TUCSON, Ariz. – With UCLA's comfortable game-long lead shaved to five points with about six minutes to play at Arizona, Jordan Adams asked freshman teammate Shabazz Muhammad to step up.

"I told him to put us on his back," Adams said.

Muhammad obliged immediately, hitting a corner 3-pointer and then making a steal, drawing a foul and hitting two free throws. His personal 5-0 run gave the Bruins a 10-point advantage, and that lead never again dipped below six points on the way to an 84-73 triumph in a very hostile McKale Center.

After putting the Bruins on his back with a game-high 23 points, Muhammad put something else on his back before leaving the arena – a black Gucci backpack.

It was a nice look.

Nice enough that I checked Gucci.com Thursday night and found 18 backpacks, with the cheapest going for $990 retail. But, hey, I'm sure these things can be found on sale, right?

I'm not saying there's something fishy about Muhammad's designer backpack, even though

Read More »from With Gucci backpack, Shabazz Muhammad scores style points to keep UCLA on fast track

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college basketball, where the Nevin Shapiro Ripple Effect is now being felt in Columbia, Mo.:

VIDEO EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY, BRAD STEVENS IS NOT AN ALIEN

In what was only the second-strangest story of last week, thanks to Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend, Butler coach Brad Stevens (1) was suspected of being a Vulcan or some other non-emotional life form after his team's victory over Gonzaga on Saturday night.

With his team trailing by a point in the final seconds in a Hinkle Fieldhouse cauldron of tension, Stevens watched Roosevelt Jones steal a wayward Gonzaga lob pass, drive into the frontcourt and launch a shot at the buzzer that improbably swished for a dramatic victory. Stevens observed this thrilling, stunning turn of events with his arms folded across his chest, looking more like a man watching the grass grow than his team snatching another last-second triumph.

When Jones launched his shot, Stevens started to

Read More »from Forde Minutes: Butler's flair for the dramatic doesn't excite Brad Stevens

It’s time for Manti Te’o to talk.

Manti Te'o hasn't spoken publicly since news of the hoax broke. (AP)If we haven’t heard from him by Friday afternoon, it will be 48 hours since Deadspin deconstructed the myth of the former Notre Dame linebacker’s dead girlfriend – a central part of Te’o’s very compelling storyline this past fall. The sole response so far from Te’o has been a statement saying he was the victim of "a sick joke" – that Te’o was duped by online connivers into believing Lennay Kekua was real.

And 48 hours is too long to let something like this fester without addressing it and answering questions, in public, for everyone to see. Not with his credibility at stake.

Sources with both Notre Dame and ESPN told me an interview was arranged with Jeremy Schaap for Thursday night, but then it was called off "for now," according to one source. No explanation was offered as to why it was called off, or who called it off.

The interview needs to be rescheduled for Friday. This needs to get done. Silence isn’t helping the Heisman Trophy

Read More »from Manti Te'o needs to address public's questions about girlfriend hoax

In the days following the BCS championship game, there was significant internal debate at Notre Dame about when to go public with the revelation that star linebacker Manti Te'o's girlfriend was a hoax, Yahoo! Sports has learned.

Notre Dame officials wanted Manti Te'o to go public with his story on Monday. (AP)Some administrators were pressing for a unilateral public disclosure by the school, while others wanted to let Te'o himself make the stunning news public, the source said. Notre Dame officials were in contact with Te'o's agent, Tom Condon of Creative Artists Agency, and were told the Heisman Trophy runner-up planned to release his version of events Monday. The decision was made to wait and let Te'o and CAA control the message.

But that disclosure never came, and instead the news broke in a bombshell report from Deadspin on Wednesday afternoon.

"Their plan was Monday," the source said. "In hindsight, we shouldn't have given them that time."

A call and email from Yahoo! Sports to Condon were not immediately returned Thursday.

