Cornell point guard Louis Dale is part of a great senior class.
Ithaca, N.Y. has always prided itself on being home to Cornell University, a prestigious Ivy League School that has put the city on the map globally. Its’ rich academic history is reflected in its’ colleges such as The Johnson School of Management, The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and the College of Veterinary Medicine. Over the past decade, Cornell has had multiple students be named Rhodes Scholars and four faculty members receive the Pulitzer Prize.
While Cornell will always be recognized academically as one of the world’s premier research and land-grant universities, its’ visibility has also been enhanced by the success of its’ athletic program over the last several years which has added too its’ already great athletic history. The women’s ice hockey team just won its’ first ever Eastern College Athletic Conference regular-season title on Saturday Feb. 20 with a 6-1 win over Union (NY). The men’s lacrosse team has gone to the NCAA Final Four two out of the last three years including last year’s national championship game where they lost a 10-9 heartbreaker to Syracuse in overtime.
The men’s hockey team always plays before sellout crowds at Lynah Rink and has been dominant for decades. Wrestler Jordan Leen won the national championship at 157 pounds in 2008. The women’s basketball team won the Ivy League Championship – its’ first in the program’s history – in 2008. Speaking of basketball, the men’s team also won the Ivy League Championship with an unblemished 14-0 league mark in 2008, their first conference championship in 20 years. Read the rest of this entry →
Bobby Knight's chair throwing incident foreshadowed other outbursts to come.
Few figures in college sports have towered over the domain as forcefully as that of Bobby Knight over college basketball for more than 30 years. Known as “The General”, Knight is the all-time leader in coaching victories in Division I men’s basketball history with 903 and is also credited with ensuring that his players were not just athletes, but true student-athletes.
However, his legacy is forever tarnished by his reputation as a bully and inability to control his anger sometimes both on and off the court.
Today, February 23rd, marks the 25th anniversary of one of his most famous blowups and in many ways the event that foreshadowed his fall from professional grace.
During a Big Ten basketball game between Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers and the Purdue Boilermakers, Knight became frustrated with a call by the officials and received a technical foul. Irate, Knight turned to his bench, picked up a plastic chair and then flung it across the court. He received a second technical foul and ejection and was later suspended for a game and fined by the Big Ten.
Indiana ultimately lost 72-63 and Knight’s reputation for a quick temper was suddenly part of the national lexicon.
Bobby Knight Is:
All of the Above (45%, 22 Votes)
An All-Time Great Coach (35%, 17 Votes)
A Bully (14%, 7 Votes)
A Tragic Figure (4%, 2 Votes)
In Need of Therapy (2%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 49
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It would take 15 years and a number of additional incidents, but Knight was eventually fired by Indiana University for his repeated outbursts, including incidents of laying hands on players.
He completed his coaching career at Texas Tech and is, ironically considering all the years he harassed the media, now working as a basketball commentator for ESPN.
Sherron Collins and the Kansas Jayhawks seem poised for the top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Selection Sunday is getting closer and closer and the way things are shaping up I’m ready to make some NCAA Basketball predictionsfor the four teams that will be the number one seed in each region.
I’m really enjoying the way Kansas is playing right now, even though they had a few problems against Texas A&M they found a way to win and that gives me a feeling they are a championship caliber team.
Looking at their schedule I don’t see any team that can stop them until the tourney starts. They do go up against Kansas State, but that game is at home and I don’t think they will lose. That’s why I have Kansas as the top team in the Big 12 and in the country in general.
Kansas will lead the Midwest bracket.
I am a nut when it comes to sports and I look at every angle, and having said that I don’t trust Kentucky as much as other people. Read the rest of this entry →
Roy Williams and the defending NCAA Champion North Carolina Tar Heels have struggled in 2010.
