Posts by Shane Ryan

February 21, 2013
Q&A: Coach John Giannini on La Salle’s Chance for a Big Five Title

The last time the La Salle Explorers won an outright Big Five title — the longstanding championship of the Philadelphia college basketball scene — was the 1989-90 season. They made the NCAA tournament that year, and again in ’91-92, but in the 20 years since, it’s been an elongated dry spell. In fact, the only […]
February 20, 2013
The Match Play Championship: A Primer on February Madness

“Wednesday at the Match Play Championship is the most underrated day in golf,” said Chris Reimer, the communications manager for the PGA Tour, and I cursed in my head for two reasons. First, he was absolutely right. Second, I realized at that moment that I would have led this post with that exact same idea, […]
February 18, 2013
The Hardcourt Shuffle: College Basketball Gets Even More Confusing

The Big Ten Road Trip, with all its local comforts, is over, and now it’s time to plunge back into the chaos of the national scene. A huge part of college basketball analysis is projecting what will happen in the postseason. It makes sense, because the sport is defined by a few crazy days in […]
February 15, 2013
Big Ten Road Trip: Minnesota Out-Uglies Wisconsin

There have been signs, here at the tail end of my weeklong swing through the Midwest, that the tenuous grip on sanity I’ve maintained for three decades might be careening into the abyss. I woke up in a fog in Madison, Wisconsin, for instance, to read a story about a kangaroo delaying the Australian Open, […]
February 13, 2013
Big Ten Road Trip: Michigan State and the Wolverine Massacre

I first met Keaton Gillogly, the radio voice of the Michigan State women’s basketball team and a below-average pool player, at an East Lansing sports bar called Reno’s. He had offered to be my tour guide, and proceeded to do an excellent job. He introduced me to several morally dubious university ambassadors, coordinated an emotional […]
February 11, 2013
The Hardcourt Shuffle: College Basketball Lands on Its Head

Today’s Shuffle is going to be a quick one — to get your college hoops fix, check out dispatch no. 1 on Indiana-Ohio State from my Big Ten road trip — but, wow, the wheels have really come off, haven’t they? Let’s do a list of 10 thoughts and conclusions from the weekend, except let’s […]
February 11, 2013
The Big Ten Road Trip: Indiana Levels Ohio State

If the e-mails I sent to my editors reached a level you might call “pleading” or even “begging,” you can’t blame me. The college basketball currents had been colliding for three months, creating the conditions for a freak wave that finally crested last week and may break at any moment. Against all odds, the bastion […]
February 8, 2013
The Hardcourt Shuffle: The Weekend’s Top 10 College Hoops Games

I was going to make a video of Illinois’s comeback against Indiana, but then my editor Sarah Larimer sent me some of the coolest guerrilla footage of the year, from someone standing on the baseline. It starts with Brandon Paul heading to the line for two and hitting the first on a bank shot that […]
February 6, 2013
10 Thoughts on Aaron Craft, Trey Burke, and Michigan’s Big Win Over Ohio State

1. First and foremost, there’s no avoiding the question surrounding Aaron Craft’s last two shots. It began with nine seconds remaining and Ohio State trailing 75-74, when Craft drove by Trey Burke, pulled up for a jumper, and had his attempt blocked. After intentionally fouling Glenn Robinson III and watching him make one of two […]
February 6, 2013
Time Expands: FSU’s Michael Snaer Hits Another Buzzer-Beater

When something statistically improbable keeps happening to someone, does it cease becoming statistically improbable? Do we have to throw our previous conceptions of probability out the window and, at least for this one blessed, cursed soul, accept reality on separate terms? Take Phil Connors in Groundhog Day. As far as we know, no human in […]

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