If you missed the Sunday edition of ESPN's Outside the Lines discussing Starbury's (Stephon Marbury's shoes), you can watch it again on today's 3pm eastern (noon pacific) Outside the Lines (OTL) on ESPN. This will be the centerpiece story and they will be discussing his controversial (in a good way) $15 shoe (pair of shoes actually). Inpsired by Starbury, Ben Wallace and Venus Williams have followed suit with affordable gear. Shaq-daddy had done some of that too. Details at the OTL page.
The regular blog updates as you may have guessed are running a little late :)
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Starbury's shoes on Outside the Lines
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Reminder, NBA League Pass free week long pay per view preview starts today
Reminder, the NBA League Pass free week long pay per view preview starts today! Check with your local cable or satellite providers for more details. Also, in systems where NBA-TV is available, it will be included in the free preview. Enjoy the 82 mostly meaningless games NBA season :-)
And while we are on the topic of TV, today's Outside the Lines deals with Fear, Stephen King, Joe Torre and The Yankees.
And Apple fans will be thrilled to find out that the new Apple Leopard Operating system is now shipping!
Saturday, October 27, 2007
The Blogosphere Files
Let's see what the fellow bloggers on the nets are talking about! Remember, we are just one week away from the first televised exhibition games!
Outside the Lines feature on Starbury and his shoes
The Sunday edition of ESPN's critically acclaimed Outside the Lines will be featuring a story on Stephon Marbury, his shoes and his new found causes. Among the topics will be Starbury's $15 shoe, in collabaration with Steve & Barry's University Sportswear, which are bringing out new budget priced lines with Ben Wallace and Venus Williams.
The guests on the Sunday 930am eastern time episode of OTL are T.J. Quinn, New York Daily News Investigative Sportswriter, and Scoop Jackson, ESPN.com Page 2 Writer, author of Sole Provider - 30 Years of NIKE Basketball.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
The mid-week repor(t) - 10 days to tip-off
Yes, basketball fans we are just 10 days away from the first televised exhibition games which according to my calculations are home games for Arizona with Enforcer Kevin O'Neill and Kentucky with Billy Clyde Glyde Gillispie.
Wow, where did the time go? It was only yesterday that we crowned the Florida Gators as back to back national champions and Billy The Diva Donovan was having the time of his life toying with the Orlando Tragic. And now here we are, at the dawn of the 2007-2008 season.
Okay, enough of the silliness, let's see what's really happening :)
The Kentucky Files
There is so much good stuff on Kentucky, it got its own segment!
The Blogger's Poll Top 25 Files
The Blogosphere Files
The Goodman Files
The DeCourcy Files
The Big Media Files
The NCAA Hoops Today Files
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
College Hoops TV Guide, the 2007-2008 season begins!
Welcome to a new season of college hoops TV guide. That's right, in the next two weeks we will have our first exhibition games televised! Woohoo! Note: all times pacific!
Fresh 2007-2008 College Hoops Games
NBA 2007-2008 Preseason Games
Documentaries and Season Previews
Everything else
More TV Listings
Direct from the Source
Record your favorite games!
Relive your favorite 2007 NCAA Tournament games
Gigantic 2007-2008 preview with links
Tech Talk: Recording your favorite basketball games
We are just about one month away from the start of the season, so this is a good time to plan how we are going to watch our favorites teams and games on TV. There are many options out there, which combination is the right one for you?
A quick note, this article is intended as a general introduction. This topic can get very technical and complicated. My purpose with this is to provide a general introduction, not a comprehensive technical discussion :-)
Executive Summary
Matching Specific Tasks with specific hardware
More Details
And now let's take a look at those options in more detail. We will start with the easiest and simplest solutions (and lower cost) solutions and then we move on to more expensive and complicated solutions.VCRs and VHS
Yes, they may be old news, but they still work! And if you have a VCR and a stack of tapes, you don't have to pay anything extra. The down size of VCRs/VHS is the lower resolution of the recordings, having to deal with tapes, cannot watch on a computer, not digital, you cannot watch while recording, and you cannot start watching while the recording is in progress.
Cable and Satellite Company Digital Video Recorders (DVRs)
They are available from your cable or satellite provider, usually when you have a certain cable packages (eg digital cable). These offer the benefit of low cost and not owning the equipment, thus not having to buy yet another device every couple of years.
A lot of them are now dual tuner, meaning you can record any two channels at the same time. Another trend is the availability of high definition (HD) DVRs. They allow you to record HD programming. But you don't have to have an HDTV to watch the HD programs if you have an HD DVR. You can watch it on your old trusty analog TV. It won't be HD resolution, it will be downsized to standard definition. However because of the superior quality of the HD signal, the downsized SD signal will probably be better than the standard definition equivalent.
You typically pay a monthly fee of $10 - $12 and you have the device on a month to month basis. If a newer or better one becomes available, you can just ask for the newer model for no extra cost. If it has technical issues, just ask for a replacement. If you change your mind, just take it to the local office and you are done.
