Morning After Talk

Congratulations to the Lady Vols and Pat "Wooden" Summitt for their seventh NCAA championship. And just as the women's game continues to grow, the draft/professional issue will also come up. While Candance Parker is not eligible for the WNBA draft, she could go pro in Europe. Russia is the hottest market at the moment and C. Parker could get anywhere from $600K to $1 million for one year. This may not be as unlikely as it sounds, because her brother (Anthony Parker) played for quite a few years in the Euroleague and it certainly didn't hurt his game (he is now playing in the NBA)... However, in her postgame interview with Mike Jones she said "why wouldn't I want to return for another year?". This in contrast to Greg Oden's answer to a similar question which was "next question please".

Coaching Carousel Instant Update! Dana Altman pulls a Gregg Marshall and decides that he doesn't want to leave Creighton after all! So he is back to Creighton and Arkansas and their retiring AD has to call Frodo and start all over again!

Thanks to A Sea of Blue for the link! A Sea of Blue covers all things Kentucky and it's a great resource to bookmark for college hoops fans.

TV listings for the Roundball Classic (CSTV), the Nike Hoop Summit (FSN, Fox College Sports), state championships (Fox College Sports), and repeats of the McDonalds All-American game (ESPN) can be found at Recruiting Wars

Don't miss John Calipari tomorrow (Wednesday) on Jim Rome is Burning on ESPN at 130pmPT/430pmET. Calipari has never met a camera he didn't like.

Congratulations to Coach Gail Goestenkors for accepting the Texas job, and escaping the foul-smelling smug-cloud of Coach K that hovers around Cameron Opendoor Stadium.

Colorado State's seven-footer Jason Smith has declared for the NBA draft but won't sign with an agent.

Bracketology 2007-2008

Joe Lunardi's first bracketology segment on the 2007-2008 season (with the assumption that most likely lottery picks would declare for the NBA draft) has some supriring projections: The #1 seeds: Kansas (overall #1), North Carolina, Memphis, and ...Louisville (drinking Pitino cool aid?). UCLA is projected a #2, Ohio State and Georgetown #4, and Florida a #9 seed. He projects even fewer mid-major bids, 7 Big East and ACC bids, 6 for the Pac-10. His sleepers are Indiana (#3 seed), NC State (#7 seed) and Davidson (#10 seed and winning at least one game).


Kentucky Coaching Idol 2007

Billy Donovan appeared on Cold Pizza and continued to push aside any Kentucky talk. He also has a busy schedule in the next few days, including a week-long vacation after Friday

Pat Forde thinks Rick Barnes could be Plan B

A very basic GoDaddy website has been created to Keep Billy Donovan at Florida...

Did Billy Donovan's pre-game speech that aired nationally on CBS have a secret message in it?. He talked about the season as a horserace, and we all know which state is famous for horses and horse-racing. What it simply a figure of speech and a pure coincidence? Was it a subconcious reaction to him thinking about Kentucky all the time? Or was he sending a secret message? :-)


Quick Hitters

Katz thinks all four Florida juniors will probably go... Skip Bayless has a gut feeling Greg Oden will return next year... Skip Bayless also got some PR when Corey Brewer said they were motivated by him saying they are not one of the Top 5 teams... At least 425 MLB players are making over $1 million per year. M stands for Millionaire said the Cold Pizza crew... Don't forget tonight on ESPN, and ESPN2, in an ESPN full circle event, the women's NCAA final between defensive experts Rutgers and the Tennessee Pat Summit Express. Interesting how a certain insurance agency has pulled their Coach Loser K ads and replaced them with the Pat Summit ads! Prediction: Candance Parker is the difference maker and the Lady Vols paint the trophy orange!... Some rumors had Lon Kruger going to Michigan and Steve Lavin or Ernie Kent going to Iowa. Obviously not very right... Another rumor has/had Dookie Tommy Amaker upgrading [academically] to Harvard. Perhaps he wants to turn Ha'v'a'd into the the Duke of the Ivy League?... Chris Lowery's upgraded contract at SIU is 7 years and $750k/year. The Valley of Darkness is going to the bank!... Quoteable Pete Gillan: On Noah: "he's so emotional he cries when supermarkets open".


NBA Draft & College Players by Mark Kreidler on Cold Pizza

Oden: likely #1

Joakim Noah: stock fallen, still lottery but #10 or below

Al Horford: most NBA-ready among Florida players. Top 6 lottery pick

Mike Conley: best available PG in the draft

Corey Brewer: rising stock, top 10 lottery

Arizona message board coaching rumor: Kevin O'Neill to join the staff and Lute's long-time deputy to move to an admin position. The reason being defense and toughness. I guess after the success of Larry Shyatt at Florida, more teams will try that approach. another message board discussing this as well. Kevin O'Neill's profile at NBA.com. Story also mentioned in the Arizona Daily Star... Update: This doesn't surprise me as much as I should. When I was watching Lute's Coaches Show on CSTV where he was talking with "Roz" (long-time deputy/assistant) that conversation seemed a bit strange and off. So this talk about Kevin O'Neil coming in doesn't seem as shocking.

The biggest questions right now: 1) next Kentucky coach 2) What will the Floridians do (players/coach)?

Let's not forget, before we crown Billy Donovan as the king of coaches, that just a few years ago he was struggling and he was "convinced" to hire Larry Shyatt as his top assistant because the defense was lacking. So while Billy Donovan deserves a lot of the credit, Shyatt deserves a large chunk as well because he installed defense/toughness.

Bruce Pearl wants Donovan to go to Kentucky for selfish reasons: He wouldn't have to worry about Florida without Donovan, just Kentucky. It was a compliment for Kentucky and Donovan, but not for the Florida AD who would hire the next coach :-)

Vitale has volunteered to take the Florida job for $1 a year if Billy Donovan goes to Kentucky!

The NBA Draft Early Entry Deadline is April 29. It's a bit surpring that only two players have formally announced so far (well three since free agent Randolph Morris just left for the Isiah Knicks). Perhaps they are all waiting to see what Durant, Oden, the Floridians and the Carolinians do?

Today's Outside the Lines at 1230pmPT/330pmET will look at African-American Female head coaches in Women's basketball in the centerpiece titled "Minority Report".

Reader Appreciation Day!

Thanks to all the readers and supporters of this blog, and thanks to everyone for their comments, suggestions and feedback as well.

If you have any suggestions on stories and features you would like to see in-between the seasons, please let me know via email or by leaving a comment.

Some of the things that I will be covering in the next few weeks:

NBA Draft coverage, especially as it pertains to underclassmen and the effects on the 2007-2008 season, recruiting, and beyond.

comprehensive links to basketball sites, such as mass-media writers, conference and team blogs, coaches blogs, recruiting, general blogs, etc.

increased recruiting coverage here and simulcast (I guess simul-blogged) at Recruiting Wars

if you have any ideas or suggestions pls let me know!

Daily Tourney Talk (Final Monday!)

Coaching Carousel Instant Update Trying to sneak these under the rug while everyone was watching the NCAA tourney?

John Beilein to Michigan!. The brilliant basketball mind of John Beilein will pack his bags and go to Michigan! However this is sad for all the freshmen/underclassmen at West Virginia who expected to be coached by Beilein, the NIT champion, something that Michigan strived for the last few years ;-)

The BIGGEST SHOCKER however was (WOW) Butler coach Todd Lickliter going from Butler to Iowa!. I guess Iowa was running interference while they were busy finalizing the details with the Butler coach? Todd Lickleiter was just named NABC coach of the year (NABC = national association of basketball coaches). Terms of the agreement not announced/leaked just yet.

