Book Rivalry: Wes Miller vs Dane Bradshaw

If Dane Bradshaw of Tennessee can write a book, so can Wes Miller of North Carolina! We have our first book rivarly of the pre-season. And they have something in common: They were both coached by North Carolina guys: Buzz Peterson, Matt Doherty and Roy Williams.

Wes Miller's book Road to Blue Heaven: An Insider's Diary of North Carolina's 2007 Basketball Season. The book is 256 pages long, by Pegasus books, currently available for pre-order at $16.32, with a September estimate for release. Amazon does have a pre-order price-guarantee so you can get the lowest price when it ships. The book is edited by Adam Lucas, a Chapel Hill resident who wrote four UNC hoops books.

Dane Bradshaw 's book is titled "Vertical Leap: Inside the rise of Tennessee basketball", with a foreword by Bruce Pearl. The start of Bruce Pearl era at Tennessee is now on paper for all to read. Bradshaw's book is shipping right now, it is 218 pages, and currently costs $13.57. Amazon does not have a picture of his book yet - that's why I did not post a picture below. If I can get one from the publishers, then I will add it! I'm saying this so that people don't think that I am picking on Dane Bradshaw! I don't want to get Bruce Pearl upset :) Update: Thanks to Tennessee Valley Publishing for the picture of the book.

Kentucky gets third assistant coach

Congratulations to March Madness All Season for reaching half a million web hits!

CHN's 144-part preview series continues with IUPUIUIUPUIUI, Hawai'iiii, Virginia Tech and Nebraska

John Clay's Sidelines report reports on the last and final assistant coach at Kentucky. And the new assistant coach is Alvin Brooks, former Houston (Cougars) head coach. Clay also talks about the potential of a Bill vs Billy series of games, given that they (Self and Gillispie) were on the same team a few years ago.

A Sea of Blue takes a closer look at the NBA referee gambling scandal and its potential impact on college sports. DeCourcy opines as well

Goodman gives up updates on the FIBA U19 games, a quick update on Ole Mess and Andy Kennedy, and Marquette's David Cubillan. There is also a curious comment on Arizona enforcer-coach Kevin O'Neill.

The AD carousel won't spin at Nebraska. Their current AD was given a five year extension

A variety of topics are covered by Hoops Coach at Wordpress

Property wars at Oklahoma State and they won!

All mid-majors all the time at Mid Majority Repor(t)


Readers Questions (...via Google)

This ended up on my blog: Coach k eating children. And believe it or not, there is such a story at deadspin. Who knew Coach K and Mike Tyson had so much in common :)

Q: What caused the beef between John Calipari and John Cheney? A: nothing really extraordinary, John Chaney was just having a "goon moment".

Q: Are there college team cell phone covers? A: Good idea, I do not know the answer, but I'll look into it.

Q: What's the television call sign for NICK2? A: NICK2

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

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!

July 23 to July 31 weekly TV Guide

all times pacific, 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

Some game repeats at ESPNU, however I am boycotting ESPNU tv listings until Comcast and ESPN reach compromise and make ESPNU available to their millions of customers

High school games with D1 prospects from New York's and Florida's state finals at Recruiting Wars


NBA Summer League

Say goodbye to the college stars of 2006-2007 as they start their professional career

Repeats of games played earlier in the month on NBATV.

The Chinese national team was also participating in the summer leagues (I kid you not!)

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

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


College Basketball Game Repeats

Mon July 23, 12pm, Utah at UNLV, CSTV

Wedn July 25, 9am, 1am, SMU at TCU, CSTV

Thur July 26, 9am, Utah at New Mexico, CSTV

Sun July 29 Mid-major Marathon on Fox College Sports (FCS)

12pm, Florida Atlantic at Western Kentucky

12pm, Valpo at Oakland

2pm, Southern Illinois at Western Kentucky

2pm, Georgia State at Hofstra

4pm, Monmouth at Farleigh Dickinson (FDU)

4pm, North Texas at Western Kentucky

4pm, Louisiana Lafayette at Denver

6pm, St Francis of NY at FDU

6pm, New Orleans at Western Kentucky

6pm, Paradise Jam title game

There are three Fox College Sports channels, thus up to three games at the same time!

