INDIANAPOLIS — Sam Dekker hit a three over Willie Cauley-Stein with two minutes left to break a 60-all tie as the Wisconsin Badgers played the role of the ultimate spoiler, beating No. 1 and then-undefeated Kentucky, 71-64.
University of Connecticut basketball guard Shabazz Napier says sometimes there’s “hungry nights that we don’t have enough money to get food.”But all students have “unlimited access” to resident dining units that offer “all-you-care-to-eat.”“We are definitely best to get a scholarship to our universities, but at the end of the day, that doesn’t cover everything. We do have hungry nights that we don’t have enough money to get food and sometimes money is needed,” Napier told Fox Sports while discussing the National Labor Relations Board ruling that athletes from Northwestern can unionize.Napier said he understands why some athletes need a union. “Like I said, there are hungry nights that I go to bed and I am starving. So something can change, something should change.”According to the UConn Student-Athlete Handbook, unlimited access to dining halls is available for students with a meal plan, even for those who live-off campus.Dennis Pierce, director of Food Services at UConn, tells CNSNews.com that any student-athlete would have the option of choosing from a series of dining services (unlimited, value and custom), but all offer unlimited access during operating hours.The dining services website for the university notes that “all residence dining units are all-you-care-to-eat facilities.”
On Friday evening, Norfolk State pulled off the biggest upset of the 2012 NCAA tournament — in the program’s first-ever appearance in the tournament. The 15th-seeded Spartans beat No. 2 seed Missouri 86-84 in the round of 64.
Center Kyle O’Quinn led the Spartans with 25 points. Four starters scored in double-digits.
Norfolk State, the MEAC champion, made 10 3-pointers in Friday’s game. The team normally shoots 31% from beyond the arc.
It marked the fifth time a 15 seed knocked out a 2 seed in the tournament.I am a very nervous Kentucky fan now.
President Barack Obama will sit for a halftime interview Tuesday during an NCAA basketball game in Ohio, the Washington Post reported.
He and British Prime Minister David Cameron are traveling to Dayton to take in a first-round game between Mississippi Valley State and Western Kentucky. During halftime, the pair will talk hoops with CBS Sport basketball analyst Clark Kellogg, the Post reported.
(The Hill) — President Obama said Tuesday that he’s “a little heartbroken that the NBA season is getting delayed” at a fundraiser in Orlando with Magic star Dwight Howard.
NBA commissioner David Stern announced Monday that at least the first two weeks of the basketball season would be cancelled after players and owners were unable to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement. Obama said he had discussed the situation backstage with Howard, and hopes to see players back on the court “soon.”
The president is an unabashed basketball fan, often playing pickup games with staff and friends. The president attended an NBA game between the Washington Wizards and his hometown Chicago Bulls. Last August, Obama invited a dream team of NBA greats to play basketball with him on his birthday.
Obama's biggest problem? "He's a lefty. He always goes left. And if you just stand there, I'm not sure if you were to open up the right side, he could go right at all." (Insert political symbolism here.)
Gillispie out as Kentucky opts for coaching change
Mar 27 05:36 PM US/Eastern
By WILL GRAVES
AP Sports Writer
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Impatient for a winner and a coach who embraced all the things that come with running college basketball's all-time winningest program, Kentucky fired coach Billy Gillispie on Friday. Saying the Wildcats deserve a leader who understands "this is not just another coaching job," athletic director Mitch Barnhart and president Lee Todd made the unusual decision to dismiss Gillispie less than two years after he was hired to replace Tubby Smith.
"He's a good basketball coach," Barnhart said. "Sometimes it's just not the right fit and that's my responsibility."
It's a move Barnhart felt was necessary following a couple of turbulent seasons in which the Wildcats struggled to improve under their hard-working but sometimes aloof head coach.
Hired to rejuvenate a program after Smith bolted for Minnesota, Gillispie struggled to find any consistency on the court or off it.
Gillispie went 40-27 in two seasons with the Wildcats, including a 22-14 mark this year that tied for the second-most losses in the program's 106-year history. A stumble down the stretch left the Wildcats out of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1991.
Yet Gillispie's problem went beyond wins and losses.
Barnhart said rebuilding years are expected when a new coach is hired. The trouble were "philosophical differences" between the university and Gillispie on the role the school's coach plays in the fabric of a fan base that refers to itself as Big Blue Nation. (excerpt) read more at breitbart.com.
