Background checks on the zebras

Arkansas State will drop Indian mascot according to CBS sportsline

Rising sophomore point guard Nigel Munson has been granted a condiitional release from Virginia tech

Coach I-care-for-your-dollars-K brought in $800,000 with his fantasy camp (aka K Academy). The money allegedly goes to charity

Dick Hoops Weiss profiles Washington State's Derrick Low at Fox Sports.

The ACC and Big 10 will run background checks on all the zebras.

Lots of previews have already been published at CHN

2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!

SciFi fans, this is for you. For one day only, Seasons 1 through 9 of Stargate SG-1 DVDs are on sale at Amazon for $165 total, with free shipping.

Boo'ed in Vegas!

Featured Story: Props to the Las Vegas crowd! The Las Vegas crowd was booing Coach Ratface-K (all apologies to rats) during the team introductions of the State Farm USA Challenge on Sunday. Perhaps it was carried over from the Tark-era, or perhaps they dont like smug-rat-face :) Shane Battier also got his share of boos and JJ Overratedick got near-whisper boos. Bravo Vegas! Only in Vegas! To thank the city of Las Vegas, be sure to book your next vacation to Vegas ;-) Pictures coming soon. DeCourcy also comments on the game with emphasis on Kobe

Shoe Wars: Texas A&M switches to Adidas. The wild world of shoes and universities continues to turn.

New coaches, honeymoons, tea leaves and haters at A Sea of Blue

The CAA Hoops blog engages in napkin forecasting (predictions on the 2007-2008 CAA hoops season)

The 144-preview series at CHN continues with Nebraska, George Washington and Yale.

DePaul gets a big 7'2" center from a prep school. More at Recruiting Wars

Georgetown center Roy Hibbert hopes for gold (PanAm games)

Kevin Stallings video interview at Rivals (link opens a video application)

Thanks HillTopperHaven for linking to this blog! HillTopperHaven covers Western Kentucky sports. Western Kentucky is prominently featured on Fox College Sports (FCS) upcoming mid-major marathon on Sunday July 29, 2007. Nine games from the 2006-2007 season featuring mid-major teams will be rebroadcast.

Today's update is brought to you by 2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!

Coach K smug cloud causes iPhone malfunction at Duke

The statically charged smug cloud surrounding Coach K and Cameron Indoor Stadium is causing interference with iPhones on the campus of Duke University. It is believed that the iPhones wireless modules are affected by certain particles found in abundance in the Coach K smug cloud. Scientists have identified these particles: whiningnonstopiton, obviousrefereebiastron, nc2afavoritismium, vitaleon, AMEXygen, espnionium, dirtyratonium, bilassium, and bigotron. Environmental groups estimate at least 50 years of residual pollution caused by the aforementioned particles.

CNet's Crave blog has the details

Monday Night Hoops

Strange??? The three teams Vanderbilt faced in the 2007 NCAA tournament were: Georgetown, George Washington and Washington State. Can you see the pattern?

Everybody loves Duke

Clay also has a very good write-up on the whining of Coach K. I agree 100% with his conclusion: "Coach K whines too much!".

A Sea of Blue discusses the Dookie "why they hate us" essay.

The Dookie "why they hate us" essay is posted at the Duke Basketball Repor(t).

Among other things (read: everything) the Dookies blame is a couple of posts at the Nation of Islam Sports blog: this and that

And I'm not the only one who notices how Coach Dracula K drains the life force out of his players and turns them into K-Zombies. The NOIS blog says "He stole the talent and energy...".

And no mention of Duke is complete, without a reference to the Truth about Duke encyclopedia.

Please note that the above issues deal with men's basketball at Duke under Coach Dirty Rat Dracula K, not the whole university. But the occasional spillover effect is unavoidable especially if someething or someone was touched by Coach Midas K.


Stories

Jim Valvano's ESPY speech can be found at the AOL Sports Fanhouse. The speech is on YouTube.

John Clay writes that the basketball triangle is back!. He is not talking about Philip's triangle offense, but the triangle of Indiana, Kentucky and Louisville. He also breaks down the chances of the three teams with 2008 players.

He also writes about Roy Williams recruiting woes and how they remind UK fans of the Tubby Smith recruiting situation of the last couple of years.

I also wrote about that in Ole Roy ain't that good?. This is further discussed at the KatMan2000 ProBoards

I missed this story when it came out a couple of weeks ago Dan Patrick may be leaving ESPN. Keith O is trying a career at political punditry (or is it punditrom?). Maybe he can join Comedy Central and make a Daily Show for grown ups? :)

More news and stories from around the country at at BallHype.com

More previews have been posted at CHN's top 144 previews, including Sam Houston State, Hofstra and Albany.

