College Basketball 2008-2009

[Rhom]

Yes, its a little early to talk about it... (Kentucky's super early Big Blue Madness is still 13 days away) but ESPN has announced that they will be hosting a [url="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3606149"]marathon of college basketball on November 18.[/url] This was certainly more than enough to get me to start a new thread! ;)

They're starting at Midnight with UMass and Memphis, then playing some West Coast games through the wee hours of the morning. After all that, they are cramming games all through the day on ESPN and ESPN2 with GameDay in Chapel Hill followed by the Kentucky and North Carolina at 9 PM.

[Rhom]

Yes... yes... for the next couple of months, any interest in this topic is pretty much relegated to just me. (And possibly REG... pending the Jayhawks performance on the field.) But I came across this article about [url="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3623177"]a UCONN freshman being kicked out of school[/url] and I just had to at least bring it up.

[quote]STORRS, Conn. -- Connecticut freshman basketball player Nate Miles told a newspaper Thursday night that he doesn't know if he will appeal being expelled from school after being arrested for violating a restraining order.

Miles made his comments by telephone to the Connecticut Post.

The Hartford Courant reported that Miles' guardian, Sean Patterson, said the 6-foot-7 forward was expelled following an administrative hearing Thursday.

"In my mind, he was railroaded today," said Patterson, a former youth coach who became Miles' legal guardian.

A university spokesman refused comment, citing student confidentiality rules.

According to court documents, the 20-year-old Miles was served with a restraining order on Sept. 22, after a woman claimed he had attempted to force her into having sex. He is accused of violating the order by placing a phone call to the woman less than 20 minutes after receiving it.

On Tuesday, Miles was in court, where the case was continued to Nov. 25 and he was referred for counseling, which could lead a judge to dismiss the charges.

Miles was academically cleared by the NCAA in June and enrolled in UConn for the second summer session. Miles, who attended five high schools, committed to UConn in November 2006.[/quote]

Two things jump out at me right away:
1) 20 year old freshman?????
2) 5 high schools in 4 years?????

Even for Calhoun that's pretty impressive. Honestly, the man has come under fire in recent years for the antics of some of the players (stealing laptops, etc), but I'll use the same line I used on Indiana when they hired Sampson "What did you expect when you brought him here?" Its obvious the kid was troubled. If Calhoun wanted to stop the harassment of his program, this was not the way to start.

Also... we are now 6 days away from Big Blue Madness! I believe Illinois is also hosting their event the same day with an outdoor practice at the football stadium IIRC. And the [url="http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/goodmanonfox/2008/10/01/NABC_GOES_AFTER_GILLISPIE_AGAIN"]NABC is taking another stand against the early "events."[/url] Much like the early recruiting hullaballoo over the summer, the NABC is toothless and really should just butt out of this situation. I can understand the recruiting, but this just smacks of sour grapes to me. If schools like UofI and UK have the fanbase in place that allow them to host events like this in the middle of football season, and the NCAA says it is an allowable use of the two hours/week a coach is granted... there's nothing here to bark about.

[RedEyedGhost]

It doesn't matter how we're doing on the field, I'll always be interested in basketball.

And what's wrong with what Miles did? [s]If[/s] When I get a restraining order placed against me, the first thing I will do is call the damn bitch :P

I meant to respond to Dickie V's preseason rankings in the last thread, but I never got around to it. I don't have much to complain about him ranking us 25th. We lost a fucking ton from are team, but we do have super studs returning at the most important positions: Collins at point and Aldrich at center. We've got bunches of new talent coming in as well, and I think it won't be hard to find find players to fill in the other three positions. It's going to a completely different experience watching this team versus our team last year. And I seriously can't fucking wait!

I can't wait for Late Night next weekend we've got a ridiculous amount of talent coming in for visits.:

Xavier Henry '09 #1 SG prospect
Dominic Cheek '09 '09 #3 SF prospect
Lance Stephenson '09 #1 SF prospect
Harrison Barnes '10 #1 SF prospect
Elijah Johnson '09 #6 SG prospect (consider a top PG prospect as well)
Perry Ellis '11 top 25 prospect (they aren't being closely ranked yet)
Michael Snaer '09 #5 SG prospect
Daniel Orton '09 #3 C prospect
Bradley Beal '11 - I don't know about his ability
Ray McCallum #6 PG prospect

[add-on]

[quote name='rhombencephalon' post='1532422' date='Sep 26 2008, 09.09']Yes, its a little early to talk about it... (Kentucky's super early Big Blue Madness is still 13 days away) but ESPN has announced that they will be hosting a [url="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3606149"]marathon of college basketball on November 18.[/url] This was certainly more than enough to get me to start a new thread! ;)

They're starting at Midnight with UMass and Memphis, then playing some West Coast games through the wee hours of the morning. After all that, they are cramming games all through the day on ESPN and ESPN2 with GameDay in Chapel Hill followed by the Kentucky and North Carolina at 9 PM.[/quote]
I'm excited for this and the season in general. Love college basketball.

