Today only: College hoodies for $18 at Amazon

Today Amazon is running a special promotion, offering college hoodies for $18 each. "College hoodies" of course being sweatshirts with hoods. Some of the biggest college sports programs are featured, including Florida, Michigan, Texas, Kentucky, Duke, LSU and more.

Game recap: Kentucky at North Carolina

Cancel the VMI panic. Kentucky is going to have a similar season as last year. It's not going to be the 15-2 disaster hinted by the start of a high-profile game happening way-way-way too early.

However, the Kentucky Kentucky-fans expect will probably not arrive until 2009-2010, year #3 of the Billy Gillispie era. But will that be enough to hold off North Carolina and Kansas as the winning-est programs? UNC is now just 15 wins away, and considering their roster and Maui participation, they could end the year with 35+ wins and either tying or surpassing UK's #1 all-time wins record. Good thing for UK fans the Chaminade game is a Division 2 game.

On the UNC front, everyone is singing the praises of Tyler "GQ" Hansbro, or "Psycho-GQ" these days, but considering how UNC played at times, they may actually be a better team without him, simply because Davis and Zeller are better gifted and skilled players. But neither one of them has the experience and "psycho-skill" of "Psycho-GQ".


Completely unscientific predictions

• UNC: gets shocked in the Elite 8
  
• Kentucky: makes post-season NIT Final 4

Game recap: UMass at Memphis

Let's start by saying that Tyreke Evans is no Derrick Rose. And there is no one on the roster with the scoring skills and nose of a CDR. Nor the muscle and athleticism of Joey Dorsey.

So the co-champions of 2008 are not likely to repeat this year. But don't count them out just yet, even if they can't hit a jumper. Witherspoon could be a really big surprise and a game changer once he warms up to the college game, while Roburt Sallie can be another versatile player they can plug-in where needed.

But seriously, can anyone from Memphis hit a jumper???

UMass is probably going to have its bumps and bruises this year, but the future looks bright with Kellogg's Corn Flakes at the helm. It may take a couple of years for the transition, as the Travis Ford era and players cycle out and the AASAA players come in.


Completely unscientific predictions for these two teams

• Memphis: Elite 8
  
• UMass: CBI

Jimmys and Joes versus the Xs and Os

Storming The Floor has launched a new feature, on Xs and Os - Outside the Coaches Box.

In this week's episode, STF answers reader questions on crunch time offense, shot blockers, Princeton offense, and things like that. This looks very promising, so if you are into Xs and Os, be sure to visit and bookmark!

The pre-season Blogger's Poll is published!

A new season is indeed coming up! The Blogger's Poll is back with its pre-season edition. And yes, basketball fans, there was a unanimous #1! Will that remain the same after next Tuesday?

By the way, we are planning a big party after Duke's first loss this season and after every loss :-)

College Basketball and Elections!

Now that the elections are almost over and almost all the votes counted, and almost all the races decided, there is an interesting pattern we have observed.

As most of you know, Barack Obama played college basketball. And he managed to switch two of the three biggest college basketball states in the country, Indiana and North Carolina. The last time they voted blue, they were probably playing with peach baskets! (joke, not historically accurate fact).

But he did not win the other big college basketball state: Kentucky. But what if he was a former UK hoops player? :)

Considering the historical voting patterns of those two states, did any of the exit pollers ask whether college basketball experience was a factor? :)

The 2008-2009 TV season tips off on Sunday!

Yes, college basketball fans, the TV season of 2008-2009 is tipping off! Grab your remotes and your TV schedules, and make some room on your DVRs and VCRs!


Sunday November 2

• 330pm eastern: Previews on ESPN: Big East, Big Ten, Big 12
  
• 6pm eastern: College Basketball Preview on CBS, one hour long

Monday November 3

• 930am pacific: Kentucky Blue/White scrimmage, Fox College Sports

Thursday November 6

• 6pm pacific: Concordia at BYU, on BYU-TV (religious channel)

Tuesday November 11

• 6pm pacific: Georgetown College at BYU, on BYU-TV (religious channel)

Friday November 14

• 7pm pacific: Mississippi Valley State at Arizona State, FSN/FCS

Sat November 15

• 4pm pacific: Montana State (Billings) at GoneZaga, FSN/FCS

Free one week preview of NBA League Pass

Check out your local cable or satellite provider! NBA League Pass will be having a FREE one week preview, starting on October 28 and going through November 4, 2008. This can get you up to 40 games from around the country per week. We know this is available for Comcast, we don't know if it's available for others as well.

At the same time they are running a promotion that gets you $20 off the regular price if you buy the package for the whole year during this special promotion period, namely before November 4.

College Basketball previews on ESPN

Good news for hoops fans, ESPN will be running college basketball reviews, starting on Sunday October 26. And by ESPN, we mean ESPN the actual channel! Good news for those who don't have access to ESPNU. The first two conferences featured will be the SEC and the ACC.

In parallel to that, ESPN2 will be showing a rebroadcast of their critically acclaimed series "Black Magic" that premiered during the 2008 March Madness season.

Media Days and Midnight Madness on TV

Believe it or not, it is time for Media Days and Midnight Madness already. How time flies and we are fleas on its wings ;-)

On Thursday, CSTV (CBS College Sports) will be showing the C-USA (Conference USA) Men's and Women's Media days. The men's media day, which includes of course the 2007-2008 co-champions, the Memphis Tigers, starts at 5pm eastern time. If you miss that, it will repeat on Monday.

As far as Midnight Madness, ESPNU will have a Friday special feature with all the usual suspects and visits to the campuses of Kansas, Davidson, and more. ESPNU of course is not available in all markets because of a petty dispute between ESPN and Comcast! Arggg!


Update: Big Ten Network 2.5 hour special!
The Big Ten Network will have a Midnight Special tonight according to Big Ten Network, featuring Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Purdue and Wisconsin. This will be 2.5 hours long and will start at 9pm eastern on Friday October 17, 2008!


Update II: CSTV One hour special
It may be hard to find in the TV listings, but CSTV will be having a one-hour Midnight Madness special edition of their "College Sports Tonight" show at 11pm Eastern time tonight. The schedule is here. Notice the bottom of the page.

NHL Center Ice free preview on Comcast

For all the hockey moms out there, Comcast (and other cable providers perhaps) are having a free 12-day preview of NHL's pay per view package, Center Ice. The promotion runs from October 4 to October 15, and during this period you can watch up to 40 games for free, just like a paying subscriber. They also have a $10 off promotion for those who do wish to subscribe.

Big Ten Network added to various cable systems

Great news for Big Ten fans around the country! A number of cable systems across the country have recently had the Big Ten Network added to their channel line-up. This includes Comcast and Charter among others.

The actual location varies by cable system and geography, usually the further away from a Big Ten market, the further away in the cable line-up one can find it. For example Comcast has added it next to the Fox College Sports and ESPN-News and ESPN-Classic channels.

This is great news, but we still don't have ESPNU on Comcast. Well, I guess one per season!