Len Bias, our Own Mortality, and the Choices we Make

By Charlie Scaturro

With what would have been his 50th birthday yesterday, the shock of Len Bias’ tragic passing has abated quite a bit. Time can’t completely heal this wound, but at least we have some perspective on the death of Len Bias nearly 30 years later.

Having never seen him play, I can’t take a few grainy highlights and anecdotes about his awe-inspiring physical abilities and even attempt to extrapolate what it might have meant in the context of NBA history (besides, that’s been done by much better writers than me). And even though I wasn’t around to see Len Bias play, I think what we’re looking at when considering Bias’ death after stripping away the basketball side of the equation is valuable in many ways.

Mitch McGary's Interesting Decision

By Charlie Scaturro

Source: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images North America

Not only did Mitch McGary help the Michigan Wolverines reach the Final Four for the first time since 1993 (and inspire articles like this in the process), but his play during the last few weeks of his freshman season left him with an extremely interesting decision about whether he should declare for the NBA Draft.

If you had a pulse during the month of March, you know that McGary went from a complete afterthought behind guys like Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., Glen Robinson III, and Nik Stauskas during the regular season, to one of the driving forces behind Michigan’s run through the NCAA Tournament. Those who watched McGary play during the regular season saw a kid who had a ton of potential based on his size and combination of skill/hustle, but one who looked like he was going to have to wait until next season for his official coming out party to commence.

A Brief Message From One of Your Fearless Leaders

Beloved Readers,

I have been recruited for something of a trial run to become one of Bleacher Report's feature columnists for college basketball. While I'm very proud of the fan base that Charlie and I have developed over the past two years, I would have to be a complete buffoon to turn down this opportunity. Maybe it won't work out and I'll be back in your loving arms in a few weeks (and at any rate, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to continue posting my baseball/football thoughts here), but I wanted to make you all aware of my new situation, so as to not leave you high and dry on the bracket front. The formatting/style will be different, but I'll still be focusing almost exclusively on brackets and bubbles. Here is the link to my BR profile, where you'll be able to keep up with anything I post: http://bleacherreport.com/users/1927996-kerry-miller

Thanks for all your continued support,
Kerrance James

For the Sake of Your Bracket: Volume VI (1/11-1/17)

By: Kerrance James

The format may be different, but the idea is the same. Rather than breaking down the upcoming week by day and having to pretend that there's a game every night that I really want to write about, we're breaking down the upcoming week by conference, giving you 5 options for each of the major conferences, and another dozen or so from the collection of mid-majors. These are the games that will matter the most when deciding who gets into the tournament, where they get seeded, and how far they can go. In addition to this weekly article, we're about a week and a half away from bringing back the daily elimination bubble tracker (planning on calling it "The Skimmer" as we'll be removing the undesirables from the pool, and let's be honest, you're just going to skim through it). Until then, here are the games to watch this week.

ACC: Duke @ NC State (Saturday 12:00 – ESPN), North Carolina @ Florida State (Saturday 2:00 – ESPN), Maryland @ Miami (Sunday 8:00 – ESPNU), NC State @ Maryland (Wednesday 7:00 – ESPN2), Georgia Tech @ Duke (Thursday 9:00 – ESPN)

Trying to Make Sense of the Arizona Wildcats

By Charlie Scaturro

Source: Christian Petersen/Getty Images North America

With their thrilling victories over Florida, San Diego State, and Colorado in the last few weeks, you could argue that the Arizona Wildcats, who currently sport a 13-0 record and are ranked 3rd nationally, have participated in the three most exiting games of the young college basketball season. And while most of us can concede that they’re a talented team who has ridden some combination of luck, skill, and an uncanny ability to mount late game comebacks against good teams, to an undefeated start as conference play kicks off, what can we make of the Wildcats given what we’ve seen from them thus far?

While their one point victory over San Diego State was very much a back and forth affair that featured eight ties and 13 lead changes in the second half, it’s not everyday that a team comes back from double digit second half deficits (including trailing Florida by six with a minute left and Colorado by 10 with under two minutes left) against good competition to win games. But as we’ve already seen, Arizona has made a habit of doing just that in situations where other teams would probably jack up a few three’s, commit a few fouls, and call it a loss. Of course, you could view the Wildcats recent late game success in one of two ways:

For the Sake of Your Bracket: Volume V (1/4-1/10)

By: Kerrance James

In our fifth iteration of this article, I’d like to welcome those of you rekindling your annual interest in college hoops. I get it. Bowl season is all but finished. The doldrums of the NBA season are upon us. The NHL isn’t walking through that door. Conference play is heating up, and college basketball is a better between-NFL-playoff-weekends activity than listening to 96 consecutive hours of talking heads debating the pros and cons of playing home games at Lambeau Field. I’m not here to judge your motives; I’m just here to proactively help you fill out your bracket by ensuring you’re aware of the upcoming games that will help define these tournament teams. If you’re new to the program, every Friday I preview the upcoming week in college hoops, nominating the 6-8 games that I think are most worth watching. Coupled with the elimination style bubble tracker that I am itching to start up in the next 2-3 weeks, we’re providing you a one-stop shop for all things March Madness. Stick with us through Selection Sunday, and you’ll know what to do from there.

Friday: Cleveland State @ Valparaiso (7:00 – ESPNU), Memphis @ Tennessee (8:00 – ESPN2)