Month: March 2010 (Page 13 of 59)

      Stan Van Gundy on D1 basketball

      March 25, 2010 /

      Orlando head coach Stan Van Gundy told the Orlando Sentinel that if he were to fall out of the NBA coaching ranks, he’d rather coach at a small college than at the major D1 level:

      “As far as what it’s all about at the Division 1 level and what it’s all about here, it’s all the same thing. It’s all about winning and losing, putting people in the seats and money,” the Magic coach told the Sentinel after Wednesday’s shootaround.

      “I mean, those people throw out that they are really into academics and all that … There may be four or five schools that’s true of.

      “I don’t know of coaches getting fired winning 20-25 games a year and kids aren’t graduating. I don’t know people who are keeping their jobs that aren’t winning and are graduating. It’s about the same stuff.

      “Here, [in the NBA], it’s just more honest. We all know what it’s all about. You don’t have to pay lip service to things. This is the best basketball in the world.”

      He makes a good point, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wants to do something about it.

      Duncan suggests that schools that cannot graduate at least 40 percent of their student-athletes be banned from postseason play. If the rule was applied to this year’s tournament, 12 of the 65 teams would be locked out of the tournament. Three of them are No. 6 seeds or better—the University of Tennessee, the University of Maryland, and the University of Kentucky. “If you can’t manage to graduate two out of five players, how serious are the institutions and the colleges about the players’ academic success?” Duncan asks. “How are they preparing student-athletes for life?”

      The data is from 1999-2003, and it seems a little unfair to focus on players that played seven to 11 years ago. Also, programs that send a lot of players to the NBA shouldn’t be penalized because their players are good enough to make millions playing professional ball. If this rule were implemented, it should focus only on players that stayed in college for four years.

      For years, The Bootleg has studied graduation rates for football, basketball and baseball. The data is more recent, from 2004-2007. I’m not at all surprised to see my former coach, Bo Ryan, and the Wisconsin program near the top of the Big Ten (78%). He tends to recruit smart players who will likely stay in school for four years. Duke is second in the ACC at 92%, while North Carolina is at 75%. Maryland brings up the rear at a measly 8%. That’s just pathetic.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      College Basketball, March Madness

      Urban Meyer goes off on reporter

      March 25, 2010 /

      Urban Meyer just tongue-whipped this reporter:

      Here’s the back story (from Rivals.Yahoo.com):

      “You’ll be out of practice—you understand that?—if you do that again,” Meyer told the reporter. “I told you five years ago: Don’t mess with our players. Don’t do it. You did it. You do it one more time and the Orlando Sentinel’s not welcome here ever again. Is that clear? It’s yes or no.”

      Meyer was reacting to a story posted on the Sentinel’s Web site following Monday’s practice. Thompson was asked what the biggest difference was between Tebow and Brantley.

      “You never know with Tim,” Thompson said. “He can bolt. You’ll think he’s running, but then he’ll just come up and pass it to you. You just have to be ready at all times. With Brantley, everything’s with rhythm, time. Like, you know what I mean, a real quarterback.”

      Thompson was embarrassed by the remark and the attention it got, mostly because he likes Tebow and never wanted to say anything negative about him.

      You can read Fowler’s originally story here.

      Meyer is out of line here. The reporter was just doing his job, which was quoting a player (not misquoting, mind you) verbatim. While Fowler wasn’t being protective of Thompson in his piece (not that he has to), he did go on to write that Thompson was “either intentional or he meant to say Brantley’s a more conventional style of quarterback.” When I read the quote, I took it as Thompson was saying that Brantley is a more conventional quarterback and didn’t mean any harm to Tebow. If other media outlets twisted Thompson’s words around and made it sound like he was ripping Tebow, then they’re the ones Meyer should be mad at.

      There are some guys that would have been rational about the situation and put the fire out with water. Meyer tried to put it out with a gallon of gasoline and a sledgehammer. He could have made a public statement in defense of Thompson and moved on, but instead he had to be Tommy Tough Tits and rip a reporter to make a point. He handled the situation poorly and here’s hoping he’s ripped because of it.

