When allegations that Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine had sexually molested two ball boys broke nearly two weeks ago, head coach Jim Boeheim wasted no time going on the offensive. He vehemently defended his longtime assistant and attacked the accusers saying they were liars who were only after money. Then, yesterday, Fine was fired by the university after a third accuser came forward and a damning ten year-old taped conversation between the initial accuser, Bobby Davis, and Fine’s wife surfaced. Boeheim released a statement last night, and he no longer sounded like the same defiant coach he was when the allegations first broke. In fact, he sounded a lot like a coach furiously backpedaling in an effort to save his job.

After 35 Years Of Coaching At Syracuse, Assistant Bernie Fine Was Fired Last Night.

“The allegations that have come forth today are disturbing and deeply troubling. I am personally very shocked because I have never witnessed any of the activities that have been alleged. I believe the university took the appropriate step tonight,” Boeheim said in the prepared statement. “What is most important is that this matter be fully investigated and that anyone with information be supported to come forward so that the truth can be found. I deeply regret any statements I made that might have inhibited that from occurring or been insensitive to victims of abuse.”

That is a far cry from what Boeheim told the Syracuse Post-Standard when the allegations first broke. Boeheim was asked eleven days ago about the allegations against Fine and his answer didn’t exactly leave room for interpretation. “There’s absolutely no truth, no validity,” Boeheim told the Post-Standard. “I’ve known Bernie for 40-plus years, and I don’t believe in any way, shape or form he would ever even pat a kid on the shoulder. Is that clear enough?”

By giving such an unequivocal response, Boeheim put himself out on the furthest limb on the tree, and it now appears that limb is about to collapse and may bring down Boeheim with it. There are some reliability concerns about the third accuser, 23-year-old Zach Tomaselli, who is accused of sexual assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Maine and who was called a flat-out liar by his estranged father. But there is also the sordid telephone recording between Davis and Laurie Fine in which Fine not only admits she “knows everything that went on” between Davis and her husband, but also admits to having her own sexual relationship with Davis when he was 18 years old.

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Jesse Baumgartner is an RTC columnist. His Love/Hate column will publish on Mondays throughout the season. In this weekly piece he’ll review the five things he loved and hated about the previous seven days of college basketball.

Five Things I Loved This Week

I LOVED….that classic first game of the season where you just get blindsided. With a lineup full of projected first-round picks and some much-needed experience from last season, many felt that it would take a while for top-ranked North Carolina to fall. But those Runnin’ Rebels from UNLV went Jerry Tarkanian on Roy Williams’ crew and gave us 2011’s first shocker. That was seriously out of nowhere, and just two weeks into the season we can start asking what seems to be an annual question about UNC’s ability to defend the perimeter.

UNLV RTC'd the Orleans Arena Floor Saturday Night (With Good Reason)

I LOVED….how Rick Majerus has Saint Louis rolling this early. The Billikens have already knocked off Washington, Boston College, and Villanova this season – marking them as a mid-major to deal with down the road. Majerus is a fascinating coach with plenty of supporters and detractors (see this great article from Sports Illustrated’s S.L. Price in 2008) but he’s one heck of a basketball coach.

I LOVED….Griffin Lentsch’s 89 points last week for Grinnell College against Principia College. For those not familiar with Division III Grinnell, the Iowa school plays a crazy-fast, shoot-happy style that scores boatloads of points – so this kind of outburst makes a slight bit of sense. Still, I’ve been fascinated with point totals like these ever since Kobe Byrant dropped his remarkable 81. Scoring 89 points at any collegiate level is pretty remarkable.

