Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

The Secondary Break: Thursday’s Links

young

Karvel Anderson finds a home (ESPN)
Robert Morris senior guard Karvel Anderson’s path to college was anything but smooth. With his mother being incarcerated, life eventually dealt Anderson the hand of being homeless as a teenager. But he refused to give up, working hard to eventually realize his dream of becoming a Division I basketball player. And on Monday he was named Northeast Conference Player of the Year.

Which college basketball programs made a mistake going to Division I? (Land Grant Holy Land)
The number of Division I programs this season is up to 351, with a few provisional programs going through the transition process to the game’s highest level. And with that many teams it’s natural to wonder if any have made the mistake of moving up. This story looks at all aspects of the moves being made to Division I and even picks out a few winners and losers.

Chris Perez: Tenacious player is a fan favorite (Albuquerque Journal)
New Mexico honored its senior class on Wednesday night following the Lobos’ 80-52 win over Air Force, and while Cameron Bairstow and Kendall Williams receive plenty of attention there’s a third player who was honored. Walk-on Chris Perez has been a part of the program for four years, and he became a fan favorite of many of the UNM faithful during his time in Albuquerque.

DePaul senior Brandon Young has shown leadership in tough times (Chicago Sun-Times)
It’s no secret that the DePaul Blue Demons have struggled mightily in recent years, with the downturn occurring within a couple years of their move into the Big East in the mid-2000s. One player who’s been present for the last four seasons in guard Brandon Young, who has worked to remain positive despite the lack of success.

Zach LaVine shaking off slump just in time for homecoming trip (Los Angeles Times)
UCLA freshman guard Zach LaVine found himself mired in a shooting slump prior to last week’s games against the Oregon schools. At one point an explosive scorer off the bench for the Bruins, LaVine was not producing at that level. Luckily for he and the Bruins the freshman turned things around last week, just in time for the team’s trip to his native Washington for games against Washington and Washington State this week.

Coaching is a path Virginia’s Tony Bennett once resisted and now embraces (Yahoo Sports)
After a professional career spent in the NBA, Australia and New Zealand, Tony Bennett needed to figure out what his next step would be. One profession he had no desire of entering: coaching, as he’d seen the impact of the game on his father. But an experience coaching overseas lit the fire, leading Bennett on a career path that would ultimately wind up in Charlottesville.

Andrew Wiggins experiences mixed emotions in home finale (Lawrence Journal-World)
It was “Senior Night” in Lawrence on Wednesday, with No. 8 Kansas closing the home portion of its season with a win over Texas Tech. But there was also the prospect of it being the final home game for Andrew Wiggins, who had mixed emotions regarding the experience and lamented that the season went by too fast.

Keith Appling, Adreian Payne don’t want to break Final Four streak (Detroit Free-Press)
Michigan State’s hit a rough stretch of late, with health and rust issues being two of the contributing factors. On Thursday night their seniors will be honored when the Spartans host Iowa, and Keith Appling and Adreian Payne are hungry for their first Final Four appearance. On the line is an impressive streak, with every senior class under Tom Izzo having reached at least one Final Four.

Follow @raphiellej