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.

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.

Duke over NC State

The Duke Bluedevils outlasted the NC State Wolfpack, and then some. The final score was 92-72. NC State had a 9 point lead going into halftime. The Duke Bluedevils came out of the half firing on all cylinders and outscored the Wolfpack by 29 in the second half.

NC State will face Wake Forest on Sunday (2/3) and the Virginia Tech on Tuesday. The Duke's next opponent is Miami on Saturday, followed by an 8 mile trip to North Carolina on Wednesday night. It is no coincidence that Dick Vitale will make his return courtside to call the game for ESPN.

Carolina vs. Boston College

North Carolina improved its record to 20-1 tonight. This is Coach Williams' 18th season with 20 or more wins. The Tarheels defeated a very young, but good Boston College team. All five Tarheel starters finished in double figures. North Carolina led the entire game, with the exception of 26-25 at the 9:15 mark in the first half, when John Oates banked in a three pointer. A wholesale substitution followed soon after and the Tarheels never looked back. The final score was 91-69.

For more game highlights, click here.

Two Games to Watch [UPDATE]

Check out the games in the Big 12 and the Big East tonight. Both promise to be very good games. First in the Big 12, it is the 16-0 Kansas Jayhawks hosting the 12-4 Oklahoma Sooners. Kansas is currently ranked No. 3 in the country behind North Carolina and Memphis. The Jayhawks are led by Junior Guard Brandon Rush. The unranked Sooners are led Freshman standout Blake Griffin. The 6 foot 10 freshman most recently put up 27 points pulled down 14 rebounds in a loosing effort to Kansas State. This game tips at 9:00 and can be seen on ESPN

The game of the night is probably the first game on ESPN schedule. It will tip at 7:00pm in Pittsburgh. The No. 18 Pitt Panthers will host the No. 8 Georgetown Hoyas. The Panthers are 14-2 overall and 2-1 in conference. Georgetown is perfect in conference play with three wins and 13-1 overall with their only loss of the season to the No. 2 ranked Memphis Tigers. Georgetown is led by 7 foo 2 center Roy Hibbert with 12.6 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Both games will definitely prove to be worth watching.

UPDATE: Kansas had little trouble with Oklahoma. The Jayhawks beat the Sooners 85-55. Kansas had four players in double figures. Oklahoma Center Longar Longar led the Sooners with 21 points. Kansas faces Missou on the 19th and Oklahoma will face Bobby Knight and Texas Tech.

The game of the night was definitely Georgetown/Pittsburgh game. The Pitt Panthers upset the Georgetown Hoyas 69-60. Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin both scored 18 points for the Panthers. Roy Hibbert turned in an admirable performance with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Check out all the Division 1 scores last night.

Wins by all of the Big Three

All three Triangle schools won non conference games last night. NC State beat North Carolina Central University 57-29 to win their seventh straight contest. The Duke Bluedevels beat Temple 74-64 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, PA. This was Coach K's 787th victory, making him sixth on the all time career win list. Duke is currently ranked No. 9 with a 12-1 record overall. North Carolina also won, defeating UNC Asheville 93-81. UNC Asheville has the country's tallest player, Kenny George who is 7 foot 7. George had 14 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. North Carolina is still ranked No. 1 in the polls with undefeated Memphis and Kansas on their heels.



NC State travels to the Dean Dome this Saturday for what promises to be a typical high energy, high intensity, throw the records and rankings out the door Tobacco Road battle.



For information on NC State, click here. For Duke, click here. And for North Carolina, click here.

Great Basketball at Madison Square Garden

Great basketball returned to Madison Square Garden last night. Unfortunately for Knicks fans, it was between two college basketball teams, the Duke Bluedevils and the Pittsburgh Panthers. It was a great game that required one overtime period to determine the outcome. After trailing by 12 at the half, the Panthers came roaring back to upset Duke 65-64. Prior to last night, Duke had not lost a game in the month of December since loosing to Stanford in 2000. Eventhough the Panthers won the game, they may have come up on the short end of the stick. Mike Cook, a senior Forward and East Carolina transfer, left the game with an undetermined knee injury just one minute into the overtime period. Hopefully Cook's injury is not serious and he will be able to make his 49th consecutive start.