Author: Coach Z (Page 20 of 38)

Coach Kelvin Sampson has had a great week on the court. Tonight his Hoosiers beat Purdue, 77-68, to move into a first place tie in the Big Ten. This comes on the heels of their thrashing of Michigan State this weekend. DJ White continued to stake his claim on the player of the year award in the Big 10. He scored 19 points and added 12 rebounds, while freshman Eric Gordon contributed 22 points.

Menawhile Indiana AD Greenspan continues his investigation. In other words he is waiting for the lawyers to get back with him to see if Indiana can dismiss Sampson without any monetary setbacks.

Watching the student body at the game it was clear they are behind Sampson. Holding signs listing all of Bob Knight’s transgressions (choking players, throwing chairs and just plain rude behavior) it seems strange that Sampson will be dismissed for making a couple of extra phone calls. Ask any coach in America and they will tell you off the record that this rule is broken by everybody. Oh and by the way, the NCAA has made text messaging illegal. Since that is the most common way for young people to communicate it only makes sense that the NCAA would prohibit it. Personally, I would like to see the budget and salaries for all of the policy wonks at the NCAA.

Wake Forest made 27 of 38 fouls shots and made 45% of their 3 point shots to upset #2 Duke 86-73. In the game five Blue Devil players fouled out. Rumor after the game was that Coach K was having the three oficials investigated. I don’t know about being investigated, but I bet they won’t have any Duke games the rest of the way.

Speaking of officials, after Siena lost to Loyola (MD) this weekend Coach Fran McCafrey was asked about the officiating. When he declined to answer his wife chimed in from the back of the media room with “the headline should read, ‘We got screwed.'” Now that’s sticking up for your man. I wonder if she can be reprimanded?

With Memphis’ come from behind win at UAB and Oral Roberts three point loss at IUPUI over the weekend, there remains only three undefeated teams left in conference play. While Memphis is still undefeated overall, both Cornell and Davidson have run the table in their respective leagues.

Coach Steve Donhue has taken the Big Red to the top of the Ivy League and threatens to win the league with a perfect record. They are 8-0 and 16-5 overall with a two game lead over Brown. Just in case you are wondering, it has been close to two decades since a team other than Princeton or Penn has won the Ivy. Penn is currently in fourth while Princeton is sixth. My how the mighty have fallen.

Davidson is 17-0 and 19-6 overall after this weekend’s victory. After a brutal pre conference schedule they have rolled through the Southern Conference and look like a sure bet for the NCAA tourney evern without winning the conference tournament.

Memphis is poised to do what UNLV did by running the table in the regular season and advancing to the Final Four. Coach John Calipari’s team came back from a 7 point deficit with less than a minute to play to keep their record intact.

Over in the Big 12, Kansas, Kansas State, Texas and Texas A & M continue to battle it out. Kansas State made a statement with a 37 point win over Missouri on Saturday. Michael Beasley was unstoppable. He scored 40 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in leading the Wildcats.

More trouble for Missouri, guards Stefon Hannah and Jason Horton have been charged with fighting during a bar dispute earlier this month. Coach Mike Anderson did not hesitate to remove both from the squad. One can only hope that he gets things squared away in Columbia.

Indiana President McRobbie has announced an internal investigation into the allegations submitted by the NCAA last week. The NCAA has deemed five violations by Coach Kelvin Sampson to be “major.” Now Indiana is doing another investigation. What a joke? You can smell this dog and pony show from 10 miles away. All Indiana is doing is trying to find out how to cover their backside if they fire Coach Sampson. Talk about hypocrisy. But then again it is always about money.

I am not defending Coach Sampson if he is guilty of the charges, however, let’s be serious. Making a couple extra phone calls is not like giving a kid cash or some other type of extra benefit. Every program in the country has broken rules. Some have been reported. While others go untraceable.

As far as I am concerned, let him coach out the year and then let the chips fall where they may. This is the same school that got rid of Bob Knight because they didn’t want to put up with his boorish behavior and more importantly, he was no longer winning championships.

In the end just follow the money trail.

One thing Thad Matta knows how to do is win. He collected his 200 win as a head coach and is currently the winningest coach in Ohio State history. He is on track to record his 8th straight 20 win season and 13th overall when you throw in five years as an assistant.

He has the Buckeyes poised to make another run with his third different core group of players in three years. Losing three players drafted in the first round of the NBA draft last year would cripple most programs, but Matta has found a way to mix a group of talented freshman (Koufos, Turner, Diebler) with some outstanding upperclassmen (Butler and Lighty).

Currently, three games out of first place theyt have three of the four top teams coming to Columbus to close the season. You better not count the Buckeyes out yet….

Speaking of Koufos, he had a double double against Northwestern and is clearly one of the best freshman big men in the country. Butler became the all-time assist leader for the Buckeyes last night breaking Kelvin Ransey record. Senior and freshman leading the way…