Weekend Dump

In honor of this special weekend, Ten Year Anniversary of 9/11/01, Start of NFL fantasy football season, my return back to the United States, I have decided to provide you with a Weekend Dump.

- Eamonn Brennan provides you must-read story of the weekend. He went out and gathered some amazing quotes from college basketball players recalling their memories of 9/11/01 (DO NOT PROCEED WITH THE DUMP UNTIL YOU HAVE FINISHED THIS ARTICLE)

- Gary Parrish provides his always-entertaining "Five for the Weekend"

- A great-read on Dickie-V and the tremendous effort he puts in to giving back to the community

- Kemba Walker wasn't on any Pre-season All-America teams last season, and he certainly made all of us look like fools. Mike DeCourcy provides a list of players (and two teams) that could make us look like fools again.

- Rick Ross will be performing at Memphis' Midnight Madness

- Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott doesn't want to add any more teams. Kansas Coach Bill self calls conference realignment "hypocritical". ACC officials are mulling the idea of raising the buyout price

- The first aircraft carrier game is still months away and yet planning a sequel in 2012 is already being talked about

- Maryland's football uniforms have been the talk of the town this week. Do you think potential recruits don't take school colors and uniforms into consideration when deciding their futures? Think again. Archie Goodwin eliminated Baylor from his list of potential schools because he doesn't like the green/gold color combination

- Jason King opens up the reader mailbag

- North Texas picked up another transfer and now looks to be the favorite to win the Sun Belt Conference and make it's third consecutive trip to March Madness

- Former-Wright State head coach Ralph Underhill passed away early Friday morning. He was 70 years old

- The campaign to name the court at Maryland's Comcast Center after Gary Williams is starting to tread some water. It seems like the name is still up for debate. Speaking of the Terps, their fans want to see Wale at Midnight Madness (The DMV-native performed at Georgetown's Midnight Madness last season)

- A bunch of great words on the under-appreciated coaches in the MAAC

- Arena Pulse previews the 76 Classic

- UC-Riverside wants a new identity and a new logo

- Click here to find a link to every team schedule for the Atlantic-10 Conference, a long with a bunch of A-10 related links

- Tom Izzo hung out with "The Situation" (Is this considered news?)

- Bowling Green has themselves a fan-made music video (It's already better than anything Swiperboy has made)


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Weekend Dump: Part Deux

What's this? A second helping of Weekend Dumpage?

Memorial Day Saturday provided a bunch of good non-hoops action.

Here are some of the quick-hitters:

Champions League Final: Lionel Messi, David VIlla and Pedro scored to lead Barcelona to their second Champions League title in three years. Wayne Rooney scored the lone goal for Man U, but was arguably the nicest goal of the game.

Men's Lacrosse Final Four: Maryland and Virginia won their semifinal games to advance to the NCAA National Championship. Imagine if Kansas kicked Marcus Morris off the team in February and indefinitely suspended his brother Markieff. That's essentially what happened to Virgina. Maryland didn't earn one of the top eight seeds after losing their last regular season game to Colgate. Regardless, the two ACC teams will meet on Monday to decide the 2011 National Championship.

UFC 130: Rampage Jackson beat Matt Hamill in snoozer of a the main event. But the real story of the night was the knockout distributed by former college basketball player Travis Browne.



Browne, a six-foot-seven native of Hawaii played two years of college basketball before pursing a professional career in Europe. He pocketed the $70,000 "Knockout of the Night" bonus for his brutal KO over six-foot-eleven Stefan Struve.


OK, let's hit the links.

- Your must-read comes courtesy of Pat Forde. He breaks down the biggest overachieving and underachieving programs in college basketball since 1985

- The Penn State coaching search continues to roll on at a glacial pace. Ed DeChellis said that "it was his calling" to coach at the Naval Academy

- It's certainly no "Fab-Five" but Michigan's future recruiting classes are looking pretty good

- Jason King highlights the top newcomers in the SEC for next season

- Kentucky is disputing some of the facts about DeAndre Liggins that were given in ESPN's expose on Indiana Elite's AAU program

- Oklahoma State, Standford, Syracuse and Virginia Tech will all be No. 1-seeds for the 2011 N.I.T. Season Tip-Off. Three of those four teams were part of the eight-team field in last year's 76 Classic in Anaheim

- UPenn teammates Zach Rosen and Dau Jok update us on their charity work in Africa

- The rivalry between San Diego State and BYU grew to a fever pitch last season. Both teams had historic seasons, but with BYU's departure from the MWC, what is next for the two schools?

- Former-Kentucky forward Mark Pope says he nearly begged BYU head coach Dave Rose to hire him as an assistant coach

- Burnt Orange Nation examines the offensive performance of Rick Barnes' recent teams

- North Texas' center Ben Knox has decided to forgo his final two seasons as a member of the Mean Green basketball program

- A tribute to the 2010-2011 Seton Hall Pirates squad

- A look at the history of the No. 34 overall pick in the NBA draft. Mario Chalmers and Carlos Boozer both fell to this spot. (It still boggles my mind that Boozer as much money as he does)

- Seven quick-hitter thoughts on college hoops from PC Hoops For All

- An interesting list of the ten draft prospects with the most interesting shot selections

- What the status of David Lighty's draft stock?

- Could Marshon Brooks be the steal of the draft? One scout even compared the Providence super-scorer to Kobe Bryant


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Weekend Dump

Since I cannot guarantee a Monday Morning Dump on Memorial Day, The Weekend Dump is making a special appearance.

