Monday Hoops!

Breaking News! Touted point guard (and son of NBAer dad) Jai Lucas picks Florida. Wall to wall coverage at Recruiting Wars

Drama in the ACC! The move to an 18-game season is getting the coaches upset stomaches. Why play two more conference games when you can play guaranteed home games vs Elon, and Winston Salem State? The AOL Sports Blog has wall to wall coverage on this. First The Dirty Rat (Coach Dracula-K) wants to split the ACC into two divisions. But he is not the only one objecting to an 18-game conference season. As the the blog writer "sportz assassin" points out, we may get two Carolina vs Maryland regular games per season (instead just one right now (how sad!)). Staying in the ACC, Dean Smith gets a UNC degree. Meanwhile Dookie Vitale sings the praises of his puppet master (ha!)

Goodman's blog today features Mark Fox and his two juniors in the NBA draft, Jai Lucas, Manhattan's hopes for next season and Joe Trapani's decision on where to transfer to.

Speaking of Jai Lucas, lots of recruitings links and stories at Recruiting Wars

Future Sundays!

The braintrust at ESPN has also looked at the 10 programs with the most promising futures ahead of them. The top 10 here. Unlike Sportsline who gave North Carolina the #4 spot, the ESPN braintrust voted Roy Carolina and North Williams as the program with the brightest future ahead. Back to back national championships got Florida the #2 spot, and back to back Final Fours (despite the horrible slugfest) got UCLA the #3 spot. Kentucky received one first place vote and finished at #4 as they enter the Billy Clyde Gillispie era. The Thad Matta express steamrolls to #5, while the vampire of Durham lands his sad circus at #6. Two coaches with lots of hype and high touted recruits but not enough final fours follow: Rick Barnes at Texas and Bill Self at Kansas. PitinoVille springs up at #9, and the 500-call Hoosiers round out the top 10... Just outside the top 10 were: The Calipari Experiment, Izzo State, the Calhoun Experience, and two rising programs, Georgetown and USC.

A Sea of Blue examines the possibility of the Pitino curse

All you can eat Friday!

Greg Oden and Mike Conley will be appearing today on the Hot List on ESPN News. The Hot List airs weekdays from 12pm-3pm PT/3pm-6pm ET... Speaking of news, here's a shocker! Ricky Williams tests positive for herbjuana. I could have never seen this coming! It caught me totally off guard!

TV Reminder!. On Sunday May 13, CBS will air the one hour documentary College Basketball's Greatest Shooters at 11am PT. This was pre-empted by a live tennis game in March... Same day at 3pm PT, ABC will air the EA Sports All American Show featuring basketball among the other sports... These are obviously not a live events, so I do not know what times they will air in other timezones. Check local listings!... But wait there's more! The BYU TV channel will air a classic college basketball from 1998 this Saturday, featuring BYU and New Mexico... Also ESPNU will be airing some of the men's basketball conference championship finals in the next few days. I am boycotting ESPNU tv listings until ESPN and Comcast reach a compromise agreement and carry ESPNU on their networks. ESPN wants ESPNU available to all digital cable subscribers, while Comcast wants to put it in the Sports Tier which costs $5/month more, and includes other sports channels such as NBATV, NFL, CSTV, etc.

Thanks to the CAA Hoops blog for the link and for catching the "Doyel 2.0" comment I made earlier!

Jealous of ESPN doing a big story on the Top 10 programs of the Last 10 years, Gary Parrish at CBS will be doing the Top 10 programs of the next five years! He will reveal his top four each Friday, starting with today. And at #4 is ... *drumroll* Roy Carolina and North Williams!

After flirting with NBA teams, TV coach Reggie Theus gets a new lucrative contract at New Mexico State, making him the highest paid coach in the league, with a salary close to half a million per year.

March Madness All Season has an extensive roundup of some of the latest news and notes!

Big Brother has a problem with email surveys when it comes to Title 9 compliance. SurveyMonkey.com will be disappointed!

Today's edition of Goodman's blog talks about Bob Huggins's assistants, and the progress of Luke Bonner at UMass.

