Despite the dodgy manner with which he left North Carolina, Larry Drew II had at least one thing going for him when he bolted Chapel Hill: he set himself up for a new beginning. He could have merely chosen his next school and concentrated on being a solid contributor and a good student. He may still eventually turn out to be more successful in life than the players he left behind, many of whom weren’t terribly sad to see the back of him.

No, Larry. Just...No.

Because we all know that one of the most insulting and impressive things you can possibly do to inspire fear in your detractors (eyes in full roll) is to blister them with a freestyle rap, Drew II decided to unleash his rhyming hounds on his former program on the occasion of his 21st birthday.

We’ve seen this atrocity mentioned in a lot places today, but our favorite was the article (talk about blistering, wow…but still a bull’s eye) by Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News. He has more examples of Drew’s, er, skill in his write-up. Our favorite, though, was this little gem: “They tried to tell me just to play my role, but who’s going to stick to a script that’s got typos?” Sure. We wonder if Drew is aware that he’s criticizing a “script” that’s worked pretty well for Roy Williams in the past, and one that’s well-written enough to have worked swimmingly this year…since Drew left.

No doubt you’ve heard that living well is the best revenge. Drew can still do that. But it won’t be as a result of a rap career.

In a somewhat unusual move, St. Mary’s announced earlier today that it had added a game at home against Weber State to its regular season schedule. The game, which is scheduled to take place on March 11th, occurs after the West Coast Conference Tournament is finished and before the NCAA Tournament and NIT start. More importantly, it will be played before Selection Sunday, which is on March 13th, and would be factored into both teams’ NCAA Tournament resumes. The addition of an extra game on the Friday before Selection Sunday is nothing new to the Gaels who did something similar back in 2009, when they played Eastern Washington in a game that was added to their schedule just a week earlier after an embarrassing loss to rival Gonzaga in the WCC Tournament. Operating under the assumption that the Selection Committee would see just how good they were when Patty Mills played, the Gaels won by 20. Unfortunately for Mills and SMC, it wasn’t enough to sway the Selection Committee, which relegated St. Mary’s to the NIT where they lost in the quarterfinals.

St. Mary's Seeks to Recapture This Feeling in March (AP/E. Amendola)

Although many observers will claim that this is a similar last-minute attempt by the Gaels to sway Committee members back to their side after they lost back-to-back games against San Diego and Utah State, St. Mary’s SID Richard Kilwein says that is not the case. Instead, he stated that Weber State approached St. Mary’s approximately six weeks ago with an offer for the extra game as both teams had not reached the maximum number of regular season games allowed by the NCAA. Given the long layoff between the end of the WCC Tournament and postseason play, St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett agreed to the game and a deal was reached late last week. Also, unlike last time, this game will be no cakewalk for the Gaels. In 2009, the Eastern Washington team that they scheduled was 12-17 coming into the game and had failed to even qualify for the Big Sky Conference Tournament. Although this year’s Weber State team has failed to live up to high preseason expectations, they still are a solid opponent at 15-10 overall and 9-4 in the Big Sky, with close losses against BYU (by six points) and at Utah State (by 12 points in a game that was closer than the final margin indicates). If St. Mary’s were to win this game it would certainly provide at least a small boost to their resume before the Selection Committee makes its final decision over the ensuing weekend.

[Update: There is some speculation that Weber State added this game to try to get a medical redshirt for its star point guard Damian Lillard who has only played in 10 games this season. To qualify Lillard would need to have played in fewer than 30% of the team’s games so if Lillard did not play another game this season the Wildcats would need to play 34 games to make him eligible. They are currently scheduled to play 29 regular season games including this one and at most could play in 3 conference tournament games, which would still leave them 2 games short of that goal although they could meet that target if they qualified for one of about a dozen postseason tournaments.]

[Re-Update: It looks like this game allows Weber State to get a medical redshirt for Damian Lillard who broke his foot earlier this season. Our apologies for the earlier incorrect update. The lesson here is never trust an ESPN box score.]

Morehead State’s Kenneth Faried is now the NCAA’s all-time rebounding leader.

Faried pulled down 12 rebounds at Indiana State on Saturday, but it was his seventh one of the night — the 1,571st of his career — that put him past the mark set by Wake Forest legend Tim Duncan from 1993-97 and moved the MSU big fella to the top of the all-time glass-cleaning list. He has 1,576 with two regular season games left and the OVC Tournament to follow.

