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 »

Winter Park (Fla.) High School point guard Austin Rivers is one of the best prep players, pound-for-pound, in the country. HighSchoolHoop.com ranks the 6-4 junior fifth overall in its national top 50. Rivers has been verbally committed to Florida for over a year, but this fall, decided to open things up and let Duke recruit him as well.

The younger son of Celtics coach Doc Rivers and younger brother of Indiana Hoosiers PG Jeremiah Rivers, Austin has agreed to give HSH and Dime exclusive access by chronicling his thoughts in a regular diary where he’ll update readers on everything from his personal life to his high school season to his thoughts on Duke and Florida. Here are some excerpts from his newest entry: Read More »

Tom Izzo has coached Michigan State to the Final Four five times since he arrived in East Lansing in 1995. This year, the Spartans certainly hope to eclipse last year’s National Championship runner-up performance, but will settle for a trip back to the Sweet 16. When the Spartans take the court today against Maryland, check out the NIKEiD Hyperdunks that they’ll be sporting. Read More »

You may have never heard of Dwaun Anderson before today. Don’t worry, neither had I. But the 6-3 junior guard from Suttons Bay (MI) High School is taking over the state of Michigan. Already with scholarship offers from Utah, Central Michigan and Oakland, Anderson has also drawn interest from Michigan State, Michigan and Dayton. And if you watch the video below, you can see why.

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Word of God Academy (Raleigh, N.C.) forward C.J. Leslie is a Top-10 prospect nationally. Previously committed to N.C. State, Leslie recently re-opened his recruiting and has opted to wait until the spring to decide on a college. That alone makes his one of the most intriguing stories in the 2010 senior class, and Leslie also happens to be one of its most exciting players. C.J. has agreed to give Dime and High School Hoop exclusive access in a regular diary about his season and the recruiting process as he inches closer to a decision. Here’s an excerpt from his latest entry: Read More »

Kelvin Torbert was, undeniably, The Man back in 2001. Coming out of Northwestern High School in Flint, Mich., the 6-4 shooting guard was named Sporting News and Gatorade National Player of the Year over future NBA classmates T.J. Ford, Dajuan Wagner, Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry and Kwame Brown. Torbert averaged 26 points and eight boards as a senior, then dropped 21 points in that year’s McDonald’s All-American Game.

At Michigan State, Torbert was naturally expected to continue the legacies of Magic Johnson, Steve Smith, Shawn Respert and the “Flintstones” — the four-man crew of Mateen Cleaves, Mo Peterson, Charlie Bell and Antonio Smith that hailed from the same hometown as Torbert. However, Torbert never delivered on that potential in college. Read More »

To start the preseason, Michigan State and Texas were No. 2 and No. 3 respectively in the polls. Everyone saw Michigan State fall short in the national championship game and many predicted they would return to cut down the nets in 2010. Texas’ combination of youth (Avery Bradley and J’Covan Brown) and experience (Dexter Pittman and Damion James) makes them a national championship contender.

MSU’s season hasn’t gone exactly as planned, having lost to both of their opponents from major conferences (UNC and Florida). The somewhat shaky start to Sparty’s season has created a little more room on the bandwagon. Meanwhile, Bevo’s wagon is completely full. After Texas defeated North Carolina 103-90 and proved they were an elite team, more and more basketball fans have yelled “hook ‘em horns.” Later tonight, we see a team on the rise (Texas) face off against a team on a slight decline (MSU) and it will be the best game of the season thus far. Read More »

With Kentucky plowing through everyone this season to a current No. 3 ranking in the country, and their trio of impact freshmen (John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe) playing beyond expectations, it got me thinking about past great UK games. One game in particular will always stand out in my memory: the 2005 Elite Eight, Kentucky vs. Michigan State. Read More »

Tonight the Big Ten/ACC Challenge presents a rematch of the 2009 National Championship between University of North Carolina and Michigan State. Interestingly this is the 2nd time this decade that the Big Ten/ACC challenge has offered a title rematch (in 2006 UNC faced off against the Illini of Illinois) but this matchup is widely considered to be a bigger deal since both teams were preseason top 5 and currently sit in the AP top 10. The hype surrounding the rematch got me wondering how the programs stack up against each other. Besides both schools producing one of the All Time Greats (MSU’s Magic Johnson, UNC’s Michael Jordan) comparing the two schools basketball pedigree heavily favors the Tar Heels. Unless you ask yourself which school had a better decade? Read More »

That’s right, the college hoops season is here and you know what that means: it’s time to unleash the mother effing fury! For the past seven months, I’ve been bottling up a vicious mixture of excitement and rage, just waiting for the moment to release my emotions onto the rest of the world. Well that time has come. Your boy Matty D is back to give you a look at the top teams in the country and to separate the champs from the chumps. Read More »