Freeze it!
>> Thursday
The best thing about preseason polls is how terrible some of the initial rankings look come the end of the season. With that in mind, let's hang onto this.
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Showing posts with label college basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college basketball. Show all posts
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Shameless Plug to My First Installment of NCAA Tournament Projections
>> Tuesday
Yes, it is ridiculously early to try and project the NCAA Tournament. However, it seems like everyone else has started to take at the early shape of the NCAA Tournament field, so I figured why not fool all the cool kids and take my first look of the season. To further the shameless plug, I will be updating these projections weekly for the Sports Bubbler to go along with my semi-weekly column on all things Marquette, Wisconsin sports, and the national sports scene in general.
Editor's Note (Bracket Projection was through games of 1/12 and did not take into account the past three days of games).
Go Midshipmen!
>> Friday
Looking today at the AP Top 25 College Hoops poll, and I don't know, something struck me a little funny...
Who the fuck voted for Navy?
YCS Fashion Critique
>> Thursday
When you look up the world douchebag in the dictionary, you fill find this as one of its definitions:
adj. Someone who wears loafers without socks
I give you the new Indiana coach there on the far right. As they say, if the loafers fit (no word on whether or not they was a light feeling with them). Ugly shirt too, douce.
Taps for Salukis
>> Friday
With tonight's loss to Northern Iowa in MVC tourney, Southern Illinois's impressive streak of seven straight trips to the NCAA Tournament has likely come to an end. While they boost impressive wins over Mississippi State, Drake and St. Mary's, their now six losses including tonight to teams outside the top 100 has likely relegated them to the NIT or CBI.
However, I look for their NCAA tourney streak to resume next season with the arrival of an excellent recruiting class led by top 100 forward Anthony Booker and the return of heady point guard Bryan Mullins.
Selection Sunday Primer
>> Tuesday
With the NCAA Tournament approaching and few words of motivation from my fellow YCS staffers, I am making my long anticipated return here. Of course, it would be favorite conspiracy theory subject: cronyism on the NCAA Tournament selection committee. When looking to see which bubble teams make it and which have to settle for the NIT, here would the guide to see the teams that have a little something in their back pocket.
Kentucky, Florida, Ole Miss: SEC commissioner Mike Slive on the committee. While all three will probably not make it, I expect Slive to hardball for at least two of them, with the former two being the likely benefactors.
Kent State: Their AD Laing Kennedy should ensure the Golden Flashes an at large spot if they need one. Win the MAC tourney, and what should be an 11-12 seed will likely be a 9-10.
Ohio State: While most rational fans want to see as few Big Ten teams as possible, a win over Michigan State this weekend may wrap up a bid for the Buckeyes thanks to AD Gene Smith serving on the committee. The Big Ten always gets the benefit the doubt, and Smith will likely get the job done again.
VCU: Unlike Kent State, I have feeling that last year's Cinderella may need an at large, as they will struggle to get by a desperate and talented George Mason squad playing for their lives. As a parting gift season, 2007 committee chair, Virginia AD Craig Littlepage, saw his Cavs receive an incredibly undeserving four seed. This year's chair, George Mason AD Thomas O'Connor, could receive the parting gift of a Colonial team receiving an at large bid for the third straight season.
New Mexico, UNLV: After receiving the monumental gift of an at large spot for Air Force two years ago, the Falcons actually got snubbed last season. As a return favor, look for Utah AD Chris Hill to potentially get both of these teams in (along with an inflated seed for BYU).
Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon: UCLA AD Dan Guerrero got the job done in getting Stanford an undeserved berth last season, and I look for him to get at least two, if not all three of these teams in this time. In a perfect world, Oregon sweeps the Arizona schools this weekend to get to 9-9 in conference, with the Arizona schools taking care of business at Oregon State. Arizona's 8-10 conference record will be overcome by their top rated SOS.
Villanova: To make up for last seasons screwjob of Syracuse, the Big East may be given a favor in a spot for Villanova. UConn Ad Jeff Hathaway has likely been given his marching orders by Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, and eight needs to be enough for the mega league.