My Michigan boys won't be good for awhile, but I am excited for the program now that Beilein's taking over. My two older brothers took a kid from Lake Forest on a visit to the Michigan campus, and they were both very impressed with Beilein. He runs a nice tight ship, apparently.

[Rhom]

[quote name='add-on' post='1545537' date='Oct 7 2008, 00.12']I'm excited for this and the season in general. Love college basketball.

My Michigan boys won't be good for awhile, but I am excited for the program now that Beilein's taking over. My two older brothers took a kid from Lake Forest on a visit to the Michigan campus, and they were both very impressed with Beilein. He runs a nice tight ship, apparently.[/quote]

At the very least, you can expect to see an entertaining brand of basketball coming from Beilein even before he has the talent to truly compete on the national scene. That's what I always liked about him out at WVU.


[quote name='RedEyedGhost' post='1545506' date='Oct 6 2008, 23.45']Daniel Orton '09 #3 C prospect[/quote]

I'll fight you for him. :fence:


Here's an interesting story about incoming Tennessee player Rolando Woolridge [url="http://rushthecourt.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/baller-vol-how-is-this-not-an-ncaa-violation/"]skirting the edge of NCAA violations for the Vols.[/url] Basically, he is an aspiring rapper and has multiple references to the Vols and some of his teammates on his album which is a very clear violation of NCAA rules. Kentucky had a similar situation last year with Ramel Bradley, but they made him nix plans for a concert over concerns that it could be interpreted as using his status as a UK basketball player to promote a commercial enterprise. (Which it clearly could.)

And lastly... [url="http://rushthecourt.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/lutes-plot-thickens/"]Lute Olsen learned nothing last year.[/url]

The countdown clock for Big Blue Madness is now at 2 days 14 hours and 34 minutes! :D

[Young Wolf]

[quote name='rhombencephalon' post='1545834' date='Oct 7 2008, 09.26']And lastly... [url="http://rushthecourt.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/lutes-plot-thickens/"]Lute Olsen learned nothing last year.[/url][/quote]

Ugh. I had hoped Zona would get back to dominating the Pac 10...not the Divorce Court circuit.

YW

[Greywolf2375]

Well I for one took the summer to prepare myself for another Duke 28 win season and 2nd, maybe 3rd round exit in the Dance. Like or hate the Crazies, teams used to go into Cameron and see Ivan Drago across the scorers table - they may have to wind up to it, but a huge knockout was coming and ya couldn't do a thing about it. Now...well, Drago bleeds.

If they can hit their free throws, I might give them a better chance...but with only Scheyer and Paulus hitting over 80% I'm not placing any bets. They will have some untested and young bigs in the rotation, but ya know, they're no Cherokee Parks...

oi.

[Rhom]

[quote name='Greywolf2375' post='1546209' date='Oct 7 2008, 13.14']Well I for one took the summer to prepare myself for another Duke 28 win season and 2nd, maybe 3rd round exit in the Dance. Like or hate the Crazies, teams used to go into Cameron and see Ivan Drago across the scorers table - they may have to wind up to it, but a huge knockout was coming and ya couldn't do a thing about it. Now...well, Drago bleeds.[/quote]

[quote name='Triskele' post='1546637' date='Oct 7 2008, 17.05']I'm curiuos to see UCLA this year. They lost Westbrook and Love for sure, but they signed five of the nation's top 50 recruits. Actually I think 4 of them were in most people's top 30. That's a great class, at least on paper. Add that to Collison and Shipp as seniors.[/quote]

Well you can both console yourselves that North Carolina has (yet again) the number one recruiting class in the nation. I am quite certain that Roy Williams will translate that into a ton of regular season wins, a couple of final fours... and exactly zero national championships.

Greywolf... what's the consensus around Dukie nation about Coach K's stint as supreme dictator of USA basketball? I know that lots of the talking heads have said that it has lead to a decline in recruiting due to the assts having to take over the responsibilities.

UCLA should be solid once again. I still think the Big East is the most frightening league out there hands down. Their conference tourney should be interesting since all of the teams will be included this year. IIRC.

[RedEyedGhost]

[quote name='rhombencephalon' post='1545834' date='Oct 7 2008, 07.26']I'll fight you for him. :fence:[/quote]

I'm not too worried about him, and it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't show up because I think Thomas Robinson ('09 5 star PF) will commit before Orton makes it back. Both Robinson and Orton visited two weeks ago during our ring presentation ceremony (along with #1 recruit John Wall), and Robinson (and Wall) was [i]extremely[/i] positive about his visit. Robinson visited Memphis last weekend and his responses were lukewarm, he said that he wanted to visit Memphis so that he had something to compare KU to, and after his Memphis visit he canceled his other scheduled visit to USC.