Enjoy your three day weekend, whether it's at the beach, at the barbecue or at the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Final Four (That's where I will be)

- I know it's Saturday, but Gary Parrish's "Five for Friday" is worth the read any day of the week

- Dirk Nowitzki was on The Dan Patrick Show on Thursday and provided some insight on his college recruiting process. Dirk was afraid that American coaches would make him a traditional "Back-to-the-basket" center

- Penn State's coaching search hasn't gotten off to the most dazzling of starts. Larry Brown will not become the next head coach at Penn State. East Carolina head coach Jeff Lebo has rejected Penn State as well.

- Doug Gottleib provides a great look at some of the off-the-radar story lines from the off-season (Insiders Only)

- In case you missed anything from the recruiting realm this week, Rush The Court has you covered

- Markieff Morris doesn't think Derrick Williams is that good. Umm, 'Kieff, didn't Williams drop 27 points on you guys back in November? Yeah, that's right, he did

- Jason King breaks down the newcomers in the Big XIIand the Pac-12 that could have a big impact in 2012

- UC-Irvine junior forward Eric Wise signed official papers indicating he will be transferring to USC

- Gardner-Webb point guard Luke Davis is going to transfer to UNC and join the vaunted "Blue Steel" group of walk-ons

- Score one for mid-major coaches with talented sons. You can add Georgia State's Ron Hunter to the list of mid-major dads that got their high-major sons to play for them.

- Utah redshirt freshman Josh Sharp is transferring to another in-state school, and new Ute's head coach Larry Krystkowiak is not happy about it. The former-Nets coach calls "shenanigans"; thinks schools actively recruited Sharp during his two-year LDS mission in Houston

- Did you know that Xavier-bound Isaiah Philmore lists "Madea Goes to Jail" as his favorite movie?

- Rush The Court put together a quality Q&A session with Notre Dame's Tim Abromaitis

- The Only Colors revisits the list of potential Big Ten sleepers from the beginning of the season

- Part-1 of John Calipari's "State of the 'Cats" declaration

- Utah Valley officials believe that Utah State is standing in the way of their school getting an invitation to the Western Athletic Conference

- Of course Jim Boeheim wants all 17 Big East teams to participate in the conference tournament

- Larry Shyatt, the new head coach at Wyoming, had some choice words for a group of coaches he believes have "sold out"

- The Texas A&M Board of Regents has approved the $5 million contract of new Aggies coach Billy Kennedy. The ex-Murray State head coach will earn $500,000 a year in salary and another $500,000 in a media supplement.

- Matt Norlander plays conference catch-up for the best of the rest (i.e. the high-mid-majors)


"Student-athletes, that is brilliant Suhh"




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Weekend Dump

- I know it's Saturday, or depending on how your night went, maybe Sunday. But Gary Parrish's "Five for Friday" provides great answers to five good questions. You probably shouldn't wait

- Pat Forde on Josh Selby and the one-and-done (Better late than never, right?)

- BYU center Brandon Davies will be allowed to suit up for the Cougars next season, despite leaving the University. The Sophomore sparked controversy when he was suspended from the program due honor code violations before last season's NCAA tournament. But as Eamonn Brennan tells us, his coaches, teammates and fans will welcome him back with open arms

- UConn made headlines yesterday for two reasons. First, it was revealed that Jim Calhoun will have to donate his championship bonus if the academic progress report for his program does not meet NCAA standards. Second, sophomore forward Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and two others were arrested on Thursday night for possession of marijuana. Apparently they were in possession of 5.6 grams of weed, a grinder, and a package of blunts (Fellas, come on, 4/20 was 48 hours ago. You had your chance then. This is unacceptable)

- The story that picked up the most steam late this week was the "Jim Larranaga to Miami" story. On Friday, it became a done deal. Word on the street is that talks broke down and things got pretty ugly between the George Mason head coach and the school's athletic director Tom O'Connor. The early favorite to replaced the 14-year head coach is Bill Courtney, a former-assistant who helped put together the 2006 Final Four team. The debate about Larranaga's decision to leave is endless. Some believe it is a bad idea. The general consensus is that Larranaga, 61, is too old to help rebuild this program. One guy wonders how long Larranaga will stay at "The U". Others aren't paying attention to the concerns about the head coach's age. Another guy notes that both coaches of the last two National Champions are over the age of 60. These guys think Miami's hire was a safe choice. I think what all this debate boils down to is whether or not he is a good fit there. But don't get confused, this deal is all about the money (and maybe the location too). All your Jim Larranaga-related links and quote

- Corey Joesph will join his Texas teammates Jordan Hamilton and Tristan Thompson in this year's draft. At least for now. The freshman guard is still likely to remove his name before the May deadline. The Texas roster has taken quite a hit this week

- Fellow-Canadian and former-Louisiana Tech star Olu Ashoalu is declaring for the draft as well

- Georgetown small forward Hollis Thompson has decided to join the party by testing draft waters

- Rumor has it that Temple's Ramon Moore is declaring for the draft. Or is he? (Tweets like this are not cool)

- Alex Young, the leading scorer for IUPUI, has announced that he will return for his senior season

- But the winner of "Most obscure draft early entrant goes to South Dakota guard Charlie Westbrook. The Cyotes' leading scorer is likely to just test the waters though.

