Former Putnam City guard Xavier Henry says he is staying with his plans to play basketball at Kansas.

Henry texted a Kansas City radio station Tuesday saying he decided to stay with the Jayhawks. Earlier in the day, Henry's father, Carl Henry, told a Kansas City radio station that his son might have had a change of heart about attending Kansas, according to reports in the Kansas City Star and Louisville Courier-Journal.Kansas coach Bill Self flew to Oklahoma City on Tuesday night to talk with the Henry family.

In an interview that aired on 610-AM in Kansas City, Carl Henry said his son, one of the nation's top recruits, originally wanted to follow ex-Memphis coach John Calipari to Kentucky before committing to the Jayhawks.

Xavier Henry is a 6-6 shooting guard who was a McDonald's All-American and The Oklahoman's state Player of the Year honors after leading PC to the Class 6A state title.

CONTINUE READING

College Hoops recruiting, xavier henry, kentucky, kansas, memphis, john calipari

from Lexington Herald-Leader...

There may come a day when John Calipari's detractors will finally catch the coach red-handed at something other than guilt by association.

But this isn't that day.

Here's why: The NCAA allegations against the Memphis basketball program aren't a John Calipari issue.

They're a Derrick Rose issue.

Page 8 of the 13-page letter outlining the allegations sent by the NCAA to the University of Memphis states:

"It is alleged that (name redacted), prospective men's basketball student-athlete, failed to deport himself in accordance with the generally recognized high standards of honesty and sportsmanship normally associated with the conduct and administration of intercollegiate athletics for his knowing fraudulence or misconduct in connection with his entrance examination."

COMPLETE ARTICLE

College Hoops kentucky, kentucky wildcats, uk, john calipari, derrick rose, memphis

The NCAA tournament got underway on Thursday and after 12+ hours of watching hoops, there was plenty of excitement to talk about...

*How about my Hilltoppers? Western Kentucky held off Illinois, 76-72. They were up big and made me stress things out at the end, but a win is a win baby! All five starters scored in double-figures for Western Kentucky, including a team-high 17 points from Steffphon Pettigrew. The Hilltoppers became the second team to win a tournament game in consecutive years as a 12-seed or worse (Tulsa in 2002).

*Top Teams Roll - Memphis and Villanova got a bit of a scare in the opening round, but for the most part the top teams rolled with North Carolina, Connecticut, Duke Memphis, and Oklahoma winning their games by a combined average of 29.1 points.

*Close But No Cigar - VCU, a trendy No. 11 seed pick, had the ball in their best player's hands (Eric Maynor) with a shot to win it at the buzzer, but Maynor drove the lane and his shot roll off the rim and the clock hit zeroe and the Bruins squeaked out a 65-64 win. UCLA, which has made the Final Four each of the last three seasons, narrowly escaped a first-round exit.

*Tigers Impressive - Two streaks ended Thursday: LSU got its first NCAA tournament win since the 2006 Elite Eight, while Butler had its four-game, first round winning streak snapped.  The Tigers are underrated and play great defense. They are going to push North Carolina more than most think on Saturday.

*Watching Games Online - I loved my setup yesterday. I have my desktop computer going right into my HDTV and watched split screen with CBS-TV on one side and CBSSports.com on the otherside. Pretty sweet, especially since it was free. The delay is annoying at times, but I will deal with it.

*My Bracket - 14-2 so far as I had lost with Clemson and VCU. Today is going to be a bit more crazy though, mark my words.

*Prediction Time - Arizona and Utah State today are my underdog picks. Also, look for FSU to blowout Wisconsin.

College Hoops ncaa tournament, western kentucky, vcu, villanova, memphis, north carolina, duke, connecticut, memphis, oklahoma, vcu, lsu, ucla, butler

The bowl games finally start this weekend. Fellow GetSportsInfo.com writer, Jeremy Fischer, and myself have put together our picks including how confident we are in them. In case you've never done a pick 'em game like this before, here's how it works. In addition to picking who you think will win the game, you assign a number to that pick as to how confident you think that pick is going to be right. There are 34 bowl games this year (way too many in most people's opinion, but that's beside the point), so the max number of confidence points you can give to one game is, yep, you guessed it, 34. The game you are least confident in you assign one point too, and fill in everything in between.

A lot of office pools are done like this and make it much more challenging than simply picking a winner for each game. As J-Fish states when it comes to doing a pick 'em game like this, "I have seen many strategies and I prefer the one that calls for using the higher confidence points on the bigger BCS games." He goes on to give his reasons as to why.

