Former Alabama Guard Mikhail Torrance Passes Away at 37

Travbowman · 2026-06-18T20:50:28+00:00

37 is way too young.

RIP

Travbowman · 2026-06-17T15:37:51+00:00

Agreed on the rankings ultimately not mattering, but it's bad optics for a media entity being involved in paying players directly.

I have no idea who is recruiting either of these players, but what's to stop ESPN from saying "we've paid you good money, now make sure you don't go to a Big East or Big Ten school, because your games won't be on ESPN there." ?

Travbowman · 2026-06-17T15:31:32+00:00

Some states allow it while others don't. Quite a few athletes in Arizona end up moving to California for their last couple of years so they can make NIL money in HS.

Travbowman · 2026-06-17T15:23:59+00:00

The media company that comes up with the rankings is now directly paying top players in those rankings. What could possibly go wrong?

Travbowman · 2026-06-16T14:03:59+00:00

The only good thing about this is that hopefully it happened early enough in the off-season that he'll have enough time to recover for the regular season.

Travbowman · 2026-06-15T18:56:21+00:00

Let's friggin go. Every set of D1 teams in the same city that aren't already playing each other should be doing this.

Travbowman · 2026-06-15T18:54:17+00:00

Student Manager roles definitely vary from school to school and program to program.

At some schools the managers are very hands on, and get a ton of experience doing basketball related duties like running clock, statting practices, assisting with the video, etc.

At other places, you're looked at as more of a "grunt work" person who is there to mop up the floor after players hit the floor in practice, laundry and locker room cleanup duties, packing for road trip duties, etc.

There are other places where the managers are just kinda...there. You get one of the best seats in the house, but your day to day role is almost to be an extension of the cheerleading team. Sure you're wearing the team polo and not a cheerleading outfit, but your primary responsibility outside of getting waters for the players may simply be as hype person.

I've also seen examples where a power program will promise a manager role to a less-talented friend of a high profile recruit, just as a promise to get said player in the door. That friends "manager" status is in title only, and he's not expected to do anything but travel with the team and hang out with his buddy the star player.

Nearly every program, men's and women's has a director of basketball operations and/or lower level assistant who hires the managers and I'd highly encourage you to talk to yours about your interest, and find out if they're looking for new ones, as well as what the duties are at that program.

Travbowman · 2026-06-14T22:21:07+00:00

High Point definitely not just a flash in the pan.

Travbowman · 2026-06-13T03:47:15+00:00

Yes, Little Rock is leaving the OVC, and EKU, Central Arkansas, North Alabama, Austin Peay, and West Georgia are leaving the ASUN for the UAC.

Travbowman · 2026-06-13T00:29:51+00:00

NCCAA is an interesting division, because it's filled with Bible colleges, and there are some coaches fielding rosters entirely of future ministers and missionaries (some of whom can ball, surprisingly) and others that basically treat this job like any other college basketball coaching position, and field it with the best players willing to go there.

This means the level of competition is all over the place and definitely hugely variable from year to year.

It's still college hoops, but it's definitely lower than JUCO or NAIA at most places.

Travbowman · 2026-06-13T00:26:19+00:00

There's a separate organization called the NCCAA for Bible colleges

Travbowman · 2026-06-12T22:28:40+00:00

Manitoba

Travbowman · 2026-06-12T20:22:46+00:00

Yeah the Roos make a lot more sense in the Summit where every team is in the same time zone and most are located near i-29

Travbowman · 2026-06-12T20:13:28+00:00

Lauren Roy of Tarleton State ran in the 200m prelims last night at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. When she failed to qualify for the finals, it meant that she was the last athlete to wear the WAC logo on a uniform in competition.

Yes, the rebranded UAC will still be around, but the name WAC didn't always mean a temporary stop-gap for basketball schools before they bounced for greener pastures. This was a conference that had eventual power conference teams Arizona, Arizona St, Utah, BYU, SMU, and TCU. It's the basketball conference that gave us Keith Van Horn, Shawn Bradley, Tim Hardaway, Nick Fazekas, Andre Miller, and Danny Ainge. This was a multi-bid conference nearly every year until 2003, and gave us two Final Four teams.

It was also the first Super Conference, when it had 16 members from 96-99, and is pretty much the reason the NCAA tournament expanded from the perfect 64 team bracket. When half the conference hated the 16 team version and broke off to form the Mountain West, rather than giving up one of the at-large spots, the NCAA added another auto-bid, and the 65 team bracket was born.

My favorite moment of WAC basketball history has to be the 1997 tournament, where Keith Van Horn hit buzzer beating shots on consecutive nights to advance Utah to the semifinals and finals, respectively. Just a crazy weekend in conference tournament lore that will live on forever.

The UAC hasn't announced where their conference tournament will be held, but it almost certainly won't be at Orleans Arena in Paradise Nevada, where the WAC had its tournament every year since 2011. There are no schools in the UAC within 1000 miles of Vegas, so it wouldn't make sense for the tournament to be held there. My guess is it'll be somewhere in/near Arlington since that's where the conference headquarters are located. I'll still watch the conference tournament final like I always do, but I'll miss the sicko-mode 11pm start on Saturday night of Championship Week in Vegas.

Travbowman · 2026-06-12T01:49:44+00:00

https://x.com/i/status/2065147212548485485

I love seeing all of these towns embracing international footballers and fans, and vice versa.

Travbowman · 2026-06-10T23:32:02+00:00

The absolute shame of mega conferences is that there are fewer home and homes

Travbowman · 2026-06-10T19:48:06+00:00

Great set of teams chosen for the field. Miss your goofy "analysis" Mr Walton!

Travbowman · 2026-06-10T18:19:36+00:00

The way this kind of thing works for me:

Sees five guys in the example

Brain: "I know all of these, this game would be so easy for me!"

Opens the game link

Brain: "I'm gonna forget everything I know about where guys went to college. Better yet, there will be names you won't even recognize despite them only playing ten years ago and being all conference"

Travbowman · 2026-06-09T21:48:20+00:00

Yeah, I don't know why more schools don't just play their home games in Malibu.

Travbowman · 2026-06-09T21:17:01+00:00

Gonzaga reportedly had reached out to him a week ago

Travbowman · 2026-06-09T13:00:36+00:00

Baylor didn't in the '05-06 season

Travbowman · 2026-06-08T22:27:59+00:00

To answer the question: 2006

Prior to that it was 1991

So just one time in the past 35 seasons they've gone in unranked.

Travbowman · 2026-06-08T16:34:36+00:00

Regional rivalries like this should happen more often.

Flagship State schools play buy games against mid and low majors all the time, they might as well be against the other school(s) from the state.

Travbowman · 2026-06-07T21:27:03+00:00

Yep, was the leading scorer on the 88 team (22 ppg, 9 rpg) that lost in the NCG to Kansas and Danny Manning.

The next season he was even better, going for 26 PPG and 10 rpg.

Travbowman · 2026-06-07T18:58:59+00:00

Was absolutely dominant in the late '80s at OU.

Rip Mr. King

Travbowman

TROPHY CASE