Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The Big Ten to become the Big Twelve???
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Labels: conference realignment
Monday, July 30, 2007
Monday Night Hoops
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July 23 to early August weekly TV Guide (title corrected)
College Basketball Game Repeats
Documentaries and more
NBA Summer League
Movies Movies Movies
Directly from the Source


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Sunday, July 29, 2007
Random Thoughts on 2007-2008: ex-Dookies and the Arizona Wildcats
What was that something missing? Perhaps an enforcer on the coaching staff? "Roz" was Lute's deputy and friend for many many many years, but the team needed to shake things up. Clearly he didn't want to lose the two young and promising assistants (Miles Simon and Josh Pastner), so a new deputy was in order. (Although Pastner did flirt with the possibility of joining another well connected in Texas coach, Billy Gillispie at Kentucky, more on that later). And with that comes something that could go either way for the Wildcats: Kevin O'Neill, the enforcer is back. O'Neill is known among insiders, (and they are not shy about saying it in public) that he has an absravise type of personality. He is not the type you sent as a peace envoy to help negotiate a cease-fire. The idea of course is that he could inject toughness and intensity to the team, and emphasize defense. It was no secret that the teams of the last few years were having defensive lapses. The patented Arizona runs on offense (often sparked by their defense) became rarer and their defensive breakdowns increased (eg at Virginia at the grand opening of the John Paul Jones arena).
Part of the reason may have been the recruiting of the "Moody Blues". A number of players from the last few years were more "moody" than the average player. The list is long: Shakur, Chris Rodgers, Hassan Adams, Kirk Waters, Salim Stoudamire.
Part of the reason last year however may point to the Silver Fox himself. And you can't blame him too much, but he is the Silver Fox. He should have known better. He fell in love with the "Princeton on Ice" style of play, five versatile players that could pass, shoot and score. They played like Princeton but on fast-forward. They had some exciting games, playing basketball the way it should be played. But that had side-effects: He shortened his line-up to a point where those five were playing almost all of the minutes. This I believe wore them down both mentally and physically and took the rest of the players out of the rotation, both mentally and physically. By the time Lute tried to adjust, it was too late...
So what happens in 2007-2008? The Moody Blues were supposed to be gone, but Kirk Walters got an extra year of eligibility. Marcus Williams went to the NBA based on potential but he wasn't physically ready for it. Shakur and Radenovic exhausted their eligibility and they are gone. So what does the line-up look like? That question will depend on the philosophy that defines this season. If Kevin O'Neill has his way, it will be defense first. This could bode well playing-time wise for Daniel Dillon, Bret Brielmaier and physically strong Fendi Onobun. So who is the new point guard? There's Nic Wise who got little PT last year, there's Daniel Dillon who was a defensive sub last year, and there's incoming scoring freshman Jerryd Bayless. There's also Brandon Jennings but that's for 2008-2009. On the wings there's Jawann McClelland and Chase Budinger along with freshman Jamelle Horne who will get PT since he is only the 3rd wing in the rotation. Upfront you got Jordan Hill and everyone else. If Jordan Hill can play the "4", this will allow more PT for the other centers: the returning Kirk Waters, rebounding Mohammed Tangara and incoming SoCal Alex Jacobsen. Also vying for playing time will be Brielmaier, Fendi Onobun and freshman Zane Johnson.
But perhaps what happens at the 2nd big man position will be determined by the point guard. Why? Anyone, even a defensive minded coach like O'Neill can't possibly not start McClelland and Budinger. If Dillon becomes the starting point guard, you need a 3rd scorer, so you probably have to pick the best offensive big man to play along Jordan Hill. Unless Jordan Hill becomes the 3rd scorer of course. However if Bayless becomes the point guard, this give them the luxury of having a defense-first big man. Brielmaier could become a poor man's Ivan Radenovic on offense (passing wise). Tangara could have an impact on the boards and with blocking, assuming he is ready to go health-wise (I don't know what's his status). However, what could make things interesting and return them to the glory days of the feared Arizona runs of the past is this Kevin O'Neill influenced line-up: Bayless and Dillon on the backcourt, either McClelland or Budinger on the wing, and Jordan Hill along with another defensive-minded big man. Bayless allows them to play Dillon at the same time because he can score. This establishes that defense is first and foremost, defense matters. Etc, etc. Then the first substitution brings in Budinger or McClelland for an instant offensive spark. This of course goes against conventional wisdom but perhaps that's what's needed to shake things up at Arizona. The more conventional approach would be to start the two scorers on the wing, Jordan Hill of course, and Kirk Walters, being a 10 year senior. If defense really really matters in this scenario, this would allow Dillon to start at the point.
So what will the Kevin O'Neill era bring to Arizona? One could perhaps point at Pastner's interview at Kentucky as one of the first ripples created by his arrival.
ps1> I hope this doesn't offend Arizona fans too much :)
ps2> I consider proof-reading a luxury :)
ps3> 2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!
ps4> Lute Olson's 2006 book "The Seasons of my Life" is now at the geat price of $5 (hardcover)
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Labels: 2007-2008 season
Friday, July 27, 2007
Remembering Skip Prosser
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Thursday, July 26, 2007
Background checks on the zebras

