Favorite Links & Stories

Wally Hall of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette thinks that Dana Altman did the right thing by backing out of the Arkansas coaching position—and not revealing the problems going on within the Razorbacks. Hall writes about various rumors surrounding the program, including potential improper payments to players, positive drug tests, and ineligible players. Interesting read, to say the least.

CSTV.com’s Bryan Graham goes further than any other analyst when looking towards next season—he includes his entire projected Field of 65 for 2007-2008. He ranks the teams in order of what round he feels they will reach. He has UCLA at #1, and Florida reaching the Sweet Sixteen at #14.

Bud Withers of the Seattle Times discusses how the Pac-10 will be the best conference in the country next season, and will—finally—get the respect it deserves. According to him, “No other league will have the chops at the top or the depth down below.”

According to a variety of sources, including Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports and Pat Forde of ESPN, Iona will hire Louisville associate coach Kevin Willard to fill their coaching vacancy left by Jeff Ruland. Willard has worked under Rick Pitino for ten years for both Louisville and in the NBA with the Boston Celtics. Willard, 31, will be formally introduced next week

According to the Indianapolis Star, Butler has hired long-time assistant coach Brad Stevens to replace the departed Todd Lickliter, who left for the coaching job at Iowa. Stevens has been an assistant for the Bulldogs since 2001. Athletic director Barry Collier said, “He's a familiar face to the program . . . and he embraces the Butler Way. We have the utmost confidence that we will continue to see great success in Butler basketball.”

The Butler Bulldogs and top seed Wright State Raiders are poised to battle for the Horizon League Championship, but the rest of the conference will not make it easy. The Horizon League Tournament tips off on February 27th and concludes on March 6th.

South Alabama is the top seed in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and will await the winners of Wednesday's first round matchups in the March 4th quarter-finals. The Sun Belt Championship game will be on Tuesday, March 6th at 8:00 CT.

The Ohio Valley Conference wrapped up regular season play on Saturday and the conference tournament field is set. The first round begins on February 27th, with the semi-finals on March 2nd on ESPNU and the final on the 3rd on ESPN2 at 7:00 CT.

Holding the Titans of Detroit to just 36 points, Butler finished the the regular season with a 13-3 conference record, tying Wright State.

Struggling TCU upset #14 Air Force 71-66 on Saturday. Air Force has now lost two in a row and host BYU on Tuesday to wrap up the regular season.