ESPNU Summer Sessions 2006

The good people at ESPN have already started doing their homework on the 2006-07 season. Their summer session is already in week 3, covering the ACC, Pac-10 Big 12, and MWC already (among others), with the Big East, Big Eleven and SEC coming soon. Enjoy the summer preview: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2516801

NCAA to Chuck Davis: Request denied

Unfortunately for Chuck Davis and Alabama fans, the NCAA denied Chuck Davis's request for an additional season because of his injuries last season.

The trend seems to be for the NCAA to grant a 6th year to bench players or players in small schools, but when it comes to All-Conference caliber talent the NCAA seems to be less generous. Perhaps they are worried this will give Alabama an unfair competitive advantage by using a 6th year all-conference caliber player...

NBA Summer Leagues: B-Roy Le Roi!

A number of talented college basketball players are making the transition to the pros with the NBA Summer Leagues. NBATV is planning to broadcast a total of 34 games in July (Vegas and Utah summer leagues).

Brandon Roy, under-appreciated by the east coast media during his college career, has been impressive, with whispers about him being the next D-Wade :)

As far as I know Ammo's team is not participating in the televised summer leagues, so no Ammo on NBATV in July - as far as I know.

5th year free agents?

An under-the-table rule by the NCAA is creating FREE AGENTS. Yes, free agents!

YocoHoops.com has a writeup on this, as well as Gregg Doyel at CBS sportsline.

YocoHoops.com highlights the story of Kevin Kruger, leaving ASU to play for daddy dearest at UNLV. And he will be eligible to play in 2006-07. No sitting out a year! The Arizona Republic has more details on the Kruger story. Remember, Kruger (the dad) was a close friend of Evans (former ASU coach), which one of the reasons why his son went to ASU. At the time Kruger (the dad) was an NBA coach. Now Kruger (the dad) is an NCAA coach, and Evans (the friend) is no longer at ASU. So Kruger (the son) wants to play for Kruger (the dad).

What exactly is a 5th year free agent? Here are the requirements:

You earn your undergraduate degree in four years

You have one year of eligibility remaining (eg medical redshirt, developmental redshirt, etc)

You qualify and enroll at a graduate program of another institution

and voila! You are ready to play! No sitting out. Transfer rules do not apply! You play your last year right away!

The name of this is Proposal 2005-54 and it went into effect April 27, 2006. As Gregg Doyel points out this is as bad as the uber-silly 8-5 rule who was struct down a couple of years ago when it comes to college basketball (and football).

The reasoning behind it makes sense for most NCAA sports except for the two "quasi-pro" sports: NCAA Football and NCAA Men's basketball. This is where things will get muddied as coaches will flock to all eligible "Free agents". It may happen in other sports, but in those situations, the student-athletes will make their decisions based on academics, not sports. But not in football and basketball, because a transfer to a bigger school means more exposure, which could lead to NFL and NBA contracts! Can't blame the student-athletes :-)

But remember, the requirement is that they complete their undergraduate degree in four years. A lot of student athletes don't even complete their undergraduate degree in five years. So not every redshirt will be eligible to become a "free agent". They have to graduate in four years to be eligible!. A positive side-effect would be additional motivation for student-athletes to graduate. A negative side-effect of the positive side-effect would be academic fraud in order to graduate in four years. Something about clouds and silver linings :-)



In conclusion it is a fair rule for most sports, but it will be abused in basketball and football. It once again points to the elephant in the room: Football and basketball are not the same as the other NCAA sports.

Coming soon: 2006-2007 Previews!

We are now at the halfway point, between the NCAA Final in early April and the beginning of the new season in early November.

But it's never too early to start looking into the 2006-2007 season.

Coming soon: I will start previews conference by conference. Initially the previews will cover who is coming in and who is going out from last season's roster. The first conference will be the Pac-10. As time goes by I may be adding some more. I won't promise too much as I may not get it done :-)

Relive some all-time great games this week

CSTV's Retrovision is showcasing some of the classic games of the last few years. The next game will be an early 80s game between Maryland and Notre Dame. Just yesterday they showed the 1996 cat-fight between Huggins and Lute Olsen (Cincinatti -vs- Arizona, in Phoenix)

As always, check local listings for more details and air dates :-)

The wait is over, the NBA Draft 2006 is complete!

The Portland Jailblazers have a new name: They are now known as the Portland TradeBlazers!