Coaching Carousel 2007 updated with these two hirings!

Blogging live on the Final Four in Atlanta from ...right in front of the TV :-)

Live on ESPN News right now, the Ohio State press conference...

Billy Packer just went over to Westwood One and talked on the air on radio with Big John, Raft and Kevin Harlan. Anthony Grant (now at VCU) also on the floor joining the celebration.

Now that the championship is over, we have two big questions: 1) Will everyone return for a threepeat? 2) Will Billy Donovan take the Kentucky or an NBA job?

Will the reporters ask Donovan about the Kentucky job? Will he give them an Ole Roy type of answer "I don't give a sh*t about ****** right now"? Probably not, since Donovan will be a winner, not frustrated because he lost...

"We are the champions" sing the Florida fans... And no, not the parody version of that song that Mike (Golik) and Mike (Greenberg) play for the winner of the NIT every year... Florida dominates both football and basketball...

Richard fouls out, Noah goes in. 81 seconds from the repeat!

Pat Riley's advice to Donovan on repeating: "Go with your gut".

Florida fans are starting to smell a repeat, just 2 minutes and 30-some seconds away!

Last media timeout (under-4): Ohio State 62, Florida 73... 4th foul on Chris Richard... Oden has 22 pts 11 rebounds... Billy Donovan trying a 2-3 zone... Florida 35-27 on rebounds...

Jim Gray interviewing Bill Walton on Westwood One: "repeating is the hardest thing", "Oden one of the most underutilized players in the history of college basketball", "spectacular tournament - only wish there was more than just fouls, timeouts and substitutions", "the game is not over".

Fourth media timeout (under-8): Ohio State 56, Florida 64... Noah has four fouls, three on Richards, Speights and Horford and Greg Oden... Can they contain the Oden Express?

Third media timeout (under-12): Ohio State 44, Florida 53... Oden vs (now four) Florida bigs... The game intensity increases... Will Oden be worn down at the end of the game?

Second half, First and second media timeout (Donovan timeout and under-16): Ohio State 40, Florida 49...

Halftime Show: Mini-feature on Kevin Durant receiving the Naismith award (the first freshman ever to do that)... Meanwhile Westwood One has a mini-preview on the women's Rutgers vs Tennessee game... And Dick Enberg is celebrating his 50 years in broadcasting by narrating an essay on ...hands... Ohio State is 2/12 on 3pt FGs this half...

Halftime! Ohio State 29, Florida 40... Marresse Speights got some action in order to wear down Oden and save some fouls on Noah/Horford/Richards... Oden is only one.

Fifth media timeout (under 4): Ohio State 24, Florida 35... Second foul on Joakim Noah as he was trying to defend Oden... Oden has an impact in the paint but he is only one - Florida has three big men (Noah, Horford, Richard).

Fourth media timeout (Matta timeout): Ohio State 22, Florida 33... Ohio State broke Florida's momentum but three three-poitners by three Florida players created some separation again... More nickle-timer calls frustrate Big John...

Third media timeout: Ohio State 15, Florida 21... Conley had to return to the game as Matta must have felt that Florida was starting to pull away... Florida is taller this year, but Ohio State will have more bigs next year: freshmen Kosta Koufos and Dallas Lauderdale and transfer K. Mardsen.

Second media timeout: Ohio State 13, Florida 17... Danger time for the Buckeyes?... The zebras are starting to nickle-dime again and Big John is not happy, two fouls for Mike Conley, Othella Hunter, etc. Bad zebras!... CBS showed the fake-trophy pre-planned failed hand-off between Donovan and an associate during Midnight Madness that gave the Florida fans a scare. It would be ironic if the last play of this game was a turnover... Nantz and Packer also make a case for not letting fouls take players out of the game. Hopefully this tourney will get the ball rolling on this issue...

First media time-out: Ohio State 9, Florida 7. Promises to be an exciting game so far. And that's good! The last thing we need is another choppy quick-whistle game!

Ohio State opens with man-to-man defense. Mike Conley scores the first basket for Ohio State, and Corey Brewer the first bucket (three pointer) for Florida. Current score: Ohio State 5, Florida 3.

Just before tip-off: The starting line-ups are as expected. One observation from Big John: Ohio State is a lot shorter.

15 minutes before tip-off: Long Greg Oden interview on Westwood One where Greg Oden talks about the bond he developed with Tony Dungy as they both lost people very close to them the last few months.

30 minutes before tip-off: Find your local Westwood One radio station here. Select "NCAA Tournament".

45 minutes before tip-off: Kevin Durant is named Naismith player of the year (the first freshman to get that award).

60 minutes before tip-off: Dick "Hoops" Weiss blogs that Lon Kruger and Mike "Stanford" Montgomery have not been appoached by Iowa. He also says that Arkansas offered Calipari more than $2 million per year... Quotable Pete Gillen: on Roy Williams getting in the Hall of Fame: "he beat me like a rented mule"... Don't miss today's deal of the day at Amazon! Check it out at the end of this post!

75 minutes before tip-off: Pregames airing now both on ESPN and CSTV... If you find Nantz/Packer annoying, just turn off the volume and turn on the radio coverage on Westwood One (check local listings for radio stations) featuring Kevin Harlan, Bill Raftery and Big John... Even Ohio State player/alum Clark Kellogg is picking Florida... My prediction is Florida, but I'm not sure how close it will be. It will definately depend on what the zebras do foulwise. They already ...fouled up two NCAA semifinals (one men, one women). Let's hope the zebras let the players decide the game on the court, not on the bench!

Yes, the national championship between Ohio State and Florida will tip off at 620pmPT/920pmET on CBS and CBS-HD where available. The pre-game show (prelude to a championship) starts at 6pmPT/9pmET. Both ESPN and CSTV will have a 90-minute preview show starting at 430pmPT/730pmET. ESPN's Cold Pizza will have a morning after recap on Tuesday. CSTV will have an NCAA repeat marathon this weekend.

Stan Heath finds his feet real quick as he is named the new South Florida coach, for five years for a total of $4.25 million with incentives. Apparently Kevin O'Neill (O'Neal?) had personality incompatibilities with the South Florida people, while Stan Heath proved to be a much better personality/temperament match... Waiting by the phone: Allegedly both John Beilein (Michigan) and Jeff Bizdelik (Colorado) are sitting on job offers and will be making a decision in the next few hours...

Right around 10pmPT/1amET, after they play "One Shining Moment", and the press conferences, interviews and postgames are over, there will be a new sheriff in town, the Kentucky Job Opening!, or as I like to call it in pop-culture-speak, "Kentucky Coaching Idol 2007"... Check/bookmark these Kentucky websites for news, opinions, rumors and everything else UK basketball: Ky Sports Radio, John Clay, Aaron UK, Sea of Blue, Rivals, Scout, FireTubby.com, Brett Lawson... Of all the stories, this is particularly interesting/buzz-worthy because a Florida writer thinks Billy Donovan should go to Kentucky, which got Florida fans rather upset...

