With the draft around the corner, young NBA hopefuls find themselves under the microscope more than ever before. With a hysteria of mock drafts and constantly fluctuating evaluations, some players will enter the league with a chip on their shoulder, ready to prove critics, GMs and coaches exactly what they're worth. Begin Slideshow

Stanford ace right-hander Mark Appel is likely to be the first overall pick of the 2012 Major League Baseball draft for the Houston Astros next week.  I scouted Appel at Sunken Diamond back in March when Stanford hosted USC.I sat behind home plate and charted each of his 113 pitches using the stadium radar gun.  Appel threw a complete game, allowing six hits, two walks, and two runs, while striking out seven.  He induced ...

The March Madness of baseball has arrived. The 2012 NCAA regional matchups have been released, and there are multiple lower seeds that have more than enough talent to shock the top seeds and advance to the College World Series in Omaha. Some teams have more experience, others more depth, while some lucked out with the regional they were placed in. While the one-and-done nature of the college basketball tournament doesn’t exist in baseball, stealing two ...

Tony Trocha, a Colombian power forward, is reportedly the newest high school prospect to earn a scholarship from the University of Kentucky. Ben Roberts of the Lexington Herald-Leader broke the news on his Twitter feed and gave us this nugget of information to mull over: Tony Trocha's coach tells The Cats' Pause: "It looks like he's going to be 2012. I'd put Kentucky & Texas A&M as the top two." — Ben Roberts (@NextCats) May 29, 2012 Two SEC ...

North Carolina's baseball team is currently ranked No.5 in the nation, but they are more equipped to win this year's college baseball tournament than any higher-seeded team.The Tar Heels have it all. Experience, coaching, pitching and timely hitting are all part of the Tar Heels' winning equation.Let's take a look at why North Carolina is the team to beat in this year's NCAA tournament field. Elite PitchingYou know the old saying, pitching wins championships. If that ...

After a wild week of conference tournament action that saw the No. 1 (Florida State), No. 2 (LSU) and No. 3 (Florida) teams lose prior to the championship game, the NCAA regional field of 64 is set. There were some surprises in seeding and host sites, but for the most part, everything went as it should have. Here is a look at all of the regional action and teams that you need to look for when the ...

Andre Drummond may be the biggest question mark in the entire 2012 NBA draft.Will he be Dwight Howard, Kwame Brown, Andrew Bynum or Hasheem Thabeet? Drummond is the kind of can't-pass-up big man coming out of college that will either make a general manager look like a genius or get him fired.Drummond has all the potential in the world. He has a 6'10", 270-pound frame with tremendous athletic ability and a good feel for the game. ...

After a grueling regular-season journey, 64 college baseball teams remain with hopes of winning a national championship. They are two steps away from the College World Series. The first one being regionals, which begin on Friday. Florida enters the tournament as the top overall seed. Two-time defending national title winners South Carolina check in a No. 8, with UCLA, Florida State and Baylor among the other top contenders. As is always the case with the ...

If you take a quick look at any mock draft, it's easy to see why the North Carolina Tar Heels were among the best teams in the nation this past year. The Heels will send four players (Kendall Marshall, Harrison Barnes, Tyler Zeller and John Henson) to the NBA early on in the draft.Taking a look at the prospects from Chapel Hill gives you an appreciation of just how talented this team was. It's not ...

Jeff Withey wasn't the Jayhawks leading scorer or leading rebounder last year - Thomas Robinson filled those roles.But, Withey's tough defense and shot blocking were an essential element to Kansas' run to the 2012 NCAA Championship game.The 2011-12 season was the first time that Withey had been used for more than mop-up duty.He played 25 minutes per game, averaging 9 ppg, 6.3 rpg and 3.6 bpg.He collected 6 double-doubles and blocked at least four shots ...