NCAA college t-shirts just $7 each on Sunday!

Thanks to college football perhaps, NCAA apparel sales are coming in on a daily basis at Amazon. Today (Sunday) the special is t-shirts! Here is the list of all 35 colleges whose t-shirts are on sale for $7 each. Free shipping if the total order is over $25. If you are under $25, you can go over $25 by simply getting a gift certificate and emailing it to yourself (or someone else). Some examples:

Preparing for 2007-2008: Scouting the Jordan Classic

This was a fun game to watch. The defense did not get in the way of the offense, but it wasn't just that, it was good offense too! It was a highly entertaining game, and it was a close game too.

There was some naming confusion, there were two players named Chris Wright, and two of them with the last name Lucas. No relation.

The yellow/gold team had a dream-team perimeter with Derrick Rose, Eric Gordon and Corey Fisher. Wow! Rose once again had a solid game as a point guard but he was also able to be effective playing off the ball. Gordon showed off defense which Kelvin Sampson will put to good use at Oklahoma Indiana and he used his strength on offense as well. Being a co-point guard with Rose, Fisher did play mostly under control.

The Georgetown guard duo had a good game, both Chris Wright and Austin Freeman played to their strengths. Jimmy Dykes went crazy here saying that Chris Wright will be the best point guard of this class. He said it, he is on record, not me! Freeman, who looks like he is in his 30s is going to be a solid Big East guard, he is basketball savvy, skilled and mature and has a good size. If Jeff Green had stayed...

Given the offensive nature of the game, and how well they played, most of the players had their good moments. Jeff Robinson (going to Memphis) had a scoring spree inside and out, and that is what's going to get him playing time for the Tigers. Because Calipari has six guards/wings but only 120 minutes. And that's not counting Jeff Robinson. So he has to earn/grab the PT by making outside shots and doing what the existing Tigers cannot do. That means that he will likely play some four in order to accomodate PT for all the guards/wings. Robinson is way too good to redshirt.

Kyle Singler showed his versatility and talent, unlike the Roundball classic. Despite him committing to Duke, Singler is going to be a very solid player with a good chance of making good money in the NBA. Providing he ejects quickly and does not get drained by Coach Dracula K.

Patrick Patterson had yet another signature PP game, making his presence felt on defense, and on the boards and using his anticipation/sense of the game to be effective.

The Florida wings, Chandler Parsons and Nick not-a-point-guard Calathes showed promise but they also have a lot of work to do. They will become part of the foundation for Billy Donovan's next big team. And he will be there to see them through since he can't go back to the NBA in the next few years after his Orlando Tragic ejection.

Kosta "I'm not Oden" Koufos showed some promise as well, some of the offense is there, but he needs more work as well.

The two Big East versatile forwards had good games as well, Durell Summers and Donta Greene. They should both be contributors right away on both sides of the floor.

There were three power-players that did well: Gary Johnson, who unfortunately for him and Texas-Austin he won't play this season showed why he could have had a PJ Tucker-like impact on the team. A strong power-player. But if all goes well, he may return to action in 2008-2009. Blake Griffin had a ballerina on steroids pirouette (sp?) moment in the paint and that was very effective in scoring and clearing out the paint! Chris Wright had a couple of spectacular dunks and he is going to be showcasing them on a nightly basis with Jon Stewart's Dayton Flyers. It looks like Ohio schools are on a major uptick, with Matta's Ohio State, Xavier, and now Dayton getting a top 50 recruit to stay home.

The two Lucas guards had an okay game, but perhaps I didn't pay too much attention to them. Bayless showed what his potential range could be, an effective scoring lead guard, or someone who hasn't met a shot he didn't like. Arizona is where he (and we) will find out.

Last but not least, the starting point guard Jeffrey Jordan. On a totally unrelated note, he is Michael Jordan's son. Which is why he was selected for the game and why he got the starting job. And that's why Rose and Fisher were put on the same team, to make room for Jeffrey to get the starting nod. Conspiracy theory or not? You decide. The ESPN guys of course were singing Jeffrey's praises. When was the last time an invited walk-on made an all-star game? Answer that!

Perhaps a bit prophetic, one fan had signs inviting "Pat and Jai come to UK". That fans wish partially came true as Pat(rick) Patterson and Jai Lucas both committed later on to Billy Gillispie and Kentucky. (Thanks for the correction!)

Preparing for 2007-08: Scouting the Roundball Classic

The Roundball classic was not as easy to scout as the Nike Hoops Summit because of the format and the way it was broadcast (smaller viewable area, many on-camera interviews interrupting the game). So I wasn't able to gather as much as I did from the Hoops Summit.

Some of the players that had a decent game or impressed me or exceeded expectations):

OJ Mayo: He had a good game, but towards the end of the game he transformed. He tried to single-handedly make a comeback but his teammates, more speficially highly overrate Taylor King failed him. Mayo hit some clutch shots and even had a Jordanesque move (in the house that Judden built)

DeAndre Jordan: He is going to be a factor in the paint. With the proper training and basketball growth, he has NBA 1st rounder written all over him. Texas A&M and Mark "AASAA" Turgeon will be thrilled they were able to hold on to him despite the Gillispie exodus.

Corey Fisher: Watch out Big East, the four guard line-up is coming back! He had a very good game, dishing left and right, and slicing and dicing into the paint. He already has good rapport (I don't know what this word means but I was told to use it) with Nova teammate Corey Stokes.

Kevin Love: The big fundamental. He is an impact player in the paint, but his passing is also something special. Assuming Ben Howland allows him to outlet pass that far ahead :)

Johnnie Flynn: He had another solid game, Cuse fans should be thrilled!

The talent is there: Anthony Randolph, Evan Turner, James Harden: Talented and versatile players they had their impact on the game.

RAW potential: Alexis Wangmeme (going to Texas) and local Nyal Koshwal (to DePaul). They are still learning the game, but they have a lot of upside.

Chris Allen: Izzo is going to be glad he got this guy. A 6'4" versatile wing is just what the doctor ordered for Izzo State.

Also good games: JJ Hickson of NC State and Justin Burell of St Johns.

The Big O (Overrated)

Taylor King was by far the most overrated and undeserving player to be included. Usually the only way a player like Taylor King would be included in such games is if he was a local player, and there was no other local player in the all-star roster. But we know why Taylor King was included - two reasons: Duke and the R word (race).

The Big O twice as Greg Ostertag Cole Aldrich showed that he is more of a top 100 player than a top 50 player. The three all-star games usually gather the top 50 players, 24 at McDonalds and an additional 12 each at Jordan and Roundball, since players are only allowed to play two out of three if they want to retain their NCAA eligibility (who came up with that rule?). No one has said no to the McDonalds game in favor of the Roundball and Jordan - providing they were eligible and selected for the McCholesterol Game.

The remaining players had okay games, or did not get as much air time or I did not pay as much attention to them: Rico Pickett, Alex Legion, Darquavis Tucker, LaceDarius Dunn, Gani Lawal, and Demetri McCamey.

Next up, the Jordan Classic. Stay tuned!

NCAA College wind jackets for $12 today only!

It looks like Amazon is having an NCAA gear week, today's one day sale item (gold box) is officially licensed NCAA wind jackets from Campus Yard with college logos. Twenty five colleges are participating in this promototion. The complete list of the 25 colleges participating in this promotion.

Download MP3s legally for 89 cents each!

Sports fans are great music fans as well (what a lame justification for posting this!) so you will be thrilled to find out that the Amazon MP3 store is now up and running. You will no longer have to deal with DRM-locked music files *cough* iTunes *cough*. Amazon sells actual mp3 files, so you buy them legally, and play them legally and move them to anywhere you want legally! Finally some common sense! The DRM infestation has grown out of control so it's nice to see a more practical and realistic approach! Here are the Top 100 MP3s at Amazon.

A nice write-up on this at Terry White's critically acclaimed Tech Blog.

I am glad I am this blog's moderator, because this post is off-topic :-)

Scandalous: Gonzaga's Jeremy Pargo not a preseason Cousy Award nominee!

This is scandalous! Jeremy Pargo of Gonzaga is not in the long list of forty (40) preseason Cousy Award candidates, yet Kyle "420" McAlarney of Notre Dame, Greg Paulass of Duke, UConn's AJ Price, and medical unknown Lanny Smith of Houston among others are nominated! Clearly the selection cmte is drinking MAJOR BCS koolaid. Perhaps Vitale and Digger Phelps have a guaranteed-player-in vote, which would explain the Domer and the Dookie! Some of the other iffy selections include Syracuse's Eric Devendork and Washington State Kyle Weaver. Kyle Weaver a point guard? Yes, Kyle Weaver is a nice and versatile and unique and game changing player but a top 40 point guard? Kyle Weaver, really, really, really ????????

More iffy selections: Florida State's combo guard Toney Douglas, and Missouri's Stefhon Hannah. Jamont Gordon fits the Kyle Weaver category, a pure point guard though???

The list includes 36 D1 point guards, two from D2 and two from D3. Of the 36 Division 1 point guards, only five come from outside BCS schools: Derrick Rose, Lanny Smith, Duke Slayer Eric Maynor, Davidson's Jason Richards and Bradley's Jim Les Daniel Ruffin Sr. BCS Koolaid, table of 31 please!

The list of preseason candidates is on page 34 of the Athlon preview magazine (which I reviewed) as a paid advertisement from The Hartford and the Bob Cousy award. The Cousy award website doesn't seem to be updated yet.

Preparing for 2007-08: Scouting the Nike Hoops Summit

In the first of a multipart series, we will be taking a look at some games from last year that are relevant to the 2007-2008 season, starting with the four spring all-star games.

