For any coach, winning in college basketball has everything to do with two things: Actual coaching (game planning, X’s-and-O’s, etc.), and recruiting. As Pete Bell painfully found out in Blue Chips, you can be the best in the world at Column A, but you won’t get very far without success in Column B.

That’s what makes the 7-versus-10 matchup in this year’s East regional so intriguing. Read More »

Now that the selection committed chose the best 34 teams to fill out the 65-squad bracket, we’ve got a set field of shooters to choose from. There’s no single, definitive guy out there who is widely regarded as the premiere shooter in college hoops. So we pulled the fifteen best shooters out of the Big Dance’s 65 teams in our NCAA Tournament primer.

Scottie Reynolds – Villanova is one of the best teams to watch in the country because of the way that Handsome Jay Wright has them moving the basketball. Read More »

Welcome to The Bong Show, where there will be buckets, buckets and more buckets as ASU and James Harden match up with Temple and Dionte Christmas.

With multiple national TV games this season in a high-profile conference, most of the college basketball world is familiar with the scoring machine that is James Harden. 6-5, lefty, with a body closer to Brian Scalabrine than Corey Maggette, he keeps defenses off balance and susceptible to his array of offensive weapons, whether it’s raining jumpers from deep or sneaking into the paint. Read More »

In every NCAA Tournament, there are big-time players who step, put their team on their back, and carry them deep into the Dance. Here are six players who can be “THAT GUY” this year. Read More »

Jarvis Varnado might be the best shot-blocker the college game has seen since David Robinson. The reigning two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year led a Bulldogs unit that, on its way to an unlikely conference tournament crown, held opponents to 61.5 points per in four games, which included holding Tennessee a full 18 points below its season average (79 ppg) in Sunday’s championship game. Read More »

Just a reminder: like we told you in Smack this morning, the Dime crew (plus a new voice or two) will be posting about the NCAA Tournament‘s biggest snubs, the best matchups, our players to watch, and more. Posts will start going live right after the selection show on CBS.

Conference tournaments haven’t yet wrapped up, and the NCAA Tournament Selection Show is still hours away, but I don’t have to wait for the seeding: Louisville is my pick to win the 2009 national championship. Read More »

This is getting ridiculous. Kobe, LeBron and D-Wade are each on a mission to one-up each other; and if you believe it when they say they don’t know what their MVP competition is doing on a nightly basis, we’ve got a promising 7-footer with fresh legs named Jerome James to sell you. Read More »

Forget LeBron‘s 51 and Kobe‘s absurd all around line for a second – how about my man Leon‘s 30, 11 and 5! I highlighted him as a great pick up this week and boy was I right. You’ll get one more Powe week until KG is due back. Enjoy it. Read More »

Since we all remember LeBron‘s NBA debut, at Sacramento back in ’03, each time LBJ makes his annual trip to Arco Arena now, it’s like a yearly checkpoint to see where the uber-hyped high school phenom is at in his career. Judging by last night’s show, ‘Bron is doing alright. While his run of consecutive triple-doubles was stopped at three, LeBron dropped 51 points (16-30 FG, 4-11 3PA, 15-17 FT), nine assists and three blocks on the Kings in an overtime W … Read More »