- Colorado State got great news this week: Former-Minnesota center Colton Iverson has chosen CSU as his landing spot

- Kansas Jayhawk-forward Thomas Robinson had his hearing for battery charges scheduled for May 23


- Kemba Walker continues to get the star treatment: He gets to sit court side with Mayor Bloomberg at the Knicks vs. Celtics Game 4 on Sunday

- San Francisco Dons' head coach Rex Walters will be suspended for one WCC game next year for violating the league's sportsmanship guidelines

- According to San Diego head coach Bill Grier, just the thought of this point-shaving scandal makes his sick

- John Calipari recently released his "program manifesto" on his personal website. He preaches for a "players-first program", which essentially means "telling the truth, even when it hurts"

- About a week ago, we mentioned that Virginia Tech assistant coach Adrian Autry would be joining the Dayton program as an assistant coach. However, that deal was held up due to "human resources" and he will now replace Rob Murphy as one of Jim Boeheim's assistants at Syracuse

- North Carolina State's board of trustees just recently approved the contact of new head coach Mark Gottfried. Terms and conditions of his new deal were also released

- The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that the NCAA's ticket purchasing lottery for the Final Four does not violate state laws

- Are the Golden Gophers still stuck in the post-scandal-era? If you aren't sure, you should probably click the link (I Certainly was, so I did)

- Some good analysis of Pat Forde's piece regarding Josh Selby and the one-and-done

- Diamond Leung lists the finalists for the Eddie Sutton Award, which honors the toughest, warrior-like player in college hoops (Gotta be Howard, right?)

- MMM's Mid-Major Morning Mashup is easily my favorite dump-esque post of the day. Friday's edition was no exception

- And we end with your one "bizarre news story somewhat-related to basketball of-the-week"
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Weekend Dump

The first hoops-less weekend is upon us. For some of you, it will be spent at AAU/prospect tournaments like Boo Williams, The Hoops Summit or the P.I.T. For others, like myself, it will be spent on the links, doing our best/worst impression of Tiger Woods. Or maybe it will be spent buying some wallpaper, or getting some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath & Beyond, I don't know, only if we have enough time.

- A pretty-great-read from the WaPost detailing the decline of the talent level being represented at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament

- Eamonn Brennan points out that there is a way to look at UConn's National Championship that isn't as pleasant as normal

- The NBA has fined the New Jersey Nets $50K for Jay-Z's visit to the Kentucky locker room following their Elite Eight victory

- The NCAA announced that they will be cracking down on recruiting service subscriptions like Rivals.com. The NCAA also wants to crack down on on-campus safety regarding athletes

- Bradford Dolittle details the history of problems associated with the Missouri head coaching position

- A great-read (with a link to another great-read) on the double standards being set by the NCAA (No Clue At All)

A bunch of news-worthy links are being provided after the jump

- St. John's head coach Steve Lavin has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Apparently, Lavin spent much of his first season at St. John's with the disease

- Holy Name University is back in the news for the second straight day. It looks like Delaware assistant coach R.C. Kehoe will be named new head coach. He will replace John O'Connor, who was fired after video was released of him hitting a player at practice, resulting in a bloody nose. As we mentioned yesterday, that player, Matt Kravchuck, was arrested at a Phillies game for stealing beer from a vendor

- Former UNC-Charlotte head coach Bobby Lutz is joining the North Carolina State staff as an assistant coach

- Is it possible that Indiana coach Tom Crean is on the hot-seat? Some of these links suggest so

- It must be the off-season again, because we are hearing rumors that John Calipari might be headed to the New York Knicks

- In case you were not already aware, it is being rumored that K-State head coach Frank martin may take the head coaching job at Miami. Gary Parrish believes that Martin might be able to give this program a U-turn

- Adam Zagoria provides a couple of updates on the remaining big-time job openings

- Boise State forward Sam Hicks is leaving the program. The six-foot-nine redhsirt sophmore played sparringly lasat season.

- The top two leading scorers for the Wyoming Cowboys won't be returning next season

- Two Xavier freshman, Jordan Latham and Jay Canty have announced that they will be transferring

- George Mason guard Rashad Whack is transferring. The Sophomore reserve did not see much playing time in either of his two seasons due to GMU's backcourt depth

- Big XII Hoops is reporting that Texas' Tristan Thompson and Jordan Hamilton will declare for the NBA draft

- Earlier in the week we dropped a link about Shelvin Mack and his NBA draft decision. The Butler guard is taking his time deciding on what he wants to do. But some wonder whether it's a good idea for him to go pro

- Rutgers' guard Tyree Graham sat out all of last season after undergoing surgery on an ACL, and now he will have to go under the knife again. This time, he will have surgery on his right achillies tendon

- Tennessee head coach Cuonzo Martin stated that point guard recruit Chris Jones does not want out of his LOI anymore

- The 2011 edition of the Kentucky DraftCats will take their time in deciding their futures

- Draft Express provides a recap of day two at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament. DX also takes a look at four trending prospects

- The Big Lead provides a breakdown of what the top ten picks of the NBA draft might look like

- "The" Jimmer Fredette won another post-season award last night

- Apparently, the 3-pointer Brandon Knight hit when time expired with the wildcats down four set the school record for highest 3-point percentage in a season

- South Orange Juice evaluates the deep transfer pool

- Prosecutors are seeking a 48-month jail sentencee for the former-Kansas employed involved in the million-dollar ticket scam

- In-state rivals Virginia Tech and George Mason will face-off in next season's N.I.T Season Tip-off

- Rush the Court provides a list of the top-15 story lines of the 2010-2011 season

