Today's Outside the Lines on ESPN, at 3pm eastern / noon pacific will be looking at the State of USA Basketball. Direct link to the OTL website. Also a Video preview (broadband) of this feature. Their poll of the day is also on this topic: "Why have USA Basketball Teams recently failed in international competition?"
Here is how the OTL daily email describes the centerpiece feature on (Men's) USA Basketball:
"Once upon a time, the USA basketball team dominated the world. No other team stood a chance against the overwhelming command the Americans had on the basketball court. Times have changed though, and the rest of the world has caught up. A far cry from the original 1992 "Dream Team," the last 2 USA Olympic basketball teams have finished no better than 3rd place. Now, in an effort to regain their status in the world, the USA is assembling its team years in advance, hoping to gel and compete. Outside the Lines looks at the state of USA Basketball, and it's hope to rebound from recent disappointments.".
Monday, August 13, 2007
Today on OTL: State of USA Basketball
TV Guide, August 13 to 23, 2007
College Basketball Game Repeats
Documentaries and more
NBA Summer League
Movies Movies Movies
Directly from the Source
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Tape-delayed Weekend Update
Thursday, August 09, 2007
NCAA and Text messaging today on Outside the Lines (OTL)
Don't miss today's OTL. The centerpiece feature is on the NCAA and Text messaging. It airs at 3pm ET / noon pacific on ESPN. Two coaches will be featured: Jim Larranaga of George Mason and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse. Outside the Lines webpage
This is how the ESPN OTL email update describes it:
"Today, the NCAA's board of directors are scheduled to hear an appeal by at least 30 schools who want to overturn the ban of text messages between college coaches and recruits. Text Messaging became a popular recruiting tool in which college coaches could constantly communicate with high school prospects. This tool wasn't effectively regulated by the NCAA, until earlier this year when text messaging was banned by the NCAA. In s story that aired last year, ESPN contacted several highly-recruited high school athletes who received text messages, along with their coaches and parents. They described an atmosphere where college coaches frequently text messaged recruits during their freshman and sophomore years, a clear violation of NCAA rules. College coaches are also using text messages as a way to circumvent the rules. While college coaches are extremely limited in the number of times they can phone high school recruits, high school recruits can phone college coaches as often as they like, so many of the coaches' text messages end with, "Call me." George Mason basketball coach Jim Larranaga admits, "Every time a rule is made some bright young assistant finds a way around it." Outside the Lines examines the controversy surrounding text messaging, followed by a live discussion with Syracuse head basketball coach, Jim Boeheim."
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Dino Gaudio becomes the next head coach at Wake Forest
Every 2007 NCAA Tournament game on DVD!
The NCAA Tournament people have discovered DVDs! Every single 2007 NCAA Tournament game is available for pre-order on DVD on Amazon! They are currently available for pre-order, but no release date is given yet. The pre-order prices range from $22 to $25, but Amazon has a pre-order price guarantee as well as a 30-day price guarantee after the item ships (for items purchased from Amazon, not 3rd party sellers).
(65 total). One game per DVD.Detailed list of 2007 NCAA men's basketball games (2006-2007 season)
Final Four - Atlanta
Florida won this Regional - Midwest Regional in Saint Louis
Georgetown won this Regional - East Regional, E. Rutherford, New Jersey
Ohio State won this Regional - South regional, in San Antonio
UCLA won this Regional West Regional, San Jose
NCAA Division II Tournament DVDs
Here are some examples of how the DVDs look, starting with my favorite game of the tourney pictured first! (This post would take forever to load and read if I put all 63 dvds in this format)
These two below are books, not DVDs.
But wait, there's more! The 2007 NCAA Women's tourney games on DVD are also available! 2007 NCAA Women DVDs
(list of 60 DVDs total). Same price range and setup.Also, if you are looking for classic college basketball games from the past on DVD, check this post
Monday, August 06, 2007
Ricky Stokes out at East Carolina
TV Guide starting August 6, 2007 (for the next two weeks)
College Basketball Game Repeats
Documentaries and more
NBA Summer League
Movies Movies Movies
Directly from the Source
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Random Thoughts on 2007-2008: The AASAA Memphis Tigers!
In today's installment of Random Thoughts on the 2007-2008 season we will be looking at the AASAA Memphis Tigers.I hope it doesn't offend Memphis fans too much :)
The Calipari Experiment entered a new phase when Calipari embraced the AASAA offense designed by Vance Walberg (now the Pepperdine head coach). Being a high-major program in a mid-major conference was not enough for Calipari, especially after his high-profile friends schools left for BCS conferences (Pitino, Huggins, Tom Crean). So he had to come up with a new offensive wrinkle as well to separate himself from th other top 50 programs, and have one more reason to be in front of the camera :)
Calipari's return to college was similar in many ways to Pitino's return. Both of them underachieved in the NBA and came back trying to revive programs that were struggling to keep up with the past. Both of them went after high profile recruits and both of them got burned. Because of that, the return to the top did not come as fast as they would have liked and as fans would have expected. But the NBA came to the rescue. The one year limit means that they can now get the big-time lottery picks and have them for a year. So watch out! (more on this later on). But success did come: Pitino managed a surprise Final Four run, while Calipari managed two back-to-back Elite 8 runs. You can't fault them for losing to Greg Oden's Ohio State this year, but last year's offensive meltdown against UCLA in the Elite 8 was a disappointment for Memphis fans. Back to back Elite 8s are not an easy achievement. UCLA had back to back Final Fours but the UCLA team had a ceiling, they couldn't beat Florida. Memphis could have a chance to beat them each year (I'm not saying they would, but unlike UCLA, they had a chance)
So after all the silly mumblings the intro, let's look at the 2007-2008 season. Memphis will start the season as a high profile team with a target on their chest. Remember the NBA rule I mentioned above? Because of that, Calipari was able to beat out all the other colleges for the services of tall pure point guard Derrick Rose. A big recruiting win for Calipari and the University of Memphis. But that also increases the pressure to perform and deliver. The team will be a Final Four favorite, and should have another Elite 8 run at the worse. With Rose on the roster, more of their games will be on national TV. CSTV will probably run most of their games that are not on the bigger networks.
