By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net
Remember when Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor was being recruited? As far as high school players go, his hype was bigger than Jesus, Jimmy Clausen, and Tim Couch combined. (This analogy is contingent on Jesus’ having played college football, and I’m assuming that’s [...]

By Paul M. Banks Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net,
Michigan State entered this past season ranked #2 in the AP poll. They had their struggles in midseason, but played up to the hype when it counted in March. Without top player Kalin Lucas, the Spartans still finished just one HORRIBLE [...]

By Paul M. Banks Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net

When Kalin Lucas went down, Michigan St. lost their best player and floor general. His replacement Korie Lucious, a 5-10 sophomore point guard from Milwaukee, did an admirable job in his place.

Katie Witham, Ohio State reporter for the Big Ten Network, discusses OSU potential with fellow Buckeye expert Paul M. Banks, Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net
(PMB) The Buckeyes have been placed into my regional each of the past 3 weekends, so after spending so much quality time with Thad Matta lately, (this following a season covering [...]

By Paul M. Banks, Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net
As I’ve pointed out before, National Player of the Year Evan Turner is like the Hillary Clinton of college basketball: quite a polarizing figure. Fans of teams eliminated by Turner’s Ohio State Buckeyes HATE him. And as the tournament rolls on, this [...]

By Paul M. Banks and Jeff Ghiringhelli, The Sports Bank.net
By now you all know that Michigan State’s Kalin Lucas will be out for the remainder of the tournament with a ruptured achilles tendon. Rehabilitation will last 4-6 months, but head coach Tom Izzo is confident that he will make a full recovery and be [...]

Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net Paul M. Banks has an exclusive with Ohio State’s Mark Titus, founder and author of the enormously popular “Club Trillion: Life views from the end of the bench” blog.
Ohio State walk-on Mark Titus created his own blog, “Club Trillion”, whose name refers to his stats in most [...]

By Paul M. Banks Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net

MILWAUKEE- Orlando “Tubby” Smith is entering his second NCAA Tournament (and third year) as the leader of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Despite reaching the second round on 14 prior occasions during his career, he has to win a tourney game with the Gophs. Is [...]

By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net,
INDIANAPOLIS- Big Ten player of the year, and likely national player of the year Evan Turner has become quite the polarizing figure this weekend. The Ohio State swing-man made magical memories for OSU fans on his way to becoming Big Ten tournament [...]

By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net,
This year’s NCAA tournament will see Arizona, North Carolina, UCLA and Indiana missing from the dance card. Those four tradition rich programs have produced 22 National Championships and 144 tournament appearances. So what are the benchmarks, the numbers, the standards of entry [...]

The f$%&ing selection committee can’t seem to get anything right.  Those idiots in their ivory tower stare at computers all damn weekend for one weekend a year and then make horrible decisions.  Florida?  Really?  Florida?  And Utah State?  How do they justify putting Minnesota in over Illinois, when Illinois finished better in the Big Ten?
Okay [...]

By Paul M. Banks Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net
INDIANAPOLIS- Ohio State’s Evan Turner is likely going to sweep the national college basketball player of the year awards. He truly is royally smooth on the court. On Friday, in the Big Ten quarterfinals, his 40-foot buzzer beater to eliminate Michigan was the lead national story in [...]

By Paul M. Banks, President of The Sports Bank.net
When Michigan State meets #3 Purdue on Sunday, it’ll have huge influence on who wins the Big Ten regular season title. But beyond that…who will eventually take Purdue’s #1 seed in the NCAA tourney now?
The Purdue Boilermakers are 12-3 in the Big Ten, a half-game ahead of [...]

By Paul M. Banks, President of The Sports Bank.net
1. Purdue (24-3, 12-3)
Ten in a row! Give them that #1 seed. Boilers are on a mission to duplicate Michigan St.’s feat from last season- reach a Final Four held in your home state. Getting there is DEPENDENT on the health of Robbie Hummel. And the fact [...]

Chris Kramer is the defensive specialist on Purdue and was the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in the 2007-2008 season.  Although we here at NQTC all know he is no Chester Frazier, Kramer is still a force to be reckoned with.  And you have to love a guy who will literally swim up [...]