Category: Basketball

As someone who firmly believes there’s no such thing as too much basketball, I embrace the sport wherever and whenever it’s played.

Domestically, the NBA, WNBA, G League and men’s and women’s college basketball get most of my attention, but I also follow the EuroLeague (Alba Berlin is my favored club) and the Basketball Africa League (I cheer for the Rivers Hoopers out of Nigeria).

So, when the NBA and FIBA held a joint news conference late last month about the plan for a new pro hoops league in Europe, it quickly got my attention.

“The European basketball community is proud of its seven-decade history of international club competitions and the elite talent it develops,” said FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis. “Yet, given the sport’s popularity and the success of national team competitions, there is untapped potential in European club basketball.  A new league in Europe would combine the NBA’s business acumen with the international expertise of FIBA to attract new basketball fans and investors alike, maximize club benefits, and establish synergies for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

Added NBA commissioner Adam Silver, “The NBA and FIBA are uniquely positioned to build on the rich tradition of European basketball. We look forward to collaborating with FIBA to explore the creation of a new league for fans across the continent.”

Nothing is set in stone, of course, and plans sometimes never get beyond the drawing board. But the fact that Silver and Zagklis have gone public with their attentions means they’re quite serious.

According to an NBA news release, potential investors and teams were contacted more than a year ago to gauge the feasibility of the NBA Europe League (or whatever it might be called).

The new organization would be “ … integrated into the current European basketball landscape, with teams also participating in their respective national leagues. In addition to permanent teams, the league would offer clubs a merit-based pathway to qualification through the European basketball ecosystem.”

BasketNews reports that Real Madrid is the top target among EuroLeague franchises, while England wants to join the party with a new club based in Manchester.

I alluded to being a supporter of Alba Berlin, and it appears they’ll be locked in to EuroLeague. BasketNews hinted that the proposed league covets a Berlin club, but would likely introduce a fresh one.

“It’s preliminary, maybe 12 permanent spots and four that would be in a position to play on yearly basis, but that’s subject to change,” Silver said during the presser – without ever mentioning EuroLeague. “We have ongoing discussion with existing clubs, some of them are huge global brands and we recognize that there’s a tremendous depth of interest.”

EuroLeague’s 13 shareholders are meeting on Monday in Barcelona to discuss the league’s future and how an NBA-sponsored competitor might impact it. Currently it features 18 clubs with an eye on expanding to 20 as early as next season.

As you might expect, EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejūnas thinks Europe is best represented by his operation.

“We have a strong league. We have a great plan. We have a vision as to where we want to go and what we want to do,” Motiejūnas said to Spanish broadcaster Movistar+. “Of course, we don’t need another league. We don’t need a savior. We keep saying that we have the best league in Europe. I think we have the best fanbase on which the league is built. We have great franchises like Real Madrid. We have new names like Paris coming in as a new market. Clearly, we feel strong.” 

In a perfect world, I’d love to see EuroLeague and the new venture come to some sort of arrangement where they can peacefully coexist. As exciting as it is to see the NBA expand its footprint further, EuroLeague’s roots date back to 1957 and as Motiejūnas says, it’s already strong.

But a perfect world this most certainly is not. Chances are there will be some major upheaval in European hoops if Silver and Zagklis partner up. take on the old guard and filch some of its biggest names.

Thus, I find myself hoping EuroLeague can hold the line while, at the same time, feeling excited about more big-time professional roundball.

Stay tuned …

On this day in 1969, West Chester State College – under the umbrella of the Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women – won the first national championship in women’s basketball.

The Golden Rams defeated Western Carolina, 65-39, in front of 2,000 fans in West Chester, Pennsylvania, with Pat Ferguson scoring a game-high 20 points. The competition was organized by West Chester coach and assistant professor of health and physical education Carol Eckman, now known as the “mother of  the collegiate women’s basketball national championship.”

Humble beginnings?

Quite.

The game barely rated more than a few lines in newspapers, with the Philadelphia Inquirer burying a six-paragraph report (under the headline West Chester Wins Title In Girls’ Tourney) on page 12 of its sports section.