First up, the 2007 Nike Hoops Summit. Team USA had a ten man roster. The coach used Team A (starters) and Team B (other 5), until the middle of the 3rd quarter where foul trouble and game situations forced him to mix and match.

The starting five were the "designer" names. Derrick Rose had a good game, he did what was necessary for the team to win, he had some nice passes (and a couple that didn't click). He also showed that he can be effective off the ball. Rose is certainly a candidate to be the Jason Kidd of his generation. Calipari may get a ring because of Rose. He is solid!

He shared point guard duties with OJ Mayo who played mostly under control and had a few impressive plays, including a couple of nice passes. He also made a couple of iffy decisions but that's part of the game. But he's got the talent and hints of Jordanesqueness.

Dookie Kyle Singler had a quiet game but he didn't try to force things. He is better than he played at the Hoop Summit. Later on he got into foul trouble which took him out of the game.

The starting power forward was Michael Beasley who showed flashes of his potential at the start of the game, and later in the game when Kevin Love went out and opened up things in the paint. He is clearly an offensive weapon. He also had an impressive block.

Kevin Love was the starting center and he played to his strengths, toughness and Wes Unseldesque passing. He got clobbered a couple of times but he casually shook it off. Which is why he is a great match for Ben Howland. He did have a funny comment when he called Ben Howland's offense "impressive". Ben Howland is probably the only coach who uses a blazing fast point guard like Darren Collison to run on the break with a primary purpose not to score, but to wear down the defense.

The most impressive player in terms of exceeding expectations in my opinion was Syracuse bound Johnnie Flynn who had a solid game and played like a solid point guard. Move over Devendork, there's a true point guard in town :-) Flynn gave the opposing team's point guards major headaches on defense as he pressured and hounded them.

The most efficient player of the game was Patrick Patterson, which is why I think he is better than his rating. Even though very few plays were run for him, he managed to put points on the board, and grab rebounds, and found himself in many plays on both sides of the court because of effort and anticipation.

The most inefficient player was Nolan Smith, he gave the ball a headache, he wasted time and possessions without actually going anywhere. It is no surprise he was pulled from the game, and he (and fellow Dookie Singler) returned to the game after the game was decided for good in late 4th quarter. He seemes destined to play out of position at Duke as Coach Ratface K said during the interview he can play all three guard/wing positions.

Donte Greene is no Carmello (then again very few players are), but he is going to be a very productive player at Syracuse. He had an impressive play from the perimeter with a couple of crossovers and broken ankles.

The last player on the team was scoring guard Jerryd Bayless who played as the name suggests. He did not force things since he was playing with an all-star cast. He will put points on the board at Arizona for sure!

From Team World, Nigeria 7'1" big man Solomon Alabi (not Alibi) will be playing for Leonard Hamilton at Florida State. And while the U word is overused (upside), he sure does have a lot of upside if he develops more basketball skills. Initially he will be a factor rebounding and shot-blocking, as he has athletic skills, strength and wingspan - as long as he does not get in foul trouble in the ACC.

Croatian shooter Ugrinoski was apparently offered a scholarship by Tim Floyd and USC, but he went for the dollars (or euros) of professional ball in Europe. The other player that had some flashes (which I am assuming is why the NBA was interested) was Finnish point guard Petteri Koponen. But he will not be going/coming to college hoops. Israeli tough forward Omri Casspi had a burst in the 2nd quarter after he got dunked on, while the two french forwards (Batum and Ajinca) shows a lot of promise as well. But I'll leave all that for the NBA and NBA Draft bloggers :)

Next up: The Roundball Classic.

Hot sale: NCAA Polo Shirts for $15 (Thursday only!)

After yesterday's hot sale where a lot of team sweatshirts sold out, Amazon comes back with a similar offer, this time polo shirts with the NCAA logos on them from the Old Varsity Brand for just $15 each. Free shipping and handling if the total order is over $25. You better get yours early, they are going to sell out again! List of 29 colleges with $15 polo shirts.

Here are some of the 29 colleges:

Midnight Blogging Madness!

Inspired by Thad Matta's recent half a million salary boost, Beyond The Arc looks at coaches and money. Earlier this month, Beyond the Arc recapped the unpredictable world of Duquesne basketball

A Sea of Blue (ASoB) looks at the unanswered questions of the 2007-08 Kentucky team.

Jeff Goodman has some good news for Washington Huskies fans. Goodman also has a write-up on Bruce Pearl and Tennessee. "I'm not a top 10 coach" said Bruce Pearl. He also looks at Florida State and their experienced back court. More bad news for NC State as another player goes down with injury this time. Meanwhile Lo Romar is thrilled with the progress of one of his benchwarmer big men, and Wright State is discussed.

He's back! Yocohoops is making a comeback - expect more as we get closer to midnight madness and the new season.

Mike DeCourcy asks "What can Brown do for you?". He is not discussing UPS, but the prospects of Xavier for 07-08, and the upside of the very promising forward Derrick Brown.

Marquette fans, check out the top 10 wiki at Cracked Sidewalks

News from Jim Calhoun's favorite conference here.

Visit TAD to find out what deserving award the Cameron K Zombies Crazies got.

As the Gonzaga World Turns at La Rev with lots of updates, including a video game tournament and a comment on Fran Fraschilla seeing "five NBA players" in the Zags roster. On a totally unrelated note, FF thanks Heytvelt for the mushrooms ;-)

College Hoops Haven Heaven looks at the worst 15 college mascots. As you may recall, they recently revealed their best 15 mascots, which was featured at DeadSpin.

March to Madness has a moment of Zen.

Some great stories at Rush the Court discussing The Big Nasty, and Tommy Amaker saving ...Harvard.

Irish Trojan discusses yet another installment of Pat vs Geno (women's hoops rivarly).

The Duke of the Vols has been suspended indefinitely according to CBS Sportsline.

And while Big Nasty (Corliss Williamson) gets a new job, his teammate Corey Beck got shot!

The popular CHN Top 144 previews continue with more and more teams getting previewed.

Some of the top point guards were tutored by Steve Nash. The top 10 point guards of 2007-2008 according to Rivals!

The Rivals notebook looks at the Colonial Association, the Washington Huskies and Sidney Moncrief.

Making the Dance looks at conference success in the NCAA tournament during the last ten and twenty-five years.

Meanwhile, you can catch up with news from regional and local newspapers in one place, at Inside Hoops.

If that's not enough, check out the jam-packed Daily News Archives at CSTV! There's so much stuff there, it would fill up this post just mentioning it! For example, Washington State has announced its tv schedule.

Blog update: Reorg of links complete!

We interrupt the sweatshirt sale for a quick blog update :-) I have re-organized the college hoops links and broke them down into four categories:

College Hoops blogs from fans and superfans.

Big media sites and blogs such as ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS, TSN.

Coaching blogs, blogs that focus on coaching and/or Xs and Os.

Message Boards, aka forums.

If you have any recommendations, let me know via email or post a comment.

College hoodies with screen print logo $12 today only!

Time to shop for the upcoming season! Amazon's one day gold box sale has something of interest to college sports fans and alumni everywhere. Sweatshirts with hoods with the school's logo on them! Okay, fine, I'll say it, they are "hoodies". They are $12 each, from the Old Varsity Brand, and free shipping if the total order is $25 or more. List of 29 college sweatshirts available. Here are some hoodies, starting with some in-conference rivalries. Update: Some are currently out of stock!

NHL Center Ice Free Preview on Comcast for 10 days!

Comcast Cable is offering a free preview of NHL Center Ice, from September 29, 2007 to October 9, 2007. During that time period, all available Center Ice games will be shown! This is obviously not college hoops, but we like free :)

The Weekly Rewind Repor(t)

The Oooops Files!
I just discovered that during the format change to the new blogger template I accidentally dropped the first three college basketball links from the new list. One would think that I would have figured it out earlier, since one of them is my own Recruiting Wars blog! The other two were March Madness All Season and YocoHoops. So I added them back on (I saved the old template). And to make up for lost "air time", I have listed them here as well. And yes, in the next few days I will organize the links better, right now they are a long long long list.


The Blogosphre Files

College Hoops Heaven looks at the best 15 mascots using a scientific ...method. Don't show this list to Stephen Colbert, it has BEARS!

A round-up of the latest news at Rush the Court. They also crunch the Jim O'Brien numbers. And more round-ups!. And USC taunts UCLA billboard style. There we find a link to a coaching blog discussing Xs and Os on Gonzaga's Flex Offense.

To paraphrase Vitale, give me Ammo and Batista, and you take the flex :-)

Lots of quick hitters at March to Madness featuring John Calipari, Al Skinner, and more!

SEC Hoops the Good, the Bad and the Dirty continues to crunch the SEC team schedules and predicts wins and losses too!

How about some football from The Sports Flow blog?

The Vance Walberg nation continues to expand. That's the place to be if you want to learn how to AASAA.

Dick Hoops Weiss puts on his E! hat and reports from the New York Hall of Fame dinner

A jam-packed Volume III of the March Madness All Season summer observations!

Gary Parrish opens his mailbag


The Goodman files

Sad news for the Volunteers as one of the players loses a parent. Goodman also talks about seven foot prospect John Riek, yet another injury for Gillispie's wounded Wildcats, and the oranges are blooming in Syracuse, but you won't hear that from Boeheim :) Goodman continues to earn mid-major cred as he also spotlights yet another non-BCS team, this one is an ivy-major.

Goodman talks a virtual visit with Rollie Massimmino (yes, the Nova championship coach), and Bruce Weber hires his 3rd assistant to replace the Kentucky departing one.

Then Goodman takes a a look at the Arizona Wildcats. The Meerkats will be playing more man2man now that enforcer Kevin O'Neill is on board. Getting compliments on competitivenss from O'Neill bodes very well for freshman Jerryd Bayless. Continuing with the fair and balanced coverage, Goodman also looks at the new head coach at Illinois State.

