One of the biggest sports weekends of the year may have left us with more questions than it answered. On the college football gridiron, the weekend really kicked off on Thursday night, as LSU showed the nation why they may have the best defense in the league and made Mississippi State look like a junior varsity team. On Saturday night, a relevant Florida State team played its version of the national championship game, as Oklahoma came into Doak Campbell Stadium and handed them a nail-biting loss. And of course the other major story in college sports this weekend was the departure of Pitt and Syracuse from Big East. Read More »

As the NCAA Tournament field was announced, we wanted hit you with some initial thoughts on the seedings and matchups. We will have a lot more content coming your way in terms of previews, features and more in-depth analysis, but this is what struck me off the bat. Let us know what you think and stay tuned for more…

- The four No. 1 seeds make total sense: Ohio State (No. 1 overall seed), Kansas, Pitt, and Duke. After watching all of these teams one after another this past week, it seems absurd to think of the other potential high seeds, specifically Notre Dame or San Diego State, as being among the top 4. The only legit case would have been North Carolina. They split the first two games with Duke and won the ACC regular season, but after getting cracked this afternoon, they more than took themselves out of the equation. Read More »

So how many of y’all want to stand up, cuff your palms around your mouth and scream, “I told you so!” That’s what Charles Barkley is doing right now. After countless late-game fumbles, Miami finally smartened up and gave Dwyane Wade the ball down the stretch last night. Wade then went out and beat the champs from L.A. with a number of key plays in the Heat’s 94-88 win … In the TNT studios during pre-game, Chuck was all over Wade and LeBron James to man up. Wade (20 points) got the message and clearly got the better of Kobe Bryant (24 points) down the stretch. Dwyane had three straight buckets late to push Miami ahead and then later ripped Bryant in an iso situation, leading to a James (19 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists) spike dunk. On the other side, could Bryant have played any worse in crunch time? Yes, he hit a couple of long threes, but he was turning it over, forgetting about his teammates and generally playing like a 2004 Kobe, minus the athleticism. Not cool. And someone needs to explain why Kobe and the Lakers forgot about their big guys again. Read More »

Pat Cavanaugh knows all about being successful on and off the court. As a student-athlete, he was a key member of some of the greatest basketball triumphs in the history of the storied program of the University of Pittsburgh, playing alongside all-time greats like Charles Smith and Jerome Lane. As a businessman, he has built a series of brands revolving around healthy lifestyle and social responsibility. The latest and biggest is Crons, an athletic lifestyle brand that incorporates quality living, successful academics and great gear into one program for young people in any sport and of all ages. Read More »

Everywhere that college basketball is loved and respected just went crazy watching the end of that great UConn/Pitt Big East Tournament game. With the game tied at 74 with 15 seconds to go in the game, UConn inbounded the ball to Kemba Walker out of a timeout. On a defensive switch off a high screen, Walker looked up to find 6-11 Gary McGhee guarding him. Kemba, Gary and the packed Madison Square Garden arena all knew what was about to come next.

Kemba Walker did not disappoint.

CBSSports.com’s Matt Norlander was there and captured this video of the final possession from his courtside seat. This is awesome: Read More »

It’s not that I didn’t expect DeJuan Blair to throw his name into the ’09 Draft. I just didn’t expect him to leave it there so soon, immediately hiring an agent and not even allowing himself the option to go back to school. In the early stages of the early-declaration period, Blair’s move has been the boldest so far. Read More »

Are we seeing the early stages of a new, more mature Gilbert Arenas? The other day he announced his “retirement” from blogging, and instead of gunning for 40 in his season debut last night, Gil was clearly making an effort to pass the rock and get other guys their looks. Read More »

A couple of themes dominated last night’s NCAA tourney Sweet 16 games: Defense and Onions. First you had UConn defensive stalwart Hasheem Thabeet putting together his first dominant game of the tourney (15 pts, 15 rebs, 4 blks) to push the Huskies past Purdue. Then Villanova slapped a stifling total team defensive effort on Duke, ball-pressure and denial for which Coach K‘s boys seemed totally unprepared. And then Missouri’s new-school “40 Minutes of Hell” paved the way for them to get past Memphis … As for the onions? Look no further than Levance Fields. Read More »

Thank God for the great Americans at COED Magazine. Someone had to put together photo galleries of the cheerleaders from every school in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16, and they stepped up to the plate. Read More »

While No. 1 seeds UConn and North Carolina had little trouble getting through the first two rounds of the tourney and into the Sweet Sixteen, Louisville and Pitt haven’t looked nearly as strong. Yesterday, Pitt was tied with Oklahoma State around the 2:30 mark of the second half, struggling again to put away a lesser-talented team before Levance Fields took over. Read More »