Larry Brown Sports

How big was Andrew Wiggins’ announcement that he plans to attend Kansas in the fall? Big enough to drastically lower the odds of the Jayhawks to win the national championship next season.

The Las Vegas Hilton had Kansas at 25:1 to win the national championship as of Monday, assistant sportsbook manager Jeff Sherman said. They lowered that figure to 15:1 prior to Wiggins’ announcement, and further dropped it to 10:1 after the announcement, per Sherman. One thing you’ll note is that the Hilton altered Kansas’ odds the night before the announcement. Either they knew Wiggins was going to Kansas, or they were just taking a precaution.

The Hilton now has Kansas with the second-lowest odds to win the title. Kentucky is the favorite at 4:1. Duke, Florida, Michigan State, Arizona, and defending champion Louisville are all 12:1. North Carolina, which Wiggins also considered, is 15:1.

Bovada also released its odds for the national championship, and they have Kansas at 11:2, which is slightly behind the 5:1 figure for Kentucky, and much stronger than the Hilton’s odds.

Not bad for a team that lost all its starters. This kid must be something special.

H/T The Linemakers
Photo: Instagram/Andrew Wiggins

Andrew Wiggins, the No. 1 recruit for the 2013 college basketball class, announced on Tuesday that he will attend Kansas.

Wiggins had kept things quiet and there was only one reporter present at his announcement from his high school — Huntington Prep in West Virginia. The Toronto native is picking Kansas over North Carolina, Kentucky, and Florida State.

Wiggins’ father, Mitchell, played in the NBA, while his mother was a track athlete. Both attended college at Florida State. Wiggins’ older brother plays basketball for Wichita State.

Kansas seems like it will be a good fit for Wiggins. They’re losing Ben McLemore, Jeff Withey, and their three other starters, so Wiggins should be the star of the team unlike at Kentucky where there would be several other top players.

If you’re wondering what all the hype is about, watch this video:

Photo: Instagram/Andrew Wiggins

Rutgers fired one basketball coach in order to rid itself of a controversy, but now they have another one on their hands.

Rutgers got rid of Mike Rice after a video went viral last month showing the coach physically and verbally abusing his players during practice. Less than two weeks later, they replaced him with former NBA coach Eddie Jordan, who was a star basketball player for the school in the ’70s. Now, Deadspin has learned that Jordan never actually graduated from the school despite claims suggesting otherwise.

Deadspin called the school’s registrar office and found that Jordan never actually graduated despite attending classes from 1973-77. After the discrepancy was brought up, Jordan admitted to ESPN New York that he did not receive his degree.

Jordan took classes while he was in college and returned to take more classes in 1985 after his NBA playing career was over.

“I went back to Rutgers in 1984-85 as a voluntary assistant to complete my studies,” Jordan told ESPN. “I didn’t walk. I didn’t get a diploma because I wasn’t registered right. That’s it. I was 28 and didn’t take care of my business. It was never an issue.”

Jordan apparently put on his resumes that he graduated from Rutgers in 1985.

In Jordan’s bio on the school’s website, it used to say:

“RU’s all-time leader in both assists (585) and steals (220), “Fast Eddie” scored 1,632 career points and earned honorable mention All-American honors as a senior in 1977 before earning a degree in health and physical education.”

That part of the bio now reads:

“RU’s all-time leader in both assists (585) and steals (220), “Fast Eddie” scored 1,632 career points and earned honorable mention All-American honors as a senior in 1977.”

Despite the misleading credentials, Rutgers is still standing by their new coach. They said in a statement Friday:

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One of the motivational tactics Rick Pitino decided to use with his 2013 national champion Louisville squad was the promise of a tattoo. Pitino promised his players that he would get a tattoo commemorating their tournament run if they ended up cutting down the nets, and the 60-year-old kept his word.

As you can see from the photo above that Louisville senior associate athletic director of media relations Kenny Klein posted on Friday morning, Pitino got a Louisville logo, the words “NCAA Champions” and his team’s 2012-2013 season record on his back left shoulder. Here’s another angle that gives you a better idea of how big the tattoo is:

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Michigan’s Nik Stauskas returned home to Canada this week and decided to release a new shooting video. In the video, Stauskas went 70-of-76 (92.1 percent) on his shots in the rain, including 46 straight makes. Needless to say, the exhibition was impressive.

Stauskas’ show was so impressive that it even caught the attention of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, who just set the NBA record for most 3-pointers made in a season. Curry tweeted the video and gave a friendly challenge to Stauskas, who made 44 percent of his threes last season for the Wolverines.

3pt contest sometime @nstauskas11 ????? this is Impressive youtube.com/watch?v=yuH5mq…

— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) April 25, 2013

Stauskas was thrilled to hear from Curry and said he was down:

@stephencurry30Thanks for the s/o bro! Im always down fot a 3pt contest, wouldn’t mind going up against the best shooter in the world!!

— Nik Stauskas (@NStauskas11) April 25, 2013

I love waking up to a challenge by the best 3 point shooter in the world!!! Today might be a good day HA!

— Nik Stauskas (@NStauskas11) April 25, 2013

Sounds like fun, but I would definitely have Curry in this one. He shot 45.3 percent on threes in the NBA this season, which was a higher percentage than Stauskas despite being at a further distance. Though, if the contest took place in Stauskas’ backyard, I might lean toward him because of the home court advantage.

H/T MLive.com

Former Maryland basketball coach Lefty Driesell recruited and coached a promising young player by the name of Len Bias. As you may know, Bias was selected by the Boston Celtics with the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft. He died two days later from a heart attack that was caused by a cocaine overdose.

During a recent interview with ESPN 980′s Kevin Sheehan and Thom Loverro, the 81-year-old coaching legend discussed what a shame it is that bad decisions resulted in Bias’ life ending at such a young age. That led to a conversation about talented young stars who passed away too early because of drugs, such as Marilyn Monroe. Then things got a little weird.

“I mean, she’s still a famous movie star, and was my favorite movie star at the time. In fact, I’ll tell you a little secret,” Driesell said according to Dan Steinberg of DC Sports Bog. “She used to sleep naked, right? And I always slept with pajamas,  until I fell in love with Marilyn. So now, I still sleep naked. And my grandchildren come in there and say, ‘Granddaddy, how come you don’t wear pajamas?’ I say because Marilyn Monroe never did. They don’t know who Marilyn Monroe was. And I can’t stand sleeping with pajamas on anymore.”

How’s that for a visual? I know old people have a tendency to get sidetracked in the middle of conversations, but Driesell took things to an entirely new level. Good for him.

There is no offseason when it comes to rivalries. An anonymous Michigan fan or group of Michigan fans proved that early Saturday morning when Michigan State’s Spartan statue was left tagged with a Michigan logo and Wolverine colors.

Hahahaha look what happened to sparty #HAIL #GOBLUE #VICTORS twitter.com/Haggerty70/sta…

— Buzz Schneider (@Haggerty70) April 20, 2013

For those who are wondering if there’s a point behind this, I don’t think there really is. The Spartans held their annual inter-squad spring game on Saturday, but that doesn’t have anything to do with their biggest rival.

According to MLive.com, the statue was cleaned up by Saturday afternoon. This is the second time in less than a month that Michigan State’s statue has been targeted. Last month during the NCAA Tournament, the Spartans statue was decorated with Valparaiso gear. Were Michigan State fans responsible for both acts of vandalism? I certainly wouldn’t doubt it.