- Earlier in the week, VCU guard Joey Rodriguez appeared on the George Lopez show. Well, now it is Jimmer and Kemba's turn to hit the late-night circuit

- While Pauley Pavilion is being renovated next year, UCLA will play their home games at the Los Angeles Sports Arena

- If you are into the whole summer recruiting circuit (too shady and political for my taste), you might want to check out Hoopniks and their list of the top ten grassroots teams to look out for this summer

- It's never too soon for a 2012 bracket projection

- Purdue's mascot is getting a face-lift

- The President/CEO of the Lexington Legends minor league team dressed up like Bruce Pearl for the home-opener

- Speaking of Bruce Pearl, a list of the top-25 games of the BP-era at Tennessee


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Weekend Dump: Final Four Edition Part I

This is it folks. It's crunch time. Only three more games are left in the 2010-2011 season. B.I.A.H has taken it's talents to Houston for the action and will provide you with adequate link-dumpage to prepare you for the Final Four. What we cannot do however, is prepare you for VCU or Butler winning the National Championship.

- In other NCAA post-season tourna,ment action, Oregon defeated Creighton in game 3 of the CBI thanks to a game-winning jumper from E.J. Singler. Rush the Court explains why this is significant

- Butler's mascot, Blue II is becoming a cult hero in Houston

- Eamonn Brennan briefs us on four underrated story lines from the final Four

- Seth Davis makes a case for and against each of the Final Four teams

- Jason Lisk provides some interesting insight on why basketball teams like VCU and Butler aren't the equivalent to football teams like Air Force and Northern Illinois

- Last season's Kentucky squad may have been more talented than this year's bunch, but talent will only take you so far. The 2011 roster is in the Final Four because the players checked their egos at the door, something last year's squad couldn't do

- The Nate Miles' recruiting saga has been getting a lot of publicity this week. It came out yesterday that Miles alleged that Jim Calhoun knew rules were being broken

- Speaking of violations, we have what may be the first Kelvin Sampson update in three years

- Tennessee-commit Chris Jones wants his release from the program immediately

- UCSB's Orlando Johnson, who was named the Big West Player of the year, will declare for the NBA draft

- Word on the street is that the Morris twins will hire an agent soon, thus declaring for the NBA Draft

- Oklahoma State's Darrell Williams is awaiting word from a judge if he should stand trial on felony charges that allege he inappropriately touched two women without their consent.

- Christian Laettner wants to become a college basketball coach

- After a lot of back-and-forth, UNLV's Lon Kruger has accepted the head coaching job at Oklahoma

- Young coaches are a hot commodity in the college hoops game. Every program in the country would be silly not to try and find the next diamond in the rough. Gary Parrish is puzzled as to why Cal-State Bakersfield went in the exact opposite direction

- Missouri State has named Purdue assistant Paul Lusk as their new head coach. The Bears former head coach, Cuonzo Martin took the job at Tennessee after Bruce Pearl was fired

- When Anthony Grant left VCU to take the head coaching position at Alabama, point guard Joey Rodrigueuz nearly transfered. But luckily for VCU Rodriguez stayed, believed in coach Shaka Smart, and well, as they say, the rest is history. Don't ever forget that VCU playin in the Final Four is a big deal

- St. John's assistant coach Mike Dunlap will consider applying for the Fresno State head coaching position

- The Butler coaching staff brought a small entourage of children with them to Houston

- Wether or not VCU deserved to be in the tournament can be debated until the end of time. Jay Bilas remains critical of the selection. If the selection committee used this method, VCU would never have left Richmond

- Your weekly NBA Draft stock report on players who competed in the NCAA Tournament

- A break down of all of Kansas' NCAA tournament mid-major upsets

- Due to the madness that took place this march, is a 96-team tournament on the horizon?

- The rosters for the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament have been released

- Fifty years of Final Four pictures

- One of the better April Fools Day-related hoops posts

- The top ten coaches to never coach in the Final Four

- Now this is my type of bracket: The coolest name tournament (Kinda upset they didn't contact me for this, seeing how I'm the foremost expert in college basketball etymology)


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Weekend Dump

- Mike Miller believes the decision to fire (or keep) Bruce Pearl was made much easier thanks to the Volunteers 30-point blowout loss to Michigan. If Pearl is out at Tennessee, we could see a handful of roster changes

- This is two days old, but is definitely word your time: Jason Whitlock's take on the Fab-5 controversy. He believes that the documentary is taking credit for accomplishments of John Thompson's Georgetown Hoyas. Deadpin has an a solid breakdown/timeline of the recent events. Ex-Michigan coach (and current SDSU coach) Steve Fisher discussed the documentary and played down the comments made by Jalen Rose

- Gary Parrish documented the elaborate response given by Buzz Williams at a recent press conference. (Must-read0

- Dona Ditota details Jim boeheim's feelings towards the excruciatingly-long television-timeouts

- Despite the dissapointing loss to Gonzaga, St. John's has found a leader in Steve Lavin

- We should all know what happened at the end of the George Mason/Villanova game. But before the game, GMU head coach Jim Larranaga gave a gripping pre-game speech. The Dagger's Jeff Eisenberg breaks it down for us

- Texas' Tristan Thompson and Jordan Hamilton stated that they will return to Austin next season

- Michigan's Matt Novak is a big Charlie Sheen supporter. According to one fan sign, Novak has tiger blood or so Mike Rothstein says

- Kemba Walker still has a year of elligibility left, but will graduate early from UConn. Due to his sensational season, his collegiate future is certainly in question

- Roy Williams is upset that the Tar heels didn't get the same type of hotel accommodations that the Dukies got

- yesterday we mentioned that Frenso State forward Greg Smith was going to declare for the NBA Draft. Welll now it's being reported that head coach Steve Cleveland is leaving the program as well

- An interesting read on Nasir Robinson and his display of hustle. If you remember, Robinson dove out-of-bounds to save a ball in the UNC-Asheville game and nearly took out radio annoucner and hall-of-famer Dick Groat

- Is Washington State's DeAngelo Casto going pro?

