Afternoon Links are pretty self-explanatory. Want to share? Email or tweet me @eamonnbrennan.
Marcus Smart is a good basketball player. He is going to be a great one, quite possibly by the end of this season. How good? Ah, but therein lies the rub. The Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy believes Smart is not only the best freshman in the country to date, but the best overall player. ESPN Insider and Basketball Prospectus chief John Gasaway -- whose ranking of Smart DeCourcy called out in making his case -- responded by proclaiming his love of Smart while also analyzing his performance with a sober eye. (If you want to excuse Smart's ugly shooting to date, fine, but the best player in the country?! Come on. Anyway, what Nathan Walker said.)
Yesterday, Andy Katz and Seth Greenberg interviewed Arizona coach Sean Miller
, who discussed the remarkable record of former Xavier coaches and assistants this season, which Bruce Pascoe lays out here: "The Xavier team that reached the 2004 NCAA Elite Eight, losing to Duke by only three points, had a staff that was headed by Thad Matta and assisted by Sean Miller, John Groce and Alan Major. Combined, the four men are 32-1 so far this season as head coaches (Matta is at Ohio State, Groce at Illinois and Major at Charlotte). Only Matta has a loss, from when Ohio State lost at Duke." Insane.Leave it to R/CollegeBasketball to come up with a list of the Most Outstanding Players the NCAA didn't include on this morning's list of 75 all-time greats.
Georgetown fans are breathing a sincere sigh of relief after last night's blowout over Longwood.
One Longwood fan was hoping for a miracle, but a cheap courtside seat at the Verizon Center would have to suffice.
Those Internet rumors about Michael Carter-Williams apparently needed to be squashed, and now they are.
In regards to the Big East, I'd say John Infante just about summed it up: "College athletics in 2012 is like the housing market in 2007. If the asset value stops just going up, you are already bankrupt."
Glockner grades some of the surprising early-season performances.
Coming into the season, Kyle Wiltjer's deadly outside shooting was supposed to be one of the few things Kentucky could rely on. That has not been the case.
I remember crying the night I heard Chris Street died. I was eight, living in Eldridge, Iowa, and probably wearing Hawkeyes pajamas. So of course I cried. But twenty years later, it's still awfully sad.