Which College Teams Were Hurt the Most from the NBA Draft?
A couple of days ago we did a little blog about what conferences had the most players drafted to play in the NBA. The Pac-10 was by far the most prolific college conference, especially at the top end. You had Love, Westbrook, Mayo, the Lopez twins, there were a lot. But by individual school, who will miss the largest number of outstanding players? We’re going to use the cool feature at basketball-reference.com to help us out. Here’s the list of schools with the most draft picks:
Kansas – 5
Memphis - 3
UCLA - 3
Georgetown – 2
Indiana – 2
Kansas State – 2
Stanford – 2
Cal - 2
Oregon – 2
So there you have it. Kansas, the national champion, certainly had the most draftable class. And they should. They were prided as the team that, although without a traditional star, was good in tall around. They lost most of their starting five. How will they ever recover?
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Pearl, Howland Land Big Contracts
Bruce Pearl of Tennessee and Ben Howland of UCLA are two of the most successful and well-paid college basketball coaches in the land, and they just got a little more bank this past week. Bruce Pearl was signed to coach the Tennessee Volunteers through the 2013 season, but he extended his contract to 2014 and also picked up some sweet incentive, buy-out and bonus dollars in a new deal with the University.
Ben Howland was signed well into the next decade, but he increased his deal through 2015, grabbed some extra loot to increase with each year he remains the coach at UCLA, but kept some of the incentive dollars the same in the new contract. Here are a few of their past accomplishments:
- Howland has guided the Bruins to three-straight Final Four appearances, and will go for a fourth this year.
- Bruce Pearl coached the Vols to a No. 1 AP ranking after they beat then-No. 1 Memphis during the 2007-08 regular season.
- Both the Volunteers and the Bruins won their respective conference titles last year, and both achieved their best regular season records in decades.
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Next Year’s Draft Picks
Gary Parrish. This guy always has something interesting to say, and even though I can disagree with his style (making every sentence, sometimes every word into its own line) I have to give credit where credit is due. The guy single handedly holds the CBS Sports college basketball page afloat. And that’s saying something considering that the network the THE college basketball station come tourney time. But anyways, I digress. Gary has a ridiculously early NBA draft prediction list for those of you who love to get in early on the draft. A lot of these guys haven’t played a minute of college ball yet, but a lot of them have. Here are a few of the predictions Gary makes:
- The No. 1 pick will not be a one-and-done freshman. Instead it will be Blake Griffin, the power forward from Oklahoma.
- Ty Lawson (Parrish’s No. 10) will go ahead of Tyler Hansbrough (No. 16).
- Brandon Jennings, the guy in the media a lot these days for mulling a European adventure instead of college, is expected by Parrish to go No. 5.
- With the possible exception of Jennings, there are no European players on the list, although they made up 5 of the first round picks in the latest draft. Parrish is basing his estimates off of current college players and incoming freshmen.
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Jennings’ SAT Scores Might Determine European Future
Brandon Jennings, the 6-2 point guard from Virginia’s Oak Hill Academy, is the nation’s top high school basketball recruit. Sought after my several major programs at the college level, he might end up at the University of Arizona… that is, if he can get the appropriate SAT score. Apparently Jennings has not been able to get the minimum score to attend Arizona, although his latest test results are due out soon. If he fails again, he might opt out of going to college at all, instead, hopping a plane for a European league team. As the quote from the ESPN article about him says, he was only intending to be a one-and-done player anyways. So why not go to Europe to play and get paid… and see the world.
When Jennings received a notice from the NCAA that his scores were being flagged, he said: “It’s made me mad. Even if I get the scores this time, there’s no guarantee I’m going to college. No one has answers and the NCAA is a different group… Besides I was planning on one year at Arizona.”
What would you do if you were Jennings? Personally, the Final Four Blog is a fan of him learning the game in Europe. School clearly isn’t his thing, so making him attend classes just so he can be seen at the college level is a joke to the institution. Besides, in Europe he’ll get paid …and be able to spend more time getting better at hoops.
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Which Conference Won in the Draft?
The NBA Draft was last night, so there is a lot of analysis of what took place, especially on the NBA side of things. However, as the Final Four Bog, we have to take a look at the action from the standpoint of the NCAA. You can get draft grades by NBA team anywhere. But where else can you get conference grades? Just taking a look at the first round, let’s determine the conference with the best players.