To start this off I am going to tell you UCLA and Kentucky are the teams with more action and most championships titles after they survived March Madness, here are some things that I have considered before my making my final March Madness picks:
Kansas, with 3 titles, is one of my favorites for March Madness. The Jayhawks are gunning for a perfect regular season and are trying to make this season their best conference performance ever; they are leading the nation in scoring and victory margin, winning eleven straight games. Kansas is ranked at number one, meaning they are always favorites in any NCAA basketball odds.
UCLA, the team with eleven Big Dance victories in college basketball, is having an embarrassing campaign this season. With 12 wins and 13 losses, the Bruins haven’t improved their work, and I can’t even imagine them in the final 64. The Bruins seem to be far away from the glory days and the good times in the past, their last title was in 1995.
Bevo Francis captured the imagination of the nation during his two seasons at Rio Grande College.
If you followed sports in the early 1950s then you probably have heard the name Clarence “Bevo” Francis. However, to most of America his name and legend are an unknown part of sports history. Quite frankly, he was the most prolific basketball scorer of his time.
It was 56 years ago today, February 2, 1954, that Bevo Francis of Rio Grande College forever sealed his name in college basketball lore by dropping 113 points on Hillsdale College in a 134-91 victory for an NCAA single game scoring record that will likely never be matched.
Heck, the closest any college player has ever gotten happened just 11 days later on February 13, 1954 when Frank Selvy from Furman scored 100 points against Newberry College. The closest anyone has gotten to 100 points in a single game in the ensuing 56 years is 81 points by Freeman Williams of Portland State against Rocky Mountain on February 3, 1978.
What is even more remarkable about Francis and his scoring record is that his 113 point game wasn’t even the best of his career. He scored 116 points the previous season against Ashland Junior College in a game that was not recognized by the NCAA.
The story of Rio Grande, with just 38 men in the entire and a basketball team that couldn’t lose spread like wildfire across the country. A 6-foot-9 center and the best player on the team, Francis became a national folk-hero in a time before ESPN and even Sports Illustrated (which started in August 1954).
During the 1952-53 season Bevo Francis averaged 50.1 points per game playing against a schedule that included some legitimate four-year college programs, but also an assortment of junior colleges. In all, the 1952-53 Rio Grande Redmen played 39 games (going 39-0) and Francis scored an amazing 1,954 points. Read the rest of this entry →
The UNLV Runnin' Rebels are relevant again in college hoops.
Not since 20 years ago have the UNLV Mens Basketball Team drawn this much excitement as the decade comes to a screeching halt next Friday. In his sixth years as the coach of the Runnin’Rebels, Lon Kruger and 2009-2010 edition is certainly invoking memories of Greg Anthony, Larry Johnson and Stacy Augman.
Ranked 20th in this week’s ESPN/USA poll the Rebels are in Hawaii this week for the inaugural Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. Being the only ranked team there is not a guarantee to the championship for the 10-1 Rebels. In the other side of the bracket lies USC and St Marys, both teams that have beat ranked opponents this year.
However,if last nights drubbing of SMU is any indication just how strong and how deep these Rebels are, then it looks like it’s going to be a year where UNLV and perhaps even three other Mountain West teams will be joining them in the big dance in March 2010.
Last night the Rebels used 11 men to roll to a one sided 67-53 win over the Mustangs from SMU. The final score was no indication of the beating that took place on the floor.
The Rebels jumped out to a 42-19 halftime lead and never looked back. They increased the lead to 28 midway through the second have and allowed the SMU Mustangs to get as close as 12 points with about 2 minutes to play.
The Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month is one of the most underappreciated wide receivers in NFL history, despite boasting a career that spanned 16 seasons and saw him excel as one of the league’s premier deep threats. Known for his speed, route-running, and ability to make plays downfield, Harold Jackson left an indelible mark on the game during an era that was not yet pass-heavy. Standing at 5’10” and weighing 175 pounds, he defied expectations of size to become a dominant force on the field. Over the course of his illustrious career (1968–1983), Jackson totaled 10,372 receiving yards and 76 touchdowns, placing him among the top receivers of his time.
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