New Mexico, move over. You have company. As bad as our brackets were screwed by Harvard on Thursday (and two people in the Dime clan had the Lobos going to at least the Final Four), the Hoyas might’ve done even more damage … Read More »

Every year, the NCAA Tournament brings with it expected outcomes… and not so expected ones (sorry to anyone who picked New Mexico to go to the Final Four. *Gulp* Me…). But we always know Georgetown, UNC and Cal are going to get laced with some ridiculous heat from Jordan Brand. This year is no exception. Read More »

With New York mourning the 16th anniversary (are we really that old?) of the death of Biggie Smalls yesterday, the Knicks gave the city something to celebrate. But fittingly, on this day, they also announced another injury to a major star, one that might murder the rest of his season … J.R. Smith had 24 points, and Steve Novak added another 20 off the pine in New York’s 29-point dismantling of Utah, a game that was never close after the first quarter. Read More »

Without drama, how can you even get excited? That’s how we felt watching the Heat roll over Philly last night, doing it so effortlessly in the second half that not even Andrew Bynum‘s new haircut could get us going. In the Heat’s 114-90 win, the third quarter wasn’t even fair. Miami hit the hosts with a 15-3 run, and had LeBron (16 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists) and Dwyane Wade (33 points) rolling: making the extra pass, hitting from midrange, the entire offense flowed like water. Read More »

Are you ready for the college season to begin? We’ve been running team-by-team breakdowns of the top squads for much of the past two weeks to get you prepared, and now courtesy of Jordan Brand, here’s a look at specially designed Super.Flys for both Georgetown and Marquette. Read More »

Kentucky fans are excited at the possibility of Nerlens Noel and Shabazz Muhammad teaming up and playing together in Rupp Arena next year. Noel and Muhammad will announce their college decisions on ESPNU at 7:30 tonight. Speculation for the past weeks has been that the two could be next year’s version of Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. It is far from a done deal yet, but will college basketball fans want to see it happen? Read More »

In my bracket, I had Kentucky and UNC. The two best teams, I figured, should meet again to determine the 2012 championship. Then Kendall Marshall was taken out in the air by a lumbering big man in the round of 32, and everything was turned on its head. Kentucky might look like runaway favorites tonight with a top six that could probably play with any core group of any college team in the past 20 years. But we’ve seen upsets before. In college basketball, sometimes talent can be trumped by experience, and Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson have a history together. It’s not likely they’ll lead Kansas to yet another championship upset over John Calipari. But it’s not out of the question either. Read More »

The Clippers haven’t been right for a while. Since they lost Chauncey Billups to his devastating injury, they’ve actually been below .500, much closer to the older Clippers than the team that was supposed to snatch Hollywood from their bigger brother. Luckily, they have Chris Paul. Three or four times this year, he’s bailed them out. He did it again in overtime of their 87-83 win over the Pistons. He started off the extra frame with two swagger-filled long jumpers, and then made the shot that broke Detroit’s back with 22 seconds left. Read More »

It makes sense, given its roots in the ivory towers of higher education, but no sport attracts volunteer experts quite like college basketball. Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NFL may have embraced new math, but college hoops has its own science: That thing we call Bracketology.

And in almost every interview I’ve heard and column I’ve read from these experts this season, one question has been consistently asked and answered: “Who is the next VCU?” Read More »

Now that we know the brackets and who will be playing where, the real fun begins. Anyone can fill out a bracket with four No. 1 seeds cutting down the nets and making the Final Four. But what fun is that? And more appropriately, how often does that even happen? There will be upsets and inevitably, a mid-level team will get hot. Take a look at LSU in 2006 (as a No. 4 seed) or Alabama in 2004 (as a No. 8 seed). Read More »