As Dick Vitale Would Say, This Is the Ultimate Windex Man

Faried is averaging an amazing 17.5 PPG and 14.2 RPG this year. He also averaged healthy double-doubles in his junior (16.9 PPG/13.0 RPG) and sophomore (13.9 PPG/13.0 RPG) years. He “only” — heh heh — pulled down 8.0 PPG during his freshman season, while contributing 10.5 PPG. His 14.2 boards a contest isn’t the only stat in which he leads the nation — he’s also tops in average efficiency (24.1 rating) and rebound rate (29.5%). You can see him at work this Thursday at 9 PM ET on ESPNU when his Eagles travel to Ohio Valley Conference co-leaders Murray State. The Racers play Evansville later tonight, but as of this writing the teams have identical 12-4 OVC records. Morehead State has won 15 of their last 17, while Murray State has reeled off 16 wins out of their last 19 games after a somewhat rocky start.

We’re sure Faried would be the first to point out that, most importantly, his team won today against the Sycamores, 71-65. We heard reports that the ISU crowd even gave Faried the courtesy of a standing ovation when the rebounding record was announced during the game, a move for which we have the utmost respect.

Congratulations are in order for the University of Vermont, who wrapped up the America East regular season championship on Wednesday night with their 73-57 win over Maine. The Catamounts are the first team to clinch a conference championship this season. Evan Fjeld (file photo below) hit nine of 13 shots and finished with 19 points and seven rebounds in the victory.

Also clinching a conference title on Wednesday were the Fairfield Stags, sealing up the Metro Atlantic with a 61-54 win over Marist. They’re attempting to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 14 years, and have put themselves in the best possible shape to do it by becoming the top seed in the MAAC tournament. Incidentally, they beat Vermont, 67-59, back on December 20th.

Behold, and genuflect.

One of the reasons we were happy to inform our readers of these developments was the chance to put up a photo of Evan Fjeld and that glorious moustache of his. We would be remiss if we didn’t mention that Fjeld is an outstanding player (15.3 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 2.0 BPG) and the main weapon on a Vermont team that’s won ten straight and truly excels on defense — 7th nationally in FG% defense (38.7%) and 20th in defensive points per possession (0.898) — and you can check them out for yourself this Saturday. They’ll play at Charleston at 5 PM ET as part of ESPNU’s BracketBusters series.

But seriously, look at that thing. It’s fantastic. A full-on Prefontaine. It’s the Cadillac of college basketball facial hair in the modern era. We were huge Adam Morrison fans, but come on. If Fjeld’s is a Cadillac, Morrison’s was at best a Toyota Tercel in need of an oil change. As far as this match-up is concerned, Morrison will have to be content with his Player of the Year awards.

Kraig Williams is an RTC contributor.  He lives in Utah and has witnessed the Jimmer Phenomenon closely over these last four years.

The Cult of The Jimmer grows every day. Fredette finds converts not with a door-to-door approach but with word of mouth and YouTube videos. He wins over non-believers with an effortless jumpshot and a quick release that is nearly impossible to defend. Fredette does not wear a suit and tie with a name tag on his breast pocket while converting members. Instead he wears a tank top with his name on the back and the number 32 below, a combo that is often copied on the shirts of 22,000+ fans in the Marriott Center, almost all of whom came to see him play.

The Cult of the Jimmer is Reaching Biblical Proportions

To understand The Cult of The Jimmer, it is important to understand the culture of basketball in Utah. The Beehive State loves its hoops; with the notable exception of Indiana, there are few places that love basketball more. Every LDS church house has a small basketball gym inside. These gyms host scores of underground pick-up games during the year and organized leagues of church ball, the unofficial slogan of which is “The brawl that begins with a prayer.” Utah only has one professional sport, the NBA, where the beloved Jazz dominated the Western Conference for years. Every self-respecting boy who grew up in Utah in the last 20 years dreamed of one day being the next John Stockton or Karl Malone. Even lesser stars like Jeff Hornacek, Byron Russell and Antoine Carr are all revered to this day.

It has been a long time since the Marriott Center has been the place to be seen on the BYU campus, and Fredette is the reason why it is en vogue this season. The arena is full almost every night the Cougars are in town, no small accomplishment for a building that seats 22,700 people. In a year where college basketball has lacked a mainstream superstar, Fredette has filled the void. Locally while the Jazz are floundering in another so-so season, the Cougars have been steadily grabbing the headlines. Fredette has gotten so much national attention that the Salt Lake City’s Deseret News has been doing stories on people doing stories on Fredette, or stories on who is tweeting about Fredette, all of which are warranted by the people wanting to read stories on their newest hero. So few are the dissenters of the cult of Jimmer that they are publically mocked online and nobody bats an eyelash.

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If you’re like us, you probably didn’t even realize it was Valentine’s Day until this morning.  By now you’ve been reminded by the random vases of flowers showing up in your office and/or the cooing of your lady friends about their big plans this evening (or, alternatively, rampant complaining if they don’t have plans).  So as a public service to our five readers who actually have a spouse or significant other, we’re providing you with an easy out tonight.  Our in-house designer has come up with a few simple designs for cards that you can print out and take home to your SO — they’re free of charge and come with these easy instructions (all images and designs are courtesy of jacksmaster.com).