This is also great for those who only need a DVR during the basketball season, but don't watch a lot of TV the rest of the time. So you could rent one out from November to April (July if you are an NBA fan), and then take it back in between.
TiVo
If you hate programming your VCR, if you want a nice, smooth user friendly user interface, then TiVo is the right answer for you. There is a price to pay though, you have to buy (own) the device, and you also have to pay a monthly fee in order to receive programming and software updates. Because you own the device, you can legally hack it, for example install a larger hard disk. TiVo costs more than the cable/satellite DVRs, but there are millions of people who swear that "once you go TiVo you never go back".
The newer TiVos are dual tuner, and high definition TiVos are available as well. You do of course need to either subscribe to a cable/satellite package with HD programming or have an over the air antenna to get the HD signals. Please note however that with TiVos dual tuners, you can't record any two channels at the same time. You can record for example record one channel from your cable box and one from the analog channels (2 to 99), but you can't record two HBO shows at the same time. Unless you have a cable card system.
Another benefit of TiVo is that you can use it whether you get your TV from an over the air antenna on the roof, or cable or satellite. Unlike cable and satellite, you do not have to subscribe to a specific package to get the DVR functionality. But obbviously the options, features and number of channels will depend on your source.
Suggested Products to look-into: There are two high definition TiVos, the TiVo TCD648250B Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder, which costs quite a bit, and the newer and more affordable version is the TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder. If you don't have an HDTV or there is no HD programming of interest in your area, or you want to pay less, then you can take a look at the TiVo TCD649080 Series2 80 Hour Dual Tuner Digital Video Recorder
DVD Recorders without hard disk
If you hate programming a VCR, you won't like these. DVD recorders are not as smooth or streamlined as one would think they should have been. But if you are into technology, you will have no problems with these.
One of the things that confuses people is the media soup of the dvd disc formats. There are the write-once and the rewriteables. Among the write-once you have DVD-R, DVD+R, and dual and double layer versions of -R and +R. These are two layers on the disc, they are not double sided. But there are some double sided as well. As far as rewritables, you have DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM (Panasonic). If this does not sound scary, then continue reading :-)
Please note that you cannot record high definition video on a DVD with the dvd recorders available in the US market. None! You can record a downsized standard definition signal from the high definition signal, but not the HD signal itself.
Believe or not, dvd recorders are not as reliable as VCRs, partly because they rely on optical disc media, and the cheaper the discs you use, the more likely you are to run into problems. You should check with the user manual, tech support and user forums to find out which blank dvd media your dvd recorder likes to eat.
Another problem with DVD recorders and sports is that the longer recording modes (4-hour and 6-hour) are not particularly good for sports, because the constant motion causes compression artefacts on the recording. With VCRs you can get away with the 6-hour mode, but not so with DVD recorders. The 2-hour mode is the most suited, especially if you have a bigger TV. But if you are recording a game, you don't want to record just 2 hours. If a game is close, it will last longer. If there's overtime, it will be even longer. And you don't want to miss the end of those exciting games! So ideally, you should record somewhere between 2h 30mins to 2h 55mins per game.
A lot of these recorders won't let you watch a program while recording, with the exception of units that can record on DVD-RAM discs or support the DVD-RW(VR mode). All Panasonic dvd recorders offer this option when you use DVD-RAM discs, which are more expensive and harder to find. This is great for chase-play, eg watch a game 30 minutes after it starts. As far as watching one program and recording another, because of the limited space on the DVD, it's not practical to put more than one basketball game, certainly not if you are recording one live (eg 2 1/2 to 3 hours).
The ideal use of DVD recorders is for saving games from your TiVo or cable/satellite DVR to DVD discs. By recording while watching you can keep the recording under 2 hours (SP mode) which will give you reasonable picture quality. For this type of purpose, you may want to consider getting a tunerless DVD recorder (it does not have a tuner, you record by connecting your TiVo or DVR or cable box to its line inputs).
Also if you have stacks of VHS tapes that you want to convert to DVD, you may want to consider a VCR/DVD recorder combo device. Of course if you already have a VCR and you are happy with it, and it is still holding up, you can use it for the same purpose and save some money.
Suggested products to look into: If you want a model without a tuner (tunerless), then take a look at the Toshiba D-R400 Tunerless 1080p Upconverting DivX Certified DVD Recorder. If you want a unit with a tuner (including a digital tuner as well), look into the Panasonic DMR-EZ17 DVD Recorder with ATSC Tuner, available in silver or black finish. And for a dvd recorder combined with a VCR, consider the Panasonic DMR-EZ47VK Up-Converting 1080p DVD-Recorder/VCR Combo with Built In Tuner.
DVD Recorders with hard disk
These combine the benefits of a DVR (digital video recorder) and of a dvd recorder. You get a lot more flexibility. You can record and watch the programs on the hard disk, and if there are any exciting or favorite team games you want to save you can save them to DVD quickly. This has the added benefit of allowing you to edit the program, eg remove pre-game, post-game and half-time shows if you don't like them.
