LamarCheeks

Last night, I just happened to see the 30 for 30 "Survive and Advance" about N.C. State's 1983 NCAA title. At one point in the season, Derek Whittenberg threw Valvano and the coaches out of the locker room, got in everybody's grille and told them if they didn't start playing harder, they'd have to fight him. ... Too bad we don't have anybody on our team like that.

I've actually got no issues so far with Dakich tonight. He's hammering us -- and we deserve it.

Juwan is playing like a guy who wants his season to be over. ... That offensive foul was about as stupid a play has he's made in four years. He just knocked the kid out of the way and went to the hoop.

This game is like so many others: We're on the verge of going up by 15-20 and we let 'em right back in.

Damezi almost shoots a set shot.

Al goes coast to coast!

Green starting in Romeo's place.

How is it that this thread is six pages long and has more than 100 entries when tipoff is still a half-hour away!!!

I think what usually happens is that if a school doesn't want to play in the NIT, it will put that info out there before the invites are issued. Last season, for instance, Georgia fired Mark Fox on the Saturday before selection Sunday and the players then voted not to go to the NIT if invited. So it wasn't granted a bid. LSU did the same thing 2-3 years ago. Of course, Georgia then hired our good friend Tom Crean.

Back when Alford was fired, Hoiberg also was linked to the UCLA job. I wonder if that's cooled off a bit. I know at the time, he said he preferred the NBA. That said, if Nebraska does hire him, it shows that they're getting serious about a sport in which they've accomplished absolutely nothing. And they can get serious about a sport in which they've accomplished absolutely nothing, why can't we get serious about football??? (BTW, that's pretty much a rhetorical question).

We didn't play them the season we went to the CWS, either (2013) -- at all. Not even a weekday one-game meeting. Makes no damn sense -- especially since not only are we rivals, but we're only a little over a hundred miles apart. That's an inexpensive trip, I would think.

We should win by 20-25, but we've played with great energy and enthusiasm in about 20 percent of our games this season -- if that -- and I don't expect this to be one of them. Cream & Crimson 69 Red Flash 63

Yeah. I realized that after I sorta went through the string. But he was just basically responding to an IU fan who was bashing Keion for the way he made his decision. ... Puzzling behavior.

I doubt (hope) that our crazy fan base had any effect on Brooks' decision, but this is shameful. ... Good luck to Keion at UK.

Not sure Bennett was ever available -- to us, anyway. Supposedly, when we hired Crean, we had reached out to Bennett, and he said no. ... The reasoning was thought to be that he didn't want all the B.S. that comes with coaching a program like IU (or Kentucky, UNC, Duke, etc.). But it might have been as simple as he was pissed that we had fired his sister as women's coach. ... Rumors now link Bennett to UCLA, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Because if you don't want the heat of a program like IU, going go to Westwood wouldn't make any sense.

One thing I'm still not understanding: How will the NBA lowering the draft age to 18 end one and dones? Unless there's an accompanying stipulation saying once you go to college or sign a LOI, you can't be drafted or play pro ball in the U.S. for for 2-3 years (like baseball has -- it's 3 years), I don't see how one and dones are going away. I would guess that lowering the draft age to 18 will affect about 8-12 high school seniors every year. The super-elite ones -- Zion, Barrett, Reddish, LIttle, Romeo (maybe) -- will head right to the NBA. But with only two rounds -- and 60 picks -- there are a limited number of draft slots -- most will go to college kids. What happens if a 5-star decides if he's not gonna be a lottery pick (because that's his litmus test) and plans to go to Kentucky or Duke or UNC? And if he has a good freshman season, there won't be any reason for him not to leave school and throw his name in the draft -- hence, another one and done.

Interesting ... Could he be headed to the Association to escape the long arm of the NCAA law?

Crazy ending. Lots of factors, but it came down to ODU made FTs and UAB didn't. Cannot believe Bryant overthrew that kid. Would've been the easiest deuce you can get.

Because I live just a few miles from ODU, I'm watching the Monarchs and UAB in the Conference USA semifinals. Ahmad Caver, a decent senior for ODU, makes a bucket, prompting this gem from analyst Pete Gillen: "Starting to feel it. Great player. Senior. Wants to go back to the Big Dance. Has not been there yet." Huh?

I'm not exactly sure of all the intricacies of the rules of a flagrant 1 foul, but the MSU kid caught ball, had three guys up in his grill and when he went to pivot, one of the OSU kids caught an elbow in the throat. And Sparty got a flagrant 1. I just don't like that call. What's he supposed to do? Stand there and let the OSU players hammer away at him and take the ball? All he did was make a simple move.

I would guess that because he was still recovering from his injury, Davis' offseason opportunities to train were somewhat limited last year, and with a spate of new injuries this season, he was really to slow to work into game shape. ... I'm hoping that this offseason, he's 100 percent good to go, can get into great shape and come back as a really solid contributor. If that happens, I don't see why he can't start and play 25-30 minutes a game and give us 15 points and 8-9 boards. Maybe I'm aiming too high ... but I think the potential is there.

Did this dude go to the Greyson Allen school of basketball???