Varnado is, dare I say, still underrated? At the very least, he's under-appreciated and underexposed. I got a few minutes on the phone with Varnado yesterday, and he was forthcoming about a few things and tight-lipped on a few others.

The last team to head back into the locker room as winners, the Bryant Bulldogs, finally rid themselves of A Season Popular for All the Wrong Reasons in Staten Island last night. Bryant got into the W column with its 53-51 over 4-24 Wagner. The Bulldogs won thanks to freshman Raphael Jordan sinking two free throws with .8 seconds remaining. I tracked down Bulldogs head coach Tim O'Shea, who gabbed ... Read More

Dana O'Neil has one of the most enviable gigs in the college sports-writing game. She covers the games from time to time, but she also gets to write 2,500-word feature stories that range from the quirky to the endearing to the heartbreaking to the inspirational. Met the former Philadelphia Daily News writer earlier this season, and she was kind enough to indulge the site for an interview. Among the topics ... Read More

Marqus Blakely, quite possibly — quite easily — could be more valuable to his team than any other player in the country. It’s no joke: the reigning two-time America East Player and Defensive Player of the Year leads Vermont in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals. Yeah, he’s the only one at any level of college basketball who is doing that. It’s kind of a big deal. He also ranks in ... Read More

Before I get going here, let me just say this: Seth Davis is a pretty funny guy, but television is a filter for a lot of the humor he tends to dish out. The first time I heard the word "fuck" come out of his mouth when talking to him, it was as if all I thought I knew about the man went out the window. But it didn't, really. ... Read More

I got a chance to meet Jeff at Madison Square Garden earlier this season. When I asked him if he'd be willing to do an interview via e-mail, he gave me his card and insisted I call him and do it over the phone instead. I spoke with him on the phone Friday about his unusual path to FOXSports.com, his favorite coaches in the game, some of his fellow colleagues ... Read More

Part two of CHJ's interview with Sean McManus focuses more on the college basketball and general sports-covering realm of his job. He opens up about Billy Packer, the choice of Clark Kellogg and his worries about ESPN's ambition to perhaps steal some early-round games away from CBS. (You can read part one here.) During the tournament, are you the one who is making the decisions and saying, for instance, 'OK, let's ... Read More

It's entirely possible you don't know much about Sean McManus. But the son of Jim McKay (yes, that one) was kind enough to give me an hour out of his ridiculously busy schedule.  McManus is in charge of CBS News and CBS Sports. The only other person to hold two such positions at once? Roone Arlidge. The interview was so long, I figured it would better suit the reader to ... Read More

I had the great pleasure and opportunity to interview, in person, one of the most well-known and polarizing sports columnists of this era last week. The man so many of you love to hate talks about how he started in the business by accidentally landing a piece on the front page of the Boston Globe, what he feels about the Internet and blogs, gives thoughts on his detractors and, of ... Read More

Kevin Duffy is the sports editor for the UConn newspaper, The Daily Campus. Duffy has been traveling with the team all season, so CHJ asked him about the team, its chances to win it all, how bad it was out in Glendale and if Jim Calhoun is debating retirement after this season. He also mentions how he was too inhibited to talk to Rick Reilly. C'mon! What was Glendale like? Specifically, ... Read More

The argument can be made that no media person is as synonymous with any sport in the country as Dick Vitale is with college basketball. Some people love his genuine enthusiasm; others think he's too bombastic, over the top and annoying. One thing's for certain: he takes nothing for granted. Vitale went out of his way to ask me if I'd like to have a few minutes for an interview. ... Read More

I'm proud to bring you, I believe, the first Q&A with Digger in blogosphere history. Digger, who is the definition of orotund in person, was terrific. In fact, 90 percent of the stuff we talked about, unfortunately, isn't repeatable. Here's what is, and some of it is longwinded, but worth it. Enjoy. Dick Vitale: Ask him why he never scheduled me when I was at Detroit! Ask him that! Digger Phelps: ... Read More

Note: ESPN allowed me into its hub with its college basketball analysts under the agreement that everything said in the room was off the record. Anything with quotes attached to it was cleared by said parties. I will have separate Q&A's with Digger Phelps and Dick Vitale going up Monday morning. The campus in Bristol is wide-ranging, ever-expanding and on extreme lockdown for anyone without proper ID; when attempting to leave ... Read More

It was a pleasure to meet Seth recently, and he agreed to do a Q&A with this site regarding his book, which is out now, When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball. You can buy the book here. It took awhile to get this interview all hashed out, but I want to thank Seth for taking the time to answer all of my questions (and there are a ... Read More

Received an e-mail from Laimbeer's people last week, and they gave me the opportunity to interview him. Growing up as a Chicago Bulls fan, this was an interesting proposition; but of course I jumped at it. And like many sports interviews around big sporting events, there is the ever-present plug. Laimbeer is sponsoring Coke Zero, who, with tastethemadness.com, is having a contest to see which fan or group of fans can ... Read More

One of the most exciting storylines in all of sports in the past five years is arguably Davidson baskeball. Michael Kruse knew that and ran with it. Kruse recently wrote a book about Davidson entitled "Taking the Shot: The Davidson Basketball Moment." You can purchase his book here. The first question is the obvious one: What's the book about? The book is about what I call the Davidson basketball moment, the last ... Read More