NCAA College Sports Blog

Come to Team-Superstore.Com for all of your Father’s Day needs! By entering in “DADSDAY15″, you can get 15% off all orders until 6/25/10!

Florida Gators Mens Apparel
and other Gators Apparel

Florida Gators Black Wool One-Fit Cap (Medium)

Florida Logo Credit Card/Money Clip Holder

Florida Gators Crew Adjustable Cap

The Mountain West Conference has performed so well the past two seasons that it could receive an automatic bid to the BCS in the 2012 and ‘13 seasons.

BCS executive director Bill Hancock was hesitant Wednesday to say the MWC, which has placed Utah and TCU in the Bowl Championship Series the last two seasons, was on course to become the seventh automatic qualifying conference.

But he did tell the conference commissioners and athletic directors gathered here this week for meetings that they should be aware of the strides the Mountain West has made toward earning an automatic bid.

The BCS rates non-automatic qualifying leagues using three criteria that measure the strength of its best teams and the league as a whole. The first two seasons of the four-year evaluation period were 2008 and ‘09, banner years for the MWC.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

East Carolina has turned to former Auburn Tigers coach Jeff Lebo to lead its long-struggling men’s basketball program.

The school announced Monday it had hired Lebo to replace Mack McCarthy, who spent three seasons on the sideline for the Pirates before stepping down to take a fundraising job in the school’s athletics department. Lebo had spent the past six seasons at Auburn, going 96-93 overall before he was fired earlier this month.

The 43-year-old coach played at North Carolina under Dean Smith in the late 1980s and had coached at Tennessee Tech and Chattanooga previously.

The school has scheduled a news conference for Lebo on Tuesday.

Lebo inherits a difficult job at East Carolina, a Conference USA school located in the shadows of instate Atlantic Coast Conference programs Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State. The program hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since making a surprise run to win the Colonial Athletic Association tournament in 1993 and hasn’t had a winning record since the 1996-97 season.

Click here to read the full article – By of ESPN.com

Dorenzo Hudson scored 17 of his game-high 27 points in the second half to lift Virginia Tech past Connecticut 65-63 in a second-round NIT game Monday night.

The Hokies (25-8), who tied a school record for victories in a season, advanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT, where they will play Rhode Island at home Wednesday night. Tech is 17-1 at home this season, with the lone loss coming in double overtime to Maryland.
“The resiliency and toughness and competitive spirit of this team never ceases to amaze me,” Hokies coach Seth Greenberg said. “They’re just an amazing group. Keeping their composure, their ability to make plays down the stretch, their ability to get stops. They’re just a tough, competitive group that finds a way to win.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

North Carolina coach Roy Williams says sophomore Tyler Zeller is uncertain to play against UAB in the third round of the NIT on Tuesday night.

Zeller was hit above his left eye midway through the second half of the weekend win at Mississippi State. The blow opened a cut that needed five stitches and left him with a mild concussion.

Williams said Monday that Zeller is “50-50″ to play and that he wouldn’t practice. The 7-footer had seven points and seven rebounds off the bench against the Bulldogs.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

After the most prolific three-year career in Oklahoma State history, Big 12 player of the year James Anderson plans to skip his senior season and enter the NBA draft.

Anderson announced his decision Monday at a news conference at Gallagher-Iba Arena, saying “I believe now is the time for me to pursue my dreams by playing in the NBA.”

Anderson averaged a Big 12-best 22.3 points per game while leading the Cowboys into the NCAA tournament for a second straight year. The versatile 6-foot-6 guard was an overwhelming choice as the league’s player of the year, earning the selection ahead of such stars as Kansas’ Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich, and Kansas State’s Jacob Pullen.

“I believe now it’s time to test my basketball skills against the best players in the world,” Anderson said. “I have worked hard to improve my abilities over the last three years. … I believe that I am fully prepared both athletically and emotionally for the challenge of playing in the NBA.”

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

Memphis must vacate its record 38-win men’s basketball season from 2007-08 after the NCAA rejected its appeal.

The NCAA announced Monday that its Infractions Appeal Committee ruled against Memphis, which was found to use an ineligible player, believed to be Derrick Rose. The Tigers lost in overtime to Kansas in the national title game that season.

The NCAA originally ordered Memphis to vacate the season and forfeit money on Aug. 20. Memphis had appealed, arguing the penalties were unprecedented and that the school was held to a strict liability when Rose was ruled retroactively ineligible for an SAT score that was invalidated by the Educational Testing Service in May 2008.

“The Infractions Appeals Committee found no basis to conclude that the penalty was excessive such that the Committee on Infractions had abused its discretion in imposing the penalty,” the NCAA said in a release posted on its Web site.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

Tom Penders resigned as coach at Houston on Monday, ending a six-year tenure that culminated in the Cougars’ first trip to the NCAA tournament since 1992.

The Cougars qualified after winning the Conference USA tournament, but lost to Maryland 89-77 in the first round Friday night.

“I came to the University of Houston in 2004 with the goal of getting UH back to the NCAA tournament,” he said. “We achieved this goal and now it is time for me to move on.”

The 64-year-old Penders became just the eighth coach to take four different schools to the NCAA tournament. He had also led George Washington, Rhode Island and Texas there.

Penders has won 648 games in his more than 30-year head coaching career. He went 121-77 at Houston.

Penders has spent the majority of his career turning around struggling programs, including those at Tufts, Columbia, Fordham and Rhode Island. He took great pleasure in leading the once-proud Houston program back to the tournament for the first time in almost two decades.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo is relieved his banged-up team has four days off before its next game in the NCAA tournament.

Not that it will help Kalin Lucas.

An MRI confirmed the junior guard ruptured the Achilles tendon in his left foot during the first half of Sunday’s NCAA tournament game against Maryland.

The recovery time is expected to be 4-6 months.

“We feel terrible for Kalin, he was having a great NCAA tournament,” Izzo said in a statement. “The good news is there is no doubt he will make a full and complete recovery. He’s a tough kid and he’ll do everything necessary to return to his elite level.”

Lucas’ replacement, Korie Lucious, beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer that lifted the fifth-seeded Spartans to an 85-83 win over fourth-seeded Maryland on Sunday.

Click here to read the full article – By of ESPN.com

Scottie Reynolds and No. 2 seed Villanova nearly had their NCAA tournament run end in the biggest of upsets.

Reynolds responded to his benching with a clutch performance at the foul line in the final minutes of regulation, and the Wildcats survived a scare from Robert Morris in a 73-70 overtime victory Thursday in the NCAA tournament.
Coach Jay Wright sat Reynolds at the start of the game to make a “teaching point,” and he missed 13 of 15 shots from the floor. But the senior star made seven of eight free throws in the final 3:06 to send the game into overtime, finishing with 20 points.
Karon Abraham scored 23 for Robert Morris (23-13), which was on the brink of becoming only the fifth No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 and the first since 2001. Abraham let fly a 25-footer in OT that cut it to 71-70 with 10.2 seconds left, but an off-balance 3 at the buzzer was no good.
The Colonials left the court to a standing ovation.
The Wildcats (25-7), trying to reach their second straight Final Four, entered having lost five of seven and were a surprising pick for the No. 2 seed in the South Regional.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com