Sat July 28, 5pm, 8pm, Utah vs BYU, from 1992, BYU-TV

Sat July 28, 630pm, 930pm, Utah vs BYU, from 1994, BYUTV

Sat July 28, 2pm, Pan American Games Live on ESPN!, probably the final

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


Documentaries and more

Possible Pan American basketball games on ESPN Deportes (spanish speaking version of ESPN). This is usually on digital cable. Comcast shockingly does not include it in the Digital Sports Tier, even though it is a sports channel. Subscription to one of the spanish-speaking package is the only way to get it. Oh Comcast, only you could do that! What's the point of paying $5/month to get the sports channels when you don't get them all? Call them and let them know!

College Sports year in review repeats at least once a day on Fox College Sports on July 22, 24, and 25.

Mon July 23, 5am, Larry Bird: A basketball legend, ESPN Classic

ACC All Access has a best of basketball highlight episode. Air times: mon july 23, tue july 24, wedn july 25, fri july 27. All on Fox College Sports. On local FSN stations in ACC markets as well. Stories featured: Ivory Latta, Kay Yow, Rayshawn Terry, and Cameron Open Door Stadium at Duke.

Mon July 23, 2pm, 1130pm, On the road with James Bates, at UNLV talking with Lon and Kevin Kruger, CSTV

Tue July 24, 430pm, Pistol Pete Diaries on Fox College Sports

Fri July 27, 1pm, On the road with James Bates, at UNLV talking with Lon and Kevin Kruger, CSTV

Fri July 27, 2006-2007 NCAA Year in Review, on ESPN2.

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.

Basketball Diaries on Sundance

Hoosiers on AMC

He got Game on Starz Black

Harvard Man on Showtime and TMC family of channels

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

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

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).

all times pacific, 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

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

Preparing these listings is a time consuming process and your support will be appreciated! If you find these listings useful, you can encourage this blog to continue posting them by making your Amazon.com purchases via the affiliate link here or the Amazon logos in the blog.

State Farm USA Basketball Challenge tonight in Las Vegas (aka All Star Game)

College hoops is still months away, but tonight, Sunday July 22, 2007, you can enjoy the State Farm USA Basketball Challenge in Las Vegas. The senior Team USA men's basketball team will be divided into two and the two teams will face off in front of the Las Vegas crowd. The game will also air on cable TV on Fox Sports Net (FSN) and NBA-TV. The game will also repeat on later tonight on Fox College Sports and also on FSN at a later time. Official website.

Check with your local listings for airtimes, as FSN schedules vary from region to region depending on what else is happening in that particular region. The game itself will be played at 4pm pacific / 7pm eastern. The game will also be shown on NBATV at 7pm (I think) titled USA Men's Senior Blue vs. White Scrimmage

I am not sure which players will dress tonight, but a number of all stars are part of the Team USA roster. Not sure who will coach the two teams, but everyone's favorite coach, Coach K is the head coach of the team.

This update is brought to you by: 2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!

Dollars and Sense: Let's make loads of money!

While google'ing around for something unrelated, I ran into this February 2006 post from Tom Farrey of ESPN the Magazine discussing financial and legal matters involving former student-athletes of football and basketball, scholarship caps, profits and class action lawsuits.

And let me tell you, show these revenue to profit ratio to wall street and main street and they will go crazy. Imagine if your corporation had $18.5 million of revenue and $13.1 million of profit. That would send the stock off the roof! And that would spark about ten thousand investigations on the business practices of the company :)

Those numbers are those of the most profitable basketball program in the country in 2004-2005 according to data from the US Dept of Education. And which program is that? PitinoVille (Louisville went to the Final 4 that season). About half a million behind is the Silver Fox at Arizona (historical meltdown vs Illinois in the Elite 8), with national champions North Carolina at #3. Among the top 10 programs listed, NC State is running the tightest ship, the difference between revenue and profit is just $2.4 million. On the other side, Kentucky has the highest difference, $5.7 million difference between revenue and profit, with Louisville at $5.4m and UNC at $4.8m (I was tempted to calculate percentages but got sidetracked). Yet these numbers would still be off the charts on Wall Street.