Pat Forde at ESPN looks at the future of Billy Donovan and the Florida Gators. I won't spoil his conclusion, but here's a hint: "The future's so bright, I gotta wear ____". He also compares the other top programs/coaches. Among the names mentioned: Ben Howling Defense, Billy Clyde Gillispie, Coach Dirty Rat (aka Dracula-K), Bill Self, Rick Barnes, Thad Matta, Lute Olson, Jim Calhoun, Tom Izzo State, PitinoVille and the Calipari Experiment... A must read!

Shopping Segment. Today only, at Amazon, you can get your favorite MLB teams t-shirts (100% cotton) for just $10! The special price is only good for today (Friday) as it is the Amazon Deal of the Day.

Quiet Thursday

Beano Cook commented on the longer three point line during his weekly segment on ESPN News's "The Hot List". He said that he is not big on college hoops (Boooo!), he also mentioned "ain't broken, don't fix it", but he also said that the three-point line is too close, "too easy".

An interesting article on Kentucky, Tubby Smith, and the national media, specifically Greg Doyell 2.0 (aka Gary Parrish) at A Sea of Blue

Goodman's blog is becoming a required daily read as he provides daily updates with new news! Today's post includes news of a high-profile transfer out of Mississippppppppppi State - not V(ery) Good news for Starkville fans, an update on Ron Steele and Alabama, and a look at Herb Sendek's loaded recruiting class. Goodman's Blog

Under achievement Awards at ESPN as the other Andy (Glockner, not Katz), looks at the 10 most underachieving programs of the last ten years. You bet it's all 10 BCS teams. You bet Michigan is #1, but who else is there? You'll find the footprints and handprints and fingerprints of the likes of Pete Gillen, Mike Jarvis, Quin "Bad Hair Day Salon" Snyder, Jim Harrick, Bill Frieder, as well as the NIT Dynasty at #10.

Goodbye Continental, Hello Newark say the Seton Hall Pirates of New Jersey (not the Carribean)

Mid-week report

Keep it in the (coaching tree) family: Dick "Hoops" Wise says that Jonathan Huffman is transfering from PitinoVille to Kevin Willard's Iona (no Jeff Ruland there any more)... He also talks about Donovan's flirting with the Memphis/Vancouver Grizzlies and the soap opera that is Donovan's extension at Florida (now rumored at around $3m per year).

As you may recall Jonathan Huffman thought he was the next Kevin Garnett and wanted to play the "3" spot... And I want to dunk on the Moon!

Book Review!: TheCourtMaster.com reviews the book "Cinderella: Inside the Rise of Mid-Major College Basketball" by Michael Litos, chronicling the magic season of George Mason and the CAA in 2005-2006... More on the CAA at the "CAA Hoops blog. The Amazon page for said book here

The Calipari Experiment, a popular topic of most basketball writers is now getting some cyber-ink from Dick "Hoops" Weiss at FoxSports... But let's give Conference USA some more love: Gary Parrish at Sportsline looks at the new and improved UAB of 2007-2008. Remember he has three "BCS" transfers that will be eligible iin 2007-2008 after sitting out and practicing this season. (What is "this season" now anyways? This can get confusing...)

A Sea of Blue discusses the CNNSI's pre-season rankings

Goodman's blog has a story Brad Stevens taking over Butler, after Todd Lickliter left for nearby Iowa... Also a quick update on the likeliness of Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas as a package deal... More on recruting at Recruiting Wars

Miami's AD resigns a year from now. I'm glad some universities are good at long term planning :-)

The Jim O'Brien story just won't go away. His "sentence" is now reduced to two years.

Pitino and Donovan reunion at Providence

Jay Bilas uses lawyer-speak to confuse us with the meaning of "underrated" and "overrated". (espn insider story)

Money burning in your pocket? Every 2007 Men's and Women's NCAA college basketball tournament game is available on DVD


Round up of Round ups

March Madness All Season

Beyond the Arc

CAA Hoops blog

Good News in College Sports

InsideHoops.com (last update in mid-April)

Tuesday Update

Syracuse and Penn State getting JuCos? Wow! Penn State almost gets ...Skylar from Heroes?? What? That doesn't even make sense! Recruiting Wars has the answers (sort of).