Of course, there have to be victims to suffer the potentially unfair consequences. Teams like St. Joseph's, UMass, Illinois State, Maryland, and Texas A&M could be the wrong end on the political spectrum here and be out of luck.
Grant Wahl Hates Atmosphere...and Puppies
>> Wednesday
While there certainly are a few who step over the line (Death threats to family members, and throwing stuff at people isn't cool, man), a lot of Wahl's "problems" really don't seem that bad, and the article is pockmarked with other various forms of blowing the issue out of proportion, using the actions of a stupid few to indict a passionate many, and generally just being an ass.
"While nobody has ever called (Oregon's) Pit Crew P.C. -- its members once printed a thousand copies of an embarrassing picture posted on Facebook of Stanford's Fred Washington at a party."
Comment 1: Oh no! What if his future employer was there!?!?
Comment 2: Isn't the proper measure here for Washington to not post embarassing pictures of himself on a website where he is searchable by name?
Wahl posts numerous references to homophobic chants and signs that I won't detail here. Obviously, just saying "You're gay" is pretty uncreative. However, Wahl's adherence to this point shows he has a short memory. "Fighting Irish" was initially applied to Notre Dame not as a creative mascot but as an anti-Catholic slur. Not just 100 years ago, but in the movie Knute Rockne All American: which was released in the 40s (Rockne is asked if hockey would be a good substitute for football at ND, to which Rockne replies "Notre Dame will never support a sport that puts a club in the hands of an Irishman").
In the 1970s, Georgia Tech fans littered the field with fish and barraged the Irish with similar anti-Catholic insults. While I really can't see any team adopting any such moniker in the future, Wahl is seemingly oblivious to the fact that derision of your opponent for whatever reason you see fit has long been a staple of organized sport.
When Illinois hosted Indiana on Feb. 7, the home fans took out their frustration on Hoosiers freshman guard Eric Gordon (who'd reneged on a verbal commitment to the Illini) by chanting "F--- you, Gordon,"
Scottish Comedian Billy Connolly (better known as the dad in Boondock Saints) has a great routine addressing this very thing. He says that swearing doesn't limit your vocabulary. He knows tons of words and still prefers "F***," and that he has yet to find an English equivalent for "F*** off!" "It isn't 'Go Away.' Go away now! Shoo!"
I can here the chants now. "Go Away Gordon! Go away!" He already did, you schmucks. That's why he's wearing Crimson instead of Orange.
"The abuse that fans are bringing day to day, whether it's on talk radio or in the stands, is going to ruin the game eventually," says Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. "I hate to say this because freedom of speech is at issue, but this isn't what freedom of speech is intended for."
Somewhere I remember hearing that the First Amendment wasn't being put in place for popular speech, but for unpopular speech. This kind of speech, as vile as you may sound it, is EXACTLY the kind of free speech that the first amendment is intended for.
It's been my understanding that the stadiums (especially those on state-run campuses) are public places. All over the world people use their stadiums to express what some people would call unpopular viewpoints. (FC Barcelona and The Old Firm in Europe come to mind).
Some of the same conditions that make college basketball so popular-an intimate atmosphere, passionate crowds, heated rivalries -- can also create a volatile situation when fans cross the line. But what is that line? When Duke's Cameron Crazies donned caps and gowns on Feb. 13 and held up signs reading MARYLAND BASKETBALL: FEAR THE CLASSROOM, was it a creative dig at their rival's ACC-lowest graduation rate or a boorish put-down?
Isn't the bigger problem here Maryland's low graduation rate? While we can all agree that very many basketball players are in college to play basketball and not to go to class or get anything resembling an education, I'm not letting Wahl off the hook here. Earlier in the article he criticizes students choice of words by stating that colleges are supposed to be beacons of enlightenment. It seems unfair to hold the students to one standard of education for their performance in the arena and the players to another.