Good news and bad news for Alabama fans as Ron Steele will take a medical redshirt. According to Goodman he looks forward to playing with his brother but more importantly being 100% ready in 2008-2009. And with the string of his injuries, this was a very Vulcan decision. Also featured is Hofstra's key players for the next season.


Team Files

A Sea of Blue takes a long look at seven footer Jared Carter, his past, present and future. They also discuss Joe Crawford's injury

Thad Matta is locked up! Not behind bars, but behind columns of silver and gold as he gets extended until 2016 according to CBS Sportsline. The raise of half a million puts him just under $2.5 million. Thank you Greg Oden!

Meanwhile Matta's predecessor at Ohio State is collecting the same amount in a different kind of check. Jim O'Brien was awarded a $2.4 million settlement

Incoming freshman Clarence Holloway underwent open heart surgery according to CBS Sportsline. According to Pitino the surgery went fine. His condition was diagnosed just Friday. He will obviously sit out 2007-2008.

Gary Parrish's latest thoughtblog discusses North Carolina's Felton-Iman non-situation situation, Calipari's invasion of China, and his tour of the luxurious practice facilities at U of Championships (Florida/Gainsville). Also discussed are Ron Steele, Kentucky's Midnight Madness, Josh "shroom" Heytvelt, and the latest Buy One Coach Get One Player free blue light special.

Florida A&M finds a new coach

Ten years at Value City arena for Ohio State basketball

Gonzo finds an assistant according to the Zags blog

Meanwhile the Gonzaga Zags fans are waiting for their schedule to be announced. Terrance and Philip make a guest appearance even!

John Clay's Sidelines report has an audio interview on Arkansas and new head coach John P.


The DeCourcy Files

As if Calipari didn't have enough market penetration, he is now expanding his sphere of influence to China. It's Derrick Rose this year, it will be Yao Rosun in five years :) And will everyone in China learn to AASAA under the leadership of John Calipari?

Big Brother grabs Raymond Felton and Roy Williams by the ear

DeCourcy takes a look at Izzo State

DeCourcy also looks at the past, present and future of Alabama's one man ER show Ron Steele


The Congress Files

Former college and NBA head coach and tv talking head Dick Versace (not to be confused with the fashion designer I presume) will be running for a seat in the House in Central Illinois.


The Police files

Pitt point guard LaVance Fields delivered a ...stunning performance

Gary Parrish chimes in by recommending a kerfew of sorts

The killer of USC guard Ryan Francis gets life

Meanwihle Auburn's Frank Tolbert gets in trouble with the law, but this one is more of a nickle dimer

Blog reformating and conversion completed!

The blog has now been (finally) converted to the new blogger format! New features and functionality added:

List of Labels (aka Tags) are now posted in the blog, towards the bottom of the left column

You can now automatically see a list of all the posts made in the current month under Blog Archives in the left column.

Easier to find Contact Information (contact via email) in the left column.

Poll questions can now be added on the fly in the left collumn!

A newsfeed from Google on college basketball has been added in the left column

The book and magazine pictures that were oozing from the bottom of the left column have now been herded and are in a post of their own. This cleans up the look and speeds up loading a little bit.

Each post now has a link in its title name. This makes it easier for people to open individual posts or cut/paste the urls and post them on their blog/site/forum :-) (hint, hint!)

In the next few days I will organize the College Basketball Links better, breaking them down by topic. Right now they are a long winded list. If your blog or website, or your favorite blog/website are not listed, please let me know via comment or via email!

More refinements will be made in the next few days. But this was the big conversion, so I'm glad it's over :-) If you have any comments, feedback, etc, please let me know!

The weekly rewind post will be made on Sunday.

Speaking of reformatting, I also reformatted/converted Recruiting Wars to the new blogger format. Because of the style and content of that blog I was able to use a new slick willy template

Blog reformatting coming this weekend!

I have to do this now, before the new season starts! The blog will be reformatted this weekend. This will allow some new features such as poll questions, access to all the Labels (aka Tags), easier access to recent posts, and a more flexible design.

If you have any suggestions, feedback or comments, leave them as a comment or send an email via the "Contact Via Email" link on the left column.

A weekly rewind post will follow up after the restructuring. In the meantime, please feel free to checkout our detailed reviews of two 2007-2008 college hoops preview magazines by Athlon and Lindy's. Both of them are available for sale at the big bookstores and other places. More magazines may be reviewed later on, at the moment these are the only ones I have seen. Usually The Sporting News and others (SI, ESPN, USA Today, CBS Sportsline, etc) get published later on.

2007-2008 Lindy's College Basketball Preview Magazine Review

And here we go, just days after we reviewed the Athlon preview magazine, we have the Lindy's college hoops preview magazine review. I picked it up at Borders Bookstores for the list price of $6.99, same price as last year.

One quick note on Borders, they have the 2006-2007 version of the Sporting News preview magazine on the shelves, so be sure not to get the wrong year by mistake. But if you are looking for the 06-07 TSN version, you may find it there.

For reference, this is my 2006-2007 Lindy's review. I am using a slightly different review format this year. Speaking of 06-07, every game of the 2007 NCAA Tournament is available on DVD, for around $20 to $25 per game at Amazon. And if you prefer a free online previews, check out our gigantic 2007-2008 preview links.

One more thing, plan ahead for the season, what is the best way to record your favorite college basketball games?

And now to the Lindy's magazine preview review! The cover says "Display until Dec 15", and list price is $6.99. The west coast bias edition features UCLA's Darren Collison, Brook Lopez and DeVon Hardin on the cover. The magazine is 210 pages long.

It starts with a table of contents and a letter from the publisher, celebrating year #10 of Lindy's. The publisher is Lindy Davis, so now we know the Lindy in Lindy's :) There he mentions that the schedules will be published on their website on October 15 and you can also request a print edition. Because Athlon and Lindy's get published so early, they cannot have the finalized schedules in time for the printing process.

General Interest Stories

Page counts mentioned do not include ads!

The 2007-2008 Top 25 is presented, with each team getting a short preview featuring "The Good", "The Bad" and "Our Call". They also include teams 26 to 40 with single-sentence previews. Nice feature and quick intro to the new season (five pages long). Also of note is that five mid-major conference teams are in their Top 25 (excluding Memphis). I won't reveal their #1, I don't want to be mauled by bears! I won't reveal their #2 I don't want to be in silence of the lambs! And I wouldn't volunteer to be eaten by a tiger so I won't reveal #3 and #4. This week I'm going to a bird watching seminar on cardinals, so I can't reveal #5 either!

An excellent six page featured called "Scoping the Nation" is jam-packed with interesting features, including The Return of Rick Majerus, One and Done college superstars, a tribute to Skip Prosser, a spotlight on some preseason games to watch, including the holiday tourneys and the conference challenges, top 10 freshman candidates to be one and done, list of coaching changes, top 10 one and done candidates of the 2008 class, ten candidates for stardom, top ten D1 transfers, top ten JuCos, top 10 shooters, top 10 defenders. They also rate the conferences from #1 to #31, and give us their Field of 65 predictions, along with their Sweet 16 ad Final Four. This is the most compact and concise six pages of preview I saw in a preview magazine so far!

A four page feature "Meet the New Boss" covers Billy Gillispie at Kentucky, Billy the Diva Donovan at Florida and Tubby Smith at the TimberGophers.

A two page feature on the search for the next Gonzaga, with some focus on the Missouri Valley

A two page feature on "Embracing Kelvin Sampson". I would have named it "Embracing Slugfest" :)

A two-page story by Frank Burlison on recruiting (players commiting earlier and earlier)

Top 25 players per position, one page devoted to each position! Nice!

Top 10 Backcourts (two pags) and top 10 Frontcourts (two pages)

Women's Coverage" Top 25 teams (4 pages), including the top 15 female players.

Back page: The 2007 NCAA tournament brackets, completed with scores and teams advancing. Nice touch!

Grade: A

Shop for your favorite colleges gear, dvds, books, apparel, toothbrushes, and more at Amazon

Recruiting Coverage

A two-page story by Frank Burlison on recruiting (players commiting earlier and earlier, pages 32-33)

Recruiting coverage is provided by Rivals, at the back of the magazine

Top 25 Recruiting Classes of 2007 with analysis!

A half-page story by Justin Young of Rivals taking a post-summer look

A recap of the 2007 class with the top 50 players listed (1 page)

Top 100 players of the Classes of 2008 and top 100 of 2009 and top 10 of 2010.


Conference Previews

A number of conferences, not just BCS conferences, get a two page conference preview. Yes two pages per conference. A half-page intro to the conference kicks things off. Lindy's includes a table of Good News/Bad News/Our call for each team, top 15 players, returning statistical leaders (scoring, rebounding, assists and 3 point shooting percentage). Also in the preview a detailed analysis of the incoming recruits within the conference (nice touch Lindys!), the superlatives (best player, rebounder, defender, etc), and Team Stats from 2006-2007 including FG%, FT%, 3PT FG%, and margins (rebounds, turnovers, points). This is the most comprehensive conference coverage.

Conferences receiving the two page previews: ACC, Atlantic 10, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Conference USA, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, Pac-10, SEC, and WAC.

The remaining conferences receive 1/3rd of a page conference preview that includes top 10 players, superlatives (Best player, rebounder, etc) and predicted order of finish.

Props to Lindy's for giving some of the high mid-major conferences the same amount of space as they give the six BCS conferences!

Did you know? Every 2007 NCAA tournament game is on DVD! at Amazon. Get yours know! A great way to scout teams for the upcoming season!