Vitale fans, check this promotion featuring DiGiorno and Vitale. You can send people customized pre-recorded voice messages from Dick Vitale that end with (you guessed it) Vitale encouraging you to buy/eat DiGiorno pizza. And you wonder why he was not (s)elected in the Hall of Fame? :-)

Jeff Goodman at Fox Sports reports that Dana Altman goes to Arkansas! after 13 years at Creighton.

Final Four TV Ratings: Georgetown vs Ohio State got a 9 (19%), while UCLA vs Florida got a 9.5 (17%). Overall this was a 9.3 (18%), and a 4.2 in the 18-49 advertiser-coveted category, and 3% from last year. ESPN story. The whole tourney was up a 2%.

Mike and Mike joined Dick Vitale today in asking for a sixth foul and pointing out that this is the only game where a trigger-happy referee can send a player to the bench real early (not just Oden/Hibbert, but also happened during the women's Final Four (Candance Parker and Ivory Iverson-Latta)). I support six fouls and the coach option to leave a player in after the sixth and get penalized with two shots and the ball for the seventh foul and beyond.


Hall of Fame Announcements!. At a press conference (at the Final Four in Atlanta) that started five minutes late (were they busy doing recounts?) the following seven (7) have been (s)elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in the class of 2007. The enshrinement will take place in September 2007:

As a Coach: Pedro Ferrandiz (Spain/Real Madrid)

As a Coach: M. Novosel (Yugoslavia)

As a Zebra/Referee: Mindy Rudolph (NBA) (13th referee inducted in HoF)

As a Coach: Philip (aka Phil Jackson)

As a Coach: Van Chancelor (OleMiss/WNBA). He was on hand to receive the jersey and cried and laughed at the same time.

As a Team: The 1966 Texas Western (now UTEP) team! Congratulations!. (6th team to be inducted in HoF). Two of the starters were on hand to receive the jersey and the news.

As a Coach: Ole Roy (Roy Williams) (Kansas/North Carolina). Shockingly Ole Roy did not cry (at least not in front of the cameras)!

Also Bob Cousy himself presented the Bob Cousy award to ... *** drumroll *** Texas A&M's Acie Law!

The press confernece itself started long-winded with speeches. Just announce the winners! How hard is that? :-)

The list of candidates and my predictions are here
Not elected and crying
* Dick Vitale, Eddie Sutton, Bobby Hurley Sr, Adrian Dantley, Chris Mullin. The biggest surprise to me was Bobby Hurley Sr. Dick Vitale would probably get in if he was nominated as a cheerleader of the game.

Thanks for the link to With Leather. This is how they describe their site: "a blog by a man who loves athletics, strangely focused on hating almost everything in the wide world of sports. Except awesome stuff. And the occasional underdog..."


Satire Segment

How do you lure Majerus to coach your team? with food!

Sillest item of the day: The Donald Trump and Vince McMahon scripted "fight" and ensuing fight via their oven-roasted, steroid and android pumped, shiny and glazed bodybuilders.

Repeatedly during the "Center Court with Coach K" special on the Discovery Channel, the Rat kept mentioning "he broke my limits". This was a bit confusing as I wasn't sure if this was a basketball documentary or an HBO Real Sex special on SM/BD relationships.


Shopping Segment
One day only at Amazon (gold box deal of the day), a Wireless Body Fat Analyzer and Scale, with detachable screen (see pic below) for just $18 and eligible for free shipping (with orders over $25).

Daily Tourney Talk (Sunday)

Women's Tourney Instant Update: I hope no one read my predictions for game 1. I predicted Sylvia Fowles dominating the paint and LSU winning the game. Well, it may have happened in some parallel universe, but in this one, the Rutgers defense dominated LSU... The 2nd game is supposed to be a "woo woo" game (a Raftery term, not related to the story below), but instead it's just 5-2 after six minutes of play!... Speaking of which, Candance Parker's brother is none other than NBAer Anthony Parker. European basketball fans are also very familiar with him as he had a very successful career in the Euroleague with Macabi Tel Aviv of Israel.

Did you know? The first Chinese-American player to play NCAA division 1
college basketball was Willie "Woo Woo" Wong at Cal-Berkeley, coached by the legendary Pete Newell in 1949 (yes, 1949, and yes, the same Pete Newell who does the Big Man camps every summer).

Congratulations to future Texas (???) Coach Gail Goestenkors for being named Coach of the Year. Also congratulations for thinking of escaping the foul-smelling smug smog cloud that Coach K has created at Duke. Go to Texas Coach G! You will have great success there in a smug-free environment!

Xs and Os: When asked how he would defend Noah and Horford, Thad Matta said (jokingly?) we will play zone all the time. Then he said that during the last time they played Oden and Harris split time on those two, and he said to expect something similar. (Red herring???). One thing is certain: he can't use space-eater Dallas Lauderdale (the next T. Dials?) or Kosta Koufos since can't play before the Fall of 2007.

I never thought I would completely agree with Dick Vitale on any single topic, but I agree with his point, to not only give players six fouls, but also allow a player to play after his sixth foul, but each additional foul would be two shots and the ball. Everyone wants to watch the best players play and decide it on the court. We don't want to see another disaster where the stupid zebras (yes, you know who you are, you were the three stooges who got Oden and Hibbert in foul trouble) derail a game and ruin a highly anticipated matchup. Bad zebras!. Hopefully this will get the ball rolling on six fouls and beyond!

CSTV tackles some of the big issues Brian Curtis hosted a special edition of Taking Issue from Atlanta on CSTV. It tackled some of the big issues such as the new NBA draft rule, graduation rates, and diversity in coaches and athletic departments. The panel consisted of a university president, a coach, a player and an AD. Interestingly two of them are potentially involved in the Kentucky coaching carousel, the Florida university president (grouchy fellow - coincidence or ???), and Texas A&M coach Billy Gillespie (who allegedly won't sign a contract until he hears from Kentucky either way). The other two panelists were Michigan's Air Georgia, Brett Petway, finalist to the college hoops dunk contest and the Georgia Tech AD. Gillispie's (CSTV's spelling) comments did not reveal anything about his future. He did say that he wants college players to get their summer back; with the current setup and academic requirements, players have to register in both summer sessions; he supports a player's option in the NBA draft... The Florida president looked stern and grouchy, but I don't know if that's his regular personality (or he is p*ss*d that Donovan is leaving?).


It happened before, will it happen again? Ten years ago a promising young coach was on the verge of a repeat, with rumors swirling around him about another coaching job. The coach was Rick Pitino of Kentucky, and the other job was the Boston Celtics. Pitino lost that game even though his team was the favorite. Sounds familiar? Ten years later the roles are a bit reversed. Kentucky is now the pursuer, and Florida and Billy Donovan are the defending champions and favorites to repeat. Given the multiple connections between Pitino, Donovan and Kentucky, one can only wonder where there is a pattern here...

NCAA Final Prediction: Florida beats Ohio State, the Gators get the repeat, and that creates two big questions:
1) Will Billy Donovan stay or go?
2) Will the four juniors go to the NBA or stay and create history by going after a historical threepeat???

Hall of Fame announcement coming on Monday April 2, 2007. Official press release by the Hall of Fame... There should be a live announcement on NBA-TV, at 8am PT/11am ET on Monday, although not all tv listings are agreeing on this... My predictions on who should be IN or OUT are here

Required homework: Watch the Ohio State at Florida game from earlier this season. Yes, they are not exactly the same team, but there are certain patterns that will remain the same.

