Shabazz Napier: "I try my best to be a leader even though guys don't give me a chance"

UConn may never want to go back to the state of New Jersey.

This past week, the Huskies played at Seton Hall and at Rutgers and came away with a pair of losses. Throw in the lackadaisical performances against overmatched opponents and the loss to Central Florida out in the Bahamas, and all of a sudden UConn looks like a team on the brink.

And now they are popping off in the media.
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Is Terrence Jones really back?

You can find the rest of the features from the #BIAHRoadTrip here.

LEXINGTON, KY - "Terrence Jones is back. Not much to it."

That's how Anthony Davis summed up the performance that his front court mate had in Kentucky's 79-64 win over South Carolina on Saturday afternoon, and he had a very valid point. Jones had been a different player for the past month, starting at halftime of UK's 73-72 win over North Carolina back on December 3rd. Since that game, Jones had only managed to score in double figures once, averaging 5.0 ppg and 3.0 rpg while shooting 32.3% (10-31) from the floor.

It didn't help matter that Jones was dealing with a dislocated finger on his shooting hand, an injury painful enough for him to miss two games.

Jones snapped out of that funk in impressive fashion Saturday, finishing with 20 points in 32 minutes on 8-9 shooting from the floor. He would have finished the game a perfect 8-8 if he hadn't jacked up a three late in the second half.
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Pics/Vids: Game 2 - Kentucky vs. South Carolina

Saturday, January 7th, 2012
Rupp Arena, University of Kentucky
Kentucky 79, South Carolina 64

Pics/Vids from Game 1 - Belmont vs. Lipscomb

(Lost fans. Still not sure what the Michigan State fan was doing at Kentucky vs. South Carolina game.)

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Bruce Ellington, South Carolina's two-sport star

You can find the rest of the features from the #BIAHRoadTrip here.

LEXINGTON, KY - Bruce Ellington was South Carolina's best player as a freshman.

The diminutive but obscenely athletic point guard led the team in minutes played, scoring and assists. He took 110 more field goals than anyone else on the roster and shot 65 more threes. He wasn't only the guy that had the ball in his hands at the end of a clock, he was the guy that had the ball in his hands, period.

That is why his decision to hit the gridiron for Steve Spurrier this season was so concerning for Darrin Horn's team. Throw in the transfers of Murphy Holloway and Ramon Galloway and the graduation of Sam Muldrow, and the Gamecocks were looking at a season with a roster stocked with youth and a star player coming off of three months worth of pounding from playing football in the SEC.

And as you might expect, there has been a bit of an adjustment period for Ellington.
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Monday Morning Dump

The #BIAHroadTrip had a busy first weekend. On Friday night we saw Lipscomb upset Belmont in "The Battle of the Boulevard" game. On Saturday we saw Kentucky defeat South Carolina in the Wildcats SEC home-opener. You can follow along our entire road trip by reading our daily diaries and our pics/vid page.

- Andy Katz's Weekly Watch is a weekly must-read

- Xavier coach Chris Mack tore his meniscus attempting to dunk at practice on Friday

- Morgan State head coach Todd Bozeman has been suspended indefinitely because of an in-game altercation with one of his players

- Jeff Jordan, the eldest son of Michael Jordan, has decided to leave the Central Florida program. His brother Marcus remains on the team. Is it just me, or have these two been absolute train-wrecks since they first entered college?

- Former-Kentucky guard Stacey Poole has decided to transfer to Georgia Tech

- Highly-touted point guard Aquille Carr has decided to attend Seton Hall

- Doug McDermott is good, like, really good

- It's official. Towson is really, really, really bad

- The NCAA is starting to crack down on counterfeit paraphernalia

- According to Adam Zagoria, Andre Drummond plans on returning to UConn for his sophomore season

- It's entirely possible that neither Jamie Dixon or Jay Wright will be coaching in this season's NCAA tournament

- Ten games to watch this week

- OD Anosike broke Ryan Rossiter's record for double-doubles at Siena

- Glen Logan asks a very good question about Kentucky's Terrence Jones

- Clemson guard Cory Stanton is transferring to Tennessee

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#BIAHRoadTrip The Diary, Part IV: A night on the town with KSR, "Always Strapped when I go to Rupp", and a Playboy interview?

3:00 pm Day 4
Hyatt Regency
Lexington, KY
Total Miles: 872

Road Trip Part-I
Road Trip Part-II
Road Trip Part-III


Remember how I said that I could live in Nashville?

I could never live in Lexington.

