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UEFA Champions League Final Preview
Rematch of 2005 classic

Two years ago in Istanbul, fans of the beautiful game were treated to one of the more bizarre matches in the history of the Champions League. The meeting between Italian side AC Milan and Liverpool of the English Premier League will forever be remembered as one of the all-time greats. Behind a goal in the first minute from Paolo Maldini, “Il Capitano”, and a pair of strikes from Hernan Crespo, the Rossoneri jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first half.

QUEENS, N.Y. (March 21, 2007) – St. John’s head men’s basketball coach Norm Roberts announced that junior guard Avery Patterson (Kannapolis, N.C.) and sophomore guard Ricky Torres (Bronx, N.Y.) both plan to transfer to another institution following the University’s spring semester.

“We wish Avery and Ricky the best,” said Roberts. “Both are young men who put in a tremendous amount of hard work and effort in representing St. John’s basketball, and both will leave our University in good academic standing.”

No Dribble today.. already spent enough time getting new content up on Sunday night and Monday morning.. such as the CHN Top 50 (sticking with UCLA at the top), a new Bracketology article (the 3 to 5 seeds are wildly up for grabs at this point), the Team of the Week (Villanova), weekly Conference Award Winners (Mario Boggan in the Big 12), the New AP Top 25 (Florida still #1), a new Poll on Winning the Missouri Valley Conference (my personal choice would be Southern Illinois), and the new Pick'Em games are up for this week as well (such as Texas A&M at Texas Tech).. also this week's Expert Picks will be up soon, which includes Clemson heading to Duke in a key ACC battle.

Duke had no problem with Wake Forest Thursday night, winning 62-40. Duke didn't even play that well.. Wake is just no good. The Deacons are 9-8 overall, 1-4 in the ACC, and its hard to see them winning another league game until they host Miami a month from now.

The MAC West is like the NBA's Atlantic Divison. First place Toledo has an 8-8 record and none of the other five teams are over .500. Thinks are better in the East where Ohio and Akron are 12-win teams. Big problem for those two teams is that this is only a one bid league..

Marist won again in the MAAC, to improve to 14-4, 6-1 in league play. Jared Jordan had a monster 26 point, 8 assist, 7 board game. He was haunted by the usual turnover problems though with 6.. then again thats less than Ishmael Smith's 8 against Duke. And Smith didn't have 1 assist.. brutal. Back to Marist though, the Red Foxes aren't running away with the league because suddenly hot Manhattan is also 6-1. The Jaspers were 3-8 before winning six straight out of nowhere (including a win over Rider last night).

Obviously a huge win for Wisconsin last night. Especially doing it on a night when Alando Tucker wasn't dominating on offense. Sure, he had 18 points and some big plays, but he was 1-6 from the line and often deferred to his teammates. But.. lets not get ahead of ourselves here and simply anoint Wisconsin as the Big Ten champs (though I do think they will win the conference), and claim that Ohio State is simply done..

As good as Wisconsin has been, and I think if the season ended today Tucker would be the Player of the Year, they've only won 2 road games all year.. Yes, they've beaten two top 10's in Ohio State and Pitt, but again, they're just 3-1 on the road. If Wisconsin played at Florida and UNC like OSU has.. then there's a very good chance they'd have 3 losses as well. When Missouri State beat Wisconsin on a neutral court.. no one suddenly anointed the Bears as the favorite to win the MVC, let alone deserve to be in the Top 10. I say this often, good teams are supposed to win at home. If Wisconsin went into Columbus and smacked around OSU then I'd be singing the Badgers praises all week long. But, at CHN anyways, we had Wisconsin #4 in the preseason and the favorites to win the Big Ten.. so this is a game they are supposed to win. On the flip side, lets not discount OSU as simply being an overrated bunch of jokers. I can safely say that out of all 336 teams in college basketball, at least 320 of them would come away 0-3 in games at Florida, UNC, and Wisconsin. Maybe 15 more would win 1 of those 3 on a good day, and maybe 1 lone team would win 2 of those 3. The Buckeyes have a lot of work simply figuring out how to utilize all their tools.. but this team will be fine..