If you missed any of the games, you can watch them online for free at ncaasports.com/mmod. Or if you prefer to watch them on TV, CSTV will air an NCAA tourney marathon starting Sunday April 8, 2007. They will show around 10 games, each one repeating twice. Prepare your VCRs, DVRs, 8-track, and TiVos!

The Women's Final Four airs tonight on ESPN, pregame at 330pmPT/630pmET, game 1 LSU vs Rutgers at 4pmPT/7pmET, and game 2 around 630pmPT/930pmET. ESPN will go full circle with this game, with a different view and Doug Gottleib commentary on ESPN2, etc, etc. Pedictions: LSU wins with Sylvia Fowles leading the way, Tennessee wins a very close one, with Candance Parker getting close (or getting) a triple double.

An excellent resource on College Hoops is, the College Hoops Update website.


Satire Segment

With all the all-star games happening, and UCLA's miserable performance, one can only wonder how on earth did the Mc Donalds selection cmte picked James Keefe for the 2006 team. Keefe was probably not good enough to play in a hypothetical all-white McDonalds game last year (the 2006 class was very deep), let alone play in the real-world McDonalds game. Memo to the McDonalds selection cmte: Please select the best 24 players, not select players because they commit to Duke/UCLA/etc, or because you think that you have to have a minimum of 2-3 white players. Please select the best players! This is common sense!

If I was looking for a coach to coach my team of zero players, there's at least one NCAA college that would be willing to listen because it might increase his stock and contract... Who do you think I'm talking about? Find out here!

The Pope honors Coach K, Vatican to build tent city!

The Pope has decided to honor Coach K with a lifetime achievements honor as a great teacher of values and morality through sports. Additionally, the Vatican will borrow a page from the Duke playbook and create a tent city on the Vatican lawn, similar to the tent city called K-Ville at Duke. College students from all around the world will be able to camp overnight on the Vatican lawn for a chance to get front row seats for upcoming Papal appearances.

Coach K called it "a great honor for my family" and "I feel humbled by this". Vatican representantive Ricardo Vitali called this an excellent idea to reach young people in this day of decreased interest in religion and eroding moral values. Rabbi Daniello Shulmano, president of the Interfaith Council of Italy strongly applauded the move by the Vatican. Italian culture minister Doristella Burkeoli called it an event of historical signifigance. Sports minister Ricardo Phelpioni applauded Coach Krzyzewski because "he's on a mission". Italian sports reporter Michael Patricio called it a great intersection of sports and religion. Premiere Leagua basketball analyst Giovanni Lunardini welcomed the move as he hopes this increases basketball's popularity in a country where soccer (football) is #1.

However, not everyone was in favor of this. Outspoken italian sports writer Skipardo Baylossi called it a "sham" and a "blatant marketing scheme" that degrades the Vatican. His comments created a major controversy on Italian talk radio and TV.

Daily Tourney Talk (Final Four Saturday)

Final Four Semifinals recap

Arron Afflalo joins Aaron Gray in the first team All-Overrated!

Thank you Florida for saving the game of basketball from the disgraceful style of play (foul on every play) of Ben Howland.

Ben Howland once again disgraces the UCLA legacy with a total anti-basketball slugfest. Yes, there is a good reason there defense is so good: they foul on every possession, every hedge, they push under the basket, etc, etc... Is FireBenHowland.com up and running?

Chevy Player and Coach of the year (no shocker, both can sing): Kevin Duran(t) Duran(t) and Tony Bennett. Can CBS make that award ceremony any more dry and scripted?

Vote for your favorite plays and the winner puts some cash into your favorite school's general scholarship fund at ncaasports.com/pontiac.


By the numbers

Strange Stat: This is the first time since 1998 that no more than one team per conference participates in the Final Four.

Number of Final Fours: This a bit surpring, since Ole Roy gave NC the lead when he won it all in 2005. However, UCLA managed to leapfrog the Tar Heels with two back-to-back Final Fours. Meanwhile the Final Four drought at both Duke and Kentucky continues, while Bill Self has also failed to deliver, even though he had at least two teams that were Final Four ready (2004, 2007). Watch out, Ohio State is gonna be there every year. Thad Matta as I mentioned right after he was hired by the Buckeyes is the next big star in coaching...
1. UCLA 17
2. North Carolina 16
3. Duke 14
4. Kentucky 13
5. Kansas 12
6. Ohio State 10

Winningest coaches in their first seven years
1. Mark Few, 188 (he won more than a ...few)
2. Everett Case, 187
3. Ole Roy (Roy Williams), 184
4. Thad Matta, 183; this is his seventh year, he will get to 184 if he beats Florida in the final on Monday. And if it wasn't for the zebras giving Duke all the 50-50 calls in the 2004 Elite 8 game (Xavier vs Duke), he would have had at least one more win.


Why UCLA must lose: for the good of the game UCLA's unwatchable slugfest style of play is bad for the game. Really bad. As the Wizard of Westwood has repeatedly said, basketball is a finesse game. A game of skill, talent and preparation, not bodybuilding, weightlighting, streetfighting, and wrestling... UCLA has turned the game into a defensive slugfest interrupted by occasional fastbreaks. Even with a blazing fast point guard like Darren Collison, UCLA still plays slow. UCLA's running is deceptive, most of the times they run not to score, but to force the opposing players to scramble to run back to defense... Coaches are copycats and the continued success of this style of play at UCLA will only increase the number of imitators. And that would be bad for the game. So for the good of the game, UCLA must lose today... Fans and bloggers are not exactly the guardians of the game, but if the coaches don't police themselves, someone else has to point them to the obvious... I loved Pete Gillan's tirade today on CSTV, with "I am tired of UCLA's defense", and "they put scoreboards to score", and "fans wants to see scoring". He has said what a lot of other analysts (*cough* espn *cough*) have been hinting at while not being brave enough to say it out loud for fear of offending. Big props to Pete Gillen!


Race Issues

Some of the Georgetown players mentioned during the press conferences that some people may have been questioning whether the Princeton offense would succeed at Georgetown because of the race of the players running it

Wilborn of PTI thinks there are some underlying race issues when everyone thinks that players want to jump to the NBA for the money and don't enjoy/want to stay in college. His case in point was all the cynicism regarding Kevin Durant's decision.


Tourney Talk

Another great piece by CBS's Clark Kellogg in a very interesting and very candid interview with the two Thompsons (Big John, and Three Sticks (to borrow a Jim Rome phrase once again)... Of course some cynics may try to find a link between Patrick Ewing's complaints that his son didn't get enough playing time earlier on, and Mark Egerson transfering out.

TV note: The "10 greatest college shooters" special on CBS that was pre-empted because of tennis has been rescheduled for 2pm ET on May 13, 2007. Now that's what I call long-term planning on the fly!

Great piece by CBS (The Final Four Show) on USC's Ryan Francis.

Men's Final Four Predictions: Florida beats UCLA, still can't pick between Ohio State and Georgetown. Florida will be the national champion regardless.

Some espn video game dude's simulations picked Florida as well

Women's Final Four Predictions: Sylvia Fowles owns the paint, LSU wins and loses in the final to the winner of North Carolina and Tennessee. I predict Tennessee wins in an instant classic for the games, a triple overtime up and down extravaganza, and Candance Parker gets a triple double.

In a recent interview with Chris Meyers, John Wooden said he would like to see
all teams play in the NCAA. Interesting...