And that's a compliment, because if I moved to Lexi, I don't think I'd survive a year with Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and the rest of Team KSR only a tweet away. A Saturday night on the town with those rabble-rousers is something that I barely remember but will never forget. We ended up at Lexington Tin Roof, which I'm sure was fun given the way I felt this morning.
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Pics/Vids: Game 1 - Belmont vs. Lipscomb

Friday, January 6th, 2012
Curb Events Center, Belmont University
Lipscomb 85, Belmont 74




(A drive down Belmont Boulevard in Nashville, TN. the two schools are separated by just 2.7 miles)
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#BIAHRoadTrip The Diary, Part III: The Battle of the Boulevard, and why I know what Ke$ha's grandpa does for a living

12:15 pm Day 3
Bluegrass Parkway
30 miles outside Lexington, KY
Total Miles: 844

Road Trip Part-I
Road Trip Part-II


This post is brought to you by the Holiday Inn Express Nashville Downtown.

Friday was dedicated completely to the Battle of the Boulevard.

So after checking in at the Holiday Inn Express Nashville Downtown -- which couldn't be in a more perfect spot; it is five blocks from the strip on Broadway with all the famous Honky Tonks and it took us longer to walk those five blocks than it did to drive to Belmont University -- we made are way over to Belmont's beautiful campus and spent the day hanging out with Danny Forcella, Greg Sage and John Langdon, who all work in the school's athletic department.
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Belmont's struggling, but still has the pieces to win a tournament game

This post is brought to you by the Holiday Inn Express Nashville Downtown and the delicious biscuits and gravy they have available at their continental breakfast.

You can find the rest of the features from the #BIAHRoadTrip here.

NASHVILLE, TN - Belmont's chances of getting an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament died a long time ago. If it wasn't when the Bruins came up short in their upset bids at Duke and at Memphis, then it was when they had a stretch of three losses in four games against the likes of Marshall, Miami OH and Middle Tennessee State.

When you play in a conference like the Atlantic Sun, you can't lose three games to teams that have no shot of getting an at-large bid and still expect the committee to call your name come Selection Sunday without your league's auto-bid. You just can't.
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POSTERIZED: Karam Mashour w/ the Bakersfield Jam

I'll be short and sweet with this one.

This was an awesome dunk. UNLV's Karam Mashour scored only one basket in the Runnin' Rebels 32-point victory over Cal State-Bakersfield.

But he certainly made sure people remembered it.



Yup, the bench loved it.

But was it as good as these?

Tony Snell, New Mexico vs. Houston Baptist, 1/3
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Georgia Tech, 1/3
Trevis Simpson, UNC-Greensboro vs. Miami, 1/2
Orion Outerbridge, Rhode Island vs. Boston College, 1/2
Sam Thompson, Ohio State vs. Indiana, 12/31
DeShon Minnis, Texas Tech vs. Southeastern Louisiana, 12/30
Keith Gabriel, VMI vs. Old Dominion, 12/22
Eric Etherly, Loyola (Md.) vs. Kentucky, 12/22
Chris Evans, Kent State vs. Texas-Arlington, 12/21
P.J. Hairston, North Carolina vs. Texas, 12/21
Robbie Hummel, Purdue vs. IPFW, 12/20
Robert Brown, Virginia Tech vs. North Florida, 12/19
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Kansas State, 12/17
Torye Pelham, Southern Mississippi vs. Ole Miss, 12/17
Quincy Diggs, Akron vs. Florida A&M, 12/17
Anthony Davis, Kentucky vs. Chattanooga, 12/17
Langston Galloway/C.J. Aiken/Ronald Roberts, St. Joseph's vs. Villanova, 12/17
Terrence Ross, Washington vs. UC-Santa Barbara, 12/16
Jared Cunningham, Oregon State vs. Howard, 12/15
Raheem Appleby, Louisiana Tech vs. McNeese State, 12/14
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Detroit, 12/12
Vander Blue, Marquette vs. UW-Green Bay, 12/11
Ronald Roberts, St. Joseph's vs. Creighton, 12/10
Dion Waiters, Syracuse vs. George Washington, 12/10 (DotY Candidate)
Victor Oladipo, Indiana vs. Kentucky, 12/10
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, 12/10
Vander Blue, Marquette vs. Washington, 12/6
Terrence Ross, Washington vs. Marquette, 12/6
Deville Smith, Mississippi State vs. West Virginia, 12/3
Terrence Jones, Kentucky vs. North Carolina, 12/3
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Georgetown, 12/1
Anthony Marshall, UNLV vs. UNC, 11/26
Michael Kidd-Glichrist, Kentucky vs. Portland, 11/26/11 (DotY Candidate)
Markel Brown, Oklahoma State vs. Virginia Tech, 11/25
Rodney Williams, Minnesota vs. DePaul, 11/24
Thomas Robinson, Kansas vs. Duke, 11/23
Stan Okoye, VMI vs. Ohio State, 11/23
Kyisean Reed, Utah State vs. Southern Utah, 11/19
Ra'Shad James, Iona vs. Western Michigan, 11/18
Alandise Harris, Houston vs. Arkansas, 11/18
Sam Thompson, Ohio State vs. Jackson State, 11/18
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Wichita State, 11/18
Eric Griffin, Campbell vs. North Carolina A&T, 11/18 (DotY Candidate)
Olek Czyz, Nevada vs. Pacific, 11/17
Chris Watson, Pikeville vs. Mountain State, 11/16
Ray Willis, North Carolina Central vs. Wagner, 11/16
Mike James, Lamar vs. Ohio, 11/15 (DotY Candidate)
Quincy Acy, Baylor vs. San Diego State, 11/15
Deniz Kilicli, West Virginia vs. Kent State, 11/15
Chris Evans, Kent State vs. West Virginia, 11/15
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Oakland, 11/14
Isaiah Brown, East Tennessee State vs. Virginia Tech, 11/12
Michael Lyons, Air Force vs. Army, 11/11
Dezmine Wells, Xavier vs. Morgan State, 11/11
Jeremy Lamb, UConn vs. Columbia, 11/11 (DotY Candidate)
Andre Drummond, UConn vs. CW Post, 11/4
Moe Harkless, St. John's vs. CW Post, 10/26