These are only available in single tuner packages so you can only record one program at a time. But you have more flexibility, you can watch one program and record another, or you can chase-play a recording in progress (eg start watching 30 minutes after the game starts, and then skip through the commercials).
You cannot record high definition video with these recorders. You can record a high definition signal converted to standard definition, but not an HD signal.
However, in the US market, the majority of the electronics companies have not released new hard-disk based dvd recorders. They are available in other markets (Japan, Europe, Canada) but not the USA. A number of reasons why this happened are suggested (movie studios/DRM, conversion to digital broadcasting, people prefer DVRs/TiVo, etc, etc, etc).
Suggested products to look into: Not that many choices I'm afraid. Of the two or three models currently available, the Philips DVDR3575H/37 1080p Upscaling DVDR with Built-In Tuner seems to be the one to look into.
Used DVD Recorder Market
Because of the situation in the US market mentioned above, the remaining stock of the previous generation of hard disk based dvd recorders has gone up in price significantly, so you will probably have to pay more for them used than you would have paid if you bought them the day they went on sale. However, there are some really good units in this group, such as the Pioneer 640 and Panasonic EH-55.
Recording on computers (HTPC)
If you are computer savvy, and if you don't mind the extra cost, and dealing with hardware configurations and Windows, then this option gives you the most flexibility and expandability.
Other Options
Coming later on...
Suggestions/Comments/Feedback
Please let me know what you think! If something was confusing, or not helpful, or there wasn't enough information, let me know by leaving a comment or sending an email.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
NBA League Pass Free Preview week coming up!
Fans of the NBA, there are some good news for you! The NBA League Pass, NBA's pay per view package will be offering a free one week preview of all its games. This is happening on Comcast for sure, please check with your local cable and satellite providers to double check. The free preview will take place from October 30, 2007 to November 6, 2007. This is loaded with games, at times they may have up to six games running in parallel. The preview will likely include a preview of the NBA-TV channel. This channel may be already available to you depending on what cable/satellite package you subscribed to.
Speaking of which, users of Comcast please note that are running a special promotion where the Sports Tier package is offered for $3/mo instead of the usual price of $5/mo. This is advertised in the little ad-booklet that came in with your cable bill. It is on page 8 in my booklet. You can thank me later for saving you $2/mo :-)
For those not familiar, the Sports Tier includes CSTV, the three Fox College Sports channels, NBA-TV, the NFL Network, SPEED, Fox Soccer, GOL TV, Tennis and a couple of others. Sadly no ESPNU :-(
Friday, October 19, 2007
On Fridays we shoot jumpshots
The Blogosphere Files
The Big Media Files
This Crazy Blog
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Thursday, October 18, 2007
2007-2008 USA Today Sports Weekly College Basketball Preview review
Thanks to Rush the Court for alerting me about the publication of the new 2007-2008 USA Today/USA Sports Weekly College Basketball Preview Special Edition. Check for it at your local newsstands. The cover price is $4.95, and it is printed on thick newspaper-type paper with some color pictures. It is more like Barron's in size and style than The USA Today (the daily multicolor fishwrap).
Let's start from the end. Spoiler alert! The TV schedule for both men's and women's basketball games is printed in decent size font. It starts on November 5, 2007 and ends on April 3, 2008 with the NIT Final Four. And boy is the schedule loaded this season! Not only do we have new events (Big12 vs Pac10, SEC vs Big East, OJ Mayo Classic, Puerto Rico TipOff, etc), we also have the brand new Big Ten Network (BTN) and The Mtn and Versus are increasing their coverage. Channels included in the TV listings: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, CBS, ABC, FSN, Versus, CSTV, BTN, The Mtn. Channels not included: Fox College Sports, ESPN Full Court (pay per view package), regional networks (Lincoln Financial, Jefferson Pilot, etc - or whatever their new names are).
If you are a hoops junkie. you may need a second TiVo to keep up! Okay that may be overkill, but here are some of your options for recording college basketball games on TV.
And now that we got the TV schedule out of the way, let's see what goodies we have in this preview:
Today on Outside the Lines: Staph infections and MRSA and athletes
A health-related centerpiece story on today's outside the lines on ESPN at 3pm eastern (noon pacific) on MRSA and staph infections. Details on Outside the Lines on their web page. Among the noteable athletes infected with it were West Virginia's popular guard Mike Gansey. MRSA is a highly-contagious blood-borne bug that has now found its way into locker rooms, weight rooms and training facilities.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Tape-delayed live-blogging the Mountain West (WWC) Media Slam
We are tape-delayed-live-blogging the Mountain West media days on The Mtn and CSTV!