Team Previews

Even bigger props to Lindy's for treating teams more equally. Basically the Top 40 teams get a full page preview, while the remaining teams from the BCS and the high mid-major conferences (mentioned above) receive half a page each. This is a more fair way to spread the love. In contrast, Athlon is blatantly pro-BCS.

The teams from the remaining conferences get half a column ina a page with three columns (1/6th of page), but the text is very compact, so they are squeezing in a long paragraph, starters and key reserves, newcomes, starters lost, 06-07 record, and the head coaches's overall record. Not bad for such a small amount of space. Better coverage than the equivalent Athlon.

The full page reviews of the Top 40 teams include a text preview, a picture, key players (sadly not a complete roster and no jersey numbers), key losses. Each player mentioned gets a one-liner description. They feature the coach's record, teams' 06-07 record, honors candidates (eg player of year, freshman of year), and a "Keep an eye out" paragraph on a player to watch. Another table has their team stats from 06-07.

The half page reviews (BCS and high mid-major teams outside the top 40) have the same features, but no picture, and obviously less text.


Shortcomings

Rosters are not complete, they are just "key players"

No jersey numbers listed! Grrrr!

No schedules but that's to be expected since it is published so early. They will make them available online on October 15 and you can request a printed copy once they are available

USC is not in the Top 40!!! Hello Lindy's, OJ Mayo and Devon Jefferson are calling :-)


Stand out features

Fair and balanced treatment of the Top 40 teams regardless of conference affiliation. In fact, five (+Memphis) of their top 25 teams come from mid-major conferences. No BCS koolaid served at Lindy's :)

More coverage of mid-major conferences and teams than any other magazine, especially the high mid-major conferences (A-10, C-USA, MVC, MWC, WAC). Although some other non-BCS conferences were downgraded in coverage compared to previous years (CAA, Big West, etc)

Two-page conference preview instead of the usual one page in other magazines. Included is recruiting analysis per conference.

Excellent six page ultra-compact and juicy "Scoping the Nation" article

Good Recruiting Coverage

Four pages of women's coverage


Compared to Athlon's preview magazine

Lindy's has more mid-major coverage. Athlon drinks the BCS Koolaid

Lindy's not does have complete rosters or players jersey numbers. Athlon does, along with more detailed roster info.


Did you know that every 2007 NCAA tournament game is available on DVD?. Get yours now! This is a subliminal message. You are not really reading this! ;-)


Conclusion/Recommendation

This is a nice preview magazine. It has very good general interest stories as mentioned above. Those features alone make it worth the price of admission. Recommended for the college basketball fan!

If you are a fan of a high mid-major conference or any other non-BCS conference, this magazine probably has the most non-BCS coverage. So grab it!

If this is the only preview magazine you are buying, and you want to look up the players while watching games on TV, beware, it does not have the players jersey numbers listed! Infact it does not even have complete rosters.


Comments or Corrections?
Please feel free to leave them as a comment or send me an email via the "Contact via Email" link in the left column of the blog.


Get Ready for the 2007-2008 season!

Scout the teams by getting 2006-2007 NCAA tournaments on DVD! from Amazon.

Shop for your favorite college's gear, apparel, licensed products, books and DVDs at Amazon.com!

Also be sure to check out my Gigantic 2007-2008 online preview of links to online previews

Get historic and classic college basketball dvds from Amazon!

Sprawl on the couch and draw plays like a real coach!.

If you liked this review, and you want to see more magazines reviewed, please let me know!

If you are a publisher and you want your magazine to be mercilessly reviewed, please let me know

2007-2008 Athlon College Basketball Preview Magazine Review

Yes, the first preview magazines have been out for a couple of weeks. I picked up the Athlon Sports 2007-2008 preview from Borders Bookstores. Just like I did last year when I reviewed four of them, I'll be reviewing some of the 2007-2008 magazines, starting with the Athlon!

For reference, this is my 2006-2007 Athlon review. I am using a different format this year. If you want to relive the 2006-2007 NCAA tournament, every game is available on DVD!. And if you prefer a free online previews, check out our gigantic 2007-2008 preview links.

One more thing, plan ahead for the season, what is the best way to record your favorite college basketball games?

And now I am putting on my magazine reviewer hat: Cover price is $6.99 and it says "Display until December 21, 2007" on the front cover. This is a price increase of $1 from last year! The one I got is the west coast bias edition with Stanford's Brook Lopez and Cal's DeVon Hardin. The magazine is 194 pages long and printed in quality glossy paper.

It starts with an editorial from editor Mitchell Light, then the table of contents. An alphabetical team listing is available on page 11 so you can quickly look up any team.

General Interest Stories

Ads are not included in the page counts below.

10 things to watch in 2007-08 spotlights, you guessed it, ten things! Included are OJ Mayo, Helen of Troy of the Big Eleven (Eric Gordon), McKillop's Wildcats, Tubby Smith. (4 pages long)

Five pages of Hoops Madness, a pot pouri of tidbits and notes, including a Bob Knight quote, a list of 15 emerging college stars, Top 10 players in these four categories (Floor Leaders, Shooters, Slashers, Inside-Out, Post Men), the top 18 transfers, and a list offensively challegned players (they have more game starts than field goals made!).

A list of the coaching changes (page 23)

A list of the D1 Exempt holiday tournaments (page 27)

A three page feature on Young Coaches Stealing the Spotlight featuring among others Billy the Diva, Ben Howling Wolf, JT III, Mark "AASAA?" Turgeon, and Thad Matta.

A New Hope, a full page story spotlighting Billy Gillispe and Kentucky. When you are Kentucky, you get a full page to yourself to discuss the coaching change!

A long list of 2008 Bob Cousy Award candidates including two players from D2 and D3 each (Spoiler Alert: Greg Paula is included).

"The Fix", a two page look on Tulane's 80s scandalous past

Full page interviews with three players, Bama's Ron Steele, Huggins's Kansas State's Billy Walker, and Izzo's Drew Neitzel

Field of 65 predictions in cascading bracket style (2 pages). I won't reveal their final four, but the two teams they pick for the championships could easily make their own Lord of the Rings movies! Also projected is the post-season NIT field! NIT Love! NITology is picking up momentum!

Traditionally preview magazines feature their top 25 or top 40 teams with a capsulte for each team, but not this magazine!

Three five-player All American Teams, with a ...psycho predicted as POY (player of the year). Also 25 honorable mentions and six super freshmen.

Women's Preview: The preseason top 25 with a paragraph for each team (two pages long), pages 190-191

The Back Page (inside back cover) looks at some of the most famous coaching trees, starting with James Naismith and taking stops at Kentucky and North Carolina. Also featured, UCLA, Indiana and Duke.

CSS, the Comcast Sports South cable channel took out an ad sdvertising 175+ men's and women's college basketball games in 2007-2008 (page 19)

There are no scheduled in this magazine (since it is printed so early)

Grade: B++

Shop for your favorite college's gear, apparel, licensed products, books and DVDs at Amazon.com!


Recruiting Coverage

Recruiting coverage in the preview is provided by Scout.com. Starting at page 183.

Top 100 players of 2007. I won't reveal who they picked #1 but you may have it in your sandwich. I won't reveal the #3 either, but that's all you need according to the Beatles.

Top 25 recruiting classes (just a list)

Top 101-300 class of 2007 with college of choice listed

Top 100 players broken down in Top 20s for each traditional position

Top 100 2008 class

Top 25 2009 class. I won't do you any favors by revealing the #1 ;-)

Top 10 2010 class


Conference Previews

The BCS conferences get a full page conference preview that includes: predicted finish order, 06-07 team standings, Team Recruiting Ranking, All conference first, second and third team, and Player of the Year, Defensive player of the year, Most Underrated and Newcomer of the Year. Conferences with a full page preview: ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac 10 and SEC. If you are keeping count, yes they are the six BCS teams :)

The remaining conferences only get an All-Conference team, nothing else!

2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!

Team Previews

The BCS teams get a full page preview for each team. Each preview has an intro, frontcourt, backcourt adn final analysis. Rosters with jersey numbers, height/weight, class status, hometown and detailed statistics from 06-07 are inclded. Props to Athlon for this! The incoming players are included at the bottom of the roster and a short paragraph briefly introduces them. Another nice touch by Athlon! Key players gone from 06-07 are also included, as well as how did the team do in the post-season. No coaching records, just a mention of the head coach. A player from the team is usually pictured within the preview.

High mid-major teams predicted to get to the post-season (NCAA or NIT) get a half-page review, with a detailed roster, but not as detailed as the BCS teams. For example, four Atlantic 10 teams get half-page previews, while the remaining 10 teams get about 1/6th of a page of full text. Other mid-major conferences receiving half-page reviews for their top teams: The Colonial, Conference USA, the MAC, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, the WAC, and WCC. The only mid-major conference teams receiving full page (instead of half-page) reviews are Memphis and Gonzaga.

The mid-majors get just one paragraph instead of a full page. The top teams in the mid-major conferences get longer paragraphs. No rosters, no nothing, but the top players of each time are discussed in the preview.


Shortcomings

No schedules posted, apart from the exempt holiday season tournaments. This is understandable since the magazine is posted so early.

No coaching records or list of assistant coaches

Teams from non-BCS conference who are not projected to make the post-season get either one paragraph or 1/6th of a page. Not very mid-major/low-major friendly.

Only two pages of women's coverage


Stand-out features

Detailed rosters with jersey numbers (for those following the games on TV), and detailed statistics from 06-07 (points, rebounds, percentages, etc)

Nice coverage for all BCS teams, along with Memphis and Gonzaga

List of Bob Cousy 2008 award candidates

Good recruiting coverage

Nice general interest features


Compared to the other preview magazines

Coming later! This is the first preview magazine I got so there's nothing to compare it with :)

2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!

