College Basketball

[RedEyedGhost]

I'm a huge Greg Monroe fan. I've liked him ever since Billy Gillispie tried to recruit him to Kentucky. The kid was a bit slow to develop last year, but I really like what I see from him this season.

He's one of those recruits that I was hoping we'd get too. Great player.

As to your depth question, I tend to think that depth helps when you're trying to win six in a row... but then again, you have the teams like Syracuse '03 and Carmelo Anthony (my apologies REG) who ride a hot man all the way to the title.

Depth is huge in the tourney, and for Georgetown I'd be worried about their PG play, and their low A/T ratio as a team.

Carmelo got them to the championship game, but it was fucking Gerry McNamara shooting 6/10 for threes and our ineptitude at the free throw line (12/30) that won them the game.

Game time is soon... and I'm a bit nervous. Both teams will be pumped. Coach Self has been a little light on practice yesterday and today because he thinks the team has been "tired" in our past two games.

[Rhom]

WVU just couldn't get over the hump in the second half. More of that damned pumped in techno music again. I just know that I don't want to face either team in the tourney. Ebanks and Reynolds will be match up problems for anyone.

[Rhom]

Wow. Texas was winning; I switched to watch 24 and when I came back a half hou later, Texas had barely scored the whole time.

:stunned:

[RedEyedGhost]

10pt lead at half? I'll take it :D

Marcus Morris, our leading scorer in Big 12 play, dislocating a finger on his shooting hand... that I'd rather not take.

[Rhom]

Just saw the scroll about the two Oklahoma players charged with shoplifting after the Texas game this weekend. Here's my question: why don't we hold coaches accountable for this behavior?

If they had received money from the owner of that store, their careers would be over and Capel would forever be labeled a cheat.

Instead, since its just a law they broke and not an NCAA rule, we hold both them and their coach to a lower standard.

Somehow, this seems off to me.

[S John]

Beyond that, how ridiculous is the Big East right now? Think the Hoyas get to face another top ten team in West Virginia this week. Villanova, Syracuse, West Virginia, UConn, Pitt...even USF is on a roll. My take is hard conferences breed hard teams and hard teams go a-plundering come March.

Yea the Big East is pretty stout. And believe me, it feels great to say that after the all the crap we take in football. I mean just what is remaining on WVU's schedule are games with Pitt, Villanova (again), and Georgetown. Georgetown seems to be peaking at the right time, they are definitely trouble. From what (admittedly little) I've seen, I think Syracuse is the best team in the Big East followed by Villanova. After that its either G'Town or WVU. I think WVU is deeper, but as has been mentioned, G'Towns starters can play with anybody in the country.

Of course my little analysis could have been copied and pasted directly from the current Big East standings, but I think that right now there are no anomalies in the standings as far as the top 5 are concerned. :P

WVU just couldn't get over the hump in the second half. More of that damned pumped in techno music again. I just know that I don't want to face either team in the tourney. Ebanks and Reynolds will be match up problems for anyone.

The game was on too late (early?) for me to watch it. We'll get another shot at them last game of the season. I figure 'Nova owed us one after we annihilated them last year.

Still haven't got a chance to watch the Turk in action. Unfortunately, the Seton Hall game on 2/20 is probably the only WVU game left that I'll be able to watch if its even on TV. I might be back home in time to catch the regular season finale @ Villanova on 3/6 but thats iffy. But I should get to watch the Big East tournament, so better late to the party than never I guess. Since I can't watch the Mountaineers I'm going to make an effort to catch whatever games I can from here on out so that I'm not totally clueless come tourney time.

[Rhom]

I hate ESPNU. I tune in at 9 for UK v Bama. George Mason/VCU has a minute and a half to play. It goes into OT and by the time they get to UK, there's just 9:00 left in the half. Ridiculous. No one is watching ESPNU on a Tuesday to watch George Mason. Switch to the SEC game and update us on the CAA!

[Maithanet]

I hate ESPNU. I tune in at 9 for UK v Bama. George Mason/VCU has a minute and a half to play. It goes into OT and by the time they get to UK, there's just 9:00 left in the half. Ridiculous. No one is watching ESPNU on a Tuesday to watch George Mason. Switch to the SEC game and update us on the CAA!

