One of the biggest gripes against former CBS basketball analyst Billy Packer was that he didn't respect the mid-majors. He famously complained that there were too many mid-majors in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. That was the year that George Mason upset Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn to get to the Final Four.
This will be the first Packer-less tournament in decades as he retired after last year's Final Four. It's a shame for him because he would have loved the makeup of the brackets this time around. Going against the recent trends, it looks as if the major conferences will get most of the at-large bids, leaving the mid-majors out in the cold.
University of Cincinnati's head basketball coach Mick Cronin doesn't like ESPN.com's newest NCAA Tournament projections. ESPN's resident bracketologist Joe Lunardi has just seven Big East teams in the dance -- none of which are Cincinnati.
Cronin didn't find it amusing. "I would tell Joe Lunardi he needs to buy the ESPN Full Court package. Are you telling me that Syracuse wouldn't win the A-10? Does somebody want to give me that answer? I'd like to have that argument with somebody.
In the video, Kennedy is pulled over, handcuffed, placed in the police cruiser and taken back to the night club to be positively identified. In the video taken from the cruiser's dashboard camera, Kennedy repeatedly begs the officers to let him go because the arrest would create "an international altercation."
In a game where Tyler Hansbrough scores just eight points, Wayne Ellington misses 10 of his 13 shots as the team shoots 38 percent from the field, embattled point guard Ty Lawson saved the day. His running three-point shot just as the buzzer sounds handed No. 6 North Carolina an 80-77 victory over unranked Florida State.
After a shot clock violation by the Seminoles, Lawson takes the inbounds pass and blew down the court to set up his game winning shot. Lawson's 21 points led the Heels as Hansbrough missed scoring double-digit points for the first time in 56 games.
There has been another lawsuit filed after the fallout of Ole Miss head basketball coach Andy Kennedy'srun-in with a cab driver in Cincinnati last month. Mohamed Jiddou claimed that Kennedy punched him while shouting racial slurs in front of a local bar. Kennedy denies all of this and has filed a defamation suit against Jiddou and a valet who said he witnessed the assault. Kennedy is due in court today for a preliminary hearing of the assault charge.
What got lost in the shuffle was another lawsuit filed by the Kennedy clan. Kennedy's wife, Kimber, is suing the cabbie and the valet over the claim that her husband hasn't been able to perform in the bedroom since the incident happened.
When No. 3 North Carolina visits No. 4 Wake Forest tonight both teams will be bringing in two impressive winning streaks.
Wake Forest are one of three unbeaten teams left in the nation (Pittsburgh and Clemson are the others). They have won their 13 games this season by an average of 21.1 points per game. However, the Demon Deacons' most impressive win was their last one that came eight days ago; a seven-point win against BYU that broke the Cougars' 53-game home winning streak.
North Carolina brings in a 15-game road winning streak. The Tar Heels haven't lost a true road game since losing at Georgia Tech on March 1, 2007. In that span, their only losses away from Chapel Hill was to Georgetown in the 2007 NCAA Tournament Regional Finals and to Kansas in last year's Final Four. The senior class of Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Bobby Frasor and Marcus Ginyard are 29-6 on the road during their careers -- including 2-0 at Wake Forest.
ACC play has officially begun. In their first conference game of the season, the No. 1 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels were beaten by unranked Boston College, 85-78.
How the Eagles did it was pretty simple: BC was on fire from behind the arc and clamped down on the Heels defensively. The Eagles also fought on the offensive glass and kept UNC from getting into its deadly transition game. That fact caused the normally poised Tar Heels to take frustration shots and make frustration fouls, which fed the deficit.
This was the first time all season that the Tar Heels have been truly tested. In every other game, they went on huge runs to create distance from their opponents. Of course, those runs are fueled by creating turnovers and getting out on the break and Boston College simply wasn't allowing that. BC kept the Tar Heels in check with a 17-7 run in the middle of the second half and Carolina just couldn't complete the comeback.
The ACC has had an interesting start to the season. You have top-ranked North Carolina just rolling over everyone and flexing their muscle. Duke has looked very impressive for most of the year. Wake Forest and Clemson are still undefeated and climbing the polls.
Still, there have been some bad moments. Miami hasn't looked as good as advertised, Maryland followed up one impressive win by getting blown out twice. Virginia Tech has lost on two buzzer beaters. Then there is the glut of also-rans that litter the bottom half of the league.
Conference season doesn't get into full swing for another week or so and there has already been two league games played. There are some big non-conference game this week (Ga Tech at Alabama, Xavier at Virginia, NC State at Florida, Wake Forest at BYU) but the highlight will be the ACC's top two teams starting conference play.
Texas Tech was struggling to make layups against Stephen F. Austin to other night. So during a timeout, Knight looked in the crowd and welcomed a 12-year-old fan to join his team's huddle.
Knight asked the boy whether he could make layups. The boy said he could.
"I was just tired of having 18- or 21-year-olds miss layups that a 12-year-old could hit, so I brought a 12-year-old in to let them know that he could hit layups," Knight said. "He's 12 and he can hit layups, so why can't you when you're 18 to 21?"
The tactic seemed to work. Tech would start hitting their layups and pulled out a 69-55 win over SFA.
No word on if Kentucky's Billy Gillispie has offered the young man a scholarship.
Being the No. 4 ranked team in the country has turned into quite a curse. For the fourth time in this young season, the No. 4 ranked team has been beaten by a non-ranked team.
First it was No. 4 UCLA losing to Michigan. Then Michigan popped No. 4 Duke. Two weeks ago, No. 4 Gonzaga lost to Arizona. Now it is No. 4 Oklahoma losing to Arkansas, 96-88.
This game wasn't that close. The Razorbacks never trailed and once had a 25-point lead over the Sooners. Oklahoma would then go on a 16-0 run to close the gap but ran out of gas.
For the first time this season, there will seemingly be some major happenings at the top of the rankings. No. 2 UConn lost to Georgetown last night and now this Oklahoma loss. No. 9 Purdue was beaten at home by Illinois tonight as well.
By the way, No. 3 Pittsburgh visits No. 11 Georgetown on Saturday.
This curse looks bad to either Duke or Wake Forest -- the most likely heirs to the No. 4 ranking.
One of the biggest gripes against former CBS basketball analyst Billy Packer was that he didn't respect the mid-majors. He famously complained that there were too many mid-majors in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. That was the year that George Mason upset Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn to get to the Final Four.
University of Cincinnati's head basketball coach 
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When No. 3 North Carolina visits No. 4 Wake Forest tonight both teams will be bringing in two impressive winning streaks.
ACC play has officially begun. In their first conference game of the season, the No. 1 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels were beaten by unranked Boston College, 85-78.
The ACC has had an interesting start to the season. You have top-ranked North Carolina just rolling over everyone and flexing their muscle. Duke has looked very impressive for most of the year. Wake Forest and Clemson are still undefeated and climbing the polls. 
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