All about the Big East: Irish test

By Jason King
December 29, 2010


With an 11-1 record and victories over schools such as Wisconsin and Gonzaga, there’s no question that Notre Dame is a good basketball team.

Now we’re about to find out how good.

read more

Washington State upsets No. 15 Baylor 77-71

By Jaymes Song, AP
December 25, 2010


Honolulu, HI — Klay Thompson knows how good Washington State is. He wants others to know, too.

Thompson scored 20 points, including two key 3-pointers down the stretch, and Washington State held on to upset No. 15 Baylor 77-71 in the semifinals of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu.

read more

No. 18 Texas beats No. 12 Michigan State 67-55

By Larry Lage, AP
December 22, 2010


East Lansing, MI — Jordan Hamilton scored 21 points, Tristan Thompson had 17 points and 15 rebounds and No. 18 Texas beat No. 12 Michigan State 67-55 on Wednesday night.

The Longhorns (10-2) became the first nonconference team to win at the Breslin Center since Duke on Dec. 3, 2003, snapping a 52-game winning streak.

read more

Selby's 5 threes help Kansas Jayhawks squeak past USC, 70-68

By The Associated Press
December 18, 2010


Lawrence, KS — Is it too soon to call him the legendary Josh Selby?

Flashing more poise and grit than even his most ardent admirers had a right to expect, the most heralded Kansas freshman since Danny Manning made his collegiate debut Saturday in stunning fashion, drilling a go-ahead 3-pointer with 26 seconds left and lifting the third-ranked Jayhawks past a scrappy USC 70-68.

read more

Jackson, Syracuse over Michigan State 72-58

By Jim O'Connel, AP
December 8, 2010


New York, NY — Rick Jackson has been a solid rebounder in his three years at Syracuse. He's going at it at a totally different pace his senior season.

Jackson matched his season-high with 17 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to lead No. 8 Syracuse to a 72-58 victory over No. 7 Michigan State on Tuesday night in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden.

read more

North Carolina edges No. 10 Kentucky 75-73

By Aaron Beard, AP
December 4, 2010


Chapel Hill, NC — Tyler Zeller scored a career-high 27 points and hit the go-ahead free throws with 47 seconds left, helping North Carolina edge No. 10 Kentucky 75-73 on Saturday.

read more

Duke unanimous No. 1; UConn joins Top 25

By Jim O'Connell, AP
November 29, 2010


There’s no arguing Duke is No. 1 in The Associated Press college basketball poll and no doubt that Connecticut has moved into the Top 25.

The Blue Devils (6-0) received all 65 first-place votes from the national media panel Monday, and the Huskies (5-0) made the second-most impressive jump into the rankings in the last 21 years, moving in at No. 7.

read more

Women's NCAA Basketball Power Rankings:
UConn's vulnerable, so Baylor tops board

By Richard Deitsch
Novermber 12, 2010


As he held court for a small group of reporters last month inside a midtown Manhattan restaurant, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma allowed himself a moment to reminisce about the past. "You know, Tina Charles could be a real pain in the ass," said Auriemma, smiling broadly as he reflected on his now-graduated All-America center. "But, now, all of a sudden, I can't believe how much I miss her. It's like, Come back, Shane! Come back, Tina Charles. I need you."

read more

UCLA Bruins, Tar Heels seek fortune reversal

By Jason King
November 9, 2010


Los Angeles, CA — Eight months after UCLA finished 14-18 and failed to make the NCAA tournament, Bruins coach Ben Howland still feels the sting of 2009-10 season.

“Painful,” Howland said Monday. “Very painful.”

read more

Top 25 college basketball small forward

By Steve Megargee
Novermber 3, 2010


The lack of depth nationally at small forward often makes it a struggle to come up with a list of the nation's top 25 players at the position.

Duke's Kyle Singler and North Carolina's Harrison Barnes were each first-team selections on The Associated Press' preseason All-America team. You can make a good argument that Singler is the nation's top returning player and Barnes is the nation's most promising freshman.

read more

Corey Fisher hopes to get Villanova back to Final Four

By Marlen Garcia
October 26, 2010


Villanova, PA — When Villanova coach Jay Wright heard top returning scorer Corey Fisher had scored a dizzying 105 points in a summer Pro-Am game in the Bronx, N.Y., he had a pressing question for the New Yorker.

"I said to him, 'How do you score 105 and I have to beg you to shoot sometimes?' " Wright says.

read more

Lavin has St. John’s buzzing

By Jason King
October 20, 2010


New York, NY — Six months into his tenure, St. John’s basketball coach Steve Lavin has already racked up quite the expense bill.

Plane flights to AAU tournaments, hotel stays, dinner with prominent alumni – and cell phone chargers. Yes, cell phone chargers. Lavin has gone through five of them since his hiring in April.

read more

Can Notre Dame stay in Big East hunt
with Harangody, Jackson gone?

By Nick Wass
October 12, 201


South Bend, IN — Hanging high over the floor at the Joyce Center, a banner sporting Luke Harangody's No. 44 is hard to miss.