I dunno man, I gotta disagree. Nothing is worse than investing your time in a game and then not getting to see the end because they switch to a new game. Watching all but the final seven minutes of a basketball game is a huge letdown. If that sort of switching were common, it would start factoring into my decisionmaking calculus of whether games between mid-majors are even worth watching.

[Rhom]

I dunno man, I gotta disagree. Nothing is worse than investing your time in a game and then not getting to see the end because they switch to a new game. Watching all but the final seven minutes of a basketball game is a huge letdown. If that sort of switching were common, it would start factoring into my decisionmaking calculus of whether games between mid-majors are even worth watching.

I understand this, but at the same time would you disagree that likely over 90% of the viewership tuned into that overtime period were there to watch Bama v. Kentucky?

I advertise my office during UK basketball games on ESPN through my cable company. (Admittedly, not last night's game on ESPNU... so its a bit of a moot point for me personally.) Should I not expect the programming that I was told would be on in that situation? (The other side argument to this is that Kentucky/Bama fans were already tuned in and watching anyways.)

I've seen plenty of situations where networks cut away from a game when it goes into overtime to bring the originally scheduled game. My other point of contention is why networks only schedule two hours for basketball games. With officials blowing their whistle every 4.5 seconds and TV timeouts scheduled at set times, it is the very rare game that can finish 40 minutes of basketball in 120 minutes of time. :stillsick:

[Green Apple Fossoway]

No one is watching ESPNU on a Tuesday to watch George Mason. Switch to the SEC game and update us on the CAA!

Quit acting so entitled. Overtime in basketball games easily trumps tip-off.

[Rhom]

Quit acting so entitled. Overtime in basketball games easily trumps tip-off.

I don't think I am acting entitled. I made some valid points there and I will again point out that I have seen several overtime games cut away. I see this routinely happen in the NCAA tournament when the scheduled tip-off for a local game interferes with the end of a game. They cut to the close game to watch the last few seconds, then when overtime starts, they cut back to the scheduled game and then return to the overtime during stoppages of play or if the overtime is coming down to a close finish.

ETA: I will also point out that I have seen Kentucky games get cut away from on more than one occaision when living out of state for games of more local interest.

[Green Apple Fossoway]

I don't think I am acting entitled. I made some valid points there and I will again point out that I have seen several overtime games cut away. I see this routinely happen in the NCAA tournament when the scheduled tip-off for a local game interferes with the end of a game. They cut to the close game to watch the last few seconds, then when overtime starts, they cut back to the scheduled game and then return to the overtime during stoppages of play or if the overtime is coming down to a close finish.

ETA: I will also point out that I have seen Kentucky games get cut away from on more than one occaision when living out of state for games of more local interest.

I was being a little facetious about you being entitled and all. However, my point still stands. Overtime trumps tip-off. Also, you're rooting for Kentucky. Everybody hears about them. George Mason, on the other hand rarely gets any sort of nation-wide notice. I'd rather see theentirety of their games the few times they get the stage then have them get cut-off by some power house team like Kentucky or Kansas. I like watching the mid-majors though, so YMMV.

[Rhom]

I was being a little facetious about you being entitled and all. However, my point still stands. Overtime trumps tip-off. Also, you're rooting for Kentucky. Everybody hears about them. George Mason, on the other hand rarely gets any sort of nation-wide notice. I'd rather see theentirety of their games the few times they get the stage then have them get cut-off by some power house team like Kentucky or Kansas. I like watching the mid-majors though, so YMMV.

Fair enough. I like to watch mid-majors too. (Shameless plug... Murray State is 13-0 in the OVC and will be featured in ESPN's Bracket Busters week.) Another consideration in your favor is the fact that the game was relegated to ESPNU, which is generally a showcase for mid-majors and non-revenue sports. That said, I still think all sports channels should be Kentucky sports 24/7. For the entire nation. We'd all be better off for it. ;)

A couple of other topics of interest to me today. The LB23 line of uniforms. I think I hate them.

Syracuse and UConn can be seen here.

Kentucky's are here.

I think Duke and Texas have already debuted them as well. I'm not a fan.

Lastly, I think I remember us talking about this a long time ago. Charles O'Bannon is suing the NCAA over the use of his likeness. Now a judge has ruled that the class-action suit can move forward. This opens the doors for depositions to be taken from the otherwise very closed-door NCAA.

