Men's college basketball – Page 2

Can a former NBA player return a once-proud ACC program to relevance?

4Dec

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Sports

Can a former NBA player return a once-proud ACC program to relevance?

ATLANTA — The head coach bent over at the waist and rested his forearms on the press table, seemingly pressing all of his weight into his elbows. His ears covered by headphones as he prepped for a postgame interview, he hung his head, peering up only with his eyes to answer questions. His body language screamed of a man who had been wrung dry of emotion, as if the incredulity of what just happened was simply too much to bear.Behind him, students danced in delirium at midcourt. Damon Stoudamire, the first Georgia Tech coach to win his first game against Duke, is a mighty career 1-0 in the ACC. That’s it. But as far as debuts go, this is about as good as it gets.Taken on its own, Tech’s 72-68 win over No. 7 Duke does not a renaissance make. Dig into the actual game, though, and the substanc...

‘Let everybody know who you are’: Jai Lucas builds on his family’s hoops legacy

28Nov

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Sports

‘Let everybody know who you are’: Jai Lucas builds on his family’s hoops legacy

DURHAM, N.C. — Jai Lucas needed to make one final call.It was April 2022, and the Kentucky assistant coach was debating whether to leave one blue-blood basketball program for another. He’d been offered a job at Duke, under first-time head coach Jon Scheyer.As he called his inner circle — including head coaches such as Marquette’s Shaka Smart, Texas’ Rodney Terry and SMU’s Rob Lanier — he gradually realized the stakes. Duke rarely hires an assistant coach who didn’t play there; that hadn’t happened in over two decades. Plus, in the wake of Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement, Lucas knew he’d be getting in at the onset of a new era and the kind of career springboard that could be. But was he really going to leave Hall of Famer John Calipari to work for a rookie head coach?Torn, he called the perso...

Ed Cooley needed a change. But can he bring change to Georgetown?

10Nov

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Sports

Ed Cooley needed a change. But can he bring change to Georgetown?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Every day, Ed Cooley puts on his headphones, turns on his music and goes for a walk. While an eclectic mix of Whitney Houston, New Edition, Luther Vandross and Lady Gaga plays, the coach winds his way off of the Georgetown campus. Eventually he comes to the intersection of Prospect and M streets, where above him rise 75 concrete steps.Originally constructed in 1895, the steps became famous in 1973 when a celluloid creation by the name of Father Karras fell to his death after freeing a child from demonic possession. Now, 50 years later, Cooley makes the so-called “‘Exorcist’ steps” part of his daily hour-long jaunt. On a good day, he will loop around and summit them seven times.There is a metaphor available here, about how a man whom many in his hometown now consider th...

John Calipari lost his way. Can he and Kentucky find it again?

1Nov

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Sports

John Calipari lost his way. Can he and Kentucky find it again?

LEXINGTON, Ky. — On April 4, 2015, John Calipari was the king of college basketball. He’d brought Kentucky to the Final Four for the fourth time in five years, this time with an unprecedented 38-0 record and a shot at not only his second national championship but also one of the greatest seasons of all time.On April 5, 2015 in Indianapolis, his Wildcats led Wisconsin by four points with five minutes to go, seemingly destined for a title-game collision with Duke and nemesis Mike Krzyzewski. That is, until Calipari effectively deflated the basketball, ordering a team with seven eventual NBA draft picks to play stall ball. “I don’t like this. It ended up in a bad shot last time,” legendary broadcaster Bill Raftery told the television audience, groaning as he watched plodding possessions that...

College basketball predictions: Virginia, TCU and more surprise teams

31Oct

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Sports

College basketball predictions: Virginia, TCU and more surprise teams

Preseason rankings are fun, but with so much player movement in the transfer portal era, men’s college basketball is harder than ever to predict. Which is pretty fun, actually! Let football have the same small group of teams competing for the national title every year. We’ll take our surprises like Florida Atlantic, San Diego State and Miami in the Final Four.OK, sure, we like traditional blue bloods in those spots, too. The point here is, there are always teams that sneak up on us despite months of prognosticating. You know who wasn’t ranked by the AP or coaches in the preseason polls a year ago? Big Ten champion Purdue. Or Big East champ Marquette. Or Xavier, which made the Sweet 16. FAU didn’t receive a single vote in either poll.So as we begin our annual preseason predictions, the fir...

