North Carolina's men's basketball fans were ranked No. 11 by Emory Sports Marketing Analytics in their 2014 Fan Rankings, as reported by Manish Tripathi. This somehow puts the Tar Heel fans this year as fourth among the Atlantic Coast Conference schools, behind Duke (2), Syracuse (6) and Pittsburgh (10). No. 11? Really? Emory's overall 2014 CBB Fan Equity Rankings are as follows: 1.  Louisville 2.  Duke 3.  Arizona 4.  Texas 5.  Xavier 6.  Syracuse 7.  Kentucky 8.  Arkansas 9.  Oklahoma State 10. Pittsburgh 11. North Carolina 12. Indiana 13. Michigan State 14. ...

Bruce Pearl snatched up a handful of transfers for Auburn this spring. One of those players scored more points per game than every Division I player not named Doug McDermott. That would be Antoine Mason, son of former NBA player Anthony Mason. He averaged 25.6 points per game for Niagara as a redshirt junior before electing to transfer up a level. Mason is just one of many former mid-major players who will make an impact at a high-major ...

Let's take a break from the 2014-15 college basketball season previews and address a far more important topic: bizarre mascots. After all, it wouldn't be fair to talk about Saint Louis' outlook for next season without first addressing the elephant-like creature on the sideline. Or wait, is it an elf? Or, maybe a cloud with bat ears and googly eyes? Whatever it is, the Billiken is one of the strangest mascots in a college basketball world with ...

LAS VEGAS — He’s ranked as the top senior guard in the country, but that isn’t the only way Malik Newman has distinguished himself from the rest of the class of 2015. Newman—just 17 years old—also has his own professional website. Log on to IAmMalikNewman.com, and you’ll find videos chronicling Newman’s junior year of high school, a bullet-point list of his career achievements dating back to seventh grade and links to newspaper articles about the 6’3” guard ...

The best point guard in the class of 2014 will be thousands of miles away from an NCAA campus this season. Oh well.  For the uninitiated, Emmanuel Mudiay, 247 Sports' No. 2 overall recruit who had committed to Larry Brown and SMU, announced Tuesday that he will skip college and play professionally overseas.  Stephane Mudiay provided Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn with a statement on behalf of his brother, explaining the decision:  For the Mustangs, this sucks. There's probably a more articulate ...

As of now, the Syracuse basketball team is devoid of very much star power. Jim Boeheim lost three of the top four players from a rotation that struggled to go seven deep, so unproven players will have to step up to fill the shoes of the departed stars. But players get better with time and opportunities. Syracuse has a couple of talented incoming freshmen, and there are several upperclassmen ready to become leaders of the team. The Orange ...

Get ready, basketball fans, because you will be hearing the names of plenty of Duke Blue Devils at the next NBA draft. Mike Krzyzewski’s roster is loaded with game-changing talent, but it’s going to need more than just the headlining players if it wants to win the ACC this season. Enter the bench. Just for reference’s sake, we projected the Duke starting lineup earlier in the offseason. It consisted of point guard Tyus Jones, shooting guard Rasheed ...

Pope John's Matt Zignorski committed to Fordham on Tuesday. Zignorski, a 6'3" combo guard, will join the Rams for the 2015-16 season. SNY.tv's Adam Zagoria reported that Zignorski had offers from American, Boston, Bucknell, Monmouth, Penn and Princeton. Zignorski made his announcement via Twitter: Extremely honored and blessed to officially announce my commitment Fordham University to pursue my college career! 🏀 #GoRams — Matt Zignorski (@MattZiggy_31) July 15, 2014 Zignorski told Bleacher Report that his decision boiled down to two things: receiving ...

There always has to be that one player on each team that is going to surprise everyone. The player is talented but has had issues either staying healthy, being in a position to make plays or just playing consistent football. For the Georgia Bulldogs, there are a number of candidates that could be the surprise player of 2014, but when it’s all said and done, fans, coaches, players and media members will look back at the ...

After such a rewarding 2013-14 season, the Villanova Wildcats will once again face plenty of tests throughout the upcoming season.  As always, head coach Jay Wright has put together a difficult nonconference schedule that will see only a few easy wins in November and December.  Not only will the Wildcats run into mismatches on the court in nonconference play, but they will also see a few when Big East play begins.  Below is a look at the biggest ...