We’re only a few days away from one of the best weekends in college basketball. With Louisville, Michigan, Wichita State and Syracuse set to go to battle this weekend, expect to hear a whole lot of Cinderella, zone defense and Trey Burke talk. It’s inevitable. Hopefully, the games live up to the billing. But in all likelihood, none of them will make this list. Read More »

Mike, know that The Mamba is coming for you next. In the second quarter of last night’s Lakers/Kings game Kobe Bryant drilled a pull-up mid-range jumper to score the 31,420th and 31,421st points of his career, pushing him past Wilt Chamberlain for fourth on the all-time scoring list. MJ is next at 32,292 … We don’t care if you love Kobe or hate Kobe, you just need to respect what he has done in his career. Read More »

Over the course of the past two months, we were spoiled by one of the greatest runs of dominance by any team in NBA history. As I’m sure all of you know, the Miami Heat’s streak of 27 consecutive wins ended on Wednesday night, as they fell to a shorthanded Bulls squad. Read More »

Let the Madness begin. The two most exciting days of the college basketball season are upon us, and we here at Dime are just as pumped as you are to see what will play out in the coming weeks. To get you primed for the first round, we’ve picked out some of the most intriguing matchups to look for on Thursday and Friday. Read More »

The jokes are easy to make, but the reality is another sad cautionary tale that gifts can be taken away as swiftly as they are realized.

Just two years ago as a 6-10, 270-pound freshman, Joshua Smith came to the UCLA Bruins as the key cog in a recruiting class that was meant to replenish the talent lost in recent years. Read More »

In one of those dreaded Saturday afternoon Atlantic Division games (seriously, who came up with these?), Boston turned a close game against Toronto into a rout during the second half of a 107-89 beatdown. Jason Terry, still starting in the Bean, went off for 20 points, and Rajon Rondo had a dozen assists just a few minutes into the second half. He’d end up with 20 in just 32 minutes, his streak of consecutive regular season games with double-digit assists now at 33. Is anyone in the league dominating a single statistical category like Rondo is assists? Read More »

It hasn’t been a good weekend for UCLA basketball. On Friday, the NCAA declared top recruit Shabazz Muhammad ineligible for financing on unofficial visits it said doesn’t add up. Tuesday night, the Bruins needed a UC Irvine player to miss two free throws in the final seconds of regulation just to force overtime, where UCLA won. Read More »

Midnight Madness is over, and with it went the smoke machines, dunk contests and laser shows that kick off the season. College basketball begins now, and while the excitement still remains it’s time to peel the hype back and see who the nation’s best truly are. That’s why Dime has you covered with individual previews of the nation’s top 15 teams and a few others just outside, all over the course of the next few weeks. Today, UCLA. Read More »

“That guy doesn’t know a thing about basketball,” Kevin Durant said of Skip Bayless prior to the Thunder facing the Grizzles on April 2.

SI’s Chris Mannix tweeted recently, “I like @RealSkipBayless, I’ve sat across the desk from him, but the suggestion that OKC is doomed w/Westbrook at point guard is ridiculous.”

As if Skip Bayless doesn’t have enough cats on his hit list, Russell Westbrook is the latest player to feel the hate. He has nicknamed him “Russell Westbrick.” Bayless doesn’t like that he takes too many shots, isn’t a pure point guard, and doesn’t defer to Durant in crunch time. Last season’s playoff performance by Westbrook fueled the media fire against him, but Bayless continually condemns his play and expects he’ll be the Thunder’s cause to their ultimate playoff demise this season. Read More »

Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul. What do these guys have in common? Besides sharing the spotlight for hoops royalty in the basketball city that is Los Angeles, Black Mamba and CP3 possess the same unrelenting will to be the best at the expense of anyone in order to project the ultimate trait every team needs to succeed: an assassin. Read More »