- Upon Further Review used a bunch of statistics to determine which regional is the toughest based on the first two rounds

- Even college athletics websites are getting caught up in the "Charlie Sheen Madness". VCU's website took the easy way out

- Following his team's heartbreaking loss to Morehead State, Rick Pitino said maybe he has been coaching for too long

- Now that Justin Anderson has committed to Maryland, Testudo Times takes a look at the Terrapins depth chart for the next couple of seasons

- Speaking of recruiting, Adam Zagoria keeps us up to date on all the news involving committments

- Stacy Poole had somewhat-forgettable season at Kentucky. But despite the frustration, he won't be transferring from Lexington

- As ussual, Craig Sager brings a heavy pallet of unnecessary colors to sideline wear

- Graham Watson profiles George Mason's band. The "Green Machine" is breaking the mold of typical school bands

- Boiled Sports put together a pretty-entertaining read on the difficulty in picking brackets and cheating in college sports

- Rush the Court takes a look back at the 1998 NCAA Tournament, which was filled with buzzer-beaters bracket-busters and instant-classics

- Kentucky vs. West Virginia is practically a national holiday for rednecks

- People on Tobacco Road wonder what UNC has to od to win the National Championship

- Lost Letterman provides a list of the ten tournament host sites that should never host games again

- Everything you need to know about March Madness in 60 seconds

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Weekend Dump

- Hell Yes! Luke Winn provides power rankings for the auto-bids

- Lost Letterman provides a list of the top-10 dream match-ups for the first round of the NCAA tournament

- Jason Lisk explains why conference tournament results matter to the selection committee

- Nick Fasulo wonders if the end of Championship Week is turning in to the new "First Weekend"

- Out of all the teams that won automatic bids, Belmont has more potential to bust the brackets than all the others combined

- USC head coach Kevin o'Neil will be suspended for the rest of the Pac-10 tournament because of the post-game altercation he was involved in on Thursday night. The Pac-10 commishioner praised the university for taking swift action. The Trojans ended up losing to Arizona, which means their tournament hopes are all but over.

- The referees who blew the calls at the end fo the Rutgers/St. John's game withdrew from the rest of the tournament. But the word is out that Big East officals forced them too, and with good reason

- Two weeks ago, Gonzaga and Butler were both out of the tournament picture. Now both of the mid-major mammoths are tournament locks

- An awesome must-read top-25 list of the most tournament-obsessed colleges and universities

- The perfect March Madness bracket for fans of web design



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Weekend Dump

- AOL Fanhouse provides a great list of their no early-entry All-American teams

- Gary Parrish takes a look forward at the fully-loaded weekend of college basketball

- We've all heard it said once before, but Jeff Eisenberg reiterates that it's entirely possible that the Big East send 11 teams dancing

- Ryan Greene always brings a cold six-pack of the hoops variety

- Dave Ommen fills us in on what teams are in for a bubblelicious weekend

- Andy Katz explains why Conference-USA could avoided this whole "Tim Floyd fiasco" by sending a stronger message in the first place

- UConn coach Jim Calhoun released a statement on the NCAA ruling and apologized for his actions while acknowledging he "made mistakes"

- A fantastic-must-read from The Dagger on the greatest fan in college basketball...Yep you guessed it - Utah State's "Wild" Bill Sproat

- The CBS college hoops blog brings out the whole arsenal to preview the weekend

- Jeff Goodman finally reveals the secret on how you stop Jimmer Fredette

- The Cal Bears basketball program has been put on two-years probation for making impermissible calls

- Washington's Isaiah Thomas makes some remarks in regards to Wazzu's court-storming a couple weeks ago

- Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt says we shouldn't judge the Holy Name coach for "his 40 seconds" of conflict with a player

- Centenary may have lost 28-games this season, but the one victory they got feels so good

- St. Joseph's center Todd O'Brien rejoined the team after sitting out because of a failure to comply with the university's community standards

- The UNC ticket office is issuing less tickets to Tar Heel students this season

- The editors at the Daily Campus, the UConn newspaper that scolded the UConn student section for being mean and loud, has issued a clarification about their original post

- What state produces the worst hoops? I'm looking at you Louisiana

- The ten worst-dressed coaches in college hoops history

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Weekend Dump

Things you may have missed: BIAH previews the weekend of hoops. There is always some hoops housecleaning that needs to be done

- Jay Bilas provides a loaded weekend-watch preview

- Jeff Goodman says that sometimes it's good when you don't get what (or who) you want

- Dana O'Neil reflects on her time spent at Penn State and says that somethings just never change

- Vermont and Fairfield have already clinched a spot in the post-season, it just might be the N.I.T. if they aren't careful. Atleast that's what Andy Katz says. Speaking of Katz, he previews the NCAA tournament. (Yup that's it. a tournament preview. nothing special, nothing fancy, no twists. Just your old-fashioned all-around NCAA tournament preview)