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1. Charlotte Observer: The biggest news around the conference was definitely North Carolina‘s loss to UNLV in Las Vegas. We each weighed in on the upset both immediately after the game and then a few hours later focusing on the formula for beating the Tar Heels and the flaws exposed in the loss. Andrew Carter at the Charlotte Observer provides a slightly different perspective focusing on potential lessons learned from the loss. After the game Roy Williams addressed his use of timeouts: “I’m not going to call timeouts. […] This is what it is. We’ve got to be tough enough to ask the players (to persevere).” One thing is clear: there were a lot of lessons to be learned from the loss. Now the hard part is applying them. Also, The Sporting News reported Barnes left the game with crutches, but Robbie Pickeral said that is no longer the case.
2. Tallahassee Democrat: Missed free throws are killer. Especially for Florida State against Connecticut. The Seminoles were poised to knock off the defending national champions, but Okaro White missed a free throw with 12 seconds left that would have made it a two possession game. To make matters worse, Luke Louks missed the two tying free throws in overtime. Leonard Hamilton’s squad may leave the Bahamas with two straight losses, but this team is still very talented.
3. Charlotte Observer: Three wins in three days taught Duke a lot about itself. The Blue Devils may not have won pretty, but they were tough. They learned that they could lock down a preseason All-American even if only for the last few minutes. They learned that they could win without Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler. Now comes the toughest test yet: Ohio State on the road.
4. CBSSports.com: Future ACC member Syracuse fired Bernie Fine after further evidence and more allegations surfaced this weekend. Now Gregg Doyel wants to hold Jim Boeheim to task for his earlier statements about the incident. Doyel has no problem with supporting a friend, but thought the long-time Syracuse coach went too far when he said, “The Penn State thing came out, and the kid behind this is trying to get money.” I agree that the statement was incredibly brash. I don’t know whether Boeheim should be fired as he did rescind his comment, but this story is not going anywhere soon.
5. Winston-Salem Journal: North Carolina has potential lessons to learn after its loss, but Wake Forest showed its learned something very important this off-season. The Demon Deacons learned how to rebound from a tough loss. Last year it felt like Wake Forest got pummeled night in and night out with each loss feeding the team’s collective attitude. This year CJ Harris and Travis McKie bounced back from a beatdown against Arizona State to beat Texas Tech for seventh place at the Old Spice Classic. Wake Forest is bound to sustain some pretty brutal losses this year so bouncing back will be critical.

EXTRA: One part of the Division I recruiting that has come under fire–and rightfully so–the last few years is the National Letter of Intent (NLI), which binds an athlete to his school for all four years (despite his scholarship being annually renewable). Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News looks at the NLI and its fairness for athletes.

SPONSORED: Rush the Court is pleased to bring you a second installment of a one-day fantasy college basketball league courtesy of FanDuel.com. The league, which is completely free to enter, will play on Tuesday night (November 29) involving several high-profile teams — Duke, Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Maryland, Clemson — and features $150 in prizes. Even better, if you beat our trained monkey that we’ve assigned to make our picks (username: RTCmonkey), you’ll win even more money. Test your college hoops knowledge to win! Click here to enter.

1. This Bernie Fine/Syracuse story deserves more space than what we typically include here so we will keep it simple. Yesterday morning news surfaced of an audio tape recording a conversation between Bobby Davis, Fine’s initial accuser, and Fine’s wife in 2002 in which his Fine’s wife admits to knowing that Fine molested Davis, but there was nothing to do about it, as well as an indication that Fine gave Davis money to pay for student loans that he used as leverage for sexual favors. Fine’s wife also reportedly became sexually involved with Davis when he was older. The tape was turned over to ESPN in 2002, but they did nothing with it including turning it over to authorities at the time, because they could not corroborate the information. Meanwhile, another person, a man from Maine, has come forward claiming to be the third Fine victim, although the man’s father claims that the man never even met Fine and in fact is being charged with sexually abusing a child himself. Late last night, Syracuse decided to fire Fine with a short statement. Jim Boeheim, who had initially defended Fine and accused the alleged victims of chasing money, issued a much less aggressive statement that appears to have been run through a PR agency before being released. We will have more on this subject later when we find the time and can wrap our head around what is becoming an increasingly bizarre case.
2. Black Friday was not a good one for Notre Dame as they lost Tim Abromaitis for the season after he tore his right ACL in practice. Not only did the Irish lose their best player, but they also lost one of their two seniors on the roster (Scott Martin is the other). Abromaitis had only played in two of Notre Dame’s six games this season as the result of a suspension by the NCAA resulting from a misinterpretation of NCAA rules by Notre Dame. While the Fighting Irish lost both games that Abromaitis played it would be foolish to read too much into that. Their four games without Abromaitis (all wins) were against weak competition. Their two games with Abromaitis (both losses) were against solid competition. This injury should move Notre Dame from a potential middle-of-the-pack Big East team to one that will be hanging out near the bottom of the conference standings.
3. Minnesota may similarly devastating news coming their way as Trevor Mbakwe injured his right knee last night during a loss to Dayton in the championship game of the Old Spice Classic. While the extent of the injury will not be known until later today when Mbakwe has an MRI, initial reports from the scene and Mbakwe’s tweet (“Lord please get me through this”) do not appear promising. Mbawke, who came into the game averaging 14.8 PPG and 10 RPG, is the key to the Gophers this season and without him they may struggle to stay out of the Big Ten cellar.
4. Steve Lavin missed Saturday night’s loss to Northeastern for what is being reported as management of his stamina andenergy. So far this season Lavin has missed three of the team’s seven regular season games (the season-opener, which happened more than a month after his surgery, and the last two games). As we said before we are not going to get into the medical stuff that Lavin is going through (PSA test results, post-operative complications, etc), but we will get into the basketball stuff. Right now St. John’s is not a very good team. They are young and missing a lot of what they expected to have on the court this season after the NCAA ruled that many of their incoming freshmen were academically ineligible. Now they have a game at Kentucky coming up on Thursday. Unless Lavin thinks he is going to get his energy and stamina back very quickly he might want to think about taking a longer leave of absence rather than making decisions on a game-by-game basis. For a team this young the change between Lavin and interim coach Mike Dunlap along with the uncertainty of who will be coaching will adversely affect the team’s development. For Lavin’s sake and that of his team, he should make a longer term decision about how he wants this team to be run.
5. President Obama caught his second college basketball of the season as he took some time off from a variety of pressing issues to watch his brother-in-law Craig Robinson coach Oregon State against Towson in a game that the Beavers won easily. Interestingly, the President was not the only well-known person in attendance as Bill Murray was also there rooting for his son Luke Murray, an assistant coach at Towson. We are guessing that President Obama will not get the chance to see many more college basketball games this season with all the other things that he has to attend to, but with the way the Beavers are playing he may have to schedule some time during March to catch them in the NCAA Tournament.

