After a tough loss over the weekend at UCLA, the Missouri Tigers basketball team now must get ready to face a very good Bucknell team later this week before beginning their first ever SEC Conference schedule. Point guard Phil Pressey was magnificent in the loss to the Bruins, recording a school-record 19 assists while pouring in 19 points of his own. Pressey did everything he could to help propel Mizzou to victory, but unfortunately his effort came up ...

Jay Wright is making a huge mistake by using his best player as Villanova's sixth man. Throughout non-conference play, JayVaughn Pinkston has shown that Villanova's success runs through him.Despite averaging just the fourth most minutes with 24.8 per game, Pinkston leads the team with 12.2 points. Pinkston is by far Villanova's most efficient scorer, with the second best field goal percentage on the team at 46.4 percent.To put his scoring efficiency into perspective, Pinkston attempts the ...

On the final day of the year, the Mountain West is the second-ranked conference in the country, ahead of all power conferences besides the Big Ten. Six teams from this mid-major are in my bracket projections this week, and eight of the nine member schools are above .500. Keep an eye out for this league in 2013.As always, I am not trying to guess how teams will finish the year. I am simply seeding them ...

On New Year's Eve 2012, Big Ten basketball will tip off. I for one am extremely excited for the conference season to get going and see what each team is really made of after getting some nonconference games under their belt.  The Michigan State Spartans travel to Minneapolis and tip off at 1 p.m. CST, while the Hoosiers of Indiana head to Iowa City and will being league play at 3 p.m. CST. Needless to ...

Last season the Big Ten received six berths to the NCAA Tournament in a now 12-team league. As it currently stands, the Big Ten has six teams ranked in the Top 25. Needless to say, the nation's strongest conference should receive at least six bids this March, if not more.Indiana got most of the preseason hype, while Michigan and Ohio State were also preseason top-10 squads, which they all still are. Minnesota was predicted to ...

Oh Big Ten play, how we have missed you.For some reason, all of these nonconference games don’t result in bruises the size of baseballs, fundamental box outs, players sprawling on the floor for loose balls and 51-49 final scores. Ohio State begins conference play Wednesday against Nebraska, but the real fun begins on Saturday when the Buckeyes visit Champaign to take on a dangerous Illini team. The Big Ten is probably the best league in ...

Duke warded off an upset bid from Santa Clara to keep its spot at No. 1 this week.Meanwhile, Cincinnati and Missouri dropped out of the Top 10 with losses to New Mexico and UCLA, respectively, and Louisville moved into a tie for the No. 3 spot with Arizona after defeating Kentucky on Saturday.Read on to see the complete Top 25.Voters: Jesse Kramer, Jordan Schwartz, Ryan Satsky, Thad Novak, Josh Schoch, Josh Gleason, Matt Overing, Robert Pace, ...

A bunch of mid-major conferences began league play last week. In the MVC, there were two mid-major Top 25 battles with Indiana State taking down Illinois State and Wichita State defeating Northern Iowa.Meanwhile, Gonzaga and Creighton each won to hold on to the top two spots.Read on to see the complete mid-major Top 25.(I consider a mid-major to be any team that does not compete in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, SEC, ...

Kansas head coach Bill Self is likely on the speed dial of scouts from all 30 NBA teams as he is regularly bombarded with potential-seeking decision-makers at Allen Fieldhouse.Self has produced 24 future NBA players in his 10 years at the helm in Lawrence, 33 overall with previous stops at Illinois and Tulsa, and therefore, is no stranger to fielding these scouting calls.He will likely add at least another four to that number in 2013, and potentially 10 total, ...

It was another informative week in college basketball. It may have been shortened a bit by the holidays, but we learned oh so much in the games we watched.Highlighted by a Top 25 matchup, an upset of a Top 10 team and one of college basketball's biggest rivalries, the week had just as much action as you would ask for in a normal week.These are the 25 things we learned from the week in college hoops. Statistics ...