- it's the weekend which means it's time for Jason King to open up the mailbag and answer your quesions

- Seth Davis provides his picks for the weekend. He thinks Pitt, Notre Dame and tOSU will lose this weekend (I know the man is smart, he's on CBS afterall, but man these are some ballsy picks)

-Joe Lunardi provides the weekend Bracketology rundown for the weekend

- Mike DeCourcy chimes in on Billy Packer's recent remarks. (Seriously, is anybody else sick of this guy already? Billy, you are retired, stay on the golf course or at the shuffleboard table or whatever-the-hell old people do)

- Gary Parrish reviews the big games of the weekend. (But be warned, it's video. Which means you'll probably have to look at Gary's face)

- The first big BracketBusters game of the weekend was last night. VCU traveled to Wichita State and left with a win, thanks to a controversial call

- The Missouri Tigers are ranked No. 21 in the country and are the fourth best team in the Big-12, yet they still have not won a single conference-road game.

- George Mason and Northern Iowa face-off in one of the marquee BracketBusters games today. If you plan on imbibing during the contest, here are a couple ways to make some fun out of it. Speaking of George Mason, the Patriots hold the longest current winning-streak in the country and would like to continue to make it even longer

- Louisville defeated UConn last night 71-58. The Huskies have been on quite the rollercoaster-ride this season. Card Chronicle takes a look at what we know about UConn now that we didn't know back then

- It finally looks like Karen Sypher is going away. (For seven years that is)

- An interesting-read on how the San Francisco Dons staff is using science to become more knowledgible about their players

- UNC head coach Roy Williams will be releasing a new autobiography that will detail a few untold stories from the coach's past

- College Basketball Talk opens up the reader mailbag and answers a hefty dose of questions and quandaries

- A solid NBA draft scouting report on PoY-candidate Kemba Walker

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Weekend Dump

- The mid-season Naismith Award top-30 watch list has been released

- Chris Dobbertean provides a Bubble Watch for us as we head into a crucial weekend of college hoops

- Seth Davis makes his picks for the big games this weekend

- Gary Parrish shows off his versatillity, as he steps off the page and in front of the microphone

- After looking at the rosters of the 2011 McDonald's All-American teams, Jeff Goodman thinks the selection committee still has some work to do. Evan Daniels offers his opinion on the selections as well as the snubs

- Andy Katz previews the weekend's worth of college hoops action. Katz also explains (via video) why Texas is playing as good as anybody in the country

- Rush The Court put together a fantastic team-profile on San Diego State, because well, they know you've only seen them play once

- Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith put his team on blast after a dissapointing home loss to Illinois on Thursday night

- Ryan Greene provides us a frosty six-pack of the college hoops variety

- Finally somebody breaks down the Coach of the Year standings

- Kansas' Thomas Robinson will be out for the next two weeks as he recovers from knee surgery. The backup forward injured his meniscus his team's win on Monday against Missouri

- Jay Bilas talked to Cardiac Hill about the Gameday game featuring Villanova and Pittsburgh

- Will Kentucky finally get the tough road victory they need when they face Vanderbilt this Saturday?

- There are some important games being played today in the Big-12. Does that mean we can expect a couple of upsets? I think it does

- Former Golden Gopher and now-Cyclone Royce White has to sit out a season before he can play for Iowa State. So White has embraced Cyclone Alley in support of his future teammates. Pretty neat stuff.

- For every transfer who ends up like Wes Johnson or Drew Gordon, there is a Freddy Asprilla. Are transfers a good thing for a program in the long term?

- According to Jeff Goodman, Providence's freshman guard Gerard Coleman won't play against UConn this weekend because of academics

- Bruce Weber didn't start Demitri McCamey on Thursday night against Minnesota, and it proved to be effective. The guard scored 17-points and displayed a level of effort we havent seen from him before

- A solid Q&A session with Vermont's Evan Fjeld, owner of the best mustache in college basketball

- Duke seems to be the favorite to win the ACC, but is that really the case? A look at the favorites, the contenders and the darkhorses

- With Thursday's win against UConn, St. John's has put themselves back on the good-side of the bubble. Take a look at their remaining schedule to see if they will be dancing come Selection Sunday

- Jacoby Brissett recently signed his letter of intent to play quarterback at University of Florida. But the highly-touted recruit may chose to suit up for the basketball team as well. (Notable QBs who also played basketball: Donovan McNabb, Charlie Ward)

- An interesting story about a course being taught at University of Michigan called "The Culture of Basketball"

- A look at what some home-courts could look like if they used Oregon's designer

= Is it just me, or does it seem like anytime somebody says something offensive on twitter, they claim their account was hacked? Texas' J'Covan Brown is the latest baller to cry foul

- It is likely that Louisville will have Rakeem Buckles and Gorgui Dieng back in the lineup today when they face syracuse

- While it seems highly-unlikely that Northwestern will make the NCAA tournament, it's not entirely out of the question.

- The Michigan Wolverines have been playing sharp basketball for the past month or so. With their tournament status still on the bubble, they must keep hope alive

- Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson is aware his team isn't that good. But he wants fans to stay patient

- An interesting list of recruits that have left Bruce Weber at the alter

- Athletic departments are slowly realizing that if you want to attract more fans to basketball games, you have to give them free stuff.

