basketball Page 455 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Rick Pitino's Son To Take Over For Isiah Thomas At FIU
According to Andy Katz, Rick Pitino is reporting that his son will take over the reins at Florida International as they move on from the Isiah Thomas era. Richard Pitino is 29 and has coached with his father and Billy Donovan among others. He was most recently an assistant on this year's Louisville...

Larry Brown Is Interviewing (Not Politicking) For A Job With SMU
Remember back in the distant past of March when Larry Brown said he wasn't "politicking for a job" while he was politicking for a job? It worked! According to Andy Katz, Larry Brown is interviewing with SMU today. Marquette assistant coach Tony Benford will also meet with the school today....

John Calipari Received The Key To The City, And The Plaque Has Typos In The Words "The" And "Its"
John Calipari and the NCAA championship trophy kicked off a whistlestop tour of the state today, and one of the first stops was in Pikeville, Ky., where Calipari received the key to the city. Perhaps the ceremonial plaque was whipped up hastily, but it sports a pair of typos. [Twitter]...

Nerlens Noel Will Play For Kentucky After Shaving Its Logo Into His Hair
Basketball players don't typically play the Signing Day shell game by picking hats off a table, so it's nice to see Nerlens Noel be a bit more creative....

Today In Cool Basketball Photos
Today FIBA's Twitter account posted this photo of one devoted baller, digging out the snows of Norway to practice his baseline J. We're reposting it because it's totally neat. Nothing can stop basketball, except maybe Dwight Howard's fake back spasms. [Twitter]...

Stephon Marbury Is Getting A Statue In China
Stephon Marbury, the biggest import to hit China since opium, may or may not be elevated to Beijing City God soon. After leading the Beijing Ducks to the CBA championship, but not being eligible for an MVP award, fans wanted some way to honor their hero. They've found it: a massive bronze statue of ...

Barack Obama Has Lost His Shooting Touch
The White House held its annual Easter Egg Roll today, the day after Easter for some reason. And because the First Lady's pet project is getting our nation's fatty-fat-fat children up and moving, the whole thing had a basketball theme....

Bristolmetrics: Brittney Griner Got More Mentions On <em>SportsCenter</em> Than Any Kentucky Wildcat
This is a regular feature breaking down, minute-by-minute, the content that appears on ESPN's 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter throughout the week. Graphic by Jim Cooke....

Report: Basketball Hero Skip Bayless Actually Averaged 1.4 Points Per Game As A High School Senior
About a week ago, we told you about the high school exploits of "starting point guard" Skip Bayless. According to Skip, he started for the team that would eventually lose in the state finals. Turns out, Skip Bayless is a fibber. Or, maybe his coach just had an unconventional way of constructing his...

Baylor Hoops Teams Were Really Big On The Illegal Text Messages
Stop me if you've heard this before, but a school that quickly rose to athletic prominence is now facing punishment for a myriad of recruiting violations. This time it's the Bears of Baylor, who were found by an NCAA probe to have racked up nearly 2,000 impermissible phone calls and text messages to...

FIU Survives The Isiah Thomas Era
Florida International fired Isiah Thomas as head coach today, after three seasons in which the Golden Panthers won 7, 11, and 8 games. On the bright side, there have been no major lawsuits or violations. They have not become the laughingstock of college hoops. The program still exists. I would call ...

NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman Has Taken His Talents To Bulgaria
Alleged deadbeat dad Dennis Rodman, who's awaiting sentencing in May on charges that owes back child and spousal support to his ex-wife, has flown to Bulgaria in time for the country's All-Star basketball exhibition on April 7. No one seems terribly sure if Rodman will, you know, play in the game...

John Calipari Used To Make A Nets Intern Defend Him By Calling Into New York Talk Radio
Now that John Calipari has finally won an NCAA championship, Adrian Wojnarowski has written something over at Yahoo that posits the Knicks' job as Calipari's potential next step. Wojnarowski is a terrific reporter, so the rationale behind his suggestion—money, the spotlight, leverage, Calipari's bit...

Science! Simulates The Kentucky Wildcats Vs. The Washington Wizards
Paul Bessire runs PredictionMachine.com and created the Predictalator, the most advanced sports forecasting software available today. The technology has the ability to account for all of the statistical interactions of the players, coaches, officials, and fans (homefield advantage) in each game. The...

Robert Griffin III Celebrates His Last Winning Moment In A Long Time
We're not really sure why RGIII got to climb the ladder to cut the nets after Baylor's women's basketball team beat Notre Dame in last night's NCAA title game. Must have been the important role he played in the Lady Bears' victory....

Lebanese Basketball Player Has Career Night, Scores 106 Points Above His Season Average
Mohammad El Akkari is a guard for Moutahed, Tripoli, in Lebanon's Division A League Final 8. He scored 113 points in Tuesday's 173-141 victory against Bejjeh, Jbeil—a slight improvement over his season average of 7.6 points per game. Akkari was 40 of 69 from the field, including 32 of 59 from 3-poin...

Baylor Assistant Damion McKinney Wore A Tablecloth As A Necktie To The National Championship
I believe that's Baylor women's assistant coach Damion McKinney as spotted before last night's 80-61 victory that capped off a 40-0 season for the lady Bears. I have no idea what he is wearing as a necktie. Did he eat at Red Lobster and forget to remove his bib? Was he arguing before the United Sta...

Here's What Kentucky's Championship Celebration Sounded Like Over The Lexington Police Scanner
If you weren't tuned in to the Lexington Police Department's radio scanner last night, you missed out on a wild world of sports celebrations that ranged from the violent to the perverse. (The #LexingtonPoliceScanner Twitter hashtag alone was trending worldwide, at one point.) We recorded the whole ...

Next Year's NCAA Final Four Will Be Held In Lithuania
The NCAA would have you dismiss all Dumb Jock stereotypes, but the ribbon board tonight announced a far more important notice: next year's Final Four will take place in "Alanta."...

Commence The Kentucky Fans Shouting Profanities On Live Television
Here's a shot from a few minutes ago on WKYT in Lexington of an ill-advised live shot from the middle of a gathering of Kentucky fans at the corner of Woodland and Euclid, near the UK campus. The horrified reactions of the "hosts" broadcasting from what appears to be an RV in New Orleans makes th...