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Farewell Skip Prosser
Sad news today, Wake Forest men's basketball coach Skip Prosser apparently died today from a heart attack :( Skip Prosser was a positive and upbeat guy, he had success at Wake Forest despite being in the shadow of North Carolina, Duke and NC State, where he recruited Chris Paul among many other quality players, on and off the court. Just a few days ago Wake signed two highly touted 2008 players, so things were looking pretty good for Skip. Unfortunately life is unpredictable, we are all day to day...
More on this at Fox Sports, A Sea of blue, CBS Sportsline, DeCourcy, ACC BasketBlog, CSTV, Rivals, scout.com . Doug Gottleib talked about Skip Prosser on ESPN News just a few minutes ago. A biography of Skip at CSTV's Wake Forest site. Skip's basketball camp website.
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Wednesday, July 25, 2007
AASAA (and it's not a bad word)
"He took two consensus top high school players in the country, Randolph and McRoberts, and turned them into nobodies in a few years"
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11:34 AM
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Labels: AASAA, Coaching Carousel
Book Rivalry: Wes Miller vs Dane Bradshaw
If Dane Bradshaw of Tennessee can write a book, so can Wes Miller of North Carolina! We have our first book rivarly of the pre-season. And they have something in common: They were both coached by North Carolina guys: Buzz Peterson, Matt Doherty and Roy Williams.
Wes Miller's book Road to Blue Heaven: An Insider's Diary of North Carolina's 2007 Basketball Season. The book is 256 pages long, by Pegasus books, currently available for pre-order at $16.32, with a September estimate for release. Amazon does have a pre-order price-guarantee so you can get the lowest price when it ships. The book is edited by Adam Lucas, a Chapel Hill resident who wrote four UNC hoops books.
Dane Bradshaw 's book is titled "Vertical Leap: Inside the rise of Tennessee basketball", with a foreword by Bruce Pearl. The start of Bruce Pearl era at Tennessee is now on paper for all to read. Bradshaw's book is shipping right now, it is 218 pages, and currently costs $13.57. Amazon does not have a picture of his book yet - that's why I did not post a picture below. If I can get one from the publishers, then I will add it! I'm saying this so that people don't think that I am picking on Dane Bradshaw! I don't want to get Bruce Pearl upset :) Update: Thanks to Tennessee Valley Publishing for the picture of the book.
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Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Kentucky gets third assistant coach
Readers Questions (...via Google)
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8:44 PM
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Labels: coaches gone wild
Monday, July 23, 2007
Boo'ed in Vegas!
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ncaahoops
at
10:31 AM
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Labels: 2007-2008 season, dirty rat, shoe wars
July 23 to July 31 weekly TV Guide
NBA Summer League
College Basketball Game Repeats
Sun July 29 Mid-major Marathon on Fox College Sports (FCS)
Documentaries and more
Movies Movies Movies
Directly from the Source


