When it comes to picking a bracket come March Madness this year, many participants in office pools, school classrooms and social networks will probably be scratching their heads. Why? Once again, this season has not even remotely revealed a sure-fire pick to win it all. Usually when looking into the… Read more »

What is going on in college basketball, specifically the Big Ten right now? Be it football or basketball, the Big Ten is rarely considered the best these days. Yet suddenly, everybody is talking about how the Big Ten is the best basketball conference in the country and could have as… Read more »

North Carolina rebounded in its win over Virginia Tech on Saturday. So what? That hardly erases the 33-point dismantling the Tar Heels experienced at the hands of the Florida State Seminoles earlier in the week. Not only do many questions remain after the inexplicable loss to the Seminoles, but in… Read more »

Why should anyone be surprised? From the nascence of the 2010-2011 college basketball regular season, it was obvious that this was going to be a wildly unpredictable year. Okay, so maybe not this unpredictable, but still there was never a clear-cut favorite. Ohio State and Kansas were the closest things,… Read more »

Forget about silly leads — let’s get into it. (Rankings refer to seeding) No. 4 Kentucky vs. No. 1 Ohio State The key matchup to look at is in the post with Buckeye freshman Jared Sullinger against Kentucky’s Josh Harrelson. If Harrelson can neutralize one of the nation’s toughest post… Read more »

On Sunday night after the last conference championship game is decided, printers will work overtime, pools will form, money will be exchanged and inevitably hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people will fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket. Many will choose based on the empirical evidence gathered by watching… Read more »

There’s a pretty common debate about the definition of what Most Valuable Player means in sports. Is it the “best” or most talented player in the league or the player who adds the most value to his/her team? The writers and other members of the media who vote for such… Read more »

There are several teams back in the mix this season that the college game has sorely missed over the last few years. It’s not quite a true renaissance, especially because UCLA and Kentucky, two of the premier programs in the country, aren’t yet the world-bashers of old (though both have… Read more »

There’s a fundamental problem when discussing who the best point guard in college basketball is this year. The problem is many of the names in the conversation aren’t actually point guards. Whether it’s a player covering for an injury to a team’s regular starting point guard, or they are filling… Read more »

Aside from Ohio State, which remains the last unbeaten team in Division-I, there’s a lot of uncertainty heading into the last month of the college basketball regular season. The polls have shaken and shifted more than the Koa’e Fault Zone and, generally, turbulent regular season rankings precede memorable if not… Read more »

There was once a time in this country when college basketball was unquestionably the king of hoops. After Michael Jordan retired for the third and final time, college ball took center stage and built a reputation as the most exciting and, at least as far as ratings were concerned, the… Read more »

Go watch Jared Sullinger play ball. Seriously, go do it. Then, the next time he plays, watch him again because the kid’s a freak. His game makes for must-watch television every time he steps on the hardwood. Forget about the idea that he’s the best freshman in the country because,… Read more »

The very polarizing Age Restriction Rule that David Stern and the NBA employed several years ago is great, not only for young athletes, but also the NCAA itself, and it would be a huge mistake to change things back to the way they were. Many talking heads argue that forcing… Read more »

The star that shines brightest in the constellation of power basketball conferences remains, now almost perpetually, the Big East. From No. 3 Syracuse to the No. 25 upstart Cincinnati Bearcats, eight schools from the nation’s most complete conference continue to litter both NCAA polls. A Big East-flavored top 25 is… Read more »

With apologies to Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukkah, summertime, July 4th weekend, October (my actual pick for best sports month of the year), Mifflin and Arbor Day (don’t even question the awesomeness of this holiday), the first weekend of March Madness is the best weekend of the year. Four days of non-stop… Read more »

Due to recent allegations and accusations of unfair “financial aid” from boosters and negative publicity surrounding certain schools, cough USC and Michigan cough, it seems appropriate to address the long-standing debate of whether college athletes should be paid or receive endorsements. The answer to receiving payments should be decisively and… Read more »

The landscape of college basketball has completely changed since the adoption of the one-year rule, mandating players to play one year in college basketball (or in Europe, if you’re Brandon Jennings) before packing up and entering the NBA Draft. Sure, the requirement has its opponents, such as Hall of Fame… Read more »

As the famous saying goes, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. It is lucky for a team to go through an entire year relatively healthy, and it is unlucky to have a premier player fall to injury during the season. No matter how you look at it,… Read more »

Most fans will admit sports have transformed into something more than staunch competitiveness and playing for the love of the game. A 30-second commercial for the Super Bowl this year costs $2.6 million, and New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez will make an astonishing $33 million in the coming… Read more »

There are a few things in life that are guaranteed. However, some things should simply never be doubted. No, I’m not talking about UW-Madison’s nearly unprecedented reign on Playboy’s Top Ten Party School list. I’m talking about Bo Ryan putting together a winning, competitive and fundamentally sound basketball team. Ryan… Read more »

Boy, the Pac-10 is going through a transitional stage. Pete Carroll is gone. Arizona’s 24-year NCAA tournament run in men’s basketball will most likely come to an end this year. Oregon’s uniforms are actually somewhat consistent. Home to the dominant UCLA basketball program, which has one of the most… Read more »