What In God's Name Happened To Jordan Tebbutt?
Steve Blake was eager for a game. Fresh off signing a deal with the Trail Blazers in the summer of 2014, the guard stepped onto the court at ClubSport Portland to commemorate his second stint in Rip City. ...
The Greatest Minor League Basketball Player Of All Time Spent A Career Forgetting His Dream
Sitting in front of his locker at the Staples Center that night in January 2007, Renaldo Major hesitated. Earlier that day, the 24-year-old guard had signed a 10-day contract with the Golden State Warriors before promptly making his NBA debut in a road game against the Clippers, scoring five points ...
Just Try To Stop Markus Howard
The most remarkable aspect of 2019’s most remarkable college basketball player is his age: Markus Howard just turned 20 years old. The Marquette junior guard is one of the youngest players in his class, yet the 5-foot-11 Howard has spent this revelatory season torching all comers....
College Hoops' Most Brutal Losing Streak Is Over
The streak wasn’t mentioned much. Sure, everyone wearing a purple Eutectics hoodie on campus knew that the St. Louis College of Pharmacy men’s basketball team hadn’t won a game in four years—that sort of ineptitude earns a modicum of notoriety—but future pharmacists don’t generally spend upwards of ...
The Most Successful College Hoops Coach In North America Just Wants Duke To Stop Ducking Him
Dave Smart is not just any college basketball coach. Smart is a defensive guru, a legend in the sport, to whom Division I’s top coaches regularly make pilgrimages to learn at his feet. The only reason you haven’t heard of him is that those pilgrimages are to the outskirts of Ottawa, where Smart runs...
This College Hoops Team Has 100 Straight Losses, But Who's Counting?
Of course Anthony Vallejo knew about The Streak. He wasn’t overly concerned about it when he enrolled at St. Louis College of Pharmacy this past fall, but, during his recruitment, the 6-foot-5 guard did ask head coach Danny Brown why the team hadn’t won a game since November 2014....
Mike Daum Can Score. Now He Needs To Change.
There are few teams across the Division I landscape that are as consistent as South Dakota State when it comes to reaching the postseason. The Jackrabbits play in the Summit League and have won the sprawling mid-major conference’s auto-bid in five of the last seven seasons, and while none of those ...
Joshua Simmons's Long Journey From NBA Draft Punchline To College Hoops Nomad Is Almost Over
You’ve likely never heard of Joshua Simmons. You certainly hadn’t heard of him when he entered his name in the NBA draft. Five years ago, at 20 years old, Simmons was on the NBA’s official early entry list, despite having played just a handful of games at a junior college 30 minutes east of Greenvil...
The Totally Unexpected True Story Of Yi Jianlian's Magical Mystery Chair
Mention Yi Jianlian, and the first thing that comes to mind is probably that video of him working out against a chair. The baseline drive, the juke, the spin move around the defenseless chair and the ferocious slam. Do you remember it?...
How John Calipari's Juggled Kentucky's Lineups To A Near-Perfect Season
In late October, Kentucky coach John Calipari announced a unique substitution pattern, one specifically designed to take advantage of the squad's nine McDonald's All-Americans. He would platoon his Wildcats, splitting the team into White and Blue units that would alternate for several minutes spurts...
Wichita State Knows What It's Doing On Offense. At Least One Team Does.
The Wichita State Shockers are impressive for a lot of reasons—their beatdown of geographic rival Kansas and top-10 defense, or for the simple possibility that they can trade punches with Kentucky in a tournament rematch, should WSU defeat Notre Dame later tonight. But at the minimum, praise Gregg M...
If You Like Slick, Ridiculous Passing, Root For Providence's Kris Dunn
Providence coach Ed Cooley is renowned for his recruiting foresight, having helped land Craig Smith, Tyrese Rice, and other under-scouted players as an assistant at Boston College, but there weren't many layers for him to peel back with Kris Dunn, the most thrilling passer in the country. ...
How A Clever Kansas Play Went Viral And Took Over College Basketball
Kansas was on the ropes. Down five against Stanford with 21.5 seconds remaining, it appeared the Jayhawks would fail to make the second weekend of the NCAA tournament for the fourth time under coach Bill Self. This being March, though, a month where games aren't over until there has been a buzzer be...
The Last Flight Of DeAndre Kane, College Basketball's Old Man
DeAndre Kane played his last game for Iowa State this past Friday, losing to UConn in the Sweet 16. A lot of things went into his rise into being pretty much the most indispensable player on any team in college ball this season, but maybe none was quite as important as simply waiting around....
The Many, Many Talents Of UCLA's Brilliant Kyle Anderson
Kyle Anderson learned to walk three days shy of his first birthday. That same day, his father reports, he began playing basketball. This sweet story is most likely an old crock of beans simmering on the family stove, but it does get at what makes the UCLA sophomore so special: He plays like a natura...
The Plays That Power The Creighton Offense, The Best In A Decade
Since the beginning of the KenPom era in 2002-03—college basketball's own little Copernican Revolution, during which the laws of the universe finally began to piece themselves together—there hasn't been an offense as efficient or as skilled as the 2014 Creighton Bluejays. But exactly how it operate...
Six Potential Cinderellas–And How They Can Win
We may not remember who won the NCAA tournament three years ago, but we can always recall the 14-seed that went to the Sweet 16. We love March Madness for the Cinderellas. Dedicated loyalty is fine for alumni, but the people who pay attention for three weeks each year could care less. The sleepers b...
The Pleasures Of Watching The Most Versatile Big Man In The Country
He doesn't look like anyone's idea of a superstar, which is perhaps one reason Jerrelle Benimon is among the most underrated college basketball players in America. He's 6-foot-8, 245 pounds, built big and a little on the soft side, more along the lines of a tight end than a power forward. When he br...
What Makes Them So Good? A Video Breakdown Of The Final Four Teams
The Final Four play tonight, with Wichita State-Louisville at 6:09 p.m. ET and Syracuse-Michigan following it up at 8:49 p.m. Here, we're breaking down the four teams' special qualities: What should you know about Syracuse's zone? Who's that white guy who hits all the threes for Wichita, and how the...
There's More To Dunk City Than Dunks: How FGCU's Offense Works
Florida Gulf Coast is this year's mid-major darling. The Eagles have upended the tournament, ruined your bracket, and sent Georgetown and San Diego State packing. They've advanced further than any 15-seed in the Dance's history, and they've done so with an offense that's hardly stretched its legs so...