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Labels: tv schedule, webcasts
Sunday, July 22, 2007
State Farm USA Basketball Challenge tonight in Las Vegas (aka All Star Game)
College hoops is still months away, but tonight, Sunday July 22, 2007, you can enjoy the State Farm USA Basketball Challenge in Las Vegas. The senior Team USA men's basketball team will be divided into two and the two teams will face off in front of the Las Vegas crowd. The game will also air on cable TV on Fox Sports Net (FSN) and NBA-TV. The game will also repeat on later tonight on Fox College Sports and also on FSN at a later time. Official website.
Check with your local listings for airtimes, as FSN schedules vary from region to region depending on what else is happening in that particular region. The game itself will be played at 4pm pacific / 7pm eastern. The game will also be shown on NBATV at 7pm (I think) titled USA Men's Senior Blue vs. White Scrimmage
I am not sure which players will dress tonight, but a number of all stars are part of the Team USA roster. Not sure who will coach the two teams, but everyone's favorite coach, Coach K is the head coach of the team.
This update is brought to you by: 2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!
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Saturday, July 21, 2007
Dollars and Sense: Let's make loads of money!
While google'ing around for something unrelated, I ran into this February 2006 post from Tom Farrey of ESPN the Magazine discussing financial and legal matters involving former student-athletes of football and basketball, scholarship caps, profits and class action lawsuits.
And let me tell you, show these revenue to profit ratio to wall street and main street and they will go crazy. Imagine if your corporation had $18.5 million of revenue and $13.1 million of profit. That would send the stock off the roof! And that would spark about ten thousand investigations on the business practices of the company :)
Those numbers are those of the most profitable basketball program in the country in 2004-2005 according to data from the US Dept of Education. And which program is that? PitinoVille (Louisville went to the Final 4 that season). About half a million behind is the Silver Fox at Arizona (historical meltdown vs Illinois in the Elite 8), with national champions North Carolina at #3. Among the top 10 programs listed, NC State is running the tightest ship, the difference between revenue and profit is just $2.4 million. On the other side, Kentucky has the highest difference, $5.7 million difference between revenue and profit, with Louisville at $5.4m and UNC at $4.8m (I was tempted to calculate percentages but got sidetracked). Yet these numbers would still be off the charts on Wall Street.
The most profitable football program is Texas with $38.7m in profits out vs $53.2m of revenue. Michigan is running the tightest ship, with a difference of only $10.7m between profit and revenue. On the other side, the big spender is clearly Ohio State with a difference of $25 million. But once again, these numbers would be off the hook on Wall Street.
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Friday, July 20, 2007
All you can eat Fridays!
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ncaahoops
at
3:06 PM
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Labels: DVD, recruiting
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Title intentionally left blank
Thanks for the links!
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2:02 PM
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Labels: Coaching Carousel, recruiting
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Mid-week Repor(t)
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5:23 PM
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Coach K smug cloud causes iPhone malfunction at Duke
The statically charged smug cloud surrounding Coach K and Cameron Indoor Stadium is causing interference with iPhones on the campus of Duke University. It is believed that the iPhones wireless modules are affected by certain particles found in abundance in the Coach K smug cloud. Scientists have identified these particles: whiningnonstopiton, obviousrefereebiastron, nc2afavoritismium, vitaleon, AMEXygen, espnionium, dirtyratonium, bilassium, and bigotron. Environmental groups estimate at least 50 years of residual pollution caused by the aforementioned particles.
CNet's Crave blog has the details
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Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Random Thoughts on the 2007-2008 (Marqutte, UNC)
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6:56 PM
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PanAm roster is finalized, Pearl starts a fire, and more
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5:25 PM
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Monday, July 16, 2007
Monday Night Hoops
Everybody loves Duke
Stories
Resources
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10:55 AM
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Video Games: NCAA Football 2008 comes out tomorrow!
I rarely cover video games although they are very popular, so here is it: NCAA Football 2008. Available for Xbox 360, Xbox, Playstation 2, and of course Playstation 3.


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Labels: football, video games
Weekly TV Guide (posted every Monday)
NBA Summer League
College Basketball Game Repeats
Sun July 22 Marathon on Fox College Sports (FCS)
Documentaries and more
Movies Movies Movies
Directly from the Source


