Arizona St

What is the top D1 basketball program in each state.. and which program is the worst? While there's not much competition in Hawaii.. there are great debates to be had in loaded regions like California, North Carolina, and Texas. The State of '08 is a state by state ranking based mostly on recent success (the last five years) mixed in with subjective factors such as conference prestige, historical success, and overall program direction.

 

Like civilizations, all great basketball programs eventually fall.. replaced by an upstart newcomer. In this week's Rise & Fall series, we'll take a look at which BCS programs are rising, falling, or merely treading water. Up today, the:

 

PAC-10

 

With the off-season now upon us and the spring signing period well under way, this is a good opportunity to attempt to forecast some of the teams who could make the jump next season. Is there a team out there like this past season’s Drake Bulldogs, who went from ninth place to a dominating run through the Missouri Valley? Or how about Arizona State, a team that went from dead last in the Pac-10 to fifth place and could have the makings of a conference title run this season? With one pick for each conference, here are 31 teams you should keep an eye on next season.

 

Arizona State Sun Devils

Pacific 10 (19-12, 9-9)

Seed: #1

 

A little mid-afternoon update on a busy Championship Week Thursday.

Much to Joe Lunardi's chagrin.. everyone thinks they're a bracketologist this time of year. So we asked 7 CHN writers which bubble teams will end up in the field or out.

 

Bubble time is not only a fun time, but its a testy time.. after all, everybody wants their favorite team to make the Big Dance.  Thus the amount of emails I gets grew substantially since this year's Daily Bracketology started. In honor of some of the better, and more repeated emails, here are some reader questions and responses (edited slightly to fit into an article)..

Yes (and they deserve it)

Yes (but they shouldn't)

No (one of Oregon/ASU won't make it)

This here is the last regular edition of the Freshman 10, with end-of-year awards and tournament editions all that’s left to follow. Generally this would be viewed as some kind of final evaluation on these players and their first full season of work, but given the startling incoherence this season has provided, I still think my judgments on most of these guys are largely incomplete. In a year where mediocrity reigns, the right side of the Bubble resembles the NIT and No. 1 seeds are being passed around like Paris Hilton, it’s actually been the

I really wish I had something profound and interesting to say this time around but I don’t. And I think that’s kinda fitting for this time of the college hoops season. Earlier in the year we had to create things to talk about in order to justify paying attention to hoops over football and other stuff. But with the sports landscape all to itself and a season that has been exciting but void of any transcendent storylines on the court (and don’t say Memphis, Undefeated because I still can’t find anyone