College basketball season is right around the corner, with games tipping off in exactly one week. As per the past few seasons, I have taken part in a fantasy college basketball league. The players available to be drafted all come from the BCS, or "Power Six," conferences: ACC, Big East, Big XII, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12. The fantasy league contains 16 teams. Each team drafts 10 players, six of whom are weekly starters. Of those ...

The Michigan basketball season is finally underway. Well, Tuesday night was just an exhibition game against Concordia, but who cares? College basketball is back and will be heating up over the course of the next week.  The Wolverines have one more exhibition contest against Wayne State on Nov. 4 before the regular season kicks off. With the season opener nearly upon us, it is time to set some pass-fail benchmarks for Michigan's top five players. By the ...

Andrew Wiggins is the movie that everyone tells you is going to be incredible and you have to try to temper expectations in your own head or you're just going to be disappointed.  Yes, he's really, really, really talented. His highlight video is incredible.  Next thing you know there will be video of Wiggins walking on water, stepping out and then jumping flat-footed over a car while pulling off a between-the-legs dunk.  Not possible? Pshhhhhh. Social media can ...

When it comes to Duke basketball, every game is a big game. Playing against Duke is often the most high-profile game of the season for an opponent, and the Blue Devils always get the other team’s best shot. However, some of these contests take on special significance for the program each year. Whether it’s a non-conference showdown with another marquee team in a Final Four-type atmosphere, or a huge battle with a bitter ACC rival, there are certain ...

The North Carolina Tar Heels will be playing in their first official exhibition game this Friday, and the 2013-14 season will officially tip off with Oakland a week later. That means we have some preseason ground to make up with predictions and expectations for this year's UNC squad. Today, we're posting pass-fail marks for the Tar Heels' top players. By no means should these marks be considered goals for these players. They are simply the minimum standard, ...

Not too long ago, it seemed like a lock that James Blackmon Jr. would head to Kentucky. But in a press conference announcing his decision, Blackmon shocked most everyone when he announced that he was committing to Indiana. Again. Evan Daniels of Fox Sports broke the news, which Blackmon announced on ESPNU at halftime of Thursday night's game between Louisiana-Monroe and Troy: Blackmon, who had been committed to play in Bloomington for three years, surprisingly reopened his recruitment ...

The roller coaster ride that has been James Blackmon Jr.'s recruitment is finally at an end. Blackmon Jr.'s recent announcement on ESPNU means that Tom Crean and Indiana will come out of it with one of the top recruits in the country.  Blackmon Jr. was a long-time IU recruit. He verbally committed in 2010, and everyone went on with their lives thinking he was going to be a part of Indiana's 2014 class. Seemingly out of nowhere, he ...

SEC basketball may not be able to equal the unstoppable juggernaut of the conference’s football side—after all, what can?—but the league is pretty impressive on the hardwood, too. Top-ranked Kentucky is a favorite for another national title, and there’s plenty of talent beyond the traditional front-runners in Lexington and Gainesville. One of the conference's up-and-coming programs is the LSU Tigers. As coach Johnny Jones enters his second season at his alma mater, he’s already brought in ...

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant played one year at the University of Texas, and he recently hooked up the Longhorns basketball team with some pretty sweet travel swag. Take a look at the backpack and sneakers he gave to every player: Those are his KD VI Galaxy, which have accents that glow in the dark. It's a pretty cool gift for the players, especially considering that Durant only played one year at Texas. Hat tip to College Spun ...

Our writers agreed to disagree on preseason All-Americans this season. Only two players were unanimous first-team selections, and a third (some Canadian kid playing in Kansas) may have made it if not for one of our writers disliking the young'uns. (He believes freshmen should earn it. It's a noble cause.) On the kid-friendly ballots, this freshman class is well-represented. The hyped ones have definitely given us more choices than we had last year, when filling out such ...