Old-school news, just in time
by Kevin Burton Well, at least it’s over. The 2024-25 version of Wichita State basketball bowed out yesterday, when the Shockers lost an American Athletic Conference tournament quarterfinal game to Memphis 83-80. The team went 19-14 this year and will not go to a post-season tournament. They were far from sublime, not …
Continue reading “Deflated Wichita State Program Limps Offstage”
by Kevin Burton I need to correct an error today, an egregious error. Last month I wrote a post about my favorite sports teams in the various college and professional sports leagues (“My Shifting Sports Team Allegiances,” March 27). Somehow I got all the way through that post without writing a single …
Continue reading “Adding Indiana Fever To My Sports Landscape”
by Kevin Burton Time and location, location, location, can change even the most fervent loyalties when it comes to sports fan allegiances. On ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption, Tony Kornheiser talks about the New York Mets as “the team of my youth” to differentiate it from his current favorite, the Washington Nationals. That is …
by Kevin Burton Ron Baker, the shooting guard who helped usher in the greatest era of basketball at Wichita State, turns 30 tomorrow. Some of us may not be ready to hear that. Some of us overlooked, downtrodden people clung tightly to those Wichita State teams, underdogs who routinely slayed giants (I’m …
by Kevin Burton In the bad old days, being without a girlfriend, or a date, or even a prayer, on Valentine’s Day was a sharp searing pain to the psyche. Now by comparison, being without a basketball team for the big dance, or even the little dance, is a dull ache. March Madness is …
by Kevin Burton North Carolina head basketball coach Hubert Davis, hurting after his team coughed up a 16-point lead and the NCAA tournament final to Kansas last April, nevertheless had gracious words for his players. “I can’t be more proud of the group that I just coached this year,” Davis said in a …
Continue reading “SI: North Carolina’s NIT Decision Was Lame”
by Kevin Burton The seasons are changing, calendar and sports calendar; the time is changing (spring forward Saturday night, kids), too much is changing. Any number of poets have rhapsodized about the beginning of spring and all it symbolizes. OK, I’m good with that. But as a sports guy in the man cave, …
by Kevin Burton Hope to be wrong on this, but…. It appears to be over for Wichita State. The Little Program That Could, could compete in a small conference, but still have a senior class graduate having won nine NCAA tournament games – nine happy NCAA press conferences – now can’t even …
by Kevin Burton You hear the word “hoops” what comes to mind? Are you thinking earrings? Are you thinking bureaucracy, extra obstacles you have to jump through? Or are you thinking basketball? No right answer to this, we try to appeal to all types of readers here. But for me, it’s basketball. …
by Kevin Burton You know how you sometimes smell something that might be smoke? You’re pretty sure it isn’t but you have to check it out. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. That would be a bad thing. Better find out. I feel a little bit like that now. It’s March Madness time …
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