[Related: Notre Dame

Read More »from Sources: Manti Te'o's representatives passed on chance to release story about fictional girlfriend

On an unnerving night when it was hard to know what to believe and who to trust, Jack Swarbrick convinced me.Manti Teo looks on during a game. (NFP)

Chin quivering and voice catching, the Notre Dame athletic director fought emotion in describing Manti Te'o as "the single most trusting individual I have ever met." I know Swarbrick fairly well over the course of maybe two dozen interactions, both professional and personal – well enough to have a read on his personality. This was not a high-paid suit engaged in damage control; this was a man who sincerely believes that the most popular Fighting Irish football player in decades was wronged far more than he was wrong.

Swarbrick came to his Wednesday news conference armed with enough information to be certain that Te'o was the victim, not the perpetrator, of a vile hoax.

After listening to him, I believe Notre Dame. 

The next step will be to see whether we can believe Manti Te'o when he addresses the story that stunned America. He has some explaining to do, but I

Read More »from Notre Dame presents believable explanation for Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax

(Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college basketball ("Take Kiffin with You, Kevin" T-shirts sold separately in Los Angeles):

IT'S GETTING LATE EARLYJohn Calipari. (Courtesy: AP)

With the staggering news that Yogi Berra is considering starting a Twitter account, it seems an appropriate time to break out a Yogi-ism to describe the plights of last year's two best teams. A season after winning a combined 70 games, both Kentucky (1) and North Carolina (2) find themselves in NCAA tournament trouble.

Both are 10-5, with threadbare NCAA tournament résumés and sketchy power ratings. It's only mid-January, but it's fair to put both blue bloods on the bubble. Unless their seasons turn around, they will need their names to carry more weight with the selection committee than their bodies of work.

Coming off its second home loss of the season, defending champion Kentucky is No. 68 in the RPI (51st Sagarin, 16th Pomeroy). The Wildcats are a missed shot-clock violation at Vanderbilt away

Read More »from Forde Minutes: Blue bloods on the bubble, coaches on the hot seat and plenty more

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The difference between perfect record and first loss may have been a fickle fraction of an inch, as Michigan guard Trey Burke's step-back 3-pointer just jiggled out with 17 seconds left Sunday.Aaron Craft stays close to Michigan's Trey Burke during the second half. (AP)

"I'm not going to lie," said Ohio State's Aaron Craft, who was guarding Burke on the play. "I thought it was going in when I turned around."

It didn't, and the Buckeyes won, 56-53. In the process they denied their hated rivals a chance to be No. 1 in the rankings Monday, and also ended the annual Unbeaten Watch in college basketball.

Arizona (14-0) was taken down last Thursday at Oregon. Duke (15-0) lost Saturday at North Carolina State. That left the Wolverines (16-0) as the last unbeaten standing, and they didn't stand long Sunday. Michigan fell behind 4-3 and never led again, despite mounting a valiant comeback after a first-half meltdown.

It was an even earlier ending to The Watch than usual. Michigan had the fewest consecutive victories to start the season

Read More »from No one's perfect: Michigan's loss underlines difficulty in going undefeated in modern era

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – After the debacle, the stages of grief were personified in the Notre Dame locker room.

Louis Nix III was denial and anger.

"They did not dominate us," the Fighting Irish nose guard insisted, after Alabama had pummeled the Fighting Irish 42-14. "Go back and look at the film. … I think they did have the best offensive line in the country, but they did not dominate our line. We just missed tackles.

"I wasn't shocked at them. I was shocked at us, how we performed, on a national stage, biggest game of our lives."

Theo Riddick was depression.

The senior running back sat in front of his locker and sobbed. He wept so long that it seemed he would never stop. He cried into a towel. Then he put the towel over his head, rocking back and forth, still crying. Then he took the towel off and cried some more as coaches and teammates consoled him, before walking into the showers.

Finally, Mike Golic Jr. and Kapron Lewis-Moore were acceptance – and with

Read More »from Notre Dame's crushing BCS loss offers more proof Alabama and SEC reign supreme