Entering the season, there was little doubt that Syracuse was loaded. They returned four starters from a team that won 27 games last season; they had two preseason All-Big East performers in forward Kris Joseph (first team) and guard Scoop Jardine (second team); and they welcomed the No. 16 recruiting class to campus.

So it was only fitting that locked in a back-and-forth battle with Virginia Tech on Wednesday, the Orange turned to none of the aforementioned players to give them a lift. Instead of Joseph or Jardine, it was reserves C.J. Fair and Dion Waiters who led Jim Boeheim‘s club to the win after they had trailed at halftime. The duo combined for 21 points in the second half and scored all but three of the team’s points during a 17-3 run that helped Syracuse pull away from the Hokies for a 69-58 win in the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-Off.

An Improved C.J. Fair Gives Syracuse Another Weapon Off The Bench

But the performance Waiters and Fair didn’t just serve as a coming out party for two of the more underrated role players in the conference, it also highlighted the team’s incredible depth. Depth that could make the difference between a second round NCAA Tournament exit like last season, and the program’s first National Championship since Carmelo Anthony was draped in orange.

Through five games, Boeheim has 10 players who are averaging at least 12.8 minutes per game, and no one on the team — not even Joseph or Jardine — is averaging more than 25.4 minutes per game. Now against the Hokies, only seven players were on the court for more than ten minutes of game time and that may become a trend as the season goes on. It is unlikely that the Orange will stick with a ten-deep rotation, especially as the competition gets stiffer and certain players start to assert themselves, but it is a luxury that any coach would love to have.

Last season only eight players averaged more than ten minutes per game for the Orange, and Joseph, Jardine, Brandon Triche, and Rick Jackson used more than 70 percent of the team’s minutes. The result was a team that started 18-0, but went just 9-8 the reason of the season including a disappointing 66-62 loss to Marquette in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

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Brian Otskey is the Big East correspondent for RTC and a regular contributor. You can find him @botskey on Twitter. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

Preseason tournaments continue to roll on with the NIT Season Tip-Off championship as well as semifinal action at the Old Spice and 76 Classic along with the Battle 4 Atlantis. Although we don’t know the championship matchups in those tournaments, be sure to check out the finals at Atlantis on Saturday and the Old Spice and 76 Classic on Sunday for those TBD games.