Blogger Yoni Cohen looks at the potential impact of an extended three point line... He thinks it is not necessary to make any changes. I disagree, I think the game will improve because now three point shots will be more valuable, and there will be more free space between the three point line and the paint. Players will not be hoisting up threes like crazy (or the coaches will pull them out). Defensive minded coaches who enjoy slugfests won't be able to pack it in and yet be able to defend the three. There will be a price to play, either a three or a mid-range one-on-one or mid-range shot... There are arguments to be made that the lane should be widened as well, but perhaps that's not a good idea. Have you seen any Euroleague/International games (NBA TV shows some as well)? A wider lane takes away post-play and we don't want _all_ college hoops games to look like Euroleague/international/Princeton-style games... This may be an interesting experiment to watch. After all, if it fails, they can always revert or adjust...

Goodman's blog talks about Xavier's schedule and outlook for next season, the bigs carving up the paint at Pitt next year (including Western Pa space-eater DeJuan Blair), and Drew Gordon surpring some people by choosing UCLA.

On the Drew Gordon front, perhaps the back-to-back final fours gave Ben Howland the edge? Well regardless, since he did not chose Duke, I have no problems :-)

Is Dick Vitale running for public office? In his weekly appearance on Monday's Mike and Mike (720am ET on Mondays) he declared war on locker room alcohol. He sounded like a politician on the campaign trail. He used to be a basketball analyst.

Speaking of the Dookies, we are surrounded!. Even the Euroleague Final Four was infested with Dookies. Alaa Abnelnaaby (sp?) was the game analyst on NBA TV, while Trajan Landgon played for one of the teams.

The argument of NCAA mascots and Native Americans did not escape the Daily Show on Comedy Central which recently featured a segment that topic with their usual twist. That episode is probably available on their website or iTunes. But if you are easily offended, you have been warned :-)

Reminder: They put baskets to score! They put scoreboards to score!. This is a variation on theme of a comment made earlier by the one and only Pete Gillen (not Gillan, Ian Gillan was/is a hard rock/heavy metal singer). And to add to that, a goalie is not allowed in basketball! You cannot cover up the net with your body, unlike soccer/football and hockey. That's because the intend is to score! Yes score! Score early and often. A 41-40 score should be the halftime score, not the final score. Are you listening Big 10, MVC, Rick Majerus and Ben Howland? :-)


Reading is Fundamental Xs and Os segment You may find this book of interest if you enjoy or want to learn more about the Xs and Os of the game. The book Blackboard Strategies: Over 200 Favorite Plays From Successful Coaches For Nearly Every Possible Situation has 128 pages, was published in 1999 and is a compilation of 13 years of plays from "Winning Hoops". For more details, check the links to the Amazon details page or look inside the book.

Monday Update

Goodman's blog takes a look at the assistant coaches carousel, something that gets nowhere near the same pub as the head coaching carousel... There are a few of high profile "assistantships" available! Apply now :)

Andy Katz at ESPN makes a case for Michigan State as the top program of the last ten years. But where would Michigan State rank in the last five years? Certainly not in the top five!... Perestroika at ESPN: Five of their analysts give their top 10s of the last 10 years (Bilas, Katz, Lunardi, Forde and Glockner). Two of them had Duke as #1 (no, not Bilas, he had UConn). Interesting choices they made. Then these top 10 lists were added up and averaged, and you guessed it, Duke was selected #1 by the panel. Some of them are drinking Boeheim-flavored Cool Aid, they are at #10!

Floridian Taurean Green will officially sign with an agent (foxsports), ruling out the possibility of a return (unless the Randolph Morris rule still applies?). This is seen as a positive for Florida as far as the Jai Lucas sweepstakes.

And speaking of Florida, ESPN News reported that the Billy Donovan and Memphis/Vancouver Grizzlies talks ended after the Grizzlies did not want to give Donovan complete control... This is a good move by Memphis but what was Donovan thinking??? Did he not learn from history? About ten years ago, a certain sharp-dressed college coach, an overtime short of two back-to-back NCAA championships, was given full control of the Boston Celtics. Does Donovan think he can do better than Pitino as a GM with no GM experience? Can we please learn from history? Is it that hard? :-)

Looking forward to the next season? Take a look at Katz's revised Top 25 for 2007-2008.

