Fox, thanks for Terps 
doubleheader!
Go Hokie Women!
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Iāll just say TAR HEELS!
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I am just tuning in to college basketball. Seems to be a lot of surprises. Keeps it exciting for viewers.
Intersting to see long time coaches, whether Izzo, or Frese, or Bluder, and younger coaches, and how they manage the transfer portal.
I mostly pay attention to B1G bball- some great games this past week. Caitlin Clark is helping sell out stadiumsā:clap:
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Caitlin Clark is great. The womenās game is really fun to watch. College basketball will always be my favorite sport.
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Hook 'em! 
Watching Texas women take down no. 2 Kansas State,
Watched the men beat TCU yesterday. The team is so good yet still has a losing record in conference play. The Big 12 just beats up on itself over and over. Such a great basketball conference.
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Iowa State women will be the team to watch in the next few years. They are currently 7-4 in big 12 conference play and 13-8 over all.
They often have 5 freshmen on the floor playing. As long as they all stay at ISU and stay healthy they will be a powerhouse in the next couple years.
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Also, a couple of things I have noticed, at least here on our local newscasts:
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there is no longer a W beside the NCAA basketball scores. So, I have to sit here and think to figure out if they are talking menās or womenās. I think it is great the sportscasters did that, though I do wish theyād gone the other way and added an M to the menās scores instead of taking the W away from the womenās scores.
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my husband turned the TV on this afternoon and had to search for a menās game. The first few channels he tried had womenās games. None of them were Iowa and Caitlin Clark, she played last night. I told him it was the Caitlin Clark effect, she is filling stadiums wherever she plays. People are going to games and seeing that the womenās game can be as exciting as the menās and so want to see more.
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Caitlin is great, but womenās games here in North Carolina have been popular for years. I have friends with season tickets. Of course UConn has been a powerhouse for decades. I wouldnāt lay all the credit at Caitlinās feet. Itās cool that she is such a good player and may be drumming up more interest in womenās bball in the Big Ten, but we have been following womenās bball as well as mens bball all along here.
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Agreed. Hereās our crowd today. This is Nancy Lieberman talking:
This reminds me of how Nebraska volleyball was all but crowned natl champs, because they played that game at the football stadium. Great publicity for the game, but they were a young team who met a really experienced Texas in the finals. We repeated as natl champs, and Nebraska didnāt even win a set. Some programs have long, long histories of success in womenās sports, even without all the flash.
If our starting forward hadnāt suffered a season-ending injury, we would absolutely have given every team a run for its money (we beat UConn earlier this season for the first time ever, before Rori got hurt). True freshman Madison Booker has filled her shoes amazingly well. I hope we can make a deep run. Hereās Booker:
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Woot!
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Did yāall see that UNC- Dook game? Heels looking good.
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Since you live in the Southern Part of Heaven, IIRC, why do you think that this yearās Tar Heel (menās) team seems to be doing so much better than last yearās team? The team chemistry appears to be a lot better ā addition by subtraction, perhaps, with Caleb Loveās transfer to Arizona?
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Harrison Ingram. Heās phenomenal. Heās a junior, transferred in from Stanford. His sis plays volleyball for Duke, incidentally. He can do anything. Great 3 point shooter. He has been tops in rebounds for several games. Can put the ball on the floor too. And he just exudes joy and positive energy. Great smile. I think he brings a lot of fun to the team. Heās definitely a major spark. Similar to how Brady Manek was (transfer from OK) when he was on the team two years ago and they made the run to the NCAA Final. But Harrison is a better all around player than Brady. Great play from the UNC-Duke game that shows what kind of smarts he brings to the team. And smiling and happy all the time.
I think Caleb transferred out because he was afraid he would not be a starter with Elliot Cadeau on the team now (freshman). Cadeau is amazing too. And I think thereās a good chance that Caleb would not be starting if he had stayed, so him leaving is not a big deal because I think Cadeau would be playing anyway. Elliot is a better ball handler. I wish Caleb well at Arizona and he can do some amazing things, but then he makes some silly mistakes that Cadeau rarely does.
Cormac Ryan, grad school transfer from Notre Dame using his COVID year, is bringing it too. Good 3 point shooter.
Thanks for the great analysis! And, Go Heels!!
So have you not been a fan of college basketball before now? If thatās correct, what brings you to the game now? Kids in college?
Where I am in NC everybody grows up knowing college bball. Itās the best game! Itās fast paced with frequent chances for redemption and comebacks within the game. Stakes are arguably higher in college ball than the pros, who while supremely talented, have too many games in a season and play lackadaisically at times as a result. The goal is not violence (looking at you football). Scores are high with lots of goals/baskets unlike soccer which seems to be a game of āgo, go, go, ahhh almostā. It doesnāt take all day or count your errors (baseball). And the athleticism is just second to none. Basketball players are by and large incredibly fit unlike some positions in football or baseball. No better sport than college basketball.
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Itās a wonderful diversion between football seasons. 
Iād also counter and say a B1G hockey game is right up there too.
Basketball is right there behind football for me.
On the womenās side its softball then basketball.
It is a great game.
I grew up in NC and itās hard to describe to people just how important college basketball is there. They wheeled TVs into every classroom at school each March so we could watch the ACC tournament throughout the day. You had to memorize the score of every Duke-UNC game because it was always the extra credit question on a test that week. It was wildly important to everyone around you.
Iām a UNC grad and huge Heels fan now but a family friend had a son play at Duke when I was growing up so I was all in for Duke when I was a kid and attended a ton of games and even got pulled out of school to attend the homecoming celebration at Cameron after the team won a national championship. My parents still have some photos somewhere of me with Coach K and his daughters as well as a ton of the players from the team during the early 90s. It was a pretty amazing childhood experience, but there is nothing I love more than to cheer against Duke now that Iām a UNC alum 
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