Big Brother (Myles Brand of the NCAA) has hinted at the possibility of a 68 team tourney. I guess Boeheim's whining didn't fall on deaf ears. But if the tourney is expanded to 68, please make sure the two opening around games are between at-large teams!. It would be totally unfair to put the four lowest mid-majors to square off, while mediocre "bcs" teams who refuse to play road games (SYRACUSE) get in.

Big Brother also talked about an NFL-draft-like rule. I don't think restricting players to three years in college is a good idea. While most of the players would benefit from this, it would be unfair to restrict them. Take someone like LeBron: He had to either go to college for three years or zero. Or even take Oden or Durant or Brandan Wright: They may have opted for the NBA because they didn't want to commit to three years in college.

On the other hand, the lack of college basketball experience perhaps may explain why LeBron is unable to deliver in clutch situations. The pressures of a college season, such as the single-elimination NCAA games and conference tourney games can be very helpful in getting a player to learn how to perform in such situations.

Florida's Walter Hodge on John Wooden: "that old dude". Memo to the NCAA: You should create a one-credit course in the history of college basketball that all college basketball players must take!


Coach Talk & Carousel

Seth Davis: South Florida interviewed Stan Heath, and Iowa will take a look at Dana Altman next week, which may throw some water on the Rick Majerus rumors.

Andy Katz says Chris Lowery is going to be re-upped and stay put at SIU.

Andy Katz says Kevin O'Neil is likely to be the next South Florida coach. Gottleib: "He is a grinder, but he can certainly coach on the defensive end".

Rece Davis is turning into a name-dropper: "When I talked to Donovan's agent...". Okay Rece, we know, you have arrived :-)

Vitale is propagating the Billy Donovan to the Memphis Grizzlies rumor.

Bill Walton calls on the NCAA to increase the number of fouls to six. I strongly agree!

This just in: Philip is in! According to the LA Times, Phil Jackson got in the Basketball Hall of Fame. The list of candidates and my predictions on the hall of fame at the Hall of Fame IN or OUT? post.

Don't miss the Sunday Outside the Lines (630amPT/930amET) on ESPN as it has (yet another) feature on the one and only Bob Knight. I name this one, "the softer side of Sears". (ooops, the softer side of Bob Knight)...


Kentucky Coaching Idol 2007

Vitale says that Donovan wouldn't move because his inlaws recently moved to Florida. But wait Dickie V, isn't that a good reason to get out?

Vitale continues to whine about the Tubby Smith situation (unbelievable 26.3 wins, etc, etc) but he still fails to understand why that was not good enough for Kentucky).

Billy Donovan to Kentucky continues to be a story bigger than the games. Part of it of course is Billy the Kid refusing to make any definite comments and instead saying things like "I don't have my phone".

The internet has provided new ways for fans and player's families to interact: The father of Kentucky's promising freshman guard Jodie Meeks posted at a message board to let UK fans know that his son was not thinking of transfering out after Tubby Smith transfered out to the TimberGophers.


Funny or Not?

Quotable Pete Gillan: "he has the poise of a riverboat gambler". "during my last year at Virginia my zone offense was ludacris that's why I got fired", "defense is what you put around the house to keep the cats and dogs in".

I can't help it but call the interim LSU coach "Porky". Not sure why :-) But he has done a great job in not only keeping the team together, but also allowing them to focus on the game and make it to the NCAA Final Four. I nominate "Porky" for coach of the year!

Make sure you block the Discovery Channel today if you have kids!. The Dirty Rat (Coach K) will be polluting the airwaves with his "don't practice what you preach" BS-ology in his "Center Court with Coach K" special. Please protect your kids from the brainwashings of this insane and out of control basketball coach who drains the life force out of his players. Protect your kids now!

Memo to Ben Howland: Please stop calling the "NCAA" "NC2A". You are the last remaining person who does that. So in return, I will be calling you Ben Holland, until you start saying "NCAA", not "NC2A".

Be careful ESPN when you schedule Jimmy Dykes to do women's games, his name may be perceived the wrong way ;-)

Matta on Oden/Conley communication: "better than husband/wife".

Daily Tourney Talk (Friday, March 30, 2007)

Did you know? CBS and SI personality Seth Davis wrote a book called Equinunk, Tell Your Story: My Return to Summer Camp. This is not a basketball book, but rather Seth Davis chronicles a summer at Camp Equinunk.

Billy Packer on CSTV: "tourney expansion is a political deal". He does not support expansion, "nice as it is right now". Also not very keen on the play-in game.

T-Shirt Gate 2007!. A scandal of major proportions broke out at the NIT. West Virginia played like a team, so the NIT decided to take out the "i" from "Virginia" in their championship team t-shirts ;-)

List of recruits affected by the Coaching Carousel has been updated with the Iowa and Arkansas recruits

Final Four coverage from John Feinstein at Washington Post (no registration required). Some highlights: Boeheim joked about taking the Kentucky job at $8 million per year and he probably joked about actually scheduling road games (!!!)... Folger thinks Tubby is very happy now free from the Big Blue Storm that has been around him for the last few years... Latest rumor is Kentucky offers $4m per year for Donovan... Leonard Hamilton at Arkansas?... Tubby Smith and Steve Alford joked about their exit strategies... Larry Schyatt at South Florida?... It was Schaytt that got Billy Donovan the championship after all (the defensive co-ordinator; as much as Florida denounces this)... Read all about it in John Feinstein's column!

Kentucky Coaching Idol 2007: Mark Schlabach's story at espn.com says that sources point to Kentucky making Billy "the Kid" Donovan an offer starting at $2.8m per year ($3.5m with incentives/bonuses). Donovan currently makes a mere $1.8m per year. Sources say that Florida was willing to pay Donovan up to $2.5m before the Kentucky bidding war... Meanwhile Kentucky hired the same executive search firm that got Tubby the TimberGophers job, which fuels the fire of a staged and pre-agreed upon exit strategy designed by both Tubby and Kentucky. As you may recall a few weeks ago Pitino warned Kentucky not to fire Tubby. By Tubby leaving on his own, both parties saved face (sort of)... According to "sources" the top paid coaches are The Dirty Rat (Coach K) and Ole Roy (he needs every penny for his "Coke habit")... Izzo comes third with $2.6m... This is before any retention, trigger and special bonuses are accounted for... Meanwhile, Aaron's UK basketball blog has wall to wall coverage on the coaching situation, including stories on Donovan, Calipari, Gillespie, Patrick Patterson, Jai Lucas, comments from legendary C.M. Newton, and Tubby too... Meanwhile a TCpalm.com story makes a case why Kentucky is a much better job than Florida... Let's not forget that if Billy Donovan was the Kentucky coach, he would have probably been fired in 2005 after five years of subpar performance after the 2000 NCAA final appearance...

AP Awards: Kevin Durant named AP College Player of the Year, the first freshman ever to win this award. Andy Katz on will he stay or will he go (to the NBA?). Best selling singer Tony Bennett won the singer (oooops!) coach of the year award.

Billy Gillespie's deal will be at $1.75 million per year (a jump of a mere half a million!). Billy won't sign the deal until he returns from the Final Four (perhaps waiting for the Kentucky bid after Billy Donovan quickly declines?). ESPN story. This means the pressure on Gillespie to deliver will increase now. No longer every win will be a celebration. Things like "we are paying you $2m per year to bring us championships" will start coming up... Meanwhile Arkansas has conceded that they lost Gillespie. Perhaps they should rehire Stan Heath?