Recommendation/Conclusions

This is a nice preview magazine for the college basketball fan!

Fans of BCS teams will love it

Nice set of general interest features

If your favorite non-BCS team is projected to make the NCAA or the NIT you get a nice half-page preview with a complete roster. If not, you will be disappointed by the coverage.

Which magazine to get? At the time of writing only this one and Lindy's are available. I haven't looked at Lindy's this year, but I do recommend the Athlon assuming you do not object to its shortcomings.


Get Ready for the 2007-2008 season!

Scout the teams by getting 2006-2007 NCAA tournaments on DVD! from Amazon.

Shop for your favorite college's gear, apparel, licensed products, books and DVDs at Amazon.com!

Also be sure to check out my Gigantic 2007-2008 online preview of links to online previews

Get historic and classic college basketball dvds from Amazon!

Sprawl on the couch and draw plays like a real coach!.

If you liked this review, and you want to see more magazines reviewed, please let me know!

If you are a publisher and you want your magazine to be mercilessly reviewed, please let me know!

If you are a billionaire and you loved this review, and you want to send me a million dollar check, I'll gladly take it!

Meet the new Phil Martelli book: Don't Call Me Coach: A Lesson Plan for Life

Phil Martelli's new book has been released! You can buy it now! It can be yours for $17 or so at Amazon. The title is Don't Call Me Coach: A Lesson Plan for Life, although my alternate title is "Don't call me Coach, call me David Letterman!". The hardcover book is 240 pages long, published by Camino Books. And yes, St Joe's fans will be thrilled to find out the Hawk is on the front cover. And I'm sure there will be references to Martelli's Hawk Talk television sidekick, Mr Bracketology, Joe Lunardi. Ten episodes of Hawk Talk air nationally during the basketball season on CSTV, and on local/regional stations near Philly.

Monday Night Hoops

2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!

Pitt point guard LeVance Fields had a ...stunning performance, but not the kind that gets you applause.

The latest Publish or Parrish column says Billy Donovan is a family man that's what kept him eventually down at Gainsville. Perhaps he could have spared everyone the drama if he had answered the Orlando Tragic offer by a Hall/Oates classic: "Family Man" :-)

Also from the desk of Parrish, John Beilein's honeymoon is over at Borders Bookstores. Ooops, I mean, Ann Arbor :-) Getting unknown and unranked recruits did not sit well with the Michigan Amakerines. But you need Beilein-type players to play Beilein-ball and two-guard "oaffense".

Goodman tinkers with the luck of Irish (Digger Phelps not included).

Yes, Kyle "420" McAlarney, a victim of the war on saving face, is back with the Domers!

Are you a blogger who wants to join a Blogger's Poll? There is one in the works at March to Madness!

And some west coast love, the West Coast Basketball blog is disecting the Pac-10 OOC schedules. How many cupcakes is Ben Howland eating this year? Will Kevin O'Neill out-do Ben Howland in psychotic sidelines behavior? Will USC fans drink OJ with their mayo to make it through the season? Read on to find out!

More tidbits and wisdoms from the Hoops Coach

DeCourcy dishes on Michigan State, Ohio State and Washington. Some of the players getting props: Chris Allen, Kosta Koufos and ex-Stanfordite Tim Morris playing for family member/coach Lo Romar.

The CHN Top 144 previews continue with West Virginia (now with more Huggins!), Cal, LSU, Wichita State, Providence, Oklahoma State, UNLV and ODU.

The Rivals Top 64 continue with Southern Illinois, Arkansas, Butler, Kentucky and Ohio State

Former Sutton State wing Byron Houston gets in trouble for indecent exposure. Is it it or is this a quasi-Orwellian term?

The Rivals Braintrust picks the worst BCS conference. ACC and Big Ten nation, do not read, you will be upset/disappointed ;-)

The Weekly Rewind Repor(t)

I took a few days off from daily updates and the new news have piled up! So here we go! But first, did you know that almost all the 2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games are available on DVD?

The Blogosphere Files

SEC Hoops GBD starts disecting the 2007-2008 SEC team schedules.

March to Madness looks at OJ Mayo mania, Xavier's schedule and a lot more!

A round-up of round ups at Rush the Court

The CAA Hoops blog returns from vacation and catches up with the Colonial

MMAS looks at the transfers. Nicely done since the transfers usually get forgotten a little bit because they have to sitout a whole year (unless they are Fall transfers in which case they get to play in the Spring of the following year).

TAD (Truth about Duke) is now available on MySpace. You can be their friend! Take that Coach Dirty Dracula Rat K!

A number of tidbits for fellow coaches and basketball players by the Hoops Coach

Tired of all the negative news from the world of sports? Check some of the good news instead!

News from Philly and beyond at College Hoops Heaven

Dick Hoops Weiss lets us know that Nova great Ed Pinckney has left Nova for the NBA wonderland, specifically Kevin McHale's Celtics TimberGophers. He also has an update on 7-footer (actually 7'2") John Riek. Also from DHW his take on the Morris twins leaving Memphis and now having an interesting list of six schools (two in the NY/NJ area, two in Philly, Huggins and Kansas). Also an update via HoopScoop's Ron Neclario: Sylven Landesberg is down to just three colleges now. Check the Dick Hoops Weiss blog for the details.


The Goodman Files

Goodman celebrates the Jewish new year by spotlighting six Jewish college basketball coaches. He also gives us his selection for the best Jewish NBA basketball player.

Next he looks at the recruiting success of Kelvin Sampson at Indiana. He also talks about the recruiting success of Steve Alford (thanks to his brand new assistant)

The troubles at Sutton State continue, while Gregggg Marshall gets his first 2008 commit.

More from Goodman: The NCAA allows the new Wake Forest coach special re-recruiting access, the Morris Twins Memphis saga, Greg Monroe's final eight schools (with in-home visits planned), and a quick update on Bill Self

The recruiting wars for 7-2 John Riek may amount to nothing as he enrolls as a post-graduate.

FoxSports.com needs to fix their censoring web servers. A mention of Rudy Gay turns into Rudy BLEEP. A mention of sophomore turns into sopBLEEPre.


The Kentucky Files

30 days to Midnight Madness according to A Sea of Blue who has a write-up on the reactions to Billy Clyde Gillispie. Also there a story on Adolph Rupp and a discussion of an alleged interview with Larry Conley (yes, the white haired grandpa from FSN's ACC Sunday Night Hoops was a very good player in his time).

WildCats Thunder looks at Kentucky's recruiting and spotlights 2008 recruit Rodnei Clarke. They also discuss the hiring of Tracy Webster as the 3rd assistant coach.

An update on Kentucky from Goodman's blog talking about the recent addition of a new wing and their final assistant coach

DeCourcy discusses the Billy Gillispie era at Kentucky

Kentucky Sports Radio has the scoop from assistant coach Glen Cyprien on who might be a surprise performer this season

Big Orlando Allen, formerly committed to Seton Hall, now at JuCo, is visiting Kentucky according to Kentucky Ink

Kentucky is featured as #28 in Rivals Top 64


The AASAA Files

DeCourcy looks at the chances of the Memphis Tigers in 2007-08 with an emphasis on Willie Kemp who will be in Derrick Rose's shadow this season before re-taking over the team in 2008-09, as Roses is expected to have a ...rosy 2008 NBA Draft.

"Babysit my kids", Calipari screamed while overlooking Beale Street. Well not quite, but that's the message he is sending Tigers fans.

More on the Tigers troubles from DeCourcy

Lots of updates on the AASAA offense (aka Drible Motion Offense) at the Vance Walbert Nation blog. There you will find out about a new coaching DVD on the dribble motion offense by Herb Welling, Pepperdine games on the ESPN family of networks, a CSTV story on Walberg's offense talking about the new converts of the AASAA philosophy (Mark Turgeon, Jamie Dixon, John Pelphrey). These and a lot more!

And a slightly older article from DeCourcy Pepperdine's AASAA offense as a recruiting tool.


The DeCourcy Files

DeCoury looks at Roy Williams in the Hall of Fame and discusses (and discounts) his success at Kansas. DeCourcy seems to significantly overweigh NCAA titles and underweigh the crazy winning record Ole Roy had at Kansas.

There is a Bob Dylan song about upcoming hard days, it could be Florida's theme song for 07-08. More on this from DeCourcy

DeCourcy has a write-up on Illinois but he seems to discount all the losses, from recruiting losses, current roster personnel losses and even assistant coach losses! Somebody's been drinking the Bruce Weber kool-aid!


The CBS Sportsline Files

420 poster boy is on a return orbit to Planet Zags. I hate to bring common sense into this, but smoking herbs is no worse than smoking a cigarette or drinking a beer.

Duquesne coach Ron Everhart is out of the hospital according to CBS Sportsline

A probe at Ball State shows no racial bias

In the Publish or Parrish segment, a look at the Oklahoma Dookies

How is Donnie Jones doing at Marshal?

Tom Izzo installs? gets a new AD at Michigan State

Not so good news for NC State as one of their incoming freshmen is already out for the season. As you may recall the team had a hard time filling up their rotation last year because of personnel losses.


The Rivals Files

A look at Notre Dame's Troy Jackson. Also in that story you will find a list of the 2006-2007 Big East All Rookie Team.

