College Basketball 2010-2011 and Tourney

[Rhom]

UofL broke in the Yum! Center with their Red/Black game yesterday and Kentucky basketball gets rolling with the Blue/White scrimmage tonight. Kansas kicks things off with an exhibition a week from today. Of our other frequent thread contributors, Triskele is likely to be distracted by football well into January; however SJohn clearly has no other rooting interests, so he is sure to follow the Mountaineers next Friday.

The subtitle refers to a current meme amongst UK fans regarding Enes Kanter. The NCAA continues to do their due diligence regarding his eligibility amongst the best efforts of Fenerbache and the NY Times to muddy the waters. Just as important though is the continuing eligibility of Josh Selby at Kansas. In my opinion, the NCAA owes it to these kids and their member instituions to get a decision out there before the start of the season. I don't know what Selby's current situation is, but Kanter is not being allowed to practice with the team currently. I'm not entirely sure what the reasoning is behind that.

I'm eager to see how this year shakes out, there has already been chaos at the top with Robbie Hummel going down and Purdue dropping from contender status. Duke is certainly better this year with the addition of Kyrie Irving and the Curry kid; but I'm also not convinced that Duke was the best team in college basketball last season. I still think that was Kansas. But that's the beauty of March Madness.

Scanning the landscape, I think the Pac-10 will be better this year (but that's not saying much) and Kansas State has a real chance to win the Big 12.

As for my team, it all depends on the status of Enes Kanter. If he plays, I think we could be a legit top 5 team. If he sits, I think we're probably no better than top 15.

Lets tip this season off!!!

[Rhom]

Considering how good Oregon football is this season, I don't blame you in the least for being a bit late to the party this year. :thumbsup:

UNC was definitely more of a trainwreck last season than their talent should have allowed. Roy will get them back up and at it this year. But I've seen some polls that are starting them in the top 10. I think that's a bit high to start.

Incidentally fellas, I was just offered a job at UCLA. I am pretty sure that I'm going to accept it. I won't be working too far away from Pauley. I may have to start rooting for the Bruins a bit more. Easier to do in hoops than in football.

Awesome. Congrats.

[Rhom]

With Kanter ineligible right now and two empty scholarships, Kentucky has only 10 players for this scrimmage. Calipari had planned to fill the three empty slots with (assistant coach) Wayne Turner, and last years players Perry Stevenson and Mark Krebs. The SEC approved; but the NCAA called today and told them that if those three played it would count as a "game against outside competition" and would jeopardize one of their exhibition games next week.

Bizarre.

[RedEyedGhost]

Rumors were flying today that Selby had finally been cleared to play, but unfortunately they were just smoke. He is practicing with the team, and word from one of the reporters that has watched those practices is that he's amazing. Looks like we'll be waiting just as long to find out as UK did for Wall last season.

Markieff Morris is out for 1.5 weeks with hernia surgery, and Jeff Withey is out for another week or so with a broken toe so our team has been practicing very small.

Is Kanter able to attend class?

Duke definitely deserves to be ranked #1 at the start of the season, they've got a lot of talent coming in but they lost a lot too, so it will be interesting to see how they develop over the course of the season. With Purdue losing Hummel and MSU losing Chris Allen and assumption that this year's Kalin Lucas will be the same as last year's Kalin Lucas... I don't it kind of seems like it's Duke and then everybody else.

Lots of uncertainty to start the season. Should be fun :D

UNC was definitely more of a trainwreck last season than their talent should have allowed. Roy will get them back up and at it this year. But I've seen some polls that are starting them in the top 10. I think that's a bit high to start.

Top 10 is way too high, especially when you look at their frontcourt. They've got Henson who is 6'10" 195 :shocked: Tyler Zeller who bears a strong resemblance to this guy and Justin Knox a graduate student transfer from Alabama that has averaged 6.3/3.7 over his career.

Sure Harrison Barnes is good, but I don't know if he can play center.

Awesome. Congrats.

:agree:

And what's going on with your av Rhom? Is that a future board member? Neoencephalon?

[Rhom]

He is practicing with the team, and word from one of the reporters that has watched those practices is that he's amazing. Looks like we'll be waiting just as long to find out as UK did for Wall last season.

See, this is what confuses me. Selby seems to be sitting out because of questions about his amateur status... and is allowed to practice with the team. Kanter also has questions about amateur status questions and was allowed to practice for a while on a variance, but the variance ran out and the NCAA has not renewed it. I wonder if Selby is also being granted a waiver?

On the surface, I would say that the Selby and Wall cases are near identical. So I would expect him to sit two games (possibly an exhibition like Wall) and make restitution of some sort and be on the floor before games really count.

