No. 1 Tennessee falls to Vanderbilt

The Volunteers could tame the tigers, but fall short against the Commodores. The Vanderbilt Commodores and Memorial Gym took down another No. 1 team, as they have done six times in nine opportunities. Tennessee was coming off an intense fight with the then No. 1 Memphis Tigers on Saturday night.
For more information on the game, click here.

Texas Drops Kansas State At Home

The Texas Longhorns defeated Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas last night. The Longhorns play continues to keep them in the conversation for a possible No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Michael Beasley had another great night with 30 points and 15 rebounds.

Two North Carolina Programs Going In Different Directions

The University of North Carolina men's basketball team and the North Carolina State University men's basketball teams are heading in opposite directions when it seems to matter the most. Carolina picked up another win last night against Wake Forest 89-73. Wake Forest, not having played since beating Duke last Sunday night, played very well during the first half, keeping pace with North Carolina. But in the end North Carolina proved to be too strong. This is the sixth game that North Carolina has been without their starting point guard, Ty Lawson. In that stretch, UNC is 5-1. The Tarheels will not play again until March 1st when they travel to Chestnut Hill to play Boston College. The Tarheels must be looking forward to this week off, hoping to get healthy again.

The North Carolina State Wolfpack, on the other hand, are struggling. They traveled to Virginia yesterday afternoon to take on Sean Singletary and the Cavaliers. NC State could only manage 18 points in the first half, ending the period with a twenty point deficit. The 18 points was only a symptom to what ailed the Wolfpack. The real problem was ball security. The Wolfpack turned the ball over 17 times in the first half and 25 times for the game. The Wolfpack had got to find an answer at point guard.

This is the time of year when the you hope that your team is coming together, that you team is "gelling", that your team is peaking at the right time. Fortunately for Taheel fans, UNC appears to be moving in the right direction. NC State fans do not have that same luxury.

Clemson cannot stand success

Clemson entered tonight’s game with Florida State tied for third place in the Atlantic Coast Conference. After a horrible night shooting the basketball, Clemson will leave Tallahassee in sole possession of forth place. Shooting just under 31% from the floor and not much better from the free-throw line, Clemson lost 55 - 64. They were only able to muster 17 points in the first half. Unbelievable for a team that was showing promise for a tournament bid.

NCAA Violations for Indiana Basketball

For all the notoriety that Bobby Knight brought to Indiana, granted not all of it was good; I imagine that the University would rather be celebrating a coach with over 900 wins than agonizing over the recent NCAA violations brought on by current coach Kelvin Sampson. Sampson is accused of committing five major NCAA violations. This is the first time that there have been any violations in the Indiana Basketball program since 1960. It is not surprising to me that the head of the program during most of that time was Bobby Knight.

Duke Remains Unbeaten in Conference Play

Duke topped Maryland last night 77-65. Duke remains unbeaten in conference play with a 10-0 record; Maryland fell to 6-4 and has sole possession of third place in the conference. Duke had the game well in hand for the majority of the 40-minute contest. Maryland was able to trim a halftime deficit of 11 points down to two points midway through the second half, but that was as close as they could muster. Duke was again on fire from behind the three-point line, hitting 12-25. Maryland only managed to make 3-13 from behind the arc. Kyle Singler with 26 points and Greg Paulus with 20 led Duke. Singler and Paulus were a combined 10-17 from behind the three-point line. Maryland will face Florida State on Saturday and Duke's next game is Wake Forest on Sunday.

ACC Basketball UPDATE

The North Carolina Tarheels escaped with a win over a very good Virginia Cavalier. Last nights game at Virginia was by all accounts Virginia's best showing of the year, even in a loss. Unfortunately for Virginia, they are now the only team in the ACC with a record below .500 (11-12 overall and 1-9 in the ACC).

The Tarheels play is again noticablely handicapped without Ty Lawson. The injuries continue to mount. Marcus Ginyard continues suffers from a painful toe injury and Deon Thompson, who continued to play, suffered an apparent knee injury early in the first half of last nights game. The Tarheels also continue to miss back up Point Guard Bobby Frasor.

The Maryland Terrapins will visit Cameron Indoor Stadium tonight. The Duke Bluedevils continue to play excellent basketball and remain undefeated in conference play. The Terrapins are also playing inspired basketball. Look for a good game from Osby and Gist.

Thursday night, there are three games on the slate, NC State at Boston College, Georgia Tech at Clemson and Wake Forest at Florida State. The Wolfpack has been playing better of late, with wins over Wake Forest and Virginia Tech prior to a tough loss at Maryland. Boston College will be looking to rebound, having come off of six conference losses in a row.