1. Print out one of the below designs in full, vibrant color (click to open the full image).
2. Take it home to your significant other.
3. If significant other likes it, that person is a definite keeper; if not, you may want to reconsider.  After all, the V-Day RTC mantra is hoops, then love.

Ray Floriani of College Chalk Talk is an RTC contributor. Last week, he filed a report surrounding St. Anthony’s coach Bob Hurley and his 1,000th victory at the school since taking the reins in 1972.

Bob Hurley takes a rare moment, grandson in tow, to speak with reporters following his 1000th victory.

The game of note was a high school contest, but this was of greater significance, one where Bob Hurley of St. Anthony’s would go for his 1,000th career victory. Parking about a block and a half away and making the way to the gym, I could see St. Anthony’s students getting out of school. Their school in the Hamilton Park district of Jersey City has no gym. The home court is at the Golden Door Charter School, a block north of St. Anthony’s.  Entering Golden Door about 45 minutes prior to game time there are already media assembled. By game time there will be more. So much that St. Anthony’s cannot huddle between quarters without a camera or three trying to get inside access.

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#11 Wisconsin has just closed out #1 Ohio State in Madison, 71-67, thereby removing the final undefeated team from Division I men’s basketball.

Congrats To the Buckeyes On a Great Run...And the Badgers For Ending It.

[photo credit: @LukeWinn, someone you should follow if you aren’t]

The win was predicted by everyone from casual fans to long-time experts of the game, not because of any weakness perceived in OSU, but rather due to how incredibly well the Badgers play at the Kohl Center. Jordan Taylor used the opportunity to show  everyone why he should have been included on the Bob Cousy Award finalists’ list. The Wisconsin point guard was fantastic, contributing 27 points, four boards, and seven assists. 21 of Taylor’s points were scored in the second half as Wisconsin erased a 15-point Buckeye lead.

Ohio State was led by William Buford’s 21 points on 10-18 shooting. Jared Sullinger provided his usual excellence, adding 19/12. The teams combined for just 15 turnovers, and an impresive total of 33 assists on 50 field goals.

Wisconsin improves to 19-5 (9-3). The Buckeyes, still obviously a top contender for the national title, “fall” to 24-1 (11-1).

Walker Carey is an RTC contributor.

Just before the start of this season, not much was known about this year’s edition of Mike Brey’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Over the course of the last four seasons, Notre Dame’s roster has had three consistent standout performers in forward Luke Harangody, combo guard Kyle McAlarney, and point guard Tory Jackson. Even with the services of Harangody and Jackson last season, the Irish posted a campaign that was widely viewed as a disappointment. ND finished last season with a 23-12 record, and their season ended when Old Dominion upset them on the first day of the NCAA Tournament. Needless to say, there were many questions about a team that underperformed last season and graduated their two best players.

Hansbrough Has Led By Both Word And Example

One thing the Irish did have on their side entering the season was an experienced starting lineup. Ben Hansbrough, Scott Martin, Tim Abromaitis, Carleton Scott, and Tyrone Nash are all either fourth or fifth year players. Martin entered the season, however, having not played the past two — he sat out the 2008-‘09 season after transferring from Purdue and the ‘09-‘10 season after tearing his ACL last preseason. Scott also entered the season without much experience, as prior to this season he was not a regular in Mike Brey’s rotation. Even though Hansbrough, Abromaitis, and Nash had varying levels of experience, questions still remained regarding all three of them. Hansbrough and Abromaitis had battled inconsistency throughout their Irish careers, while throughout his time as an Irishman, Nash had played second fiddle to Harangody in the frontcourt.

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Kansas has begun utilizing a cadre of senior citizens to make sure its basketball players are in class when they should be.

If you’re a KU baller and you want to sleep in, you’re going to hear from your designated senior citizen hired by the Student-Athlete Support Services office, according to the report we read at Fox Sports/MSN. And if you’re planning on going to class, signing in with your senior citizen shadow, and then taking a powder on, say, that 8:00 AM Poli-Sci lecture or French recitation just a few moments after it starts, you can forget about it. The enlisted monitors patrol the halls several minutes after class looking for shiners who think they can show up, stay for a couple of minutes, and then skitter back to their dorm rooms and their waiting beds. These Social Security-collecting Big Brothers even glower at you through classroom door windows to make sure you haven’t absconded into the morning Phog.

There’s a blurb in the linked article about how sometimes players will try to skate by bribing their overseers with game tickets, but we’re not touching that. We’ll let you read the Fox Sports story for that information. Knowing the value of KU hoops tickets, though, we wouldn’t be surprised if Tom Brokaw mentions this if he writes a follow-up.

[Note: We mean that title all in good fun, but the guy who runs this group is a former cop and Marine, and therefore we’d bet he could probably still torch us like Rachel Alexandra in a 6 AM five mile run.]