Minnesota vs. Indiana State (at Orlando, Florida) – 12:00 PM EST on ESPN (**)

Trevor Mbakwe Is a Beast Inside

•  The Golden Gophers escaped an upset-minded DePaul team on Thursday afternoon behind another double-double from Trevor Mbakwe, his fourth in five games. Against an Indiana State team that is better than DePaul, Minnesota must assert itself inside, protect the ball and defend better. Tubby Smith’s team has a huge height advantage over the Sycamores, especially with swingman Rodney Williams standing at 6’7”. The potential is there for Williams to have a huge game given his size and athleticism. Indiana State can rotate taller players in off its bench but Minnesota has more than enough talent in the paint to play well. However, the Gophers can’t afford 17 turnovers and a 1-9 night from three point range again as they did against DePaul.
• The major concern for Greg Lansing has to be rebounding the basketball against a team with lots of strength and size up front. Indiana State was out-rebounded and out-shot by Texas Tech but forced 18 Red Raider turnovers and got to the foul line 31 times. The Sycamores shoot 78% from the stripe and must use that to their advantage against a Minnesota team with an awful defensive free throw rate (#249). With sophomore point guard Jake Odum breaking down the defense and finding open players, that shouldn’t be a big problem given Minnesota’s propensity to foul. Indiana State shoots 37.1% from three point land as a unit with Jordan Printy taking the majority of those shots and converting 38.5% of the time. ISU must make threes because it is not going to have an easy time scoring inside against Minnesota’s size.
• For the Sycamores to pull the upset, we feel they have to play a zone. Going to a zone is risky when your team has trouble rebounding to begin with but it may be their best bet. If Indiana State can pack its defense in the paint and limit the Gophers inside, that’ll force the Minnesota guards to jack up deep shots, something they’re not particularly good at. Playing a zone also minimizes foul trouble, a huge issue with only three major contributors over 6’8” on the Indiana State roster. It sounds simple but this game should come down to whichever team can execute its game plan better: inside scoring for Minnesota and three pointers plus solid interior defense for Indiana State.

#19 Florida State vs. Harvard (at Atlantis Paradise Island, Bahamas) – 4:30 PM EST on Versus (***)

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Brendon Mulvihill is an RTC contributor. You can find him @themulv on Twitter.  See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

If you’re sad the Maui Invitational is coming to an end today, fear not as another pre-season tourney is getting started in New York City.  The NIT Season Tip-Off gets going with some interesting power conference match-ups.  Just don’t forget to catch the late night Maui championship between two of the heaviest heavyweights in the land.  It should be a fun night of hoops on Thanksgiving Eve.

Bill Self Will Need to Figure Out a Way to Stop a Red Hot Duke Team in the Maui Invitational Championship

Oklahoma State vs. Stanford – 7 PM EST on ESPN2 HD (**)

• Oklahoma State brings a deep squad into the game with ten players averaging double-digit minutes.  From a depth standpoint, they match-up well against a Cardinal team that also has ten players averaging double-digit minutes. Even with a deep bench, the play of one guy, freshman guard Le’Bryan Nash, may dictate how the Cowboys perform not only in this contest but throughout the season. He is going to have to pick-up his play against Stanford however as he is only shooting 33% from the field. The entire team is shooting under 50% for the season, which should be a major concern for coach Travis Ford. If his team cannot improve their shooting against Stanford, the Cowboys will be leaving Madison Square Garden with a loss.
• Much like Oklahoma State, the Cardinal have not faced many tough defenses this season. However, they are capitalizing on the situation and making 57.5% of their two-point shots. Look for coach Johnny Dawkins to bring size off his bench to take advantage of Oklahoma State’s lack of height. The Cowboys will have to counter with 6’11” center Phillip Jurick to maintain control of the paint. If Stanford can continue its hot shooting in the paint and take advantage of the size on their bench, they can beat Oklahoma State.
• Production from the bench will be the key factor in determining the outcome of this game. Both teams get a significant amount of support from their benches. The team with more points off the bench should win. Also, keep an eye on free throws. Both teams are shooting below 65% on the season. A few made free throws down the stretch could make a huge difference in what looks like a close contest between two mid-pack, major conference teams.

#5 Syracuse vs. Virginia Tech – 9:30PM EST on ESPN2 HD (***)

• Syracuse looks to be running on all cylinders through four games this season. The competition has not been difficult, but they have blown out each team. Their length and athleticism has led to an impressive start on defense, as they lead the country in block shot percentage and rank seventh in turnover percentage. Virginia Tech has to be very cognizant of turnovers against the Orange because the Hokies have been prone to coughing the ball up so far this season. The long arms of Jim Boeheim’s team will create all kinds of issues for Va Tech not only on defense, but also on the offensive boards.
• The Hokies have playing solid basketball thus far. Syracuse will be their toughest test of the season though. Seth Greenburg’s team is not a short team by any standard so it will be interesting to see how it matches up against the Syracuse length both on offense and defense. Interestingly, Virginia Tech is getting beat up on the boards. If they do not continue their hot shooting, which will be difficult against Syracuse, and cannot grab their misses, it will be long night for the kids from Blacksburg.
• Turnovers will be a huge part of this game. Syracuse will be creating them and Virginia Tech needs to protect against them. However, the key will be how Virginia Tech’s solid half-court defense will handle Syracuse’s smart two-point shooting. If Syracuse is hitting its two-point shots early and dominating the offensive boards, they should have no problem winning.