First up, new Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds with senior Tim Anderson. Air Force is in a major rebuilding mode with new coach and a number of seniors graduating. Gone is coach Jeff Busy-deli-k (Bzdelik) who flew to a BCS job. A topic of discussion was their patented match-up defense that gives opponents headaches. On offense tweaks will be made to take advantage of the available personnel. The hosts reminded them of last season's NIT game against DePaul.
Next up, the BYU Cougars! If you haven't guessed, teams are presented in alphabetic order. Coach Dave Rose and player Sam Burgress are representin the Cougars. Plaidstead (sp?) and Cummard are the returning leaders. BYU took a summer trip to the country that makes fries. BYU is on a 31-game home winning streak, only 2nd to Calipari's Tigers, and six wins ahead of #3 The Thad Matta State. Coach Rose (no relation to Jalen or Derrick Rose) was a member of Guy Lewis's Final Four teams at Houston. This may be ouchy for his current players: "Need to recruit better players".
And now Colorada State without NBAer Jason Smith, but with 7-footer Stuart Creason and new coach Tim Miles (who? wasn't he at North Dakota State?). Interestingly, Creason drops a reference to Athlon's preview magazine's statistics. I reviewed the 2007-2008 Athlon college basketball magazine just a few days ago! Miles plays motion and "common-sensical basketball". Motion offense and packing it in the paint on defense is a recipe for ... slugfest!. Expect misery at CSU as they only have 7 eligible scholarship players. RPI #300 here we come? But he looks forward to the two D1 transfers sitting out and the four players coming in next year (2008-2009). Tim Miles confessed he needs a straightjacket. He's on record!
And now Steve Alford with peppers and chili in his eggs, along with former KU and troubled wing JR Giddens, and guard Darren Prentice. The defense is in they say. The Bob Knight influence? And can the players beat Steve Alford in a game of horse? Will Alford make The Pit rock again? Alford sees similarities between the Mountain West and the Big 10 fans even though he is not particularly familiar with the Southwest. Meanwhile JR Giddens very briefly addressed some of his past issues. Meanwhile Tony Dandridge is out, so that hurts their chances. And yes, another made for TV game, Bob Knight vs Steve Alford, Texas Tech vs New Mexico. It does well TV wise, doesn't it? Will Frannie Fraschilla be the analyst and interview those two together? :)
The MTN reminds us that they will cover a total of 71 men's basketball games on their network. If you don't get the Mtn, call your cable or satellite provider and politely demand The Mtn. Or as Jim Rome puts it, "bang your monkey!". Some of those games may also be shown nationwide on CSTV and Versus.
And now Michigan San Diego State coach Steve Fisher who brought some lambs with him, player Chris Lamb. Gone is Florida transfer M. Abukar and scoring machine Heath. Fisher also talked about Marquette transfer space-eater Ryan Amoroso. Will he have more 30+ point games like he did at the 2006 Alaska Shootout? Steve Fisher also gave his quick analysis on the league, seeing five teams as conference contenders and considers the league as a multi-bid league. Gone from the team is Doug Gottlieb's brother, former SDSU assistant coach.
Next up, we go to TCU with former Ole Roy assistant Neil Dougherty accompanied by players Brent Hackett and Cal transfer (and former Kansas player brother) Kevin Langford. The Ole Roy connection again? Rumor has it the team got lost in the Rain Forest. Figuratively or ??? Does it remind you of a South Park episode?
And now we have Lon Kruger fully recovered from his heart operation. He is reminded of their Sweet 16 run and accompanies by Curtis Terry (related to former Arizona and current NBA star Jason Terry). But this is going to be a different season for the Tarkanian Rebels, only one starter is back!
Next up Utah with new head coach Jim Boylen. Jim who? Bring back Majerus!!! He is accompanied by the big Australian center Luke Nevill and guard Johnnie Bryant.
Last but not least, the Wyoming basketball programwith new head coach Heath Schroyer. Who? WWhere do they find these guys? :) Brad Jones and Brandon Ewing are accompanying the head coach on the set. He reminds fans of their mandhandling victory over the Zags in the NCAAs a few years ago.
That's all folks! Check out lots of Mountain West games on the Mtn in Mountain West areas, and CSTV and Versus nationwide. And as Jim Rome said, if you want it added to your cable/satellite line-up, bang your monkey!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The On Notice board has arrived!
Duke Favoritism: It seems like Duke can do no wrong. From the NCAA, the ACC, the zebras, the NCAA tournament selection cmte, the media, the analysts, the broadcasters, the writers, the readers, the casual fans, they all give the Dookies an unfair advantage.
The NCAA Oligarchy: Funny how it's the student athletes that generate the millions for the NCAA and the colleges, yet the student-athletes are the last ones to benefit financially from this. Time to get fair! The NCAA Oligarchy is entrenched in money and power and can't see reason. Just like George Orwell wrote it :)
Kelvin Sampson's Cell Phone: That darned cellphone got him in trouble twice now (at least). Bad cellphone!
Coach K: He started from humble beginnings and was a true success story, but somewhere along the way he lost his way and thought he was the Pope of College Basketball.
