Newsletter Subject

🏀 The Fantastic Chaos Of College Hoops

From

foxsports.com

Email Address

reply@email.foxsports.com

Sent On

Tue, Dec 17, 2019 09:37 PM

Email Preheader Text

If you aren’t watching the young college basketball season, you’re doing yourself a disser

If you aren’t watching the young college basketball season, you’re doing yourself a disservice. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider: The college basketball season is off to one of the most chaotic starts ever ... a Watford fan brings some touching holiday cheer ... and LeBron James might just go off against the Pacers. College basketball doesn’t always get the attention it deserves at this time of year, squashed behind the overwhelming effect that the juggernauts of late-season NFL and early-season NBA have on the sports landscape. If you’re the kind of fan that only really starts to awaken your college hoops awareness when March rolls around and the madness begins to take hold, it might be time for a change of heart. This season, the mayhem has come much earlier than March, with a swath of drama gripping the sport in its first few weeks. All the things we love about the NCAA tournament have already taken hold, long before a single bracket has been printed. Kansas rose to the top of the AP Poll on Monday — which, depending on how deep superstition runs in Lawrence, is either a cause for celebration or a reason to duck under the blankets, fearful of what comes next. The top spot in the nation has been the curse of all curses ever since the season began, which is why the Jayhawks are the fifth team to hold that position already, all before Santa has loaded up the sleigh and fed the reindeer organic protein bars ahead of their grand annual worldwide tour. But what does all this chaos in the rankings mean? “I think it just means it’s a great year for college basketball,” Texas Tech coach Chris Beard said. Beard did everything right as his team took down then-No. 1 Louisville, and his quote was spot on: it has been a great season. It hasn’t been a season of greatness, or dominance; not a great season for historical blue bloods and oddsmakers seeking predictability. [STORY IMAGE 1] But it has been a great season for entertainment, for those who love a stirring storyline and to approach a game not knowing what bizarre magic might unfurl over the course of 40 minutes. Kansas is next in the spotlight, and while there is no reason to feel sorry for a team that has won every game since losing to Duke in the opener on Nov. 5, the target is now affixed firmly to their backs. What a target it has become, that No. 1 position. Never before in college basketball history have four top-ranked teams gone down before the end of the year, and some of the upsets have been true blockbusters with extra fancy gift wrapping. Last week, [we profiled the heartwarming story of Stephen F. Austin senior Nathan Bain]( who not only sunk Duke with a coast-to-coast buzzer beater but then used the platform to help raise much needed funds for hurricane victims in the Bahamas. After Duke fell, Evansville came to Rupp Arena and stunned Kentucky, a shocker truly unthinkable by any conceivable metric or historical statistic, and one deemed so unlikely that the Wildcats had paid their opponent $90,000 to set up the game with the purpose of padding their schedule with an easy W. No. 1 has had the opposite of the Midas touch this year. Even getting close to it provides peril, apparently. An unranked underdog has beaten a top five opponent six times. Ohio State was probably about to get to the summit this week, but lost on the road to Minnesota. Michigan State was the preseason No.1, but has lost three times since the schedule tipped off. Spartans head coach Tom Izzo doesn’t like losing, but it becomes a little easier to swallow when everyone else is doing it too. [STORY IMAGE 2] When MLive.com asked Izzo about the all-time record of seven different teams holding the No. 1 spot in one season, he replied, “I do think seven will get blown out of the water. I really do. Everybody’s got question marks. Everybody’s got things to try to deal with. And I don’t think any of us know where anybody is right now.” Because of the number of upsets and the gravity of them, the vanquished teams haven’t suffered too much, either in the rankings or in public perception of their title-winning capabilities. Duke are now back up to third spot in the AP Poll. [FOX Bet]( currently has Louisville as the favorites to win the NCAA Championship, at +850. Behind them are Duke and Maryland at +1100, Kansas at +1300, and Ohio State and Michigan State at +1400. It’s all too entertaining to worry too much about the reasons why this much tumult is happening, but Sports Illustrated took a crack at the conundrum, largely attributing it to a dip in offensive output in college hoops. “Lower offensive efficiency generally favors the underdog, because less scoring often means more of an opportunity in a game to keep things close,” wrote SI’s Molly Geary, using statistics from Bart Torvik’s power rating system. “Last season, 230 teams averaged at least 70 points per game. This year, only 177 teams currently are.” It all leaves things wide open for crunch time, with no clear runaway favorite and frankly no real idea of what the top seeds could look like once bracketology starts to enter our vocabulary once more. “Moral of the first month,” wrote Mike Lopresti on NCAA.com. “Lots of teams out there could be No. 1. Or maybe no one is.” Sounds like chaos. Sounds like fun. [STORY IMAGE 3] Here’s what others have said ... Michael Shapiro, Sports Illustrated: “The Jayhawks should be able to survive their first road test of the season at Villanova on Saturday. The Wildcats don’t have the interior personnel to contain Udoka Azubuike down low, and sophomore Devon Dotson won’t face much resistance against Collin Gillespie. Villanova has lost its first two games of the season against Top 25 teams. It will notch a third on Saturday.” Lukas Harkins, Fansided: “On the whole, it just feels as though there aren’t any dominant teams in college basketball this season. Simply put, nobody is very good. As a result, this season projects as one of the most engaging in recent memory as everyone has a shot at making a run. There doesn’t appear to be a Villanova or Virginia or Duke that is ready to take the nation by storm and roll through its competition this season. Parity could be at an all-time high and that should make for a very entertaining campaign across the nation.” Jeff Goodman, Stadium: “There are a couple of factors that played into Tom Izzo and the Preseason No. 1 Spartans losing three of their first eight games. Josh Langford was lost (perhaps for the season) just prior to the year, and Cassius Winston has had to deal with the tragedy involving his late brother. There’s no shame losing the opener to Kentucky, but the loss in Maui to Virginia Tech was a head-scratcher, as was the embarrassing home setback to Duke.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - Shaker Samman at The Ringer recaps [the year that Zion Williamson took flight — and was grounded](. - The New York Times’ Tariq Panja on [the yoga master who might be Chelsea’s secret weapon](. - Hallie Grossman of ESPN goes in-depth to illustrate [how Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow electrifies LSU — and all of college football](. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( Watford might not be having a tremendous season in the Premier League, but they certainly know how to treat their supporters. Goalkeeper Ben Foster took the time to surprise and give some holiday cheer to Molly, a young Watford fan who has been battling leukemia. Even though Foster might not be her favorite player, he still brought plenty of joy to the room in this touching video. He’s running away with this “nicest man in football” title. [VIEWER'S GUIDE] Phoenix Suns at Los Angeles Clippers (NBA TV, 10:30 p.m. ET) The visiting Suns have lost their last three games and currently in the middle of the pack in the West, so they face a tall order as they try to take down Kawhi Leonard’s Clippers in the Staples Center. SE Missouri State at No. 5 Ohio State (Big Ten Network, 7 p.m. ET) The Buckeyes get a chance to add to their perfect 8-0 home record and potentially gain on Duke in the national polls. WWE Backstage (FS1, 11 p.m. ET) This week’s episode of Backstage welcomes Alexa Bliss and the one and only William Shatner, plus the panel will discuss everything that went down on Sunday’s TLC pay-per-view. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( NBA All Star Double — LeBron James over 29.5 points and Trae Young over 34.5 points: +600 LeBron James is taking on the Pacers tonight, who are a formidable 18-9 team who have won their last three. Not that the level of competition really matters when James is involved: he’s averaging 26.1 points this season and 27.3 per game this month, and had 30 or more points in three of his last five games. Young, meanwhile, has been one of the lone bright spots for the Hawks, who will visit the Knicks — with whom they’re tied for the worst record in the East. Young has dropped 35 or more points eight times already this season, including a 49-point game last month. [WHAT THEY SAID] “A lot of people notice when you succeed, but they don’t see what it takes to get there.” — Dawn Staley [FOLLOW FOX SPORTS] [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Download the FOX Sports app for live scores and streaming [App Store]( [Google Play]( Available on: [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] Forwarded this message? [Sign up](. Trademark & Copyright Notice: ™ and © 2019 FOX Media LLC and FOX Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Please do not reply to this message. If you do not wish to receive emails like this in the future, please [unsubscribe](. FOX Sports respects your privacy. Click [here]( to view our Privacy Policy. FOX.com Business & Legal Affairs - Manager Digital Media P.O. Box 900 Beverly Hills, CA 90213-0900

Marketing emails from foxsports.com

View More
Sent On

08/11/2024

Sent On

08/11/2024

Sent On

03/11/2024

Sent On

30/10/2024

Sent On

30/10/2024

Sent On

29/10/2024

Email Content Statistics

Subscribe Now

Subject Line Length

Data shows that subject lines with 6 to 10 words generated 21 percent higher open rate.

Subscribe Now

Average in this category

Subscribe Now

Number of Words

The more words in the content, the more time the user will need to spend reading. Get straight to the point with catchy short phrases and interesting photos and graphics.

Subscribe Now

Average in this category

Subscribe Now

Number of Images

More images or large images might cause the email to load slower. Aim for a balance of words and images.

Subscribe Now

Average in this category

Subscribe Now

Time to Read

Longer reading time requires more attention and patience from users. Aim for short phrases and catchy keywords.

Subscribe Now

Average in this category

Subscribe Now

Predicted open rate

Subscribe Now

Spam Score

Spam score is determined by a large number of checks performed on the content of the email. For the best delivery results, it is advised to lower your spam score as much as possible.

Subscribe Now

Flesch reading score

Flesch reading score measures how complex a text is. The lower the score, the more difficult the text is to read. The Flesch readability score uses the average length of your sentences (measured by the number of words) and the average number of syllables per word in an equation to calculate the reading ease. Text with a very high Flesch reading ease score (about 100) is straightforward and easy to read, with short sentences and no words of more than two syllables. Usually, a reading ease score of 60-70 is considered acceptable/normal for web copy.

Subscribe Now

Technologies

What powers this email? Every email we receive is parsed to determine the sending ESP and any additional email technologies used.

Subscribe Now

Email Size (not include images)

Font Used

No. Font Name
Subscribe Now

Copyright © 2019–2025 SimilarMail.