#15 Kansas vs. #6 Duke – 10 PM EST on ESPN HD (****)

• Duke continues to look incredibly difficult to defend. They beat Michigan in the Maui Invitational semifinals with incredible outside shooting. It is unlikely they can continue to hit over 50% of their three point shots, but until a defense proves otherwise, the Blue Devils look unstoppable from downtown. They face a solid, scrambling Kansas defense that had been defending the three point shot well until they allowed UCLA to hit 8 of 14 from deep last night. If Duke is allowed to sit outside and hit threes like that, the Jayhawks will go down fast.
• Kansas has been relying heavily on Thomas Robinson thus far. It was good to see guards Elijah Johnson, Tyshawn Taylor, and Travis Releford pick-up some of the slack in the first half against UCLA when Robinson was not much of a factor.  Bill Self’s team must continue to spread the ball around and get offensive production from more than just Robinson if they want to beat the Blue Devils.
• This game hinges on the Jayhawk defense and its ability to lock down on the Duke weapons. It is a tall task for any team at this point because scoring is coming from all over the court for Mike Krzyzewski’s team. Look for the Jayhawks to put a ton of pressure on the defensive perimeter to slow down the onslaught of three pointers. If they are able to do that, it will at least give them a chance. Unfortunately for Kansas, Duke has slashers like Austin Rivers and big men like the Plumlee brothers to look to if the shots are not falling from outside.

The Official RTC Star System

***** – quit your job and divorce your wife if that’s what it takes to watch this game live
**** – best watched live, but if you must, tivo and watch it tonight as soon as you get home
*** – set your tivo but make sure you watch it later
** – set your tivo but we’ll forgive you if it stays in the queue until 2014
* – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game

Allegations that Syracuse assistant coach Bernie Fine molested two former ball boys have been in the news cycle for nearly a week now. Just enough time for interested media outlets to scour the country asking anyone and everyone who has connections to the Syracuse basketball program what they thought about Fine and his alleged misdeeds.

Fine Remains at the Center of This Controversy

The Syracuse Post-Standard – as it should be – is all over this story and has been since ESPN broke the news last week. Anyone interested in the latest news surrounding the allegations would be wise to check out their myriad of related content, especially the explanation from Executive Editor Michael Connor about why the paper never published the story in 2003 when alleged victim Bobby Davis first approached them. But they obviously aren’t the only well-connected publication, and many others have published stories including the thoughts of former players and experts – almost all of whom have come out in support of Fine.

We decided it would be worthwhile to cull together as many of these opinions as possible in one post and present them all. This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive list of the opinions, but it was an exhaustive search. All editorial content from us is meant to provide context and not opinion. Also please keep in mind these quotes were not meant to be presented as one stream of consciousness, they are a combined version of the opinions offered to the media outlets reporting on them.

Bernie Fine

In a statement publicly released on Nov. 18.

Simply put, these allegations are patently false in every aspect. The fact is these allegations have been thoroughly investigated multiple times. When evaluating the veracity of these accusations, please keep in mind that credible media outlets were approached in the past to publicize these false allegations and declined to do so. I fully cooperated with all past inquires.