The O’Bannon case is not expected to be ruled on any time soon – and appeals would likely occur regardless of the decision. However, the opportunity for lawyers to depose college sports executives and subpoena financial records, contracts and business arrangements with third parties makes this a historic day.

I want to know how much leeway this legal firm is going to have. Who can they depose? Will it be limited to the financial side? Could they get into enforcement?

I’d love to see them go on a fishing expedition that opens up the doors of enforcement. Maybe they could use the financial arguments as a reason to investigate payments to Corey Maggette and expose why Duke has never been thoroughly investigated.

A subpoena and a deposition can be a remakable way to get information that is only linked by the most tenuous of threads. Where’s Ken Starr when you need him?!!?

[RedEyedGhost]

Texas really was pulling out all the stops in trying to beat KU the other night. I don't have any idea how our guys were able to concentrate on the game with her sitting right behind the bench.

After the game there was a thread on phog.net asking for screencaps... that then made it on deadspin who then found out who she is and spread that and photos of her around. And apparently the insane cyberstalking freaked her out a little:

"I already get snapped judged as it is and this would really not help matters out. I have already had to delete my facebook and twitter cause I had 400 randos add me. I will NEVER go to another sporting event again. I hope you understand."

Seriously though, what the fuck did she expect? You don't sit right behind the #1 team in the nation's bench, with a body like that, in a shirt that looks painted on, if you don't want to be noticed nationally. Wear a frumpy sweater FFS.

I can definitely see both sides of the start of a game versus the end of an other. Especially since it frustrates me every freaking time KU plays on Big Monday, because Big East games always go long. With 360, they've been pretty good about making the start of games available there, even when they are not scheduled to be on 360. I was very happy that I got to watch the start of the KU-Texas game until they cut out early to an women's game on the 360 feed... WTF! It's frustrating as fuck to miss the start of the game you want to watch in a blowout (especially because in the Big East I think it's mandatory to foul relentlessly even if you're down 15 and there's under a minute to go), but usually I'd prefer to enjoy a game going to OT. Yeah though, missing ELEVEN minutes of the game sucks balls. Did they hold your game at all, Rhom? Or did they keep to the original tip off?

College basketball is very difficult from a tv scheduling standpoint because games are as likely to go 2:30 hours as they are 1:45. On average I would say they're about 2:10, so scheduling for 2:15 timeslots would be ideal... but it's not tidy and easy like 2:00, and 2:30 is way too long.

UNC-Duke was surprisingly competitive, but I figured @UNC would be a game. WTF was up with showing Hansbrough's jersey retirement though (Roy making the ceremony all about Roy was not surprising)? I don't think I've ever seen that on an ESPN broadcast... They've never done it for a KU player, they always cut straight to their halftime show. And isn't it a little soon to be retiring his jersey? Of course it should be retired, but fuck wouldn't a little distance have made it more special to him and the university? KU waits at least five years before they retire one.

A couple of other topics of interest to me today. The LB23 line of uniforms. I think I hate them.

Syracuse and UConn can be seen here.

Kentucky's are here.

I think Duke and Texas have already debuted them as well. I'm not a fan.

:stillsick:

Fuck am I glad that KU is an adidas school. (other than the fact that being a Nike school definitely helps in recruiting)

[Rhom]

Seriously though, what the fuck did she expect? You don't sit right behind the #1 team in the nation's bench, with a body like that, in a shirt that looks painted on, if you don't want to be noticed nationally. Wear a frumpy sweater FFS.

That's both hilarious and disturbing. (And she is indeed smoking hot.)

Yeah though, missing ELEVEN minutes of the game sucks balls. Did they hold your game at all, Rhom? Or did they keep to the original tip off?

From everything I can tell, they kept to the original tipoff and it wasn't available on ESPN360. It just sucks because we never had these problems when Jefferson Pilot sports handled all the games that weren't on the main ESPN. This new SEC Network/ESPN contract has been a major disappointment to me. (Minus the fact that J.Williams is now sucking our balls on live television. Seriously, John Wall probably left a little something disgusting in the corners of Williams' mouth after the Alabama game.)

College basketball is very difficult from a tv scheduling standpoint because games are as likely to go 2:30 hours as they are 1:45. On average I would say they're about 2:10, so scheduling for 2:15 timeslots would be ideal... but it's not tidy and easy like 2:00, and 2:30 is way too long.

