When it comes to becoming a professional athlete, so many things have to fall into place. If you think about it, your head will spin.  You need the smarts, the size and the athletic ability. Combine that with the fact there are hundreds and thousands of people out there with the same dream and the same aspirations as you.  Some of us are lucky enough to be that superstar high ...

Whichever way you slice it, the Kentucky Wildcats can stand tall among those who benefited the most from the 2012 NBA draft.As if John Calipari needed any help—even after losing the top six players from his NCAA Tournament title-winning squad.Anthony Davis—the reigning National Player of the Year—became the second Big Blue product in three years to be the first pick in the draft—joining 2010 top-pick John Wall in that regard.The newest star of the New ...

Entering the 2012-13 season, the Syracuse Orange will rely on the emergence of young guard Michael Carter-Williams, who has tremendous potential.He didn't see a ton of playing time his freshman year because he had to wait his turn. Jim Boeheim's squad was stacked with a great rotation of guards that Carter-Williams was able to learn from.In his intermittent stints on the court, Carter-Williams gave Orange fans reason to be excited for the future. His demeanor, ...

University of Hawaii freshman Orel Lev enrolled with the hopes of playing for the Warriors basketball team. Lev practiced with the squad through the end of the 2011-2012 season, but that will be the extent of his UH career. At least for the next three years. Lev, a native of Israel, was called back to serve his mandatory service in the Israeli military. While delays are granted on occasion, Lev's petition was denied. Both parties have handled ...

Ryan Kelly may not have been the key ingredient to the Duke Blue Devils this past season, but he has the talent to be a legitimate Blue Devils star next season.With Austin Rivers gone, Duke will have to find production elsewhere and Kelly is capable of putting up a lot more points than 11.8 per game.Read on to see how to turn Ryan Kelly into a legitimate Blue Devils star. Begin Slideshow

With Anthony Davis having earned the No. 1 overall selection in last night’s NBA draft, it’s hard to dispute the value of a great defensive player in college basketball these days. Even with Davis and his devastating shot-blocking skills off to the NBA, though, there will still be plenty of superlative defenders left in the college ranks for 2012-13. One of the best of that group will be the player Davis faced in last season’s ...

Coming off Syracuse's best regular season in school history—finishing 30-1 in the 2011-2012 regular season—the Orange have set the bar high. Although the team has lost four big contributors from last year's team, expectations for next year are still very high for Jim Boeheim's squad. Brandon Triche, James Southerland, C.J. Fair and Baye Keita will be expected to do many of the same things they did for last year's team, while the team will expect significant contributions from ...

The 2012 NBA draft is now in the books.History was made with Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, two freshmen teammates from Kentucky, being taken with the first two picks.All told, eight freshmen were picked in the first round last night.This followed the recent trend of the number of one-and-done picks made in the first round: six freshmen were selected in 2011 and seven were chosen in 2010.Looking ahead to next year's draft, here are the ...

Pictured is a highlight from the Big Ten's only 40-point individual game last season. Brandon Paul (No. 3 for Illinois) dropped 43 points in an Illini victory over Ohio State that stands as the final true highlight of Illinois' season.Shooting guard is, by its name and definition, a position for players with the confidence that they can score every time down the court. Brandon Paul certainly possesses that confidence in spades, but can he back ...

As a sign of the talent coming out of the Washington Huskies basketball program, the Toronto Raptors picked 6'6", 190-pound sophomore shooting guard Terrence Ross No. 8 overall in the 2012 NBA draft. 6'5", 205-pound freshman point guard Tony Wroten Jr. found himself in Memphis after going No. 25 overall.While Ross' and Wroten's early departures from Washington does leave sizable holes to fill, their presence in the first round of the NBA draft should ...