college basketball

Mike Krzyzewski was talking about the Atlantic Coast Conference on Tuesday when he best expressed the challenges he faces with his own men's basketball team this season.

"One of the great things about college basketball is the creativity that is brought about because of necessity," the Duke coach said.

Now that it has been officially announced that the Western Athletic Conference will join the West Coast Conference in holding its men's and women's postseason basketball tournaments at the Orleans Arena, I figure it's only a matter of time until the Big Sky Conference announces that it, too, will move its hoops shindig to Las Vegas.

Wake Forest guard Jeff Teague (stayed in NBA Draft), Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez (returned to school) and Georgia Tech forward Gani Lawal (returned) waited until last Monday's deadline to decide their NBA futures.

Jeff Teague's exit hurts the Wake Forest basketball team, but it doesn't condemn the Deacons to bottom feeding.

The doomsday scenario, evident in media reports and alumni chatter, hardly squares with proven theories of ACC relativity. For Wake Forest to sink from the league's third rung to the bottom third, a whole lot of teams must rise.

Go Tigers? Really?

That's what the University of Memphis has to say about Saturday's date with the NCAA in Indianapolis?

"To all Tiger fans, please know that we will represent you well on June 6," wrote the university's lawyer, Sheri Lipman, in a letter to the Board of Visitors and the Board of Trustees. "And go Tigers!"

John Calipari is one of a handful of college basketball coaches to take two different schools to the Final Four.

Before long, he may be the only one to have both of those appearances vacated from the NCAA record books.

There's a long line of basketball coaches who didn't think Kevin Laue could play for a Division I college. They're all wrong.

Laue, a 6-foot-11 center from Pleasanton, Calif. who was born without a left forearm, has accepted a full scholarship to play for Manhattan College. He is believed to be the first disabled person ever to receive a Division I basketball scholarship.

When Kentucky hired John Calipari as its new basketball coach, the rest of the SEC probably responded with a collective "uh-oh."

One thing to remember next year while you're filling out your NCAA tournament bracket, trying to trade your first-born child for a Final Four ticket, hearing Dickie V nominate another coach for sainthood, and waiting for CBS to cue up "One Shining Moment." College basketball at the highest level is a cesspool.

John Wall isn't your typical high school recruit. That's been made apparent by a young man that hasn't even played a second of college basketball.

In case you don't know, the Raleigh, N.C. native is one of the most talented players in the nation, and he's yet to make a choice were he'll be attending school in the fall.