True.

UNC-Duke was surprisingly competitive, but I figured @UNC would be a game. WTF was up with showing Hansbrough's jersey retirement though (Roy making the ceremony all about Roy was not surprising)? I don't think I've ever seen that on an ESPN broadcast... They've never done it for a KU player, they always cut straight to their halftime show. And isn't it a little soon to be retiring his jersey? Of course it should be retired, but fuck wouldn't a little distance have made it more special to him and the university? KU waits at least five years before they retire one.

UNC definitely had more heart than they've shown lately, in the end it just wasn't enough. Watching Duke though, I just don't see how they can hope to keep up with Kansas/Kentucky/Villanova come tourney time. They just don't have the athleticism or the speed to run with Wall/Collins/Reynolds. I hope this doesn't come across as any weird racist sort of thing, but I was watching their 4 white guys in the starting lineup and just imagined a more athletic team running past them like they were standing still. Zoubek looked like a statue out there and I have to think he'd get abused by Cousins or the Morris twins if it ever came down to it. Where have the days of Carlos Boozer and Elton Brand gone?

On the topic of ESPN fellating Kentucky now that they have a vested interest in UK's popularity... I actually heard Dick Vitale break into a 2-3 minute lovefest on Cousins, Bledsoe, Patterson, and Wall in the middle of the UNC/Duke game last night... it was somewhat jarring. Pretty much the opposite of what I've become accustomed to. :stunned:

Fuck am I glad that KU is an adidas school. (other than the fact that being a Nike school definitely helps in recruiting)

True. I'm still can't get over the connections that Cal has been able to pull with the Nike contract. Hell, if I didn't know better I'd almost think that LeBron James went to UK! I suppose if that's the trade off, I'm willing to accept some ugly uniforms. I think we debut our new unis against Tennessee this weekend.

Speaking of the new unis... UConn and Syracuse were both wearing them last night. I know a lot has been made of the disputed timeout at the end, but I think it would have been bad either way. Boeheim clearly called for the TO long before the blocked shot. If the ref hadn't given him the timeout, it would have been ugly because he didn't get it. Essentially, it was only a problem because the ref was slow to make the call. UConn still could have won that game if they hadn't rushed the possessions at the end.

[Celtigo]

This post could really go here or in the football thread, but its probably the only Pac-10 news relevant until spring practice:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/12910849/expansion-would-boost-pac10-but-leave-wake-of-disruption

As a Pac fan I'm not a fan of the move to expand, but I do understand it. Our schedules in basketball and football are currently as good as one can hope for. I know money drives everything these days and to compete with other BCS conferences you need things like TV money and super conferences help. I even think Utah and Colorado are the best possible options due to the difficulty of snagging Texas. Question is what would this do to the Big 12? Especially if Mizzou gets pulled by the Big 10. I suppose they probably have back up expansion plans as well.

[Rhom]

This post could really go here or in the football thread, but its probably the only Pac-10 news relevant until spring practice:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/12910849/expansion-would-boost-pac10-but-leave-wake-of-disruption

As a Pac fan I'm not a fan of the move to expand, but I do understand it. Our schedules in basketball and football are currently as good as one can hope for. I know money drives everything these days and to compete with other BCS conferences you need things like TV money and super conferences help. I even think Utah and Colorado are the best possible options due to the difficulty of snagging Texas. Question is what would this do to the Big 12? Especially if Mizzou gets pulled by the Big 10. I suppose they probably have back up expansion plans as well.

That's interesting. I've heard rumors of expansion, but I suppose that's the first I had heard that both could raid from the Big XII. One bit that I hear over and over, but don't fully understand is the educational argument.

I'm not going to say anything bad about the Big 12," Nixon was quoted as saying in December, "but when you compare Oklahoma State to Northwestern, when you compare Texas Tech to Wisconsin, I mean, you begin looking at educational possibilities that are worth looking at."

What "educational possibilities" would he be referring to? Maybe I'm not fully up on all the aspects of conference affiliation, but how does it have anything to do with academics? Are there speech competitions and academic teams involved here? Is there something with conference affiliation that precludes a researcher from Mizzou taking a sabbatical to study at Northwestern?

