To say the Big East is pretty tough is like saying Wiz Khalifa smokes a little weed sometimes.

While the company line going into this college basketball season said the Big Ten was the strongest conference in the nation, the Big East has reclaimed its rightful place: At the moment, nine of the Big East’s 16 teams are ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, from No. 3 Syracuse to No. 25 Cincinnati. Read More »

Rick Pitino is college basketball royalty. A living legend. Which makes it hard to fathom that — while still actively coaching a strong program in the high-profile Big East conference, and only five years removed from his most recent Final Four appearance — Pitino could somehow be overshadowed in his own state.

And yet that is the case currently for Pitino, now in his 10th season at the University of Louisville. Read More »

As the NBA regular season approaches, we preview the upcoming campaign with the “Highs and Lows” system — predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team.

Added: Ramon Sessions, Joey Graham, Ryan Hollins, Christian Eyenga, Manny Harris, Samardo Samuels

Lost: LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Delonte West, Sebastian Telfair, Danny Green Read More »

With Summer League now officially over, NBA teams are beginning to hand out training camp invites. While first-round picks have guaranteed contracts, and second-round picks are almost always assured invites to training camp, the undrafted rookies who partook in Summer League now must wait for the phone to ring allowing them to creep another step closer to being on an NBA roster. Here are 10 undrafted rookies who will be suiting up for an NBA team this fall: Read More »

If Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo got the gold and silver medals from last night’s Celtics win, Big Baby Davis deserves the bronze.

The eight points on 4-of-13 shooting and seven rebounds hardly tells the whole story of how Davis impacted Game 2. When Boston’s offense began to struggle in the second half and the Lakers turned what had been a blowout into a nip-and-tuck ballgame, Big Baby was the sparkplug that kept Boston competitive until Rondo took over down the stretch. Read More »

From the moment Game 1 was in the books until the last 3-4 minutes of the fourth quarter of Game 2, it was shaping up to be one of those games the Spurs always win when they’re in danger of a deficit. But on those possessions where they usually hit daggers, Tony Parker and Tim Duncan bricked free throws. And on those possessions where they usually get defensive stops, Amar’e Stoudemire dominated the paint and Jason Richardson was slinging jumpers. Unable to make the plays they usually make late in big games, the Spurs fell behind 0-2 in the series as it heads to their gym … Read More »

Any speculation about how Boston would cope without Kevin Garnett in Game Two was silenced around the time they slapped a 21-0 run on Miami in the second quarter. By the time the C’s went on another 18-0 run in the third, it was just a matter of exactly how much the Heat could embarrass themselves. You know it’s bad when it’s still the third quarter and the announcers — whose job is to convince us NOT to turn away in a blowout — are clowning Erik Spoelstra for believing Miami could get the margin within 10 points … Read More »

Happy St. Patty’s Day to everyone out there! I figured today would be the perfect day to post my first assessment of this year’s Tournament field, and for three reasons: (1) because people will be drunk enough to actually read what I am about to write, (2) because when I don’t get enough comments I can blame it on you people being too drunk to type, and (3) because if any of what you’re about to read turns out to be completely wrong, I can blame it on myself being drunk. Which I’m not, or am I… Read More »

That’s right, the start of the college hoops season is just one week away 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 »

Conference tournaments haven’t yet wrapped up, and the NCAA Tournament Selection Show is still hours away, but I don’t have to wait for the seeding: Louisville is my pick to win the 2009 national championship. Read More »