Bradley Upsets Struggling Illinois

The Illinois Fighting Illini don't have much to be thankful about after taking part in the Las Vegas Invitational Thanksgiving tournament. Illinois entered the weekend ranked No. 20 in the AP Top 25, but after suffering back-to-back upset losses to the unranked Utah Utes and Bradley Braves in the Invitational, they'll soon be joining the ranks of the unranked themselves.

As for Bradley, Saturday night's 72-68 win over Illinois will be one to savor for some time. In the 2006 NCAA Tournament, Bradley upset Kansas and Pittsburgh and earned a trip to the Sweet Sixteen. And although Saturday's early season, neutral court, tournament win over in-state rival Illinois doesn't carry quite the weight of their upset wins in the '06 NCAA Tournament, it is, nevertheless, almost every bit as sweet for everyone involved with Bradley basketball (players, coaches, alumni, fans, athletic department staff, university administrators, etc.).

Bradley University is a Missouri Valley Conference institution with a rich basketball history. Bradley is located in Peoria, IL, approximately 85 miles from the Urbana, IL, campus of Big Ten basketball powerhouse Illinois. But although both teams represent basketball crazed schools from central Illinois, Bradley and Illinois rarely face each other on the basketball court (Bradley's last win over Illinois came in 1974). Thus, while a win over a nationally ranked opponent from a major conference would be a big win for mid-major Bradley in any circumstance, beating No. 20 Illinois gives Bradley bragging rights over a powerhouse program from down the road which effectively serves as its college basketball "big brother."

That said, there's no question that Illinois is struggling. They return three starters from a team that lost in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament, but they start two freshmen in the back court. And although they cruised to easy wins over lower level Division I opponents to start the season, Illinois hadn't played a serious opponent until the weekend. Against Utah, the Illini blew a 16 point second half lead and lost the game in its final seconds. The following night, they came out flat against Bradley. Illinois coach Bruce Weber recounted in a post game interview that during his pregame talk, he told his players that Bradley would be the best team they had faced thus far in the 2009/10 season. But Weber said that players "rolled their eyes" at the statement. Against a Bradley team that wanted nothing more than to cut the legs out from under their in-state "big brother," the Illini players' collective disinterest was a recipe for disaster.

Illinois needs to regroup quickly. They play at Clemson on Wednesday in the made-for-ESPN ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Clemson is an experienced, athletic team. An upset of Clemson would likely go a long way in c0mpensating for the bad weekend in Las Vegas. Illinois must truly hope that what happened in Vegas stays in Vegas.

But that shouldn't take anything away from Bradley. It was a monumental win for the Braves. Bradley people will probably never forget how sweet it was to take down the big, bad Illini (even if they had to travel to Las Vegas to do so). At the very least, Bradley has major bragging rights in the heart of the state of Illinois. But if Illinois eventually gets their ship in order and proves to be a good team that merely experienced some early season, Thanksgiving tournament growing pains, Bradley's win over the Illini could help position them (and/or position other Missouri Valley teams -- remember, conference RPI is one of many factors which the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee weighs when selecting the NCAA Tournament field) nicely for post season consideration.

(Photo: Bradley's Milos Knezevic drives past Illinois' Dominique Keller -- AP/Laura Rauch).



* Note: This post was written and originally posted on Sunday, November 29, 2009.

Unfortunately, that evening the post was mistakenly edited with the auto post function set to the wrong date, which caused it to disappear. An intrepid Drive and Dish editor spotted the missing post, investigated the situation, and took action to retrieve the post (well, the editor isn't that intrepid -- it took three days to spot the error). The post reappeared three days after its original post date.

Drive and Dish apologizes for the unfortunate mix up (hey, don't blame us: with the struggling economy, we've had to take a page from the New York Times and let several staff members go to pursue other career opportunities . . . but don't fret: we've managed to allocate sufficient resources to keep the Long Island Iced Tea swilling, table dancing, Pussycat Doll lookalike interns gainfully employed and dancing on tables/Drive and Dish editors' laps).

Happy Thanksgiving

Drive and Dish would like to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all our readers. It's become a Thanksgiving tradition to spend the afternoon watching the moribund Detroit Lions lose another game (it doesn't matter what year it is, the Lions are always terrible), but we ask the following question: why waste the day watching bad NFL games when there's lots of good college basketball on television?

Well, whatever your sports viewing inclinations, it's always a good idea to take inventory of, and give thanks for, the things for which you are grateful (even if you're a Lions fan). Happy Thanksgiving.

(Image: the first Thanksgiving-1621).

Is the Hadron Collider Being Sabotaged By Time Travelers?

When the Hadron Collider was under construction, there were many people who warned that running the Collider could cause the world, or even the universe, to blow up. Since its completion, the Collider has been plagued by setbacks that have kept it from being fully operational. Now Time Magazine reports that two highly regarded physicists have a theory as to why the Hadron Collider has had so many problems: the physicists think that time travelers may be sabotaging the Collider.

The most recent setback was a bizarre event in which a bird shut the Collider down by dropping a baguette into the Collider from from its beak. But the physicists think that maybe it occurred for a reason:

While most scientists would write off the event as a freak accident, two esteemed physicists have formulated a theory that suggests an alternative explanation: perhaps a time-traveling bird was sent from the future to sabotage the experiment. Bech Nielsen of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan, have published several papers over the past year arguing that the CERN experiment may be the latest in a series of physics research projects whose purposes are so unacceptable to the universe that they are doomed to fail, subverted by the future.

Wow. Not sure what else to say. But it's amazing that physicists are actually proposing a theory as seemingly outlandish as time travelers sabotaging the Hadron Collider. It's equally amazing that the opponents of the theory didn't dismiss it out of hand, but rather, made scientific arguments to rebut it.

You'd expect other physicists to laugh the time traveling bird theory out of hand as being absurd. Yet they didn't. Even though they don't agree with the theory, they apparently don't automatically dismiss the concept of time travel (or even of time traveling birds). It must be because they're (apparently) theoretical physicists. It's been my experience that theoretical physicists are a special breed.

But they're also the guys who push the game forward.

The Johns Hopkins News-Letter has more.

Happy Halloween.

The entire staff here at Drive and Dish would like to wish Happy Halloween to all of our readers (err, well, that would be the entire staff minus Atlantic Coast Conference Editor Emeritus and former roving reporter Mark Buckets -- he started drinking early, and he's already way too drunk to speak, or in this case text, intelligibly).

(Picture: Drive and Dish/Trashtalk Superstar).

New Continental Basketball League to Begin Play in April 2010

Via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

The Continental Basketball League announced Friday that they will kick off their first season in April, 2010.

The CBL will join the minor league basketball landscape and will feature a minimum of seven teams. According to the release, 14 teams have submitted applications for membership.

The league champion will be determined through a single-elimination tournament in June...

The league has yet to announce locations and details involving scheduling, rules and regulations.

Investment, Suicide Scandal Schocks Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israeli Basketball

Former Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball club manager Moni Fanan (pictured above) committed suicide last week. It now appears that Fanan checked himself out just as the proverbial "other shoe" was set to drop. USA Today reports:

Authorities suspect Moni Fanan was running a multimillion dollar investment scheme for some of Israel's top sports figures, and that he was deep in debt. The scandal has overshadowed the opening of Israel's basketball season this week and tarnished Maccabi Tel Aviv, the most successful team in the country's history.

Huge losses, estimated at more than $20 million, are now believed to have driven Fanan to hang himself in his Tel Aviv apartment last week.

Top players are believed to have lost millions of dollars in shady investments, tax authorities have raided Maccabi's offices, and there are even suspicions that referees in charge of Maccabi games had invested with Fanan.

