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The Secondary Break: Wednesday’s Links

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Moton stresses defense to MEAC-leading North Carolina Central (Durham Herald-Sun)
While No. 8 Duke is well on its way to a high seed in the NCAA tournament, they aren’t the only team in Durham that could wind up in the 68-team field next month. The other? That would be Levelle Moton’s North Carolina Central Eagles, who have used a blue collar approach to take over first place in the MEAC.

Toughest part of Syracuse basketball gauntlet begins in Pittsburgh (Syracuse Post-Standard)
No. 1 Syracuse is off to a 23-0 start, winning their first ten conference games as a member of the ACC. But things will get far more difficult down the stretch for the Orange, who play five of their final eight regular season games on the road beginning with tonight’s contest at No. 25 Pittsburgh.

There is NBA talent in the Big Ten, but more at Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and Wisconsin than Ohio State (Cleveland Plain-Dealer)
Ohio State looked to be headed back in the right direction prior to Tuesday’s game against No. 15 Michigan. But the Wolverines left Columbus with an 80-70 victory, with the home standing Buckeyes once again struggling offensively. One of the reasons for the struggles: a lack of NBA-level talent according to this story.

Vaughn’s commitment makes future lineups very intriguing (Las Vegas Sun)
UNLV added another talented piece to its 2014 recruiting class on Tuesday night, as five-star shooting guard Rashad Vaughn verbally committed to the Mountain West school. With the players expected to return, along with that talented recruiting haul, Dave Rice won’t lack for lineup options next season.

Home crowds leave mark on college basketball games (San Francisco Chronicle)
There’s no denying the impact that fans can have on college basketball games, with the best being able to supply their team with the extra energy needed to win close games. But the impact can also be negative, and this past weekend there were examples of both.

College basketball’s preseason top 5 has been historically bad in 2013-14 (SB Nation)
It happens in most years. The preseason top five is announced, and some make the assumption that those programs will simply run through the season with few bumps in the road. Well that hasn’t happened this year, and the struggles of the 2013-14 preseason top five have been historic.

Are college basketball’s new rules helping or hurting the game? (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
The general thinking in regards to the new points of emphasis was that after an adjustment period teams and officials would adjust, ultimately resulting in better played games. Well that hasn’t happened in some cases, with conference play reverting back to the way things were. And predictably, coaches are still confused about it all.

DePaul basketball needs a complete makeover (Chicago Tribune)
Earlier this week it was announced that DePaul senior forward and leading scorer Cleveland Melvin was no longer enrolled in school, with this being the latest blow to a program that has struggled for years. The new Big East was supposed to provide a spark to programs like DePaul, but once again the Blue Demons find themselves at the bottom of the conference.

UR’s Anthony shifted into driver’s seat (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Richmond was hit hard by a personnel loss last week, with a torn meniscus in both of his knees ending Cedrick Lindsay’s senior season. The effect of this injury on the Spiders: Kendall Anthony had to take the reins as the team leader and primary scoring option.