With John Calipari now coaching at Kentucky, top shooting guard Xavier Henry reopened his recruiting. C.J. was already on the Memphis squad following a failed professional baseball career, but that meant little. Ultimately Xavier Henry has opted to go to Kansas, and his older brother will be joining him.
The addition of Henry to a recruiting class that includes power forward Thomas Robinson and point guard Elijah Johnson -- both top-50 recruits -- means that a likely top-10 recruiting class will join a Kansas team that finished in the top-10 and will be returning everyone. Kansas now joins North Carolina and Michigan State as the presumed favorites for 2010.
March started days ago. The Madness started Wednesday night.
On an evening where bubble teams could've punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament and boosters could've started humming bars of "One Shining Moment," teams turned down invitations like they were to a wedding without an open bar or the People's Choice Awards.
A memo, fellows. This isn't an invitation to a candlelight dinner with Randy Johnson. "Big Dance" doesn't mean you're cutting a rug with Mark Madsen or waltzing cheek-to-cheek with Mike Tyson.
Poor Dave Neal. He never stood a chance. Sure, it was senior night in College Park, Mary. And sure, Neal was white hot and having the best night of his career when he decided to try and defend the moving freight train that is Jeff Teague. Teague goes baseline, hops about 30 feet in the air and plants his unmentionables on Neal's face. At least it wasn't Neal's final home game or anything though, right?
Heading into Wednesday night's Duke-Maryland tilt, the big story was about a resurgent Terps team, fresh off an overtime win over the second-ranked Tar Heels, and its sudden NCAA tournament prospects. Despite an inconsistent start to the season -- which included a home loss to Morgan St. and a 85-44 thrashing against the Blue Devils in Durham -- an emotional home-court victory over the ACC's best squad suddenly gave an aimless season direction. If Maryland could manage to upset seventh-ranked Duke, its tournament ticket would be punched.
Maryland-Duke is not a rivalry to be taken lightly, even if Duke did wallop the Terps by 41 in Cameron earlier this season. Now that Maryland is firmly on the bubble (and climbing), though, the stakes are raised again. Which may explain why Maryland fans are going all out in their pre-game prep for Wednesday night's matchup.
"All out" here doesn't just mean "making funny chant sheets," either; the Terps have not only created Facebook groups dedicated to "Operation: Scheyerface 2.0" (via Joe Ovies) but they also spent the week prank-calling Duke's hotel room.
The Maryland Terrapins broke out the Ronald McDonald, french-fry yellow unis for Saturday afternoon's game against the third-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels, and for 30 minutes they played like a bunch of players destined for careers in the fast-food industry, or at least a profession that doesn't involve dribbling basketballs.
Junior guard -- and on-court cheerleader -- Greivis Vasquez scored the Terps' first 16 points to keep the game close, and then he didn't make another basket until 21 game minutes later. By that time, Maryland trailed by 16 and their already slim chances of backing into the NCAAs seemed pretty much gone.
North Carolina landed some tough news tonight, finding out that both Marcus Ginyard and Will Graves will miss the remainder of the season because of injury and suspension, respectively.
And while the news might have dampened spirits after the game, you couldn't really tell throughout a 108-91 beatdown that saw the Tar Heels hit 16 3-pointers -- seven from Wayne Ellington -- as they inspired an already exuberant Dean Dome crowd that showed up to see whether or not the Tar Heels could break a losing streak against a Maryland team that was suddenly slightly arrogant for no apparent reason.
The Maryland Terrapins haven't lost to the North Carolina Tar Heels since 2005-06. Seems pretty crazy, no? Of course, regardless of that run, you would think Maryland's players would have snuck into tonight's game against Carolina somewhat humbly, having already run their mouths before getting embarrassed by Duke this year.
They did not though. At least Landon Milbourne didn't, anyway. He made sure to point out the streak to the Diamondback, Maryland's student newspaper.
Debbie Yow, Maryland's athletic director, has had a pretty tough few weeks. First, her sister, Kay Yow, passed. Meanwhile, the men's basketball program continued in a total freefall as Gary Williams started spewing public vitriol in the direction of her assistant.
So forgive Yow for not being incredibly visible about the whole thing. However, today, she convened the media to announce that Williams' job security is just fine.
Wake Forest 70, Duke 68 Two things stand out about Wake Forest from this game. First, Dino Gaudio has done a tremendous job turning the Deacons into a team that can actually play defense (Holloman noted this a while back, actually), and second, can this Wake team close? I know they actually won, so that seems like a silly question, but after seeing the Virginia Tech debacle and then seeing them play down the stretch against Duke, it wouldn't be fair not to question their throat-stomping ability
NCAA Basketball 
With John Calipari now coaching at Kentucky, top shooting guard Xavier Henry reopened his recruiting. C.J. was already on the Memphis squad following a failed professional baseball career, but that meant little. Ultimately Xavier Henry has opted to go to Kansas, and his older brother will be joining him.
March started days ago. The Madness started Wednesday night. 
Maryland-Duke is not a rivalry to be taken lightly, even if Duke did wallop the Terps by 41 in Cameron earlier this season. Now that Maryland is firmly on the bubble (and climbing), though, the stakes are raised again. Which may explain why Maryland fans are going all out in their pre-game prep for Wednesday night's matchup.
The Maryland Terrapins broke out the Ronald McDonald, french-fry yellow unis for Saturday afternoon's game against the third-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels, and for 30 minutes they played like a bunch of players destined for careers in the fast-food industry, or at least a profession that doesn't involve dribbling basketballs. 
North Carolina landed some tough news tonight, finding out that both 
The Maryland Terrapins haven't lost to the North Carolina Tar Heels since 2005-06. Seems pretty crazy, no? Of course, regardless of that run, you would think Maryland's players would have snuck into tonight's game against Carolina somewhat humbly, having 
Onion Peels