Maccabi spokesman Nitzan Ferraro denied any wrongdoing inside the club and said team officials were cooperating with the authorities. "We have nothing to hide," he said.

Maccabi has dominated Israeli basketball for decades, winning 38 of the past 40 league titles. Its budget dwarfs that of all its competitors, and it has grown into a European powerhouse. Last week, Maccabi toured the U.S. for a series of exhibition games against NBA teams.

For years, Fanan was the face of Maccabi to the Israeli public, holding a position that ranged from bench coach to logistics manager to chief troubleshooter for his players.

During his 16-year tenure, the team won 15 league titles and three European championships. His son, Regev, was a backup for five years.

Fanan was particularly popular with the team's dozens of foreign players, some of whom went on to play in the NBA. But last year, he was forced to step down and give up his small stake in Maccabi, after a falling out with other team executives.

Since Fanan's death, Israeli newspapers have reported that he ran a private banking network in which he invested large sums of money for his players, opposing coaches and league referees in return for promises of double-digit returns.

The Israeli media have given the story nonstop coverage, saying Fanan's murky financial dealings were well known among team officials. Most of the reports have cited players speaking anonymously, since many were invested with Fanan and could be charged with tax evasion for their earnings.

One former player, Doron Jamchi, broke the wall of silence over the weekend when he told Israel's Channel 2 TV that "everyone on the team knew."

Israeli tax authorities this week raided Maccabi's main office, confiscating boxes of documents. The team's former coach, Tzvika Sherf, and two ex-stars, Nadav Henefeld and Oded Katash, have been questioned. Tax Authority spokeswoman Idit Lev-Zerehia confirmed the agency is looking into possible tax evasion and money laundering.

Maccabi Tel Aviv is, far and away, the most successful professional basketball club in Israel. As of late, they've battled Olympiakos Greece for superiority in Euro League basketball. They've also been known to pay players better than any other Euro League team. Perhaps not surprisingly, they've become a destination for American players who head overseas (it also doesn't hurt that English is widely spoken in Israel--American players don't experience as much of a culture clash in Israel as they do in many European countries).

Recently, Maccabi Tel Aviv returned from a trip to the United States in which they played exhibition games against several NBA teams. Maccabi made news while playing the Knicks in Madison Square Garden when head coach Pini Gershon got ejected from the game after being called for his second technical foul. Gershon refused to leave the sidelines, despite his ejection. His antics caused play to be delayed for nearly ten minutes. Even more bizarrely, a rabbi ran on to the court and attempted to persuade the referees to allow Gershon continue coaching (pictured below).

In 2005 (October 15, 2005), Maccabi Tel Aviv made news for beating the NBA's Toronto Raptors.

Division III Adds All Star game to 2010 Final Four

The 2010 NCAA Division III Final Four will include an all star game. The game will be sponsored by the NABC and will tip off three hours prior to the Division III Championship game on March 20.

According to D3 hoops.com, "plans are for two teams of 10 players apiece to be named. At least one spot on each team will be set aside for players from teams who lose in the national semifinals the previous evening, the teams who normally would play in the third-place game. "

"Creepy" College Mascots

Life magazine has a problem with several college basketball mascots (which is news to us, since nobody here at Drive and Dish was aware that Life magazine still existed). Namely, Life thinks the mascots in question are "creepy."

Before Drive and Dish weighs in with our take on Life's list of "creepy" mascots, we offer the following disclaimer: it has long been our official position that the adjective "creepy" is overused and annoying (not to mention nebulous). Make no mistake, calling someone "creepy" is a power play. It's a tactic primarily employed by females who are attempting to shame males into modifying their behavior. And it's effective. The prospect of being called "creepy" is usually enough to prompt guys to jump through hoops in order to prove to their female accusers that they are not, in fact, "creepy." And that's why, in recent years, use of the word "creepy" has all but become the de facto means by which girls assert their power over guys.

Worse yet, when used as a "shaming word," it has no objective meaning. "Creepy" is a subjective term which can be utilized to describe almost anything its user wishes:

"OMG!!! That guy is totally looking at me! He's totally checking me out! OMG! That guy is sooo creepy!!!"

"OMG!!! I'm a hot girl, and I'm interested in that cute guy, but he totally doesn't notice me. WTF!?! What's wrong with him!?! He's must be gay. Or maybe he's a little wussy boy who's intimidated by me and doesn't have the balls to approach me. He's like, sooo creepy!!!"

"OMG!!! That guy's such a dirtbag! He's like, a total player! He doesn't care about any girls. He's just all about, like, ya know, getting in girls' pants. What a creepy dirtbag!!!"

"OMG!!! That guy is such a total geek! He has, like, NO game at all! I'm sure he never gets any ass. And he probably doesn't even care, cause he probably just goes back to his room and plays World of Warcraft! OMG!! He's such a L-O-S-E-R! He's totally creepy!!!

"OMG!!! That guy held a door open for me. He probably just wants to get in my pants! OMG!! He's sooo creepy!!!"

"OMG!!! That guy didn't hold the door open for me. That's sooo rude. Who the hell does he think he is? He's sooo creepy!!!"

Females accuse males of being "creepy" so often, and for so many disparate reasons, that the word has begun to lose much of its meaning. Insofar as "creepy" means whatever the person using it wants it to mean, it's become the ultimate post-modern adjective. But even with its diluted meaning, "creepy" remains an enormously powerful tool, as it conveys sinister (and often sexually predatory) overtones.

So it's not without at least a bit of trepidation that Drive and Dish entertains the notion of Life Magazine's list of the "creepiest" college mascots. Having said that, several of the mascots strike us as being, indeed, pretty damn creepy. Our thoughts:

1. The Stanford tree is undeniably wacked out. Life Magazine opines that it seems to have been inspired by a bad acid trip. Yours truly isn't exactly a big hallucinogenic drug user, but senior Drive and Dish editors have conferred with lower level Drive and Dish employees who are, in fact, big hallucinogenic drug users, and the consensus among the Drive and Dish acid eaters is that the Stanford tree does, in fact, seem to be inspired by a bad acid trip.

Worse yet, the current incarnation of the Stanford tree bears even less of a resemblance to an actual tree than its previous incarnations. At least the old Stanford tree (circa 1996-98) was actually green -- the new tree looks like it's supposed to depict five unrolled condoms stacked on top of each other, topped off with a Cowichan warrior's headdress.

And the 1980's boat shoes with black socks just add insult to injury.

There's no doubt about it -- anyone (Stanford student, alumni, or otherwise) who's willing to admit to liking the Stanford tree has probably just smoked a few trees.

2. The Oklahoma State Cowboy (known as "Pistol Pete") looks like the Burger King's long lost brother/cousin. Life can't be easy for a rough and tumble Oklahoma cowboy; I wonder if he knows that he's related to royalty. He might want to tell the Burger King to send some $$ his way.

Worse yet, Oklahoma State has no claim on the nickname "Pistol Pete." "Pistol Pete" was the nickname of Pete Maravich, who was one of the greatest and most iconic -- arguably the greatest and the most iconic -- college basketball players of all time. Pete Maravich was a three time NCAA All American who, forty years after his final season as a collegian, remains college basketball's all time leading scorer. In his three collegiate seasons (1968-70), he amassed 3,667 points and averaged an astonishing 44.2 points per game. What's more, Maravich played long before the advent of the three point shot in college basketball. It's been estimated, based on footage of Maravich's old games, that if the three point shot had existed, he would have averaged more than 57 points per game.

More on Pete Maravich here, here and here.

So it's not surprising that a college basketball mascot would use the nickname "Pistol Pete." It is, however, surprising that Oklahoma State's mascot uses the nickname.

The original "Pistol Pete" played at LSU.

3. Louisiana-Lafayette's mascot looks too much like Carrot Top to be taken seriously (well, to the extent that college mascots can be taken seriously).

