Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The mid-week repor(t) - 10 days to tip-off

Yes, basketball fans we are just 10 days away from the first televised exhibition games which according to my calculations are home games for Arizona with Enforcer Kevin O'Neill and Kentucky with Billy Clyde Glyde Gillispie.

Wow, where did the time go? It was only yesterday that we crowned the Florida Gators as back to back national champions and Billy The Diva Donovan was having the time of his life toying with the Orlando Tragic. And now here we are, at the dawn of the 2007-2008 season.

Okay, enough of the silliness, let's see what's really happening :)


The Kentucky Files
There is so much good stuff on Kentucky, it got its own segment!

  • The Wildcats Thunder blog goes inside Billy Gillispie's practices. Read on to find out more!
  • Also at the Wildcats Thunder blog and message boards we find a great homage to Pistol Pete Maravich as they take a trip down memory lane and revisit the 1970 LSU vs Kentucky game. A must read!
  • Meanwhile at A Sea of Blue there is talk of a new arena in Lexington to replace Rupp Arena.
  • Also at A Sea of Blue, an exclusive picture of the latest recruit to sign with Kentucky ;-)


    The Blogger's Poll Top 25 Files
  • Here we find posts from the bloggers participating in the new Blogger's Top 25 poll.
  • March To Madness compares and contrasts the Blogger's top 25 poll with the CSTV Top 25 poll. they also have an update on SDSU and the SoCal fires.
  • The SEC Player of the Year is predicted-crowned by SEC Hoops TGTBTD.
  • College Hoops Heaven is touring the top six Philly D1 basketball colleges. Read on to get an inside look at Penn, Drexel and Temple. And stay tuned for MartelliVille, Nova and LaRaftery.
  • Keep your browsers pointed to March Madness All Season as they will be coming back with lots of updates from the Big East Media Day. Meanwhile their critically acclaimed online season preview continues with the Mountain West, the wacky WAC, the Gonzaga Coast Conference, the Horizon and the Small West.
  • The conference previews continue to fly at Rush the Court. Latest previews include the Patriot League which includes Bill Self's favorite team, the Ivy League, the MAAC (not to be confused with the MAC, the MAAAAAC and the MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC) and more!
  • I'm glad I'm not the only one reviewing college basketball preseason magazines! Rush the Court is dissecting them as well! Check out their reviews of Athlon, Lindy's and Street and Smith (now aka The Sporting News). And I'm not the only one taking Street and Smith to task for ruining the excellent Sporting News format! Bring back the original Sporting News please! :)
  • A round-up of the latest happenings at Rush the Court.
  • More reviews have been published at Storming the Floor including Oregon, Puke, Texas, USC, Kansas State and more
  • Rivalry talk at APIAS.


    The Blogosphere Files
  • More on the Big East media days from Marquette basketball blog Cracked Sidewalks. Marquette fans, the media guides are available now.
  • Former Martelli guard Abdulai Jalloh (not the next Jameer Nelson), now at James Madison is the topic of the latest CAA Hoops blog post.
  • Mid-majors only at the Mid Majority Report
  • The Sports Flow talks about tribal nicknames, mascots and logos.
  • Truth About Duke discusses Coach K's hair and a Duke preview at SI.
  • Mookie Jones and Syracuse at Nick's 2 Cents.
  • Rivarly t-shirts of the late night talk show variety at Making the Dance.
  • A picture from a Gonzaga practice has been posted at LaRev. See if you can spot Mark Few :)


    The Goodman Files
  • It was Big East media smedia days and Goodman's blog has the preseason poll. There are so many teams in the Big East we needed a Ritalin to finish it off ;-) Don't look now but two of the top three teams came from Conference USA.
  • The winds of change are blowing at Illinois as Goodman reports on Bruce Weber's new found recruiting success. Mr Weber, tear down this recruiting wall!
  • The Nevada Foxes are spotlighted in this columned. Sorry Wolf pack fans but when you are wolves and your coach is a fox, we are allowed to make all the bad buns we like :) Also there Georgia Tech recliches Clinch, while Virginia really clinches a big man away from the two Jims of the Big East. Also there we have a replacement for Hank Nichols as the Chief Zebra (read his column to find out who), and more games for the preseason NIT starting in 2008.
  • More Goodman as he looks at the recruiting success of Thad Matta, and the latest in the world of Flan and Bucknell. Also updates on the Oklahoma Sooners and the Bonnies of the A-14. Meanwhile Rhode Island had to go to ...Orion, and another Gilchrist at Maryland. This concludes the Goodman Files.


    The DeCourcy Files
  • In his signature Inside Dish column DeCourcy talks about Greg Monroe committing to Georgetown (JT3's Patrick Ewing?), Kevin the Enforcer O'Neill is having an impact on the Arizona Meerkats of the last few years, West Virginia under Huggins, John Riek's ranking and skillz, Dwayne Curtis and more.
  • A two headed monster at Notre Dame. The one who 420s the most wins the starting job? ;-)
  • USC will be showcasing the new Galen Center and of course OJ Mayo. But don't count out Devon Jefferson as he may be the one that puts the team in the Final Four.
  • More on OJ Mayo from DeCourcy.


    The Big Media Files
  • Calhoun writes again! His new book A Passion to Lead is out now, co-authored with Richard Ernsberger, and selling for around $16.50 at Amazon right now as a hardcover. Not to be confused with his 1999 book >Dare to Dream which he wrote after the UConn Huskies won the national championship.
  • Over at MSNBC, they have a cheat sheet for the upcoming season, prepared by Mike DeCourcy.
  • Gary Parrish looks at the great expectations in the Big East and profiles the young but talented Thatta team (Thad Matta = Thatta).
  • College football fans, John Clay's blog has a detailed tv scheduled published for this week!
  • Xavier is profiled by CBS Sportsline. As you may recall Xavier lost to Ohio State in the NCAAs in a very dramatic fashion, and just a couple of years before that, when coaches by Thad Matta the Xavier X-men just barely lost to the Dookies, the Zebras in the Elite 8.
  • Also from Sportsline, diversity is encouraged. But can they take it a step further than just "encouraging"?
  • Not good for Pitt fans as one of their incoming wings has not been ruled eligible and he is taking the JuCo route (Sportsline).
  • Things for rosier for BYU head coach David Rose as he was given a contract extension through 2011 (TSN).
  • More details on the new preseason NIT format for 2008-2009 and beyond (TSN).


    The NCAA Hoops Today Files
  • Don't miss out on recruiting round-ups at our sister blog Recruiting Wars.
  • I have posted the first weekly TV schedule of the 2007-2008 season. Included are two exhibition games, and new season previews from CSTV, regional FSN, Versus and more.
  • Don't want to harm trees or open your wallet and get the preseason basketball magazines? Then head over to our gigantic 2007-2008 season preview with links.
  • Can't decide how to record your favorite games for the upcoming season? A TiVo? Your trusty VCR? A DVD recorder? A cable or satellite DVR? The Betamax from the basement? Here are some ideas.
  • Meanwhile a close race has been brewing in our 2007-2008 preseason #1 poll, located at the top of the right column. Currently North Carolina has a very small lead over the Calipari Tigers, while UCLA and Kansas are battling it out again for the #3 spot.

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