Basketball Page 842 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Bol Bol Can Apparently Shoot Threes Now, Which Seems Unfair
At this point in basketball history, the idea of a big man shooting three-pointers would shock only the most neolithic 1990s basketball-purist weirdo. The simple fact that three is more than two has radically rearranged the court to prioritize space above all else, and that has upended old norms to...

The Most Successful College Hoops Coach In North America Just Wants Duke To Stop Ducking Him
Dave Smart is not just any college basketball coach. Smart is a defensive guru, a legend in the sport, to whom Division I’s top coaches regularly make pilgrimages to learn at his feet. The only reason you haven’t heard of him is that those pilgrimages are to the outskirts of Ottawa, where Smart runs...

College Basketball's New Ranking Metric Is Already Just As Weird As RPI
Before this season, the NCAA announced that they were killing RPI—the long-maligned metric for determining who should make the NCAA Tournament—and replacing it with a new metric called NET. The move, on its face, was a good one: RPI was a terrible ranking system that only factored in winning percen...

In Shocking Betrayal, Penn Basketball Ditches Cheesesteaks For Fish Burritos
The Penn men’s basketball team is 5-2 so far this year; freshman Michael Wang has been particularly impressive. Their losses are to Kansas State and Oregon State. The only blip this season so far is losing Ryan Betley for the season five minutes into the opening game. (Penn rallied to win at George ...

How Good Is Michigan?
An early shock in the young college basketball season happened just outside of Philadelphia last night, as the Michigan Wolverines went to Villanova and absolutely crushed the defending national champions, winning 73-46 in a rematch of last April’s title game. It’s extremely early in the year, and b...

The Real Story Behind The Lewd Video And Bitter Feud That Tore Apart GW's Athletic Department
George Washington’s men’s basketball team started its 2018–2019 season with two ugly home losses. First, the Colonials blew a 22-point lead to Stony Brook, then they came back two nights later and got rolled by Siena. Neither squad would have been expected to beat a GW team just two years removed f...

Zion Williamson Wins His Latest Battle Against Gravity<em></em>
In their first game since becoming the new No. 1-ranked team in the country, Duke wasted no time showing that their new position atop the world of college basketball was well-earned. The Blue Devils asserted their dominance the only way they knew how: an obscenely impressive highlight from the high-...
![D-III Basketball Player Hits Opponent With Brutal Elbow Cheap Shot [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/jxlzapqhss17g6l4sdgi.jpg)
D-III Basketball Player Hits Opponent With Brutal Elbow Cheap Shot [Update]
The Fitchburg State Falcons’ Kewan Platt, who was recently honored as MASCAC men’s basketball player of the week, put up 16 points, five rebounds, and four blocks in the school’s 84-75 loss to the Nichols College Bison. He also landed this disgusting elbow strike right to the face of Nichols’ Nate T...

Patrick Ewing Said "Nuts" On National TV And Giggled
The mighty Georgetown Hoyas downed Illinois in an 88-80 thriller last night to improve to 3-0 in the season. Second-year head coach Patrick Ewing praised the team in his post-game interview, calling out freshman James Akinjo for showing some “nuts,” before catching himself and revising his statement...

Zion Williamson Spent Veterans Day Disrespecting The Troops
Veterans Day is a holiday meant to honor the veterans of this nation’s armed forces and the sacrifices they make. However, when entering the paint against Zion Williamson, this holiday gets brought to a momentary halt—you need to get that weak shit out of here, regardless of your status in the armed...

Furman Defeats Loyola-Chicago On Game-Winning Baptism
Loyola-Chicago might have began the night celebrating their Cinderella run to the Final Four in last season’s national tournament, but it was the Ramblers who were on the wrong end of a surprise upset on Friday. ...

The WNBA Players Union Is Headed Towards Labor War, But Its Leader Is Nowhere To Be Found<em></em>
Back in July, at the WNBA All-Star weekend in Minneapolis, a league official sidled up to me and asked me a question. Did I know how much money the WNBA had lost last season?...

Zion Williamson Lived Up To The Hype
Last night, after what feels like decades of consuming Zion Williamson’s high school highlights and watching a few instances of him beating up on hapless Canadians, we finally got to see what the freshman can do against real D-I competition. What he can do is really fuck some people up....

North Alabama Shocks Vanderbilt To Win Their First-Ever D-I Game
In one of the most surprising upsets that could possibly happen this Tuesday evening, North Alabama’s women’s basketball team defeated Vanderbilt 74-71 in the program’s first-ever Division I game....

UMBC Raises The Only Good Banner
UMBC men’s basketball became one of the few programs that got to lift multiple banners to commemorate the previous season’s accomplishments on Friday. The first celebrated the Retrievers’ America East Championship. The second was just another reminder that they were the first No. 16 seed to knock ou...

Bol Bol Is Almost Here
Bol Bol is not your average 7-foot-2 basketball player. He is not awkward, not stiff, not gangly. He does not succeed solely on his height—though it certainly helps. He is mobile, and he is athletic, and he is offensive-minded. Physically, his body can’t help but remind you of his famous father. But...

Kristi Toliver Becomes First Active WNBA Player To Join NBA Coaching Staff
The Washington Wizards announced Tuesday that Washington Mystics guard Kristi Toliver would join the team’s staff as an assistant coach for player development....

Report: Kevin Ollie Hit With Unethical Conduct Charges From The NCAA
Six months after being fired as the head coach for the UConn men’s basketball team, Kevin Ollie was handed an unethical conduct charge, among other violations, by the NCAA which could lead to a major show-cause penalty, according to a report from Myron Medcalf of ESPN. ...

Shaq's Large Teenage Son Will Miss Freshman Year At UCLA Due To Heart Surgery
Well, here’s some rotten news: Shareef O’Neal, the hooping son of Shaquille O’Neal, will be forced to medical redshirt his freshman season at UCLA after doctors reportedly discovered a heart ailment during an otherwise routine checkup....

Wayde Sims, 20-Year-Old LSU Forward, Shot And Killed Near Southern University Campus
LSU junior forward Wayde Sims was shot near a neighboring university’s campus early Friday morning. The 20-year-old was taken to a local hospital where he died of his injuries, according to Baton Rouge Police....