And once an adrenaline-filled crowd gets going, it can be extremely hard to control. Even though Hoop Scoop -- the pamphlet circulated within Illinois's student section-encouraged members "to keep your composure and to refrain from vulgarity" when Indiana's Gordon took the floor, the students followed that directive for, oh, about 1.3 seconds before the anti-Gordon chants started. (It didn't help that the pamphlet devoted eight times as much space to rehashing every detail of Gordon's recruitment.)
OK, does Wahl (or anyone) for that matter think that these things actually work? He seems shocked that when the university boot-lickers said "Don't swear," people didn't comply.
But like so many Presidential candidates, Wahl points out a lot of problems but doesn't really offer any practicable solutions.
Strong responses from college officials and coaches are necessary to help control unruly crowds, Stan Love and Eric Gordon Sr. argue, pointing out that neither Oregon coach Ernie Kent nor Illinois coach Bruce Weber stepped in to address their vulgar fans on the P.A. systems.
Again. Pamphlets. See above.
According to Love and Gordon, none of the offending fans were ejected in either game. "They need a code of conduct,"
Again, it's a sporting event. You should expect this. Passions run high, and even if they didn't, it would be a free speech issue.
Perhaps it's no surprise that some players (including Hansbrough and Paulus) say they have stopped using Facebook altogether. Then again, fans may need to read only a newspaper or a website to find ammunition for taunts. aAfter Memphis's 79-78 last-second win at UAB, Tigers forward Robert Dozier is standing only a few feet from a female member of the Gang Green student section who's wearing an I DATED DOZIER T-shirt and an ersatz black eye-a reference to a complaint filed against Dozier for allegedly striking his girlfriend outside a nightclub.
Again, isn't the real problem here violence against women, not heckling fans? And last but not least, the stupidest pargraph of the article...
If there was one saving grace for the Loves, the Gordons and Memphis, it was this: Their teams overcame those unruly crowds and left victorious. Eric Gordon Sr. is convinced that was no coincidence. "They were so nasty, so hateful, such poor sports, that it all turned back around and we won the game," he says. "I think it's karma."
I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that those three teams (UCLA, Memphis, and Indiana) are a combined 73-8, and the three teams they faced in those games (UAB, Oregon, and Illinois) are a combined 45-37.
The bottom line is, this article was insulting. It took the actions of a stupid few to cast a blanket net over college basketball student sections, which, let's be honest, if I wanted basketball with less atmosphere, I'd watch the NBA.
There's enough sit-on-your-hands, wait till the Fan-o-meter or "Rock and Roll Part II" comes on to show any kind of indication on whether or not you care about the game in this country for people like Grant Wahl. Don't stamp out the only major sport in this country where you have genuine passion for the team and real atmosphere that makes a place consistently hostile to play in every night regardless of how well the team is doing. While threats to family members and racist taunts are not cool, people need to realize that no one actually intends to follow through on a threat. The scraggly kid from Centralia is going to climb over the railing and personally take out a trained professional athlete? Mountains out of molehills.
Young Whippersnappers II: My comment became a post
Like Nate, I'm a reformed "Kids should go to school" guy in a sports perspective, so I'm gonna agree with him, but for different reasons.
That being said, I'll bet a lot of TEAMS wish they had their draft picks back when they were afraid of missing out on the next Kevin Garnett. Jonathan Bender (Toronto, 5th pick in '99 Draft) and Kwame Brown (Washington, #1 in '00 Draft), I'm looking in your direction. I don't care about "role players" or "solid contributors" or "defensive specialists" in this discussion. If you use a top-5 or top 10 pick on a guy, he needs to be a player who can help your franchise more than 10 points a night.
I also think it's really duplicitous for the NBA to talk a big game about its players getting a college education now, while at the same time celebrating (and profiting off) players like LeBron, Kobe, McGrady, and Wade, none of whom have graduated from college, and only Wade went.
Really all that this "one-year" rule does is it disperses NBA teams' risk on a young prospect by giving them an extra year to watch them play against competition that doesn't involve 5'10" white guys and coaches' sons with bad shots who couldn't make it on the bench at a D-III school. If the NBA was really serious about wanting players to get an education, they'd require 4 years of college ball instead of one. The One-Year Freshman is really just a year-long pre-draft workout, but against teams like Duke, Georgetown, and Texas instead of teams like St. Luke's Academy and East Ridge High. It gives the GMs more insight into what kind of a player he would be before a top-5 draft pick is blown.