Speaking of which I'm glad Hasheem Shot-Blocking Thabeet is back! Not because of the excitement of watching a 10 blocked shots in a game but also because it opens the door for a drinking game!. Drink every time Thabeet blocks a shot! And by drink of course I mean drink milk, orange juice, water, green tea or calorie-free carbonated water ;-)

The Rivals Power Duo picks their top conference for 07-08

A round-up of news from Rivals, including two teams without a head coach (yes, in the middle of September), updates on Luc Richar(d) etc of UCLA, a promotion at Purdue, and the stockpiling of high profile D1 transfers at Louisiana Tech (latest recount: total of three)

Andrew Skwara opens the mailbag and finds questions on Georgetown, Gary Williams Terps, charmer Kevin O'Neill at Arizona, and Providence's chances's

Did you miss any of the Rivals top 64 previews? Worry not, you can catchup with all of them from #28 to #64. The latest teams profiled: Kentucky, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Washington, The Zags, Cal 420, and Villanova.


The NCAA Hoops Today Files

I will start reviewing the College Basketball Preview Magazines! The first one will be the 2007-2008 Athlon which I picked up from Borders Bookstores. Expect this review to be published before Monday morning!

Don't forget out gigantic 2007-2008 preview of links. If there are any websites or blogs you think have a topic that belogns there, let me know!

2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!

Discover new college basketball websites, blogs and forums

Before the new season starts and we all get glued to the TV or the computer watching game after game, here are some websites that you may find of interest. I just recently added them to my list of college basketball links.

Now let me do my best Dick Vitale impersonation to introduce them to you:

Let's start with the SEC baby, with the SEC Hoops: The Good, the Bad and the Dirty blog covering SEC Hoops and hoops in general. Hey, how about the Kentucky Wildcats with new Coach Billy Gillispie? Check the Wildcats Thunder blog, and the Wildcats Thunder messageboards. They are loaded with basketball baby! Also from the UK blogosphere we have the The Wildcat Blog. It's awesome with capital W!

Hey, while I'm having my breakfast here at the Broken Egg with my buddies Dan Shulman, Howie Schwabb and a VP from ESPN, and text messaging with Peyton Manning, Alex Rodriguez and Tiger Woods, let's check out some grass roots basketball blogs. Hey, what about the new offense by Vance Walberg baby? Calipari is using it baby but not at full speed. This blog has been created as a resource for coaches and fans of all levels to learn more about it, it's the Vance Walberg Nation. Also at the grass roots level it's Real Recruits

Hey, how about some more websites talking college hoops! It's never too early to start the March to Madness baby! And I know you can't wait to Rush the Court baby. It's awesome with capital A!

Hey where's the ESPN make-up artist? My bold dome is shining and I can't see the computer screen baby. I have to finish this post and go watch 23 live baseball games in a row!

TV guide September 11 to September 20

Do read this! All times pacific, for live games add +3 for eastern, adjust for other time zones... Listings can change at any time, please double check with your local provider prior to airtime... I am boycotting ESPNU tv listings until Comcast and ESPN reach a compromise and make ESPNU available to their millions of customers

The Big Ten Network went live on August 30, 2007 with Big 10 college football action! Details at the Big Ten Network website. There you will find that 36 of their 39 college football games will be in high definition. Dave Revsine (of ESPN fame) will be the studio anchor/host, with FSN's Charles Davies and Thom (pronounced Tom, but looks fancier on papier) Brennaman doing the games.

High school and recruiting-related tv coverage has been moved here instead of creating a separate post at Recruiting Wars. There is very little on TV to begin with, and this creates a one-stop shop.

Almost every 2007 NCAA men's college basketball tournament game on dvd


Summary: As you can see, this is probably the slowest week of the year in terms of basketball coverage!


College Basketball Game Repeats

Only one game, Sat Sept 22, at 930am on Fox College Sports. Not known which game it will be (obviously a repeat!)

Every 2007 NCAA men's college basketball tournament game on dvd


College Football Games

John Clay's Sidelines Report blog posts a weekly TV schedule of football games. The local networks listed are for Kentucky but the games are most likely shown on most other local networks as well. Football TV listings. As always check your local listings for channel numbers and airtimes.


Recruiting related listings

Fri Sept 14, 3pm, Future Phenoms, repeats, on Fox College Sports. This is a 30min magazine show with legendary Pat Summerall spotlighting some of the upcoming student-athletes. Regularly features basketball players such as Kevin Love, Dallas Lauderdale, Jarryd Bayless, Nick Calathes, and more.

HoopScoop on Radio every Sunday night from 10pm to midnight (EST, 7pm to 9pm PDT) with Clark Francis and Ron Neclario (the coach of Cardozo in New York). This is a live internet radio show but don't worry, you can listen to it at any time online. FREE and no subscription required.

Webcasts of AAU summerball and more at HSBNetwork.tv. Lots of games to chose from. This is unprecedented for basketball fans as before the internets the only way to see the future superstars play was to actually go to the camps. Not anymore! There's webcasts and DVDs too.


Documentaries and more

Wedn Sept 12, GLORY ROAD, on the Encore family of channels. Repeats a few more times during the week on either Encore or Starz Blackz: Thur Sept 13, Fri Sept 14, Thur Sept 20, and Fri Sept 21. Check your local listings for exact airtime and channel availability.

Thur Sept 13, 6am, SportsCentury featuring Dean Smith, ESPN Classic.

Fri Sept 14, 1230pm, Books and Basketball with Princeton great Bill Bradley on NBA-TV. Repeats Sat Sept 15 and Sun Sept 23.

Wedn Sept 19, 930am, NCAA on Campus, on ESPN Classic. The show ends with Winston (student-athletes) asking Big Brother (Myles Brand) NCAA-related questions.

Every 2007 NCAA men's college basketball tournament game on dvd



Movies Movies Movies

The TV series "White Shadow" has some repeats on NBA-TV

The movie Glory Road (the story of the 1966 Texas Western with head coach Don Haskins) repeats multiple times on the Starz family of channels and now on Encore.

Other movies on rotation: Basketball Diaries on Sundance, Hoosiers on AMC, He got Game on Starz Black, Harvard Man on Showtime and TMC family of channels, Slam Dunk Ernest on Starz, Rebound (2005) on HBO, The Sixth Man on Starz and Encore, Air Bud on the Animal Planet, Blue Chips on CineMax, The Year of the Yao at the Sundance Channel

The series Arliss is repeating on ESPN Classic. Some episodes are basketball related.

The short film "Hoops" (around 20 minutes) repeats on BYU-TV on Monday Sept 3 at 535pm and 835pm. This is a religious-themed short as the tv station name may hint at :)

please check with local listings for airtimes of the movies


Directly from the Source

Listings for FSN and Fox College Sports (FCS) (actually all Fox related channels, including Soccer, Espagnol, Speed, but those dont usually show basketball games).

The Big Ten Network two week schedule

Some of the basketball games, documentaries and movies mentioned in the listings are available on DVD! You can purchase them from Amazon.com via the affiliate link here or the Amazon logos in the blog.

College Basketball Books!

Coming in September: Blog look cleanup!

During the month of September I will try to clean up this blog's look and feel. Granted I don't like pages to be totally organized, but this one has gotten a little bit out of control :-) But do not worry, if you like the chaotic feel, it will be retained :-)

Also if you have a website or blog and you want to see it included among the other college basketball sites listed here, just let me know. This only for college basketball and related sites, please do not expect an ice cream recipe or elephant biology blog to be relevant :-) The email is on the left column under "Contact via email". Or send to ncaahoops blah blah to confuse spam bots, at gmail dot com blah blah :) The blah blah is not part of the email address, they are there to confuse the harvesters of email addresses :-)

Live Blogging the 2007 Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement

Last but certainly not least, as he was saved for last by the planners of the event is Philip. Philip being of course Phil Jackson of the Chicago Lakers and the Los Angeles Bulls (ha!). Now Philip, aka the Zenmaster, takes the podium as the last inductee of the 2007 class.

Mini-controversy brewing? One of the Texas Western players took exception to a previous comment by Roy Wiliams. I do not know if he was joking or not.

Next up is the 1966 Texas Western team, enshrined as a team, for not only their basketball feat and but also for the sociopolitical impact of their achievement. The events are chronicled in the movie Glory Road. One of the players, David Lattin chronicles this in his book From Dunk to Glory

The ceremonies are running longer than expected, clearly this is going to last longer than the two hours alloted.

New humanitarian award bearing the name of Harlem Globetroters boss Mannie Jackson is given to 2nd best shot-blocker of the NBA Dikembe Mutombo. Among others, Big John (John Thompson), Zo (Alonzo Mourning) and ... Bill Clinton (among others) are singing his praises in a video tribute. Mutombo did not show up for the ceremony because he is in South Africa participating in a Basketball Without Borders. But he pre-recorded a video acceptance speech.

Next in is zebra (referee) Mindy Rundolph, who passed away in 1979 with a video tribute with NBA superscout Marty Blake, Bill Russell and Jerry "The Logo" West talking among others. West says: "you can't coach judgment"

A video tribute to Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics just aired.

Ole Roy is welcomed to the Hall of Fame by Dean Smith and Larry Brown. Ole Roy mentions the crying part, that's why he wrote his speech. He has five minutes, there's no way he's not gonna cry!... Ole Roy goes through his life and career, and makes special mention of the 1966 Texas Western team... There we go, his voice is breaking! Roy is about to cry! - when talking about his older Kansas teams. Now he is composed again. But the tears are coming!. But he did it, he did not break down into full-blown tears!

Mext up is Ole Roy, aka Roy Williams with video praises sang by Dean Smith, Billy Cunningham, Michael Jordan, Kirk Hinrich, Larry "crazy" Brown, Sean May and more. Ole Roy ain't that good? He is Hall of Fame good!

The camera catches the Carolina posse sitting together and near by: Dean Smith, Larry Brown and Sean May. This during the acceptance speech fo Yugoslavian coach Mirko Novosel, famous for turning Cibona Zagreb (sp?) for a European powerhouse team.

