The first month of the college hoops season has already had enough defining moments to warrant the Luther Vandross treatment.

There was the poignant high of Coach K surpassing his mentor Bob Knight as the all-time leader in NCAA D-I coaching wins; the gut-wrenching (and ongoing) low of Syracuse assistant Bernie Fine throwing his program into scandal; the inspiring comeback stories of Arizona forward Kevin Parrom and Kansas forward Thomas Robinson; made-for-March upsets like UNLV over North Carolina, Presbyterian over Cincinnati, and Central Florida over UConn; and big-time matchups like Ohio State vs. Duke, Kentucky vs. Kansas, and Syracuse vs. Florida that were dipped in Tournament atmosphere.

This past weekend, though, gave us the most thrilling game, the highest display of talent, and the most grand exhibition of the best of college basketball, all wrapped in one 40-minute showcase in Lexington, Ky. Here is that game, plus the rest of the best and worst of the weekend: Read More »

Matt Barnes is a little crazy, but Laker fans are hoping he’s not lying. While working out Friday in El Segundo, Barnes was asked about all the rumors going around and whether he listened to any of them. He doesn’t, unless they are dealing with his own team. But this rumor does, and it’s a pretty big one. So it wasn’t surprising Barnes was asked, and then spoke on it. His answer was a little more revealing than everyone expected: “You know, I’ve been hearing [rumors about] Dwight. I’ve been hearing [rumors about] Baron [Davis in the event of getting amnestied]. I’ve been hearing stuff a lot lately. I’ve talked to both of those guys and they wanna be here, so we’ll see what happens.” Read More »

Did you hear the Magic brass isn’t too smart? That’s what it feels like. Since none of us are a part of Orlando’s organization, we can sit here and talk about “Well, they might as well trade Dwight Howard now and get the most for him. They can’t let him leave for nothing.” We can call for the GM, Otis Smith, to start reaching out to everyone, mainly the Nets and the Lakers, to figure something out. But if we were Smith, we definitely wouldn’t have said what he did yesterday. In an interview with Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel, Smith said about the Howard trade rumors: “I think you have to look at everything. I don’t think you can take anything out of consideration.” Read More »

Is it UNC’s fault they are just too good? We see them beat Mississippi Valley State 101-75, and all the critics want to do is point out their terrible outside shooting (5-19) and bad numbers from the free-throw line (16-31). Someone like Brent Arrington drops 33 on them (in 18 shots), and we’re complaining, saying they really aren’t that good. The fact is they did what they had to, and they also still have some pretty good talent. John Henson went for 18 and 14 while Harrison Barnes added 18 of his own … 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 »

You know big expectations are in store when you win by 16 points and yet the opposing crowd is still chanting overrated. But that’s just how it’s going to be all season for North Carolina. UNC Asheville isn’t much competition, no matter what Tyler Zeller (27 points) tried to say after the game was over. North Carolina did the same thing on Sunday that they did against Michigan State: play well enough to take control, and go on cruise control the rest of the way. Honestly, this team is so loaded with star power that they can get away with it. Yesterday, it wasn’t just Zeller but all of the big guns. Harrison Barnes dropped another cool 17 points, but was still out-shined by Kendall Marshall (15 assists) and John Henson (20 points, 12 rebounds). It is still early, but do you think they are at all overrated? … 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 »

*College basketball is here (unlike the NBA), and this year might be one of the best in recent memory. The powerhouse is back, while the Cinderellas believe. That’s a deadly combination. We know some of y’all have been asking for some previews. We have you covered – we’ve previewed each of the top 16 teams in the country. Today is the final one. After we broke down contenders Ohio State and Kentucky yesterday, we’ll finish this off with the best team in the country, No. 1-ranked UNC (ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll).* Read More »

What’s the difference between 82 and 78? Four. In the grand scheme of most things, that’s not a whole lot, especially if we’re talking NBA games. An 82-game schedule pretty much went out the window after last week, but the NY Post is saying if a deal is finalized sometime this week, we could be looking at a 78-game affair. We’ll take it. They’re saying it has to be an even number of games, and that David Stern is willing to push the season back enough to fit in as many games as possible, maybe even push a possible NBA Finals Game 7 to just a few days before the draft. That might affect the way the games are played, but for us it just means more basketball packed into a shorter time. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing … Read More »

After last week’s NBA Draft, you are probably left wanting more, right? Well, with the NBA Summer League cancelled and the lockout looming, the next best thing we can analyze is the 2012 NBA Draft. With that, here is a list of the top 15 prospects that will hear their names called by David Stern next year. Read More »