But while all sports evolve to varying degrees, what women’s roundball fans saw then and what they see now are wildly different games altogether.

West Chester claimed the crown by playing six-on-six basketball, a style that featured three forwards and three guards. But get this – only forwards were allowed to shoot the ball and had to stay in the frontcourt while the guards stayed in the backcourt. In other words, forwards played only offense while guards played strictly defense.

Yet while Title IX (passed in 1972) was a catalyst for making women’s basketball more like the men’s game – five-on-five, full court, shot clock, etc. – the NCAA didn’t sponsor a women’s national championship game until 1982. Up to that point, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (which grew from the CIAW) coordinated events before dissolving in 1983.

The NCAA voted to sponsor a women’s hoops championship in January, 1981, at its 75^th annual convention (surviving a legal challenge from the AIAW), and the inaugural NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament field was announced on March 6, 1982. Louisiana Tech was named the top seed in the 32-team bracket.

The first tourney game was held on March 12, 1982, when Penn State hosted Clemson. The homestanding Nittany Lions won big, 96-75, with a crowd of 2,553 witnessing history.

Louisiana Tech, which claimed the AIAW title the previous season, went on to win the championship thanks to a 76-62 conquest of Cheyney State (current LSU coach Kim Mulkey was a member of the Lady Techsters and made the All-Tournament Team), and women’s hoops has only grown from there.

And I’m glad, because I’m a big fan and have been for years.

Aside from the fact that I enjoy the sport in general, women’s basketball – especially elite women’s basketball – has always impressed me due to the fundamental aspect of it. While the men’s game is often played above the rim, the women rely more on sharp shooting and defense. If you want to learn about how the game is supposed to be played from a technique standpoint, a good women’s matchup is the best teaching tool.

In fact, when I look back on my sports writing career, some of my favorite moments involved covering women’s basketball. During the decade I worked in South Carolina, one of my beats was Anderson University, a Division II school.

The Trojans were a perennial powerhouse and regulars in the annual DII regionals. Man, they were fun to watch, playing aggressive “D” while launching – and landing – bombs from beyond the arc.

And I also got to write about the University of South Carolina, just as Dawn Staley was building a dynasty in Columbia.

Watching the Gamecocks play meant at times I was watching near perfection.

So, I’m thrilled at how far the game has come. Not only do many NCAA teams play before packed houses, but they feature incredible athletes.

The leading candidate for Player of the Year this season is JuJu Watkins, who averaged 24.6 points per game for Southern Cal during the 2024-25 regular season. She’ll lead her team against UNC Greensboro today.

Other members of the Associated Press First Team All-American team are Paige Bueckers, UConn; Lauren Betts, UCLA; Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame; and Madison Booker, Texas.

All of them, by the way, are playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Hidalgo had 24 points in the Fighting Irish’s 106-54 romp over Stephen F. Austin on Friday, while Betts tallied 14 points to lead the Bruins to a decisive 84-46 victory over Southern in oprning round play.

If you’re a fan of college basketball, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. You’ll see some blowouts to go along with a few startling upsets, and learn to appreciate teams you hadn’t even thought about until now.

And thanks to pioneers like Carol Eckman, the Big Dance is coed.

Today at 6 p.m. ET, the field for the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will be announced, officially bringing the joy of March Madness to 68 schools.

At 9:30 p.m., the National Invitation Tournament will reveal its bracket – one chock full of teams bitterly disappointed that they failed to make the Big Dance.

There is no confusion about the hierarchy of postseason tourneys in modern college hoops: if you aren’t in the competition that ultimately crowns a national champion, every matchup is a consolation game.

Of course, there was a time when the NIT was the premiere event in amateur basketball, playing all its games at Madison Square Garden in New York with the tourney winner considered America’s top collegiate team for the season. It began in 1938, predating the NCAA tourney by a year.

But the competition sponsored by the sport’s governing body became the alpha by the 1960s, and by 1969 the NCAA Tournament was clearly the main event of collegiate basketball, featuring 25 participants.