Al McCoy the 35 year voice of the Phoenix Suns (Shazaaaaam!) earned the Curt Gowdy video award. Malcolm Moran (sp?) won the print award (fishwrap writer). Zack Sanders (sp?) (former Celtic) won the Bunn lifetime achievement award.

During the commercial break, in a PSA, NBA players are urging the audience to get tested (testing411.org - multimedia heavy website!)

A video tribute to Hall of Famer Paul Arizin who died in 2006 is now airing.

Someone who looks like Jay Bilas is spotted by the camera. Not sure if it is Jay Bilas.

Lou Carnesecca and former FIBA boss Boris Stankovic are singing the praises of Spanish basketball coach inductee Perro Ferrandiz. He is introduced by Lou Carnasecca and CM Newton. No subtitles but there is a translator on-hand. It's not a live translation though, the "translator" is reading from paper. So he could be telling dirty jokes and no one would know ;-)

Current Hall of Famers attending the ceremonies are recognized: Bob Cousy, Phil Sherman (sp?), James Worthy, Lanette Woodard (sp?).

And a TV programming note for ESPN Classic: Right after the Hall of Fame Enshrinement event ends, a 60 minutes on Classic will feature Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson. After that, a 60 minute edit of the 1966 NCAA final between Texas Western (now UTEP) and Kentucky. That will be followed at 10pm EST / 7pm pacific with a 90 minute edit of the 2005 NCAA final between the Bruce Webber Fightining Illini almost-undefeateds and Ole Roy's North Carolina with May, Felton and Moody Blues lead singer McCants.

Next up, two European coaches are enshrined: Perro Ferrandiz (brought the fast break to Euroball and building a 15-year empire in Real Madrid of Madrid in the 60s and 70s) and Mirko Novosel (Yugoslavian coach)

Now they are showing a feature with Roy Williams and Van Chancellor visiting local schools and talking to kids.

Meanwhile I am taking bets!, will Roy Williams cry and if so, how early? Will he make it past his speech without crying?

First up is women's basketball coach (both college, WNBA, and Team USA) is Van Chancellor. Pat Summit is walking him in the Hall of Fame. Van Chancellor currently has the podium telling us stories from his career.

Mike Breen (not to be confused with Star Trek Deep Space Nine Breen) is the event announcer. Russ Granik takes the mike as the chairman of the board of trustees.

The presentation starts with a short visual introduction of the seven peopleteams entering the Basketball HoF (Hall of Fame) this year

Right now, live on ESPN Classic and NBA-TV with Andre Aldridge hosting along with Walt Frazier (was roomies with Phil Jackson at one point) and former Ole Roy player Paul Pierce. The Class of 2007 will join all the others in just a couple of hours! I hope the NCAA doesn't get upset because I'm liveblogging while sitting in front of hte TV and the computer ;-) It's the same broadcast on NBA-TV and ESPN-Classic, so you are not missing anything if you have one but not the other.

Check my older post playing a game of Hall of Fame IN or OUT - before the inductees were announced

Newer posts will appear on top (reverse chronological order)

The Hall of Fame plans a Magical Mystery Tour

The Basketball Hall of Fame will embark on a Magical Mystery Tour

From the Publish or Parrish desk, a look at Clemson, still reeling from their 17-0 (false) start. Play fewer cupcakes Clemson and perhaps you won't have such an epic meltdown this time around :)

Dick Hoops Weiss has the scoop on the new DoBO at St Johns, Rutgers 2007-2008 schedule, and a heads-up on the newest installment of the magazine show "Inside the Big East". DoBO for those wondering = Director of Basketball Operations. But wait there's more from Weiss: St Johns has announced their 07-08 schedule as well

A feel good AP story on Ole Roy and Dean Smith. Ole Roy will be enshrined in the basketball hall of fame tomorrow (Friday). The ceremony can be seen on ESPN Classic and NBA-TV, with repeats on NBA-TV and later on ESPN2. I am boycotting ESPNU tv listings unless ESPN and Comcast reach an agreement to carry the network. To borrow a Jim Rome Jungle phrase, if you want ESPNU, bang your monkey!

College hoops updates with emphasis on the Mountain West and San Diego State at March To Madness. Included is the SDSU's conference schedule for 2007-2008 with TV coverage. Thanks to CSTV/The Mtn every game will be televised in MWC areas.

More Colonial updates at CAA Hoops. I'm sure Jim Calhoun enjoys reading that site ;-)

The Fighting Digger Phelps's have gotten a Top 40 ranking in the Rivals preseason Top 64. And highly respected Bob McKillop at Davidson gets a top 40 ranking as well. Having high scoring Stephen Curry certainly helps. Insert something about the apple and the apple tree here :)

Another Bob, McClelland of Rivals writes about Ron Steele and DeMarre Carroll

Tired of reading about athletes getting in trouble or doing stupid things or torturing animals for their amusement? You have an alternative: Good News in Sports! covers positive and inspirational stories from the world of sports.

The 144 previews at CHN continue with Holy Cross, Western Michigan and Bob Knight Tech (aka Texas Tech). I doubt Bob Knight is high tech. Imagine what would happen if Knight's Windows computer blue-screens! The computer will fly out of the ...Windows :)

More coverage from CHN (College Hoops Net): A daily blog from Shawn Siegel and March Madness All Season. Siegel won't yet reveal CHN's preseason #1 but has a list of candidates.

Don't miss our Gigantic 2007-2008 preview of links. Links to previews from websites and blogs! If you have a preview or if your favorite websites are not listed there, please let me know and I'll add them.

Another must read blog is the the Zags blog by Adam Zagoria, not to be confused with Gonzaga Zags. But if you are looking for Gonzaga Zags, check La rev. Among other things, there's a hillbilly reference.

Last but not least, Dick Vitale reveals his 2007-2008 Top 40 teams. It's awesome baby! I'm unbelievable baby! I'm loud and obnoxious baby! And I'm fair and balanced baby, I didn't rank Duke in the top 11! I preach moral values but I can't keep my hands off cheerleaders not half, but a third my age! Buy my books baby! Book me for your next corporate event baby! I eat breakfast at the Broken Egg baby! ;-)

The Mid-Week Repor(t)

One thing I forgot to mention that came up during the FIBA games: Coach Dirty Rat K was the braintrust's 2nd choice behind Greg Popovich who declined. And if you can read between the lines of what the analysts said, it is Jason Kidd who deserves most of the credit for Team USA's smooth sailing, not Dracula K. Okay give Kobe some credit too. The difference between this Team USA and the ones from the previous years should make it clear how important a true point guard is to a team. It's no coincidence that Jason Kidd is undefeated as a member of Team USA! So send the thank you notes to Jason Kidd, not to Dracula K!

Rivals's Andrew Skwara puts on his book reviewer hat as he looks at Dane Bradshaw's new book Vertical Leap: Inside the rise of Tennessee basketball

Everybody's favorite CBS writer Gregggg Doyelll is back with an anti-OJ Mayo mania story. Is there a history between Doyell and OJ Mayo?

Goodman continues to report on the travelling colleges, today's travellers are Villanova, Marquette and James Madison. As mentioned before, the four guard line-up is coming back at Nova! Marquette may also go with a four guard line-up but just like Villanova they have some flexibility with their line-up. James Madison looks to create a stir in the CAA with two impact transfers who were coaches by two "personalities" (Phil Martelli and Bob Knight).

Dick Hoops Weiss chimes in on Calipari's Attack Arrest Shout Attack Arrest offense. Meanwhile things are getting ugly at Duquesne. Mike Davis says his five UAB troublemakers will be disciplined (three of which were transfers and another one was an AAU teammate of some high profile hoopsters). This concludes today's Trouble Repor(t).

ASoB has an interesting piece as they look at the careers of Pitino, Eddie Sutton, Tubby Smith and Billy Gillispie before they took the Kentucky job.

Round-up of some of the latest happenings at College Hoops Heaven, including a tidbit on Jordan's son Jeffrey and his college career.

DeCourcy blogs about Alabama's Ron Steele (whose brother also committed there)

The Big 12 finds a new commissioner after their previous commissioner decided he wanted to be the Tina Fey of the Big Ten Network :)

One last note, yesterday's post title said "Monday Night Hoops" even though it was clearly Tuesday :)


Impromptu 2007-2008 Season Preview Round-up

March Madness All Season has a new 2007-2008 preview piece: Six teams that could from the NIT to the NCAA

Speaking of previews, CHN's Top 144 continues with Bob Knight Tech, Northern Iowa and troubled Duquesne who made headlines for the wrong reasons the last couple of weeks.

Meanwhile the Rivals Top 64 continues with back2back champions the Florida Gators

CAAHoops@Wordpress reviews Lindy's preseason preview of the CAA (Colonial)

From the desk of Publish or Parrish, some 2007-2008 quick-hitters-style preview looking at freshmen, point guards and mid-majors

Looking for more preview stories? You are in luck! Check our Gigantic 2007-2008 preview links

Early bird Monday Night Hoops

New updates at Goodman's blog at Fox Sports: Updates on the labor day trips of Oklahoma, Duquesne and OJ Mayo Mania at USC. Goodman quotes USC assistant Bob Cantu on OJ Mayo: "He was very unselfish and was poised running the point”. Because of flood damage, the Trojans were only able to play one game, which kept Mayo and Jefferson's average high :) Also be sure to read the Random Notes with updates on USC, Minnessota, Jamel White, Leonard Washington and more. More from Goodman as he reports on the off-court trouble at Conference USA (Memphis and UAB - ironically the top two teams of C-USA next season). Infact Conference USA is gonna be tougher this year with Southern Miss expected by preseason pollster to be a top 60 team and of course you can never discount Turnaround Tom's team

It's Publish or Parrish at CBS Sportsline where GP talks about the Memphis Tigers, and he even gives us the Top 5 teams of 2008-2009.