The most profitable football program is Texas with $38.7m in profits out vs $53.2m of revenue. Michigan is running the tightest ship, with a difference of only $10.7m between profit and revenue. On the other side, the big spender is clearly Ohio State with a difference of $25 million. But once again, these numbers would be off the hook on Wall Street.

All you can eat Fridays!

The NCAA Tournament post with all (but one) the 2007 NCAA Tournament DVDs has been re-organized for easier access. Now the games are broken by region, and each game is clearly identified as Elite 8, Sweet 16, 2nd Round and 1st Round. The only games missing are (ironically) the Final Four games and the opening round game. The other 60 games are available, and cost between $22-$25 per game. 2007 NCAA Tournament games on DVD. Also available is the official 2007 record book of the NCAA, and the official program of the Final Four. Shop! shop! shop! ;-)

Thad Matta gets a Juco guard, but I bet he's not as good as Mike Conley. More recruiting stuff at Recruiting Wars

One more problem for Dave Odom says Jeff Goodman. Yet another one of his recruits was not admitted to the university. Goodman also critiques the 2008 class. He doesn't go as far as Mike De Courcy did, but he does call Greg Monroe "Josh McRoberts with a better attitude". Ouch! Goodman also picks his top player in the class.

A Sea of Blue comments on a Florida story on Tubby Smith wiht plenty of quotes from the man himself, Tubby Smith

Rucker will be rocking according to Dick Hoops Weiss. The Boost Mobile Elite 24 camp will feature some of the top players of the 2008 class, and beyond, including Lance Stephenson and freshman LaQuinton Ross.

In case you missed it, MSNBC's Beyond the Arc has a story on Kevin Love being the Gatorade player of the year. Could also be the Hatorade player of the year in the 2007-2008 Pac-10 ;-)

The George Mason upset over UConn is still alive!

Mike DeCourcy makes a strong case for showing the FIBA Under 19 basketball games on TV. The games are available online via FIBA. The Play the Right Way blog is also following the U19 games.

John Clay's Sidelines Repor(t) discusses Bruce Pearl discussing Lofton's performance at the Pan Am team tryouts.

More stories at Good News in Sports, including Larry Doby.

Nick's 2 Cents looks at the 2010-2011 Syracuse team

Cracked Sidewalks notes tha Marquette basketball is generating 2007-2008 buzz.

Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline writes about Prep schools, the NCAA and learning disabilities

The CAA Hoops blog has quotes from Duke-slayer coach Anthony Grant on the upcoming season

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A side-effect of the increase of the 3-point distance? Rotnei Clarke, a player Gary Parrish calls "little white shooter" has been climbing up the charts in the class of 2008. He already committed to Oral Roberts, but an ... oral commitment is not binding (sorry, but I can't resist silly puns). Rotnei says he is going to let G*d make the choice for him...

No Spin Zone writer Mike De Courcy discusses Roy Williams and recruiting

The 144 previews of CHN continue with Yale, Valpo and Sam Houston State

In the Return of the Big Blue Part II: Body and Bones, A Sea of Blue examines the 2006 recruiting class, which I call a foundation type class. You don't have the super star but they are all solid players. Especially Derrick Jasper has only scratched the surface so far. If you are participating in fantasy sports stock markets, buy Jasper stock and thank me later :)

30 resumes received by Ball State according to Dick Hoops Weiss including three former head coaches and an Indiana shooter.

A player by player analysis of the Pan Am roster by Goodman! Duke-slayer Eric Maynor of VCU was the biggest surprise. More on the Duke slayer at CAA Hoops Also Wojo of Rivals via Yahoo Sports breaks down some of the PanAm players

Goodman informs us that the U19 is rolling, rolling, rolling, offers an inside look at Fairfield (props for extended mid-major coverage) and also the Morris twins won't reopen their recruiting after looking the Tiger in the eye. As discussed before, they will spend a year in prep school before joining the team/college in 2008-2009. And they keep getting taller. As you my recall the core of Calipari's team comes from a legendary Laurinburg Prep team.

