Duke freshman guard Austin Rivers drained a buzzer-beating three pointer to knock off North Carolina in Chapel Hill Wednesday night. The young man had a career-high 29 points including six threes — none bigger than that one. He did it all in front of his dad, Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who was going nuts. Rivers went through a stretch in January when he struggled, but he’s back on track. And he definitely needed to nail that shot after talking so much crap about UNC last year.

Arizona beat Cal in Berkeley Thursday 78-74 to knock Cal out of first place in the Pac-12, but the real highlight came with just under five minutes remaining in the game.

Cal point guard Jorge Gutierrez, who had 18 points in the loss, dove into the Arizona bench while going for a loose ball. Arizona assistant coach Joe Pasternack, who coached at Cal from 2001-2007, kicked him. The two exchanged words and had to be separated by Arizona head coach Sean Miller, though no fouls were assessed. Gutierrez felt like Pasternack kicked him on purpose and reportedly did not shake hands with him after the game.

Pasternack probably won’t lose his job like Sal Alosi did for a similar incident, but with Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott in attendance for the game, there could be some punishment.

Syracuse beat West Virginia 63-61 Saturday after getting a break on a missed call by the referees. West Virginia’s Truck Bryant bombed a three and missed in the final seconds, but Deniz Kilicli got the rebound and went up for the putback. His ball bounced off the backboard and was blocked by center Baye Moussa Keita. The referees did not call a goaltend like they should have, preserving Syracuse’s 63-61 lead. Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins is convinced they missed the call.

“Do I think it was? No. I know it was. I saw the replay,” Huggins said. “It’s hard. You’ve got 30 seconds and you’re trying to get them refocused and they’re all thinking about other things.”

Syracuse won 63-61 to improve to 22-1, but they probably should have gone to overtime for the game. They certainly are much weaker without Fab Melo in the lineup and caught a break Saturday.

What do you think?  Personally I think they all look too similar.  According to a press release that Kentucky Sports Radio passed along, Nike will soon be introducing the Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniform for select college basketball teams, all of which you see in the photo above.  I certainly like them better than most of the Pro Combat uniforms, but they are nowhere near the type of home run Nike hit with Oregon’s Rose Bowl gear.  Fear not, environmentalists — these aren’t just new jerseys and shorts.  According to Nike, the shorts are made from 100 percent recycled polyester while the jerseys are at least 96 percent of the same.  Isn’t that nice?

The nine teams who have been chosen by Nike have all won national championships wearing Nike gear.  They are Arizona, Baylor, Duke, Florida, Kentucky, Syracuse, North Carolina, and UConn (men’s and women’s).  The silver is a little too overpowering for my taste, but each team does get a personalized touch on the back which scores some points.  Here are some more pictures of the individual uniforms, courtesy of Complex.com:

Poor Billy Cundiff.  The guy already feels bad enough — especially for Ray Lewis — that he blew the Ravens’ shot at going to Super Bowl 46.  Now, he has to hear it from fans in other arenas in an entirely separate sport.  As we all know, college basketball fans are some of the most clever in the country when it comes to taunting.  At times they take it too far like these Michigan State fans did over the weekend, but typically students come up with extremely clever bits like this one.  That’s unfortunate for Cundiff.

As you can see, Kansas Jayhawks fans were taunting Texas A&M during free throws on Monday night using enormous letters that spelled out “C-U-N-D-I-F-F.”  I guess they were hoping the shooter would miss wide left.  Although I feel badly for Cundiff that fans in Kansas are taunting him during a basketball game, I have to give the student section points for creativity.

H/T The Dagger

If Kansas beats Texas A&M to remain undefeated in Big 12 play, I hope they’ll continue to bring Tommy back to keep up the winning streak. He clearly would be a good luck charm at that point.

Now to answer the 83-year-old former Dodger manager’s question, here’s what KU’s website says about the tradition:

“KU’s world famous Rock Chalk Chant evolved from a cheer that a chemistry professor, E.H.S. Bailey, created for the KU science club in 1886.

Bailey’s version was “Rah, Rah, Jayhawk, KU” repeated three times. The rahs were later replaced by “Rock Chalk,” a transposition of chalk rock, the name for the limestone outcropping found on Mount Oread, site of the Lawrence campus.”

