On Thursday, August 21, the Big Ten Conference released the 2014-15 conference schedule for what is now a 14-team league. The additions of Maryland and Rutgers to the already improperly named conference adds an East Coast wrinkle to the predominantly Midwest mix of universities.  With an 18-game conference season, each team plays only five other teams in the league twice. For Illinois, those teams are Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Nebraska and Purdue.  After Wisconsin, the Big Ten ...

With the summer dwindling down and players headed back to school, the Villanova Wildcats have only three players left on their list of prospective targets for the class of 2015.  The three players left on the table are Chris Silva, Jalen Brunson and Isaiah Briscoe, and each of those individuals possess a different challenge for the Wildcats with a different set of competitors lining up for their respective signatures. Below is a look at the competition Jay ...

Over the last several months, North Carolina's Kennedy Meeks has made sure he will be able to play more than the sparse 16.3 minutes per game he logged in his freshman campaign.  It is no secret he has lost some major weight this offseason. CBSSports.com's Matt Norlander has reported Meeks, through tireless conditioning and disciplined dieting, has "dropped nearly 45 pounds" since he arrived on campus a year ago.    Weighing in at around 275 lbs, the 6'9" ...

No one considered North Carolina State a contender in the ACC last season, but the Wolfpack put together just enough of a resume to reach the NCAA tournament. Credit for every win that pulled the Pack into the Big Dance had to start with star forward T.J. Warren, who was awarded ACC Player of the Year honors for dragging his team as far as he did. As the 2014-15 season nears, there are teams just like ...

However the 2014-15 college basketball season ends, it’s a sure bet that the performance of the country’s top freshmen will have a lot to say about the outcome. There will be plenty of time after the nets are cut down to wonder about what might have been, but for now, it’s time to look to the future and make some projections for what might yet be when it comes to the elite recruits around the ...

Kentucky basketball has the enviable problem of too much depth this season, and nowhere is it more obvious than in the middle. All three of last year’s talented centers—rising sophomores Dakari Johnson and Marcus Lee, plus rising junior Willie Cauley-Stein—are back in Lexington, and they’re joined by highly regarded freshman Karl-Anthony Towns. As John Calipari demonstrated during this summer’s Bahamas exhibition games, his plan for next season is to construct a pair of NBA-style platoons, with ...

Death, taxes and reports of college basketball players getting into the best shape of their lives over the summer. There aren't many things in this world we can count on, but those are three of the big ones. See for yourself. Pick virtually any noteworthy team in the country, do enough searching around the Internet, and you'll inevitably find a story or 20 about a player poised for a huge season because he either gained or lost ...

The Ohio State basketball schedule is officially out, and the Buckeyes will certainly have their hands full in a number of games this season. The luxury of playing in the Big Ten is that strength of schedule is never really an issue when Selection Sunday rolls around. While the overall slate is difficult, there are a few games in particular that stand out as the most important contests.  Factors such the conference standings, rivalries and building a ...

Ben Simmons grabbed the rebound and motored into the frontcourt with his head up looking for an open teammate. Simmons is 6'9", yet his focus has always been on the fundamentals taught to perimeter players. He moves with equal parts grace and power. As Simmons neared the three-point line, he was going right and then switched quickly to the left on his way into the lane. He's ambidextrous, making it nearly impossible for high school defenders ...

The Michigan basketball program recently used a nine-day getaway in Italy to build team chemistry and work on some new things, and the results were, suffice to say, encouraging. Michigan finished with a 4-0 record while averaging 101 points per game and shooting 55.4 percent from the field against a collection Italian all-star clubs. For a team that lost five major players in Nik Stauskas, Glenn Robinson III, Mitch McGary (albeit lost early in the 2013-14 ...