And before we get into the roster, there will be something very interesting to observe from an Xs and Os perspective. How does the AASAA offense perform with a premium point guard? And on the flip side, how is a premium point guard affected by the AASAA offense? This is something brand new, Vance Walberg did not have a player of the caliber of Derrick Rose, and neither did Calipari ever since he started incorporating AASAA principles in his o(a)ffense (homage to Majerus). Rose is not a score-first score-second Starbury-type point guard, he is more of the Jason Kidd variety of let's win together. So that will be something interesting to watch unfold and develop!
And now to the roster!. Two players transfered out of Memphis during the off-season. Tre'von Willis, an AAU scoring machine, was not able to find himself in the rotation last year, and decided to transfer to a place where he would get a lot of PT. I believe this a very the logical decision. Willis was 3rd in line behind Kemp and Allen last year. This year he would have been behind those and Derrick Rose. So a good decision imho... Kareem Cooper's career developed the wrong way. He had a promising freshman season peppered with upside. However some issues came up during his sophomore season and he fell behind, also out of the rotation. With Taggart coming in this year, Cooper probably figured he needed a fresh start elsewhere, and perhaps time to burn off those extra calories :)
Had those two players not transferred, Calipari would have had a full compliment of scholarships. The Morris twins committed for this year, but they were planning to go to prep school for a year and enroll in college in 2008-2009. But the prep school route was not for scholarship purposes, so it doesn't make sense to rush things and try to bring them in this year (this has been a recent trend with other schools).
Apart from Derrick Rose, two more new players will be on the roster this season. Touted top 100 east coast wing Jeff Robinson and Iowa State transfer Shawn Taggart. Gone is the redeemed Jeremy Hunt who exhausted his collegiate eligibility.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to assume that Derrick Rose will be the starting point guard. Will Kemp may put up a fight, but Rose is just too good. Calipari could experiment with a two point guard line-up, but he may have to have six players in the line-up to do that :) Kemp will be the back-up point, with Andre Allen being the 3rd string point guard, and perhaps becoming a special situations player (eg come in and provide lots and lots of energy both on defense and offense).
The wings feature the two established Laurenburg players, Buckets (aka CDR) and Antonio Anderson. Different type of players, CDR is a scorer, Anderson is more of a Do-It-All. D-Mack is the 3rd wing, with incoming freshman Jeff Robinson battling him for playing time. Robinson is too good to redshirt, plus Calipari may even be tempted to go to a four guard line-up during certain situations (eg have the best five players on the court). This gives Calipari flexibility on the wing as he can have two of these four, or even play Rose and Kemp together, perhaps when facing pressing teams or when the other players produce more turnovers than the local bakery.
Despite the loss of Cooper, Memphis has more flexibility upfront this season. Dozier is different from all the other forwards, and could even play at the #3 spot (had it not been so crowded already). They can play with a big line-up with Dozier as the third forward. Taggart also adds a new dimension as he is supposed to be able to score from outside the paint. Joey "Oden who?" Dorsey has another chance to get his act together and become the next Ben Wallace. His performance against Ohio State in the Elite 8 (and the comments he made before) should have been a very valuable lesson for him. He should be the starting center. Off the bench, the two space-eaters will have to fight for the #4 spot, both Pierre Niles and Hashim Bailey needed to lose some weight. Niles was the most touted offensively of the two, and he will have an opportunity to earn PT.
So to summarize, Memphis has a premium point guard in Derrick Rose, two back-up point guards, four interchangeable wings, and five diverse big men. This roster allows Calipari a lot of flexibility: he can play with two point guards, he can play small (four guards), he can play big (Dozier the small forward), he can play fast. My prediction? An Elite 8 for sure, and a good chance for a Final Four run. Whether they can win one or two games in the Final Four will probably depend on how fast Derrick Rose develops from a highly touted recruit into an efficient and effective PTP'er.
Today's installment is brought to you by the new Popeye the Sailor DVD set, Volume 1, 1933-1938
Friday, August 03, 2007
Is it November yet?
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Not so private investigations
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Rewriting History: Falling apart is not easy
Rewriting History: Falling apart is not easy In this brand new segment we will be randomly revisiting events from the past. Today's episode: The last three NCAA tournaments have given us some of the most dramatic and epic meltdowns for the ages. Fresh in our memories is North Carolina unraveling against Georgetown. A year ago, the Ammo & Batista show ended in tears as Psycho-Howland's defense short-circuited Gonzaga the last few minutes of the game. And the year before, with the Final Four ticket in their back pocket, the Arizona Wildcats barfed up the game and got Bruce Webber and the Fighting Illini a miraculous comeback "home" win, and a season for the history books. But it takes two to have such a game. Sure, the team that has the epic meltdown deserves part of the "credit", but credit is also due to the other team that manages to stay in the game, not give up, not lose faith, show mental fortitude, and keep fighting to the last second. Both things need to happen, both sides need to "perform" for such an epic meltdown/comeback to occur. That's why these type of games are so rare - every year around 5,000 college basketball Division 1 games are played, but very few have such dramatic finishes. And the bigger stage and brighter lights of the NCAA tournament act make these even more dramatic!
