For all of those haters and “experts” who have been crying from moment the original NCAA Tournament seedings were announced weeks ago (and there were many) that Duke was handed a cakewalk to the Final Four, know this: when the smoke clears, Duke will have absolutely earned their stripes by battling through what has quickly become the most difficult road to a national championship faced by any team in the field. Read More »

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak had two main goals going into this season: signing Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol to contract extensions. After today, he has achieved both of them. Kobe has signed a three-year contract extension with Los Angeles, the team announced today. The deal will keep him in a Laker uniform through the 2013-14 season. Read More »

While some leagues will be done with their seasons after this weekend, others are going all the way to the end. This means that two risks will arise for teams that will still be competing for the next week and a half: studs on NBA teams that have little to play for or have limbs to rest could rack up some DNPs and reduced minutes, and players who have had minimal relevance up until now could get some extra run, for various reasons. In light of these possibilities, here is a list of players who could hurt their fantasy owners with DNPs in the final stretch as well as a list of players who might warrant a gamble during the final couple games of the season. Read More »

Let me get this out of the way: Gordon Hayward is not Jimmy Chitwood, and the Butler Bulldogs are not the Hickory High Hoosiers. But if all goes according to plan, Butler’s historic run to the Final Four will go down as one of the greatest in college basketball history.

Look at the teams they’ve beaten: 12-seed UTEP, 13-seed Murray State, 1-seed Syracuse and 2-seed Kansas State. Read More »

If you’ve been keeping up with Kevin Jones‘ Final Four Diary, then you might remember that he mentioned the send off they had before leaving for Indy. Well, we found it. Check out the entrance video for the team’s Final Four send off rally at the WVU Coliseum on Wednesday. Pretty dope.

Replacing the bear on the California State Flag with a black mamba? If you ask us, it works, and not many Californians would be opposed to it at this point after last year’s championship. We received 186 responses and sorted through all of them looking for the biggest Kobe fans and the people who would wear it best: Read More »

There’s this clip of an interview from sometime in the ’70s where Howard Cosell goes on a rant about the growing number of ex-pro athletes getting TV broadcasting jobs. Cosell’s big gripe was that kids coming out of college with journalism and broadcasting degrees eventually wouldn’t be able to get jobs because they were being taken by unqualified athletes who got work simply based on their name. Who knew how correct he would be? Read More »

The day after Christmas ’09, I watched West Virginia play at Seton Hall and get everything they could handle before narrowly edging a mediocre Big East opponent. West Virginia was ranked No. 6 in the country at the time and considered a national title contender, but I saw a team that might not have cracked the Top 20 four years ago.

But these Mountaineers aren’t playing against history; they’re playing the teams in front of them who are also part of the 2K10 version of college basketball. Read More »

A couple months ago, it looked like the Memphis Grizzlies were headed back to the playoffs. But in the volatile Western Conference, when the season ends in two weeks, it appears they’re going to be on the outside looking in. The problem is, all the teams in the playoffs now keep winning, and the Grizzlies have lost three in a row and are just 5-5 in their last 10 games. So with eight games left in the season, Memphis will have to try and win without their star center Marc Gasol, who is out for the rest of the season due to a torn neck muscle. This is not good. Read More »

You kind of knew it would end this way, but perhaps not to this degree. This year more than ever, college basketball players are clamoring to get to the NBA. With the prospect of a lockout looming after the 2010-11 season, it’s in every player’s best interest to the get to the League. Now. That’s why it’s looking more and more likely that Kentucky’s Fab Four of freshmen – John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton – along with junior Patrick Patterson, are all going to be in this year’s NBA Draft. Read More »