Coach K is a pretty cool dude. Always smooth. Always chill. But at about the 12.9 second mark of the second half last night – after he had seen Michigan State chip into Duke’s lead and Mason Plumlee get called for a five-second violation – he had to be feeling that sweat on his brow just a little bit. But after a Spartan miss, the biggest drama of the night was over, the Dukies had won 74-69 and Mike Krzyzewski had the record. He’s now the winningest coach in Division I men’s basketball history with 903 wins, passing one of the men calling the game, Bob Knight. Seriously though, this joint couldn’t have been scripted any better: in MSG, against another great coach in Tom Izzo, playing against a gritty and tough team, and with his mentor looking on, Coach K got what he came for. Read More »

This past weekend, the Phoenix Suns came into L.A. looking to capitalize on a pair of games against the city’s two hometown franchises. While the Lakers would hand them a crushing 3OT loss this past Tuesday, two days earlier, the Suns were busy mopping up the Blakers for a nice 108-99 win at Staples Center. This was also the same Sunday that both Duke and North Carolina were fortunate enough to escape serious second-round upset bids from both Michigan and Washington, respectively. After the Suns’ victory over the Clippers, we were able to catch up with one of Tobacco Road’s most famed alums, Grant Hill, to get his take on the NCAA Tournament thus far. Read More »

Rating the best basketball books of all-time is like arguing with your friends over the greatest hip-hop albums ever. AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted? It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back? Breaking Atoms? Illmatic? You could go on all day. All solid choices, but too much personal preference, flavor and style come into play to settle on a clear-cut winner.

Just like when I created separate lists a few months back, naming the top 10 basketball movies and the 10 best documentaries, I’m not going to be able to give love to everything. Read More »

Remember two years ago when we told you how Kevin Love was becoming a beast before the NBA Draft? If you paid close attention to the article, you would have noticed that Love was training with Joe Abunassar. Abunassar is known for his training company, Impact Basketball, where he trains basketball players year-round, but especially NBA Draft prospects this time of the year. This week, we had the chance to get up with Joe to discuss the NBA Draft, how to eat properly as a basketball player, and what working with Kevin Garnett was like. Read More »

A couple nights ago, I was browsing the Big Ten Network OnDemand and settled on a Purdue/Indiana game from 1993. Bobby Knight, Gene Keady when he still kinda had hair, the immortal Damon Bailey, Alan Henderson, Cuonzo Martin … and Glenn Robinson.

If you don’t remember Robinson, a.k.a. “Big Dog” in his prime, he was a BEAST. He dropped 30.3 points and 10.1 rebounds per game as a junior at Purdue, swept all the national Player of the Year awards, and was picked No. 1 overall in that year’s NBA Draft. His push for a $100 million rookie contract from the Bucks (he ended up getting like $65M if I recall) actually set the wheels in motion for the current NBA rookie salary cap. Read More »

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not KG, Kobe or LeBron‘s fault.

If you want to blame anybody, blame Carmelo.

Via my quick unofficial study, the rate of freshmen entering the NBA Draft and leaving college programs scrounging for talent has increased since the League enacted its age limit and one-year-removed-from-high-school rule following the ’05 Draft. Read More »

While his Kentucky Wildcats are running through every obstacle in their path, John Calipari‘s controversial past never seems too far behind.

A couple weeks ago, Coach Cal appeared on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” and even during a light, good-natured interview, had to answer questions about trouble his programs encountered at Memphis and UMass and whether it would be an issue at Kentucky. Then last week, Bob Knight made headlines when he used Calipari as an example of what he sees wrong with college basketball. Read More »

Sam Cassell can stay, but if Flip Saunders is going to turn these Wizards around, he needs to clean house with the rest of his assistants and bring in the likes of Coach Carter, Joe Clark from Lean on Me, Gene Hackman, Bobby Knight and Mike Ditka. Basically, coaches who won’t take any nonsense and won’t accept some of the iron-headed decisions the players are making. The Wizards had a chance to beat the Celtics last night and stay undefeated in national TV games this season, but they gave it away with their own curious choices … Read More »

When the Spurs smacked the sting out of the Hornets in their season opener the other night, everybody but Tim Duncan looked like world-beaters. Last night in Chicago, Duncan proved he’s still dominant when he needs to be, but his teammates didn’t show up and San Antone took an L … The Bulls just had too many weapons to counter the Spurs’ one-man show. Derrick Rose put up 13 points and seven dimes and Luol Deng had 17 and nine boards, as the whole starting five and sixth man Kirk Hinrich scored in double figures. Read More »