The West Region is the cause for millions of brackets being busted. With No. 1 seed Gonzaga, No. 3 seed New Mexico and No. 4 Kansas State all eliminated, Ohio State is the only team that has held its seeding and reached the Sweet Sixteen. If the referees didn’t blow the block/charge call late against Iowa State, it is likely that Ohio State would be done for the season. Read More »

In my bracket, I had Kentucky and UNC. The two best teams, I figured, should meet again to determine the 2012 championship. Then Kendall Marshall was taken out in the air by a lumbering big man in the round of 32, and everything was turned on its head. Kentucky might look like runaway favorites tonight with a top six that could probably play with any core group of any college team in the past 20 years. But we’ve seen upsets before. In college basketball, sometimes talent can be trumped by experience, and Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson have a history together. It’s not likely they’ll lead Kansas to yet another championship upset over John Calipari. But it’s not out of the question either. Read More »

Long and surprising NCAA Tournament runs can make you a legend. Miles Simon‘s play in 1997 definitely helped cement his legacy in Arizona. While leading his No. 4-seeded Wildcats to an NCAA Championship, doing it by becoming the only team to ever beat three top seeds in the same tournament, Simon was named the Most Outstanding Player. The one-man performance still resonates 15 years later. Read More »

Dime will be in the building all week for the 2012 Pac-12 basketball tournament to drop some knowledge on you about multiple, epic fails of NCAA Tournament hopes and Ernie Kent’s drink of choice.

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Now they’ve really done it. If you had asked me before the Pac-12 Tournament to make some predictions, I wouldn’t have guessed any of the following. Read More »

In a presentation hybridizing performance, art and sustainability, Nike released a new series of its Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms this morning, making another move in the advancement of style meeting sport. The nine teams featured will each wear the jerseys once this season, against non-Nike opponents nonetheless. Read More »

Shabazz Muhammad certainly knows how to leave a lasting impression.

With about 30 seconds left in Bishop Gorman’s 73-65 victory over No. 5 Dematha at the Hoophall Classic on Monday, the No. 1 player in the Class of 2012 punctuated a 37-point performance with a sensational windmill dunk, later named No. 3 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays. Even Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, sitting two seats down from Kentucky counterpart John Calipari on the baseline, raised an eyebrow. Read More »

We sort of called this. Duke lives and dies by the three. They did again last night. Tyler Thornton, the last guy you might expect to take a big shot – maybe the last guy you’d even expect to be in the game – hit not one but two huge threes in the final moments against Kansas. The second one was an end-of-the-shot-clock heave from nearly out of bounds that you just knew was going in the moment he released it. Combine those shots with a three from Andre Dawkins, and Kansas – who played them even all the way – couldn’t finish it off and lost 68-61. Read More »

What we got on Friday night in MSG was a tale of two oddly similar yet completely different teams. Arizona has the hype, and the high ranking. They came in at 4-0 but still playing a little bit over their heads, a good team that appeared to be playing better than they actually were. On the other side was Mississippi State with enough talent that most experts see them as one of the most dangerous unranked teams in the country. Despite that, they started the year somewhat unassumingly. So if you told us pregame that the Bulldogs would finish with a flurry and take over the game late to win by 10, grabbing the 2K Sports Classic, we wouldn’t have been surprised. Read More »

Besides having an insanely fine wife, Steve Lavin is doing a phenomenal job at St. John’s. Coming into their matchup with Arizona last night, they were 3-0, full of life and full of potential. In a few of their wins so far, they’ve already stormed back from big deficits, letting their defense and athleticism do the talking, and with fifteen minutes left (down seven), it looked like it might happen again. They raced back, overwhelmed ‘Zona in pretty much every way possible and retook the lead. The ‘Cats didn’t have any standout performances, but they got solid games from a number of players, including Solomon Hill (15 points, six rebounds) and when they found their stroke at the end, they just had too much, winning 81-72. Read More »

With the college basketball season underway, the Championship Rounds of the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer begin on Nov. 17 at Madison Square Garden with Texas A&M meeting Mississippi State at 7 p.m. and Arizona facing St. John’s at 9 p.m. Why should you care? Let us tell you: Read More »