Will Caleb Love see the light in Arizona?

29Oct

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Sports

Will Caleb Love see the light in Arizona?

TUCSON, Ariz. — Caleb Love has come to the right place. Or so the universe seemingly insists on this Thursday afternoon. Few college basketball teams choose Motown hits to set the mood, but here at the University of Arizona, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” blasts through a skinny sideline speaker before the senior transfer’s arrival for a preseason practice. As he steps onto the McKale Center floor – like actually out of a dark tunnel and into the light – the chorus to another gem kicks in.Can’t you see that I’m lonely? Rescue me.It’s a lot. Subtle like an air horn. And it’s not the last of it. One of the most polarizing players in the nation wears a long-sleeved shirt under his workout jersey. Halfway through practice, Love has to flip the jersey from blue to white. The quick change reve...

College basketball coaching tiers 2023: Dan Hurley moves into Tier 1, John Calipari falls

26Oct

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Sports

College basketball coaching tiers 2023: Dan Hurley moves into Tier 1, John Calipari falls

In a sport with 362 teams, one would have to be a dummy to attempt any contextualization of the hierarchy of the coaches who lead the game.Fortunately, we’re not one, but three, such dummies.This is Year 2 of The Athletic’s Men’s Basketball Coaching Tiers. (See last year’s here.) This exercise is meant to go beyond the subjectivity of a numeric coaching ranking or the inherent callousness of the dreaded annual Hot Seat list.Instead, we break down coaches into tiers, trying to find lines of demarcation among groups of coaches, then take those tiers to multiple authorities throughout college hoops, glean their opinions, tweak the tiers as necessary and share our findings with you.Is it a perfect method? No.Will you probably be angry about your favorite coach? Probably.But we’re trying.Crite...

‘You just feel hopeless’: Twenty years after St. Joe’s historic hoops run, an absence haunts the team

15Oct

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Sports

‘You just feel hopeless’: Twenty years after St. Joe’s historic hoops run, an absence haunts the team

Editor’s note: This story addresses mental health and addiction and may be difficult to read or emotionally upsetting. AVALON, N.J. — Phil Martelli eases back into his chair and sighs. He has been scrolling through his phone, reading text messages that span a two-year window. It is a one-sided conversation, all black and white from the sender, no blue responses from him.It is a beautiful sunny day in New Jersey and just a week ago, Martelli and his wife, Judy, enjoyed an idyllic Jersey Shore weekend, their home stuffed with children and grandchildren as the kids’ exuberance ricocheted off the ceilings.But on this August afternoon it is pin-drop quiet in the house. The kids have left and the mood is heavy as Martelli pages through the texts from a person he always considered part of his fa...

Man arrested in shooting at Lil Baby concert in Memphis

28Sep

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Entertainment

Man arrested in shooting at Lil Baby concert in Memphis

Police say a man has been arrested in a shooting that wounded one person at a Memphis concert headlined by rapper Lil BabyByThe Associated PressSeptember 28, 2023, 3:47 PMLil Baby performs at Music Midtown, Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023, at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. (Photo by Paul R. Giunta/Invision/AP)The Associated PressMEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A man has been arrested in a shooting that wounded one person at a Memphis concert headlined by rapper Lil Baby, police said Thursday. Kevin Young, 22, was arrested Wednesday on charges including reckless endangerment and unlawful possession of weapons and drugs at a home in Memphis, police said on social media.Police responded to the Sept. 7 shooting at the FedExForum, located just steps from the popular Beale Street tourist destination in downtown Memphis. T...