Harangody, one of the most prolific scorers and rebounders in Notre Dame's history, has moved on.

read more

Preseason college basketball power rankings

By Jason King
September 22, 2010


College basketball fans who live for March may want to start paying a little closer attention in January and February – especially in the Big Ten.

Entertaining as the race for the national championship will be, the quest for the Big Ten title could turn into one of the more riveting storylines during the regular season.

read more

Which new coach inherits the most or least favorable situation?

By Luke Winn
September 16, 2010


Twelve major-conference college basketball teams changed coaches this offseason, and the situations they stepped into were far from equal. One re-secured his predecessor's entire, loaded recruiting class in a 36-hour tour (Wake Forest's Jeff Bzdelik), while another is coping with the exodus over which his predecessor presided (Iowa's Fran McCaffery). One inherited the makings of a bubble NCAA tournament team (Seton Hall's Kevin Willard), another inherited the possibility of NCAA violations (Oregon's Dana Altman). Over the next few years, they all can't be evaluated on the same scale.

read more

No Coble, no complaining at Northwestern

By Steve Megargee
September 1, 2010


Evenston, IL — Northwestern players were as shocked as everyone else when star forward Kevin Coble announced this summer that he was giving up basketball. It left Northwestern without the player who had led the Wildcats in scoring and rebounding in each of his first three seasons on campus. Although Coble missed the 2009-10 season with a Lisfranc fracture in his left foot, he was expected to rejoin his teammates this season.

read more

Who were the best, worst coaching hires for NCAA basketball?

Rivals.com Staff
August 28, 2010


At the College Basketball Roundtable each week, we ask each member of the coverage staff for his opinion about a topic in the sport. We have two questions this week, one today and one Sunday.

TODAY'S QUESTION: Illinois-Chicago hired a new coach this week, meaning the coaching carousel finally has stopped spinning. Who are the three best hires this offseason -- and the three most puzzling?

read more

Kentucky Wildcats roll to 3-game sweep in Canada

By The Associated Press
August 17, 2010


Windsor, ON — John Wall may have departed for the riches of the NBA, but a pair of young guards appear ready to try and fill the void for the Kentucky Wildcats.

Freshmen Brandon Knight and Doron Lamb each scored 25 points and junior Darius Miller added 24 for Kentucky in a 104-75 win over the University of Windsor on Tuesday—the finale of a three-day, three-game exhibition trip to Canada for the Wildcats.

read more

Florida is due for better luck next season, and so are four others

By Andy Glockner
August 12, 2010


Gainesville, FL — The two biggest memories of the 2009-10 Florida Gators are Chandler Parsons' three-quarter court heave to stun N.C. State and his subsequent one-upmanship of Devan Downey to take out South Carolina at the buzzer. Due in significant part to those fantastic finishes, the Gators squeezed their way into the NCAA tournament, ending a two-season absence following the program's back-to-back national titles in 2006 and '07.

read more

Memphis coach Josh Pastner can recruit

By Jason King
August 5, 2010


Memphis, TN — He spent nearly all of July on the road, but for Memphis coach Josh Pastner, the hectic summer recruiting period actually began two months ago.

In a hospital room.

read more

Five NCAA basketball teams high on their '10 classes

By David Fox
July 27, 2010


If recruiting is the lifeblood of any college basketball team, that's good news for five teams we will examine here.

Think of these incoming classes as a lifeline. While these five teams aren't quite on life support, they're certainly in need of a shock to the system.

read more

Is North Carolina's Dean Smith a great coach?

By Joe Posnanski
July 22, 2010


Chapel Hill, NC — Good days. Some years ago, I went to a North Carolina basketball game with a buddy who despised Dean Smith. Well, that’s not exactly right — he had nothing against the man. He despised the IDEA of Dean Smith. He honestly believed that Smith wasn’t really a great coach. He thought that Smith’s remarkable coaching record was the result of exceptional recruiting and his willingness to choke the life out of games.

read more

NCAA tournament expansion, another hit to the little guys

By Andy Glockner
July 14, 2010


Annapolis, MD — Navy coach Billy Lange has a hard enough recruiting pitch with the specter of post-graduation deployments looming for anyone who considers the academy. Now, the NCAA may have made the basketball side of his sell job more difficult, too.

read more

How junior college star God's Gift Achiuwa got his name

By Jeff Eisenberg
July 6, 2050


From Providence's God Shammgod to Seattle's Austen Powers to Alabama State's Chief Kickingstallionsims, college basketball has featured dozens of players with memorable names.

By this time next year, we could have another name to add to the list.

Meet God's Gift Achiuwa, a 6-foot-9 forward at Erie Community College...

read more

Rivers' star shines brightest among galaxy of finds at FIBA tournament

By Luke Winn
July 5, 2010


San Antonio, TX — A slew of thoughts from three days spent at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship with Team USA rallying to win gold over Brazil, 81-78.

read more

No. 1 in WNBA draft... UConn’s Charles

By Doug Feinberg
April 8, 2010


Secaucus, NJ — It’s been an unforgettable 48 hours for Tina Charles.

Less than two days after helping UConn win its second straight national championship, she was selected first by the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA draft on Thursday.

read more