Hoops Withdrawl Wednesday!

Send it in Jerome! If you have Fox College Sports, you can watch/record the classic game with the world-famous Jerome Lane dunk that launched a thousand Bill Raftery careers :) Fox College Sports will be airing it as part of the aptly-named series "Pitt Classics" that showcases classic Pittsburgh games. This is a two-hour edit of the game. Airtimes:

Thursday April 5, 630amPT/930amET

Friday April 6, 1130amPT/230pmET

Monday-going-to-Tuesday April 16-to-17, 30 minutes after midnight

The game was played in 1988, and it was against Providence

Send it in Jerome! Send it in!


Billy Packer gets in trouble for saying "fag out" during an interview with PBS's Charlie Rose. This is really much-ado-about-nothing since there was no homophobic intend in that context, but it doesn't help with the stereotype of athletes/coaches/analysts/sports-fans/etc being homophobic, sexually objectifying women, uneducated, uncivilized, beer-guzzling simpletons, etc, etc, etc. Charlie Rose himself was laughing after he said it. But things like that sometimes tend to take a life of their own, especially if the person who said it looks like an interesting story or target...

It's ironic that Billy Packer, who indirectly criticizes people like Dick Vitale for turning college hoops into a circus, actually used such a term on PBS. Granted PBS ratings are much lower than CBS, but people still watch it!

The AOL Sports Blog thinks that this may give the Packer-haters a reason to start a campaign to get him fired. Not just Packer-haters, but "Desperate Basketball Analysts" as well, the people who think they have a shot to replace him. There are calls to suspend/fire him already from Jay Mariotti, while a Deadspin.com writer likened this to getting a mafia guy behind bars for tax evasion.

Here is an innovative penalty suggestion (in the spirit of the Aaron Brooks suspension when he punched Ryan Appleby in the Pac-10 tourney last year): How about Billy Packer changes his name to Billy Fudge-Packer for the next calendar year including the NCAA Tourney and Jim Nantz has to call him that every time he says "Billy" during a broadcast? :-)

But wait there's more! Jim Rome's mocking of soccer and soccer fans is well-known. And who can blame him? Ninety minutes and a 0-0 score! So ESPN soccer analyst Eric Wynalda posted on his blog "Jim Rome can suck ** d***", and threatened to get (more) drunk and club Jim Rome. Did someone say that athletes/sports-fans have to worry about being stereotyped as uncivilized, uneducated, beer-guzzling simpletons?... Oh, and getting drunk during an interview is probably not a good idea.

A transcript of the chat is here.

Make sure you listen to the Jungle (Jim Rome's radio show) tomorrow as there will be plenty of entertaining reaction from the "clones" (regular die-hard fans of the Jim Rome show). Jim Rome radio show affiliates. It airs daily from 9am to noon pacific time (noon to 3pm eastern time).

And of course any mention of Jim Rome and a fight brings up the "Chris Everett incident" at sportscolumn.com (YouTube link at the end of that story).

Okay, enough with the commentators/analysts, back to basketball...



2007 WNBA Draft: Duke's Lindsey Harding was picked as the #1 pick, while Ohio State's Jessica Davenport was picked #2... In an interesting twist, both of them ended up getting traded on draft day...

John Calipari on Jim Rome Is Burning
Calipari is always an entertaining interview. Here's a quick recap of the in-studio Jim Rome interview:

"a little bit disappointed on the (Memphis) season"

On Donovan/Kentucky/NBA: "Jeremy Foley may be the best AD", "money won't be an issue in Donovan's case", "none of the other coaching candidates have been at Kentucky, unlike Billy Donovan", "you are not getting 50-wins out of a 30-win team in the NBA", "must be very thick skinned", "tough on the family"

On Arkansas: "we ended up talking about candidates", "I can't believe people are turning down that job!" [a back-handed compliment?]

On internet/message boards/chat rooms: "They can take your picture on cellphone and post it within seconds". But he acknowledged that is part of the job (and partially explains the high salaries).

Kentucky Coaching Idol.

Pat Forde on Plan B candidates (@ Cold Pizza): Rick Barnes, Billy Gillespie, Thad Matta (longshot at leaving), and Tom Crean

Dozens of stories and links from today (!) at the following KY basketball sites:

WLKY story that the Memphis Vancouver Grizzlies of the NBA have offered Billy Donovan around $5.5 million per year for their head coaching job. But they are the worse team in the NBA right now record-wise. College coaches have not been particularly successful on the court when taking over really bad NBA teams. But it has helped their bank accounts and helped them improve as returning college coaches (at least in some instances).

14 story links at John Clay

Opinions and story-links at A Sea of Blue

10 story links at Aaron's UK!

Stories, links and a pop-culture twist on the whole situation at Kentucky Sports Radio



One Shining Moment, the song, along with tourney highlights are available at iTunes.com! Also you can (re)watch NCAA games for free at ncaasports.com/mmod

Google Alerts! If you want, you can now create Google Alerts for this blog (or any website), so you will be notified by email when a topic of interest is posted. This is an example of a Google alert that will notify you when NBA draft topics are posted. Simply change the "Search Terms" for a topic of your interest.


