Roundball chatter

Each week, I'll write about the sport I love: college basketball.

The top two all-time most winning programs will face off on January 30, 2016. Kentucky is at Kansas in the marquee match-up of the Big 12/SEC Challenge. My friends, these two schools have combined for more than 4,300 victories. There should be excitement galore at Allen Field House for that one. Other interesting showdowns as part of the event include Oklahoma-LSU and Iowa State-Texas A&M. It was a great move to make the whole series of games on one day, adding clarity.

Connecticut got some big news when former Seton Hall guard Sterling Gibbs announced that he will be transferring to play for the Huskies. The scoring guard will be eligible next season and joins Cornell's Shonn Miller as veteran transfers that will make an impact for coach Kevin Ollie.

Prayers go out to the family, friends and fans of former North Carolina head coach Bill Guthridge, who passed way recently. May Bill RIP.

I was thrilled to hear that Lynette Woodard, the first female to play for the Harlem Globetrotters, and Bill Raftery, who recently called his first NCAA Men's Final Four as part of the CBS/Turner Sports broadcast team, were selected as the winners of the 2015 Naismith Outstanding Contributor to Men's and Women's Basketball award.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced that Massachusetts will face Mississippi in the 2015 Holiday Showcase game at the MassMutual Center in Springfield on Saturday, December 5th. This will mark the first-ever meeting between the two schools. I love it, Mass. vs. Miss.

Thanks to the college basketball community for supporting the 10th annual Dickie V gala. We raised a record $2.38 million for kids battling cancer. Thanks to honoree Jim Boeheim and the Syracuse contingent of former players (including Derrick Coleman, Billy Owens, Adrian Autry, Louis Orr, John Wallace, Lawrence Moten, Gerry McNamara and Mike Hopkins), Kentucky coach John Calipari, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, Mississippi State coach Ben Howland, ESPN announcers Rich Hollenberg and Tim Welsh, former college stars Kenny Anderson and Mateen Cleaves. It was such a special evening.