If you look at it through another lens, through the one-year-of-college rule, the NBA is keeping good players from freely working in jobs they're talented enough to do. In that respect the NBA is no different from any other profession which requires licenses for its members (Doctors, Attorneys, Pharmacists, Taxicab drivers, etc.). However, these industries differ from sports because there's not really the same public safety risk from a guy claiming to have knowledge and training in basketball and being unqualified that say...someone who claims to be a good heart surgeon . The stakes aren't as high. So if they can cut it, there's really no reason to keep them out. It can only make the NBA's talent pool deeper and better. So why not do it? I think you need to look at who would BENEFIT from new, young, talented players being left out of the league. In that case, I think you need to look at the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement and who has negotiating power.
This is something that I think falls completely at the feet of the Players' Union. They're the only people I can see who would benefit from keeping the hottest new prospect off the bench. Perhaps old vets hanging on by their fingernails for one last ride? During CBA negotiations, the players' union sits at the table and has negotiating power to ask for "one-year college requirements" that will never affect them because they're already in. High school prodigies can't negotiate. While that may sound cynical, I think we need to get away from the childish view of sports that it's just for "the good of the game," when especially in the United States, the leagues are mostly run by a cartel of owners who run the teams for their own profit or amusement. Why should we expect the players' union to be any different? A team taking a risk on a high school player is doing so with the expectation that they will be the future of their franchise, essentially saying that the old guard is out. Even if the new player is God-awful, it could be two or three years before their spot on the bench is cleared up, and for some vets, that's too long to wait.
If the fresh-outta high school players suck, they won't make it in the league, and teams that rely on them will be out wins and dollars. But if a player has the ability needed to succeed in the NBA at 18, then I say, by all means go for it. Requiring players to go to college does not allow a player to do the job he loves. However, on the other side of the coin, I think it's very rare for college basketball to HURT a player's development, both as an athlete and as a person. Could Dwyane Wade have made a splash in the NBA right out of high school instead of going to Marquette for 3 years? Maybe. But he might have been another late-90s high school draft washout. Tim Duncan certainly hasn't been any worse for the wear after 4 years at Wake.
In the end, the NBA owners and the players union negotiate the terms of the CBA, essentially setting policy for basketball in North America for their own benefit (be it another year or two of playing past your prime, or less risk on the next Garnett/Bender), while the newer players, who will be affected by this policy, don't have a say.
That's just my $.02.
Start Saving Money for Tickets, Roadtrips, and Booze
>> Wednesday
Because here comes the 2007-08 Marquette Basketball schedule
November 4- Northern State (Pre-Season)
Nov. 10- IUPUI
Nov. 12- Utah Valley State
Nov. 19- EA Sports Maui Invitational vs. Chaminade (D-II)
Nov. 20- EA Sports Maui invitational vs. LSU/Oklahoma State
Nov. 21- EA Sports Maui Invitational vs. Duke/Princeton/Illinois/Arizona State
Nov. 30- UW-Milwaukee
December 8- at Wisconsin
Dec. 15- Sacramento State
Dec. 17- IPFW
Dec. 21- Coppin State
Dec. 29- Savannah State
January 3- Providence
Jan. 5- at West Virginia
Jan. 8- Seton Hall
Jan. 12- Notre Dame
Jan. 17- at Louisville
Jan. 20- at Connecticut
Jan. 26- DePaul
Jan. 29- South Florida
February 2- at Cincinnati
Feb. 4- Louisville
Feb. 9- at Notre Dame
Feb. 12-at Seton Hall
Feb. 15- Pitt
Feb. 20- at St. John's
Feb. 23- Rutgers
Feb. 25- at Villanova
March 1- Georgetown
Mar. 4- Florida Gulf Coast
Mar. 8- at Syracuse
The highlights include...
