College Hoops

College basketball
NCAA women's preview; Final Four
NCAA men's preview; Final Four

College basketball
Men's and women's preview

2006 Season
Men's Preview: Duke takes the top spot
Women's Preview: Tennessee is tops

2005 Tournament
Men: Carolina's Not Blue: Coach Roy finally has his title.

The University of North Carolina beat Illinois, 75-70, to win the NCAA mens college basketball title and give Roy Williams his first title, removing his name from the list of great coaches who cant win the big one.

The Tar Heels, benefiting from Illinois woeful 27% first-half shooting, took a 40-27 lead into halftime. But the Fighting Illini got hot from the 3-point line and were able to forge a tie at 65 with 5:12 left. With the game tied at 70, Carolina and MVP Sean May (26 points) scored the last five points, holding Illinois scoreless the final 2 minutes.

The Illini, which had won 37 games this season, had two chances to tie the game, down 73-70, but missed 3-pointers each time. The game was well-played throughout, and it was more a case of Carolina winning it than Illinois losing.

''I'm speechless,'' Williams said afterwards. ''I usually talk my rear end off, but right now I'm speechless.'' Keeping with tradition, he cried at games end, but for the first time they were tears of joy.

On a separate note, we're glad that the tournament is over if only to spare us the inane dronong of CBS' Jim Nantz. He syrupy-ly fawns over the players and coaches in the games and never passes up a chance for a horrible analogy ("It's Monday and everybody loves Raymond," after Carolina's Raymond Felton made a key play.) Nantz even thanked the people of St. Louis (the tournament host) while he was interviewing the winning Tar Heels. Ugh!

Men: Final Four preview
The 25 Oddest Mascots in the Tourney

Women:
Baylor wins title
Semifinals recap
Elite 8 recap
11 Reasons to Watch the Tournament
Sweet 16 preview
Round One Review
Women's preview

Men's preview:  Form will hold
Women's preview: Southern flavor

Gay on the Court
No one ever accused most college students of being the best and the brightest. So it's not too surprising that college basketball fans and players would resort to antigay taunts to try and demean an opponent. We had two examples in February.
Related: Change comes to sports but slowly

2004 NCAA Tournament

Zeigler: Raised Eyebrows and Expectations
Zeigler: Why Stanford Will Choke
Men's Preview: UConn Will Win It All
Women's Preview: Texas Will Take It

2003 NCAA Tournament

Big Orange Tops in the Big Easy: Syracuse beat Kansas, 81-78, to win the NCAA mens college basketball championship in New Orleans. Syracuse led in the first half by 18 points thanks to six 3-pointers from clutch freshman Gerry McNamara (left). But Kansas rallied to cut the lead to two late, but could never come back all the way. Kansas had two chances to tie the game in the final 10 seconds, but had one 3-pointer blocked and another go long.

Kansas will be looking at this one stat as the key reason they lost: 12 for 30 from the free throw line. In addition, the Jayhawks made only 4 of 20 from behind the 3-point arc compared to 11 of 18 for the Orangemen. Super freshman Carmelo Anthonys 20 points led Syracuse to its first title under coach Jim Boeheim. For Kansas coach Roy Williams it was another bitter disappointment to any otherwise fine season. A class coach who just cant seem to get over the hump.

After the game in a postgame interview, Williams faced CBS reporter Bonnie Bernstein. She asked Williams about his interest in the North Carolina job. Fair enough, Williams replied, and he gave a brief answer. But Bernstein persisted with another question and the usually unflappable Williams came as close as he could to losing it. With tears welling in his eyes, he glared at Bernstein and said: "I could give a shit about North Carolina right now. I've got 13 kids back in that locker room that I love." For us, it was one shining moment.

Column: Bonnie Berstein Blew It
Cyd Zeigler takes the CBS announcer to task for her post-game interview with Roy Williams

A Reader's Favorite Final Four Moments
Why the Tourney is Better than the Oscars
Every March, the year's greatest drama unfolds on television - and Rene Zellweger's forced tears aren't a part of it.  It's the NCAA basketball tournament which features better stories and higher drama than Hollywood could write. 

Final Four preview
Look for Marquette and Syracuse to emerge

Sweet 16 Preview
Favorites should prevail

NCAA Men's Preview
A look at all four regions, plus all the hot players

Column: Are NCAA coaches losing control?
Well, this is not an isolated incident. Basketball has always been a sport in which coach's actions and behavior have been part of the game. Baseball is probably the only sport that has witnessed more coaches being kicked out of games. However, the number of incidents in College Basketball is climbing at an alarming rate.

Poll
Our final pre-tournament poll

Women's Tournament Preview
Royalty should prevail