Buzzer by Eamonn Brennan

Articles

This NCAA Tournament is good, actually

1 month ago | eamonnbrennan.com | Eamonn Brennan

A pretty funny graphic made the rounds online Monday — a glowering photo of ESPN opinion-haver and future United States President Stephen A. Smith above one ominous word: “Death.”This ominous On3 edit referred to Smith’s take, uncorked Monday morning, that the NCAA Tournament’s dearth of upsets and lack of Sweet 16 Cinderellas was so damaging as to presage the wholesale destruction of the sport. “If this continues, it will be the death of college basketball,” Smith said on First Take Monday.
Darian DeVries is a good college coach. At Indiana, is that enough?

1 month ago | eamonnbrennan.com | Eamonn Brennan

Athletic directors always say the same thing about their new hires. They never tell you what they’re really thinking. No one ever says: “Hey, look, he wasn’t the first choice, but there are a lot of good coaches out there and, you know, maybe he’s one of them!” No one is ever flawed but intriguing, unproven but promising. Everyone is the right guy to take this program forward. Everyone has the ideal combination of leadership and acumen. Everyone knows how to build the winning culture our fans demand.
West Virginia got hosed

1 month ago | eamonnbrennan.com | Eamonn Brennan

Nobody likes a whiner. This is especially true on, and about, Selection Sunday. People move on fast. They look forward. They are fired up for the best tournament in sports. They want to fill out brackets and start strategizing Calcuttas. They want picks, takes, upset specials. They forget about the bubble, and all of the things we’ve spent the past six weeks obsessing over, immediately.
Bubble Watch: Same as it ever was

1 month ago | eamonnbrennan.com | Eamonn Brennan

The 2025 bubble has avoided chaos at every turn. Where were the upsets? Where were the bid thieves? Where was NC State, looking less-than-mediocre all year before unleashing DJ Burns onto an unsuspecting world, winning five games in its conference tournament, and changing the fundamental structure of the NCAA Tournament bracket? None of it happened. Upsets were rare. The best teams won.
Bubble Watch: Quad one fun

1 month ago | eamonnbrennan.com | Eamonn Brennan

Quadrant 1 wins ain’t everything. This is a crucial — and eminently forgettable — fact. No other component of team sheets is discussed as often, or accorded as much rhetorical importance. It is frequently the only thing broadcasters mention about a team’s resume, the only portion of the team sheet a mid-timeout bubble-discussion chyron flashes on the screen. Buzzer by Eamonn Brennan is a reader-supported publication.
Bubble Watch: The Return

2 months ago | eamonnbrennan.com | Eamonn Brennan

Bubble Watch turns two today. Of course that’s not actually true: It has existed, in various forms and at various outlets, for more than 15 years — and that’s just this Bubble Watch, by this particular author, in a world of many. But Bubble Watch here, at Buzzer, written entirely for you guys? That’s still a new thing. So we’re calling it: Two years old today. Buzzer by Eamonn Brennan is a reader-supported publication.
The Mike Woodson experiment might already be over

Jan 17, 2025 | eamonnbrennan.com | Eamonn Brennan

It seemed like a progressive idea at the time. Indiana had just fired Archie Miller, the prototypical hot-young-college-coach-who-couldn’t-possibly-fail, after four dreary, tournament-free seasons, while former NBA fixture and first-time college coach Juwan Howard had Michigan atop the Big Ten. Athletic director Scott Dolson could be forgiven for thinking outside the box.
The tragedy of Johnell Davis

Jan 14, 2025 | eamonnbrennan.com | Eamonn Brennan

The preseason scrimmage against Kansas was the first sign something was up. Johnell Davis arrived at Arkansas in the summer as one of the most high-profile players in the transfer portal. Indeed, the sheer promise of his move, and the impact it could have on pretty much any program in the country, had been discussed in college hoops circles at length since the middle of the 2022-23 season, when he and his Florida Atlantic teammates blitzed the sport en route to the Final Four.
The Big East finally had a good night

Nov 19, 2024 | eamonnbrennan.com | Eamonn Brennan

There was one of the all-time telling sequences late in Marquette’s 76-58 win over Purdue Tuesday night. Marquette was already winning, and the only remaining stakes were whether Kam Jones would get the one assist he needed to finish with the third triple-double in program history, the first since Dwyane Wade in late March 2003.
Better Know a Conference: ACC (Part II)

Oct 30, 2024 | eamonnbrennan.com | Eamonn Brennan

Better Know a Conference is Buzzer’s league-by-league preview of the 2024-25 season, featuring Bubble Watch-length narrative looks at every team in every major league — and other miscellany and mid-majors along the way — in rough order of expected finish. To read the full series (and start posting on the best college hoops comment section on the Internet!) consider becoming a paid subscriber today. Today: The ACC, Part II.