That's just a rambling mess that say I think Robinson will commit before Late Night, and then a commitment to UK by Orton will quickly follow.

I getting a little pissed with our recruiting battles with Memphis (kind of like all the recruits both KU and UK were after last year). Right now we are in the final schools for:

Robinson (only KU and Memphis)
Xavier Henry (only KU and Memphis)
Dominic Cheek (KU, Memphis, and Villanova)
and John Wall (KU and Memphis are far and away the top two, with Baylor, Oregon, and OK State on the outside looking in): I got the feeling that Wall wanted to commit on his visit to KU, but his people wouldn't let him and it was only his first visit (although he still has no other visits scheduled).
Stephenson also has KU and Memphis as his top two, but most think he will end up at St. John's because he's from New York and is planning to wait until the late signing period when both KU and Memphis will have likely given out all available scholarships (I think we'll even oversign by 1).

[Greywolf2375]

[quote name='rhombencephalon' post='1546644' date='Oct 7 2008, 17.09']Well you can both console yourselves that North Carolina has (yet again) the number one recruiting class in the nation. I am quite certain that Roy Williams will translate that into a ton of regular season wins, a couple of final fours... and exactly zero national championships.

Greywolf... what's the consensus around Dukie nation about Coach K's stint as supreme dictator of USA basketball? I know that lots of the talking heads have said that it has lead to a decline in recruiting due to the assts having to take over the responsibilities.[/quote]
Around Duke nation the expectation is that Coach K could get rid of the national debt just by giving it a motivational talk, just ask Vitale. From someone that can look at it a little objectively, yes, I think the time he spent with USA Basketball did impact the recruiting for Duke. Given my choice of Olympic gold or NCAA championship - Olympic gold each time. I don't think the impact was huge, maybe even just more psychological to the kid being recruited - would you rather talk to Coach K or Wojo? Coach K holds a little more weight and respect.

There was an article I read a while back about the change in the philosophy of the Duke recruiting effort - before the rule change stating no HS to NBA jump, Duke didn't put time into the athletes that were looking to jump straight over because they were focusing on 4 year students. Now they are adjusting to recruit players for the next year or two and I think that has had an impact. It has seemed like he usually likes to bring up the next rank behind someone established and then transition rather than make a frosh the go to. I think that has been part of the troubles - getting the impact players (with size) to want to come and be It as much as they can be.

All that may be just a bunch of hooey, but that's how I see it...

[RedEyedGhost]

Here's a [url="http://www.makingthedance.com/2008/10/where-recruits-are-going-for-midnight.html"]blog[/url] listing recruits hitting some of the midnight madness festivities around the nation.

Does anybody else find the list of kids that Bruce Weber is bringing into Illinois' MM disturbing? Every single one of them is a 2011 recruit. WTF? Is recruiting them at 14-15 the only way he can get them to play for him?

Why is nobody going to UCLA and UNC? I would think the recruits they already have committed would spend their official visit on that weekend...

[Rhom]

[quote name='RedEyedGhost' post='1548208' date='Oct 8 2008, 15.18']Does anybody else find the list of kids that Bruce Weber is bringing into Illinois' MM disturbing? Every single one of them is a 2011 recruit. WTF? Is recruiting them at 14-15 the only way he can get them to play for him?[/quote]

I would... but you know the whole line about people who live in glass houses and stones and how they shouldn't throw them or something. ;)

[Rhom]

Big Blue Madness is tonight! Its basketball time bitches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :cheers:


Edit: Thought I'd throw in this little gem from MSNBC's [url="http://beyondthearc.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/09/1525593.aspx"]Beyond the Arc blog[/url] by Mike Miller. He's been counting down the top programs all summer long. The linked article breaks down the methodology he used and summarizes the top 50. Its an interesting read.

[RedEyedGhost]

Looks like Orton should be all yours, as Thomas Robinson committed to us last night. :thumbsup:

[Rhom]

[quote name='RedEyedGhost' post='1551012' date='Oct 10 2008, 11.52']Looks like Orton should be all yours, as Thomas Robinson committed to us last night. :thumbsup:[/quote]

Perfectly happy with sloppy seconds when the aforementioned used commodity comes with 5 stars and stands 6'10"! ;)

[RedEyedGhost]

[quote name='Billy Clyde' post='1551015' date='Oct 10 2008, 09.55']Perfectly happy with sloppy seconds when the aforementioned used commodity comes with 5 stars and stands 6'10"! ;)[/quote]

Who wouldn't be? :cheers:

[RedEyedGhost]

Holy crap rhomb, wtf is up with your new jerseys? [url="http://www.ukathletics.com/view.gal?id=35653"]I love the checkered pattern[/url] :ack:

I'm very glad we switched to adidas when we did. I really don't like the tight top, super baggy bottom that Nike is going with.