Is Kanter able to attend class?

Yeah, he's attending class and doing all the stuff a student would do. He's just not allowed to practice with the team at the moment. I would assume that he is tearing up the pick-up games over at the student center. :lol:

That's another thing that the Thamel slash job in the NYT apparently got wrong about Kanter. In the article where the Fenerbache coach claims to have paid Kanter a salary, he says "academics were not among Enes Kanter’s strengths.” This blog post from a former teacher of Kanter's disagrees:

When Enes was 10 years old, his family registered him for entrance to The Samanyolu School in Ankara, Turkey( www.samanyolu.k12.tr ). Since I have been working with Turkish education since 1993, people tell me I am an expert with Turkish Education so let me fill you in. This school is one of Turkey’s most competitive and accepts less than 1% of its applicants. For 4 of the past 5 years, the student with the highest score on the Turkish National Entrance Examination graduated from Samanyolu. When Enes was 9 years old, he like most other of this school’s applicants spent day and night cramming for its entrance examination. He passed and was admitted to this prestigious institution. I should also say the tuition for this school is 20,000+ USD that Dr. Kanter I am sure was proud to pay. If Enes wanted he could have had a more relaxed 9th year in life and Dr. Kanter didn’t have pay a cent if Enes was to study at a normal state school. Also, at the age of 10, Enes never even picked up a basketball in life. It was only when his Physical Education Teacher saw how tall Enes was getting, he said you should try basketball . Enes shot his first hoop at the age of 13

So he's reportedly a good student on top of an absolute bull on the basketball court.

I don't know how all this will shake out, but I hope that Kanter gets the chance to pursue his future without the interference of glorified carpet salesmen in his home country. I completely understand the position the NCAA is in, they want to open the door for more international prospects to play at the collegiate level... but the waters are muddied by the club systems in Europe. This case will essentially be the benchmark for all future cases and they want to get it right.

Lots of uncertainty to start the season. Should be fun :D

I 100% agree.

And what's going on with your av Rhom? Is that a future board member? Neoencephalon?

Indeed it is! My son was born on September 16 at 7:44 AM and has already watched his first televised Big Blue Madness! (Okay, so he mainly slept through it... but you get the idea.) I'm looking forward to inviting my dad over to watch the first game of the season with us.

[RedEyedGhost]

See, this is what confuses me. Selby seems to be sitting out because of questions about his amateur status... and is allowed to practice with the team. Kanter also has questions about amateur status questions and was allowed to practice for a while on a variance, but the variance ran out and the NCAA has not renewed it. I wonder if Selby is also being granted a waiver?

On the surface, I would say that the Selby and Wall cases are near identical. So I would expect him to sit two games (possibly an exhibition like Wall) and make restitution of some sort and be on the floor before games really count.

Selby was granted a waiver. He's being looked into for both amateur and academic status, and the rumor mill is that it's coming down to academics (but that doesn't make sense to me, because if he isn't academically cleared then why can he attend class), specifically some night classes that he took. Hopefully it gets resolved soon.

huh... after typing that I decided to do a quick check and see if there's anything new, and

Kansas coach Bill Self said Wednesday that KU freshman guard Josh Selby has been cleared academically by the NCAA, but his amateurism remains in question.

Self said Selby would be held out of Tuesday's exhibition opener against Washburn, as the NCAA continues to look into Selby's amateur status.

"Josh’s status for competition hasn’t changed," Self said in a release. "While he has met NCAA academic requirements to be on aid, practice and compete this year, we continue to work with the NCAA as we review his amateur status. We will not play Josh in games until that process is complete and a decision is rendered.

“We support and respect the process, and hope that it is over sooner rather than later. But we don’t expect a decision on this before the regular season begins. We will not comment further until the process is complete.”

:bang:

Yeah, he's attending class and doing all the stuff a student would do. He's just not allowed to practice with the team at the moment. I would assume that he is tearing up the pick-up games over at the student center. :lol:

That's another thing that the Thamel slash job in the NYT apparently got wrong about Kanter. In the article where the Fenerbache coach claims to have paid Kanter a salary, he says "academics were not among Enes Kanter’s strengths.” This blog post from a former teacher of Kanter's disagrees:

So he's reportedly a good student on top of an absolute bull on the basketball court.

I don't know how all this will shake out, but I hope that Kanter gets the chance to pursue his future without the interference of glorified carpet salesmen in his home country. I completely understand the position the NCAA is in, they want to open the door for more international prospects to play at the collegiate level... but the waters are muddied by the club systems in Europe. This case will essentially be the benchmark for all future cases and they want to get it right.