Rivals picks the mid-major conferences to watch for 2007-2008. It's hard to write one of those things without one of the leagues or teams being offended for being called mid-majors but what are you gonna do?

Speakign of Rivals, Skwara's mailbag talks of Washington, South Florida, Oklahoma, LSU, and St John's Red Storm (not Redmen)

CAA Hoops blogger reviews the CAA coverage of the first college basketball preview magazine of the season. If you are wondering which one is that, it is the one that comes in early every year - check your local newsstand or check my magazine reviews from last year to find out which one that would be :)

A link via A Sea of Blue on parallels between the football loss of Michigan by Appi State and the Duke/Kentucky basketball game.

The Top 144 CHN previews continue with Duquense, while the Rivals T op 64 previews continue with the Virginia Cavaliers featuring Iverson-Lite (Sean Singletary)

Still "recovering from their undefeated season", the Clemson Tigers are now under under the DeCourcy microscope. He also reports of a space-eater arriving at Indiana at 350 lbs, and the zebras are already cringing at the thought of coaches and players calling it "a Donaghy call". Well then can eject the coaches and the players, but they can't eject the fans. The signs will be there, the chants will be there, the t-shirts will be there. Get ready zebras, brace yourselves you are the Donaghy genaration!

And something for the football fans, John Clay's Sidelines report has created a list of football games on TV this week, both on network and cable TV. The local channels mentioned are for KY, but you can probably find the games at your local network affiliate and regional FSN channel.

TV guide September 3 to September 15

Do read this! All times pacific, for live games add +3 for eastern, adjust for other time zones... Listings can change at any time, please double check with your local provider prior to airtime... I am boycotting ESPNU tv listings until Comcast and ESPN reach a compromise and make ESPNU available to their millions of customers

The Big Ten Network went live on August 30, 2007 with Big 10 college football action! Details at the Big Ten Network website. There you will find that 36 of their 39 college football games will be in high definition. Dave Revsine (of ESPN fame) will be the studio anchor/host, with FSN's Charles Davies and Thom (pronounced Tom, but looks fancier on papier) Brennaman doing the games.

High school and recruiting-related tv coverage at Recruiting Wars. No games, just reruns of Future Phenoms this week.

Almost every 2007 NCAA men's college basketball tournament game on dvd


College Basketball Game Repeats

There is no coincidence these two games were scheduled, both the 1966 Texas Western team and Roy Williams are going into the Hall of Fame earlier in the day! See our listings below for tv coverage of the Hall of Fame induction ceremony to be covered on ESPN Classic and NBA-TV

Fri Sept 7, at 7pm, 1966 NCAA Tournament Championship, Texas Western vs Kentucky, one hour edit, at ESPN Classic

Fri Sept 7, at 8pm, 2006 NCAA Tournament Championship, Illinois vs North Carolina, one hour edit, at ESPN Classic

Every 2007 NCAA men's college basketball tournament game on dvd


FIBA Americas Championship LIVE from Las Vegas!

all times pacific, check local listings for details

The games are also available at live webcasts online at ESPN360

Mon Sept 3 at 1pm, repeat of the Gold medal game between Team USA and Team Arjentina on NBA-TV. Both teams have qualified for the 2008 Olympics.

Mon Sept 10 at noon, the 1972 Olympic final, USA vs USSR, 90 minutes long on ESPN Classic. Followed at 130pm by an episode of SportsCentury covering this very game, also on ESPN Classic.


Documentaries and more

Mon Sept 3, GLORY ROAD, on Encore. Repeats a few more times during the week on either Encore or Starz Blackz: Wedn Sept 5, Sat Sept 8 Wedn Sept 12, Thur Sept 14, and Fri Sept 14. Check your local listings for exact airtime and channel availability.

Mon Sept 3, at 330pm, "The Heart of the Game" (2005): Filmmaker Ward Serrill profiles Bill Resler, a university professor who coaches a girls basketball team at a Washington state high school on Starz Cinema. Repeats on Starz Black on Saturday Sept 8 and Sept 15.

Tue Sept 4, 430pm, Pistol Pete Diaries on Fox College Sports

Wedn Sept 5, NBA-TV recaps previous Basketball Hall of Fame inductions, 1998 at 3pm and 2000 at 5pm. These are edited for time (obviously)

Thur Sept 6, at 4am, Harlem Globetrotters: The "Crown Princes of Basketball" bring laughs and ball-handling wizardry to fans across the world on the Biography Channel.

Thur Sept 6, NBA-TV repeats the HoF Induction ceremonies of 2002 at 230pm and 230am

Fri Sept 7, NBA-TV repeats the 2003 HoF ceremony at 2pm, 630pm and 2am

Fri Sept 7, 430pm, 2007 Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, LIVE, from Springfield, Mass, the home of the basketball hall of fame, on ESPN Classic and NBA-TV. Repeats at 430am on NBA-TV

Sat Sept 8, 3pm, Pistol Pete Diaries on Fox College Sports

Sat Sept 8, 4pm, repeat: 2007 Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony from Springfield, Mass on NBA-TV. A repeat. Also ESPN2 will air a one hour edit later on. Stay tuned for more details.

Sat Sept 8, 3pm, Howard Stern: Naked Basketball, In-Demand Pay Per View. Oops! Why is this even listed here?

Tue Sept 11, 430pm, Pistol Pete Diaries on Fox College Sports

Thur Sept 13, 6am, SportsCentury featuring Dean Smith, ESPN Classic.

Every 2007 NCAA men's college basketball tournament game on dvd



NBA Summer League

NBATV and webcast schedule at NBA.com for the whole month of July 2007


Movies Movies Movies

The TV series "White Shadow" has some repeats on NBA-TV

The movie Glory Road (the story of the 1966 Texas Western with head coach Don Haskins) repeats multiple times on the Starz family of channels and now on Encore.

Other movies on rotation: Basketball Diaries on Sundance, Hoosiers on AMC, He got Game on Starz Black, Harvard Man on Showtime and TMC family of channels, Slam Dunk Ernest on Starz, Rebound (2005) on HBO, The Sixth Man on Starz and Encore, Air Bud on the Animal Planet, Blue Chips on CineMax, The Year of the Yao at the Sundance Channel

The series Arliss is repeating on ESPN Classic. Some episodes are basketball related.

The short film "Hoops" (around 20 minutes) repeats on BYU-TV on Monday Sept 3 at 535pm and 835pm. This is a religious-themed short as the tv station name may hint at :)

please check with local listings for airtimes of the movies


Directly from the Source

Listings for FSN and Fox College Sports (FCS) (actually all Fox related channels, including Soccer, Espagnol, Speed, but those dont usually show basketball games).

The Big Ten Network two week schedule

Some of the basketball games, documentaries and movies mentioned in the listings are available on DVD! You can purchase them from Amazon.com via the affiliate link here or the Amazon logos in the blog.

Weekend update (OJ Mayo Mania officially began!)

The OJ Mayo Mania officially began as USC defeated a team in Mexico as part of their Labor Day international trip. Their two touted incoming freshmen, OJ Mayo and Devon Jefferson scored 29 points each. Jefferson is not a freshman-freshman, he spent two years after HS (and his all-star game appearance) in post-graduate schools. USC Trojan fans could be pleasantly surprised if the duo is able to deliver such performance on a nightly basis. And Tim Floyd will need to recruit someone to replace Jefferson in 2008-2009. But hey, it was just one exhibition game! Let's not get too carried away!

2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!

Recruiting talk at Recruiting Wars

Ole Roy going to the New Hall (of Fame) at CBS Sportsline. The ceremony will be carried on ESPN Classic and NBA-TV. Repeats on NBA-Tv, and a one-hour edit will be broadcast later on on ESPN2.

Apparently Calipari's players took the Attack aspect of the AASAA offense outside the court as they were involved in Beale street drama (fight). With Derrick Rose and high preseason rankings, the spotlight is shining on Memphis and when the spotlight is shining, the microscope also turns on! Gary Parrish reminds us of UAB's recent bar troubles as well. New definition of the AASAA offense: Attack, Arrest, Shout, Attack, Arrest.

Dick Hoops Weiss has an update on Robert Mitchell's transfer from Duquense to Seton Hall. Gonzo was unable to get Shaheen Halloway back as an assistant but he got this transfer in. And he gets a solid player for the scout squad for the upcoming season.

The Big 12 is signed, sealed and delivered to ESPN until 2016. No indepdendant Big 12 TV network but a rebranded co-ESPN syndication (or something like that). Big 12 hoops fans will be thrilled to find out that they are guaranteed three Big 12 games on ESPN or ESPN2 every week.

Speaking of which, the Big Ten Network made its debut on August 30, 2007. Their TV schedule for the next two weeks is here

Not enough college hoops news yet? Well go over to CSTV's News Archives with dozens of stories per week. Dozens for real! Go and check it out! But be warned, their website is dancing with multimedia, almost as bad as ESPN's. Editorial Note: Why do all these clueless people with a web design program at their disposal think they can waste everyone's badnwidth and cpu cycles with an obnoxiously MySpace-like amount of multimedia and bloatware?

Do you have unanswered or difficult college hoops questions? Don't ask me! Ask Andrew Skwara of Rivals

And some sad news about Jameer Nelson's dad


2007-2008 Preview Quick Hitters

CHN's Top 144 previews continue with Duquesne and Miami of Florida

The Rivals Top 64 previews continue with Vandy and Xavier

A Sea of Blue profiles Joe Crawford of Kentucky

Rivals profiles David Lighty of Ohio State. With Oden and Conley in the NBA$, the other touted recruits will get a chance to shine.