Understand that six days out of seven, I’d rather watch college basketball than the NBA; that I’ve been a Georgetown fan since I was a kid; and as a West Coast native, I’m both loyal and defensive when it comes to the Pac-10.

Also understand that I’m far from an expert at the X’s and O’s of basketball. I don’t run plays on NBA 2K10, and I would never coach at any level beyond the littlest of Little League. The kids deserve better.

That said, even I found myself wondering W-exactly-TF Ben Howland was doing in the latter stages of UCLA’s loss to Cal State-Fullerton last night. Read More »

Harrison Barnes is the best high school ballplayer in the country. While navigating through the hectic recruiting process such a title entails, the 6-6 wing from Ames, Iowa, agreed to chronicle his thoughts for us during each of his five official visits. After North Carolina, Oklahoma, Kansas and Duke, Barnes recaps his trip to UCLA last weekend. Here are a couple excerpts: Read More »

When we posted about our intern search, we heard from all sorts of people. But one person that stood out from the pack was Lucas Shapiro. An avid Dime reader and basketball fanatic who even has his own NBA blog, while Lucas would love to intern, he is only 16 years old and lives in Boston. Last week the young buck put the rest of the world on to Virginia’s Sylven Landesberg. Back by popular demand, here are two sophomores ready to lead. Read More »

The NY Times has an article today called “Timeout Tactics Include Seating and Setting” that breaks down the science behind how and where some top college coaches seat their players during timeout huddles. I’m sure you’ve noticed that every team’s timeouts look different - bench, no bench, stools, etc. - but there is apparently real, detailed strategy behind the way players are situated. And it’s as much about girls as it is about game-planning. Read More »

VILLANOVA 89, UCLA 69 Back in October, I interviewed Villanova PG Scottie Reynolds for Dime’s college basketball preview. “I have to make sure everybody is on task and has the right mindset,” Reynolds said then, “that we’re gonna play Villanova basketball for 40 minutes.” Read More »

As our March Madness live-blogger put it at the beginning of Dime’s all-out Big Dance coverage, Thursday was one of the few “guy days” of the calendar year — like the Super Bowl, only since it starts in the middle of the workday, you’ve got people sneaking TV’s into the office, hitting the “Boss Button” on their monitors and stashing live-streaming iPhones in desk drawers. Pound-for-pound, is there a better sports day out there? We doubt it … The game of the day had to be UCLA’s win over Virginia Commonwealth. Read More »

Whether it’s Dick Vitale’s hoarse screaming or Bruiser Flint reading it off some intern’s notes, every college basketball analyst will tell you that backcourt play is beyond critical in the Tournament; especially point guard play. Like I said in picking Louisville senior PG Andre McGee (and backup Edgar Sosa) to lead the Cardinals to a national ‘chip, each of this decade’s title-winning teams had, without exception, good to great point guards. Read More »