College Basketball

Women's College Basketball Preseason All-Americans     The Associated Press 2012-13 preseason women's all-American team, from a 40-member national media panel: Player   School   Ht.   Year   Votes Brittney Griner   Baylor   6-8   Senior   40 Skylar Diggins   Notre Dame   5-9   Senior   40 Elena Delle Donne   Delaware   6-5   Senior   40 Chiney Ogwumike   Stanford   6-3   Junior   23 ...

Props To Duke, for hitting the road this week for games at Miami and Florida State. Of course, the Atlantic Coast Conference insists that Mike Krzyzewski take his team into actual opposing gymnasiums. The only remaining nonconference road game for the Blue Devils is Feb. 26 against St. John's at Madison Square Garden. Chops To anyone calling Villanova's 1985 NCAA title-game upset of Georgetown "the perfect game. " It was nearly the perfect shooting game, but the Wildcats had 17 turnovers in a game without a shot clock.

College basketball, above all else, is a coach's game. Players come and go, coaches remain. Coaches get most of the attention. They get the big money. They get the television shows. They get the sneaker contracts. They get the made-for-TV reputations. And many are getting out of control. "If you look at the sidelines, it seems like coaches are out of control, and 15 percent of the time, I think, they may be," said Lou Bonder, supervisor of officials for the Atlantic 10. "I've said for a long time that I think we should be restricted a whole lot more on the sidelines than we are," Arizona coach Lute Olson said.

Yancy Gates scored a season-high 22 points as 24th-ranked Cincinnati extended the second-best start in school history, beating Xavier, 66-46, on Thursday night to regain the city's bragging rights. Cincinnati's 15-0 start matches the 1998-99 team for second-best in school history. The Musketeers (8-5) had won three in a row and eight of 11 in the series, which often gets overheated. Xavier's Terrell "Tu" Holloway got a technical for throwing an elbow. Philadelphia University 72, Bridgeport 70 - The host Rams (7-5)

1. Already? You're not going to believe this, but we are more than halfway through the 2011-12 college basketball season, with only eight weeks (and one day) remaining before Selection Sunday. Syracuse, which started the season ranked fifth, is the No. 1 team and stands - with Baylor and Murray State - as one of three major unbeatens. At the other end, Towson, Binghamton, and Chicago State have yet to win a game, going a combined 0-49. Surprise teams to this point have been Indiana, Georgetown, UNLV, Seton Hall, and Murray State; while Pittsburgh, Memphis, and Xavier have been the most disappointing measured against expectations.

The building itself is utilitarian - brick and iron and, if not devoid of architectural splendor, certainly not revealing of any on first glance. Inside, trophy cases contain aging mementoes of an athletic era long past, lending an air of foreboding to the musty, dimly lit corridors. In fact, the 60-year-old structure resembles a museum or a Depression-era train station - until you walk up one of the chutes that lead to the stands. Then, gradually, the murmur that was audible even outside becomes a piercing chorus of screaming voices, and the grim passageways give way to a brightly lit wooden floor surrounded by darkened, pulsating stands.

Kenny Kadji scored 17 points and Durand Scott had 16 points and 12 rebounds to lead Miami to a 77-46 win over previously unbeaten Charlotte (9-1) on Friday night in Coral Gables, Fla. The Hurricanes (6-1) never trailed as they built an 11-point halftime lead and outscored the 49ers, 14-6, in the opening 5 minutes, 27 seconds of the second half.   Conference switch Quinnipiac and Monmouth accepted invitations to join the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The MAAC made the announcement Friday and said the schools would join the conference for the 2013-14 academic year.

La Salle made the deepest run of any City Six team in the NCAA tournament, and the Explorers were rewarded with a place in the final ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll of the season. John Giannini's crew is ranked 24th, a spot ahead of Florida Gulf Coast. Atlantic Ten rivals Virginia Commonwealth and St. Louis are also ranked, at No. 23 and No. 16 respectively. The top four teams were the final four teams: Louisville, Michigan, Syracuse, and Wichita State. Temple was the only other local school to receive votes, and finished the equivalent of 37th.