      College Football, Video

      Josh Smith buzzer-beating…dunk? [video]

      March 25, 2010 /

      How often do you see a game-winning dunk? Well, you’re about to…

      I’m trying to figure out what the hell Orlando was doing on defense. It looked like J.J. Redick was covering Al Horford (?), while Dwight Howard was cheating over to help on Joe Johnson, who was being covered by Vince Carter. Over on the weak side, Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis were checking three guys — Smith, Mario West and Marvin Williams. When the shot went up, Smith and West went to the glass, and Lewis just turned and watched the shot. He needs to box out someone there, preferably the better athlete (Smith) who has a better shot of following Johnson’s miss.

      It actually kind of reminded me of the NC State/Houston game back in 1983. The final play starts at about the 0:15 mark, and when the shot goes up, you can see Hakeem Olajuwon just turn and face the shot like Lewis did. That allowed Lorenzo Charles to swoop in on the baseline, catch the ball, and dunk it home for the win. Here’s a look:

      What’s the lesson, kids?

      BOX OUT!

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, Video

      Rams begin contract negotiations with Bradford

      March 25, 2010 /

      Sorry for the fake out headline, but the Rams have actually begun preliminary contract negotiations with Ndamukong Suh and Gerald McCoy too – not just Bradford. (Oh, whatever – you might as well stay and read the entire article now.)

      From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

      “All the people who are in the discussion (for No. 1 overall), we’ve talked to their agents,” Demoff said. “We’re really just comparing notes. Also, it may take some time, so we figured we’d get a head start.”

      In the past two drafts, the No. 1 overall pick (quarterback Matthew Stafford and offensive tackle Jake Long) had their contracts completed before the draft. But Demoff said that isn’t necessarily the goal for St. Louis.

      “The goal is to get the right deal for the right player that you want to draft,” Demoff said. “If that happens before the draft, great. If it doesn’t happen before the draft, then we’ll spend May, June and July working on it.”

      According to the report, the Rams have also had contact with Jimmy Clausen’s agent and while nothing has been confirmed yet, the team plans on talking with the representatives for all 600 draft-eligible players as well. Don’t laugh – the Rams can’t screw this one up. Kicker Leigh Tiffin had a great year for Alabama and he’s going to be sitting there with the top overall pick so the Rams have to do their due diligence here.

      I don’t know if this means anything, but I find it interesting that the article essentially refers to Clausen as a throw in (oh-by-the-way, Clausen’s people were also contacted, although that’s because the Rams mistakenly thought they were ordering Thai food). That tells me that they’re down to Bradford, Suh and McCoy. If that’s indeed the case, then I’m sticking with my latest mock draft projection in that they’ll select Bradford at No. 1.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      NFL, NFL Draft

      Woman being uncooperative in Roethlisberger case

      March 25, 2010 /

      According to KDKA 2 in Pittsburgh, the women accusing Steelers’ QB Ben Roethlisberger of sexual assault has declined to be re-interviewed by the police. She has already skipped one interview, so it appears that the case is falling apart.

      Not only do prosecutors apparently not have any physical evidence of a crime, they may also be lacking a cooperating victim at this point.

      Sources close to the investigation say that investigators have had trouble re-interviewing the woman since the night of the incident.

      Sources say the 20-year-old co-ed did not show up for a scheduled interview a week ago yesterday and that as of Friday she still had not come in to be questioned.

      Del Greco says if the victim does not cooperate, the case falls apart.

      “Bottom line is no cooperative victim under these circumstances, probably no crime,” he said.

      It’s very possible that the young woman is so traumatized by the situation that she is afraid and embarrassed to come forward. But why would she make these allegations in the first place if she wasn’t prepared to step forward and do what’s necessary to ensure that these charges go through?

      If Roethlisberger is guilty of something, then I hope that the woman finds the strength and courage to step up and be interviewed by police. But as of right now, it’s hard not to draw conclusions that Big Ben did nothing wrong and this is just another case of someone looking for a big pay off from an athlete.

      Update: The alleged victim’s lawyer is now saying that his client will cooperate with police and that she will re-schedule the interview.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      NFL

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