leitch-old Page 229 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Creighton Blue Jays
1. The original Huggy Bear. Before Bob Huggins (and Tom Asbury and Jim Wooldridge), there was Dana Altman. In four years at K-State, Altman led the Wildcats to three postseason tournaments (including the Big Dance in 1993) and won a Big Eight Coach of the Year award. Since taking over at Creighton i...
Arizona Wildcats
1. Stretch Marks. The 2006-2007 season has resembled that of a young Alpha Phi freshman, heading to Tucson after a long summer of working out and tanning in the sun. Sure, she looks great when college begins, but five months of drinking any possible liquid (Everclear, YUMMY!) and ordering Domino's o...
Davidson Wildcats
1. OK, let's get it straight now — Steph-en. If you pay attention to this team over the next week, you'll hear a lot about Stephen Curry, who pronounces his name as if it were spelled, "Steffen," not how most people named Stephen say their name. Not a big deal, except it touched off a (very) mini-co...
UNLV Runnin' Rebels
1. Viva Las Vegas, baby. Where else can you see pregame introductions featuring fireworks and flames shooting out of the shot clock as players come out on a red carpet? The band plays "Viva Las Vegas" leading into the infamous Reeeee-bels chant, members of the dance team make showgirls look like dog...
USC Trojans
1. This is Hollywood after all. The Trojans play on Jim Sterkel Court at the new Galen Center. Who's Jim Sterkel? Some guy who played for two seasons at 'SC in the '50s and averaged fewer than 10 points a game. So who decided to name it after him? Only the university knows: The $5-million donation f...
Villanova Wildcats
1. Kelvin Sampson for Mayor. Members of 'Nova Nation' will line up to shake the hand of Kelvin "Urban Meyer's just swimming in my texting wake" Sampson, former coach of Oklahoma, for jumping ship to Indiana. Seems that Scottie Reynolds, who played his high school ball in Herndon, Virg., had spurned ...
New Mexico State Aggies
1. Their Coach Is Not In A Wheelchair. After years of coaching at Illinois, coach Lou Henson retired after the 1995-96 season, to much fanfare. (He even shook hands with Bobby Knight, the big bully.) But he ended up taking only one year off before returning to New Mexico State, where he had taken th...
Wisconsin Badgers
1. Old School Quickies. Bucky Badger's full name is Buckingham U. Badger. Is Minnesota's Golden Gopher that sophisticated? I doubt it. The Badger mascot actually stems from when the territory was dubbed "The Badger State," not because of animals in the region, but rather an association with miners i...
Louisville Cardinals
1. Time to make the donuts. The Cardinals' late-season turnaround is due in large part to the emergence of Louisville's talented freshman class, including center Derrick Caracter. DC, who has footwork that Greg Oden would kill for, has gotten his act together after serving a pair of suspensions this...
Butler Bulldogs
1. A.J. Graves lays more pipe than you do. Butler's 6-1, 155 lb. Emo-bang wearing A.J. Graves lays pipe all summer long at his family's plumbing business in Switz City, Indiana. A.J. was all-state at White River Valley H.S. in 2004 and finished two votes behind North Central's A.J. Ratliff in voting...
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles
1. So, Then, Why The Hell Are You At Oral Roberts? The Golden Eagles, in the tournament for the second year in a row, are defined by their star player, Caleb Green. He's a 6-8 forward who has won the Mid-Continent player of the year award three years in a row, which I guarantee will never happen aga...
Maryland Terrapins
1.We Burn Couches Better Than You. We Burn Couches....YES we do! Maryland has a history of causing town riots up and down Route 1 in College Park after meaningful victories (and losses). The most famous was in 2002, with 18 arrests, $10,000 worth of damage and eight trips to the hospital after the N...
Memphis Tigers
Memo to all television announcers and sportswriters: Now that we're back around to tourney time, and the Memphis Tigers are a good bet for a high seed, it's highly likely at some point over the next month that you'll find yourself writing or talking about Memphis. You will be tempted to make all kin...
Jackson State Tigers
1. Sweetness. Jackson's State's most famous graduate is, of course, the great Walter Payton. It is a little known fact that his brother, Eddie Payton, is the head golf coach of the Tigers and has built them into a powerhouse in the golf crazy SWAC....
Texas Longhorns
1. Kevin Durant. The lanky six-foot-nine freshman phenom is averaging 25 points and 11 rebounds a game and has led this team of toddlers— the No. 15 Longhorns started the season with four fish and a sophomore— to its eighth consecutive 20-win season. In their Feb. 28 double-overtime victory over the...
Washington State Cougars
1. Worst to, well, second. Without question, Washington State was the single most surprising team in a BCS conference this year. Coming off a last-place finish last season, and with Tony Bennett taking over as a first-time head coach from his father, Dick Bennett, the media picked Washington State a...
Gonzaga Bulldogs
1. Almost Howland. Twenty five years before his actions forced the residents of Spokane to explain why open sobbing by the leading scorer in college basketball is a perfectly normal reaction to a semi-realistic opportunity to win a NCAA tournament game, UCLA coach Ben Howland actually received his f...
Winthrop Eagles
1. Some Winthrop Firsts. 1886: Winthrop first opens its doors. 1972: Winthrop goes co-ed and allows its first males to enroll. August 20, 1977, 10:00 am: Freshman, and future actress Andie MacDowell first steps foot on campus. August 20, 1977, 10:01 am: The few pioneering men who broke the gender ba...
Eastern Kentucky Colonels
1. Robert E. Lee's spirit is on their side. Eastern Kentucky University is located in Richmond, Kentucky, site of the Civil War Battle of Richmond. The Battle of Richmond holds the distinction of being the most decisive victory of the war by the Confederate Army over the Union's forces, with the Uni...
Florida Gators
1. Joakim Noah has a MILF. To oversimplify, there are three types of hot college sports groupie. There are The TV Fame-Whores (ex. J. Sterger). There are The Celebrities. (ex. A. Judd) And then there is that rarest (and loveliest) of sightings: The MILF. Last March, Joakim Noah's mom, Cecilia Rodhe,...