The Georgia Tech vs. Clemson game is critical to Clemson. Coming off an overtime loss at North Carolina, a place where they have never won in 53 tries, how will they respond? In my opinion, this is a chance for Clemson to prove that they belong in the top of the ACC.

The Wake Forest vs. Florida State game also promises to be worth watching. Wake Forest has played well for coach Dino Gaudio, in his first year following the death of Skip Prosser. Florida State always plays well at home, recently taking North Carolina into an overtime period, before falling 84-73.

This week's schedule continues to prove that there is no better basketball conference in the country.

Duke Reigns Supreme in the ACC

With the absence of point guard Tywon Lawson, describing the Tarheels as "sloppy," might just be an understatement. The Duke Bluedevils went into the Dean E. Smith Center and quieted the crowd. Duke's defense was better and they were able to hit shots from behind the arc. Duke held North Carolina to under 41% from the field and only allowed 3-17 from behind the arc. In contrast, Duke shot almost 46% from the field, including 13-29 from behind the three-point line. Duke also had six players in double figures to Carolina's four. Wayne Ellington and Danny Green where pretty much absent offensively. Alot of that can be attributed to solid defense by Duke, but Ellington and Green where a combined 4-24 and 11 points. If the Tarheels are to have any hope of avenging this loss in Cameron Indoor Stadium some 30 days from now, these two guys are going to have to step up.



Here's what Jeff Goodman of Foxsports.com wrote.

National Signing Day

Today is national signing day for football. Where does your team rank? It appears that things are very fluid, even at this late hour when you would expect that the signee's would have already made up their minds. Going into today, Florida was expected to have the No.1 class. Unfortunately, for the Gators, they lost two of their recruits today, one of which commited to instate rival Miami.

Where will everything shake out...it is to early to tell.

UPDATE: Signing day has come and gone...what do the recruiting guru's think about which school and which coach came out on top?

Rivals.com's rankings

ESPNU.com's rankings

Scout.com's rankings

Goodbye Bobby - Bobby Knight Retires

When I saw the blurb last night about Bobby Knight's immediate retirement, like many sports fans, my first thought was "what happened now". With a career that has always been clouded in a bit of controversy over his temper and coaching style, I suppose that thought was inevitable. Maybe it shouldn't be.

I've never been a Knight detractor. Truth be told, I haven't really cared. Around Tobacco Road, Bobby Knight is the firey coach who bested Dean Smith's win record and once had an assistant on his staff named Krzyzewski (you can call him Coach K). If anything, I think the criticism of Coach Knight was mostly unfair. My high school football coach didn't just throw chairs and yell obscenities... I also saw him pick a kid up and hold him against a brick wall one time. And we were in high school. Maybe basketball players are different, but if we could take that in high school, then I don't see why the over-sensitive PC-police went after Coach Knight for less. Sure he expected a lot from his players, sure he let them know when he was displeased and they weren't giving their all. Should we expect anything less? Coach Knight also reportedly considered it his duty to mold boys into men and would do anything for them later in life. Yet that part of the story is often untold.

But it doesn't matter. Even though I dismissed much of the Knight criticism over the years I obviously hadn't forgotten, because I still thought he must have done something if he was retiring now. But from initial reports, things couldn't be further from the truth. Coach Knight always did things his way, controversy and criticism be damned. Apparently he wants to retire the same was he coached, on his own terms. After thinking about it over the weekend and discussing it with his wife, Bobby Knight retired Monday, effective immediately, and left the reigns to his son Pat. Virtually no other coach would leave like that, but then no other coach is Bobby Knight. The winingest coach in Division I men's college basketball retired, in the process securing a head coaching position for his son and continuing the mystic and controversy around his career. And when you think about that career in total, it couldn't have been done in a more perfect way.

Congratulations on a great career Coach Knight.

A Rivlary Continues: Wake Forest 65, NC State 67

NC State University and Wake Forest University have battled on the hardwoods 226 times (including today). Today's match-up must have been one of the most exciting. The entire game was close, although Wake Forest held the lead for the entire first half and much of the second. But the Wolfpack would not be denied and took a slight lead late in the second half. The two conference foes traded the lead within a few points and the game was tied at 65 a piece with just 5 seconds to go. Coming off a time out, the Pack got the ball to Gavin Grant who took a 3 with a couple seconds left. The 3 rimmed out, but Ben McCauley was there to put it back with a one-handed slam dunk. And NC State won the game 65-67 with just .2 seconds to spare.