March Madness has officially begun. Florida Gulf Coast became the first team to punch its ticket to the Big Dance this afternoon, capturing the Atlantic Sun championship by defeating top-seeded Mercer, 88-75. The Eagles will be heading to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history when the brackets are announced next Sunday. [Read more…]
It’s March. And for those of us basketball junkies, that means it’s the most glorious month of the year. March is filled with sneaker-squeaking, pizza-scarfing, mini-hoop jamming madness. It’s a time when we fill out brackets until the blood from our paper cuts advance to the Sweet 16. We place an inordinate amount of self-worth into our clicker skills, hear buzzers sounding in our sleep and showcase Usain Bolt speed in media timeout fridge runs. [Read more…]
Here at the Most Improved Player Rankings, we’re known for our hard-hitting journalism. We’ve been told that we make Anderson Cooper look like Ahmad Rashad. Woodward and Bernstein still wonder how we found out about Greivis Vasquez. So in that tradition, I decided to go ahead and interview our top candidate for the Most Improved Player award, Magic big man Nikola Vucevic. It hardly matters that Vucevic told me that he’s never heard of me or the column, or that he responded with
Much like President’s Day or Halloween, the All-Star break is a time for reflection. It’s a time when loved ones gather ’round to watch the greatest basketball players on Earth take part in an exhibition not bound by trivialities such as defense or traveling violations. [Read more…]
Editor’s note: Kels was unavailable to put together the rankings this week (he was last seen building an Igloo somewhere in the woods in northwestern Connecticut). So in his place are Marv Albert, Bill Walton and Clyde Frazier. They were all invited to Kels’ igloo over the weekend to tape the following segment. Below is a transcript. MARV: WEL-come to the MOST IMPROVED Player Rankings, I’m Mahv Albut alongside Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Bill Walton. And Bill, we’ve seen A LOT of entertaining
In case you don’t subscribe to the opinion that this column is one of the five most important literary works of our time, I refer you to Super Bowl XLVII. [Read more…]
One of my favorite things about college basketball is when Dick Vitale starts screaming on Selection Sunday. Hold on, let me be more specific. I’m talking about when he starts screaming during ESPN’s show on Selection Sunday, after one of the teams he thinks should have made the NCAA Tournament is snubbed. [Read more…]
My momma always told me never to trust a man with two first names. It’s one of those unwritten rules she passed down, like: Never wake up a homeless man, or never let Antoine Walker co-sign your lease. Indiana’s Paul George is making momma look wise (what else is new). He’s also making it tougher on those members of society who have two first names and aren’t dangerous. George has been downright disagreeable this season, putting up 17.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. He should