Check out this mix of some of the most memorable press conference quotes in the history of sport…set to music.
I love it: DJ “Steve Porter”…
Category: College Basketball (Page 23 of 153)
High school recruiting, especially in the summer, has to this point consisted of a hodgepodge of camps and tournaments, but Nike took a step towards streamlining in this summer with its Elite Youth Basketball League.
The EYBL is a first-ever league featuring 42 high-level, U17 grassroots teams playing for a championship. It culminates in July at the Nike Peach Jam in North Augusta, Ga.
The concept is simple. The teams, divided into four divisions, will play a predetermined schedule during three weekends this spring — in Hampton (Friday through Sunday), Houston (May 14-16) and Los Angeles (May 29-31). After the third event, the top five teams in each of the four divisions will automatically advance to the Peach Jam bracket, with four at-large teams added to round out the 24-team championship tournament. Teams that receive an automatic bid are guaranteed spots for 2011.
The ongoing nature of the tournament (qualification for the Peach Jam and the Peach Jam itself) gives it more value, because a championship will be won over a few months instead of a few days. And since winning is required for advancement, players *should* put personal success aside for the team’s success.
The only thing that is puzzling to me is the lack of a Midwestern location (Chicago? St. Louis?). I looked at the Los Angeles event that happened in May and there was a team from Wisconsin there. It seems like Chicago would be an ideal spot for all the talent in the Great Lakes region.
Jason Whitlock is not happy that Mitch Albom won The Red Smith Award from the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE), and via The Big Lead, he shares his thoughts.
When I took a job in 1992 at the Ann Arbor News, I had a front-row seat during King Myth Albom’s glory years. My main job was covering the Fab Five. Albom’s main job seemed to be creating a Fab Five narrative that would fit neatly into a best-selling book.
Not surprisingly, most of my Michigan sports-writing peers watched the Fab Five pull up to practices and games in expensive SUVs and assumed C-Web, Jalen, Juwan and Co. weren’t exactly starving while pursuing higher education. I spent an entire day playing video games inside Webber’s beautifully furnished apartment. Years later, nothing about the Ed Martin investigation and the hundreds of thousands of dollars funneled to Webber surprised me.
Only Myth Albom, the “journalist” given the most access to the Fab Five by head coach Steve Fisher, was shocked by the good life Webber lived on UM’s campus. In his Fab Five book, Albom lamented the “fact” that Webber couldn’t afford McDonald’s while the university made millions off the sale of his jersey.
Feel-good narrative fiction bullshit was Albom’s money-maker long before he published Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
Whitlock’s story about the Fab Five made me wonder — back in the day, why didn’t he write about how Chris, Jalen and Juwan were driving expensive SUVs? Maybe he filed a story, I don’t know…but I doubt it. Instead he’s spending an entire day playing video games at Webber’s ‘beautifully furnished apartment.’
I’m not a fan of Mitch Albom either, but it seems Whitlock is not criticizing him for turning a blind eye to the money surrounding the Fab Five, since he did the same thing. Instead, he’s criticizing Albom for acting surprised about the revelation that they were paid to play for Michigan.
Isn’t this a little hypocritical?
…and it’s not as bad as we thought it was going to be.
The final four at-large teams and final four automatic qualifiers in the newly minted 68-team NCAA men’s basketball tournament field will meet for the right to enter the traditional 64-team draw, tournament selection committee chairman Dan Guerrero announced Monday.
The “First Four” will be played either the Tuesday or Wednesday after Selection Sunday. The winners of the four games will advance to what will now be called the “second round” on either Thursday or Friday.
The games will be televised on TruTv (formerly CourtTV), which is available in 93 million homes, said NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen, who manages the NCAA tournament. CBS, Turner, TBS and TruTV are in their first year of a $10.8 billion, 14-year television agreement.
There was a lot of talk about a possible expansion to 96 teams, which would just be an obvious money grab by the NCAA, but the entity showed some restraint and are only going to expand the tournament by three teams.
I don’t know what the hell TruTV is or if I even get it on DirecTV, but this is the way for a channel to put itself on the map.
But wait a second — the last few at-large teams (#10-#12) aren’t seeded as low as the last few automatic bids (#16), so how are the winners of the “First Four” going to be inserted in the rest of the tournament field?
Guerrero and Shaheen said the last four at-large teams would be put on the seed line the committee decided they earned. So, this could mean that two could be considered No. 12 seeds playing for the right to play a No. 5 and two could be No. 11s vying to play a No. 6 in the second round.
In its news release, the NCAA listed the 10th seed as a possible destination for the last at-large teams, something that has occurred in past years. It is unlikely that the committee will have one team seeded 10th, 11th or 12th to avoid having teams seeded differently playing in a First Four game.
Confused yet? Me too, but at least the NCAA has a plan. I just don’t know quite how it’s going to work. If these are #11 vs. #16 games, then potentially there would be a #16 vs. #6 matchup if the #16-seed won its “First Four” game. That is going to take some getting used to.
Hey, at least they didn’t expand it any further.
The NCAA is reviewing whether or not to ban scholarship offers to recruits before July 1 in the summer between their junior and senior years of high school, according to ESPN.com.
The rule would apply to all sports if passed later this year or next. Some coaches are hopeful it could slow an arms-race mentality that has led to earlier and earlier commitments by unproven prospects.
Two years ago, the National Association of Basketball Coaches said it opposed accepting commitments from students who had not yet completed their sophomore seasons in high school. Jim Haney, the group’s executive director, says he understands the reasoning behind the new proposal.
The proposal would also require coaches to receive a high school transcript documenting at least five semesters or seven quarters of academic work for a recruit before offering a scholarship.
Considering Lane Kiffin recruited a 13-year-old quarterback this past February, I’d say it’s about time that the NCAA did something about this. Kids are easily impressionable and even though being offered an athletic scholarship is a great thing, I’m sure some feel pressured to commit early.
Teams that have always recruited well might not like this proposal, but this is a good thing for everyone involved. Schools can take a longer look at a potential recruit without feeling pressured to get a commitment out of him too early, and the recruit can have more time before deciding where to attend. Hopefully the NCAA follows through with this next year.
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