The Marquette Golden Eagles (3-3) would not go quietly, but ultimately the No. 20 Michigan State Spartans (5-1) prevailed 79-68 and advanced to the finals of the Orlando Classic on Friday night. WiSports chimed in on Marquette's effort: Led by a career-high 24 points from junior guard Denzel Valentine, the Spartans were able to hold off a feisty but less talented Golden Eagles squad. Valentine made six of 10 three-point attempts to offset his seven turnovers. The red-hot ...

We don't see every star college basketball player coming. None of us. Every season features a few names that transcend their expected footnote status to become primary subjects in the story of that year. Early on in the 2014-15 season, we can already note a few potential surprises. Whether surrounded by more renowned teammates or simply on teams that weren't getting a lot of discussion nationally, these players—presented alphabetically—weren't supposed to be major parts of the ...

 The fifth-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels knocked off their second Top-25 team in as many games, beating the No. 18 Florida Gators 75-64 to earn fifth place at the 2014 Battle 4 Atlantis. Three games in three days can be exhausting. Both teams entered Friday having played a lot of basketball recently. Former North Carolina star Sean May commented on how fatigue can often affect shooters, thus changing a team's game plan: The Tar Heels didn't show ...

In basketball, the pro game is a lot like the college game. Only not really. You're still throwing a ball through a hoop and what not, but the center of gravity is differently seated in the NBA galaxy, where even the deepest benchwarmer can play like a college star. That gives the coaches a different set of roles, which require a different set of capacities. Sometimes they overlap and translate, sometimes they don't. For every Larry Brown, ...

The No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers pulled away in the second half to capture the 2014 Battle 4 Atlantis Championship with a 69-56 win over the Oklahoma Sooners on Friday afternoon at the Imperial Arena in the Bahamas. The Badgers led by just one point after a back-and-forth first 20 minutes that featured 11 lead changes and four ties, but came out firing in the second half and never trailed again. Wisconsin (7-0) came out of the locker ...

The No. 11 Kansas Jayhawks advanced to the finals of the Orlando Classic Friday with an 82-67 victory over the Tennessee Volunteers at HP Field House in Orlando, Florida. Kansas improved to 4-1 with the win and it will take on the winner of Friday night's clash between Michigan State and Marquette in Sunday's tournament title game, according to Gary Parrish of CBS Sports: The Jayhawks were bolstered by 40 combined points from forwards Perry Ellis III ...

The 5-0 Maryland Terrapins are off to a hot start this season, but keeping it up will be challenging without the services of star guard Dez Wells. According to Roman Stubbs of The Washington Post, the senior swingman will miss one month of action after fracturing his wrist: As pointed out by ESPN's Jeff Goodman, this is yet another stroke of bad luck for the Terps: They are already without senior forward Evan Smotrycz, who suffered a fractured foot ...

After getting Thanksgiving Day off, the NIT Season Tip-Off will resume Friday with the championship rounds.  Whether the players watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, spent time with their families, or just stayed in and watched football, they had better be rested, because the final day of action is certain to be intense. Minnesota and Georgia want to be able to leave New York City with at least one win in two tries, while Gonzaga and St. ...

The Battle 4 Atlantis was supposed to be the best early-season tournament in college basketball, and it has done nothing but live up to the hype. Thanks to a few upsets and some incredible depth of quality, the consolation bracket has been as exciting as the winner's bracket. This is not something you can say about any other November event. With each squad trying to build its nonconference resume by earning quality wins and avoiding bad losses, ...

Let’s just assume the North Carolina basketball team enjoyed the tourist attractions at Atlantis a little too much before its loss to Butler Wednesday because the Tar Heels we all expected showed up Thursday against UCLA. I say that tongue-in-cheek, of course, but it really looked like a completely different team taking the floor in Carolina Blue the second game out at the Battle 4 Atlantis.  North Carolina was shocked by Butler 74-66 in its first game ...