- File this under "You can't make this stuff up": Pac-10 can't buy new domain name because Tupac Shakur owns it


Game Previews

- Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech (Tech Hoops)

- Indiana at Michigan (UM Hoops)

- Iowa State at Kansas (Rock Chalk Talk)

- Kentucky at Vanderbilt (A Sea of Blue, Kentucky Sports Radio, Wildcat Thunder Blog, Anchor of Gold)

- Marquette at Georgetown (Casual Hoya, Anonymous Eagle, Cracked Sidewalks)

- Missouri at Oklahoma (Rock M Nation)

- North Carolina State at Wake Forest (Blogger So Dear)

- Ohio State at Wisconsin (Bucky's 5th Quarter, The Buckeye Battle Cry)

- Southern Illinois at Creighton (White and Blue Review)

- Stanford at Washington (Montlake Madness)

- Syracuse at Louisville (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)

- Tennessee at Florida (Rocky Top Talk)








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Weekend Dump

There really is nothing for you to do today other than watch college basketball. You should catch up on all the links now because Sunday and Monday are going to be owned by the NFL.

- A great-read (non-hoops-related) on the growth of ESPN's media platforms and what we can expect from the World Wide Leader in the near future

- Gary Parrish looks ahead to a robust weekend of college hoops

- Seth Davis projects the forecast for this weekend's games. But with a 4-6 record last week, I'm not too sure you should take his picks to the bank

- Eric Angevine wonders what happened to Conference-USA? Early on, the conference looked to have a break-out season, with as many as three or four teams making the tournament, but with the collapse of UCF, it looks like the conference is Memphis' for the taking

- Jason King opens up the viewer mailbag. he answers questions regarding ranking the top teams int eh country and what teams can do to avoid late-season letdowns. King also fills us in on the SEC race and Alabama's surprising conference play

Jeff Eisenberg details the interesting relationship that has formed between Steve Lavin and the man who fired him at UCLA

- Mike DeCourcy explains why freshman T.J. McConnell has played a big part in Duquesne's rise to power in the Atlantic-10

- Ken Pomeroy assesses the worth of suspended-Michigan State guard Korie Lucious. The Spartans are 1-2 without Lucious and their one win came against Indiana in overtime. Speaking of Korie Lucious, he will be visiting Iowa State next week. The cyclones seem to love Big-Ten transfers. Lucious' former-teammate Chris Allen transferred there at the beginning of the season, as well as former-Golden Gopher Royce White. Chris Babb, a former Penn State forward, also plays for ISU.

- Chris Dobbertean gives us his first Bubble Watch of the month of February

- No charges will be filled in the rape case involving a Washington Huskie basketball player. This is very similar to what happened with the accused rape by two Michigan State players back in August

- UNC guard Larry Drew II is reportedly leaving the UNC team and will transfer. Eamonn Brennan believes this decision was ill-timed, and well, it was. Mike DeCourcy explains that Drew's father has given his son his blessing

- Keegan Hyland transferred from Gonzaga to Vermont in the early winter, but reports indicate that Hyland has now left Vermont and has stopped taking classes

- Kyrie Irving finally got his cast off yesterday. It is still uncertain if he will be able to play at all this season

- Kansas' Tyrell Reed has a foot injury but it doesn't look like he will miss any time

- Austin Hollins is a freshmna for Minnesota. His father, Lionel, coaches for the Memphis Grizzlies and hates going to his son's games because they are boring

- Eric Angevine gives some love to Digital Hoops Blast

- Seton Hall got a commitment from six-foot-ten center Isaiah Hill

- Utah State finds themselves atop the WAC standings, in the top-25, and on the bubble. Sounds like last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.

- An entertaining-read on why Cal fans hate Steve Lavin

- Rush The Court checks in on the Sun Belt Conference, the Patriot League, the Atlantic Sun Conference, the Horizon League, the Big South conference, and the Big-12 Conference

- A preview of the Big-12 weekend for teams searching for at-large bids

- A statistical comparison analysis of the two Big-12 contenders

- Some good tidbits on the Colonial Athletic Conference standings

- Auburn is not very good this season, but Tony Barbee knows it's a very large work-in-progress to get the Tigers back to national prominence

- Louisville will honor their 1986 National Championship team at halftime of their February 12th game against Syracuse

- Jame Madison set the world record for the largest game of knock-out


Game Previews

- Alabama at Tennessee (Roll Bama Roll, Alabama Basketball Blog)

- Arizona at California (Cal Golden Blogs)

- Butler at Cleveland State (Victory Firelight)

- Cincinnati at Pittsburgh (Cardiac Hill, Pitt Blather, Down the Drive)

- Colorado at Missouri (Rock M Nation)

- Dayton at La Salle (Blackburn Review)

- Evansville at Creighton (White and Blue Review)

- George Washington at Charlotte (Green Tinted Glasses)

- Iowa at Indiana (The Crimson Quarry)

- Illinois at Northwestern (Hail to the Orange)

- Kansas at Nebraska (Rock Chalk Talk)

- Kentucky at Florida (Wildcat Thunder Blog)

- Oakland at IUPUI (Golden Grizzlies Gameplan)

- Old Dominion at George Mason (George Mason Hoops)

- Providence at Georgetown (Casual Hoya)

- St. John's at UCLA (Rumble in the Garden)

- Saint Louis at Xavier (Dana and Victory)

- South Caronlina at Vanderbilt (Anchor of Gold)

- Syracuse at South Florida (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician, Voodoo Five)

- Virginia Tech at Boston College (Tech Hoops)

- Wake Forest at Florida State (Blogger So Dear)

- West Virginia at Villanova (The Smoking Musket, VU Hoops)


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Weekend Dump

Another fully loaded Saturday of hoops action. 144 games in all, featuring 17 top-25 teams. Enjoy.

