That being said, the Duke-UNC Game should still be a battle of titans, and maybe one of the best years ever in the ongoing rivalry series.

Of course, UNCA is not the same as playing ACC opponents, with ACC big men and ACC shooters, and UNC Asheville is without their eight foot big man, but still it’s impressive to say the least. Maryland gets blown out by Georgetown in a further display of inconsistency and giving Gary Williams even more reasons to worry about whether his job is safe, while NC State got a win for coach Sidney Lowe.

This year, just like last year, the team revolves around power forward Tyler Hansbrough, a player who plays basketball like a rampaging beast and never, ever takes a play off. The biggest accomplishment of Hasnbrough’s career at UNC is probably not the amount of free throws he’s taken or the All-American awards he’s gathered or even the scoring record for a freshman at UNC. It’s probably the fact that Tyler Hansbrough has become a UNC legend that stands among the greatest UNC legends, which seems almost impossible.

Who would think how good a player would have to be to walk onto the court of the North Carolina Tar Heels and stand toe-to-toe with Dean Smith, Phil Ford, Michael Jordan and James Worthy. These aren’t just the known players of the UNC system, these are the elite class of an extremely elite alumni that includes Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, Shammond Williams, Vince Carter, Brad Daugherty, Kenny Smith, Eric Montross, George Lynch, Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, Sean May, Rick Fox and dozens of others. It isn’t just a ‘good’ group.

This season, Hansbrough has possibly the greatest UNC team ever surrounding him, although it would be difficult to rival the 1982 and 2005 Tar Heels, who were loaded with NBA talent. Right now the Heels likely have at least six future pro players on their roster, if not more, and that means the UNC faithful feel that last year’s loss in the Final Four will be avenged.

Backup up Hansbrough is the fastest point guard in the college game, Tywon Lawson, a speedy burner who finishes with high arcing layups at full speed, and Wayne Ellington, a deep shooter who can create his own shot and score in a variety of ways. It’s a team that is loaded with offensive weapons and has a deep bench that will allow coach Roy Williams to fully employ the fast paced running game that he loves so much.

Danny Green is a fan favorite in Chapel Hill, a player who doesn’t get the press as some of the other players, but offers an array of skills, from scoring, to dishing the ball in transition, to finishing on the alley-oop. He’s a player who tested the NBA waters last year and may end up in the pros when it’s all said and done.

Adding to the Heels’ prospects are four incoming talented freshman. It should be a stellar season for Heels fans.

This article was originally published on GoArticles by Joey Strike.

Fans of Oregon State are worked up, excited, and they have every right to be, going to the Rose Bowl is something a lot of teams will never experience! Even big time SEC and ACC schools have teams that never sniff a BCS bowl, much less the Rose Bowl, so Oregon State going to the Rose Bowlis a big deal.

When you are a fan of a college football team, the current system rewards teams with good seasons by a tiered bowl game system, and Oregon State getting to the Rose Bowl is one of the best rewards that can be handed to a college football team. Unless a team is really in contention for a national title, getting a Rose Bowl berth (even in a year when the Rose Bowl is not hosting the BCS national title game), is a fantastic reward for a great college football season. Oregon State going to the Rose Bowl is a dream come true for players and fans, and that’s why they are heading out to buy Rose Bowl Tickets and watch Oregon State. Who can blame them for being ecstatic?

It’s a great day for Oregon State and another chapter on their road to real national prominence, especially after many pundits writing them off. If they win today, they win the conference championship, and the celebration ensues as fans buy Rose Bowl tickets to watch Oregon State.

It should be a great game

Joe Strike blasts the BCS for having a ‘two team playoff’, which he calls ‘silly’. I gotta admit, he seems to have a point, although I don’t know how in the world we can fix the problem with the current college bowl system. A lot of money involved, and when there is a lot of money involved, change is difficult. However, just because something is difficult doesn’t mean it can’t be accomplished. This is probably where the Sports Brawl is going, the idea being, let’s get the ball rolling on fixing hte BCS already. We all know it needs to be done, so why aren’t we working on it?

In that regard, Joe has a point. Sometimes any action, no matter how small, is enough to start a much larger change.

There’s been too many times in the past that players or schools suffer because of a coach’s actions. I’m not saying that in all cases the school or players are innocent, but often they are pretty unaware and don’t have the ability to control the coach’s actions. How, exactly, would Indiana have know that Sampson was picking up his mobile phone and calling recruits when he wasn’t supposed to?

The person who is supposed to be in charge of that was….Sampson.

Indiana University did something they did not do with Bobby Knight for far too long, they took action and the NCAA did not lower the boom on them. Indiana will lose one scholarship, which does affect basketball recruiting, but is only on probation for three years.

Honestly, even if you aren’t a die hard fan of either team it’s a game that a basketball fan should attend at least once in their lifetime, and the best games are when both UNC and Duke are top 10, like this season. Of course, both teams have been competitive almost every year, but Duke has struggled with UNC the past few years. This season’s Duke roster is one of the strongest they’ve had in some time, although there is still a problem with depth in the post. At any rate, it’s always a fantastic game, so get your Duke Basketball Tickets now.The Duke Blue Devils are one of college basketball’s elite, not just the ACC.

Even though when Cotton Bowl Tickets go on sale, the people who choose to go are the fans of whichever schools are invited, the game is a big draw, one of the oldest in existence.

There are two major happenings coming up regarding the Cotton Bowl, one which is kind of a downer and another which is great. The first is that the Cotton Bowl is being moved from, well, The Cotton Bowl, to the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington. After decades of actually being played in a stadium named ‘The Cotton Bowl’, it’s the end of a piece of history. Fans who buy Cotton Bowl Tickets this year will likely be the last to see the bowl game there.

But…

The reason the Cotton Bowl is being moved is because the weather in Dallas, where the game is played, is sometimes too cold in January to be a BCS bowl game. Thus, the move to Cowboys stadium will fix that, and the Cotton Bowl will attempt to become a BCS bowl after the move. I hope that happens.