The Roundup 3/3/2010

Remembering Hank Gathers
Twenty years ago tomorrow will be the anniversary of the tragic death of Loyola Marymount player Hank Gathers. Fanhouse's Clay Travis catches up with Gathers mother, former teammate Bo Kimble, and former coach Paul Westhead for an emotional feature about Gathers death. The heart pulling moment was when Hank's mother Lucille talked about getting through life without Hank.

Twenty years later, there are still some days when Lucille can't move. "I feel good this morning," she says, on a late February day when snow blankets the city of Philadelphia and keeps her indoors. "But some days I can't talk about it, can't mention his name. They say you don't get over a child dying, you get through it."

Her voice cracks, tremors.

"I'm still not through it."

Powerful read. I highly suggest reading it.

Paul Hewitt Doesn't Read Newspapers While His Team Is Terrible on The Road
Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt holds grudges. He specifically holds a grudge against his hometown newspaper Atlanta Journal Constitution since 2005. His beef is with columnist Mark Bradley who wrote a column on the Jackets – who went to the title game in 2004 and returned a lot of talent – were jettisoned in the second round of the ‘05 NCAA tournament by Louisville. Hewitt needs to let it go.

While Hewitt has been holding this grudge, his team has struggled on the road. The Yellow Jackets are 1-7 on the road and head to Clemson for another road game against a strong home team. 1-7 on the road? How does this team expect to compete in their conference tournament or NCAA tournament?

How About a Slumber Party?
Don't laugh, but that is how Michigan State was able to turn around their season. Sophomore Draymond Green suggested to coach Tom Izzo that the team should hold a sleepover. Everyone on the team including coaches, players, training staff, and the equipment manager stayed the night at the Breslin Center last Friday night. Then Sparty beat Purdue on Sunday, so the sleepover must have worked. Or was it the fact that Purdue just lost Robbie Hummel?

Tom Izzo talks about Spartans' sleepover

Big Week for El Paso
On the same week that it was announced that former UTEP coach Don Haskins would be immortalized in El Paso, Texas with a Bar & Grill named after him, his former team UTEP won outright the Conference USA. Haskins of course is the coach of the first college basketball team that featured an all-black lineup that won the National Championship in 1966, that would become a horrible movie called 'Glory Road'.