I’ve been to some good games at some great venues – Madison Square Garden for the NBA, CenturyLink Field in Seattle for the NFL, Busch Stadium in St. Louis for Major League Baseball – but I doubt there’s a better place to watch a big game than Assembly Hall at Indiana University.

The house that Bob Knight turned into NCAA hoops holy ground was the site of not only the best college basketball game of the season on Saturday, but maybe the best game of any sport in 2011. Sports Illustrated writer Seth Davis tweeted afterward that Indiana’s buzzer-beating upset of No. 1 Kentucky might have been the best regular-season game he’s ever seen. Read More »

On a night where history was in the air, fans from the South, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions flocked to the World’s Most Famous Arena to see four of the top teams in college basketball. As impressive as coach Mike Krzyzewski’s record breaking 903rd victory was, the night might have been overshadowed by the sheer dominance of the Kentucky Wildcats. I left Madison Square Garden last night dreaming about the potential of a Duke vs. Kentucky match-up. Read More »

Hidden between the lines of the most depressing sports stories of the week – Penn State’s cover-up scandal putting a dark cloud over college football, and the NBA lockout threatening to put pro basketball on indefinite hiatus – are two words that should cheer up anybody who frequents this site: “college” and “basketball.” Read More »

So after months and months of rambling back and forth, he reported she reported, and the owners and players doing a fair amount of snipping back and forth, it looks like we will have some type of resolution within the next four or five days. Whether it’s the resolution we want is another story. The negotiating is over, and for the players this is really the last realistic deal they will have a chance of signing before the entirety of this season goes bye bye. Some, like Danny Granger seem to think this offer will be rejected by the players. This whole thing comes down to this: the players know they’re getting a raw deal. They know it’ll be conceding defeat. But it’s this or nothing. Do they really want to lose a whole season? … Read More »

You know what would be amazing? If the player’s union and the owners could meet more than once every month. That’s what it feels like, and it doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon. Some were pushing to get a meeting together this week, preferably Friday, but alas it’s not going to happen. It’ll be September before they sit down at the negotiating table again. Meanwhile, we are all sitting back counting the days down until the normal start of the season. No matter what the situation is, we think they should figure out a way to meet at least once in a while. Is that too much to ask? When you’re studying for a test, a really big one, can you ace it if you’re only paying attention one day a week in class? Or if you only do homework when you feel like it? Unless you’re a genius, you might struggle. Read More »

Now that the Top 25 has come out, it is time to preview some of the best college teams in the 2010-11 season. The key to having a successful team is having the perfect blend of athleticism, fundamentals and chemistry. Last week, we broke down the No. 1 ranked Duke Blue Devils. This week’s profile will be on Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans. 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 »

Why will Michigan State win the national championship? As I sat down and thought about what to plug into the blank document in front of me, I really believed I could finish this post and still feel completely vindicated with a mere two words: Tom Izzo.

Izzo, in my opinion, is arguably the best coach in the nation — a tier accompanied by only a few other greats — and prepares his players like no other. Read More »

College basketball’s Decepticons are back. Duke is in the Final Four for the 11th time during Coach K‘s reign (and the first time since ’04), so if you’d been missing Krzyzewski’s scowl, the army of three-point bombers, the goofy big guys, the smug grins, the confident swagger, and Dick Vitale re-enacting an Extenze commercial with every TV cameo (“I’m bigger!”) you’re glad to see the program the rest of us love to hate back on the biggest stage … The Blue Devils trailed Baylor at halftime, as their turnovers led to transition buckets, and it looked like LaceDarius Dunn outside (22 pts) and Ekpe Udoh inside (18 pts, 10 rebs, 5 blks) might be able to carry the Bears to the win. Read More »