Last season’s UConn men’s basketball team had one of the craziest and rarest runs to an NCAA Championship that we’ve ever seen. 11 straight postseason wins eventually climaxed with a 53-46 win over Butler for the program’s third NCAA Championship. For such an incredible season, amazingly no one had covered the whole story: how they all got there, the expectations (or lack thereof) and the motivation. Until now. Read More »

It takes a full-time job, or a full-time class schedule, for one to truly appreciate a four-day weekend. And when those two extra days off come courtesy the Thanksgiving holiday, the full-time college basketball fan (or writer) goes into overtime mode.

Just about every D-I team in the country seemed to be playing in a holiday tournament this past weekend – from the balmy paradise of the Bahamas to the cold-ass bustle of New York City on Black Friday. When it was over, some top dogs were going home with their national-championship promise in doubt, while some underdogs returned to campus with brand-new hero status.

Here are the highlights and lowlights from the long weekend: Read More »

Our Saturday started off as perfectly as possible with news greeting us as our alarm clocks rang that a tentative labor agreement had been reached, and that the lockout was finally, if unofficially, over. For now, we can’t completely invest ourselves in a new season – scheduled to be 66 games, starting on Christmas day – but pretty much everyone agrees on one thing: this deal will get approved and will get done. Book it. So who won and who lost? With the cancellation of games, everyone loses: the fans, the owners and the players. But as far as the approved deal, many of the leading names on both sides came out of this looking as good as they could’ve under the current circumstances. Read More »

UCF didn’t want to talk Big East. They were also apparently sick of hearing about UConn’s 16-game winning streak as well. Whether they make the jump to the Big East soon or not, the Knights let their play do the talking: we deserve to be there. Down 17 with 16 minutes to go against the defending champs, a team that hadn’t lost a game in seemingly forever, and sporting probably the best backcourt in the country… none of it fazed UCF. Behind Marcus Jordan (yes, the son of MJ) and Keith Clanton (both dropped 20, Jordan added seven rebounds and assists), they stormed back and beat the No. 4-ranked Huskies 68-63. Read More »

UConn wasn’t about to let some team from UNC-Asheville steal their shine on Thanksgiving. The Huskies have now won 16 games in a row, and they can thank everyone they have a backcourt like Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier. Those two dominated once again as they both scored 23 points and Napier added seven assists. We’ve had many people – actually most of them have been UConn fans but still – tell us that UConn is just as good as UNC and Kentucky. Those two are considered the two biggest powers in the country by far, and in the public eye have all but wrapped up spots in the championship. Can UConn steal their glory? … Read More »

OK, college football, you got this one.

Responding to a week of college basketball that started strong with ESPN’s 24-hour tip-off marathon, then got scandalous with news of a potential catastrophe at Syracuse, the gridiron guys regained the spotlight with some Top-5 upsets and plenty of down-to-the-wire thrillers.

But even though college hoops took a comfortable backseat to the BCS, NFL and NASCAR, that doesn’t mean it was uneventful. Here are the best and worst of the weekend: 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 »

In the words of one of our more eloquent Twitter followers: “What the f— am I supposed to watch after the Super Bowl?” The season hasn’t exactly been canceled yet, but with the players rejecting the latest proposal from the owners and threatening to take them to court, the ugliness might’ve just started. David Stern promised that the next time the two sides do negotiate – whenever that’ll be – the owners will be discussing 47 percent BRI and no more, and yet the players still hit the owners with a backhanded slap. So now Stern is calling it a “nuclear winter,” the players are saying it’s a good move and everyone is all wrapped up in self-destruction. Read More »

While this might not be as good as Arizona’s intro video, the defending national champions do a pretty good job.

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*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 – the top 16 teams in the nation will be previewed individually in the next few weeks. After we broke down Big East giant Syracuse earlier today, we’ll keep this going with No. 4-ranked UConn (ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll).* Read More »