I truly was blessed this past season and post-season to have had the opportunity to closely cover college basketball’s most decorated player in Ohio State’s Evan Turner. “His Royal Smoothness” as we like to call him, won the Wooden, the Naismith and pretty much every other national college basketball player of the year award.  We [...]

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 non-call away from playing in [...]

By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net With the exception of his BFF Evan Turner, Illinois junior guard Demetri McCamey is perhaps the most written about individual athlete on The Sports Bank. Today “Baby Ben Gordon” announced his intentions to enter the NBA Draft sans agent.

Jon Scheyer seems like a nice enough guy, my issues with Duke notwithstanding, but he never seemed like the sharpest knife in the drawer.  He grew up in Northbrook, a northern suburb of our fair city for those of you who don’t know.  I had a number of friends who had younger siblings that went [...]

The movie “Hoosiers” made it famous, but Butler’s 2010 Tournament run made it a must-see for hoopheads. The Sports Bank’s Paul M. Banks makes a pilgrimage to historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, and Butler players discuss seeing the movie with the media

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, INDIANAPOLIS-For Duke, the most polarizing team in this Final Four, success hinges on the play of it’s too stars who are (you guessed it) love ‘em or hate ‘em guys- Junior Forward Kyle Singler and Senior Point Guard Jon Scheyer. Duke fans love to talk about [...]

By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, INDIANAPOLIS- Remember back to 1999, a time when Ricky Martin and really annoying “boy bands” were oppressively popular? Back then Michigan St. had a star point guard who had a monster junior season in leading his team to the Final Four. Mateen Cleaves, remember him? [...]

By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, INDIANAPOLIS- Now that Butler is back home to face Michigan State in the Final Four, a lot of people are describing the Butler Bulldogs, the first University to play in a Final Four they’re hosting since 1972, as “real life Hoosiers” or “this year’s Cinderella.” [...]

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.

Paul M. Banks, Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, has an exclusive with NFL Network analyst/former San Francisco 49ers Coach Steve Mariucci in the Michigan St. locker room. Iron Mountain, Michigan is a unique place. Rarely, does a small town like this produce two individuals who achieve such a high level of success in the such [...]

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 [...]

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 bandwagon will indeed pick [...]

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 [...]

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 this the [...]

After hearing for weeks that the Fighting Illini only had to win one more game against a quality opponent to seal their NCAA tournament berth, it’s become a habit of mine to wonder how each successive game impacts their ability to move off the proverbial bubble.  Well surely their convincing 76-66 win over the Stony [...]