I can't imagine how much that sucks for him to be allowed on campus, but to not be able to participate in team activities. :(

Indeed it is! My son was born on September 16 at 7:44 AM and has already watched his first televised Big Blue Madness! (Okay, so he mainly slept through it... but you get the idea.) I'm looking forward to inviting my dad over to watch the first game of the season with us.

Congrats! That's awesome.

How soon after his birth did you throw that cap on him? I love it.

After? Assuming it was a standard, no-complications birth, the head comes out first, I think that cap was probably on before the feet hit air!

I think I may pick up a pre-season mag today. I know that there is a lot of info online, but I'm feeling a big nostalgic. When I was in 8th grade (before the internet was really up and running) I was counting the days for like a month before Street and Smith's came out.

I do fear that the Pac-10 is going to suck again. I think Cal lost some of their top people (I think Randle and Patrick Christopher were both seniors) and so I just don't see anyone in the league that looks poised for any kind of run into the tournament. I'm sure we'll get a 2nd or maybe a 3rd team into the dance. It's almost hard not to as a big league. But I just can't believe how great the league was a few years ago when you had Love, Brockman, Buddinger, Mayo, a really balanced and defensive Wazzu team, the Lopez twins at Stanford, the nice lefty guard from ASU whose name I'm totally blanking on for some reason...Things fell apart quickly all across the board.

Hopefully they're not all bad this season, KU has four games against PAC 10 opponents this season (UCLA, Arizona (in Las Vegas), USC, and @Cal).

[Rhom]

I think I may pick up a pre-season mag today. I know that there is a lot of info online, but I'm feeling a big nostalgic. When I was in 8th grade (before the internet was really up and running) I was counting the days for like a month before Street and Smith's came out.

I know the feeling! I came across an old tip off mag from 1988 (I think) at my grandmother's house a couple years back, it had Shaq listed as the 10th best prospect in the junior class. :rofl:

Selby was granted a waiver. He's being looked into for both amateur and academic status, and the rumor mill is that it's coming down to academics (but that doesn't make sense to me, because if he isn't academically cleared then why can he attend class), specifically some night classes that he took. Hopefully it gets resolved soon.

I read that on ESPN this morning. Its ridiculous. I also read over some of the comments on the article and it pissed me off to see people saying things like "Why would you want this kid? He'll just be in the NBA next year." Spoken like a fan of a school who never puts players in the NBA! I had to respond, so this is my post from that thread:

I don't understand the "He'll be in the NBA next year" line of thought. Of course he will! And why would you NOT want that on your team???? Not only will he make your team better this year, future recruits will say "Kansas got Selby to the NBA" and will want to go there. If he is fortunate enough to have a successful NBA career, his high profile will pay lasting dividends to the school. Are you telling me that you don't remember every time Michael Jordan was introduced "And now from NORTH CAROLINA..." ?

As a Kentucky fan it is doubly perplexing for me because I hear some of the same fans that constantly complained that we weren't getting the Carmelo Anthony's and the Dwayne Wades under our previous coach now complain that we'll never win with "one and dones" under our current coach.

The reality is, you take the talent you can get and you play the games. Sometimes they'll leave early, sometimes you'll get an extra year or two, and every once in a while you'll catch lightning in a bottle and ride that talent to a title.

Selby is a highlight reel waiting to happen and Kansas will be a fixture on SportsCenter all season with him. Take him and don't look back.

/end rant

(That's right, I just quoted myself. I'm that arrogant. :lol: )

After? Assuming it was a standard, no-complications birth, the head comes out first, I think that cap was probably on before the feet hit air!

Ha! You're not far from the truth!!! That picture was actually taken just before kickoff of the UK football game on the Saturday after he was born. (So I guess that's the 18th...) There was definitely something special about holding him as the players were being announced for Big Blue Madness. Corrupting my step-daughter and teaching her to sing the UK fight song was one thing, but it takes on a whole new meaning with a son I think. I highly recommend fatherhood. :thumbsup:

[RedEyedGhost]

I read that on ESPN this morning. Its ridiculous. I also read over some of the comments on the article and it pissed me off to see people saying things like "Why would you want this kid? He'll just be in the NBA next year." Spoken like a fan of a school who never puts players in the NBA! I had to respond, so this is my post from that thread:

It's freaking crazy that there are fans out there that are upset about taking Josh Selby. Sure the wait sucks an insane amount of ass, but I actually don't mind it too much. I know when he gets cleared he will be starting immediately, so if he sits out our first several games that just gives Coach Self more time to sort out the rest of our rotation and more playing time for Johnson and Reed is a great thing imo.