Mascot Madness with Jeff Corwin and Lee Corson is coming to you on Sunday night on the Animal Planet channel. It includes a discussion of what's a good mascot, how a school decides which one to select, and viewer rankings. It will play three times on Sunday. If you miss it, it will repeat on Thursday as well. Animal Planet is typically a standard cable channel.

Girl Power! Goodyear selected one college student from each Final Four team to shoot a basket from 500 feet above the ground in a Goodyear blimp into a giant basket on the ground. Of the four, two were men, two were women. Both men missed their shot, both women made their shots!

One day before the tourney starts!

Right now, (10amPT/1pmET), coverage from the Final Four on both ESPN-News (press conferences) and CSTV (live 3-hour show from Atlanta, including team practices). If you miss it, CSTV will repeat its 3-hour show at 6pmPT/9pmET.

My predictions? Florida over UCLA, but I have a hard time picking the Georgetown vs Ohio State game...

Donovan McNabb is trying to break a record by appearing in every single show produced by ESPN in Bristol, CT, including a Sportscenter anchor audition using a shot sheet (industry term) for a basketball highlight.


Speaking of March Madness, you can enhance your college basketball dvd collections with some of these titles:

Some of these are the official NCAA DVDs produced in association with CBS Sports, some of them are produced by the individual teams, all sold on Amazon:

The pictures are links to the Amazon summary product page, with more details on these. I have not reviewed any of these (yet), so please do your research before purchasing... Some of them have full games, some of them have highlights, some have both...

1978 Duke-Kentucky NCAA Championship game

1979 Larry Bird vs Magic Johnson final

1980 NCAA Championship Louisville vs UCLA

1981 NCAA Championship: North Carolina vs Indiana

North Carolina 1982 - Flashback

1985 Villanova championship - a family's legacy

Syracuse 2003 Champions - Finally Orange

UConn Huskies 2004 Champions (ConnQuest)

2004 Women's Final Four

2005 Destination Indianapolis - Women's Final Four

2005 Lady Bear Brilliance - Official NCAA Women's championship

North Carolina 2005 Champions - Team Carolina

2006 Women's Final Four

2006 Women's Final Four in Boston

2006 Gator Glory

2005-2006 Florida Gators

Magnificent March - Official 2006 NCAA Championship, includes three full games (three Final Four games: national semifinals and final) and highlights and specials

Un4gettable the 2005-2006 LSU Journey

2006 West Virginia Highlights - Sweet Memories

Billy Donovan - Mastering the Full Court press

Mastering the Flex Offense by Gary Williams

John Wooden's UCLA Offense Book/DVD package

100 years of Duke - guaranteed to fill up your TV screen with Coach K smug-pixels :-)

Daily Tourney Talk (Thursday March 29, 2007)

Coaching Carousel

Indiana State has found a new head coach sitting on the Creighton bench, assistant Kevin McKenna

Some more names mentioned by Andy Katz for the Michigan job, including Chris Lowery (prepare for 41-39 games) (also mentioned at Iowa and Arkansas), Sean Miler, and of course John Beilein. Stallings is interested [allegedly] but only if he is offered the job (he doesn't want to interview (how nice!)).

Meanwhile TV coach Reggie Theus wants a primetime salary that can elevate WAC's status. Theus made $325K with bonuses included this season. After all New Mexico just paid Steve Alford almost $1m/year, while the most successful WAC coach (Mark Fox @ Nevada) is at $400k/yr.

AOLSportsBlog is talking about the Michigan job where John Beilein and Kevin Stallings are among the most frequently mentioned names. Beilein has a $2.5m buyout. Is Michigan willing to pay big money for its next coach?

Florida recruits are allegedly alleging that Donovan told them he is staying at Florida

Bob Knight makes $1.3million . Not sure how much extra he makes from all the ads on his red sweater :-)

The Texas A&M Board of Regents will vote on Friday on Gillespie's new deal ($2m per year thru 2012, vs $1.25m per year now).



Reader Segment (sort of)

Some readers are hoping for Tom Crean going to Iowa.

Kentucky fans are digging into Billy Donovan's past

Question: Why did OJ Mayo choose USC?... Answer: 1) For marketing purposes, so he can be at a high profile media market, 2) he wanted to play for an NBA coach and also (according to Tim Floyd) 3) he wanted to go to a place where he could create a legacy, as opposed to following other superstars (eg if he went to Carolina, Kansas, etc).

We are getting closer and closer to the Final Four. Today is "travel day" for a lot of the TV analysts, so there won't be as much coverage. But expect a barrage of stuff tomorrow, including the press conferences on ESPN News, a three-hour show live from the Final Four in Atlanta on CSTV, a 40-minute College Gamenight on ESPN...

The NIT final takes places tonight at 4pmPT/7pmET on ESPN, with Clemson trying to maintain a palmetto NIT-dynasty, while West Virginia wants to put a banner in their building (hopefully the shotgun fired at the start of each game won't tear it down).

Right after the NIT final, the 2007 college basketball skills (or is it skillz?), dunks and three-pointer contest takes places somewhere in the ATL.

Also at 1230pmPT/3:30pmET, the Outside the Lines first report centers on the ...Centers of Attention (Greg Oden vs Roy Hibbert). Also the Centerpiece ...piece looks at the Golden Anniversary of the 1957 final of Kansas vs North Carolina. Must see/record TV!


Incidentally the November 2006 issue of "Slam" magazine is a high-school basketball special issue with Kevin Love and Kyle Singler on the front cover. It's available on Amazon for $5, and eligible for free shipping with orders over $25. Also eligible for the 4-for-3 promotion.

Daily Tourney Talk (Wednesday, March 28, 2007)

Don't miss today's edition of Crystal Ball on CSTV! It features comedian-coach Phil Martelli of Philly and St Joe's as a guest. The show will repeat multiple times tonight and tomorrow on CSTV!

College Basketball Coaches Salaries
Book mark this story at USA Today!. Also includes a comparison with football coaches salaries and the impact of shoe company endorsements as a sizeable part of their payment. I will disect this story after the Final Four is over. Story was written on March 8, 2007 (before Tubby Smith left for the TimberGophers of Minnesota).


Kentucky 2007

Funny, the TV listings at FSN have changed already. The "Tubby Smith Coaches show" has been renamed to "Kentucky basketball". Tubby who??? Wow :-)

Latest Kentucky news at many places, such as Kentucky Sports Radio, AOL FanHouse, including Billy Donovan, Tom Izzo, Billy Gillespie.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Gillespie and A&M have agreed to a beefed up salary, going from $1.25m to $2m per year. With this package he would leapfrog both Rick Barnes ($1.8m/yr) and former boss Bill Self ($1.6m/yr). Interestingly on Monday they are expected to break ground on a brand new $22million basketball facility at A&M.

Ohio State AD said he would grant Kentucky permission to talk to Thad Matta if they wanted to. He may feel secure that Matta won't leave at $2m per year, but perhaps so did the people at Butler and Xavier :-)

One Billy Donovan news item that was rescinded as simply a rumor talked about a seven year deal paying him $3.5m per year (!!!) with a $3.5m loyalty bonus if he stays there all seven years.


Actual Coaching Changes/Extensions

In an actual coaching hire (for a change) UConn assistant Tom Moore will stay in the hood and take over Quinnipiac. Apparently the new $52m twin-arena (basketball, hockey) has made the Q job more attractive than usual.