The NIT, on the other hand, had just 16 schools in its field.

Yet, while the senior tournament was no longer the star attraction, it still carried a measure of prestige. And in 1970, the Marquette Warriors actually turned down an NCAA bid in favor of an NIT berth.

Marquette (23-3) was ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press poll when the 1969-70 regular season ended, and on February 24, 1970, the school was one of 10 programs to receive at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament.

The others were Jacksonville, Notre Dame, St. Bonaventure, New Mexico State, Houston, Utah State, Villanova, Niagara and Long Beach State. Fifteen conference champions earned automatic bids.

However, the NCAA Selection Committee placed Marquette in the Midwest Regional, which was being played in Fort Worth, Texas. Warrior coach Al McGuire declined the invite because he thought his team deserved to play closer to home in the Mideast Regional, contested in Dayton, Ohio. They were the third highest-ranked independent school named to the field.

“I am very disappointed,” McGuire told AP. “Our heart was set on going to the NCAA.”

McGuire said he talked to NCAA officials and told them Marquette deserved the Mideast Region berth regardless of whether teams were picked based on strength of schedule, records or rankings.

“We belong in Dayton, Ohio,” McGuire said. “That’s all there is to it. I can’t see their thinking.”

Tom Scott, Davidson athletic director and chairman of the NCAA Selection Committee, said he was sorry Marquette decided to opt out.

“Our selection committee ranks the teams in each region and Marquette was third in the Mideast, behind both Notre Dame and Jacksonville,” Scott explained in a United Press International story. “We have only two at-large berths in the Mideast and so the third team is the ‘swing’ team – the team we can, according to the (rule book), move to another regional.

“Our purpose is to select the 10 independent teams we consider the best in the country and we certainly feel Marquette is one of those teams.”

Based on Scott’s logic the decision made perfect sense, but McGuire wasn’t having it. His team had been in the Mideast Regional the previous two seasons, and his 1969-70 squad had a better record than either of those teams.

“I’m disgusted,” he said. “We take basketball seriously here. Maybe it was something between me and the committee … I don’t know. They speak out of both sides of their mouth. First, they speak about schedules, then records. We can’t do any better than we did. What do we have to do – 23-0?”

The Warriors’ leading scorer – junior guard Dean Meminger – backed his coach.

“You must stand up against the establishment,” Meminger said in a February 25 UPI article. “You can’t let people walk over you. What the committee did was a total contradiction.

“My heart was set on going to the NCAA because I wanted to play against the best.”

While Dayton was quickly named as Marquette’s replacement in the NCAA Tourney, the Warriors just as quickly accepted an NIT bid.

McGuire’s team opened with an 83-63 victory over Utah.

“There is a certain electricity about the NIT,” McGuire told Newsday’s George Usher. “It turns New York into a small town – a Madison, Wisconsin – but a lot of so-called dreams are put in the background. I’m just tickled pink the NIT is alive and took us in.”

Marquette thumped LSU (and “Pistol Pete” Maravich), 101-79, in the semi-finals, limiting Maravich to 20 points – 27 points below his average.

And the Warriors claimed the NIT Championship with a 65-53 win over St. John’s on March 21, their twelfth consecutive victory.

“I felt we could win the NCAA, but I’m happy to win any championship,” McGuire said. “I’ve never won one anywhere.”

The same night of the NIT finals, the UCLA Bruins claimed their fourth consecutive national championship with an 80-69 victory over Jacksonville. The Dolphins, by the way, won the Mideast Regional.

The 1969-70 season was the last time an NCAA Tournament invitee had the option of trading down to the NIT. Starting with the 1970-71 campaign, any school receiving an NCAA bid was required to accept it.

Incidentally, Marquette was selected as an at-large team in the 1977 NCAA Tournament and – you guessed it – sent to the Midwest Regional.

In McGuire’s last game before retiring, the Warriors defeated North Carolina, 67-59, to claim his only national championship and – to date – the school’s lone NCAA men’s basketball crown.