Sure all our brackets are busted. But at least 68 teams got to go to the dance. Then, some of us have never been asked.

Alas, the John Evan’s schools remain in the Never Made the Tournament Club (NMTC) – 2016. Denver made it to the Summit Semis and then got knocked out by South Dakota State, the eventual winner of the Summit League automatic bid. A 56 year drought. Northwestern was a 9 seed in the Big 10 Tournament and immediately got bounced by #8 Big 10 seed Michigan. A 76 year drought. Ironically, the former coach at Northwestern, Bill Carmody, who ran the Princeton system and was fired after 13 years at NU, immediately went to Holy Cross and won a tournament bid this year. The last time Holy Cross received a bid was 1953. Despite not getting the Northwestern program to the NCAA tournament, Carmody took the Wildcats to the NIT four years in a row before his firing.  Continue reading Never Made the Tournament Club – 2016 →

Following introductions by Ryan Peck – Sr. Associate AD for Development, Athletics Vice Chancellor Peg Bradley-Doppes and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Doug Scrivner, a youthful Rodney Billups addressed family, friends, alums, university staff and media. Billups proudly stated, “I’m a Pioneer. I’ve always been a Pioneer & it feels great to be back.”

Drawing on his experiences playing for DU and his six years at CU working for top-flight coach Tad Boyle, Billups is going to be bringing an “up-tempo style” to University and Evans. While DU is certain to look different on the floor, he emphasized the need for hard work by team members and commitment to each other. Many of the players that were in town attended the press conference and seemed particularly receptive to their new coach. He met with the team and coaches prior to the press conference. Absent were C.J. Bobbitt and Joe Rosga who were presumably on spring break and out of town. Continue reading Billups Introduced as DU’s New Basketball Coach →