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1. Central Florida got some good news yesterday when the NCAA ruled that AJ Rompza would be able to return to play for the team on December 30 after it concluded its investigation into his relationship with an individual who was known to be working for a sports agent. Rompza was the only active player who was named in the NCAA notice of allegations to UCF (all the names were redacted in the public version, but the school has stated that Rompza was the only active player who was named) so the Knights appear to have cleared that hurdle from an individual standpoint although there is still the potential for significant penalties from the NCAA for the program as a whole. Rompza’s return means that the Knights will have all of their expected pieces back for the start Conference USA play after starting the season with five players suspended for what appear to be unrelated matters.
2. One of the under the radar stories around Connecticut this year is the “rat-tail” that Shabazz Napier has been sporting. Up until now it has become a source of amusement for the media and a source of ridicule from the opposition and opposing fans although Napier’s triple-double on Sunday may have shut up the latter group for a little while. It turns out that there is a reason behind Napier’s fashion statement and it is not just some youthful fashion indiscretion; instead, it is a tribute to a slain friend. Napier claims that he might cut it pretty soon due to the amount of ridicule he is getting and his fear that he might harm his team if he reacts to someone who either doesn’t know the story or is trying to bait him into doing something dumb. We are guessing that now that the rest of the college basketball world knows the meaning behind it he will be getting mocked a lot less for it.
3. We have already provided our guide for NBA fans who will be flocking to our beloved sport. Seth Davis has also decided to chime in on the subject and has offered his thoughts on the matter. Looking through Seth’s 13 points we agree with pretty much all of them especially the point about not using his picks to guide your selections for your NCAA Tournament pool. Use our picks instead. Actually you probably shouldn’t do that either. Find the person who knows the least about college basketball and see which teams they are picking. Come to us so you can sound intelligent when everybody asks you how you know so much and you can regurgitate what we say in our recaps as we desperately try to rationalize what just happened.
4. Yesterday was Monday, which can mean just one thing: a Gary Parrish Poll Attack (actually Mondays can mean a lot of things, but just play along). Maybe the voters are getting a little less idiotic or maybe Parrish is just feeling a little holiday cheer, but this week’s version seems to be a little less angry than usual. This week’s attacks focus on voters not watching games or not bothering to even check head-to-head results. We have to say that we are a little surprised that Parrish has not lived up to his promise to attack voters who pick anybody other than North Carolina as the #1 team in the country. There are a handful who did so this week (including us) and Parrish appears to have “spared” them. For the record, we are more than willing to defend our selection of a new #1 in college basketball.
5. Finally, here is your daily Bernie Fine update: things are starting to get a little more messy from a legal and PR standpoint for Syracuse. The Syracuse district attorney’s office and police department appear to be in an argument about whether the findings from the 2002 investigation into the allegations against Fine will be released for the grand jury to hear and the district attorney has actually obtained a subpoena requiring the police to hand over the records. As you can imagine the police department is not too happy and claims that they do not want to hand the information over “in a piecemeal fashion”. Meanwhile, both ESPN and Syracuse are starting to feel the pressure surrounding the original news report and the how the news was handled. Jason Whitlock, who is no stranger to ESPN bashing, came out with a column ripping ESPN’s journalistic integrity to release such a damaging story when so much of the information is being contested. Whitlock then went to the Deadspin, the beacon for journalistic integrity, and their editor claims that he would not have run such a story. We are not sure if this was included as a joke or not since the site seems ok reporting on the rumored dalliances of low-level ESPN employees (giving names in all of its stories) and posting explicit personal photos online. As for the university, it, more specifically Jim Boeheim, has come under attack by a child advocacy group for statements that Boeheim made about the reliability of the two individuals accusing Fine.

Jesse Baumgartner is an RTC columnist. His Love/Hate column will publish on Mondays throughout the season. In this weekly piece he’ll review the five things he loved and hated about the previous seven days of college basketball.

Five Things I Loved This Week

I LOVED….finding out answers on Opening Night. After last year, we all knew UConn’s Jeremy Lamb had the chance to be special, but weren’t sure exactly what we’d get with Kemba Walker gone and a new team in Storrs. It took all of 32 minutes and 11 seconds against Columbia for Lamb to go baseline and throw down a “Yeah-I’m-A-POY-frontrunner-and-don’t-you-forget it” posterization. I’ll be shocked if that’s still not a Top 10 play by year’s end, and take note – this is the kid to watch for the next six months.

I LOVED….that moment when you realize college basketball is back – not necessarily the first game, but the first time you jump halfway off the couch and let out a little Ohhh!!! For me it was Alabama/Maryland, when Bama’s Tony Mitchell timed a tip jam so perfectly that he had time to cock it back into a semi-tomahawk and absolutely rip the net apart. The best time of the year is here.

I LOVED….the uniqueness of the North Carolina/Michigan State Carrier Classic. Yes, it was a great matchup, great coaches, a great tribute to our veterans, etc. But more than that, for the first time I can remember the backdrop setting of the game truly overtook the importance of the matchup or the result. Organizers have tried to do that in the past by setting up courts in huge venues, but this trumped them all. Five years from now, I think far more people will remember pictures like this than the final score. OK, well, maybe they’ll remember Roy Williams in combat boots, too.

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