Tony Bennett will stay at Washington State according to the AOL Sports Blog. An email (!!!) campaign netted a quarter million of pledges to boost his current salary of a mere $350K/yr.

Georgia's Dennis Felton (who may have inspired a certain coach-persona on a recurring Mad TV skid), got extended by Georgia. The new contract is 4 years long at $750K/per. A salary increase of $50K.

Mike De Courcy of Sportings News on ESPN News: Arkansas has offered the job to somebody (presumably Billy Gillespie), but A&M may be taking a bit longer to make a counteroffer. Oh how greedy they have become, these "teachers and guardians of the game, who all they want to do is coach the kids". Not that I wouldn't do the same thing if I was in their shoes (and shoe contracts too) :-)

Skip O'Bayless has branded the Ohio State vs Georgetown as the sham semifinal because of questionable non-calls that allowed them to advance in an earlier round.

Army's women's team wins the V Foundation Comeback Award! Congratulations!

John Thompson was contacted this year by NBA teams including the Charlotte Bobcats, which brought up the topic of contract extension. GT3 has just two years left on his contract and he has a base salary of around $450K. Can Georgetown afford him? Will we see Final Four coaches going to the NBA this spring/summer?

Air Force Jeff Bzdelik expected to meet with Colorodo AD to discuss a potential in-state move... Jeff "Grouchy-Giant" Ruland accepted the contract buyout after 9 years at Iona... Coach Gail Goestenkors may be named Texas coach. Congratulations Coach G for escaping the smug-cloud of Coach K hanging over Duke Athletics! All the best in your new job at Texas!

Andy Katz on Cold Pizza with the latest on the coaching carousel: Kentucky: Waiting for Billy Donovan... Donovan is only thinking about the Final Four, none of the contracts and other possibilities... Izzo a possibility... Stan Heath still doesn't have a clear answer as to why he was ejected... Arkansas apparently was dreaming of getting Billy Gillespie, but Arkansas AD cannot find Gillespie's phone number!!! Sean McCurdy already asked for a transfer, and promising freshman Patrick Beverly is having 2nd thoughts... Iowa: Dana Altman or Chris Lowery are possibilities...

Pete Carrill insists the Princeton offense is really old-school offense that among others the old Boston Celtics with Bill Russell were playing.

Dust up your VHS tapes, this year's final four is a rerun of last year's NCAA tourney: UCLA vs Florida was the NCAA final of 2006, while Georgetown vs Ohio State was a 2nd Round game

Need another reason why giving your son the same first name is a bad idea? ... Sidney Lowe's 21-year old son Sidney Lowe got in trouble with the law (20+ charges in two incidents). Ouch!

If Billy Donovan had been at Kentucky, he would have been fired in April 2005 for failing to deliver with the touted class of Matt Walsh, Anthony Roberson, Lee, Drejer, Appleby, and for the underperforming freshman class of Noah, Brewer, Horford, Green.

Superfrosh Kevin Durant won the Adolph Rupp player of the year trophy. On a totally unrelated note, Adolph is a rather unfortunate name for someone accused of racial bigotry...

Daily Tourney Talk (Tuesday)

Detailed CBS TV ratings for the 2nd week at the end of today's post!

ESPN the Magazine Tom Friend talks about Billy Donovan and, no, not Kentucky, no not extending his current contract, but, yes but, the Miami Heat! At 41, this would certainly be an interesting challenge for Billy, and a nice boost to his bank account(s).

Bold idea for the next Kentucky basketball coach: There's a number of promising coaches with Kentucky links that do not have the big time experience or resume to become the head coach at KY right now... So what if Kentucky hires all of them, and they work together as a triumvirate? People like Ralph Willard, Travis Ford, etc, etc... I know it's highly unlikely, but basketball is all about teamwork after all, although this doesn't seem to apply when it comes to a head coach's ego :-)

Iowa wants to talk to Bruce Pearl. About what? About the weather? About who he recommends for their next coach? Surely they don't think they can lure him out of Tennessee?. The only thing they can hang their hat on was that he was a former assistant there, and he is of the Dr Tom Davis (Ph.D) coaching tree... But in all reality this is just a PR move that helps both parties. Bruce Pearl's stock rises, and the Iowa job gets perceived as more intriguing since, well, Bruce Pearl is taking a look at it. Bruce Pearl is currently at $1.1m, going to $1.2m next year, with a $1m buyout. (m for millions!). He will receive a one year extension taking him to 2013.

Andy Katz reports that the Big East is going to an 18-game schedule next year, and every team will play each other at least once, but they won't decide on the matchups until after the NBA draft situation is settled. Having high profile games on ESPN (eg Big Monday), has its side-effects - it seems their schedule is heavily influenced by the ESPN mega-contract.

TV listings for the week are here.

DVD Shopping segment!. One day sale at Amazon, the first four seasons of The Shield are on sale for $90 (typical Amazon price is $137). Free shipping as well. The price is only good for today (Tuesday)... A brand new season of The Shield starts on FX the day after the Final Four (Tuesday, April 3, 2007).



Detailed CBS TV ratings for the NCAA tournament

Thursday
* Game 1: 6.0 rating (11%) with 9m viewers (m = millions).
* Game 2: 6.6 (13%) with 9.93m viewers (UCLA vs Pitt or Ohio St vs Tenn)

Friday
* Game 1: 5.4 (11%), 8.13m viewers
* Game 2: 6.3 (12%), 9.41m viewers (North Carolina vs USC or UNLV vs Oregon)

Saturday
* UCLA vs Kansas: 6.8 (14%), 10.22m viewers

Sunday
* The end of the North Carolina vs Georgetown gave them a nice 9.8 (19%), 15m viewers.

Week of March Madness TV Listings!

*** all times pacific unless otherwise indicated; add +3 for eastern ***
*** this will be updated throughout the week ***
*** networks may change their listings, always check with your local provider!!!
*** I am bound to have some typos or incorrect listings, always check with your local provider!!!


2008 Update!
Here are the 2008 NCAA tournament TV listings.


2007 TV listings
The listings below are for the 2007 NCAA tournament:

Monday March 26, 2007

7pm, 9pm, California high school division 1 and division 2 championship, Fox College Sports

9pm, College Gamenight (20 minutes), ESPN


Tuesday March 27, 2007

230am, Before the Bigs: Luke Walton, Fox College Sports

5am, 9am, 11am, 10pm, midnight: various UCLA at USC from 1999, 2000 and 2001, Fox College Sports

7am, 6pm: California high school division 1 championship, Fox College Sports

930am, 2am, One to One with Gene Keady, CSTV

930am, 330am, Michigan class B high school championship, Fox College Sports

10am to 1am, massive Final Four highlights marathon on CSTV, from 1991 to 2005 (one hour for each year)

12pm, 2pm, 3am: California high school division 2 championship, Fox College Sports

11am, the 1989 NCAA final, Michigan vs Illinois, ESPN Classic

2pm-5pm, Pistol Pete Diaries marathon (all six episodes), Fox College Sports. The first four episodes feature author Mark Kriegel. The last two episodes are black and white highlights of Pistol Pete baSKETBALL games.