"Right or wrong, the larger conference teams get more coverage. The more information that is out there, the better informed pick you can make. The more informed you are, the more confident you'll be about a particular selection." Makes sense right? So picking the BCS bowl games really isn't as difficult as picking some of the more obscure games like the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl between Southern Mississippi and Troy that provide more difficulty in not only picking who will win, but deciding how confident you are in that pick.

J-Fish goes on to say, "Unless you fancy yourself as the next Jimmy the Greek, don't over analyze. The amount of games will definitely lead to paralysis-by-analysis." In my opinion, when it comes to picking some of the lower level bowl games, its almost more of a gut feeling when making that selection than anything else.

With all that said, let's get to the picks. What you'll find below is the bowl schedule starting with the first game on the docket all the way to the National Championship game on January 8th. With each pick you'll see both J-Fish's pick as well as my own with a little bit of analysis and how many confidence points (#) we have assigned to the pick we've made. Let's get to it with a look at the BCS games.

January 1st
ROSE - Penn State vs. USC
JFISH: USC (34) - Too much defense.
DICO: USC (32) - Too much USC! PSU hasn't seen anything like the Trojans this year. Ask OSU how things worked out for them. Plus this is a "home game" for the Trojans.

FEDEX ORANGE - Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech
JFISH: Cincinnati (22) - 1st BCS bowl berth will drive the Bearcats.
DICO: Cincinnati (10) - Special teams could be the difference in this game. Mardy Gilyard for the Bearcats is one of the best in the country in the return game. A chance to finish the season in the Top 10 will push the Bearcats to a win.

January 2nd
ALLSTATE SUGAR - Utah vs. Alabama
JFISH: Alabama (32) - Utah hasn't faced a defense like this.
DICO: Alabama (33) - See JFISH's comments...the Utes will have a hard time stopping the 'Bama offense as well.

January 5th
TOSTITOS FIESTA - Ohio State vs. Texas
JFISH: Texas (33) - Too much speed on defense, and the Horns will be playing angry because of the whole BIG XII, BCS screw job.
DICO: Texas (31) - QB Colt McCoy will be too much even for a good Buckeyes' defense. Terrelle Pryor will see what team speed on defense is all about against the Longhorns.

January 8th
FEDEX BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP - Florida vs. Oklahoma
JFISH: Florida (26) - Tebow/Harvin will find a way.
DICO: Oklahoma (22) - Bradford leads the most potent offense in the country. Even with the loss of DeMarco Murray at RB, the Sooners won't miss a beat. Expect a high scoring affair.

COMPLETE PICKS (ALL 34 GAMES) 

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The Xavier Musketeers have gotten off to a not so pretty but very impressive 5-0.  It’s not even December and XU can boast of wins over the Big12’s Missouri, the ACC’s Virginia Tech and #12 Memphis.  They are building a fine resume for the post-season. It is a pleasant surprise to see them winning with such holes to offensively.
 
The Musketeers are gutsy, they know how to win and their defense fuels their tenacity.  That is a testament to the leadership of their five returning lettermen.  The ingredients are their for mixing up another special season. There are still many question marks so lets take a look at the good and bad that we have seen from this cast of players so far.

CJ Anderson – Heart and soul of this team and will not be denied.  Must keep his cool and stay in close games because that is where the team needs him the most.

BJ Raymond – Musketeers can’t rely on him to bail them out every time they get behind because he is just too streaky a shooter.  They showed they have overcome that hurdle in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off as Raymond was just 3-15 from behind the arc.

Derrick Brown – Slowed by a sprained ankle he relied way to heavily on his jump shot in Peurto Rico.  If Holloway learns to throw him the alley-oop pass he will be back to his old ways.

Jason Love – Just a solid player.  He looks like one of the most improved players AGAIN on this roster.  Is showing that he is capable of hitting FT’s in the clutch.

Dante Jackson – The sophomore is still raw offensively.  Has great enthusiasm and brings it on defense.

Jamel MacLean – Great energy off the bench can score down low.  He will lose minutes if he can’t shoot free throws late in the game. 

Kenny Frease – His shots were not falling in P.R.  but clearly has shown the tools to be one of the greats at the school.

Terrell Holloway – The point guard grew up in a hurry and did it under big time pressure with two 10-10 games at the foul line against Missouri & Memphis – what moxy.  It remains to be seen whether he can take the rigors of a full college season while running the show.

Brad Redford - a bit on the smallish side to earn extended minutes at this point.  He is a real shooting specialist and should slide right into that role with ease as the year wears on.

