Top Stories
Posted: Nov 24, 2009 1:14AM By David Steele (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Texas

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Apparently it's just going to be
Texas' destiny this season to be the "other.'' The "other'' Big 12 team with Final Four aspirations, and the "other'' program with the blue-chip recruiting class.
However, it works in Texas' favor -- as well as the recruits' -- that their most highly-touted freshmen, guards
Avery Bradley and
J'Covan Brown, and swingman
Jordan Hamilton, are also the "others'' on their own team. The fate of the team won't ride on them, the way
Kentucky's will depend on
John Wall and Co. No need so far for any of the Longhorn trio to save the day as Wall did in his very first collegiate game against Miami University.
Posted: Nov 23, 2009 3:00PM By FanHouse Newswire (RSS feed)
(AP) -- Syracuse was so impressive in the 2K Sports Classic that it made one of the best entrances ever into The Associated Press' college basketball poll.
Posted: Nov 23, 2009 2:54PM By Michelle Smith (RSS feed)
Filed Under: California, Connecticut, Gonzaga, Maryland, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, Virginia, WCC, ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Mid-Majors, MWC, Pac-10, Women's Basketball

Two weeks ago, Pat Summitt surveyed the national scene and said this:
"A lot of people don't have
Mississippi State on their radar screen and they should."
Never argue with Pat.
Mississippi State is climbing the rankings -- moving from No. 25 to No. 19 in this week's poll -- and the ladder of national recognition, particularly after Sunday's 84-55 win over No. 20
Maryland.
Granted,
Maryland is remodeling after the graduation of Kristi Tolliver and Marisa Coleman and the transfer of
Marah Strickland, and Brenda Frese's program will likely struggle with change most of the year, but the Bulldogs took it to the Terrapins on their home floor.
Posted: Nov 22, 2009 11:59PM By Michelle Smith (RSS feed)
Filed Under: California, Big 12, Pac-10, Women's Basketball

Change doesn't always come quickly.
For example, when everyone says that Baylor freshman
Brittney Griner will change women's basketball. Well, sure, she will.
But did we all expect it to happen in the first couple of weeks?
In the first three games of her college career, she has tried to dunk twice and missed both. Sunday at No. 17 Cal in Berkeley, Calif., Griner had an opportunity in the closing moments of a 69-49 victory. Baylor had the ball in transition and guard Melissa Jones passed the ball to Griner behind her back at the baseline. Griner went up with her right hand to dunk and the ball bounced off the rim. She pulled down the rebound and was fouled.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 8:32PM By Tom Ziller (RSS feed)
Filed Under: West Virginia, NBA Prospects
Bob Huggins has West Virginia flying high in the top 10, and a light pre-Thanksgiving schedule should keep the 1-0 Mountaineers from much Kentucky-style heartburn or any Carolina hiccups. But to keep those lofty expectations realistic heading into Big East play -- and before that the 76 Classic in Anaheim beginning Nov. 29, headlined by UCLA and No. 11 Butler -- Huggins certainly needs big things from standout sophomore forward
Devin Ebanks.
For that to happen, Ebanks would have to actually be playing with the team. Which, as of right now, he's not, with no timeline for his return in place, nor even an explanation of why he is not with the team.
Posted: Nov 20, 2009 1:54PM By David Steele (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Syracuse, UCLA, Alabama

The roll call of eye-popping scores began with the start of the college basketball season. And there's a chance they won't slow down soon, for an important reason: this time, the names on the front of the jerseys tell less of a story than the names on the back.
The opening week's finals look like someone's idea of a joke. The opening acts, in exhibition season, should have warned everybody: LeMoyne 82,
Syracuse 79, and
Georgia Tech 84,
Indiana (Pa.) 76 in overtime. Then, when the games counted:
Texas-San Antonio 62,
Iowa 50. Cornell 71, Alabama 67. Wofford 60, Georgia 57. Rider 88, Mississippi State 74. Cal State-Fullerton 68, UCLA 65 in two overtimes.
None of that includes Kentucky 72, Miami of Ohio 70, in Game Two of the John Calipari Era in Lexington; if not for freshman
John Wall's heroics in, literally, the final second, that era would have been a carbon-copy of the start of the now-infamous Billy Gillispie Era (loss at home to Gardner-Webb in his second game).
Posted: Nov 20, 2009 6:00AM By Ray Holloman (RSS feed)
Filed Under: North Carolina

