Coconuts. Palm trees. Hardwood bragging rights. An old whaling village that once served as the playground for Hawaiian royalty now serves as the table-setting territory of college basketball. Fitting: some of the game’s most-storied schools annually test their early-season mettle in a ...

Basketball is combat. You have to attack your man on both ends of the floor. That means pushing the ball on offense, taking it to the hole, being willing to draw contact and then fight through it to finish. It means attacking on defense. Getting position and maintaining that position. ...