- Thomas Robinson wrote an open letter following the roughest, toughest week of his entire life

- A must-read list of all the Jimmer Fredette comparisons

- Matt Norlander, one of the great CBS College basketball writers is loaning out his blog, College Hoops Journal, to four up-and-coming writers (I guess my invitation got lost in the mail....Right?)

- Diamond Leung notes that a couple of coaches are going out on a limb to ensure their student sections stay classy

- Ken Davis hits the 'Beyond the Arc' mailbag hard and dishes on JimmerJam2011, the difference between a red-shirt and a medical red-shirt, and his thoughts on Arkansas

- Matt Jones tells us the Jay Bilas is going to be doing some investigating into the recruitment of Enes Kanter by the University of Washington

- This post is a couple days old, but needs to be re-mentioned. The BracketBusters match ups are coming up soon and it feels like nobody knows that. Andy Katz provides his picks for 11 match-ups that should take place

- Apparently Freddy Asprilla, the former FIU and K-State player who left Manhattan, Kansas earlier in the month to pursue a pro career to raise money for his ailing mother, is going to transfer to Canasius. Since when has Canasius been allowed to pay players and get away with it. (Well, you'd have to pay me to play in Buffalo)

- Ryan Greene provides a cold and refreshing six-pack of the college hoops variety

- Jeff Eisenberg reports on a new dance craze that is taking over as the Northern Iowa pre-game ritual (The choreography could be better, but hey, anything to break away from the standard "Zombie Nation" routine is always a plus)

- A great breakdown of the great individual game performances from earlier this season

- TCU has suspended their leading scorer Ronnie Moss indefinitely for "a failure to adhere to the standards of the program". Moss was also ranked fourth in the MWC in scoring with 15.9-ppg

- So what exactly who is going to end up getting the three new tickets to the 68-team Big Dance?

- Arizona should be thanking Tim Floyd and his never ending sleaziness for helping Derrick Williams end up in a Wildcats jersey

- I imagine you watched the BYU/SDSU game on Wednesday night. So then you saw Kawhi Leonard have a diesel-performance all while having flu-like symptoms, right? The Aztecs need to hand him the keys to the beamer already

- JimmerJam 2011 has been making BYU a whole lot of cash. Tickets to home games are up to as much as $300 a-pop and No.32 BYU jerseys are flying off the shelves

- A solid-read on that god-awful "U-C-O-N-N, UCONN, UCONN, UCONN" cheer (seriously, it's terrible. The cheer that is, not the post. The post is pretty good)

- Lost Letterman provides their updated Bubble Watch (Andy Glockner still has the premiere Bubble Watch in the country, But I'm starting to really like the work L-L puts in)

- There is a reason they call the Big East "The Beast". With the exception of South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, and sometimes Seton Hall, the conference is pretty stacked

- We know about tOSU's Jared Sullinger, David Lighty, Dallas Lauderdale, William Buford, and JohN Diebler. But it's Aaron Craft who is becoming the team's unsung leader

- Ole Miss' Chris Warren doesn't want his college career to end without a trip to the NCAA Tournament

- Harrison Barnes' new nickname is "the Black Falcon"?

Gus Johnson is using the Big Ten Network as a platform to get his pipes ready for March


(h/t CardChronicle)


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Weekend Dump

There are roughly 150 games being played today, so why not provide some links to digest before you sit down on the couch for 12 consecutive hours.

- Jay Bilas reacts to the Enes Kanter decision and discusses other hot topics in the college hoops world (insiders only)

- Joe Lunardi provides an updated lesson in bracketology

- Eamonn Brennan provides a week-in-review in link form

- Jeff Eisenberg details the four games with the biggest March Madness implications

- Andy Katz makes his picks for the weekend games. He also tells us why Tennessee might be able to slay another Big East giant

- Gary Parrish takes a look ahead to a loaded weekend of college hoops

- Jeff Goodman tells us not to overlook the Marshall thundering Herd. He also believes Doc Sadler's hot seat is cooling off in Nebraska

- NCAA President Mark Emmert wants you to know that the NCAA does not make a "tsunami of cash"

- The early entry withdrawal deadline date may be changed. The proposal for this change will be voted on in April

More links after the jump, including a video of some buckeyes singing some Miley Cyrus

- After weeks of speculation, former-Kentucky Wildcat Darnell Dodson is officially transferring to Southern Mississippi

- A nice Q&A session with Hofstra's Charles Jenkins, one of the best scorers in the country

- Tubby Smith still hasn't decided wether or not to start Trevor Mbakwe

- Tom Crean has done a bang-up job on the recruiting trail, but it will take time and patience

- John Calipari is moving on from the cursing incident that took place in the Alabama game. Coach Cal also wants his upperclassmen to be more productive and help road weariness

- Illinois will try to stop tOSU's unbeaten streak. Six years ago, it was the other way around

- Louisville gets Terrence Jennings back from injury, but may lose Gorgui Dieng

- Get to know a bit more about the interesting rivalry between ODU and VCU

- Rush The Court checks in on the Atlantic Sun Conference, the Big South Conference, the Colonial Athletic Association, the Patriot League, and the Sun Belt Conference

- It's the 31st anniversary of the Henson Heave. You gotta love old school full-court buzzer-beaters


tOSU's Jared Sullinger, Jon Diebler and Arron Craft sing some Miley Cyrus.....Good God that's awful


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