When Roy Williams was asked exactly where he felt his
North Carolina team stood at this point in the season, he responded with the sort of enthusiasm usually reserved for a weekend with your mother-in-law.
And, being Roy Williams, it was in the form of an anecdote.
"I had a friend of mine tell me, Roy, you have more patience than anyone I've ever seen,'" the Tar Heel coach said. "So I looked at him and said, 'What are you talking about?' He said, 'You haven't used any of it yet, so you've got it all stored up."
Now might be the appropriate time to start using a little.
In the Tar Heels first real test of the season against
Ohio State, North Carolina opened with a Broadway worthy debut, pushing around Big Ten title hopeful Buckeyes on the way to a 77-73 victory-slash-statement.
At least for the first 39 minutes.
The remaining 60 seconds served precisely as a reminder as to why Job never picked up a clipboard.
Posted: Nov 19, 2009 8:45PM By Michelle Smith (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Connecticut, Women's Basketball

Tina Charles' stat line in the box score looks just fine by almost any measure: 15 points, 11 rebounds in 18 minutes.
Unless the person doing the measuring is UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma, who sees the personal fouls that kept her out of the game for much of the first half.
Auriemma has a knack for viewing the glass half-empty when it comes to Charles. Fine has never been good enough to stop the yelling and the cajoling. It is really an existential thing between the demanding coach and his senior center who hasn't always risen to meet his demands.
"It's easy to be frustrated with Tina. If I didn't get frustrated with Tina it wouldn't be any fun coaching this team," Auriemma said Tuesday after the top-ranked Huskies' 83-58 win over Texas in San Antonio. "You watch Tina play for the first six or seven minutes and you will say 'Wow, there is nothing this kid can't do.' She could go for 30 every night.' "
Posted: Nov 18, 2009 8:42PM By Brett McMurphy (RSS feed)
Filed Under: FanHouse Exclusive, USF

TAMPA, Fla. -- The University of South Florida's men's basketball program has violated numerous NCAA rules over the past months, a former USF assistant coach, former USF players and other school sources told FanHouse.
Most of the NCAA violations involve USF video and conditioning assistant
Terrelle Woody, who was hired Aug. 26, 2008, in a non-coaching position by USF coach
Stan Heath (right) as part of a package deal to guarantee the signing of highly touted Maryland transfer Gus Gilchrist.
The violations include Woody providing transportation to student-athletes, watching "open gyms," coaching players and illegally working out USF players.
Posted: Nov 18, 2009 11:45AM By Michelle Smith (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Women's Basketball

SAN ANTONIO -- I should have known better.
Never leave a Geno Auriemma press conference. At least, not without leaving behind the tape recorder.
Posted: Nov 18, 2009 10:28AM By David Steele (RSS feed)

LORETTO, Pa. -- Delaware women's basketball coach Tina Martin let the phrase "triple-double'' creep into her comments following her team's season opener Tuesday night, and once it was out, she couldn't reel it back in. But anybody who had watched ...
Posted: Nov 18, 2009 1:01AM By FanHouse Newswire (RSS feed)

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- In the rematch, Kansas missed the free throws and Memphis had the final shot. The Jayhawks won again, but not without a tougher-than-expected fight from the undermanned and supposedly overmatched Tigers. Cole Aldrich had ...
Posted: Nov 18, 2009 1:00AM By Michelle Smith (RSS feed)

SAN ANTONIO -- Tennessee and Connecticut in the same gym, but not on the court at the same time. Maybe San Antonio will bring Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma back together, but not on this night. Instead, the top-ranked Huskies and the Lady Vols ...
Posted: Nov 17, 2009 11:55AM By David Steele (RSS feed)

Jim Phelan will remind you in a heartbeat that he's already in the Hall of Fame, a bunch of them. It's not that he wonders why he keeps getting asked about the one in Springfield, Mass., the one that won't let him in. It's that it doesn't bother him ...
Posted: Nov 16, 2009 9:45PM By Ray Holloman (RSS feed)

When John Calipari accepted the Kentucky coaching job, he warned that there are no easy solutions in college basketball. At the time, it was like telling a state full of lottery winners about the value of sound investment strategies. Thank Miami ...