It’s Championship Week in college basketball, otherwise known as the week of tournaments before THE Tournament. And honestly, it seems this year people only really care about two conference tourneys: the Big East and the Big 12 … and maybe the ACC based on history and hype.

Yesterday I previewed the Pac-10 as a tune-up, but now it’s onto the real heavyweights. First up: the Big East. Read More »

It’s Championship Week in college basketball, otherwise known as the week of tournaments before THE Tournament. And honestly, it seems this year people only really care about two conference tourneys: the Big East and the Big 12 … and maybe the ACC based on history and hype.

This week we’ll be previewing those anticipated conference tournaments. But for now I’m doing the Pac-10, because that’s the one I know best, because I don’t want the Left Coast to get overlooked again, and, well, because I can. Read More »

With the season already past the midway point, NBA GMs have their minds set on the NBA Playoffs. But for those teams that will be counting ping pong balls instead of playoff victories, the upcoming NBA Draft has many intriguing prospects that need to be recognized. So before March Madness takes over, Dime contributor Lucas Shapiro will be profiling players and giving them a team that would best fit their talent. Last week was Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins, so now we’re on to Georgia Tech’s Derrick Favors. Read More »

This past summer, we had Pitt’s Ashton Gibbs as one of Team USA’s 5 Breakout Stars after their U19 Gold Medal victory in the FIBA World Championships. While he only played 10.8 minutes a game during his freshman year, the strong guard with a nice jumper has been given plenty of playing time (35.3 mpg) this season, and he’s produced. Leading the team with 16.3 points per game, it was just another day in the office last night. Read More »

As I’m writing this, ESPN Classic is airing the 1995 Duke/North Carolina game in preparation for the big rivalry matchup this weekend. I’m pretty sure this ‘95 game is the one Jeff Capel sent into overtime with a half-court buzzer-beater, but my top memory is the dunk by Jerry Stackhouse posted in the video below. What’s your favorite Duke/UNC memory?

With March Madness upon us, and Selection Sunday just a week and a half away, the Dime office is starting to get excited. I mean, on any given Thursday you could see someone show up in face paint carrying a cardboard cutout of D-Fense, but now there’s a reason. With this in mind, we reached out to Bounce contributor and college basketball fanatic Trevor Kapp to lay out the Top 5 rule changes he’d like to see for college basketball. Enjoy! Read More »

Last night while watching Duke’s Jon Scheyer and Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez shoot it out in a great game on ESPN, we posed this question to our Twitter followers:

Between Scheyer + Vasquez, who do u think will be a better NBA player? Will either even have an NBA career?

The responses we received were pretty much all either supporting Vasquez or saying that neither one of them will be an NBA player. I think I have to respectfully disagree on both counts. Read More »

Barring an undefeated run through the Pac-10 tournament, the Arizona Wildcats (14-14, 8-8) are poised to miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a quarter-century. In a down year for the entire Pac-10, one of its signature programs isn’t even in the “bubble” discussion.

A transition like this is commonplace when one legendary coach retires (Lute Olson) and a younger coach takes over. But for first-year AZ boss Sean Miller — who made the Big Dance field in four of his five years at Xavier, including an Elite Eight — it’s not something he’s used to. Read More »

With the season already past the midway point, NBA GMs have their minds set on the NBA Playoffs. But for those teams that will be counting ping pong balls instead of playoff victories, the upcoming NBA Draft has many intriguing prospects that need to be recognized. So before March Madness takes over, Dime contributor Lucas Shapiro will be profiling players and giving them a team that would best fit their talent. Last week was Syracuse’s Wesley Johnson, so now we’re on to Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins. Read More »

Interesting fact: Of the 28 players that made up this year’s NBA All-Star rosters, 16 of them (57%) were Top-5 Draft picks once upon a time.

That could mean nothing. Or it could mean that, while we all love the second-round underdogs and outside-the-Lottery gems, the more boring truth is that we typically know where our future superstars are coming from.

While it’s been fashionable over the last few years to bemoan the drop in talent on the college level, when you look across the ‘09-10 NCAA landscape, you can still see more than a handful of future NBA All-Stars. Read More »