[RedEyedGhost]

Three posts in a row :thumbsdown:

[url="http://kentucky.scout.com/a.z?s=48&p=2&c=800159&ssf=1&RequestedURL=http:/%2fkentucky.scout.com%2f2%2f800159.html"]but apparently I'm a prophet:[/url] (and I can't not point out my magnificence :P)

[quote name='RedEyedGhost' post='1547326' date='Oct 7 2008, 21.03']I'm not too worried about him, and it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't show up because I think Thomas Robinson ('09 5 star PF) will commit before Orton makes it back. Both Robinson and Orton visited two weeks ago during our ring presentation ceremony (along with #1 recruit John Wall), and Robinson (and Wall) was [i]extremely[/i] positive about his visit. Robinson visited Memphis last weekend and his responses were lukewarm, he said that he wanted to visit Memphis so that he had something to compare KU to, and after his Memphis visit he canceled his other scheduled visit to USC.

[b]That's just a rambling mess that say I think Robinson will commit before Late Night, and then a commitment to UK by Orton will quickly follow.
[/b]
I getting a little pissed with our recruiting battles with Memphis (kind of like all the recruits both KU and UK were after last year). Right now we are in the final schools for:

Robinson (only KU and Memphis)
Xavier Henry (only KU and Memphis)
Dominic Cheek (KU, Memphis, and Villanova)
and John Wall (KU and Memphis are far and away the top two, with Baylor, Oregon, and OK State on the outside looking in): I got the feeling that Wall wanted to commit on his visit to KU, but his people wouldn't let him and it was only his first visit (although he still has no other visits scheduled).
Stephenson also has KU and Memphis as his top two, but most think he will end up at St. John's because he's from New York and is planning to wait until the late signing period when both KU and Memphis will have likely given out all available scholarships (I think we'll even oversign by 1).[/quote]

Congrats on the commit!! He should just tear up the SEC.

[Rhom]

[quote name='RedEyedGhost' post='1552063' date='Oct 11 2008, 02.14']Holy crap rhomb, wtf is up with your new jerseys? [url="http://www.ukathletics.com/view.gal?id=35653"]I love the checkered pattern[/url] :ack:

I'm very glad we switched to adidas when we did. I really don't like the tight top, super baggy bottom that Nike is going with.[/quote]

Shit... I had seen the new unis before in little shots, but had never noticed the checkered pattern before. I'll put these right up there with the [url="http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/FrankIrizarry/2007/03/09/Sports_Uniforms_Hall_of_Shame"]denim uniforms[/url] of the 96 national championship year. Hey, if ugly uniform = title number 8... I'll take 'em!




[quote name='RedEyedGhost' post='1553311' date='Oct 12 2008, 17.34']Congrats on the commit!! He should just tear up the SEC.[/quote]

Yeah. Big stuff. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out... Patterson has said he wants to stay all four years, but he'd be an idiot not to go after this year. Most people pretty much see Orton as someone to slide right into PPats spot. But man oh man... if Patterson were to stay for his junior year and we could line up him at the 4 and Orton at the 5 for even one year... :drool:

I'm excited. I just love basketball in all its college forms. It should be a good season all around.

[RedEyedGhost]

[quote name='Billy Clyde' post='1553558' date='Oct 12 2008, 20.11']Shit... I had seen the new unis before in little shots, but had never noticed the checkered pattern before. I'll put these right up there with the [url="http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/FrankIrizarry/2007/03/09/Sports_Uniforms_Hall_of_Shame"]denim uniforms[/url] of the 96 national championship year. Hey, if ugly uniform = title number 8... I'll take 'em![/quote]

[url="http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a201/tbag112004/Picture1-27.png"]Here's another photo[/url], and holy crap those aren't shorts, those are fuckin' pants!

And while the denim uni's were terrible, I think[url="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1329/1215253516_0203a12f47_o.jpg"] these[/url] might have been worse.

[quote]Yeah. Big stuff. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out... Patterson has said he wants to stay all four years, but he'd be an idiot not to go after this year. Most people pretty much see Orton as someone to slide right into PPats spot. But man oh man... if Patterson were to stay for his junior year and we could line up him at the 4 and Orton at the 5 for even one year... :drool:

I'm excited. I just love basketball in all its college forms. It should be a good season all around.[/quote]

I had read that Billy G was selling playing with Patterson to Orton. So, PP [i]may[/i] really intend to stick around, but after his injury last year I wonder why he would risk staying if he's a lock for the lottery.