4. Why does the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi mascot dress in traditional Hawaiian garb?

Corpus Christi, TX, is a coastal town on the Gulf of Mexico. Sure, Corpus Christi has palm trees and an ocean, but other than the fact that both are warm weather locales situated on large bodies of salt water, the Texas Gulf Coast has almost nothing in common with Hawaii.

Growing up, my paternal grandparents lived near the Texas Gulf Coast. I spent countless hours in my grandfather's boat, fishing in the Gulf. I like the Texas Gulf Coast. But let's face it: the Gulf Coast isn't exactly a haven for surfers, and Texas isn't known for hula dancers in grass skirts. Thus, the grass skirt clad, Tiki themed TAMU-Corpus Christi mascot doesn't really make sense.

5. Austin Peay's "Governor" mascot may be "creepy," but the school's student body chant -- "Let's go Peay!" (pronounced "pee") -- stands alone in its genius.

6. The UConn Husky looks like a furry.

(Photo of the Stanford tree: courtesy of Life Magazine).

Former NBA Forward Horace Grant Wins Arbitration Case vs. Mutual Fund

Add former Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic and Lakers forward Horace Grant to the list of investors who got burned by exposure to collateralized debt obligations tied to residential mortgages. Fortunately for Grant, he won an arbitration case against case against a mutual fund he claimed misrepresented the risk levels of the bond funds it sold him. Morgan Keegan & Co. of Memphis, TN, has been ordered to pay Grant $1.46 million for losses incurred via his position in funds heavily invested in the aforementioned collateralized debt obligations.

Summer Break Winding Down

Drive and Dish has been more or less silent for the last two or three months. Our dearth of blogging activity has not been entirely by choice. Drive and Dish's Atlantic Coast Conference/Tobacco Road bureau chief, Mark Buckets, has retired from sports blogging, and the last several months have been particularly taxing and challenging for the sole remaining full time Drive and Dish writer, yours truly, Have Jumpshot Will Travel (a.k.a. Trashtalk Superstar).

From late February to the conclusion of college basketball in early April (roughly the point at which I began to be abnormally crunched for time), I did my best to continue dishing out basketball commentary. Unfortunately, our NCAA Tournament and Final Four coverage was considerably less extensive than it had been in previous years. And after North Carolina carted their fifth NCAA National Championship trophy back to Chapel Hill, Drive and Dish went into a late spring/early summer period of hibernation (yeah, spring/summer is a strange time to hibernate, but -- quick, somebody tell Al Gore -- it has been an unusually chilly summer in Chicagoland).

By necessity, I've had to spend an unusually large chunk of the spring and summer on the road (hey, things can get hectic when you're running from the authorities). At first, I managed to knock out several blog posts from airports and hotel rooms. But as my schedule became more tight, my blogging productivity ultimately dwindled.

But take heart, loyal Drive and Dish readers: in the coming weeks, Drive and Dish will return to it's normal summer level of blogging activity (which roughly amounts to a blog post or two per week). And once we pocket the millions in federal set asides that the Stimulus Package allocated for bloggers with Blogspot and Wordpress sports blogs, we should be going full tilt, with both barrels blazing!

In the meantime, you can check out Drive and Dish's thoughts/ramblings in 140 characters or less at Twitter.

Sooner Legend, Longtime NBA Player Wayman Tisdale Dies at 44

Former University of Oklahoma star, longtime NBA veteran forward and accomplished jazz guitarist Wayman Tisdale died Friday morning. He was 44.

Tisdale played 12 seasons in the NBA and averaged 15.3 points for his career. He was a member of the U.S. team that captured the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

In 2007, Tisdale was diagnosed with bone cancer. His right leg was amputated in August, 2008.

The Indiana Pacers drafted Wayman Tisdale out of Oklahoma in the first round of the 1985 NBA draft. The 6'9" Tisdale played with the Pacers, Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors and Phoenix Suns before retiring in 1997. Tisdale released his debut jazz album, "Power Forward," in 1995, while a member of the Suns (where he played from the 1994-95 season until 1997). "Power Forward" rose to No. 4 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz chart. Tisdale's career as a jazz musician took off when his basketball career came to an end. He was one of the most successful musicians in the contemporary jazz scene up until his death.

RIP Wayman Tisdale.

Associated Press video: here.

North Carolina Wins 5th National Championship

Monday night, North Carolina breezed past Michigan State 89-72 at Ford Field in Detroit, capturing the 2009 NCAA National Championship. With the win, the North Carolina program now owns five National Championships (tying with Indiana for third place on list of programs with the most National Championships, behind only Kentucky and UCLA). North Carolina had previously won National Championships in 1957, 1982, 1993 and 2005.

North Carolina dominated Michigan State from start to finish. The Spartans surprised the "experts" with their Final Four run. They had upset supposedly superior teams in Louisville and Connecticut to advance to the Final Four and Championship game. But North Carolina was clearly the superior team. The Tar Heels were simply too talented, too athletic, too deep at every position, and too focused for the Spartans.

Congratulations to the 2009 NCAA National Champion North Carolina Tar Heels.

(Image: USA Today).

Bennett to Virginia; Calipari to Kentucky: Done Deal?

Tony Bennett has been hired as the new men's head basketball coach at Virginia. Bennett coached Washington State to the Sweet Sixteen in the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

Drive and Dish discussed the Virginia basketball program when Dave Leitao was forced to resign earlier in March. We acknowledged that while the University of Virginia is an esteemed academic institution with a gorgeous campus and outstanding basketball facilities, it has a tough time recruiting and competing against rival powerhouse Atlantic Coast Conference programs:

Virginia is an outstanding school with a beautiful, historic campus. And it has top-notch basketball facilities. But in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Cavaliers have to compete against basketball powers like North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Maryland. And they have trouble keeping the best players from Virginia in state, as the traditional ACC power programs and Georgetown usually raid Washington, D.C. and Virginia of its best basketball talent.

Despite it's many strengths (at least on paper), the Virginia men's basketball program remains something of an enigma. In theory, there's no reason why U.Va shouldn't be able to consistently finish in the top five of the ACC. After all, if a football school like Clemson can become a player in ACC hoops, certainly Virginia, with its outstanding facilities and strong basketball tradition, can reassert itself as one too.

But for some reason, a sustained return to basketball prominence just hasn't been in the cards. for Virginia.

Then we asked why -- given the difficulties that Virginia has encountered in trying to be a player in ACC hoops -- an in demand, up-and-coming coach would agree to take on the challenge that is Virginia basketball :

(u)nderstandably, the University of Virginia wants to replace Dave Leitao with a coach who can resurrect the Cavalier basketball program and generate excitement among Virginia fans and alumni. Virginia will likely spend big money to lure a hot, up-and-coming coach to Charlottesville. But Pete Gillen and Leitao were once hot, up-and-coming coaches who appeared to possess the qualities that would allow them to rebuild the once-proud Virginia basketball program.

Why Virginia has been unable to field a consistently competitive basketball program remains somewhat unclear. Why an in-demand, up-and-coming coach would accept the Virginia job, especially considering how the tenures of Virginia's recent coaches have ended, remains even less clear.

Tony Bennett, however, is an interesting hire. He succeeded his father, legendary coach Dick Bennett, as the coach at Washington State (Tony had been an assistant on his father's WSU staff). Prior to the Bennetts' arrival in Pullman, WA, Dick Bennett built the once-moribund Wisconsin basketball program into a national power in the 1990's. Tony was a member of his father's coaching staff at Wisconsin when Dick Bennett's accomplished his most impressive feat as a Division I head coach (Dick Bennett had coached at several levels, including the NAIA): leading an improbable Wisconsin team to the 2000 Final Four. Dick Bennett retired from coaching shortly thereafter, but his reputation as a "program builder" prompted Washington State to pursue him to fill their coaching vacancy in 2003. When Tony Bennett took over the reins from his father in 2006, Washington State had already become a fairly competitive basketball program. But after he took WSU to the 2008 Sweet Sixteen, Tony Bennett became a hot commodity among Athletic Directors looking to fill coaching openings (Bennett was offered, but ultimately turned down, the head coaching jobs at LSU and at Indiana).