3pm, 4pm, March Madness College Coaches Show, FSN, Fox College Sports

4pm, 630pm, NIT Semifinals from MSG, ESPN2 (corrected, not on ESPN)

5pm, In Focus Duke's 91-92 dirty season, FSN

6pm, Chris Meyers Interview with John Wooden, FSN

9pm, College Gamenight (20 minute), ESPN

1130pm, Chris Meyers Interview with Ben Howland, FSN

midnight, repeat of the 2006 dunk/3pointer competition, ESPN



Wednesday March 28, 2007

530am, 730am, Michigan class A and C high school championship, Fox College Sports

1am, 3am to 9am, Final Four highlights marathon on CSTV, 91 thru 97, (one hour for each year)

4pm, McDonalds Jam Fest (dunk competition), ESPN

5pm, McDonalds All-star game, ESPN. Men/Boys.


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.


Thursday March 29, 2007

4pm, NIT final, ESPN

6pm, 2007 College Basketball Skills (or is it Skillz?) competition, live from Atlanta,, ESPN

Final Four edition of the Crystal Ball on CSTV


Friday March 30, 2007

10am, Final Four Press Conferences, ESPN News

10am, 6pm: Live from the Final Four (3 hour special), CSTV

5pm, 9pm, 10pm: Final Four Salute, CSTV





Saturday March 31, 2007

1130am, Live from the Final Four, CSTV

12pm, Road to the Final Four, CBS

1230pm, The Final Four Show (2.5 hours long), CBS

2pm, Dick Vitale's All American College basketball special, 1 hour long, ABC (this will air at 130pm Eastern, and 1230pm Central). Check local listings!!!

2pm, Center Court with Coach K: Total Smugfest Alert! as Coach K teaches the mere mortals on the Discovery Channel (I kid you not!!!)

3pm, NCAA Final Four, the two semifinals, CBS



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.

*** all times pacific unless otherwise indicated; add +3 for eastern ***

Daily Tourney Talk (Monday)

The Coaching Carousel has been updated with an analysis of the 17 jobs that have been filled so far, comparing jobs given to head coaches vs jobs given to associate head coaches.

The 2007 McDonalds All American All Star game will air on Wednesday March 28, 2007 on ESPN. More details at Recruiting Wars.

Just announced: The Dick Vitale College Basketball All-American Special on ABC this Saturday, March 31, 2007, at 1:30pmET/12:30pm central/2pm pacific (the time varies from region to region because of live events before/after it). If you miss it, it will repeat on ESPN2 at 930am pacific on Sunday. Some of the online/cable tv listings may not be yet updated with it, so check again later on.


NCAA TV ratings on CBS for week 2

Thursday: Day 1 of the Sweet 16 got CBS a 6.9 (11%) and 3.9... Last year they got 8.2 (13%), and 4.3 in 18-49.

Friday: Day 2 of the Sweet 16 got CBS a 6.2 (11%) and 3.2, all #1s... Last year they got 6.9 (12%) and 3.9.

Saturday: Day 1 of the Elite 8 got CBS the #1 spot in the 18-49 group (2.9 rating)... Last year they got a 6.1 (11%) and 3.3 in 18-49.

Sunday: The dramatic overtime of North Carolina vs Georgetown got CBS a 10.1 (19%), with a 4.8 rating in the category advertisers love (18-49). This was #1 across the board... Last year they got a 10.1 (17%) and 4.7 in the same timeslot.



Final Four Predictions

Both Rick Majerus and Steve Lavin predict a Georgetown vs UCLA final, and both predict Georgetown to win. Bill Bradley also picks Georgetown.

Digger Phelps and Dick Vitale predict Ohio State vs Florida. Digger thinks payback will be a factor in favor of UCLA, but not enough to tilt the scales.

Jay Bilas picks UCLA over Florida in a single-elimination game. But if it was a best of seven he prefers Florida.

Skip Bayless predicts Florida beating Ohio State handily in the national title game

Andy Katz predicts Georgetown beats Ohio State.

Doug Gottleib predicts Georgetown beats Ohio State and Florida beats UCLA.


Tubby Carousel 2007

Pat Forde predicts Billy Donovan and Tom Izzo staying, and Tom Crean the most likely candidate.

Randolph Morris is making his NBA debut tonight with the New York Knicks against the Orlando Magic.

The Kentucky job opening seems to be bigger than the NCAA games themselves.

Pitino says he is not interested in returning to Camelot. He also dropped a "Roman Empire" reference. Perhaps he is watching Rome on HBO?

Florida president confident Billy the Kid will remain at Florida.


Coaching Carousel 2007

Stan Heath was caught by surprise by the firing. He was fired by the retiring AD F. Boyles. Strange? Andy Katz says Arkansas #1 choice is Billy Gillespie (good luck getting him!), while Katz thinks Doc Sandler is a good match because of his Arkansas ties. As you may recall both Gillespie and Sandler have been jumping from job to job the last couple of years, so I would not be surprised if they changed schools again.

Katz thinks Donovan to Kentucky is highly unlikely... Will not rule out Tom Izzo who Katz thinks he is high on the KY list (four Final Fours probably get the attention of Kentucky)... Others: Rick Barnes, Tom Crean, John Calipari, Mark Few, Jay Wright...

Calipari gets an extension at Memphis through 2011-2012. That of course doesn't really mean much, other than Calipari probably got a raise. Terms not announced/leaked yet. Derrick Rose is coming next year, and the only player graduating is Jeremy Hunt. It would be hard for Calipari to leave right now, even if Kentucky wanted him...

Arkansas fires Stan Heath, according to ESPN.com. Everybody wants Final Fours but only four can go each year.

Utah taps into the Tom Izzo coaching tree for its next coach, Izzo assistant Jim Boylen. No terms leaked/announced yet. Izzo has six former-assistants that are now head coaches, including Jon Stewart coaching the Daily Show on Comedy Central. (Oooops! I mean Brian Gregory coaching Dayton).

Mark Few's #2 Bill Grier officially takes over San Diego

North Dakota State gives the hc job to one of their assistants

Georgetown assistant K. Brodus to take over Binghampton!

Greg Marshall (Winthrop's coach) to remain there. I wouldn't take the South Florida either (and I'm not a coach even!). Other candidates are TV analysts Pete Gillen (Virginia coach, hey! he recruited Singletary, Reynolds, D. Byars (now at Vandy), etc), Fran Fraschilla (please hire him so we don't have to hear him drivel on ESPN, and please replace Ron Franklin with someone whose voice is not the definition of monotonous).

More on this in the Coaching Carousel, Spring Edition.



Elite 8 Day 2 recap

In an epic game for the ages, (karma?), North Carolina had a six-minute Freddie Brown extended play as they couldn't make a bucket and Georgetown-TNG has officially arrived on the national stage as a solid all-around basketball team. It was sad to begin with that one of these two teams wouldn't make it to the Final Four (who said the selection cmte did a good job? just because it was the year of the chalk...). This summer coaches from all over will start looking into implementing some form of the Georgetown-Princeton offense (unless they are busy doing the Mike D'Antoni offense).

More sad news for Carolina fans, unfortunately the student-mascot Jason Ray has passed away after being in critical for three days :-(

In a game that surprised no one, Florida's perimeter players tore up the nets with their hot shooting (literally!)- (I waited so long to write this line!). Tajuan Porter averages around 14ppg, so after his 33 point game in the Sweet 16, he almost laid an egg.


At home bracketologist

I just found out about a clever new product, a supersized reusable dry-erase bracket board, from Bracket64.com. You can see photos of the board here.