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Labels: tv schedule, webcasts
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Weekend update
Thanks for the link!
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12:34 PM
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Labels: dirty rat, recruiting
Friday, July 13, 2007
Friday Night Lights!
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12:58 PM
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From the Archives: What is a K-Zombie?
This was posted in April 2006 but I still think it is still very relevant today. Here is the text:
What is a K-Zombie?
A K-Zombie is a basketball player at Duke whose life energy is drained by Coach K, thus becoming a K-Zombie. Just look into the Duke's players eyes and you will see the effects of this - they have become K-Zombies! A recent example: Sean Dockery. Some of them are able retain some of their life energy, others are not. The clever ones transfer or bolt for the NBA before it's too late :-)
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Labels: dirty rat
Ole Roy ain't that good?
In the "what have you done for me lately" world of sports, Ole Roy is in trouble. Part of it maybe a spillover from the meltdown against Georgetown in the Elite 8, part of it is because he signed no one in 2007, and part of it is because he hasn't signed many and lost a handful of high profile verbals for 2008. So, the sky is falling... Or is it?
I'm sure Ole Roy knew that at least one of his prized freshmen would have bolted out. I mean, you didn't need to be a rocket scientist or Marty Blake to figure out that Branda Wright was a top 10 lottery pick. He also had one scholarship to give from graduating senior (Rayshawn Terry). Wes Miller was not on a scholarship in 2006-2007. But in typical Ole Roy fashion, he earmarked just a few players and that was it. Kevin Love went to UCLA (good personality match with Ben Howland, Kevin Love actually enjoys playing in slugfests). So that was it for 2007 for Ole Roy. He's done this at Kansas as well, and that frustrated Jayhawks fans even when they were madly in love with Ole Roy.
Bob Gibbons is quoted in the story below saying: "Blue heaven is a bit cloudy in recruiting". Superscout Dave Telep says "it creates a sense of urgency". Let's not forget the last time Ole Roy had an atypical roster talent-wise he did one of the best coaching jobs of his career.
So what happened? Has the Georgetown meltdown exposed Ole Roy to potential recruits? Or is this just cyclical stuff, accenuated (I was told to use this word, I don't know what it means or how to spell it) by Ole Roy's practice of only selecting a handful of players to recruit and that's it?
I think it's more the latter than the former, but reasonable minds can differ. But I'm not the one drunk or high ;-)
Story in the Charlotte Observer by Ken Tysiac.
ps> if this looks familiar, it is cross-posted at Recruiting Wars
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10:24 AM
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Thursday, July 12, 2007
Al-Farouq Aminu decides on Wake Forest!
A big surprise perhaps, but a much needed boost for Wake Forest and Skip Prosser. He not only gets Aminu, but he also gets fellow Georgina center Tony Woods. More at Recruiting Wars
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6:51 PM
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Title intentionally left blank
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Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Mid-week report
Thanks for the links!
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ncaahoops
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11:21 AM
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Labels: AD carousel, Coaching Carousel
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Life in the D-League
The NBDL (aka NBA's D-League) is having its pre-draft camp in Arlington, Texas, July 28 to 29, 2007. The actual NBDL draft usually takes place during the first week of November, but I haven't seen a date for this year.
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10:27 AM
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Monday, July 09, 2007
Monday Night Hoops (Mid-Major Writers Edition)
Thanks for the links!

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11:30 AM
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Labels: books, Coaching Carousel
Amazon Daily Deal: MLB 07 The Show, Playstation 2 video game
Today only (Monday) the Amazon Daily Deal is for sports fans: MLB 07 The Show , Playstation 2 video game, exactly $25 and ships FREE with Super Saving shipping.

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12:44 AM
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Labels: baseball, video games
Weekly TV Guide (posted every Monday)
NBA Summer League
College Basketball Game Repeats
Documentaries and more
Movies Movies Movies
Directly from the Source