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#BIAHRoadTrip The Diary, Part II: Troy dies after I almost kill us

9:15 am Day 2
Quietpool HQ
Nashville, TN
Total Miles: 660

Road Trip Part-I

This post is brought to you by the Holiday Inn Express Nashville-Downtown.

I could live in Nashville.

Seriously, I could spend the rest of my life in this town. Broadway alone has enough great places to give me something to do every weekend night for a year, and while I've never been a country music fan, its certainly growing on me. The group we saw last night at Second Fiddle was just terrific. I have no idea what their name is, but they had a great lead singer, a lead guitarist that could absolutely shred and put together a bunch of mash-ups of country covers of 90's rock songs.
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Friday Morning Dump

As most of you are well aware, we are on the road for the next 22 days, covering 13 different games and traveling over 6,000 miles of great American country-side. I will do my best to continue to provide an adequate dose of morning dumpage. If you are still in need of morning links, I would suggest reading The "Breakfast Buffet" from Jeff Eisenberg, "Wake-Up Call" from Matt Norlander, or any of the Rush The Court conference-specific "Morning-5".

Also, we have a couple of programming notes for you. To follow along with the trip, there are three tabs at the top of the BIAH page for you to go through:

The Diary will be where you can find all of our diaries from this trip posted in chronological order. If you missed one or simply feel like rereading the entirety of our trip off-the-court, give it a click.

Pics and Vids are where we will be posting all of the good pictures we take and videos that we make along the way.

Checklist will fill you in on how we are doing on our scavenger hunt list and also keep you updated on our success in finding all 50 license plates.

And finally, all of the videos that we take along the way will be posted on our channel on youtube. You can find it here. Subscribe, por favor.

But they all get their links from me anyways, so.....
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Friday's Shootaround: What a wacky night in hoops

Apparently, somewhere along the way we got lost and missed the exit for Nashville along I-40.

Because based on the Thursday night action in college hoops, we didn't end up in the Music City, we ended up trapped on the island from LOST. Here's a quick recap of the wackiness from around the country:

No. 12 Indiana 73, No. 13 Michigan 71: I think its safe to say that if Indiana somehow managed to convince the NCAA Tournament committee to let them play every game in Bloomington, they would be the hands-down favorite to win the national title. The Wolverines became yet the latest victim to fall in a nail-biter at Assembly Hall. Christian Watford (25 points, seven boards, four assists) and Cody Zeller (18 points on 8-10 shooting) carried the Hoosiers to a lead that got as big as 15, but Indiana could never put away a scrappy Michigan team despite never trailing in the game. After Michigan was able to tie the game at 46 early in the second half, Zeller and Verdell Jones sparked a 19-9 surge that gave the Hoosiers another commanding lead. Michigan's zone was frustrating enough to get them tied once again at 66, but six straight point from Verdell Jones put the game away.
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VIDEO: ULL uses six players on the final possession to beat WKU

I had thought that we had seen the weirdest finish to a basketball game that we would come across this season when Wisconsin's Ryan Evans banked in a prayer of a three-pointer that beat the overtime buzzer based on one clock but came late according to the official clock.