The AOL Sports Fan House has posted their premature Hoops blogpoll as of July 13, 2007. Some interesting picks such as Washington State at #11

Another loaded post at Goodman's blog: Updates from the U19 team which will make Kansas State fans very happy. Lots of details on various players, both of interest to college and future NBA draft fans... Also: dates of various preseason exempt tourneys, the tough Gauchos guards take on all, Mr Jersey gets a space-eater big man, and more... The OldBEEPe Classic is the Old Spice Classic. Also sopBLEEPres. are sophomores. The FoxSports website is apparently editing parts of words that would be offensive if they were stand-alone words. You can do the math and figure them out, I'm not going to post them here :)

More from Goodman: The PanAm roster is down to 14. And it looks like ESPN2 might carry some of the basketball games. Some of the 14 players of interest: Duke-slayer Eric Maynor, Joey "I'm gonna own Oden" Dorsey, Roy Hibbert, and smooth operator Wayne Ellington.


Resources

College Hoops TV guide

Weekly TV guide (with regards to recruiting/high school games).

Recruiting Rankings and Ratings of 2007, 2008 and beyond (work in progress)

Every 2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament game on DVD!

Gigantic 2007-2008 preview via links. (work in progress)

Weekend update

Featured Story: DeCourcy says Duke will remain an exclusive club, despite the transfers of Jamal Boykin (good job in ejecting before it was too late) and Eric Boetang and Josh Mecha-Roberts (NBA 2nd rounder with 2-year contract). Coach Krapola wants his precious Puke program to remain an exclusive club. He doesn't want to bring in a dozen kids for visits. Just five is fine for him. Also of interest are the numerous comments written response to DeCourcy's story by viewers like you.

MSNBC's Beyond the Arc profiles Gatorade player of the year Kevin Love of Lake Oswego and UCLA.

Added some links on the incoming freshmen in the Gigantic 2007-2008 preview of links

A new gigantic post of player and class rankings in under way at Recruiting Wars. It will attempt to collect as many links to players and class rankings for the classes of 2007, 2008, 2009 and beyond.

Mike DeCourcy picks the PanAm Games roster. There are only 12 spots, so DeCourcy is letting go of Sharron Collins, Joey Dorsey and Jerell McNeal. So which 12 did he pick? Click and find out - if you care :) But if you are a big fan of DeCourcy, read everything he wrote

Dick Hoops Weiss also talks about the PanAm team

A Sea of Blue continues its six-part SEC series preview with Arkansas and Florida.

Also at A Sea of Blue a story on Oklahoma, the NCAA and violations

Coaching carousel updates by Goodman: Ronnie Thompson resigns from Ball State, Cuonzo Martin (Purdue assistant) is a candidate to replace him, a prep coach will follow two of his players at Duquesne. New Mexico and Xavier are also picking up two AAU coaches once they are done with the July camps. Interesting eh?

Truth about Duke uncovers a story on Brian Zoubek and Duke

As expected the fallout from Al Farouq Aminu's commitment to SKip Forest of Wake Prosser continues with stories by Dick Hoops Weiss and Goodman of FoxSports. Goodman makes a case that Wake Forest will rise to the top of the ACC if all these players show up and stay in school.

Lots of updates from the CAA at the CAAHoops blog

Big East updates from the Big East Basketball Repor(t)

ACC updates from the ACC BAsketBlog


Thanks for the link!

Thanks for the link A Sea of Blue!. A Sea of Blue covers Kentucky, the SEC and college hoops in general.

Thanks for the link GTSports blog!. The GTSports blog covers Georgia Tech Sports.

Thanks for the link to the Grizzoulian, qa website covering Big Sky Conference news!

Thanks for the link Kentucky Ink!.

Every 2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament game on DVD!

From the Archives: What is a K-Zombie?

This was posted in April 2006 but I still think it is still very relevant today. Here is the text:

What is a K-Zombie?

A K-Zombie is a basketball player at Duke whose life energy is drained by Coach K, thus becoming a K-Zombie. Just look into the Duke's players eyes and you will see the effects of this - they have become K-Zombies! A recent example: Sean Dockery. Some of them are able retain some of their life energy, others are not. The clever ones transfer or bolt for the NBA before it's too late :-)

Monday Night Hoops

NBA Draft coverage tv schedule

College Hoops in general TV schedule

Majerus continues to scoop up recruits as if they were plates at an all you can eat buffet (sorry, I couldn't resist saying that), while Arizona picks up a top 100 center that recently decommitted from PitinoVille. More at Recruiting Wars

Goodman's blogs looks at the list of the 15 players invited to the famous Green Room of the NBA draft at MSG. Goodman predicts who may be the last one(s) picked from that group of 15.

Goodman also looks at the next season prospects for Oklahoma, Southern Illinois and Rice.