As long as he's cleared in time to play in Vegas, I'll be happy :D (that would mean he missed the two exhibitions and four regular season games, but I don't want him to miss Arizona our 6th game)

Ha! You're not far from the truth!!! That picture was actually taken just before kickoff of the UK football game on the Saturday after he was born. (So I guess that's the 18th...) There was definitely something special about holding him as the players were being announced for Big Blue Madness. Corrupting my step-daughter and teaching her to sing the UK fight song was one thing, but it takes on a whole new meaning with a son I think. I highly recommend fatherhood. :thumbsup:

Very nice.

I'm glad our colors are crimson and blue, because there will be a Jayhawk baby blanket in the delivery room when it's my turn.

Are you already dreading him having a rebellious stage and becoming a Louisville fan for a year just to spite you?

[Rhom]

I see that the NCAA decided to keep the July recruiting period. I think that's probably a good thing, but I recognize the need to change something with the way things are currently done. I think that I liked this solution from former DePaul assistant Gary DeCesare:

"I got a whole different philosophy on it. I don't think there should be a dead period, July period. If you look at the D-I transfers, there's over 360. Obviously, what's in place now is not working. I don't understand why we have all these live and dead periods. I said this when I was in high school coaching nine years ago. I believe they now have 130 days during the high school season and 20 during the summer. That's 150. You don't need that many days. Give them 100 days, and let them go out whenever they want. The dead period should be the national holidays."

I think that covers a lot and clear the way for coaches to keep recruiting at the highest level without artificial limits.

Are you already dreading him having a rebellious stage and becoming a Louisville fan for a year just to spite you?

My brother did that when he was in fifth grade... I don't know how dad ever survived. :lol:

[RedEyedGhost]

Iowa admitted to recruiting violations by allowing two recruits to meet Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore.

NCAA rules prohibit potential high school recruits from having any contact with individuals considered to represent a university's athletic interests because of the potential influence boosters can have on the recruiting process.

Why is it that every single important UNC recruit is allowed to meet Jordan because they can both be invited to a "basketball event" that's sole purpose is to make that introduction?

double

standard

[Rhom]

So its cool for Snoop and Will Ferrell to hang out at USC, but Ashton hanging out in a cornfield is too much?

[Bronn Stone]

Cal had its strongest recruiting class in decades. Allen Crabbe could be a beast-in-training. I am cautiously optimistic. Montgomery is one of the best X's and O's coaches in basketball. They could well compete.

Cal will definitely have a strong young backcourt.

[Rhom]

Cal had its strongest recruiting class in decades. Allen Crabbe could be a beast-in-training. I am cautiously optimistic. Montgomery is one of the best X's and O's coaches in basketball. They could well compete.

Cal will definitely have a strong young backcourt.

I've always been a fan of Montgomery. He was solid at Stanford and I see no reason to think that he can't get the job done at Cal too.

[RedEyedGhost]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, with Tuesday's exhibition game I'm now officially excited about this season!!!

Marcus Morris looked insanely good: great post moves, dropping 3s, great passing, etc., etc. At one point the color guy called him the #1 player in the country, which got a good laugh out of me. He looked good, but even my extremely optimistic first game syndrome won't have me going that far. A couple other great points from the game: Tyshawn Taylor played extremely smart (which is quite the change for him), we were 32-35 from the FT stripe :), great overall passing as a team (eight players with 2+ assists, four with 3+).

This season has a bit more 'fun potential' than last year had, because last season we were the best team in the nation and were expected to win every game. This year there's a bit more uncertainty (especially if Selby is not cleared soon), but our ceiling is very high.

I think Montgomery can do just as well at Cal than he did at Stanford; he's a very good college coach.

[Rhom]

Don't have much time to talk at the moment (trying to read Towers of Midnight between patients instead of surfing the net :read: ) but the season officially kicked off last night and I can't let that go without comment!!!!!! :D

Still waiting on word on Kanter/Selby. Ridiculous IMO. The NCAA has the resources to make a decision like this before the season starts. To delay is pointless.

:bs:

Also, Tennessee lost to a D2 school in an exhibition. That's always cause for celebration.

:cheers:

[RedEyedGhost]

KU played their second exhibition tonight. We're going to be a completely different team than last season -- much much faster.

Our first regular season game is Friday against Cupcake U. I can't wait!

It is axiomatic that if Bruce Pearl is unhappy then I am happy. :cheers:

With the summer he had, you must be over the moon!

Xavier also lost to a D-II school the other night, but one of their top 100 incoming freshman was ruled ineligible, and they have two injured players (including their leading scorer). So it wasn't as big of an upset as Tenn.