The Connecticut Huskies ran through the NCAA women's basketball tournament en route to their eighth national title. With heralded freshman Breanna Stewart, sophomore Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, and most of the team back, this could be the next great UConn era. Over the last three seasons, UConn has lost 11 games - including twice in the Final Four. The Huskies went 35-4 this season. "We feel like all we can go is up from here," said Mosqueda-Lewis, who scored 18 points in the 93-60 rout of Louisville (29-9)

Joe Mihalich is leaving behind 15 successful seasons at Niagara to take over Hofstra's troubled men's basketball program. The 56-year-old former La Salle player and assistant was announced Wednesday by the Long Island school as its 12th basketball coach. Mihalich replaces Mo Cassara, who was fired following a 7-25 season. Four Pride players were arrested in November on burglary charges stemming from dormitory room break-ins. Hofstra lands an established coach and respected recruiter in Mihalich, who played a big role in reviving the Purple Eagles' proud basketball tradition.

BY THE TIME she'd finished her playing career, Dawn Staley had likely snapped that rubber band around her wrist thousands of times. No matter how talented she was, Staley was still a point guard, and, just like creating assists, point guards inevitably will commit turnovers. Staley popped those rubber bands on her wrist as a physical reminder for each time she got sloppy with the basketball. But that wasn't why Staley originally slipped rubber bands around her wrist. She grew up playing basketball in Philadelphia in the 1980s, and if you were a Philly point guard during that era, there was only one player you looked up to - 76ers floor general Maurice Cheeks.

NEW ORLEANS - Breanna Stewart put on quite a show to help Connecticut finally vanquish Notre Dame. The stellar freshman scored a career-high 29 points to go with four blocked shots, leading the Huskies to the national championship game with an 83-65 win over Notre Dame on Sunday night. The Huskies will face Louisville in the championship game Tuesday night in an all-Big East final after the Cardinals rallied to beat California, 64-57, in the other NCAA semifinal. UConn will be going for its eighth national championship to match Tennessee for the most in women's basketball history.

NEW ORLEANS - Skylar Diggins has accomplished nearly everything she could have imagined in her career at Notre Dame. The only thing missing is a national championship. To get another chance at that elusive title, Diggins will have to help the Fighting Irish women beat Big East rival Connecticut for an unprecedented fourth straight time this season. Sunday night's meeting in the national semifinals might be the final chapter in a rivalry that has become the nation's best. Notre Dame heads to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.

Trey Burke, the sophomore point guard who led Michigan to the Final Four, was named Thursday as the Associated Press' college basketball player of the year. Burke and Cazzie Russell (in 1966) are the only Michigan players to win the award. The Big Ten player of the year, Burke averaged 19.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 6.7 assists. He received 31 votes from the 65-member national media panel that selects the weekly top 25. Jim Larranaga, who led Miami (29-7) to the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season and tournament titles, was selected as coach of the year.

Minnesota has picked 30-year-old up-and-comer Richard Pitino, the son of Louisville head coach Rick Pitino, to take over for the fired Tubby Smith, the school announced Wednesday night. In his one season at Florida International, the younger Pitino led the Panthers to an 18-14 record, the school's first winning season in 13 years. At Florida International, Pitino inherited a program that was short on talent. The Panthers went 11-9 in the Sun Belt Conference, the most wins since joining the league in 1998-99.

Chester's Rondae Jefferson still went out a winner. Despite closing his high school basketball career with a loss in the PIAA finals, Jefferson on Wednesday was named the Associated Press' Class AAAA player of the year in a vote of Pennsylvania sportswriters. Chester's passionate, 6-foot-7 catalyst won top player honors for the second straight season after averaging a double-double (15.5 points, 11.0 rebounds) for the Clippers. Jefferson, a University of Arizona recruit, also averaged 4.4 assists, 2.8 steals, and 2.4 blocked shots for Larry Yarbray's high-powered Clippers, who fell one victory shy of winning their third straight PIAA title.

Kevin Ware was back on the Louisville campus Tuesday after his release from an Indianapolis hospital. Two days earlier, millions had watched the sophomore guard break his right leg on a horrifying play while trying to block a shot. He tweeted Tuesday, "Back to my brothers I go. " Local all-stars. Two Big Five players, La Salle's Ramon Galloway and Villanova's Mouphtaou Yarou, are on the West roster for the National Association of Basketball Coaches' Reese's Division I College All-Star Game on Friday at the Georgia Dome.