Also linked by Goodman, this friendly-looking gentleman was running high school basketball tournaments.

On the positive side of things, Hoops Coach talks about the winning edge. Also on the positive side of things, a number of good news in sports.

But there are more troubles: Maryland space-eater Lonny Baxter was shipping guns through FedEx (oh my!), while Iowa State guard Mike Taylor has been kicked off the team

The Rivals on Yahoo Sports discusses who should take the big shot. Mentioned are Chris Lofton and Drew Neitzel

More recruiting topics at Recruiting Wars

Every 2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament game on DVD!


Thanks for the links!

Thanks for the link here to Cracked Sidewalks, a Marquette basketball blog

Thanks for the link here to The Cats Domain, a Kentucky basketball message board and website.

Mid-week Repor(t)

Goodman's blog reports that Dave Odom got lucky this time, incomign freshman Mike Holmes qualified (remember Chad Gray?), and fiery Bruce Pearl gets extended thru 2013 with a total compensation package of $1.3 million per year. To put it in perspective a lot of people may never earn that much their whole life in income, before taxes/FICA/etc

Ole Roy gets a big man, after going 0 out of 3. More on this at Recruiting Wars. Also there a link to a story by Skwara on the coaches being split on early recruiting of 14 year olds and such.

Speaking of Roy Williams, he announced today that he is dealing with vertigo. Vertigo, the real thing, not vertigo from the success and high profile of the North Carolina job. I kid you not!

Gary Parrish has a reader's appreciation mailbag day

Dick Hoops Weiss says DeMarcus Nelson will be out six weeks with a broken hand. He also has updates on the upcoming Empire State games. Hoops also reports that grouchy giant Jeff Rouland, the 2-28 head coach of Iona last year, will get an NBDL gig

Every 2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament game 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

Random Thoughts on the 2007-2008 (Marqutte, UNC)

Think Trio. Not "Da Da Da", but the trio of Felton, McCants and Sean May. A very touted incoming freshman trio, it took them three years to maximize their talents and win a national championship. So which trio could have a big breakout this year? A similar trio, but not exactly. This trio has a point guard and two wings, instead of a point guard, a wing and a big man. And who are they? Why the Marquette trio of Dominic James, Jerell McNeal and Wesley Matthews. I'm not saying they are going to win the natinoal championship, but they have a very good chance of having a season to remember (Big East title, Elite 8 or Final Four even)

The AOL Sports Fan House bloggers have voted North Carolina as the #1 team of 2007-2008. The March Madness All Season blog thinks likewise. At first thought this may sound a bit far fetched. After all they just lost a unique player to the NBA lottery (Brandan Wright), they lost a veteran senior (Rayshawn Terry) and a special situations player, a long distance bomber who actually plays defense (Wes Miller). So how can they be a #1 candidate afer that? Part of the reason is because we (global we) typically pay too much attention on who is gone from a team, but what really matters is who is actually going to be playing next year... Ole Roy has no incoming recruits in 2007-2008. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a new player. Redshirt fresham William Graves will be added to the rotation. A name not many may be familiar with, but he is a top 100 forward from the deep class of 2006. Only at Carolina such a player would take a redshirt. He will be in the rotation next year... So what else do they have to warrant a #1 spot? A great point guard in Tywon Lawson, a premium shooter in Wayne Ellington, an energizer bunny in Tyler Hansbro, two big men from SoCal that will make their impact felt with increased playing time in Deon Neon Thompson and under-rated Alex Stepheson... Is that all? Nope, there's more. And these two are probably the most crucial ones: Defensive stopper Marcus Ginyard (remember Jackie Manuel?), and versatiler scorer/shooter Danny Green... Two more guards, likely off the bench, in versatile Bobby Frasor and speedy rather one-dimensional Q Thomas... The 11th man (no, we are not talking about soccer) will probably be local forward Michael Copeland... So that gives Ole Roy a staring lineup of Lawson, Ellington, Ginyard, Thompson and Hansbrough. Two point guards on the bench in Q Thomas and Frasor (also a two guard), a versatile wing in Danny Green, and two forwards in Stepheson and Graves. These five could be the starting lineup of an NIT team or a top 8 ACC team! Remember Lawson and Ellington were considered by a number of people the top players in their position in the deep class of 2006... So one could certainly make a case for them being the #1 team of 2007-2008. I haven't looked at all the other teams yet, so I can't really say where I would rank them. The problem with pre-season rankings is that no one is that good compared to last season, so it's hard to crown teams as #1. Pre-season rankings should start at #20 instead :-)

