Community Picks: Arkansas LR 0% vs Purdue 0%

Play Tourney Pick'em  |  Fill out your bracket   |  Print it   |  Celebrity Challenge DENVER, Colo – Arkansas-Little Rock coach Chris Beard coached for the better part of a decade under Bob Knight at Texas Tech and he learned a lot about the game and what it takes to build a successful team in those years. Knight, who is famous for throwing a chair across the court during one of his epic tantrums at Indiana, once told Beard never to throw chairs. Beard remembered that advice last week at halftime during the Sun Belt Conference championship game against Louisiana-Monroe. He wasn’t pleased with his players and wanted to send a message. So instead of throwing a chair in the locker room, he decided to punch a dry erase board. He broke his right hand.   He walked into the Pepsi Center in Denver on Wednesday morning with the hand bandaged, having led his team to this first and second-round site in the NCAA tournament in his first year as a coach, in part, because of moments like that halftime talk he had in the championship game. But the Trojans also are here because Beard is all about living now, enjoying now, winning now. [ Yahoo Tourney Pick’em is open. Sign up now and play for $50K ] “I mean, he puts everything he has into what we're doing,” senior Josh Hagins said.   “When he first got the job, we talked to him immediately after the press conference and he talked about not rebuilding, doing anything for the future.  He talked about winning right now.  That's why we stayed and put our trust in him. Chris Beard is a fantastic coach and we all love him.” The thing is, there was plenty of rebuilding to do when Beard took over last spring. He inherited a depleted roster and ended up adding 10 new players to the team, joining seven players who remained from last season. Less than a year after being introduced as coach, he not only has guided that group to the NCAA tournament, but the Trojans are a popular upset pick in the 12-5 seed matchup against Purdue in the Midwest Regional. Continue to Article

March 16, 2016 5:27:pm EST

For two seasons, A.J. Hammons was content at Purdue. Believing he was a short-time college player who could make a quick jump to the NBA, Hammons got stuck in his own world and so did the Boilermakers. Nobody doubted the 7-foot, 250-pound center had the size or skills to become a major piece in Purdue's puzzle. Continue to Article

March 15, 2016 3:28:pm EST