College Hoops brad redford, terrell holloway, kenny frease, jamel maclean, dante jackson, jason love, derrick brown, cj anderson, bj raymond, xavier musketeers, musketeers, xavier, puerto rico tip-off, x-report, missouri, memphis, virginia tech

As posted on YourTeamStinks.com 

The ESPN/USA Today preseason rankings came out today for college basketball. The team at the top, the North Carolina Tar Heels.

The Tar Heels made a deep run in the dance last year all the way to the final four, only to be knocked off by Kansas who would go on to win the national title. Kansas lost a lot of their key players from last season. Because of that they debuted at No. 23.

UNC received all 31 first place votes. That's a big vote of confidence from the voters to be ranked the unanimous No. 1 team in the country before even taking to the court. A big reason for the unanimous vote is due to their star player, Tyler Hansborough, who decided to return for his senior season. He'll get help from a couple other key players in Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington.

The other half of the Final Four debut high in the polls as well as UCLA is ranked No. 4 and Memphis comes in at No. 12.

The top ten looks like this, highlighted by a handful of BIG EAST teams.

1. North Carolina
2. Connecticut
3. Louisville
4. UCLA
5. Duke
6. Pittsburgh
7. Michigan State
8. Texas
9. Notre Dame
10. Purdue 

College Hoops north carolina, kansas, tyler hansborough, ty lawson, wayne ellington, ucla, memphis

I was never a fan of NSYNC but I have to give props to Justin Timberlake hosting the 2008 ESPY's last night.  He was brutal on a couple of athletes but I found him spot and and very funny.

Here are some highlights...

1.  Making fun of how much David Beckham has improved the US view of soccer.

2.  Making fun of Paul Pierce's supposed knee injury during the NBA Finals.

3.  Putting his hand up in Mario Chalmers' face to show the Memphis nation how to guard a shooter.

4.  Shooting free throws without looking, hooks, bounces and other ways in which he made it as he slammed Memphis.

5.  Constantly drawing attention to Aaron Rodgers that Favre might be coming back.

6.  Making fun of Eli Manning saying he won a Super Bowl and finally saw a woman naked.  Manning's woman looked rather pissed about the whole thing.

7.  Victoria Beckham either had a stick shoved up her butt all night or too much botox in her lips to show any type of facial expression. 

8.  Danica Patrick looked pissed that she didn't win anything but she is pretty much used to that feeling.  Maybe she should have gone up on stage and thrown a temper tantrum like she did against Milka Duno.

Anyone else have any to add?

Just For Fun espy, david beckham, paul pierce, mario chalmers, memphis, aaron rodgers, eli manning, victoria beckham

The 2007-08 season hasn't even been over for a week, but that doesn't mean that it's too early to already start thinking about next year.  Don't rule Kansas out for a repeat, but North Carolina still tops many analysts' lists, especially if Tyler Hansborough returns for his senior season.

Rivals.com didn't hesistate to put out their list:

1. North Carolina (36-3)
2. UCLA (35-3)
3. Memphis (38-2)
4. Texas (31-7)
5. Kansas (37-3)
6. Connecticut (24-9)
7. USC (21-12)
8. Purdue (25-9)
9. Kansas State (21-12)
10. Gonzaga (25-8)
20. Ohio State (24-13)
25. Xavier (30-7)

College Hoops north carolina, ucla, memphis, texas, kansas, connecticut, usc, purdue, kansas state, gonzaga, ohio state, xavier

This was supposed to be the greatest Final Four ever, but Saturday did not live up to the hype, that was not the case on Monday.  Here is my recap of my live blog posts throughout the game.

KANSAS 75, MEMPHIS 68 OT

Overtime Observations
--How big was the review of Rose' three-point now? What about Dorsey's cheap 5th foul?
--This is the first overtime championship game since Michigan-Seton Hall in '89
--Damn, I wish I would have bet the OVER...LOL
--Kansas scores first six in OT in overtime on 18-3 over the last 4:26 (2:29 left in OT)
--The Jayhawks appear much more fresh; depth paying off
--Kansas ends the game with 24-4 run to overcome a 9-point deficit
--What a title game. I am struggling to think of one better in this decade.
--I won my first bracket office pool in 12 years; and I didn't middle it