Street and Smith: They bought the Sporting News college basketball preview magazine, took the name and glued it to their own Street and Smith magazine. The end-result? We lost the wonderful Sporting News preview magazine. Boo!!! Bring it back!
Slugfest style of play: Yes, defense wins games. Yes, if you don't have a good team, you have a better chance of winning the game if you make it an ugly ultimate fighting competition. But the game is basketball, not ultimate fightining, and they put baskets and scoreboards to score, not for decoration! So stop ruining the game with your ugly un-basketball-style of play you silly coaches! Let the kids play and have some fun. It's about them you know, not your next contract. Greedy little biatches :)
Zebras: Need I say more?
Bears: Need I say more?
This On Notice board was generated at shipbrook.com/onnotice. Neither that site nor this blog are affiliated with Stephen Colbert or Comedy Central. Speaking of which, Stephen Colbert has just released a brand new book, "I am America (and so can you)".
Monday, October 15, 2007
Monday Night Hoops!
The NCAA Hoops Today Files
The Blogosphere Files
The Big Media Files
2007-2008 Sporting News (aka Street and Smith) College Basketball Magazine Review
College Hoops Preview Magazine review #3 is ready to go with TSN, The Sporting News 2007-08 College Basketball preview magazine. I picked this one at Borders Bookstores at the list price of $6.99, with the unfortunate cover of the Lopez twins. Unfortunate because Brook Lopez is academically inelligibile for the first semester. Better fire up Photoshop and make a new cover! While there I also noticed that the CBS Sportsline preview magazine was out. I didn't flip through it, but the previous year's editions were, to borrow a word from Bill Walton, hooooooooooorrible.
For historical reference, this is my 2006-2007 Sporting News review. Speaking of 2006-2007, every 2007 NCAA college basketball Tournament game is available on DVD, produced officially by NCAA On-Demand.
And one last thing, check out our gigantic 2007-2008 season preview of links to various websites and blogs writing about the 07-08 season. And this is a good time to plan ahead for the upcoming season, how are you going to record your favorite games on TV?
The magazine starts with a "Dear Readers" letter by publisher Mike Kallar, revealing the merger of Street and Smiths and the Sporting News preview magazines. The Sporting News name is retained but it will be published in Charlotte, NC, home of Street and Smiths. So did Street and Smith ruin the excellent Sporting News preview magazine or did they manage to improve it further? Read on to find out!
General Interest Stories
Recruiting Coverage
Conference Previews
Team Previews
Conclusions
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Big Recruiting News: Greg Monroe decides on a college!
The weekend had some big recruiting news, Greg Monroe, the by-induction #1 player of the 2008 class along with top 100 Terrance Jennings has made up their minds. Where are they going? Find out at Recruiting Wars!.
Or continue reading here... Greg Monroe is going to Georgetown, giving John Thompson the 3rd another notch on his belt - getting the #1 player in the class. Without the worry of an immediate NBA Draft ejection, JT3 can be assured that he will get at least one year out of talented Mr Monroe.
The second big commit was former Terrapin commit Terrence Jennings who said no to Gary Williams (because of academics? ha!) and how now settled on Pitinoville. As you may recall a few days ago Jeff Goodman at Fox Sports mentioned that a couple of PitinoVille assistants were putting on the full court press. Well it seems to have worked. But if he ejected from Maryland, how do we know he is going to stick with this commitment?
Maryland made up for it by getting a Korean forward out of South Kent Prep in CT. No, there was no fight with Jim Calhoun this time.
Scouting Kentucky's Midnight Madness
In today's scouting segment we look at Kentucky's Midnight Madness which aired nationally on Fox College Sports.
The intra-squad scrimmage was about 20 game-time minutes, essentially the equivalent of half a half of a regular game. The teams played fast - granted this was just the first scrimmage in a exhibition midnight madness setting, so the brother-in-law defense was almost mandatory in order to entertain the crowd of 23,313.
A number of players looked good, Joe Crawford was skinnier and "jumpier", while the 7-footer Mike Williams had some nice moves, and so did walk-on Mark Coury . As you may recall from his Texas A&M days, Billy Gillispie is a big fan of walk-ons and stockpiling players on the bench. Included was walk-on tryout winner Dusty Mills. Meanwhile Perry Stevenson is still under 200lbs, but if he plays to his strengths he can be a big factor.
The dunk contest had its share of misses and some examples of team work - dunks off lob passes which perhaps bodes well for the regular season. It was interesting to watch, because you can still figure things out, despite the midnight madness setting. For example Patrick Patterson's dunks were very efficient (with the exception of one between the legs), and his insticts where showcased as he even rebounded his own dunk miss.
After watching the scrimmage I have to say that Kentucky looks better than I had expected. There's lots of talent on the roster, and Billy G says he wants to play fast(er), but not fast for the sake of playing fast. He certainly has a lot of fast players on this roster. Plus the second wave of second-tier talent-wise players can push the first wave to be more effective with their PT, otherwise they will lose it. Some of the players that will be coming off the bench would be good enough to start in many other places.