According to WAVY-TV 10 in Norfolk, someone broke into the locker room and took about half of the shoes as well as the smaller home jerseys and left the larger ones. Apparently it does pay to be tall in our society.

“Occasionally, you’ll have a bloody uniform by the bench or a single uniform someone gets at because it’s in a game environment,” Old Dominion coach Blane Taylor said. “Like someone takes a jersey off and throws it in the air, but I’ve never had a break-in like this. They took uniforms that would fit someone of a slighter build. They didn’t take real big, big jerseys.”

Police are investigating the theft and the Monarchs expect to have new home jerseys at some point in February.  If I was in the market for an authentic, game-worn Old Dominion jersey before this incident, I’d probably hold off on shopping for a bit.

Chest bump to The Dagger for the story

During Saturday’s 83-58 win over the Boilermakers, a fan apparently said to Purdue senior Robbie Hummel, “I hope you tear your ACL again.”

The taunt prompted Purdue coach Matt Painter to exchange words with the student section during the game.

“I was just trying to fight,” Painter said afterward. “I think the Izzone is great. But if they’re going to say, ‘I hope you tear your ACL again,’ I’m going to say something. He doesn’t deserve that. We’ve got guys in our student section that probably say things that are out of line too, but I’m just not taking it. If he hears that … someone’s got to fight for him.”

Hummel missed all of last season after tearing his ACL during an October practice. He sat out the end of the previous season after tearing his ACL February 24th against Minnesota.

Though Izzo said he hears really bad comments from fans at various venues, that particular taunt is unacceptable.

“Robbie Hummel is one of the most respected people in this league, and I want our fans to be as hard as they can be,” Izzo said. “I just don’t want them to be ignorant.

“That would be a very ignorant statement. I would throw the guy out of here that said something like that. If he wants to talk about his grandmother, I wouldn’t like it, but I’d deal with it. But if he wants to talk about an injury to a kid who’s been through so much, I’ll try to find out who it was and make sure that I buy his ticket.”

Here is a video of both coaches’ comments via Mlive.com:

Before Kansas City Chiefs home games at Arrowhead Stadium, Chiefs fans sing “and the home of the Chiefs” at the end of the National Anthem in place of “and the home of the brave.”  For whatever reason, Jayhawks fans have adopted the tradition. Self is not amused.

“I don’t think it’s anything we should be proud about as students to carry that on, because I don’t see the place for it when you are honoring your country,” Self told the Lawrence Journal-World. “That’s one tradition that in my opinion certainly we could do without. I think it’d be more respectful toward the anthem and what that stands for to go ahead and use the actual words to it than putting in their own. I think they should stick to Francis Scott Key’s words. I think that would be more appropriate.”

The Kansas coach has a point.  There are plenty of other ways to showcase school spirit.  Not only that, but singing “the home of the Chiefs” doesn’t even make sense for the Kansas basketball team.  If you want to personalize the National Anthem, at least come up with something original.

H/T The Dagger

North Carolina coach Roy Williams apologized for leaving five bench players on the court to finish the game against Florida State after the rest of the team left for the locker room Saturday.

Williams arranged for his players and coaches to shake hands with the Seminoles with 14.2 seconds left in the game. Florida State had blown out UNC, so Williams figured it was safer to get his players off the court before the students rushed the floor. Only one problem: though he thought he had cleared his team out, five bench players remained on the floor to finish the game.

“I said, ‘Guys, I apologize. There was a miscommunication between [assistant] coach [Joe] Holladay and myself. I would never have left you out there to play the game.’” Williams said on his radio show Monday. “What I wanted to do — needless to say, we’re not going to erase a 33-point lead with 14 seconds left — [so] I was trying to get my entire team off the court, apologize to Florida State, make sure they weren’t interpreting it the wrong way; I was just doing it for safety.”

Williams says it wasn’t until he watched the game on tape that he realized he had left the bench players on the floor. He says he’s even criticized other coaches for doing the same thing.

So are you buying his excuse? Given how frantic he must have been — not to mention upset — I believe him. At least now he knows to make sure he takes care of all his players in case UNC gets blown out on the road again.