Tony Bennett is a young (38), and relatively charismatic coach. He was a great college point guard -- still the the NCAA's all-time leader in 3-point percentage (.497), he set Mid-Continent Conference records for scoring (2,285) and assists (601) while playing for his father at Wisconsin-Green Bay -- who played three seasons in the NBA before becoming a coach. Once at Washington State, he found immediate success as a first-time college head coach. What's more, the fact that the Bennetts have a solid track record of turning non-traditional college basketball powers into competitive programs makes Tony Bennett especially well suited for the challenge of returning Virginia basketball to prominence.

When Drive and Dish wondered why an up-and-coming coach would want to take on the massive task of trying to rebuild the Virginia basketball program, we didn't know that Tony Bennett was on U.Va's radar. Tony Bennett is a good fit for Virginia.


Calipari to Kentucky: Done Deal?

Earlier today, ESPN's Andy Katz reported that Memphis head coach John Calipari had met with officials from the University of Kentucky to discuss Kentucky's coaching vacancy. Later, Katz reported that Calipari was close to taking the Kentucky job, but had conducted several meetings with players and officials at Memphis.

This evening, Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis wrote that two separate sources characterized a Calipari/Kentucky deal as being somewhere between a "done deal" and "moving in that direction." Later in the evening, WMC TV in Memphis reported that Calipari was set to leave for Kentucky.

Drive and Dish has historically eschewed trafficking in rumors. Although our (former) proximity to the worlds of college and high school basketball -- albeit on the fringes -- prompted us to blog anonymously, we've always declined to publish confidential information that friends have relayed to us in private conversations (and we've had some damn good "scoops" over the years that we never posted). But for what it's worth, a "friend of Drive and Dish" who has "insider information" from the within the Kentucky basketball program told us this afternoon that Calipari is, indeed, headed to Kentucky, and that he's already notified Memphis of his decision to leave.

Since the Calipari to Kentucky story is already being widely reported, relaying the information transmitted by our friend doesn't violate Drive and Dish's "no snitching" policy. We'll continue to steer clear of the college basketball/NBA rumor mills. But the Calipari/Kentucky romance is in a different category ... at this point, it's one of the worst kept secrets around.

UConn, Michigan State, North Carolina, Vilanova Advance to Final Four

The first two rounds of the 2009 NCAA Tournament are over. The 65-team NCAA Tournament field has been whittled down to four remaining contestants. Connecticut, Michigan State, North Carolina and Villanova have survived and advanced, and, thus, constitute the field for the 2009 Final Four.

On Saturday, April 4, Connecticut will play Michigan State and North Carolina will play Villanova in Detroit's Ford Field.

As 1-seeds, North Carolina and Connecticut were expected to reach the Final Four. Michigan State and Villanova, while both seeded highly (2 and 3-seeds, respectively) upset 1-seeds in the Elite Eight in order to advance to the Final Four.

Michigan State's presence in the Final Four is particularly noteworthy. As members of the much-maligned Big Ten conference, most college basketball "experts" expressed the opinion that the Spartans did not have what it takes to reach the Final Four. Most experts expected Louisville to defeat MSU handily in the Elite Eight, and thus, become the third 2009 Final Four participant from the Big East conference. In fact, it was widely believed that Louisville would run Michigan State off the floor.

But Tom Izzo and the Spartans had different ideas. Izzo's superior game plan put his team in position to take advantage of its strengths (superior guard play, strong play in the paint), and neutralize Louisville's strengths (full court pressure defense, athleticism, three point shooting, switching zone defenses, depth). Most analysts expected Michigan State to wilt under Louisville's famed full court pressure. But the backcourt duo of Kalin Lucas and Travis Walton (along with occasional help from big man Goran Suton) broke the Cardinals' pressure with ease. And the Spartans' torrid three point shooting relegated the zone defense ineffective.

Also of note, since his promotion to the position of men's head basketball coach prior the 1995/96 season, Tom Izzo has taken Michigan State to five Final Fours. Even more impressively, since becoming head coach, every one of Tom Izzo's who has completed his four years of eligibility has participated in a Final Four.

Although he's regularly overlooked by the Big East & Atlantic Coast Conference-obsessed national sports media, Tom Izzo is clearly one of the top coaches in college basketball. What's more, he's widely regarded as one of the true good guys in a notoriously shady sport (college basketball) that is filled with smooth-talking, but often unscrupulous coaches.

Drive and Dish expects Connecticut to beat North Carolina to win the 2009 National Championship (as we've said all year), but we tip our hats to Tom Izzo and Michigan State. We thought MSU would probably make it to the Elite Eight, but fall short of making the Final Four (even though we picked Kansas in our final official bracket). But we're thrilled to see Izzo and the ever-tough Spartans back in the familiar territory of the Final Four.

Drive and Dish Reveals 2009 NCAA Tournament Picks

Since the NCAA Tournament starts later this morning, Drive and Dish is revealing our (until now) super-embargoed NCAA Tournament Brackets. Long time Drive and Dish readers may remember that we did the same thing last year. Back then, Mark Buckets and Trashtalk Superstar filled out separate brackets for Drive and Dish. This year however, we only have Trashtalk Superstar's bracket, as Mark Buckets' position has been eliminated due to the effects of the recession on the sports blog industry.

So without any further ado, we present the official 2009 Drive and Dish NCAA Tournament filled-out bracket (click on image to enlarge):


Notes:

* Indicates games in which Drive and Dish thinks the underdog team is likely to challenge the favored team and give them a "scare" before, ultimately, falling short of pulling off an upset.

** Drive and Dish picked Michigan to beat Clemson and Wisconsin to beat Florida State, despite the fact that we think Clemson and Florida State should win those games.

As we've said before, we're not sold on Clemson. We think Michigan's 1-3-1 zone could prove difficult for Clemson's offense. And we think Clemson will have trouble defending Michigan's Manny Harris. If Clemson struggles with Michigan's zone defense, and if Manny Harris has a big night, Michigan will win (despite the fact that Clemson has a better balanced team).

Florida State's Toney Douglas is one of the best guards in the game. He's not big, but he can break defenders down easily, can shoot effectively off the dribble and has, as they say, a motor that doesn't quit. Douglas torched opposing teams throughout the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Douglas should cause problems for Wisconsin. However, if Wisconsin can dictate the game's tempo, Florida State (and Douglas in particular) could find themselves stuck in a plodding, bruising, half-court game. If this happens, the Seminoles will have trouble scoring.

Earlier in the season, Northwestern -- the ultimate slow-it-down, plodding Big Ten team -- upset Florida State in the ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge. Florida State has better talent than Wisconsin, but Drive and Dish expects the Wisconsin to be effective in slowing FSU down and forcing them to operate their offense out of half-court sets. If this occurs, Wisconsin should be able to knock Florida State out of the NCAA Tournament.

Leitao Out at Virginia

Dave Leitao has resigned his position as the head coach of the University of Virginia men's basketball team. Sources say it was a forced resignation.

Virginia finished the 2008-09 basketball season with a 10-18 overall record and was just 4-12 against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents. The Cavaliers placed 11th in the 12 member league.

Leitao arrived at Virginia in 2005 after three seasons as the head coach at DePaul. Prior to his stay at DePaul, he was Jim Calhoun's top assistant at Connecticut.

