Basketball Page 887 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The VCU Band Director Is Just As Buoyant In The Wild As He Is At The Games
A dedicated Deadspin reader, known around here as Malik Sealy Dirt Mattress, made it to San Antonio this weekend to see the finale to the Southwest Regional. Out on Saturday night, he and a friend spotted somewhat known-person Ryan Kopacsi, the gyrating director of the VCU pep band and — as Out Spor...
Shaka Smart's Key To Success: Quoting <em>Scarface</em>
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: VCU likes to be the bad guy....
40-Year-Old Sheryl Swoopes Unretires To Join Something Called "Tulsa Shock"
Sheryl Swoopes retired from the WNBA in 2008 after averaging 7 and 4 for the Seattle Storm, her worst such figures as a pro. As of 2005, Swoopes endorsed lesbian cruise line Olivia, so presumably she redeemed some vouchers to travel to Greece last year. There she played for Ravenna Esperides, alongs...
Steven Pearl Laughs On Twitter At Dad's UT Replacement
You didn't really expect Bruce Pearl and kin to exit Knoxville quietly, with great dignity, especially when Tennessee didn't wait a full week before hiring a replacement, Cuonzo Martin, did you?...
Your VCU/Kansas Halftime Update
Should VCU hold its 14-point-lead form in the second half and defeat the Kansas Jayhawks, this will be the second time since the tournament expanded to 64 (or more) teams that no No. 1 seeds made the Final Four. The first: 2006 (Florida was a third seed, UCLA a second, LSU a four and George Mason w...
Your Second Elite Eight Open Thread
Virginia Commonwealth and Kansas will play for the right to face Butler in the Final Four next Saturday. The winner of Kentucky/North Carolina will draw UConn. Let the games begin....
Your First Elite Eight Open Thread
The Elite Eight will become seven after the Butler/Florida game, which tips off around 4:30 p.m. Seven will become six after Arizona tries to do to UConn what it did to Duke. (It really never gets old.) And then, we'll wait for tomorrow to learn the other two entries into the 2011 Hall of Final Fou...
Richmond Fought The Good Fight Against Kansas Until The Game Started
Your morning roundup for March 26, when James Corley of Conroe, Texas mulls the misfortune of not stopping after his 15th DUI conviction. Now, he'll have 99 years to practice counting to 1,030....
Let Us Rejoice In Duke's Misery
The Duke University men's basketball team has earned a special privilege in college sports and within March Madness: It will never be considered the underdog. As far as we're concerned, for as long as Coach K is patrolling the sideline and as long as his hair stays a surreal jet-black, Duke will ...
Jimmer Left The Court With A Bandage On His Chin, But Kyle Singler Probably Saw His Mom Crying
Your morning roundup for March 25, the day rockhopper penguins fight for their oil-slicked lives....
Your Omnipresent Sweet Sixteen Starter Open Thread
Tourney games is comin', yo. UConn/San Diego State at 7:15 p.m. BYU/Florida a dozen minutes later. Arizona/Duke at 9:45 p.m.-ish. Finally, Butler and Wisconsin close out the Sweet Sixteen's first night starting at three minutes before 10 or thereabouts....
BYU And The Mid-Major Hype Cycle
Today's Sports Illustrated asks the question: Are the BYU Cougars America's Team? (They also have an awesome cover photo, by Robert Beck.) The answer is no, BYU's not America's Team, because that phrase really has no meaning beyond a marketing slogan formulated more than 30 years ago. But it speaks ...
NBA Scouts Agree: Jimmer Fredette Is Very, Very White
The best part about yesterday's foreseeable New York Times story on Jimmer Fredette wasn't the obvious notion that Fredette might make for a less-than-dominant NBA player. Far better and more obvious was the list of less-than-dominant NBA players that several front-office types used to assess Fredet...
Frank Martin Is The Most Terrifying Coach On Earth
Wisconsin beat Kansas State in the second round on Saturday, and in the post-game press conference, a reporter's question made Wildcat senior Jacob Pullen cry. Terrifying hero-coach Frank Martin came to his star's defense, and in that moment we were reminded that if Frank Martin wanted to, he coul...
Marquette's Campus Rappers Have Composed A Fight Song Worthy Of An 11 Seed
Well, since the Big East bellyflopped in the tourney's first weekend, we have two teams—UConn and, uh, Marquette—left reppin' the supposedly superior conference that started with 11 teams on Thursday....
Bruce Pearl's First Con, And The World That Created A Monster
Years before he got himself fired from Tennessee, an Iowa assistant named Bruce Pearl cut a dirty little swath across the Big Ten. A look back — with the help of some little-seen documents — at the recruiting saga that taught us everything we needed to know about Pearl and the business of college ba...
Bruce Pearl's First Con, And The World That Created A Monster
The first time I met Jimmy Collins was in 2004. I was working on a profile of UW-Milwaukee's ascendant basketball coach Bruce Pearl and had come to Chicago to get the other side of the story. Collins was coaching at the University of Illinois-Chicago, but by that point he was much better known as Pe...
Duke Alums Are Worried About Craziness Of The Young Cameron Crazies
There is a crisis in Durham. Dennis and Elizabeth Chen, '02 and '00 Duke grads and presumably husband and wife, wrote a letter to the Duke Chronicle proposing a Crazie-off challenge to the university's current student body. At the Michigan game on Sunday, the letter alleges, the Crazies practiced th...
The VCU Pep Band Makes Its Director Gyrate Uncontrollably And Sometimes Strip
This is Ryan Kopacsi, director of the very-popular VCU pep band and also, apparently, a male model. He's known around the university and amongst pep band circles for his overenthusiastic dancing and for often removing his clothing during games. At VCU, this is apparently called "TTS," or Time To S...
Even Through The Tears, Young Texas Fan Manages A Brave Hook 'Em Horns
Your morning roundup for March 21, the day shots were fired over the price of a Beefy Crunch Burrito....