Players like playing in a faster tempo and that helps in recruiting as well. Other than Kevin Love and a few others, who wants to slugfest or play sit-around for 30 seconds?
Meanwhile a game of horse between two All-Americans, Joe Crawford and Patrick Patterson lasted for more than three hours, with shots made from outside the building even ;-) At the end they decided to end it in a draw. This was one among a number of fun skits as a way of introducing the new players to the fans.
So what have we learned? They have a choice of three different style point guards, a trio of offensive minded wings, talented and athletic forwards, and the potential of a productive 7-footer in the middle. This sounds like a recipe for success. Of course there are plenty of question marks as well, but overall, they exceeded my expectactions.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
USC Trojans Fans Challenge
With OJ Mayo officially having his Midnight Madness, I am issuing a challenge to USC Trojans Fans to celebrate the arrival of OJ Mayo by eating mayo while drinking orange juice (OJ). You got OJ Mayo, the least you can do is ...drink in his name!
Now I'm not suggesting that you do this and post videos of it on YouTube or post pictures of doing that on the net. I am not suggesting that! And just to be clear, I am not suggesting that :)
Gigantic 2007-2008 Season Preview Links (work in progress)
This post is an attempt at a gigantic 2007-2008 Season Preview as a collection of links to various stories all over the net. This will become a very chaotic post. For now, it's rather short and easy to read :) After all, the preview/pre-season is longer than the actual college basketball season :-) If you have any links you would like to see added, whether it's your own blog or website or your favorite blog or website, just let me know via a comment or via an email (there's a contact via email link on the left hand column).
2007-2008 Detailed Preseason Magazine Reviews
Scouting games in preparation for 2007-2008
What to use to record your favorite basketball games?
2007-2008 Rankings (reverse chronological order)
2007-2008 Random Thoughts on various teams (from this blog)
2007-2008 Comprehensive Previews
2007-2008 Team Previews
2007-2008 Player Previews
New Players joining in 2007-2008 (freshmen and jucos)
2007-2008 Preseason Tournaments
2007-2008 TV Schedule
New books scheduled for the new season
is the editor. The book is 256 pages long and should come out by September. Pre-order price is around $16 with price guarantee.Bargain priced college hoops books from previous seasons
New Coaches in 2007-2008
Tracking the Transfers - Comprehensive Transfer Lists
2007-2008 Preview Magazine Covers
Prepare for the next season by scouting games from 2006-2007
Early 2007-2008 college basketball TV schedule
*** All times are PACIFIC *** Add +3 hours for Eastern ***
More College Basketball TV listings (updated!)
Men's College Basketball
Tue November 6, 2007
Mon Nov 12
Tue Nov 13
Wedn Nov 14
Thur Nov 15
Fri Nov 16
Sun Nov 18
Mon Nov 19 - the start of FEAST WEEK!
Tue Nov 20
Wedn Nov 21
Thur Nov 22, Thanksgiving Day!
Women's College Basketball
Sunday November 11, 2007
Sun Nov 18
Friday, October 12, 2007
Countdown to Midnight Madness on TV - Kentucky on Fox College Sports!
Friday Midnight Madness
Saturday
In other coverage:
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Tape-delayed live-blogging the Conference USA Media Slam
The CSTV broadcast features Steve Lappas as the in-studio basketball analyst. Seth Davis and Pete Gillan are the broadcasters hosting the event from the FedEx-Calipari arena in Elvisville.
Some quick tidbits: New arena for Central Florida, CSTV's editiorial thinks Turnaround Tom's Houston is the likely #2 in the conference. Two new coaches are introduced in the conferences at Marshall (almost Florida head coach Donnie Jones) and East Carolina. In the coaches poll, UAB and Houston tied for the #2 spot.
First up some McCarthy-ism at East Carolina as he enters the season as an interim head coach but with lots of mid-major head coaching experience. They do have a seasoned AD and basketball mind in Terry Holland. The interim coach promised a faster style of play and earlier shots.
Next up, the University of Central Florida with a brand new 10,000 seat arena. This is one of the biggest schools you may not heard about, they have an enrollment of almost 50,000 students in Orlando. Pete Gillan got re-united with his former ACC opponent Mike O'Donnell during the event. UCF has the human interest story of a 30 year old former Marine Stanley Billings and a sixth year student-teacher.
Next up UTEP with Tony Barbee who is going to be running his flava of the Vance Walberg AASAA offense. All-conference Philly guard Stefon Jackson joined the coach. The team has gotten bigger in size thanks to the new incoming players including Manny Cass. UTEP is working on a new multi-million practice facility. There we learn about the Cheetah girls.
Of course everyone is undefeated at the moment, so this is the best part of the season for the coaches. The sky is the limit, zero losses and undefeated, and everyone's rooting for them.