Weekend Update

Goodman's blog talks about Gregg Marshall's first few days as the new Wichita State head coach.

Neither Marshall nor Majerus have changed their mind so far! And the only reason I say this is because they backed out within days of their previous new job.

South Carolina State gets a new head coach

More later on...

Friday on my mind

I got it on eBay! (not me, that's the eBay jingle they are using in their ads). The eBay auction for a piece of the Memorial Coloseum floor continues! The eBay auction link, currently at $61 with 20 bids. More details at FireBilly.com

Latest recruiting happenings at Recruiting Wars

Pre-order your favorite 2007 Men's and Women's Final Four basketball games on DVD at Amazon. Details at 11 (or at this previous post)

Goodman's blog has an update on the new proposed rule to move back the three point line by one foot, starting in 2008-2009, including comments by Billy Donovan... Also Goodman has updates on two transfers from UCLA and Wake Forest, and Huggins getting a former head coach as an assistant (a popular trend these days, Lute Olson just got Kevin O'Neill!)

Don't steal our coach Mr Stern! Andy Katz has a story on Reggie Theus interviewing for NBA head coaching jobs. No wonder he wasn't interested in the college coaching carousel! Unlike most of the college coaches mentioned for NBA jobs, Theus played and scored a lot of points in the NBA. Some of the teams mentioned in the story are Charlotte, Indiana and Sacramento. The Charlotte Bobcats interviewed a number of candidates for their job opening, including Ron Jeremy (aka Stan Van Gundy).

On Thursday we practice three point shooting!

Not just March Madness Both Philip and Mr Armani were eliminated from the first round of the NBA playoffs during the last couple of days. I am talking about former Zen Master Phil Jackson (now he's just another angry coach), and Mr Armani Run and Gun Pat Reilly... So Bob Knight, Coach Dracula-K, and Lute Olson, don't feel bad because you got bounced out in the first round of the NCAA tourney. You are not alone!

NCAA Final TV ratings I forgot to check this out after the NCAA Final, so one month later, here I go! The NCAA final (Ohio State vs Florida) was watched by 20 million people (12.2 rating, 20% share). Compared to last year's final, it was up 9% in households, up 16% in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 segment (up 23% among men), up 39% in 18-34 men, up 25% in 18-34 overall. The rating in the 18-49 segment was a 7.2 (19%)... The 20-minute pregame show (Prelude to a champion) got 12 million viewers (4.5 (12%))... Overall, 40 million people tuned in the final game at some point (as opposed to watching it end to end), and 133 million watched at least some portion of the NCAA tournament games on CBS... The NCAA final was the 5th most watched tv program for that week.

New News

I got it on eBay!. FireBilly.com has a story on the auctioning of a piece of the old floor of the Memorial Coliseum (Kentucky) on eBay.. The auction is currently at $61 with 20 bids placed. The auction ends at 7:27pm PT/10:27pm ET on Saturday May 5, 2007.

"Hire the fatman" chanted the USC fans online before they hired Majerus! He has already delivered a recruit to Saint Louis, a 6'7" JuCo. And yes, Majerus has not changed his mind yet. Give him time, it's only day 4!

Extend me please! Pitino got extended through 2013, but also got a boost from $1.65m to $2.25m. One could ask: Does this have to do with Billy Gillispie's salary at Kentucky? They are also increasing his golden handcuffs (aka loyalty bonuses). The new downtown LVille arena is expected to open in 2010... Pitino said: "When the day comes where I can't do every individual instruction, can't do practice, can't break down the film, can't live on the road recruiting-wise, that's the time to retire and I'm a long way from that". Also: "I'm more energetic today than I was 20 years ago."... Meanwhile one of Dracula-K's basketball-sons, Mike Brey at Nostradamus (oops Notre Dame) got a two year extension, nowhere near as lucrative as Pitino's though, but he'll be there until 2013.

Another spin of the coaching carousel could start if the NBA teams with coaching vacancies dip into the college ranks. Jeff Goodman at FoxSports looks at 10 college coaches that could get a look from the NBA.