Unless there are salary cap or contractual issues that I am not aware of, a couple of the Portland Tradeblazers trades did not make sense as they could get those two players without trading!

The Dookies hype works again. JJ "Dui" Redick at #11 and the Landlord at #5. Dick Vitale deserve a 15% commission out of every Dookie contract.

Does the NBA need a 3rd round? There are certainly enough recognizable players to fill-up the 3rd round, although at that point, it's probably more beneficial for the players not selected in the draft to be free agents rather than in a hypothetical 3rd round.

Almost six UConn players were selected in the draft. Unfortunately for Rashad Anderson it was only five.

Marcus "Laptop" Williams's drop was a blessing in disguise: He will be learning under Jason Kidd!

Yes, everyone was shocked with Renaldo Balkman, but that guy has a lot of energy. Yes, the Knicks could have easily had him at #29, or the 2nd round or even as an undrafted free agent. Perhaps Dolan/Isiah wanted the people to complain about something other than Larry Brown.

College stars that were undrafted, but it doesn't necessarily mean they won't make it to the NBA: Pittsnogle, Gansey, Darius Washigton (ouch!), Dials, Brunner, Garrison, Eric Williams, JP Batista (!), Killingsworth, T. Francis, Fey, Taj Gray, Haryacz, Justin "shotblocking" Williams (Wyoming), Kickert, M.Slaughter, Amundson, Maraker, Pops mensah B (ouch!), Buckman, Allan Ray (!), T. Dean, Gardner, Justin Gray, Bennerman, Grier, Chris Rodgers, T. Everett, JJ Barrea, Dw. Mitchell, Stinson (ouch!), G-Mac (ouch!), Quinn, D.Horton, Dockery (not a shock really), Carl Krauser (!), CJ Watson, Horner, Nik Caner Medley, Steven Smith, Bowman, Vukusic (Northwestern), Cory Besler, and many more. There's certainly enough recognizable names to fill up a 3rd round :-)

Kelvin Sampson One Year Ban

Kelvin Sampson's One Year Bar is sort of a ban since he is allowed to text message recruits. Don't miss ESPN's Outside the Lines coverage of this topic this Sunday morning.

As you may recall, Kelvin Sampson was heading the college basketball coaches assocation and featured a conference on ethics (!!!). Sampson's violations were not of the innocent type (eg Majerus buying a player a sandwich). Sampsons staff made hundreds of additional recruiting calls. Hundreds!

It looks like the ghost of Bob Knight's Legacy may be haunting Indiana for years to come...

Wednesday Rewind

Thanks to the DavidsonBasketball blog for their reference in their blog!

Speaking of NC State, Seth Davis has a long writeup on the situation at NC State. Hard times in Raleigh

If you missed OJ Mayo's recent game on FSN at the King James Shooting Stars Classic, you can catch a rerun at Fox College Sports. Check local listings for details as it varies from region to region. OJ Mayo exploded in the 2nd quarter, essentially ending the game right there.

Rumor has it super-speedy PG Devon Downey is heading to South Carolina. Dave Odom's domination of the post season NIT may end in 2007-08 as Downey will likely lead the team to the NCAA tourney :-)

The matchups for the 2006 ACC-Big Eleven Challenge have been setup! The super-star matchup will feature the two best recruiting classes of 2006: North Carolina hosting Ohio State. Whoever set this up is very very clever! This is gonna be an awesome game! Set your VCRs and TiVos to record this already :-) Puke will host Indiana and new coach Kelvin Sampson. The 3rd biggest match is Maryland at Illinois.

How about some college basketball on TV right now? Starting May 7, ESPN-Classic will be airing a classic game every Sunday night at 11pm, starting with the 83 Houston-NCState game.

ABC will broadcast the "EA Sports All American Show" on May 14, featuring talented athletes of various sports, including basketball.

CBS will have a basketball related episode of the series "Close to Home" on May 5.

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Current list of NBA Draft entries

NBA Draft 2006 early entries at Yahoo Sports

Rejected by Lavin?

The NC State job opening is turning into the biggest soap of the summer so far, surpassing both the Indiana and the Oklahoma dramas.

Even Steve Lavin rejected the NC State job? Is that true?

Some NC State fans thought the NC State job was too good for Herb Sendek. Sendek was not good enough for them? Well, from the looks of it, perhaps it was the other way round after all: Herbie was too good for NC State?

I think a reasonable hire for NC State would be Bob McKillop. Being at a bigger stage he would be able to get even more talented recruits and leverage his domestic and international connections...