Next up Rice, who will be homeless this season as they are renovating their arena. Willis wants to turn this disadvantage into an advantage. Coach Willis did not bring a player with him, but he was lamenting the loss of Morris Almond et al. He promises a faster pace. Sure, they all do at media days, but when the games count, then they'll do whatever it takes to win, and slugfest wins games.
Next up, a branch from the Izzo tree, Doug Wojcik at Tulsa, hoping to make the John Philips era a distant memory. He even looks more like Izzo this season. He is accompanied by seniors Brent McDade and Rod Earls. The team has an interesting project in 7-footer Jordan. Wojcik took an innocent quasi-cheap shot at the Vaden situation at UAB.
Next up Marshall with Floridian assistant Donnie Jones accompanied by wing Markel Humphrey. Goodbye Ron Jirsa, hello P-Mac! Unfortunately this format does not allow Pete Gillan to freewheel, so we are not getting his famous lines. No donuts, and no zingers. So why is P-Mac eligible to play right away at Marhsall even though he played for the Zags for the whole 2006-2007 season? Because he graduated in three years so he was able to take advantage of the new morphed free agent/graduate student rule. Because he wanted to be a point guard. Oops, I mean because he wanted to join the graduate program at Marshall. Pardon me for that slip :-)
Next up SMU with toxic personality coach Matt Doherty who promises to play faster and attack the defense before they are set. Sure, sure, sure. SMU does have a solid recruiting class and Matt D. reminded everyone of his UNC recruiting prowess. He is accompanied by mature senior Jon Killen. He is hopeful of Papa Dia, comparing him to Pete Gillan's Travis Watson at Virginia. Seth Davis hinted at Matt D's personality jokingly: "Just do as he says and you'll be fine". That's what brought him down at UNC?
Next up, another coach with experience at a big program and with drama behind him, Mike Davis at UAB with what CSTV called "Darth Vaden". He addressed the club incident and Davis installed a lifetime kerfew on his players. He is accompanied by Paul Delaney the 3rd and Robert "Darth" Vaden. Vaden said transfering to UAB with Mike Davis was one of the "easiest decisions of my life". But UAB is not just the high profile transfers, he also brought in some new players this year, including a 7-footer Z-man from Europe and teammate of royalty Keenan Ellis.
Up next, Larry "Party Animal" Eustachy with his clip-on tie and Southern Miss! What beverages did he have before the event? He yelled "Bring it on baby". Okay, just kidding about the beverages :) Scheduling is a toughie he said. He said "best basketball job I had to win games". Well look at your schedule :) Also mentioned is a promising Brazilian forward. Lappas projected that if he has a 25 game season and an NCAA tourney appearance he will be a hot commodity in the coaching carousel. The co-eds would agree?
Turnaround, turnaround, it's time for Turnaround Tom and Karl Malone's cuz Marcus Malone. As usual a wave of new players and seven seniors, Kelvin Lewis of Auburn eligible to play right away because of hardship rules. Will Lanny Smith be ready? TT said "we are more like the Phoenix Suns". Except without Steve Nash, Matrix, and Amari? TT likes having multiple guards who can play the point and run the Phoenix Mike D'Antoni offense. Then TT went on into lecture mode breaking down most of the teams in the conference.
The second to last team, the Tulane Green Wave with former Maryland assistant Dave ickerson and senior power forward Dave Gomez. Finally Pete Gillan went into a fast break with his patented "Coach, you look great, you smell great". Tulane as you may recall on the road to recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
Next the jewel of the crown and the raison d^etre of Conference USA, the Memphis Calipari Tigers and Roses Show. The Joe Biden of basketball coaches surprisingly shared the spotlight with CDR (Chris Douglas Roberts) and Robert Dozier. No, no Derrick Rose, he's just another freshman :) They also discussed about missed free throws, and Cal revealed that Dorsey missed free throw shots even during the visualization exercises ;-)
We are not done yet, the C-USA commish Britton Banowsky is up next, talking about the rebuilding of CUSA after the famous five left for the Big East and the A-10. Obviously the commish is bullish on the present and future of the conference. He also has the secret formula for conference success ("win games").
Seth Davis and Pete Gillan predict 2 NCAAs and 2 NIT bids from C-USA. Gillan's sleeper team is Tulane, while Lappas thinks 3 NCAA teams for C-USA.
That's all folks! If you missed the broadcast, it will re-air tonight at 1130pm eastern, and Friday noon and 830pm eastern on CSTV. It may also be available online at CSTV or at the official C-USA website.
Time-permitting, next week I will be tape-delayed-live-blogging the Mountain West media days.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
The mid-week repor(t)
The Goodman Files
The DeCourcy Files
Monday, October 08, 2007
Monday Night Hoops!
Sunday, October 07, 2007
The pre-season Blogger's Top 25 Poll is revealed!
