Each Wednesday, we’ll be assessing how the top prospects of the 2013 NBA Draft are faring in college and overseas. Stick with us each week for assorted thoughts, including the biggest risers and fallers, the standouts, the sleepers and what we know and don’t know about the next NBA Draft class… Read More »

In April, the Mavs might look back and admit this was the night their season died. Up 21, they blew the lead and then lost after a flurry of insanity doomed them. First, Nic Batum made a completely ridiculous three-pointer to tie it up (dude hadn’t made anything all night). Read More »

The NBA All-Star Game is a showcase normally reserved for the great players who actually win games, and yet we haven’t heard one complaint about how Jrue Holiday is going to Houston next month. He’s been so good this season (remember, this cat is still only 22 years old) that everyone forgets his team kind of sucks. In a 17-point beating of New York, Holiday had 31 points at the end of the third quarter, finishing with a career-high 35. Read More »

Apparently, there is nothing that N.C. State’s C.J. Leslie can’t do. Not only was he a monster in his team’s 84-76 upset victory over No. 1 Duke yesterday (racking up 25 points in the process), but he also saved the life of a wheelchair-bound fan who stormed the court as the final buzzer sounded. Read More »

It’s a new day in Washington, D.C. They finally have a real basketball team. In last night’s 93-83 win over Atlanta, John Wall played for the first time this season to a standing ovation. Then he went out and put in 14 points and four dimes in 20 minutes off the pine. He was also a catalyst in the game’s biggest stretch. With both teams in a daze to start the fourth, Wall came in and had back-to-back double-pump buckets in the lane that woke the Wizards up. Read More »

Losing sucks. It is just that simple. Nobody puts on a jersey, laces up their shoes and checks into the game because they want to lose. It doesn’t happen, and while losing is something nobody likes, it is even harder to take for somebody who is used to winning. For North Carolina State senior forward Richard Howell, that pretty much summed up his first two years in Raleigh. 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 »

Five NCAA teams that got my attention this past weekend for various reasons:

1. Michigan State (7-3) Considering the Detroit Pistons’ fall from NBA grace and Michigan State’s rise to NCAA elite, I’m not sure if Saturday’s doubleheader at The Palace of Auburn Hills was meant to showcase Pistons/Raptors as the main event or the undercard. Before the Pistons blew a 25-point lead and lost their game, the Spartans barely hung on to beat unranked Oakland. Read More »

Word of God Academy (Raleigh, N.C.) forward C.J. Leslie is a Top-10 prospect nationally. Previously committed to N.C. State, Leslie 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 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. For his latest entry, C.J. has brought in fellow Class of 2010 star Ryan Harrow to help him out. Here’s an excerpt: Read More »