Men’s Basketball Columns
Seniors rock and rule during March Madness
You want a solid tip on upset specials when America immerses itself in the serious fun of filling out NCAA tournament brackets this March? Here it is.
Look for teams with senior leadership.
Whether it’s the mid-major 12 seed challenging the marquee 5, or a battle of bluebloods for the national championship, seniors tend to rock and rule. Just look at the past decade of NCAA champions. Where there weren’t senior stars—Michigan State’s Matteen Cleaves and Mo Peterson, Duke’s…
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West Virginia candidate Da’Sean Butler is the real deal
West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler exemplifies every attribute necessary for a Senior CLASS Award candidate. He is the epitome of a young man whose life is the very essence of the four Cs _ classroom, character, community service and competition.
“He has never missed a practice,” West Virginia assistant Billy Hahn said. “He is going to have the school record for most consecutive starts. He played last year on a sprained ankle against Villanova and had 43 points. He wasn’t…
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Hansbrough “Can’t Imagine” Not Spending All Four Years at UNC and Graduating With His Class
Another NCAA National Basketball Champion has been crowned. To the musical accompaniment of “One Shining Moment,” the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina celebrated their season’s incredible success at Detroit’s Ford Field.
And, oh my, how this Carolina team did shine, stamping itself as a superior force throughout the entire tournament. Omnipotence came to mind as I watched the Tar Heels smother Villanova by 14 in the Semi’s and dissect Michigan State by…
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Remembering Billy Knight
As basketball coaches we strive to win, but also do everything we can to help our players develop skills and habits of mind to last a lifetime.
As basketball coach at UCLA, I was fortunate to have teams that advanced to the NCAA tournament in six consecutive seasons (1997-2002). Our teams made five Sweet Sixteen appearances and one run to the Elite Eight. Naturally, it is satisfying to win games, yet these achievements simply fulfill short term goals.
True success in athletics is…
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Why We Remember the Seniors
If you hang around this business of covering college basketball long enough, the case of Benjamin Button no longer seems so curious.
In a college-basketball writers’ world, we age as our collective subjects remain forever young. While we turn gray at the temples, heavy around the middle and thin at the top, they are always 19, 20 and 21 years old, full of that certain something that makes us so interested in them.
Yet, upon closer inspection, the individuals we cover are…
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Senior Student-Athletes Should Be Hailed for Finishing What They Started
When exactly did we come to the place in collegiate sports where we had to, in some small fashion, defend senior student-athletes?
It seems around every corner someone has to explain the value of a college degree…..to argue in favor of players staying for four or five years to complete both their eligibility and education.
I wholeheartedly agree with Seth Davis when he writes, “he has figured out that the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know.” I guess…
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College Seniors Achieve Success in Areas That Matter Most
Like the rest of American society, today’s basketball is driven by a culture of instant gratification, which is always searching for the answer to the question of, “What’s next?” In the land of hoop we’re fixated on rising ninth graders, incoming college freshmen and the speculation over which undergraduates will leave school and be first-round draft picks in next year’s NBA draft. Against this backdrop, the act of becoming a college senior is, in the view of… Continue Reading