We have the firs Blogger's Top 25 Poll rolled out. A number of basketball bloggers withdrew in the cyber mountains and deliberated for weeks and weeks and came up with the preseason Top 25! Here is a visual representation of the top five teams of the Top 25, starting with #1.
| 6. Tennessee | 11. Oregon | 16. Gonzaga | 21. Butler |
| 7. Louisville | 12. Indiana | 17. Arkansas | 22. Davidson |
| 8. Michigan St. | 13. Texas | 18. Stanford | 23. Mississippi St. |
| 9. Washington St. | 14. Duke | 19. Texas A&M | 24. VCU |
| 10. Marquette | 15. Kentucky | 20. Arizona | 25. USC |
The blogger-participants in this poll are listed below in alphabetical order:
If you want to see how each voter voted, you have to wait 30 years for the freedom of blogger information act, or look at the spreadsheet on Google Docs.
Here is my vote, posted earlier on. So where do I disagree with the Blogger's Top 25 poll?
But wait there's more! The readers can have their say by voting in the UnSpun Top 25 Preseason poll. This is open to everyone on the net!
Saturday, October 06, 2007
The Blogger's Poll is coming, here are my votes!
There is a Blogger's Poll coming very very very soon! In the meantime, here is how I voted in the preseason Blogger's Poll 25. Let's not forget, Midnight Madness is just one week away! Get ready!
1 Memphis
2 North Carolina
3 UCLA
4 Kansas
5 Georgetown
6 Louisville
7 Washington St.
8 Marquette
9 USC
10 Arizona
11 Indiana
12 Tennessee
13 Kentucky
14 Michigan St.
15 Texas A&M
16 Texas
17 Oregon
18 Gonzaga
19 Stanford
20 VA Commonwealth
21 Ohio St.
22 Duke
23 Xavier
24 Villanova
25 UAB
Other receiving votes: Butler, Davidson, Notre Dame, UConn and DePaul.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Midnight Blogging Madness!
The 2007-2008 Preview Files
As we get closer to the new season, the preview content continues to increase exponentially. So here's what we have:
Blog Template upgrade in progress!
We are moving to a three-column design from the current two column design. This will happen in the next few minutes, and it will take a few hours before everything is completely done. The content will remain in the main column which will become the center column, and the left column will be divided into a left and right column. For those who have blogger and are interested in doing this for your own blog, there are step by step easy to follow instructions in the Tips for new bloggers blog.
The news round-up is long overdue, and will happen either later today (perhaps a Midnight Blogging Madness?) or sometime tomorrow.
But here is a sneak peak, there is a bloggers poll brewing. That's right, a group of bloggers are voting on their top 25. This will be revealed in the next few days!
PS> The Google Calendar error you may be seeing is completely independent of the template update. Google's Calendar is apparently speaking in tongues at the moment :)
Update!
The biggest part of the conversion is over and the columns are relatively evenly balanced. There's more formatting and clean up that needs to be done, but for the msot part the three columns are here to stay!
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Vitale Fan Club alert: On Mike and Mike on Wednesday at 720am ET
Hello Dick Vitale Fans, you know who you are! Dick Vitale will be making his weekly appearance on Mike and Mike on a special day this week, namely on Wednesday morning instead of his usual day, Monday morning. Vitale usually has about a 10 minute segment starting around 7:20am Eastern. Mike and Mike is on ESPN2 and also on ESPN Radio. Quite interestingly, this will air at 420am pacific time. Is Vitale sending us a secret message? :-)
Monday, October 01, 2007
Monday Night Hoops!
Well okay, it's Monday morning :) The Amazon extravaganza continues with college hoodies with arch and mascot for $13 each, available for 29 universities famous for their football and basketball programs. List of 29 colleges available!
Remember, Midnight Madness is less than two weeks away, Saturday October 13, 2007. A Sea of Blue has a midnight madness countdown clock on their site! And it's not at midnight anymore, it has been pushed earlier on in order to accomodate families with kids and such. Stay tuned to this blog for details on TV coverage of Midnight Madness. Usually regional FSNs and Fox College Sports show the Kentucky midnight madness, ESPNU travels around the country, ESPN2 shows highlights of the ESPNU coverage along with ESPN News, and sometimes FSN's Best Darned Not-Sports Show has some coverage as well. A couple of years ago they went to Arizona, last year they didn't do anything MM related.
And before we get started, a quick note, today's Outside the Lines (OTL) on ESPN features the Colorado Rockies and Randy Moss. Also some coverage of the tragic fatal shooting of a Memphis Tigers offensive lineman.
The Goodman Files
The Blogosphrere Files
The DeCourcy Files
The Big Media Files
TV guide September 17 to October 13
Summary: We are starting to warm up! Midnight Madness is Saturday October 13, 2007, along with Conference Media Days. The complete TV information for those has yet to be made available, but it will be posted here once it's available. But you can watch more hoops on your dvd player because every 2007 NCAA men's college basketball tournament game is on dvd. Because there is so little on TV, I merged all listings together.
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