Archive - Feb 2013 - Article

From February 22nd to 24th Red Star Belgrade held the fourth and final qualification tournament (Rome, Siaulai and L’Hospitalet were the other venues), of the Nike Junior International Tournament. The winner was the home team Red Star, winning the final game against Mega Vizura, after having dominated the entire tournament. Here it is a list of the prospects that showed the biggest potential, with most of the talent concentrated within the top four teams.

Dusan Ristic (1995, 6’11”, C, Red Star Belgrade, Serbia)

Player of the Week

Willie Cauley Stein - Kentucky

Indiana hung onto the top spot in these ratings in fine fashion last week.

The Hoosiers played just once but it was a dandy performance while pulling away down the stretch to topple host Michigan State in a gut-twisting Big Ten Conference showdown.

But, over in the Big East, Georgetown pulled off a road win that was every bit as impressive as the Hoosiers’ effort while beating Syracuse.

And the same could be said of Kansas, which made amends for a home loss to Oklahoma State by beating the Cowboys in Stillwater.

Yeah, it was quite a week . . .

Heat guard Dwyane Wade is now the face of Li Ning. The two time NBA champion talked during all star weekend about his new partnership with the company and the path that he took to get where he is today.

Branden DawsonAs usual at this point in a college basketball season, there are a lot of compelling matchups this week.

None of them, however, present quite the intrigue of the one that will be played in East Lansing, MI, on Tuesday night and in Stillwater, OK, on Wednesday evening.

Tuesday night the top-ranked Indiana Hoosiers visit East Lansing to face No. 3 Michigan State in a Big Ten contest that will have both conference and national (re: NCAA Tournament seeding) implications.

Shane LarkinWho is fielding the best college hoops team in the land right now?

That would probably be the University of Miami.

But you should all be well-versed on my Top 16 rules of engagement by now: Teams don’t leap-frog teams that don’t lose in the previous week.

And that’s why the Hurricanes, despite their remarkable 10-0 mark in the Atlantic Coast Conference, only climbed to No. 6 (after being No. 12 last week) in this week’s updated ratings.

The Indiana Hoosiers climbed back onto the top spot in this week’s ratings, courtesy their victory over then-No. 1 Michigan and a home loss by No. 2 Kansas on Saturday.

Hanging onto the top of the heap for a second week in a row is going to be a tough chore for the Hoosiers, though.

That’s because they take to the Big Ten road twice over the next seven days, visiting Illinois on Thursday night and Ohio State on Sunday.