basketball Page 551 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Pittsburgh Panthers
1. The Name Game. Pitt's starting lineup includes a lanky Canadian forward with stupid lines shaved in his head and a compact cornrowed point guard formerly of the famed New York Gauchos AAU team. One is named Levance and another is named Levon, but can you tell which is which?...
Xavier Musketeers
1. Can't touch this! Junior guard Stanley Burrell is the second leading scorer for the Musketeers. No, not that Stanley Burrell!. The Xavier student section had nicknamed him "The Hammer" before he even set foot on campus....
Indiana Hoosiers
1. Larry Bird and What Might Have Been. The 1976 Indiana Hoosiers—the last undefeated team in men's college basketball history—are generally considered to be the second-best team of all time behind 1968 UCLA. But remember that West Baden/French Lick native Larry Bird was successfully recruited by Bo...
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
1. You Might Be A Yellow Jacket ... Sure, the most famous Georgia Tech — because we're talking about the university here, I will refer to them by their official name, "The Georgia Institute of Technology" — alumnus is Jimmy Carter, who was (reportedly) President of the United States and also won the...
Tennessee Volunteers
1. The machines ... they're getting smarter. UT's freshman class has overcome being labeled "The Fab Five" by Knoxville media outlets to become a legitimate driving force on the court. Top-50 recruits Duke Crews, Wayne Chism and Ramar Smith have been particularly effective, finishing the regular sea...
Purdue Boilermakers
1. Turnaround. The Boilermakers reached the 20-win mark for the first time since the 2000 season. Their 11-game turnaround from last season's nine-win campaign is one of the five best in the nation. Furthermore, their RPI at the end of last season was 175; this year it's 47. (For a point of comparis...
Michigan State Spartans
1. Drew Me Baby One More Time. Use both hands, please If you can overlook the disturbing visual similarities between Drew Neitzel and Britney Spears (she just wanted to look like him). There's a lot to appreciate about the Spartans leader. When he was 12, Drew won the national 2-ball championshipm w...
You Have No Idea How Hard It Is Not To Make A "Pokey" Joke
This, friends, is Pokey Chatman, who, until about 16 hours ago, was one of the most successful young coaches in women's college basketball, leading her LSU Tigers into the NCAA tournament and earning the respect of her peers. Now, though, she's decidedly less than that: Now she's a disgraced former ...
Time To Rev Up The NCAA Tourney Previews Again
Longtime readers — or at least those who have been with us for a year or longer — will remember last year, when we introduced the world's only reader-created NCAA tournament previews. Well, that thing is a mother to put together — essentially, three presumably fascinating facts about all 65 teams in...
Find Those Committee Members, Stat!
Man, we're only three days away from Selection Sunday. It came up on us so fast! As we obsess over Bracketology and RPI and conference tournaments, we are reminded that the brackets will not just pop up from the nether on Sunday. Somewhere in Indianapolis, there's a group of old men sitting around a...
Forecasting The OTHER Tournament
Tired of toggling back and forth between projections from Lunardi, Stu Mandel and CollegeRPI.com? Fear not, weary travelers: You can now get your bracket projections for the NIT!...
Don't Expect Your Rec League To Adopt These
These, friends, are the future of college basketball uniforms, and that future is: SPANDEX! OK, not quite Spandex, but there's certainly a skin-tight vibe going on for the four teams who will supposedly try out the new duds during their conference championships this week: Ohio State, Syracuse, Flori...
Joe Darger Has Two Mommies (And A Crapload Of Siblings)
Curious, and fascinating story in The New York Times today: UNLV forward Joe Darger is the son of a polygamist father. He has 15 siblings, most of which go to all his games....
Tar Heel Blue Nation Seeing Red Today, Not Surprisingly
A lot of vitriol flowing around the Web this morning, most of it aimed at Gerald Henderson and Duke. But none seemed more perturbed at the roundhouse elbow to the probiscus of Tyler Hansbrough than the Tar Heels men's cheerleading squad, who were in Henderson's face, dude! You do not want to anger p...
Billy Packer, Information Dissemination Specialist
Of all the "Sweet Christ, Billy Packer is so full of equine excrement" moments, we have to say, the "Just Going For The Ball!" foul from Gerald Henderson on Tyler Hansbrough at the end of the Duke-UNC game is definitely near the top of the list. Whatever your thoughts on the reason for Henderson's a...
So Much For That 2-Seed For The Salukis
Just one automatic bid was on the line today... even less than than that if you're of the belief that Creighton and Southern Illinois were probably both already in the tournament. The poor Salukis have won the MVC regular season championship five times in the last six years, but have won just one of...
College Hoops Comendium: Four More on the Dance Floor
• Winthrop 84, VMI 81. VMI is the team that aspires to play like the Phoenix Suns on crystal meth. They average over 100 a game, and while it might have been fun to see them have a go in the tournament... they were 14-19, and didn't deserve the bid. Winthrop's now won 7 conference tournaments in 9 y...
"Listen, I'm Fired Up Too, But Jeez, Dude!"
This video from last night's thrilling Texas A&M-Texas game is awfully shaky and, oh yeah, shot off a television, but it's still worth it, for one of the weirder moments of teammate camaraderie we've seen in a while....
Well, That Was A Bit Of A Letdown
Whether she was channeling Bruce Pearl or Minnie Pearl, Pat Summitt's antics before the Tennessee men's game on Tuesday was the least offensive aspect of the evening, as it turns out. When one considers that Dick Vitale was there, and that Peyton Manning was in the crowd singing, viewers should cons...
The Soundtrack To Ashley Judd's Next Movie
Because nothing's more fun than a good embarrassing fan-made video, here's something's that's becoming a yearly tradition: A completely humiliating Kentucky "rap" video....