- 18 Conference games, up from 16 last season
- The Wisconsin game being played at night for once.
- At least 12 appearances on National Television, making it easy for alums in say...St. Louis, MO to watch.
- Sadly, no rumored non-conference matchup with Saint Louis U, which is a shame because Marquette and new SLU Coach Rick Majerus go together like Rick Majerus and doughnuts.
- Home-and-homes with Seton Hall, Louisville, and Notre Dame, which should really stoke the flames of that Marquette-Seton Hall rivalry. It's just like Duke-Carolina, except with fans that don't care.
- A seemingly totally out-of-place March matchup with Florida Gulf Coast University, a school that is younger (founded 1991) than its players.
- The suspension and hopefully the eradication of the Blue and Gold Classic. MU says that Maine backed out of the event, but IUPUI and Florida Gulf Coast still wanted in. When Maine turns down the tournament, it's time to pull the plug on a tournament that in recent years even Marquette couldn't get up for (losses to Winthrop and North Dakota State).
- In-State games with UW-Milwaukee and Wisconsin on back-to-back weekends
- Thrilling matchups against BOTH Indiana University-Purdue University schools.
- Unless you really care if the all-time series between UWM and Marquette is 35-0 Marquette or 34-1 Marquette, there's really no reason to show up at the Bradley Center untill 2008.
Stop on by and see selected members from the YCS staff at most of these games. You won't recognize us, but that's OK, because odds are, we won't recognize you either.
Read more...College Three Point Line Moved Back
>> Friday
I wrote about this in more detail on my new basketball blog From Way Downtown. I strongly approve of this new rule, as it should greatly improve the quality of play in college basketball.
An excellent example of someone helped by eliminating the three point shot from his game would be the Bulls Luol Deng. Deng spent the last offseason working on his mid-range jumper, and watched his scoring average and field goal percentage take a big step up. A lot of players would be wise to follow Deng's example, with Marquette's own Wesley Matthews immediately coming to mind.
YCS Spin-off Showcase
>> Thursday
For all of the great fans of YCS, I encourage you to visit my new college basketball blog From Way Downtown. I plan on remaining a key contributor to the success of Yellow Chair Sports, but also want to focus time of covering my true passion, college basketball. Andy Katz and company, you have been put on notice.
Read more...Sigh of Relief, Job Well Done
As reported by Pat Forde of TWWL, it looks like Billy Gillispie will be the next head coach at Kentucky. If the deal gets wrapped up, it will be a tremendous hire by Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart. He's a tremendous X's and O's and excellent recruiter, bringing sought after recruits like Joseph Jones, Bryan Davis, Donald Sloan and DeAndre Jordan to Texas A&M. After taking over reeling programs at UTEP and Texas A&M, his teams have been in the NCAA Tournament three of the last four seasons, winning three games the last two seasons. Frankly, I think he was the X's and O's genius behind Bill Self, as it was after Gillispie's leaving Self's staff in 2003 that ole Slick Willy's game coaching was debated. After the way ESPN ragged on the program unfairly, I would root for Gillispie to get it done at Kentucky(I'm betting Pat and Vinnie never thought I'd be saying that). In a bold prediction, I think Gillispie's teams would outperform Florida and Billy Donovan once Gillispie got his guys in place.
Read more...Good for Dana Altman
>> Tuesday
Altman has decided to stay at Creighton after all, after verbally accepting the Arkansas job. Altman struggled during his time at Kansas State, leaving them for the Bluejays head gig. In Omaha, Altman has Creighton rolling, appearing in the NCAA Tournament seven of the last nine seasons. He had a top 20 team in 2003 that ran into the buzzsaw of Chris Kaman and Central Michigan in the first round. His Creighton teams won an NCAA Tournament game in 1999 and 2002, and were very competitive in closes losses the last two seasons. He has a top 100 recruit, P'Allen Stinett coming in next year.
