There’s no denying that the 2024 NCAA Women’s Tournament has been a huge success for the sport as a whole. With the surplus of talented teams and star players participating in March Madness, many fans have decided to follow the women’s tournament with greater interest this year. In fact, Monday night’s Elite Eight contest between Iowa and LSU was the most-watched college basketball game in the history of ESPN. Contributing greatly to the recent rise of popularity in the women’s game has been the influx…
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Caitlin Clark’s Court Awareness
Continue ReadingCaitlin Clark continues to captivate and wow the sports world as she leads her Iowa women’s basketball team to the Final Four. She’s coming off a tremendous performance against LSU where she scored 41 points, dished out 12 assists, and grabbed 7 rebounds while knocking down 9 three-pointers. Caitlin continues to set records and gain more and more fans, but what makes her such a special player? It’s obvious she’s an incredible scorer and passer, but what especially stands out is her court awareness and how it helps to make…
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How Can That Be?
Continue ReadingThe Men’s Final Four is set with NC State, Purdue, UConn, and Alabama. When considering the stories behind how these teams made it, we can’t help but ask, “How can that be?”…and all for different reasons. NC State It’s hard to believe that NC State finished the regular season losing four straight, and were the 10th ranked team in the ACC Tournament, but won five straight to win the ACC Tournament, beating UNC and Duke along the way. Then as an 11th seed in the NCAA Tournament, they won four straight including beating Marquette and Duke, and becoming…
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The Daily Refill
Continue ReadingBy Matt Osborne, Staff Writer Playing without the services of LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers were amazingly able to overcome a 19-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 128-124 in double overtime last night. The Lakers’ comeback efforts were led by Anthony Davis, who scored 34 points and hauled in 23 rebounds in nearly 53 minutes on the court. Three of Los Angeles’ starters (Davis, D’Angelo Russell, and Austin Reaves) played 48 minutes or more in the team’s victory on Tuesday night. With the team having to turn…
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Top Teams Put Away Their Opponent
Continue ReadingThe NCAA men’s basketball tournament has gotten off to a tremendous start with multiple overtime games, tight finishes, and one buzzer-beater from Colorado. We’ve seen some fun first-round upsets from surprising teams like Yale, Oakland, Grand Canyon, and Duquesne. As we look at the Sweet 16 teams remaining, however, the majority are top seeds and top programs. All four of the No. 1 seeds and No. 2 seeds are moving on to next weekend. Also, 12 of the Sweet 16 teams are seeded 1-4 with the other four being Gonzaga, San Diego State, Clemson,…
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When The Leader’s Not Worried
Continue ReadingBy Matt Osborne, Staff Writer The NCAA Tournament has officially started, and there was no shortage of storylines from the first full day of action. Two of the better stories from Thursday’s slate of games were 14-seed Oakland stunning 3-seed Kentucky behind Jack Gohlke’s 10 three-pointers, and Oregon’s Jermaine Couisnard scoring 40 points in a first-round upset over South Carolina, his former team. But another storyline that was equally as captivating came from Dayton’s 63-60 win over Nevada. Trailing 56-39 at the under-eight TV timeout, ESPN analytics gave Dayton a 0.5% chance…
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Let’s Get Greedy?
Continue ReadingIt’s a rewarding experience for every team that makes the NCAA Tournament. For some teams such as NC State, Duquesne, Drake, UAB, and Oregon, the fact they even made the tournament is a big deal considering they weren’t expecting to until they won their conference tournaments. These teams are surprised and pumped to be in the “Big Dance,” with some saying they’re “playing with house money” and it doesn’t matter if they win any games in the NCAA Tournament – they should be good with just being there. Of course, that’s…
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The Tournament of Fear
Continue ReadingMarch Madness is underway and I absolutely love this time of year! The conference tournaments are exciting and watching the bracket reveal on selection Sunday is always fun. (Now we get to fill out our brackets and I hope you’ll join our bracket challenge HERE.) Everything surrounding the NCAA Tournament is so thrilling, but I also recognize that fear gets involved. During the hours leading up to the announcement of which teams were in and which ones were out, I know that many fans, players, and coaches from certain teams were filled…
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Bid Thieves
Continue ReadingBy Matt Osborne, Staff Writer As Selection Sunday approaches, there’s a lot of talk about teams on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. “Bid thieves” is a unique term we’ll likely hear in many discussions. A “bid thief” is a team not projected to be in the running for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid, but wins its conference tournament, secures an automatic bid, and “steals” a bid from another team. This is an interesting term to use considering we think of a thief as someone who takes something that doesn’t rightfully belong to him. But…