Finally the NCAA makes a smart move! According ot this AP story at FoxSports.com, the NCAA Rules Committee (not Ways and Means Cmte?) passed a measure to move the three point line back one foot, to 20 and 9, from 19 and 9. The Oversight cmte has to approve this on May 25 before it moves on. The other option would be to move it to the international line (20 and 6), but that would just make too much sense :) The NBA three ranges from 22 to 23 and 9 depending on location, location, location... This would affect all three divisions of men's college hoops, but not women's hoops or prep hoops... If it passes, this would take effect in the 2008-2009 season.


TV Schedule

Mark your calendars! Two college basketball rated one hour shows will air on Sunday May 13 on CBS and ABC. CBS will air the postponed "Greatest College Basketball Shooters" documentary, while ABC will air the "EA Sports All American Show" featuring the best high-school talent in football, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf. Check local listings for airtimes as local affiliates may shift them around.

Also if you miss the 2nd annual King James Shooting Stars Classic final, you can catch the repeat on Fox College Sports on Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights. The game feature the Georgia All Stars versus the D1 Greyhounds. Super Scout Dave Telep is a guest analyst during the broadcast.

On Saturday May 12, BYU-TV (the Mormon Church tv channel, usually on digital cable/satelite), will show a replay of the 1998 game of BYU vs New Mexico. Commercial free!

Also on Tuesdays at 430pm PT/730pm ET, Fox College Sports will be rerunning the six-part series "Pistol Pete Diaries", covering the life and career of Pistol Pete Maravich. The first four episodes are in studio with author Mark Kriegel of "Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich", while the last two feature black and white footage from Pistol Pete's games... More books and features on Pistol Pete Maravich can be found in an older post here




Basketball Movies on TV

Airing in the next 14 days, check local listings for details

Hoosiers on AMC

Glory Road on Starz

Coach Carter on Showtime

Juwanna Mann on Comedy Central

Eddie on TNT

Rebound on HBO

Sunset Park on Starz

The Sixth man on Starz

Blue Chips on HBO

One on One on HBO

The Year of the Yao on Sundance

Hoops, a 30-minute short, on BYU-TV (Mormon Church channel)

Harvard Man on Showtime

Please note that HBO/Showtime/Starz refers to the whole family of their channels, not just their main channel. Check local listings for availability...

Mid-week report

TV Analyst Carousel

Shortly after Rick Majerus departed from ESPN for the Saint Louis basketball job, Perry Clar of FSN (and ACC Sunday Night Hoops) is leaving to take over Spring Break State (Texas A&M Corpus Cristi)


2008 Coaching Analyst Carousel

Has the 2007 coaching carousel slowed down? How about taking a sneak peek at next year's carousel at FoxSports.com by Jeff Goodman. Some of the names mentioned: a singer, a rookie, a fox, a tv star, and of course John Calipari. He also lists 10 assistants that may become head coaches next year.


Topics of Interest?

Kevin O'Neill officially becomes an assistant at Arizona and Lute wants him to become his Larry Shyatt. But are back to back championships realistic for Lute's swan song? He replaces Jim Rosborough who spent 27 years with Lute (that's a loooong time!). Rosbro was actually the one who replaced O'Neill when he left Arizona in 1989!

Remember what Jerry Tarkanian said? The NCAA is upset at Carolina so they take it out on Western Small State? They are pissed at UCLA so they take it out on Southeast by Southwest State? How about this?. But wait, Iowa State was below standards, yet they found a way out


Parting Shots

Have a drink Illinois guard Rich McBride - as long as it's not alcoholic ;-)

Tuesday Report

Latest on recruiting and tv schedule for reruns of the King James Shooting Star Classic final. Also a Kentucky player stays in-state, but where? More at Recruiting Wars.

Goodman's blog discusses new NCAA legislation that deals with GPA and education and may have adverse effects.

Latest headlines at FoxSports.

Latest headlines at ESPN.com

At the risk of sounding like a master of the obvious, there are no new news today!

A TV reminder: The best college basketball shooters documentary on CBS is scheduled to be shown on May 13. (It was supposed to be shown during March Madness but it was pre-empted by a tennis match that took forever to finish).

Looking for the perfect Mother's day gift for college basketball loving mothers? Every 2007 Men's and Women's NCAA game will be available on DVD. Not sure if they will ship before Mother's day though.