Top Posts
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San Diego State’s Jamaal Franklin sunk UNLV with a last-second shot on Jan. 14, but, put in a similar situation again, the Rebels wouldn’t let history repeat itself. After losing a 13-point second half lead to trail by one with 42 seconds to play, a transition layup by guard Anthony Marshall and some lockdown defense…
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Any intelligent college hoop fans wrote off Baylor as a title contender earlier this week. The No. 6 Bears just don’t have it, that special something associated with title teams. Saturday’s 72-57 loss to No. 4 Missouri provided the latest examples. Baylor (21-4) killed Missouri on the boards, but couldn’t muster any defense on the…
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Everything is not always what it seems. Despite the 85-67 final score of No. 2 Syracuse’s Saturday afternoon win over Connecticut, the first 34 minutes were nothing like the final six, when the Orange dominated and ripped off a 22-6 run to widen the gap and seal the game. Prior to those deciding few minutes,…
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After blowing a 10 point lead with two and a half minutes left and dropping their date with Duke on Wednesday, the No. 5 North Carolina headed into their Saturday matchup with No. 19 Virginia with the scrutinizing eye of the nation on them. How would they respond? What would their response to arguably the…
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The latest edition of Bubble Banter projects 32 teams as either “locks” or teams that “should be in” with a month of action remaining until Selection Sunday. With 68 total spots available (including 31 automatic qualifiers), there are roughly 14 spots available and 38 teams on the bubble. As clarification, several teams listed as bubble…
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Video: Will Syracuse’s defensive rebounding be its downfall?
Feb 11, 2012, 8:30 AM EDT
Syracuse is 24-1, ranked No. 2 overall and pretty much has the Big East and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament locked up. It’s been that good this season. (OK, the last one isn’t really “locked up,” but it’s close.) So why was Orange coach Jim Boeheim so mad after Wednesday’s win against…
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How do some team’s accomplishments compare to their reps?
Feb 10, 2012, 10:25 PM EDT
It’s always an interesting exercise when you take a team’s name away from its numbers. To demonstrate, let’s look at some numbers used by the NCAA Selection Committee to select and seed teams for the tournament. We’ll refer to them as Team A, etc. during the first part of the exercise, and reveal the names at the…
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Game of the Weekend: Sat. 4:00 pm: No. 14 San Diego State @ No. 16 UNLV: By now you should all know what happened the last time these two teams got together. Playing on a bum ankle, SDSU’s Jamaal Franklin had 22 points and 10 boards, including a tough, driving layup with just 0.3 seconds…
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A George Mason concern: ‘People play physical with us and we don’t’
Feb 10, 2012, 1:02 PM EDT
George Mason’s the reigning regular-season CAA champ. It’s 20-6 this season and tied atop the conference with Drexel and VCU at 12-2. Yet, nobody seems scared of the Patriots. That’s not going to apply to likes of VCU (Final Four!), Drexel (few CAA teams have more experience and talent) or ODU (mostly ‘cause nobody intimidates…
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Must-read material on what happened to Xavier’s Tu Holloway
Feb 10, 2012, 11:50 AM EDT
Xavier started the season as a Final Four darkhorse. Now, just winning a game in the NCAA tournament would be a delight. But it wasn’t an injury that derailed the season. It was a fight. The Xavier-Cincinnati brawl on Dec. 10 remains one of the season’s most notable events for its sheer ferocity and fallout.…
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So, is the best behind Murray State? The Racers’ perfect season came to an end Thursday night as Tennessee State pulled off a 72-68 victory that was as notable for how Murray State handled itself down the stretch as the ultimate outcome. The Racers didn’t look like a 23-0 team, bumbling possessions and throwing away…
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Blogger Spotlight: The Big Lead on Kentucky, the Big East vs. the Big Ten and some Final Four picks
Feb 10, 2012, 9:30 AM EDT
The Big Lead covers everything sports, and then some. NFL, NBA, MLB, MMA, fantasy sports, sports gossip, babes, statistical analysis, you name it. It’s there. With NFL season over, expect even more college hoops to surface on the site as it reflects the nation’s annual rising interest in the sport. But if it seems as…
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Gonzaga 73, No. 13 St. Mary’s 59: See here. Tennessee State 72, No. 7 Murray State 68: See here. No. 22 Wisconsin 68, Minnesota 61 OT: In one of the stranger games you are going to see this season, Minnesota whiffed on a golden opportunity to land a marquee win heading into the season’s crucial…
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The key for St. Mary’s: don’t let the Gonzaga loss spark another collapse
Feb 10, 2012, 2:10 AM EDT
Last season, St. Mary’s had the inside track to becoming the first team not named Gonzaga to win an outright WCC title since 2000. They were sitting two games up on the Zags with three to play in the league, meaning that even with a loss to Gonzaga in the second-to-last game of the regular…
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Murray St. loses its first game, but it’s still a team to be feared
Feb 10, 2012, 12:14 AM EDT
Murray State cracked under the pressure in its 72-68 loss to Tennessee State. I have no problem with saying that. The burden of being the nation’s last undefeated team finally got to the Racers. That’s the only way to explain how a team with so many veterans — eight of the nine players in Murray…
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If Mississippi State was going to keep Ole Miss from sweeping the season series for the first time in nearly a decade a half, the onus was going to fall on point guard Dee Bost. After shooting 4-of-15 in the Bulldogs’ 75-68 loss to the Rebels on Jan. 18, Bost showed up on Thursday night,…
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Video: Is North Carolina the nation’s most confounding team?
Feb 9, 2012, 9:05 PM EDT
OK, one last Duke-North Carolina post. Can make an exception for a great rivalry with a classic finish. Our SportsTalk crew caught up with Yahoo! Writer Pat Forde to solicit impressions of the game, Austin Rivers’ moxie and UNC’s odd performance. The only issue I have? The Heels aren’t the nation’s most confounding team given…
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NC State early leader for most ’12 McDonald’s All-Americans
Feb 9, 2012, 7:09 PM EDT
The McDonald’s All-American game will have an N.C. State flavor this year. Three of the Wolfpack’s 2012 recruits – Tyler Lewis, Rodney Purvis and T.J. Warren – landed spots on this year’s squad, the most of any college. Arizona and Kentucky both have two recruits on the 24-player roster, which were announced Thursday. Of course,…
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Thursday’s slate, what to watch centers on St. Mary’s-Gonzaga
Feb 9, 2012, 5:08 PM EDT
The last time St. Mary’s and Gonzaga played, St. Mary’s turned things into a one-sided affair and sent a message to the Zags that their WCC reign might be ending. Tonight could cement that notion. The Gaels (22-2, 11-0) are one of eight teams who have yet to lose a conference game. Yet with four…
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Damian Lillard is the game’s best PG. Why isn’t he a bigger deal?
Feb 9, 2012, 2:10 PM EDT
If Damian Lillard played in a bigger conference or at a more prominent school, he’d be a superstar by now. Heck, if he just had a catchy moniker for a first name, that’d work too. As a result, reminders are often needed as to the junior guard’s talents. So consider this your latest reminder that…