Ultimately, its the football money that wags the dog. As the article notes, the SEC's television deal is monstrous. (Seriously? Vandy gets more money than Texas?!!? :stunned:) Basketball becomes a near also-ran when it comes to these sorts of conference alignments.

I would have to assume that a Pac-10 grab for Colorado and Utah would be fairly straightforward; changing the name to the Pac-12 would even be reletively painless. Big Ten grab to expand to twelve could be problematic, unless they just keep the name; otherwise I think it would work just fine for Mizzou to switch over. The Big 12 could then make an easy reconciliation with some old SWC members like TCU or Houston or reach a bit geographically to grab a Boise State or a BYU.

The current SEC basketball scheduling for a 12 team conference would seem to be ideal. You play everyone in your division home and away, then play each team in the other division once (alternating home/away by year). Football gets a little messier since you don't play everyone every year but is still doable.

[S John]

I would have to assume that a Pac-10 grab for Colorado and Utah would be fairly straightforward; changing the name to the Pac-12 would even be reletively painless. Big Ten grab to expand to twelve could be problematic, unless they just keep the name; otherwise I think it would work just fine for Mizzou to switch over. The Big 12 could then make an easy reconciliation with some old SWC members like TCU or Houston or reach a bit geographically to grab a Boise State or a BYU.

I agree. And I don't like it one bit because then all the major conferences would have 12 teams except the Big East with only 8... and nowhere to look for expansion teams. Seems like it wouldn't take long after that to lose the BCS auto-bid. Everyone will say, "you guys didn't even play a conference championship game ffs!" I still think conference championship games are stupid.

So then theres the other option of going the way of everyone else and adding 4 (!) teams. Who the fuck are we going to add? ECU, Central Florida, Army, Navy, Memphis, Villanova? Puh-lease, thats fucking terrible. ECU and Navy are the only two out of those 6 that is even moderately respectable. Then there is still the basketball problem, with having 16 teams already. Ugh. We're fucked.

[Rhom]

I agree. And I don't like it one bit because then all the major conferences would have 12 teams except the Big East with only 8... and nowhere to look for expansion teams. Seems like it wouldn't take long after that to lose the BCS auto-bid. Everyone will say, "you guys didn't even play a conference championship game ffs!" I still think conference championship games are stupid.

So then theres the other option of going the way of everyone else and adding 4 (!) teams. Who the fuck are we going to add? ECU, Central Florida, Army, Navy, Memphis, Villanova? Puh-lease, thats fucking terrible. ECU and Navy are the only two out of those 6 that is even moderately respectable. Then there is still the basketball problem, with having 16 teams already. Ugh. We're fucked.

That is problematic. Other than Villanova and Georgetown, are there any other basketball only members that are worth keeping around? (Well... Notre Dame obviously, but they'll need to cave to the conference system at some point.)

One thing to remember though, when the Big East brought on South Florida, Cincy, and Louisville their football programs were hardly national caliber. Now all three of them have spent time near the top of the polls.

[RedEyedGhost]

If we lost Missouri or Colorado to another conference I would be super pissed. Not because I'm really attached to them being in our conference or anything like that (especially Colorado), but because I know if we did then we would likely pick up another southern team and the Big 8 ceded way too much power to the state of Texas when the Big 12 was formed.

JFC, was Roy this bad when he was at KU, and I was just blind to his massive douchiness? Or has his ego grown unchecked since he has won two championships?

Video at the bottom of the link.

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams has previously demonstrated his complete lack of perspective on more than one occasion, but he still wants you to know that the Haitian earthquake was nothing compared to losing to Virginia at home.

This is an actual on the record quote that Williams gave to known journalist Stewart Mandel an entire room full of reporters. (Full video below.) Behold it in all its jackassery:

"Our massage therapist told me, 'You know, coach, what happened in Haiti is a catastrophe. What you're having is a disappointment,' " said Williams. "I told her that depends on what chair you're sitting in. It does feel like a catastrophe to me, because it is my life."

Backpedal much?

"In no way am I equating the tragedy in Haiti with basketball," the Hall-of-Fame coach said in a prepared statement released by the school this afternoon. "I'm sorry that my statement at the press conference made it seem like I was comparing the two. The people of Haiti are suffering through unimaginably difficult times. I know very well that we are just playing a game."

Ummm, that's exactly what you did.