Kentucky sports and beyond.
College basketball on TV tonight:
(AP photo)
The New York Times’ Adam Himmelsbach has an interesting story about how the student section at Duke, the famed Cameron Crazies, has suffered a decline in both numbers and enthusiasm.
An excerpt:
About 1,200 seats are earmarked for Duke’s undergraduates, but this season students have filled about 700 a game while classes are in session. Over the last three years, the university has filled the gaps by regularly selling hundreds of student-section tickets to nonstudents, giving the famed Section 17 an unusual look.
Continue reading ‘Seems at Duke, the Cameron Crazies are in decline’
After missing three games because of a reported academic issue, Syracuse center Fab Melo will return to action Saturday against St. John’s.
Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard reports that two sources say that the announcement of Melo’s reinstatement will come Thursday.
Jim Boeheim’s club, ranked second in the nation behind Kentucky, has gone 2-1 without the 7-foot sophomore. Syracuse lost at Notre Dame — and its No. 1 spot in the polls — before bouncing back to win at Cincinnati on Jan. 23. The Orangemen needed a blown goal-tending call to beat visiting West Virginia last Saturday.
Melo was averaging 7.2 points and 5.7 rebounds in 22 minutes of play before being sidelined. Still, the native of Brazil can be a considerable presence in the lane, both on offense and in Boeheim’s famous 2-3 zone defense.
Schedule of college basketball games on TV tonight:
College basketball games on television tonight:
The new AP poll came out today and as expected Kentucky is No. 1 for the second straight week. Syracuse moved up a spot to No. 2, Ohio State up a spot to No. 3, and Missouri dropped to No. 4 after its loss last week.
Murray State continues to be the team on the rise, the Racers cracking the top 10 at No. 10. It’s the eighth straight week that Murray has moved up in the rankings since entering at No. 24 in Week 6.
Indiana has dropped from No. 7 at Week 10 to No. 20 this week. At No. 23, Michigan is the lowest-ranked team to have been in the poll every week. And Vanderbilt re-entered the poll at No. 25 after being out for six weeks.
For the chart, click the continue line.
Continue reading ‘Chart: A look at this week’s AP college basketball poll’
Here’s your college hoops schedule tonight:
Taking a look at college basketball’s current RPI indicates that Kentucky, expected to hold its No. 1 ranking in both the AP and USA Today polls, is being hurt by its relatively weak schedule.
The Cats are just fifth in the RPI, behind Syracuse, Duke, Baylor and Michigan State. Yet at 21-1, the Cats have a better record than all of those teams, with the exception of Syracuse. And the Orange took its one loss just over a week ago, where Kentucky hasn’t lost since Dec. 10.
The difference is that Kentucky’s schedule is currently rated just the 81st toughest by the RPI. That ranks as the third-easiest among the top 20 schools as rated by the RPI, behind Missouri (117) and Creighton (81).
Continue reading ‘Kentucky’s RPI being hurt by strength of schedule’
There are a full slate of college basketball games on the tube today, of course. Kentucky-LSU is an SEC Network game with Carter Blackburn and Kyle Macy doing the broadcast honors. That tips off at 4 p.m., after Mississippi State meets Florida in the 1:30 p.m. SEC Network game.
ESPN’s GameDay travels to the Pac-12 for an Arizona-Washington matchup in Tucson. But the most interesting game might be Kansas at Iowa State, which is led by former Tubby Smith recruit Royce White, who almost ended up at Kentucky.
Click the continue line for the list of today’s games.
Continue reading ‘College basketball games on television today’
A look at the AP Top 25, where Kentucky is currently No. 1:
