West Virginia was two wins shy of a national championship. While that won’t be any immediate consolation to the players who worked all season to get to the Final Four, it’s a lot better than 300-something other D-1 teams can say. Kevin Jones was an instrumental part in the Mountaineers’ run, averaging 13.5 points and 7.2 rebounds this season. And in WVU’s four NCAA Tournament wins, the 6-8 sophomore forward was good for 15 points and 8 boards a game.

Kevin agreed to check in with Dime during the most hectic week of his career to give us a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like reaching the pinnacle of college basketball. After West Virginia lost to Duke in the national semifinal Saturday night, he reflected on the season and the Final Four experience: Read More »

Everybody wants to make the Hoosiers comparison, but the best movie for Butler‘s surprise run to the NCAA championship game might be Invictus. Yesterday’s win over Michigan State was like part basketball and part rugby. It was ugly, it was grimy, it was gritty, but the Bulldogs pulled off the upset despite shooting 31% from the field, enduring a 10-minute stretch in the second half where they didn’t make a shot, and trying time and time again to give the Spartans the game … Read More »

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 »

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 »

We knew it’d come down to two – Kentucky’s John Wall and Ohio State’s Evan Turner – but I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the votes falling like this. Turner, the 6-7 junior swingman who averaged 20.3 points, 9.2 rebounds and 5.9 assists this season, received 54 votes from the 65-member national media panel as the runaway choice for the Associated Press’ Player of the Year. Read More »

Kevin Jones has been instrumental in West Virginia’s run to this year’s Final Four, averaging 13.7 points and 7.2 rebounds during the season. And in WVU’s first four wins of the Tournament, the 6-8 sophomore power forward/center has been good for over 15 points and 8 boards a game.

Kevin has agreed to check in with Dime during the most hectic week of his career to give us a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like reaching the pinnacle of college basketball: Read More »

For two teams that were ranked in a lot of people’s national Top 10 in the preseason, it still seems like an underdog story for West Virginia and Butler to have made it to the Final Four. It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, though, as the Mountaineers and Bulldogs have most of the elements required to succeed in March: Defense, experience, strong guard play, versatility, good coaching, and a couple of legit stars. And perhaps more importantly, both teams got hot at the right time. West Virginia’s win over Kentucky yesterday was their 10th in a row, while Butler’s win over Kansas State was their 24th in a row … Read More »

After going through the Midwest, South, and West regions, we’ll wrap up the NCAA Tournament Players to Watch with four from the East region:

ISHMAEL SMITH, Wake Forest, PG, Sr. These past four years must have felt like 10 for Smith. He came to Wake as the heir apparent to Chris Paul, but after leading the ACC in assists as a freshman — something CP3 never did in college — he and the program were rocked by the death of coach Skip Prosser. Read More »

Bulls/Magic was over the moment Derrick Rose crashed to the floor and sprained his left wrist. On a night when the Bulls were already playing without Joakim Noah (foot) and Luol Deng (calf), and Orlando has been smashing all non-contender squads during their now seven-game win streak, Chicago’s only chance would be if D-Rose went off like Shep in Above the Rim — or if Vinny Del Negro hopped in a Hot Tub Time Machine and brought Mike and Scottie back with him … Late in the first quarter, Rose went to the rack and threw his body into Dwight Howard, hurting himself when he tried to break the fall. The play was exactly like the one from last month when Dwight and Rose collided and Rose wound up with a hip injury. 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.

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 »