#college basketball
We’re a long way from March Madness, but today we present one early indicator of which teams are expected to be there. The preseason USA TODAY Sports coaches poll is out, and for the second consecutive year, Duke will be the No. 1 team entering the campaign.
That could be good or bad news if you’re a Blue Devils fan. It’s the seventh time overall since USA TODAY began administering the coaches poll that Duke is the preseason No. 1. But the Blue Devils finished as NCAA champions in only one of those prior seasons when they successfully defended the title in 1992.
Duke was No. 1 last season and struggled for much of the season before winning the ACC tournament and an early NCAA exit in the second round against South Carolina.
Based on its strong recruiting class and returning talent, Duke received 20 of 32 first-place votes. The Blue Devils head a group of five ACC members in the top 25, the most for any conference.
See the full preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll
The Morrison family of Clay, N.Y., presented a different side of Jim Boeheim that showed a man with a generous heart who loves his Syracuse community. Jackie Morrison told told Syracuse.com three hours before her father, Dan’s death, Boeheim called her dad — a die-hard Orange fan — over the phone while he was in hospice care.
“What was beautiful was he was trying to give my father something to look forward to,” said Jackie, who sent an email to the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation earlier in the week with the request for Boeheim to call, and crossed her fingers.
#UNC is caught in a BIG academic scandal!
http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-basketball/2014/01/14/can-academic-scandal-affect-this-years-north-carolina-tar-heels/
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The University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team honored Gianna Bryant at a game last night, the day after she and her father Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash.
Gianna, who was 13 when she died, had aspired to play for the NCAA team, and attended several UConn Huskies games with her dad, who once said she was “hellbent” on attending the college. In the wake of the tragic accident in Calabasas, California, that killed the pair and seven other people on Sunday, the UConn women’s team paid tribute to Gianna before their game against Team USA.
“Mambacita is forever a Husky,” they wrote, using the name Bryant had planned for his daughter to carry on his “Black Mamba” legacy on the court.
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