Under Leitao, Virginia participated in three postseason tournaments, including the 2007 NCAA Tournament. What's more, the Cavaliers' strong showing in '07 -- U.Va earned a share of the regular-season conference title -- resulted in Leitao being named the 2006-07 ACC Coach of the Year.

But despite his early success in Charlottesville, Leitao had trouble recruiting. The University of Virginia is an outstanding school with a beautiful, historic campus. And it has top-notch basketball facilities. But in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Cavaliers have to compete against basketball powers like North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Maryland. And they have trouble keeping the best players from Virginia in state, as the traditional ACC power programs and Georgetown usually raid Washington, D.C. and Virginia of its best basketball talent.

Despite it's many strengths (at least on paper), the Virginia men's basketball program remains something of an enigma. In theory, there's no reason why U.Va shouldn't be able to consistently finish in the top five of the ACC. After all, if a football school like Clemson can become a player in ACC hoops, certainly Virginia, with its outstanding facilities and strong basketball tradition, can reassert itself as one too.

But for some reason, a sustained return to basketball prominence just hasn't been in the cards
for Virginia.

Pete Gillen was one of the hottest college basketball coaches in America when he took the Virginia job. But he washed out a few years later. Dave Leitao was also highly regarded when he arrived to replace Gillen. After all, Leitao had taken DePaul to the NCAA Tournament after the program lay in ruins following the end of the Pat Kennedy era. He was a young, polished, black head coach who carried himself with a quiet confidence and an unwavering cool. But after four years as Virginia's head coach, Leitao leaves Charlottesville with a head full of grey hair and the appearance of a much older man. His formerly cool demeanor has been replaced with a perpetually stressed-out look that underscores the difficulties he's encountered while helming the Virginia basketball program.

Understandably, the University of Virginia wants to replace Dave Leitao with a coach who can resurrect the Cavalier basketball program and generate excitement among Virginia fans and alumni. Virginia will likely spend big money to lure a hot, up and coming coach to Charlottesville. But Pete Gillen and Leitao were once hot, up and coming coaches who appeared to possess the qualities that would allow them to rebuild the once-proud Virginia basketball program.

Why Virginia has been unable to field a consistently competitive basketball program remains somewhat unclear. Why an in-demand, up and coming coach would accept the Virginia job, especially considering how the tenures of Virginia's recent coaches have ended, remains even less clear.

Thoughts On the ACC

The Drive and Dish editors spent the last week traveling through the Carolinas. We weren't traveling for pleasure, and we only had a limited time to watch basketball. But we did get the chance to see several games on Saturday, Feb. 28, as well as a couple games on the preceding Wednesday and Thursday. Since the Drive and Dish headquarters are located in Chicago, we normally get to see plenty of Big Ten local programming. But our travels in North and South Carolina afforded us the opportunity to see several local (i.e., not nationally televised) Atlantic Coast Conference games (to the extent that we've been able to view games, which, as stated before, has been limited).

On a side note, it was fun to watch two disappointing Clemson losses games with a cousin who's a 2008 Clemson alumnus. I've never been around Clemson fans during basketball season (just football season), and it was fun to bear witness to their angst and frustration during losses to Virginia Tech and Florida State. Clemson is a football school first and foremost. As such, I wasn't aware that Clemson fans really cared about basketball. And after watching Clemson basketball with some them, I'm still not convinced that they actually care about basketball. But they like to see Clemson win, and they root hard for their Tigers. Plus, they hate Tyler Hansbrough and North Carolina ... but no more than they hate Mike Krzyzewski and Duke.

I also got the chance to watch Duke narrowly escape an upset at the hands of Virginia Tech with family members who are fairly recent UNC alums, and big Heels fans (my cousin and her husband -- whose father is a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and played basketball for the Tar Heels in the 1960's). In my experience, UNC fans tend to be knowledgeable, sophisticated college basketball fans. There are exceptions, of course, but as a general rule, the Heels' fan base is among the best in college basketball. Certainly, the Heels fans who I watched the Duke game with fit that description.

But lest Drive and Dish plunge head first into full-fledged digression mode, we return our focus back to the original intent of this post: our impromptu, early-March Drive stay in the Carolinas allowed Drive and Dish's editors to take in plenty of late-season ACC basketball. And although we've been monitoring the ACC all season long from our Chicagoland headquarters (and haven't really changed our opinions of the key players in the ACC), being immersed in ACC country with fans of ACC teams has prompted Drive and Dish to have a renewed interest in several of the league's less-glamorous, and less-publicized teams.

In other words, we've got some thoughts on the ACC, and we're willing to share them.

First, we'll offer a quick take on the Final Four prospects of the top teams in the ACC. Then we'll give a few thoughts about the NCAA Tournament prospects for the other ACC Tournament hopefuls.


North Carolina:

As we've stated before, Drive and Dish expects North Carolina to make it to the Final Four. We're not sold on the Tar Heels' chances of winning the National Championship, but we think that they're an elite level team (which should be obvious to anyone with eyes).

The Heels have three -- and possibly more -- likely future NBA first round draft picks on their roster. Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington may not be destined for NBA superstardom, but they will probably be drafted in the first round. And Danny Green probably has an outside (albeit considerably outside) chance of making it to the "league."

Teams that contend for National Championships almost always have multiple future NBA players on their rosters. The Tar Heels definitely fit that bill.

Drive and Dish takes the position that Connecticut will, most likely, win the National Championship (although the loss of all-important guard Jerome Dyson to injury has the potential to cause the Huskies untold problems). We think North Carolina will probably make it all the way to the National Championship game, but we suspect they'll fall short of capturing their second National Championship in four years (UNC won the 2005 National Championship).


Duke:

Duke doesn't strike us as a legitimate Final Four contender, but make no mistake: Duke has two great players in shooting guard Gerald Henderson and forward Kyle Singler.

Henderson has solidified himself as one of the premier players in college basketball (and a likely lottery pick in the NBA Draft). He's such an excellent one on one player that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has appeared to have loosened up the reins on the motion offense to create opportunities for him to isolate his defender. At the college level, there aren't many teams that can slow Gerald Henderson. He's an outstanding athlete and he has good size and strength for his position. What's more, he's a good shooter, he's very adept at taking his defender off the dribble (to either get to the basket, or create an open shot) and he has a variety of Kobe Bryant-esque, NBA-style scoring moves in his arsenal.

Kyle Singler is a versatile, new school power forward. He's not a banger, but he's a very good scorer. He has a nice perimeter shot and he's good at taking the ball to the basket from the wing. Singler should be a solid NBA player someday, but he's not a great presence in the paint. That would be fine if Duke had some other rugged big men to offset Singler's game. But since the rest of Duke's front line is widely -- and rightly -- considered to be suspect (Greg Zoubek's improved rebounding notwithstanding), the Blue Devils are unlikely to have what it takes to make a Final Four run.


Wake Forest:

Drive and Dish believes that Wake Forest has enough talent and enough size to be a Final Four team, but we question their maturity and ability to make good decisions. The Demon Deacons are a very young team, and we think that they're a year away from being a legitimate Final Four contender.


Clemson:

Clemson is ranked No. 18 in the AP Top 25, but we think they're overrated. Their guard play is suspect. K.C. Rivers is a nice point guard, but shooting guard Terrence Oglesby is an one-dimensional 3 point shooter whose shot selection is iffy and who makes many questionable decisions with the ball.

Forward Trevor Booker has shown an ability to score in the paint, but Clemson's guards have had trouble getting the ball to him in the post (especially Oglesby). Center Raymond Sykes is an athletic, strong rebounder/"garbage man." He and Booker give Clemson a formidable front line. Sykes is one of those tough, scraping, big men who seem to have a special ability for always being around the ball in rebounding, drive and dish, and interior defensive situations. That allows Sykes to get easy baskets from simple cuts to the basket, and to pull in tons of rebounds (both offensive and defensive) and loose balls. But it also means that he gets fouled a lot. And that's a problem for Clemson, as Sykes' decidedly poor free throw shooting has been a critical factor in several of the Tigers' losses.

Clemson may have a nice starting front line, but they're not very deep inside. Thus, Raymond Sykes will have to play most of the game (and stay out of foul trouble) in order for Clemson to be competitive in the NCAA Tournament. And he'll absolutely have to be in the game during "crunch time" in any close Tourney contest. Unfortunately for Clemson, that will put him in position to be fouled (frequently) in late game situations. If Clemson finds itself entangled in a "nail-biter" game in the NCAA Tournament, expect the opposing team to go out of its way to foul Sykes. Thus, Raymond Sykes' free throw shooting could be a critical factor in determining Clemson's prospects for making a run in the Tournament.

Ultimately, Drive and Dish remains skeptical of Clemson. We expect them to be granted a favorable seed, but to make an early exit from the NCAA Tournament.

Now for the rest of the league:

North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest and Clemson are certain NCAA Tournament teams. There's simply no question that those teams are in. And they're all certain to get high seeds. No. 22 Florida State is also, for all intents and purposes, "in." The Seminoles won't likely be seeded as highly as the four aforementioned teams, but it's nearly a sure thing that they'll get into the Tournament. Boston College, Maryland, Miami and Virginia Tech are all essentially "bubble" teams.


Boston College:

Boston College turned a lot of heads on Jan. 4, when they upset unbeaten and No. 1 ranked (at the time) North Carolina in the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill. BC also beat Duke on Feb. 15, and has wins over Florida State, Maryland and Providence. Their only bad loss -- and it was, indeed, a bad loss -- came at the hands of Harvard, one game after they upset No. 1 North Carolina.

Drive and Dish expects Boston College to get into the NCAA Tournament. They're a 20-plus win ACC team with wins over North Carolina and Duke. They're certainly not an NCAA Tournament sure-thing, but they appear to be in pretty good shape (barring a collapse in the ACC Tournament). It will be close, but as of this writing, BC is likely to get in.


Maryland:

Maryland is 18-12 and head Coach Gary Williams has come under fire for not having the Terrapins atop the ACC in 2008 and 2009 (despite the fact that he was hailed as a miracle worker after guiding the unheralded Terps to the 2002 National Championship). Maryland has an impressive, fairly recent (2/21/09) upset win over North Carolina. But the Terrapins only have one other big win, and it's been gathering dust all season: they upset Michigan State way back on Nov. 27, 2008. Maryland has a recent "good" loss at the hands of Wake Forest (3/3), but they have a more recent "bad" loss to hapless Virginia (3/7). What's more, Duke crushed Maryland by 41 points (85-44) at Cameron Indoor Stadium back in January. Normally, a road loss to Duke wouldn't count as a bad loss. But "bubble" teams can't afford many 20-plus point losses, regardless of who their opponents were. For a team on the "bubble," having a 40-plus point loss on it's resume could prove to be a deal-breaker.

Verdict: Maryland needs more wins over quality opponents. If they can put together an impressive run in the ACC Tournament, the Terps could force their way into the NCAA Tournament. As it stands right now, they're likely headed to the N.I.T.


Virginia Tech:

It seems like Virginia Tech finds itself on the NCAA Tournament "bubble" every year. It's become commonplace for the Hokies to pull several stunning upsets (usually road wins over Duke and/or North Carolina) followed almost immediately by several equally stunning -- or at the very least, head-scratching -- embarrassingly bad losses to sub-.500 teams.

This year, Virginia Tech's huge upset road win came at the expense of Wake Forest, who was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 at the time. The Hokies fell just short of upsetting Duke and/or UNC, but they also avoided their usual subsequent letdown losses to teams at the bottom of the ACC standings (save for their Feb. 18, loss to Virginia). As it stands, Virginia Tech has a 17-13 record and, once again, sits firmly on the NCAA Tournament "bubble." But the Hokies' resume, while not as checkered as in years past, appears to be a bit thin. On the plus side, the Hokies have one signature win (Wake Forest), and a have a nice five game winning streak from late January that includes wins over Boston College (1/17), the aforementioned then-undefeated and No. 1-ranked Wake Forest (1/21) and Miami (1/25). The Hokies' only notable "bad" losses came at the hands of Georgia (12/9), Duke (once again, for the purposes of determining a team's viability for receiving an NCAA Tournament bid, a loss to Duke would normally be seen as a "good" loss, but VA Tech's 25 point loss to the Blue Devils on Jan. 4, will be considered "bad" because the Hokies lost by more than 20 points), and the previously mentioned Virginia Cavaliers (2/28).

Virginia Tech also has two notable losses that the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee will likely consider to be "good" losses (although neither is recent): a 1 point loss to Xavier (11/21), and a 2 point loss to Wisconsin (12/1) in the ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge.

Ultimately, Virginia Tech finds itself in the same position as Maryland: they desperately need a few more wins over good teams. If VA Tech can make a run in ACC Tournament, they'll probably punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. Anything short of that, however, and the Hokies will have to settle for an invitation to the N.I.T. (which is nothing to scoff at, by the way).


Miami:

Miami is a quintessential "bubble" team. They're 18-11, they've got a big win over Wake Forest (2/4), a season sweep of Boston College (2/21 & 1/10), and in shooting guard Jack McClinton, the Hurricanes have one of the most electrifying players in college basketball. Miami has helped itself by steering clear of bad losses (they have none), and they have a few notable "good" losses on their resume: a 3 point loss to Duke (2/7), a 4 point loss to North Carolina (2/15) and losses to No. 3 Connecticut and Ohio State.

But like Maryland and Virginia Tech, Miami is a probably a few "big" wins shy of receiving a bid to "the Dance." Again, like Maryland and VA Tech, the Hurricanes will need to string together a few wins in the ACC Tournament -- which would include an eye-opening upset (or two) over one (or more) of the conference's power programs -- if they hope to go "dancing" in the NCAA Tournament.

That said, if Miami can make a run in the ACC Tournament, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee may look favorably upon them because the Hurricanes feature the exciting, All American caliber McClinton.

Make no mistake: Jack McClinton will be a first round draft pick in the NBA Draft. He's a smaller, combo guard who can break down defenders at will and light it up from deep beyond the three point arc. And he's one of the toughest, most grizzled competitors in the college game. Drive and Dish maintains that McClinton's telegenic playing style brings to mind the playing styles of the Memphis Grizzlies' O.J. Mayo and the Chicago Bulls' Ben Gordon (although McClinton is bigger than the 5'10"ish Gordon). No doubt, Jack McClinton is fun to watch. What's more, flashy perimeter players like Jack McClinton are attractive to TV audiences. And the CBS and the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee know as much.

All things being equal, the presence of Jack McClinton on Miami's roster could give the Hurricanes an advantage over other bubble teams from the ACC in the eyes of the Tournament Selection Committee (although Maryland's star guard Greivis Vasquez is, at the very least, deserving of mention in that regard as well). He's a legitimate star who is capable of "putting the team on his back" ... and that has the potential to make for good TV. But Miami needs to win some ACC Tournament games if they want the Selection Committee to seriously consider their pros and cons. The Hurricanes play Virginia Tech in the first round of the ACC Tournament. Whichever team which loses that game will have to settle for the N.I.T.

UConn is Back at No. 1

Connecticut is the No. 1 team in America again. The Huskies have re-taken the top spot in the AP Top 25. North Carolina is No. 2.