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Labels: tv schedule, webcasts
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Near a TV today?
Near a TV today? Have access to Fox College Sports (FCS)? A number of games will repeat today, including the epic Florida at Florida State, Florida State vs Duke, the battle of Los Angeles (UCLA vs USC) and a couple more ACC Sunday Night Hoops. FCS has three channels so they can stack them up in parallel. Check my weekly tv schedule post posted every monday for more details.
Posted by
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11:38 AM
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Saturday, July 07, 2007
Weekend update
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6:39 PM
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Discover new blogs!
A new blog on player development, entitled Play the Right Way is now published by the Hoopscoach
Xs and Os fans, coaches and players, this blog is for you, Triple Threat Basketball looks at the inner workings of the game, including Xs and Os diagrams, drills and plays by coaches such as Dana Altman, Tom Izzo and more. Includes an interesting quote on zone defense by Arizona's new prime-minister, Kevin O'Neill.
More for Xs and Os fans, players and particularly coaches, at Mens Basketball Hoop Scoop - a free service designed to help out young and old coaches with their coaching skills by Coach P, a former NCAA D2, NAIA and JuCo basketball coach.
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9:25 AM
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Labels: XOs
Friday, July 06, 2007
This is Friday, feels like Tuesday?
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3:23 PM
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Labels: 2007-2008 season, 2008 NBA Draft, Coaching Carousel, recruiting, sad news, transfers
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Never miss an update - subscribe to the RSS feed
Never miss an update - subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog
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6:58 PM
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NBA Summer League Basketball starts tomorrow on NBA-TV
NBA Summer League Basketball starts tomorrow on NBA-TV at 9pm pacific / midnight eastern with the Dallas Mavericks facing off the Seattle Supersonics. I do not know if Kevin Durant will play. Action continues with at least two games per day including the Portland Trail Blazers. I do not know if Greg Oden will play. Check with your local cable/satellite provider for NBATV. The games continue throughout July. So if you are suffering from hoops withdrawl, there's plenty to watch! NBATV's webpage. Also check the NBATV and webcast schedule
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Mid-week Report
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2:16 PM
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Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Baseball fans: Free MLB EXtra Innings July 12 thru 18
I just saw this and thought it might be of interest to baseball fans reading this blog. MLB Extra Innings will be having a free preview from July 12 through July 18. On Comcast for sure, I do not know about the other cable or satellite providers. MLB Extra Innings is a pay-per view package showing out of market baseball games, similar to ESPN Full Court for college basketball, ESPN Game Plan for college football and NBA League Pass for the NBA. Oh the NFL and NHL and MLS have something similar as well.
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Thanks for the link UTEP Rivals fans!
Thanks for the link to the UTEP Miners forum at Rivals!
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8:41 PM
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Breaking News: UCLA gets big SoCal recruit
The CSTV ticker is reporting that UCLA has picked up J'Rue Holiday. Details at 11 (or at Recruiting Wars
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4:32 PM
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Two new blogs!
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3:55 PM
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delayed props to Jim Rome
I forgot to write about this before, but props to Jim Rome for his comments on Coach K's whining. Rome said this on a recent episode of "Rome is burning" on ESPN. Rome pointed out these:
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Tuesday updates
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3:21 PM
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The case of Big Ten vs Comcast vs ESPNU
More on this saga: One of the industry publications (Multichannel News) has another story. Big Ten Commissioner James Delany tries to play hardball (without Chris Matthews) as he wants Big Ten fans to switch to DirecTV if Comcast does not carry the network on basic cable in the Big 10 markets. Comcast has one third (1/3) of cable subscribers in Big-10 country.
Basic cable you say? Yes. He cites Comcast's own (you knew there would be this type of problems once carriers became content providers at the same time) mtn being carried on basic cable in SLC (salt lake city). The mtn is the network of the Mountain West Conference, produced in association with CSTV (now a CBS company). As you may recall Comcast is having problems themselves getting competitive cable providers to make this channel widely available in Mountain West cities/states. Isn't that special?
Comcast does seem to have a relationship with Fox Sports which is a co-owner of the Big Ten Network. They are already carrying three Fox College Sports channels, Fox Soccer, the spanish version of Fox Sports, Speed, as well as FSN+ (overflow channels). At the risk of introducing common sense to this "unsolvable problem", Fox College Sports (along with other FSN channels) could easily carry live and tape-delayed events from the Big Ten Network (BTN) on their three Fox College Sports channels in markets where the BTN network is not yet available. This could be an interim measure until BTN manages to find its way on more and more cable providers line-ups.
Comcast wants to put this channel on digital cable, and not just that, but on the Sports Tier, a digital cable package that costs an additional $5 per month and includes the likes of CSTV, Fox College Sports (three channels), NBA-TV, NFL, Fox Soccer, Speed, Tennis, Gaming (horse racing and such), and such. This of course may vary from market to market. This is exactly where Comcast wants to put ESPNU. And this is what is causing ESPNU not be carried on Comcast because ESPN wants to make it widely available. Apparently all the suits at Comcast and ESPN are unable to come up with a compromise solution that would make ESPNU available to millions of fans. Common sense is apparently not a required skill for business executives these days.
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12:27 PM
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Labels: big ten network, espnu, TV
Monday, July 02, 2007
Monday Night Hoops
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7:08 PM
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Labels: big ten network, Coaching Carousel, NBA Draft
Weekly TV Guide (posted every Monday)
NBA Summer League
Game Repeats
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Movies Movies Movies


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