Second Half Observations
--Memphis gets 7-2 run in the first two minutes of half to retake lead, 36-35
--Dorsey follows up great dunk on oop by Rose, by picking up third foul at 16:00 mark
--This game is about as intense as you can get. Finally, one that is living up to the hype.
--Rose just scored for the first time in nearly 24:30 minutes of play. Now has 5 points
--Rose adds seven more points and Memphis takes a four-point lead with 7 minutes to go
--Kansas has gone 4+ minutes w/out a field goal and is now down by 7 points
--Finally a Jayhawks' bucket, but still a big hill to climb
--Rose just banked a shot in as the shot-clock was expiring. Jim Nantz called it 'the shot of the tournament'
--Memphis is 2 minutes away from title, the game is theirs to win up 60-53 w/1:54 go
--Huge steal by Kansas to cut it to four
--Can Memphis make free throws under pressure (they have all tournament long)?
--Joey Dorsey picks up his fifth foul 30 feet from the basket after getting caught in double switch
--Man, I am glad I didn't take the OVER
--Kansas on 9-2 run and have cut it to two points, 62-60. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
--Memphis turned it over, but Kansas blew it
--No worries. Douglas-Roberts missed two more free throws, but MEMPHIS gets rebound
--Rose is going to line where he's made 13 straight and he missed his first one|
--Mario Chalmers hit a three-pointer to tie it with 2.0 seconds left
--WE ARE WATCHING THE GREATEST GAME EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--Free Throws have to win games 1/6 on last three trips to the line

First Half Observations
--Billy Packer has done 34 of these games, I respect him but maybe its time for a change
--WOW! The first two minutes of this game has made me dizzy...I love this stuff!
--I love the Kansas backscreens. Khan continues to perform
--Robert Dozier and Josh Taggard both head to bench with two fouls with 12 minutes to go in 1st half
--I love HDTV, man I just never get sick of watching mine
--Kansas is on a 21-12 run, but Memphis isn't going away.
--Memphis just hit 2nd three-pointer (2/5 early on, better than I expected)
--The Tigers have answered with a 11-4 run. Are you seeing a trend?
--Over/Under on total lead changes in game - 18 (it's that good of a game)
--Chalmers has hands like glue already 3 steals w/two minutes to go
--Kansas outrebounding Memphis by 8 and shooting 60%, but 8 turnovers keeping it close
--After being tied at 28-28, the Jayhawks score the first half's final five points and lead 33-28 at the break.
--Big foul trouble for Memphis (Dorsey, Dozier, and Taggard w/2 each); they don't have the depth to KU does
--Derrek Rose has more rebounds (4) than points (3) and is only 1 of 4 from the field
--Kansas' bench outscored Memphis' bench 8-0

Opening Observations
--I need Kansas to win to take my bracket pool ($300). I can't decide whether or not I should middle it
--Memphis is favored by 2 points in most Las Vegas casinos with the over/under at 147.5
--Will Kansas have an answer for Derrick Rose? The Jayhawks have a deeper team and play better defense than UCLA did.  Heading into the Final Four, the Jayhawks were holding opponents to 37.9 percent from the field, which ranked third in the nation. The Bruins' opponents shot 41.8 percent, which ranked 73rd. If they are going to stop Rose and the Tigers they will need to stop the dribble penetration and force them to shoot from the outside. That's easier said than done.

College Hoops ncaa championship, kansas, memphis

Saturday's Final Four match-ups were supposed to have been epic battles in a historic, never-before-seen showdown of four No. 1 seeds.  However, the two games from San Antonio were far from classics and more shocking that capativating.

Memphis continued to be lost in the spotlight and "disrespected" in a way as all the national media focused their attention and affection for UCLA super frosh Kevin Love. The Tigers thrive best in their Rodney Dangerfield role of "we don't get any respect".  It was Memphis' top freshman Derrick Rose that continued to shine as he scored 25 points, grabbed 9 boards, and added four assist to lead the onslaught as Memphis rolled to

I keep waiting for Memphis to fall or be exposed, but after beating Michigan State by 18 points, Texas by 18 points, and UCLA by 15 points I am ready to give up on my arguement that C-USA was simply a cake walk and begin to give this team their due respect.

The real shocker on the night came in Kansas' dismantling on North Carolina. I picked Kansas to win it all and will win my bracket pool if they do, but if given the opportunity to switch it prior to last night's game to UNC I would not have hesistated. The Jayhawks used their balanced attack on both sides of the court to stymie the Tar Heels' attack.

It was the defense that was frightening as Kansas held North Carolina to just 12 points in the game's first 15 minutes. Kansas was up 28 points at one point in the first half, but the Tar Heels would storm back to cut the lead to five midway through the second half.  However, it would be too little, too late as Kansas  would open it back up and pull away to a 84-66 win.

College Hoops final four, north carolina, memphis, ucla, kansas