Drive and Dish thinks Connecticut and North Carolina are the best teams in the country. We wouldn't be surprised to see them play each other in the National Championship game (although the loss of Jerome Dyson could prevent the Huskies from getting that far).

Pittsburgh is ranked No. 3. Oklahoma and Memphis round out the top five.

AP Top 25 (3-2-09):

Rank	Team	Record	Votes	Previous
1	Connecticut (67)	27-2	1792	2
2	North Carolina (3)	25-3	1678	4
3	Pittsburgh (1)	26-3	1612	1
4	Oklahoma	26-3	1576	3
5	Memphis (1)	26-3	1543	5
6	Louisville	23-5	1462	6
7	Duke	24-5	1340	7
8	Michigan State	23-5	1302	9
9	Kansas	24-5	1190	15
10	Wake Forest	22-5	1158	13
11	Villanova	23-6	913	10
12	LSU	25-4	894	18
13	Marquette	23-6	860	8
14	Gonzaga	23-5	837	17
15	Missouri	24-5	795	11
16	Washington	22-7	704	21
17	Xavier	23-5	629	19
18	Clemson	22-6	564	12
19	Purdue	22-7	545	16
20	UCLA	22-7	497	22
21	Arizona State	21-7	347	14
22	Butler	25-4	302	24
23	Illinois	23-7	287	20
24	Florida State	22-7	272	23
25	Syracuse	21-8	99	28
Others Receiving Votes: Creighton 52, Brigham Young 41, Utah 22, Saint Mary's 13, Dayton 11, West Virginia 10, Davidson 9, Texas 9, California 8, South Carolina 7, Providence 7, Washington State 4, Arizona 3, Oklahoma State 2, Boston College 1, Rhode Island 1, American University 1, Utah State 1

RIP Johnny "Red" Kerr, Norm Van Lier

Tragedy hit the Chicago Bulls organization on Thursday when Johnny "Red" Kerr and Norm Van Lier both passed away. After serving as the Bulls first head coach, Kerr enjoyed a long career as a color commentator on Bulls television broadcasts. Van Lier was a tough point guard for the Bulls in the 1970's. After his playing career, Van Lier had a long career doing sports talk radio and in-studio pre and post game analysis for the Bulls.

Drive and Dish has been traveling on the East Coast and learned of the news belatedly. Therefore, we refer readers to Top Ten Chicago Sports, which has a nice tribute to the Bulls' long-time ambassadors.

Upset Saturday

On Saturday, the second and third ranked teams in America ventured into the arenas of conference rivals and staggered out with upset losses on their records. Texas upset No. 2 Oklahoma 73-68, and unheralded Maryland stunned No. 3 North Carolina 88-85 in overtime.

Texas' A.J. Abrams scored 18 of the Longhorns' final 20 points, including 16 straight points in the last eight minutes of the game. But Texas (18-8, 7-5 Big 12), no doubt, benefited tremendously from the absence of Oklahoma's Blake Griffin, the leading scorer and rebounder in the Big 12 Conference. Griffin left the game after sustaining a concussion first half. He did not return in the second half and only played for a total of 11 minutes (netting 2 points and 3 rebounds).

With the loss, Oklahoma falls to 25-2, 11-1.

Maryland Upsets No. 3 North Carolina 88-85 (OT)


Maryland overcame a 16 point deficit en route to their upset of No. 3 North Carolina, thanks largely to a Herculean effort by Greivis Vasquez. Vasquez finished with a career-high 35 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. His performance marked Maryland's first triple-double in 22 years (Derrick Lewis had two triple-doubles for the Terrapins in 1987).

With the win, Maryland (17-9, 6-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) likely put itself within striking distance of an NCAA Tournament bid.

North Carolina fell to 24-3, 10-3. Ty Lawson led the visiting Tar Heels with 24 points.

(Photos: Baltimore Sun).

73 Year Old College Basketball Player Ruled Ineligible

Roane State Junior College's Ken Mink, who at 73 is the oldest man to ever play college basketball, has been ruled ineligible by the NJCAA.

Guest Post: Wake Forest Basketball Through a Student's Eyes

Drive and Dish has been paying close attention to Wake Forest all season long. The reasons for our are new-found Wake Forest interest are obvious: the Demon Deacons have undergone a basketball renaissance in 2008/09 which resulted in their ascension to the No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 Poll (although it was a brief stay at No. 1), they've bounced back from the sudden death (in 2007) of head coach Skip Prosser to rally around new head coach Dino Gaudio, and -- for some reason -- Drive and Dish gets a lot of traffic from Wake Forest fans.

However, despite our renewed interest in Wake Forest and the apparent popularity of a few Wake Forest-related Drive and Dish posts, this blog has never had a tangible connection to Wake Forest University. To be sure, we've got no shortage of friends who either currently attend, or alumni of, Big Ten schools. And we've spent plenty of time on Big Ten campuses. The same goes for most of the Big 12 and many of the Big East and Pac-10 schools. What's more, we've got several relatives and friends who are alums of ACC schools. And we're well acquainted with Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham, Clemson, Charlottesville, Tallahassee and Miami. But to date, we've never set foot on the Wake Forest campus (or even in Winston-Salem, North Carolina).

So we're pleased to welcome guest blogger Izzy to Drive and Dish. Izzy is a Wake Forest student -- class of 2009 -- from Los Angeles, CA, and he maintains the fine NBA blog Dishing Dimes (he's also appeared on ESPN to discuss Wake Forest football and to represent Wake Forest in a debate with students from Duke). Izzy brings to Drive and Dish his insider's view of life at Wake Forest in the year of Wake's basketball rebirth:

What is it like to be a Student at Wake Forest?

Since my time at Wake Forest we have been a football school. Crazy, I know. Wake Forest has traditionally been thought of as a basketball school. In reality, that is what I cling to hailing from the Southern California. People ask, “Where is Wake Forest?” I explain that it is a school in North Carolina, and drop the names Tim Duncan and Chris Paul, sometimes to no avail. Aside from the academics, I don’t tell those people that Wake Forest is the 2^nd smallest Division 1 School (behind Rice University) with only a bit over 4,000 undergraduates. I don’t tell those people that Wake Forest has beaten the mighty Duke Blue Devils two years in a row. I don’t tell them that we have been to the NCAA tournament 20 times in our school history and had 16 straight postseason appearances (the most in ACC history). No. I don’t tell them any of that because frankly, I don’t care. I’ve gotten used to the underdog label that Wake Forest is commonly ascribed. I’ve gotten used to being the forgotten nationally ranked university. We are the forgotten North Carolina school after Duke, Carolina, and NC State.

We like to think that Duke is our rival, but they have Carolina. That is how bad it has gotten over here. We have no defined rival. We play who we play. No one has any strong opinion about Wake Forest. We are the black sheep of the ACC. Seldom does anyone think of Wake Forest when they think of the ACC. In all honesty, if I didn’t go to Wake, I wouldn’t either. The two biggest programs in the country are in ACC country. Their shadows are seen in Terapin country all the way down to the University of Miami campus lake.

How do we get noticed? We rise to #1 in the country for the first time since Chris Paul’s tenure here in 2005. We beat North Carolina. We beat Duke. We beat Clemson. We go 16-0. We have one of the most underrated student sections in the country. A student section that prides itself on wearing the most obnoxious tie-die shirts, coming up with new chants, and harassing every away team that comes into Joel Coliseum. Simply put, Wake Forest sports are a way of life around here. We are the forgotten middle child of the ACC. We need to be heard every time we play.

With all that said, hopes are high around campus. We have been taken, once again, on the roller coaster ride of Wake Forest basketball. With three NBA caliber players in Jeff Teague, James Johnson and Al-Farouq Aminu, and with the tallest front line in the country, we scratch our heads when we lose. We haven’t lost to a ranked opponent yet this season. Every loss we have had has been in the conference. Yeah, you could say that it is just the instability of the ACC, but we truly believe that we can play with anyone in the country.