Preseason top 25 by Fox Sports

A Sea of Blue opines on this Coach Dracula K story. The story in question by Jim Young appeared in a Greensboro, NC newspaper. Members of the media were allegedly cheering when VCU was beating Duke in the NCAA tournament. I'm starting to like the media. Although it turns out m ost of the cheering was done by a VCU graduate who was a camera man. So much for that Dookies! :-) After reading that story I will be more kind and gentle to Coach K. I will not call him Dirty Rat or Coach Dracula K, or Coach Krapola today or say that he drains the lifeforce out of his players and by the time they are seniors they look like they are 35 year old. I promise I will not say that today!!!

Wall to wall coverage on the latest diva outburst by his Holiness Coach K at the excellent Truth about Duke website.

March Madness All Season at CHN analyzes the decisions made by the NBA early-entry players.

Dick Hoops Weiss spins the coaching carousel at New Mexico State.

Nicks2Cents has assembled a list of YouTube videos of broadcasters gone wild, including Gus Johnson

CAA players and the NBA draft at the George Mason basketball blog. They also look at the upcoming BB&T classic of the 2007-2008 season

Want to watch some of the high profile AAU summer ball without traveling? the HSBNetwork offers webcasts of a number of those games.

Coffee seems to be a popular beverage among coaches.

Beyond the Arc thinks that the Hoyas are the team to beat in 2007-2008.

Gary PArrish's blog looks at Alabama and Oklahama State.

More on the Big Ten Network saga at Yahoo Sports. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell chimes in concered about free access for the fans.

Today's Andy Katz Insider Blog talks about the Phoenix Suns looking to get trade up into the lottery of the NBA draft.

Four days left to eject from the NBA Draft

NBA Draft 2007 - updates at DraftExpress.com

Not just NBA mock drafts, but also NBA draft podcasts (three of them so far) can be found at DraftExpress.com. But the Draft Express cannot be contained in a single continent. They are also reporting live from the 2007 Reebok Eurocamp. Other interesting pages there are who signed with an agent, a recap of the early entry list, and a lot more.

The article of most interest from a college basketball perspective with regards to the 2007-2008 season is the list of players who signed with agents, and the ones who are merely testing the waters and expected to pull out before the Monday (yes Monday) deadline.

So who is gone for good because they signed with an agent? Let's recap by class:

Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Brandan Wright (freshmen)

Julian Wright, Josh Mecha-Roberts de Puke (Josh McRoberts), Rodney Stuckey (if you missed watching him this year, you missed out!), Marcus "moody blues" Williams, Wilson Chandler (should have waited for another year?) (sophomores)

Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, Al Horford, Taurean Green (Florida juniors and back-to-back NCAA tournament champions)

Aaron Afflalo (can't blame him for escaping the UCLA grind), Nick Young, Gabe Pruitt, Dominic McGuire (Hello NBDL and Belgian league), Glen "Big Baby" Davis, Sean "420" shot-blocking Williams (juniors)

Most of the decisions made so far to sign with agents were of Vulcan nature, which is a welcome surprise because this is a very difficult decision and it's very hard to resist the temptation to go pro. Kudos to all the players, their families, coaches, handlers, NBA advisors, and such for making facilitating these decisions.


Transferology - a couple of websites have compiled long lists of transfers!

The most comprehensive is at Goodman's blog

Also keeping track of transfers is Rivals.com

Speaking of transfers, Magnum Rolle makes a decision where to transfer according to the Hodge Repor(t) at CSTV. As always with these type of things, there's more to the story than meets the eye. Find out the real reasons at the Hodge Report.

HoopsCoach at Wordpress has found a new assistant but he is not carrying Gatorade around. He is carrying something even better, although it does not have the hydrating properties of Gatorade. Rather the opposite :-) No, it's not beer... He also posts a round-up of recent comments made by college coaches (Tim Floyd, Phil Martelli, Reggie Theus and Pete Carroll)

The countdown clock at A Sea of Blue says we are just 120 days before Midnight Madness. The new season is just around the corner!

FoxSports's Heroes and Villains segment with Dayn Perry revisits the Elton Brand vs Jennifer "Coach K" Taylor email exchange discussed at A Sea of Blue a couple of days ago

TV Guide segment: games with D1 prospects in the next few days (repeats)... Also college basketball related programming, including a one hour NBA draft special at Versus (formerly OLN) and a number of 2006-2007 game repeatss at ESPNU.

How is the nation's designer mid-major doing? Find out at GoZags. Why designer mid-major? Because every single game they play is available on national TV (assuming you have access to Fox College Sports or the all-regional-FSN package via satellite).

New round-up of news and notes at March Madness All Season at CHN (College Hoops Net)

Eastern Washington gets some wine early, Kirk Earlwayne becomes their new head coach. He was an assistant at UNC-Wilmington of the CAA.