PanAm roster is finalized, Pearl starts a fire, and more

Midnight Madness is Friday October 12, 2007

Pan American Games update!: ESPN/ESPN2 will show a few hours of Pan American games, with basketball on Saturday July 28 (I'm assuming the final game?). However, ESPN Deportes (spanish-speaking version of ESPN) is having many hours of daily broadcasts from right now (Tuesday July 17, 2007) through Sunday July 29, 2007. ESPN Deportes is usually available on digital cable as part of the Spanish-language cable packages. Ironically and strangely Comcast does not include this channel in the Digital Sports Tier. I thought that's why people pay an additional $5 per month, to get all the sports channels. If you are a Comcast subscriber call them and ask them to add all the sports channels to the Sports Tier or give us a partial refund :-)

Goodman announces the final roster of the USA PanAm team. The 12-man roster includes one player from a mid-major conference, three from the Pacific Northwest, and one 2008 NBA Draft lottery pick.

A Sea of Blue has lots of content from the SEC hoops coaches teleconference. Apparently fiery Bruce Pearl took exception to Billy Gillespie's commit-athon since he took over Kentucky. Pearl's wife added fuel to the fire with socio-political/geopolitical generalizations/stereotypicalizations (I am making up words as I type, after all language is a living thing!). And for SciFi fans: There is a Dune reference in their story!

Eustachy candid about Natural Light beer and hung overs during summer conference meetings. At Parrish's Thoughts. Note: his blog does not have individual links to stories so it will disappear among newer posts in a few days

More on the Ronnie Thompson situation at Ball State

Another tiger breaks free (I had to work a Pink Floyd reference somewhere), Kalen Grimes is off the Mizzoura Tigers squad. The Snyder era continues to haunt new coach Mike Anderson. If you are looking for a silver lining, Grimes is more of a space-eater and was not a good fit for the 40 Minutes of He** style of play.

Did you miss Gregg Doyell? He just wrote this!

Gary Parrish had his fill of peaches at the Peach Jam in Georgia. This is his report. Chris Fouch was the hero of the games, while his AAU coach is rumored to be heading to Xavier, right after AAU summer play ends. Parrish also bets an autographed picture of Ashley Judd (???), has a story on Kenny Payne, infighting among the NY Gauchos, and a short profile on 2009 up-and-comer DeShonte Riley, a 6'9" center recruited by Izzo, Matta, Amaker (ooops Beilein), Huggins (ooops Martin) and JT III.

On the recruiting front, former Memphis and SoCal scoring machine Tre'Von Willis finds a new home. That and more at Recruiting Wars

CHN's 144-part series preview of the 2007-2008 season continues with Yale (yes Yale!), Valpo, and Sam Houston State ("Sam Houston is a state?" Jimmy V would say)

March Madness All Season asks this question: Who is #1 in 2007-2008?. Their post has been added to the list of links in the Gigantic 2007-2008 season preview of links

DeCourcy lobbies for Chris Lofton for the PanAm team

ODU coach Blaine Taylor discusses CAA hoops with the CAA hoops blog

George Mason BBall blog informs us that George Mason is one of the teams interested in Virginia Tech transfer Nigel Munson

HoopsCoach talks about overrated. But it's not what you think!

Latest Big East News in the Big East Basketball Repor(t)

Latest ACC news in the ACC BasketBlog

If you have CSTV, lots of Conference USA fantastic finishes repeats today. Buzzer beaters and such.

Every 2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament game on DVD!