It's got to be such a strange thing to end up coaching at the arch rival of the team you used to coach. Has it happened to anyone other than Montgomery and Pitino?

I'm sure it has, but not that I can name off the top of my head.

Bill Self was Missouri's second choice to Quin Snyder a decade ago. Great move by their AD imo :lmao:

[Rhom]

Bill Self was Missouri's second choice to Quin Snyder a decade ago. Great move by their AD imo :lmao:

So much of it is time and place though. Had Self taken the Mizzou job, he might not have been put on the career trajectory that led him to Kansas. That's the amazing thing about coaching, right place/right time really has a profound effect.

I do wonder where Quinn Snyder ended up though.

[RedEyedGhost]

Rumors (a talk radio host quoting "high sources close to the situation) flying today that Selby will receive a 4-8 game suspension. If that includes the exhibition games (like the one for Wall last year) or not was not stated. The big news is that "another coach blew the whistle on it, because Selby didn't go to his school", and if that does end up being true I will be shocked if it comes out that anybody other than Bruce Pearl is whistle blower. He has a history of it (as an assistant at Iowa[?] against Illinois) and Tennessee was the other team in Selby's final two. I might end up hating him as much as Trisk does. If nothing comes of the investigation that will be twice in the course of one off-season that Pearl lied to the NCAA... that's not good.

So much of it is time and place though. Had Self taken the Mizzou job, he might not have been put on the career trajectory that led him to Kansas. That's the amazing thing about coaching, right place/right time really has a profound effect.

I do wonder where Quinn Snyder ended up though.

He definitely wouldn't be our coach if he had gone to MU. We don't roll that way! I'm damn happy that Mike Alden (MU's AD) is such an idiot.

Quinn is coaching an NBDL team somewhere (I'm pretty sure it's in the Texas, Oklahoma, or New Mexico area).

[RedEyedGhost]

Sorry Rhom :(

Kanter ruled permanently ineligible

INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA student-athlete reinstatement staff has ruled University of Kentucky men’s basketball student-athlete Enes Kanter permanently ineligible for receiving benefits above his actual and necessary expenses while playing for a club basketball team in Turkey.

The university will appeal the decision to the Division I Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee at the end of the month. The reinstatement committee is the final appeal opportunity in the initial-eligibility process. It is independent and comprised of representatives from NCAA member colleges, universities and athletic conferences and can reduce or remove the conditions, but it cannot increase the conditions imposed by the staff.

So has any former Duke assistant had much success as a head coach? I think Dawkins at Stanford very well may, but it's a bit early to come to any conclusions. Snyder and Amaker feel like pretty big failures.

Jeff Capel might end up being the best Ksajsgdivqbuivawilki assistant turned head coach, but his teams sucked serious balls last year and they look to be even worse this year. So, it might just be that he got lucky with getting Blake Griffin... time will tell.

[Rhom]

Sorry Rhom :(

Kanter ruled permanently ineligible

:stillcrying:

What I don't understand is what took so long to decide?!!? The official release really makes it sound like it should have been an open and shut case.

Kanter played three seasons with the Turkish sport club Fenerbahce from 2006-07 to 2008-09. Although he competed primarily for the club’s under-18 junior team, he did compete on the club’s senior team in 2008-09. According to facts agreed to by the university and the NCAA Eligibility Center, Kanter received $33,033 more than his expenses for the 2008-09 season.

Okay... so if the school and the Kanters agreed to the fact that Enes was compensated 33K over expenses while playing in Turkey, how was this ever even under consideration? The only thing I can fathom is that perhaps they agreed on a raw number and the NCAA had to determine what was reimbursable expenses. Nowhere has it been mentioned just how much he was paid in total. :dunno:

Its definitely a major blow to our prospects this season. I think you'll definitely see a lot more of the DDMO this season and we'll out talent/out athlete several teams, but we'll definitely take our knocks over the course of the year. I even think that with the right match-ups the team could make a Sweet 16 or even Elite 8 run, but the fact is that teams without some sort of post play don't make it to the Final Four.

If I start feeling bad for myself, I'll just look at next season's recruiting class. ;)

Jeff Capel might end up being the best Ksajsgdivqbuivawilki assistant turned head coach, but his teams sucked serious balls last year and they look to be even worse this year. So, it might just be that he got lucky with getting Blake Griffin... time will tell.

Capel was my gut reaction too... but then I remember last season and that Quinn Snyder was also pretty hot stuff for a year or two there.

On the Pearl stuff... its definitely right up his alley, but I'd say its the last thing he should have been doing considering the way the NCAA is already sniffing around his program.