Speaking of the CAA, you can catch up with the latest CAA news at the CAA Hoops blog.

On the injury front, 7-footer Jared Carter of Kentucky re-injured his shoulder

In his daily blog teaser Andy Katz says that Kellogg won't be in the NBA draft. Not Clark Kellogg, but former UConn guard Antonio Kellogg, who is now a former San Francisco guard as well as he left the team to go pro. Because of the existing NBA rules he cannot go through the NBA draft and be an NBA free agent, but he can still go pro in the non-NBA controlled leagues, which includes the high-paying European leagues, and just about any country in the world, along with the low-paying leagues in the US (USBL, CBA, etc). So he can still go pro :) Katz also talks about Jaycee Carroll getting ignored by the NBA. Well if your name is JJ Redick and you play for Coach Dirty Rat K, then you are a lottery pick. But if you are the same player but play in a small conferences in a remote region of Utah, well, talent is not enough...

Words of Wisdom: I always say keep your cereal in the cereal bowl, don't leave them in the draft ;-)

The fastest Father's day gift!, delivered by email, an Amazon gift certificate, ranging from $5 to $5000. This is a simple, yet very flexible way to pick up a Father's day gift as late as Father's Day!

Billy the Diva

It is official! Billy Donovan is a spotlight-hungry diva! First he flirted with Kentucky by making a big issue about his non-interest interest. Then he flirted with the Memphis/Vancouver Grizzlies, while in the meantime continuing to keep open his contract renegotiation talks with Florida. Then he flirted with the Orlando Tragic (ooops Magic) and accepted their job offer, only to change his mind a couple of days later. What a diva!!!

This may remind some Coach Dirty K's flirting with the LA Lakers. But to K's credit, his Lakers flirting was a staged publicity stunt (it just happened to be 4th of July). It was a blatant attempt by the Dirty Rat to remind everyone at Duke (including the new school president), the ACC and the NCAA how important he is to all of them. This was also a good opportunity for Crappy (oops Kobe) to rebuilt his image by associating himself with Coach Dirty Rat K, and hoping people forgot about his Colorado "clinic incident".

On today's Outside the Lines First Report, Andy Katz and Kelly Naqi had an update on the Billy Donovan two-contract (Orlando and Florida) saga! Also featured as the centerpiece was another diva, Crappy Bryant (ooops Kobe "Dominque Wilkins" Bryant). Looks like LeBron James is the Michael Jordan of this NBA generation and Kobe Bryant is the Dominque Wilkins! (no offense to Dominique Wilkinks)

A SEa of Blue takes a close look at the Billy Donovan contract saga.

Goodma'ns blog looks at Billy Donovan as well, takes a look at the prospects at Northeastern (props to Goodman for featuring mid-majors as well as BCS schools in his daily blog), a Dominic James NBA draft update, Gillispie recruiting the Silver Fox's most connected recruiter. Also Goodman provides the list of 30 players invited to participate in the Pan American team trials. The list is almost a who's who of the 2007-2008 basketball season

And speaking of the Josh Pastner note above, did Kevin O'Neill already manage to piss off people that much? He's only been there for just days!

More on Donovan at FoxSports, ESPN, March Madness All Season, and Sportsline

Every 2007 NCAA basketball Tournament game on DVD!


Not-Donovan segment

The Mailman returns! Karl Malone joins the staff at Louisianna Tech1. And on top of that he pays them, sort of - he made a $350,000 donation. I'm sure employers all around the world would be thrilled to have employees like that :)

In the Awards segment, JT3 repeats as BCA coach of the year.

In the Historical Segment, A Sea of Blue looks at the Top 5 point guards at Kentucky in the last 27 years. One of them is a head coach right now, another broke a certain rebounding record, while another one was a frequent Final Four visitor. I won't reveal them, you have to read the story to find out. And I absolutely agree with their #1 choice, I think that player was under-rated and under-appreciated by the average NCAA fan and the national media.

Every 2007 NCAA basketball Tournament game on DVD!


NBA Draft updates

Wall to wall nba draft coverage at DraftExpress.com and at HoopsHype.com, including rumors, NBA draft camp updates, and pre-draft workout details.

Mark your NBA draft calendars! On Saturday June 16 at 130pm pacific Versus (formerly OLN) will have a preview of the NBA Draft. Versus is a Comcast-owned sports channel that is usually found in the upper reaches of standard (analog) cable.

And of more importance to college basketball fans, who signed with agent and who didn't? DraftExpress.com has the details!

Every 2007 NCAA basketball Tournament game on DVD!

Shopping segment! Amazon's Daily deal is the stylish Eton iPod Sound 50 Speaker system for $50 with free shipping. The special price is only good for today (Monday). This item sells for $100 regurarly at places like J&R World. iPod not included!