Plus, here is Stan Heath's record that got him fired, and remember he inherited a huge mess after Nolan Richardson's nasty departure:
2003-9 wins
2004-12 wins
2005-18 wins
2006-22 wins
2007-21 wins
This season, he led Arkansas to the NCAA Tournament despite losing all three perimeter starters from a year ago. He would have had every key guy returning, with the potential to be a preseason top 20 team next season. Yet, that's not good enough for their retiring AD and some crazy fans. Arkansas deserves someone far worse than Altman.
Equal Opportunity Bashing
>> Sunday
Seriously, who the hell is Mike Freeman and how did he get a semi-repudable sports writing position? I'd criticize his drivel much more harshly, but it's 1:30 in the morning and I'm about 15 minutes from turning it in for the night
Read more...A Little Bit Late To the Party
>> Friday
Despite insistence otherwise from Andy Katz, Dick Vitale, Pat Forde and the 1 a.m. Sportscenter janitor, it looks like Billy Donovan will be considering taking the Kentucky job. What had been a common thought in the sports world outside of Bristol has finally made its way to the four letter network's area. Hell, this average joe predicted this would happen a week ago. I then researched the subject and found it indeed would happen four days ago. Funny, but I'd expect ESPN to be right on top of the search it were happening at North Carolina or Duke.
Read more...Good Call Andy
>> Tuesday
Here is a free sample of some fine insider information from ESPN.com college basketball analyst Andy Katz (It was in their free preview section, so I'm not violating any copyright laws):
First off, any report that said Donovan authorized his representative to negotiate with Kentucky is simply not true, according to sources close to Donovan, Florida and Kentucky. Donovan is focused on playing UCLA and nothing else right now.
A little bit naive there Andy. While ESPN has apparently taken an anti-Kentucky stance (their success must hit too close to home for the ACCSPN), printing these out and out lies is laughable. People who have followed ths situation closely know that it's Donovan's job for the taking, with it being very likely Donovan will be the next Kentucky coach. While Donovan may understandly be wanting to backpedal away from the rumors, a respected news organization should not be presenting what Donovan wants the people to know. Of course, it's ESPN we are talking about, so calling them a respected news organization would be a major stretch.
Now, there is one positive from subscribing to ESPN Insider: every so often their forced subscription to ESPN the Magazine provides quality bathroom reading material.
Bad Form
>> Monday
Apparently, word has leaked that Kentucky has offered Billy Donovan a monster contract. If a contract is offered in negotiations, that generally means a deal has already been verbally agreed upon.
While I have stated that I agree with Donovan making this move, you absolutely should not let these intentions be known while Florida has a Final Four game yet to play. Let your agent play games behind closed doors, but do not let these negotiations be known to the public. While Donovan's Dancing for the Stars audition in press conferences may have tipped off that something was going down, he still managed to mostly keep the focus on Florida. In the past, Roy Williams did a much better job of handling a similar situation. Keep the focus on your current team, and make your move when the time is right. Considering the way in which this search has gone down, I think Mitch Barnhart, Kentucky's AD, could have gladly waited a week for the actual contract to be offered. While this process works best at a brisk pace, I still feel that it's wrong when business comes ahead of the actual games being played, especially at the "amateur" level.
Read more...
Kentucky-An ELITE Job
>> Saturday
With the Tubby Smith sympathy being spread from coast to coast, it's high time to straighten many people out: he did not perform as an elite coach. Here are a few facts for Dick Vitale and company to chew on:
25 losses the last two seasons
0 Top 25 recruits the last three seasons
0 Final Fours with his own players
4 straight losses to Vanderbilt
6 straight losses to Florida
Simply put, Tubby Smith failed to have Kentucky competing at an elite level. With their history, facilities, and coaches salary, Kentucky is one of the top 2-3 programs, right with North Carolina and UCLA. The fans may be demanding, but considering their past success, they have every right to be. If you win like you should, they will strongly support you: see Pitino, Rick. Another newsflash: they will get an elite, highly successful coach to replace Tubby. Like Kansas with Bill Self, UCLA with Ben Howland and North Carolina with Roy Williams, I'd be highly surprised if Billy Donovan, their first choice, is not leading Big Blue Nation in two weeks.
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