FIRST ROUND PICKS BY CONFERENCE
Pac 10 – 7
Big 12 – 4
Foreign - 4
Big East - 3
Big Ten - 3
SEC – 2
C-USA - 1
WAC – 1
MAAC – 1
ACC – 1
SBC – 1
Summit – 1
MWC - 1
Looks like the Pac-10 cleaned up. And they didn’t all get picked at the tail end of the first round, either. After Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, it was three straight Pac-10 players, and then Brook Lopez at 10, giving the Pac-10 four out of the top ten selections. Good luck with your new conferences (Eastern and Western) next year.
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Who Are the Top Big Men in the NBA Draft?
The NBA Draft is closing in fast, and teams are scrambling to figure out every possible scenario, every possible pick they could make. Similarly, the sports writers of the world are trying to determine which players will be selected when. In the NBA, getting the right player can change the course of your franchise for the next 15 years. Needless to say, it’s a big deal.
Where to go to get an idea who’s going to go first and who’s going to go 21st? SportsIllustrated.com, of course. In typical Sports Illustrated fashion, they have a slide show of their top big men draft prospects. They give you their top 20, and we’re not going to ruin it too badly for you, but the name Beasley appears right near the top of the list. But the question remains: Will Beasley be a inside scorer in the NBA, given that he’s actually only 6-8. In college that might fly for an inside presence… but in today’s NBA game, he might struggle.
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Big Ten vs. SEC: Offensive Efficiency
Both the Big Ten and the SEC have dedicated themselves to being the best sports conference in the country. In fact, some even say there’s a rivalry between the Midwestern Big Ten and the Southern SEC. But how did they compare last college basketball season? Who was the better conference at putting the ball in the hoop when it was all said and done? We’re going to use the stats at Basketball-Prospectus.com to aid us in our search. Whichever school has the most teams in the top ten wins.
TOP TEN BIG TEN/SEC TEAMS:
OFFENSIVE EFFICIENCY
1.Michigan State
2.Florida
3.Tennessee
4.Indiana
5.Mississippi
6.Wisconsin
7.Vanderbilt
8.Arkansas
9.Ohio St.
10.Purdue
It looks like the final score is…. Big Ten: 5 Sec: 5. Whew. Couldn’t have asked for a closer bunch of schools.
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Big Ten-Comcast Reach Deal… Finally
If you are a fan of basketball- or any sport for that matter- in Big Ten country, then you know that there has been some problems getting the right games on television. The Big Ten has a huge number of fans in the Midwest, and they all want to see the games. However, the Big Ten Network and Comcast have been negotiating for a long time to get a deal together that would provide better coverage for more fans. Finally, a deal has been reached. The details are extensive and boring, but the bottom line is that fans in the Big Ten states should get better service. According to CBSsports, Mark Silverman, the Big Ten Network president wrote:
“This agreement allows us to reach many more Big Ten fans with our programming because of the high concentration of Comcast subscribers in Big Ten states. With the Comcast deal now in place, the Big Ten Network will be available to more than two-thirds of all homes in Big Ten country.”
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Final Four News: Ten Cities Submit Bids for 20 Final Four
Hosting the Final Four can make a huge impact on the local economy of a town, as hotel rooms, restaurants and other touristy businesses will rake in sales from fans coming in from out of town to support their team on the way to the national championship. The games have host cities all set in advance until 2012, but after that, it’s up for grabs, and several cities have submitted their request to host the final three games of the college basketball season for the years 2012-2016. The following cities have put their names in the hat:
CITIES APPLYING TO HOST THE FINAL FOUR (2012-2016)
1. New Orleans
2. Indianapolis
3. San Antonio
4. Detroit
5. Houston
6. Phoenix
7. Atlanta
8. Minneapolis
9. St. Louis
10. Arlington-Dallas-Ft. Worth
So which cities would you most like to see host the Final Four. Opinions abound. Indy has hosted the most Final Fours so far, but San Antonio just hosted one, and Detroit is scheduled for the upcoming season.
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Mid Majors That Win It At The Stripe
When it comes to winning basketball games, there are few things that will have more of a positive effect than getting to the free throw stripe. Teams that win it at the line can do so easily and effectively, so long as they can shoot a good percentage. When mid majors play the big dogs of the college basketball game, they have to either shoot well from beyond the arc, or shoot well from the charity stripe.
Well, those two things will help keep you in the game the easiest. So without much further ado, here are a few of the best mid major free throw shooting teams. We got the stats from BasketballProspectus.com, using their free throws attempted/field goals made numbers, plus a little recipe of our own.
TOP TEN MID MAJORS THAT
GET TO THE FREE THROW LINE
1.Drake
2.UNC Greensboro
3.Central Connecticut
4.Sienna
5.George Mason
6.Illinois of Chicago
7.Mercer
8.Coastal Carolina
9.NC Asheville
10.Long Island
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