preview Page 229 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Wisconsin Badgers
1. Team of the 2000's? OK, that may be taking things a bit too far, but let's review what the basketball Badgers have accomplished since the year 2000. One Final Four, 2 Elite Eights, 3 Sweet Sixteens, 3 Big Ten Regular Season titles (2 outright) and 1 Big Ten Tournament title. Although the casual f...
UCLA Bruins
1. "Well, Jack Likes It." Remember when Dukie V and the state of Tennessee blew their collective load when "big time celebrities" Peyton Manning and Priscila Presley showed up at the Memphis-Tennessee game? Yawn. As the greatest basketball program in NCAA history, situated in the heart of LA between...
Texas Arlington Mavericks
1. You Ain't From Around Here, Are Ya, Boy? Ten of the eleven players listed as eligible on the UTA roster are from the state of Texas. The eleventh is 6'1" Guard Brandon Long, who hails from Richton Park, Illinois. The Junior was scoring 12 ppg before an injury vs. Texas Christian put him out for t...
St. Mary's Gaels
1. That Confusing Nickname. Saint Mary's, out of the West Coast Conference (aka Gonzaga's Conference) cannot be found on a map by many (or any?) but is 20 miles from Oakland and San Francisco in the hills of the East Bay. They may suffer from having the most confusing name in college basketball. To ...
Michigan State Spartans
1. Foolish Consistency is the Hobgoblin of Conference Champions. On February 16 , Michigan State went to Indiana to face lame duck coach Kelvin Sampson, and, despite leading by double digits early in the first half, they lost the game by 19. Twelve days later, they scored a whopping 42 points in a l...
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
1. There's Only One Big Red! While a number of other schools claim to be the Big Red, there is only one mascot that fits the bill ... our Big Red. He's without a doubt the most famous alumnus of our school. He's been featured in ESPN's "This is SportsCenter" commercials, and some of those silly Capi...
UNLV Runnin' Rebels
1. Who are these guys? The Rebels lost four starters from last year's Sweet 16 Cinderella squad, including their leading scorer, rebounder, shot blocker and assist man. While they were expected to be rebuilding towards a contending season next year, UNLV has ridden a great defense led by "veterans" ...
Houston Cougars
1. Fluffin' Ain't Easy. Guess who's scored the most points in a D-I game this year. It's not Michael Beasley, it's not O.J. Mayo, and it sure as hell isn't Tyler "I can't get this look off my face" Hansbrough. No, it's Rob "Fluff" McKiver, who dropped 52 on Southern Miss to break Larry Bird's single...
Arizona State Sun Devils
1. The Herbivores. The Tempe fans have nicknamed themselves the "Herbivores," in loving deference to second-year head coach Herb Sendek, late of NC State. And let's face it: Herb Sendek is a just a terrible name. At least someone is having fun with it. Though I'd like to think the fans got the name ...
Mississippi State Bulldogs
1. Erick Dampier, Basketball Guru. Mississippi State's best postseason performance came in 1996. (Insert high-larious joke about Dishwalla, the movie "Bulletproof," or Bob Dole here) The Bulldogs won the SEC tournament by surprising eventual national champ Kentucky in the conference finals. They the...
Kansas State Wildcats
1. Beas-who? One wonders how Kansas State University, a school that has lacked a dominance on the hardwood in recent years, manage to resurrect Jesus Christ himself in the form of a 6-foot-10, 235-forward from the Washington D.C. area. Well, Michael Beasley was coached by in an AAU summer league and...
Oklahoma Sooners
1. His One Shining Moment?: True freshman Blake Griffin hasn't gotten the same amount of hype that super froshes Derrick Rose, Kevin Love or Michael Beasley have received, but his 15 points and 9 boards per game are the biggest reason the Sooners are back in the NCAA Tourney field after a mediocre 1...
Tennessee Volunteers
1. Mr. and Mr.s Smith. If the NCAA tourney was played 3-on-3 hoop-it-up style and each team could only field players that had the same name, Tennessee would be considered the greatest college team of all time. Despite some broadcast announcers this season repeatedly insisting that there is a fourth ...
Clemson Tigers
1. "Clempson," as some locals refer to it, resides in the city of Clemson in the northwestern region of South Carolina known as "The Upstate." It was opened in 1893 as a military academy exclusively for Caucasian males, serving as one of the rare instances of racial discrimination in the South. The ...
Ohio State Buckeyes
1. The System Guard. Jon Diebler holds the Ohio high school record for the most points in a career with 3,208. He averaged 40 points and 13 rebounds per game his senior year and was the biggest cog in one of the state's most explosive offenses. (He once scored 77 points in a game his junior season.)...
Mississippi Rebels
1. Ride Like the Wind. Ole Miss is allegedly a football school, due to the endless parade of Mannings who went there. However, they have had some success in basketball over the past several years. Though they have claimed at least a share of the SEC West division title four times since 1997, they ha...
Vanderbilt Commodores
1. It's Shan "Rhymes With Pain" Foster. Perhaps more peculiar than the spelling of his name is the form of his jump shot: Foster shoots the ball with his hands virtually behind his head. This causes trouble for almost every defender, as he is able to get off any shot with a defender in his face. He ...
Cornell Big Red
1. Cornell is so fucking nerdy. The actual Mission Statement for Cornell Athletics is: "We offer a diverse program of physical and outdoor education, recreational services, and intercollegiate athletic competition, equitably administered with special attention to the needs of women and members of un...
UAB Blazers
1. Alabama-Birmingham My Ass It's UAB. Do we call the Bruins California-Los Angeles? No. So quit pretending that UAB is some sort of second-tier affiliate state school on the order of Louisiana-Monroe. Even though Alabama-Tuscaloosa refuses to play UAB in basketball due to an age-old recruiting riva...
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles
1. Three In A Row. It's the third consecutive tournament appearance for the Golden Eagles, and their seed seems to grow each year. Two years ago, they were a No. 16 seed, and one major national basketball analyst predicted them to beat No. 1 seed Memphis. (Didn't happen.) In 1973, the team reached t...