The 1999-’00 Cincinnati Bearcats team was one of my favorite college squads of all time. This team was tough. Bob Huggins’ roster consisted of Kenyon Martin, Kenny Satterfield, DerMarr Johnson, Pete Mickeal, Jermaine Tate and Steve Logan. A 5-11 combo guard with a mug like DMX, Logan was like a discount Tim Hardaway the way he could break down and bully bigger guards. After Martin, K-Sat and DerMarr bounced to the League the following year, Logan took his game to new heights. As a senior at UC, Logan averaged 22 ppg and was named first team All-American by the Associated Press. Read More »

Saving the biggest for last. As I’ve covered before, this isn’t a typical “best players” ranking. If you see a high school kid listed higher than an NBA All-Star here, nobody’s saying the prep is better than the pro. Instead, I’m looking at the whole picture: Who had an overall better season? Pound-for-pound, who made the biggest impact on their level? Who made the biggest mark on the entire game of basketball? Who made this season his own? So here are my Top 10 — not “10 best” — centers from the ‘08-09 season… Read More »

In 2002, the first issue of Dime, we ranked who we felt were the 25 most powerful people in the game of basketball. At the time, only six of the names on that list were actual basketball players. The rest was made up of agents, TV executives, attorneys, bigwigs in the NBA office, team owners, and other “suits” — the people we assumed would shape the future of the magazine. Today, we’re proud to say that our Dime #50 version of the power list has a much larger percentage of players. Dime has always been about putting ballplayers first, and over the last seven years, the player has become more powerful in the business and industry of basketball. Read More »

Some people still don’t get it. So … again … this is NOT a straight “best players” list. I don’t think Blake Griffin is better than Tim Duncan, or that John Wall is better than Chris Paul. I’m looking at the whole picture: Who had an overall better season? Pound-for-pound, who made the biggest impact on their level? Who made the biggest mark on the entire game of basketball? Who made this season his own? Here are my Top 10 — not “10 best” — shooting guards from the ‘08-09 season… Read More »

Basketball is back. Kinda. If you don’t live in a playground hotbed like NYC or Chicago, and you’re not so desperate that you’re watching classic games on NBA TV and trying to pretend you haven’t seen them before, the Orlando Pro Summer League debuted yesterday to fill the NBA void … Since nobody really cares who wins the games, we’ll just look at the stats: The Celtics rolled out what could be both the worst and the slowest NBA frontline tandem ever, starting Robert Swift (20 mins, 4 pts) and Mike Sweetney (15 mins, 3 pts, 5 rebs) against Utah. Read More »

If you said that Lance Stephenson, the first four-time NYC champion (along with classmate Buddha Ellis), was going to commit to Cincinnati a year ago, people would have called you crazy. But that’s exactly what just happened.

After months of hearing that he was headed to St. John’s, Maryland, Memphis, Arizona, or even Florida, Cincinnati popped out of nowhere to snare Lance.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

For weeks we heard that we’d have to wait until after Lance Stephenson’s June 29th court date was settled to get back to the recruitment business. But there’s a rumor circulating before his sexual assault case is adjourned in court today that “Born Ready” will be headed to Cincinnati.

Word is that the Bearcats leapfrogged Arizona, Memphis and Florida International, and we could hear about a commitment as early as tomorrow. Check out the rest of the story HERE.

Now that Nick Calathes decided to forgo his senior season to make $1.1 million per year in Greece, Billy Donovan has a scholarship up for grabs. After missing out on lightning bolt PG John Wall to Kentucky, Donovan could use a big talent to compete with the supercharged Wildcats in the SEC. The only remaining five-star recruit on the board is Lance Stephenson - and UF just happens to have a void at the three. Head over to High School Hoop for the full story on the Gators’ pursuit of “Born Ready.”

While everyone has declared John Calipari the next “King of College Basketball” after leaving Memphis for Kentucky, the Tigers have a great chance to make a late splash in the recruiting scene this Spring. Head over to High School Hoop, where they’ve got inside scoop on the situation brewing in Memphis. I’ll tell you this - they’re the two top-ranked unsigned recruits in the nation…

“How One Player is Changing the Game Forever.”

When I first saw that work-in-progress headline for Brandon Jennings‘ Dime #46 cover, admittedly I thought it was a reach. But eventually I talked myself into it, and came to believe that Jennings’ groundbreaking decision to sidestep David Stern’s NBA age limit and still get money right after high school would reverberate on every level of basketball — from high schoolers being presented with another option besides college, to colleges having yet another competitor in the recruiting wars, to the on-court effects of the NBA introducing players with a unique background of having played American high school and international pro ball. Read More »