It only took two days to top that insanity, however.

Over in Bowling Green, KY, Western Kentucky and Louisiana-Lafayette were tied with 21 seconds left in a Sun Belt conference battle. ULL had the ball and coming out of a timeout, Elfrid Payton scored on a driving layup off of a broken play with three seconds left on the clock. WKU's prayer fell short, and UL escaped with a tough, conference road win.

Sounds simple.

Except that the Ragin' Cajuns had six men on the floor and no one noticed. Seriously. We got the video:
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Conference Catch-ups: The SEC

Over the course of this week, we will spend a few minutes catching you up on how some of the best conferences in the country currently look. With conference play starting up, its time to get into the basketball spirit.

You can find the rest of the Conference Catch-ups here.

Favorite: Kentucky

Well, this is obvious, isn't it? Kentucky might be the most talented team in the country. If it wasn't for a no-show performance from Terrence Jones and Anthony Davis in Bloomington -- or if Christian Watford hadn't hit the shot of the year to date -- the Wildcats would still be undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country. There isn't much I can tell you here that you don't already know. Marquis Teague's ability to shoot and protect the ball is the key. Anthony Davis is a freak. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is freakin' awesome (hard-hitting analysis, that's why you read me).
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#BIAHRoadTrip The Diary, Part I: What you can expect, and the lost inverter

9:34 am Day 1
BIAH HQ
Washington DC
Total Miles: 0

And we're off.

In approximately 11 hours and 660 miles, we will be pulling into Nashville, TN, to spend an evening with Danny Forcella, hands-down the best SID in college athletics, while we do some back ground "research" on the Battle of the Boulevard at whatever local watering hole Mr. Forcella decides to take us too.
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Thursday Morning Dump: #BIAHRoadTrip Edition

If you haven't noticed, we've kinda been occupied with something pretty huge, which will explain why today's Dump is so light.

#BIAHRoadTrip

- Temple beat Duke in the Wednesday upset of the night. But the Owls weren't the only team from Philadelphia that had success on Wednesday

- Can you name me the last time we saw a team as high-caliber as Xavier plummet so hard this quickly? The X-Men lost to on Wednesday night, the fifth defeat in six games

- Seth Davis provides an update for us on the Todd O'Brien St.Joe's/UAB fiasco

- Kemba thinks the Huskies are more talented without him

- Depth. That's what makes Syracuse so much better than every other team in the country right now, and they showed it off last night against Providence

- Another great "Top-10 high-school/college hoops books" list.

- Kansas beat Kansas State last night in an early-Big 12 season match-up. Trevor Releford had a big game, Thomas Robinson had another double-double, and Jeff Withey dunked everything

- The finalists for the Cousy Awards were announced

- Really Pitt fans? You really want Jamie Dixon out? I know you've had a rough season, but, c'mon man! Luckily, Cardiac Hill has some level-headed thinkers

- Yancy Gates made his return to the court last night following his post-brawl suspension. He didn't start for the Bearcats, but he got a roaring applause when he entered the game

- Of course the refs aren't going to point blame for a controversial finish

- Memphis beat Vanderbilt last night. Both teams continue to befuddle the hell outta me


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POSTERIZED: Tony Snell Baptizes HBU

Quick, answer this: Who is New Mexico's leading scorer through 15 games?

If you guessed Drew Gordon,(Which plenty of you probably did) you're wrong.

It's Tony Snell.

Who is Tony Snell?

He's this guy:



And no, I'm not talking about the guy in blue who got #facepalm'd.

I'm talking about Tony Snell, a 6-foot-7 sophomore from riverside, CA averaging 13.9ppg this season for the Lobos. He's one of the most versatile sleeper sophomores in the country, as evident in this #POSTERIZED video. I also love that he switched back to his right hand before he threw down.

Another awesome thing about Snell: His hair (#AllHairTeam for certain)

(H/T @BuyYourFreedom )

But was it as good as these?

Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Georgia Tech, 1/3
Trevis Simpson, UNC-Greensboro vs. Miami, 1/2
Orion Outerbridge, Rhode Island vs. Boston College, 1/2
Sam Thompson, Ohio State vs. Indiana, 12/31
DeShon Minnis, Texas Tech vs. Southeastern Louisiana, 12/30
Keith Gabriel, VMI vs. Old Dominion, 12/22
Eric Etherly, Loyola (Md.) vs. Kentucky, 12/22
Chris Evans, Kent State vs. Texas-Arlington, 12/21
P.J. Hairston, North Carolina vs. Texas, 12/21
Robbie Hummel, Purdue vs. IPFW, 12/20
Robert Brown, Virginia Tech vs. North Florida, 12/19
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Kansas State, 12/17
Torye Pelham, Southern Mississippi vs. Ole Miss, 12/17
Quincy Diggs, Akron vs. Florida A&M, 12/17
Anthony Davis, Kentucky vs. Chattanooga, 12/17
Langston Galloway/C.J. Aiken/Ronald Roberts, St. Joseph's vs. Villanova, 12/17
Terrence Ross, Washington vs. UC-Santa Barbara, 12/16
Jared Cunningham, Oregon State vs. Howard, 12/15
Raheem Appleby, Louisiana Tech vs. McNeese State, 12/14
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Detroit, 12/12
Vander Blue, Marquette vs. UW-Green Bay, 12/11
Ronald Roberts, St. Joseph's vs. Creighton, 12/10
Dion Waiters, Syracuse vs. George Washington, 12/10 (DotY Candidate)
Victor Oladipo, Indiana vs. Kentucky, 12/10
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, 12/10
Vander Blue, Marquette vs. Washington, 12/6
Terrence Ross, Washington vs. Marquette, 12/6
Deville Smith, Mississippi State vs. West Virginia, 12/3
Terrence Jones, Kentucky vs. North Carolina, 12/3
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Georgetown, 12/1
Anthony Marshall, UNLV vs. UNC, 11/26
Michael Kidd-Glichrist, Kentucky vs. Portland, 11/26/11 (DotY Candidate)
Markel Brown, Oklahoma State vs. Virginia Tech, 11/25
Rodney Williams, Minnesota vs. DePaul, 11/24
Thomas Robinson, Kansas vs. Duke, 11/23
Stan Okoye, VMI vs. Ohio State, 11/23
Kyisean Reed, Utah State vs. Southern Utah, 11/19
Ra'Shad James, Iona vs. Western Michigan, 11/18
Alandise Harris, Houston vs. Arkansas, 11/18
Sam Thompson, Ohio State vs. Jackson State, 11/18
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Wichita State, 11/18
Eric Griffin, Campbell vs. North Carolina A&T, 11/18 (DotY Candidate)
Olek Czyz, Nevada vs. Pacific, 11/17
Chris Watson, Pikeville vs. Mountain State, 11/16
Ray Willis, North Carolina Central vs. Wagner, 11/16
Mike James, Lamar vs. Ohio, 11/15 (DotY Candidate)
Quincy Acy, Baylor vs. San Diego State, 11/15
Deniz Kilicli, West Virginia vs. Kent State, 11/15
Chris Evans, Kent State vs. West Virginia, 11/15
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Oakland, 11/14
Isaiah Brown, East Tennessee State vs. Virginia Tech, 11/12
Michael Lyons, Air Force vs. Army, 11/11
Dezmine Wells, Xavier vs. Morgan State, 11/11
Jeremy Lamb, UConn vs. Columbia, 11/11 (DotY Candidate)
Andre Drummond, UConn vs. CW Post, 11/4
Moe Harkless, St. John's vs. CW Post, 10/26

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Thursday's Shootaround: Georgetown's comeback tops wild day

Temple 78, No. 3 Duke 73: See here

No. 9 Georgetown 73, No. 20 Marquette 70: There are going to be plenty of words written about Georgetown's dramatic, come-from-behind win over Marquette, as there should be. This was one of the best games I've watched all season long (I'm STILL pissed that I decided not to go). After a first half that saw a track meet turn into a 14 point Marquette lead at the break and a 17 point lead early in the second half, Georgetown was led back by their three horses: Henry Sims, Hollis Thompson and Jason Clark. All three will get -- and deserve -- a ton of praise for their performance down the stretch, but I'm going to give the game ball to Greg Whittington. The 6'8" freshman wing played stifling defense on Darius Johnson-Odom down the stretch, completely taking Marquette's go-to guy out of the game.
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Duke's got issues, but not the ones we have been talking about

I've never taken much stock in the top 25 polls.

Why?

There are too many people with votes that have no clue what they are talking about and far too many decisions are made strictly based the last time a team lost. Ohio State lost by four on the road against a top 15 team that had already beaten then-No. 1 Kentucky at home and they drop from No. 2 in the country to No. 7?

No.

Sorry.
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