"Your most valuable option for Midwest sports"
The 14th annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 27-28 2012 will be headlined by North Carolina at Indiana, with a solid undercard of Ohio State at Duke. and North Carolina State at Michigan stands out as the third biggest match-up.
ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will combine to televise all 12 games of the two-day event.
Six members Iowa Hawkeyes were selected in the 2012 NFL Draft. This marks the third straight year the Hawkeyes have had six players taken.
Offensive lineman Riley Reiff, the third Hawkeye junior to enter the draft in the last three years, was a first round selection of the Detroit Lions, becoming Iowa’s third first round pick in the last three years. Iowa joins Alabama as the only two teams in nation to have a first round selection in each of the last three drafts.
The NFL draft is here! We’ve made some final changes in our last mock, moving quite a few guys around. See you Thursday night!
Go here for the FIRST ROUND of this mock
And here for our 2013 NFL Mock Draft
We also had last year’s overall #1 most accurate NBA mock draft. check out the current one here
If you are like me and already have a post-college basketball NCAA Tournament depression; fear not. The Sports Bank has already released our preseason Top 25 for the 2012-2013 season which you can check out by clicking here. Now it is time for an insanely early Bracketology, projecting what the 2013 NCAA Tournament field might look like.
With the Kentucky Wildcats cutting down the nets last night, we can officially close the book on the 2011-2012 college basketball season. Hoop junkies like myself are already looking ahead to next season so allow me to present to you my way too early 2012-2013 preseason Top 25.
There are still several factors that could alter a teams roster between now and the start of next season. Some of the top players are still debating on whether or not to enter the NBA Draft, some teams will lose players to transfer, and five McDonald’s All-Americans remain undecided on their college decision including the top two recruits in the 2012 class; Shabazz Muhammad and Nerlens Noel.
So here is my preliminary preseason Top 25. I will updated these rankings once the NBA Draft early entries list is complete and Muhammaed and Noels make their college decision. Leave a comment below if you think a team is too high, too low, not getting enough respect, or if you notice an error in a projected roster. (Click here for my way too early preseason rankings from last season.)
Here are teams 16-25 in my 2012-2013 preseason college basketball Top 25 and other teams who just missed the cut.
College basketball fans whose team didn’t make the NCAA Tournament are probably already looking ahead to the 2012-2013 season. Typical tourney teams like UCLA, Arizona, Butler, Villanova, and Maryland should have bounce back seasons next year and vie for a spot in the Big Dance. Here are ten non-tourney programs to watch out for next season.
When asked if he thought his team would accept an NIT bid, embattled Illinois coach Bruce Weber responded “I don’t know, I don’t know if we’ll make the NIT to be honest.”
After falling to Iowa in the opening game of the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, all signs seem to be pointing to Weber’s imminent departure from Champaign and the University of Illinois. In his post game comments Weber was reserved and calm, not the meltdown he had after losing to Purdue earlier this season or the anger he has shown so many other times. Weber who once guided the Illini to a Final Four and multiple Big Ten titles seemed to understand that this is likely the end.
“Sometimes, life isn’t fair, and basketball isn’t fair….If you just go on a pity party for yourself, nothing is going to happen.”
The Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament tips off Thursday, March 8, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Heading into the tournament, the Big Ten continues to lead all conferences in the RPI and Sagarin ratings and is the only conference in the country with five top-15 teams.
So you could easily say it’s the toughest conference in college basketball. But it doesn’t mean the games will be the prettiest; in fact you might see a couple ugly ones.
Iowa Hawkeyes country is college football country. Right now, it’s just not a college basketball town. Today’s loss at Illinois doesn’t help that. It was an Illini team that really needed a win, and for some reason Iowa can’t seem to beat Illinois lately.
The Illini improved their record vs Iowa at home to 61-14 all time; breaking a six game losing streak, the program’s worst since 1999. They’ve won 11 in a row at Assembly Hall vs. the Hawks and seven in a row overall against the team from Iowa City. Bruce Weber improved his record to 13-2 vs. the Hawkeyes.
Northwestern knew it needed a win against Iowa Thursday night in order to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive. With that in mind, The Wildcats promptly turned in arguably their best performance of the season, a convincing 83-64 win over the Hawkeyes.
Point guard Dave Sobolewski led the way for NU, recording a season-high 26 points and team-high seven assists. The freshman’s impressive performance evoked memories of former Cats’ star Michael Juice Thompson. Sobolewski said that Thompson has helped him deal with recent criticism.
Follow @paul_m_bankstsb on twitter.