Recruiting

Details on the 2007 Nike Hoop Summit all-star game. It will be played on Saturday April 7, and air live on some regional FSNs and Fox College Sports, with multiple repeats. Check the link for details.

A shoe camp that stresses fundamentals? Really? Details at Recruiting Wars


2007 NBA Draft

Colorado State's seven footer Jason Smith declares but will not sign with an agent. Draft coverage here


Coaching Carousel

Crazy Skip Bayless suggests that Arkansas should go after Pat Summitt. He says Frank Boyles was bold enough to hire Richardson in 1985, so why not Pat Summitt? Well, except of course, why would Pat Summitt want to leave her current job where she is the John Wooden of women's hoops?

Following the Skip Bayless logic then, Pokey Chapman may be the best available coach and her troubles at LSU makes her a "safe" hire since she would be coaching a men's team. So perhaps Arkansas should hire her? ;-)

Yes Bob Huggins has ties to West Virginia. Yes, West Virginia is looking for a coach (unless Beilein makes a b-line back to Morgantown in the next 48 hours). Yes, this would make a lot of sense last year when Huggins was looking for a job. But sorry to disappoint West Virginia fans but Huggins is not going anywhere. Kansas State put their faith and their program in his hands when everyone was bashing Huggins. And on a practical level, he has Billy Walker and Michael Beasley is coming for 2007-2008, along with a few other solid recruits. Huggins is not going anywhere...

Former Syracuse great and Seton Hall head coach Louis Orr is rumored to be taking over Bowling Green vacated by the firing of Dan Dakich (who had his own job-change change of mind a few years ago).

Keith Richard was fired but the Rolling Stones are not looking for a new guitarist. Why? Because we are talking about Louisiana Tech's basketball coach Keith Richard who was fired (Yahoo Sports).

Jeff Bizdelik borrowed a page from the Mike Montgomery playbook: Change jobs, but stay close to home. He has agreeded to a five-year $750K per year contract with Colorado (Yahoo Sports). It will be interesting to see whether Jeff Bzdelik brings the Princeton-inspired Air Force style offense with him, or goes back to his NBA style, or tries something in between... Colorado paid just over a quarter million to buyout his contract.

Which one of the recently hired coaches is going to change his mind next? Probably no one else, it seems that we only get about one pear year, but if I had to guess/predict, I have a candidate: How about John Beilein?... He is getting a six-year, $1.3 million per contract (Yahoo Sports). He [allegedly] took the job without visiting Ann Arbor first just like he did with WVU/Morgantown... The buyout issue is an interesting one here, as it seems Michigan is not going to pay it (maybe Borders Bookstores can send WVU gift cards in that amount?), so Beilein will either have to work it out with WVU or probably pay it out of his own pocket... Well, don't feel sad for him, $1.3 million - $0.5 million per year, still leaves him with $800,000 per year for the next five years of the buyout. So, no, please don't send him coupons, food stamps and gift cards :-) He is fine... It will be interesting to see however how he adjusts his two-guard offense in the Big 11, where scoring is strictly prohibited. The most promising game (as far as style of play) will probably be against Ohio State who is not afraid to run and gun.. Although, to be fair, the Big East has its share of slugfests.

A snapshot/recap of the spring edition of the Coaching Carousel is right here.



The 2007-2008 season!

Andy Katz takes a stab at the 2007-2008 season as well, also making assumption about who goes to the NBA and who stays. Gonzaga fans will be thrilled that their team is picked #15 (everyone else: surprised). ESPN would lose its official Duke homer status so they had to squeeze the dookies in, at #23, even without Josh "Cry in a towel" Mechanical McRoberts. Florida is not in the Top 25 because the assumption is that they bolt for the NBA.

Bryan Graham of CSTV looks ahead to the 2007-2008 college basketball season. He looks so far ahead that he actually has the list of 65 teams that make the NCAA tourney and crowns the next NCAA champion even. He predicts two SoCals in the Final Four... Keep in mind his predictions are based on assumptions he makes about who goes to the NBA and who stays.


Transferology

The new trend in the state of Indiana is to transfer? Xavier Keeling will transfer, while Arizonan Joey Shaw is also thinking about it according to ESPN.com. On a totally unrelated note that scholarship is going to be given to JuCo big man DeAndre Thomas. How many hundred calls did it take Kelvin Sampson to pull this one off? :-)

Two transfer out of Purdue (Yahoo Sports). Chris Lutz leaving is a bit of surprise since he was doing rather well, including a 16-pointer in the NCAA tourney. Lutz cited being homesick (New Hampshire). He has two years remaining after he sits out 2007-08, so expect the New England schools to go after him... On a totally unrelated note Purdue has one of the top 5 recruiting classes in 2007 and playing time will have to be earned in practice by all returning players...

Usually players transfer for playing time, and coaches "encourage" transfers because they found (or hope to find) better recruit(s) and want to free up scholarship(s). But they won't admit to it!


Tax Day is coming! Postponing your taxes because of the NCAA Tourney? Now it's the time to get the tax software and get it done! Purchasing from the links below supports this blog :)