In all honesty, I think the student body is scared. We are scared that the team won’t get the benefit of the doubt when it comes tournament time. We know that Duke can lose to an unranked team and probably move up in the rankings. We know that when we lose to an unranked team it is death. We play with a chip on our shoulder. As of me writing this, we dismantled Georgia Tech, a team that we lost to earlier this season. We know what we need to do to be successful.

We have a couple of x-factors on our team, Chas MacFarlane and LD Williams. LD Williams is a good perimeter defender, but he is inconsistent on the offensive end. Chas MacFarlane obviously gives us good height down low, but he is an emotional player. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I think that if he channeled his emotions in the right way, we can be a successful team. I know that authors on this site have criticized Wake’s lack of maturity, and in all honesty, that is true. We are an immature team, but a Final Four appearance is not out of the question if we are able to find our identity, and work out the kinks in our game. Ish Smith is developing as a player. I have publicly questioned both Smith and Teague’s decision making, and they have both improved their decision making. The team has a lot of work to do in order to get to the Final Four level. March is a crazy month. So many factors play into the tournament. Sitting here and trying to dissect every bit of that is not going to give us a better picture. It is just my opinion. All we know is that college basketball has seen every single #1 team fall this season. It will make for a great tournament. Until then, all I can say and hope for it, Go Deacs!

Izzy

Guest Writer

Author of dishingdimes.blogspot.com

An Early Look at the NCAA Tournament Bubble

With just one month to go before the NCAA Tournament's "Selection Sunday," Bracketography (one of Drive and Dish's favorite websites) breaks down the teams on the proverbial NCAA "bubble."

UConn's No. 1 Streak Reaches Three Weeks

For the third straight week, Connecticut is the No. 1 ranked team in America. Thus far, the Huskies are the only team to keep the No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 for more than one week in calendar year 2009. Oklahoma remains at No. 2 and North Carolina remains at No. 3.

Pittsburgh and Memphis round out the top 5.

AP Top 25 (Feb. 16, 2009):

		Record	Votes
1	Connecticut (66)	24-2	1794
2	Oklahoma (4)	25-1	1709
3	North Carolina (2)	23-2	1676
4	Pittsburgh	24-2	1589
5	Memphis	22-3	1465
6	Michigan State	20-4	1443
7	Louisville	19-5	1280
8	Wake Forest	19-4	1217
9	Duke	20-5	1048
10	Marquette	21-4	1045
11	Missouri	22-4	1041
12	Villanova	20-5	983
13	Clemson	20-4	939
14	Arizona State	20-5	830
15	Kansas	20-5	651
16	Xavier	21-4	646
17	Gonzaga	19-5	599
18	Illinois	21-5	589
19	Purdue	19-6	582
20	UCLA	19-6	473
21	Butler	22-3	373
22	Washington	19-6	334
23	LSU	21-4	294
24	Syracuse	19-7	207
25	Dayton	23-3	194
Others Receiving Votes: Texas 83, Utah State 72, Ohio State 45, Arizona 38, California 34, Utah 34, West Virginia 26, Florida State 18, Davidson 15, South Carolina 10, Minnesota 6, Boston College 5, Kentucky 5, Miami (FL) 2, Tennessee 2, Wisconsin 2, Brigham Young 1, Robert Morris 1

Tidbits: UNC vs. Duke Edition

Tonight is the first of two nights that ESPN has been waiting for all year long: it's the first run of the annual North Carolina vs. Duke rivalry (a.k.a. the most hyped up sporting event this side of the Super Bowl).

In honor of tonight's big game, Drive and Dish is rolling out another installment of our ever-popular "Tidbits" feature. For those readers who are sick of the UNC vs. Duke hype, rest assured: not all of our "Tidbits" items pertain to the Duke vs. North Carolina game. However, we're not getting paid to write about the Mercer vs. the Citadel rivalry, so forgive us if we're a little UNC vs. Duke heavy today.

On second thought, we're not really getting paid to write about the North Carolina vs. Duke rivalry either. Our high six-figure blogging salaries were casualties of the recent economic downturn, so the Drive and Dish writers are now blogging pro bono (although thanks to the largess of the U.S. Senate, the "sports blog bailout" allocation in the stimulus bill will allow the twelve member Drive and Dish Editorial Board, the Drive and Dish Board of Directors, and the 21 year old Long Island Iced Tea- drinking, table-dancing, Pussycat Doll lookalike Drive and Dish interns to retain their usual high levels of compensation).

So before we start having second thoughts about the whole "pro bono blogging" thing (and before we start to resent the Editorial Board's high level of compensation and begin to demand salary caps for Editorial Board members ... damn those "suits!" ... workers of the world unite! ... viva la revolucion!), we present the "UNC vs. Duke 2009" edition of "Tidbits":

1. Ken Tysiac (a noted North Carolina hater, at least according to many Tar Heels fans) of the Charlotte Observer says that North Carolina is starting separate itself from Duke as a basketball power because of Roy Williams' superior recruiting:

“Not that Duke has recruited badly, but North Carolina has sort of exceeded them in recruiting,” said (Bob) Gibbons, the All-Star Sports recruiting analyst. “And the end result is the differential in the game performance.”

Just a few short years ago, Duke was widely considered the preeminent program in college basketball, and Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski was said to be able to get just about any recruit that he wanted. But Duke has gone just 2-5 against North Carolina recently, despite having won 15 of the the previous 17 games against the Tar Heels. And Raycom Sports analyst (and former Duke center) Mike Gminski thinks that North Carolina's recent dominance in the heated series is likely to further the Heels' recruiting advantage over Duke:

“Kids can't identify with history. They're too young.”

2. Scout.com, powered by Fox Sports and MSN previews tonight's North Carolina vs. Duke game. (Hey, wait a minute ... aren't Fox News and MSNBC supposed to be bitter, archenemies? Don't Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow make their livings by "speaking truth to power" to the nefarious "right wing fascist Nazis" at "Fixed News"? And don't Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity lampoon the "crazy liberals" at MSNBC and in the "mainstream media?" Isn't the Fox vs. MSNBC rivalry more heated and intense than the Duke vs. North Carolina rivalry? Don't tell me that the parent companies of the two cable news rivals are actually partners in some kind of cynical, capitalist, synergistic media alliance! Could the respective politics of the cable news enemies be little more than the result of programming decisions that had their roots in corporate media attempts to establish strong "brands" for their cable news entities? Oh, the horror!)

3. The ACC & SEC Blog also previews tonight's game and predicts a 1-5 point North Carolina win.


4. North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough looks to go 4-0 vs. Duke at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium.


5. Drive and Dish gets frequent requests from readers to step up our coverage of mid-major college basketball. Many of those requests come from fans of a Horizion League programs (one or two programs in particular).

Ask and ye shall receive: coverage of Tuesday night's Wright State (OH) win over Loyola (Chicago) courtesy of the fine blog, Chicago College Basketball.


6. Michigan turned some heads earlier in the season when they upset then-No. 4 UCLA and then-No. 4 Duke in the space of two weeks. Hopes were high that Wolverines head coach John Beilein was in the process of reestablishing Michigan as an elite college basketball program. But the Wolverines trailed off somewhat after their hot start. However, all is not lost in Ann Arbor: after last week's nice win over Penn State and respective showing at No. 1 UConn, Michigan is still very much in the mix for a post-season berth. And considering the depths to which the once proud UM program had fallen to, John Beilein has done a nice job turning what was a moribund program around. Hoopraker looks at Michigan's climb back up to college basketball prominence.