Louisiana Tech hires Mailman
Karl Malone, a former Louisiana Tech Bulldog, has accepted two nominal positions on the basketball coaching staff, while donating $350,000 to the hoops and volleyball programs. The Mailman is now the director of basketball promotion and the assistant strength and conditioning coach.
The basketball gym received the bulk of the donation money, a large portion of which will go towards reconstructing the gym floor, which hasn’t been re-done since Karl Malone was a freshman at the university. The rest will go to the Louisiana Tech volleyball team.
Now when you get NCAA Basketball tickets at StubHub.com to see Louisiana Tech play at home, you will get a good look t the new hardwood, and you might get a look at Karl Malone.
Arkansas’ New Coach
The University of Arkansas has been getting a lot of the wrong kind of press in the sports news world lately. It wasn’t but a few days ago that the top story at ESPN.com was a scathing review of what exactly is so messed up with Arkansas athletics. The story even beat out the latest updates on the Pete Rose non-controversy, and Fox News dropped it’s continuing coverage of whatever Rosie O’Donnell is up to at every moment of the day and night to take a look at the sad situation in Arkansas. Of course, there was a wonderful piece that Pat Forde wrote about the end of the search for a hoops coach.
Forde likes John Pelphrey and so, apparently, does everybody else concerned with righting the ship at Fayetteville. Even though he might not have been the first choice for the University, Forde makes a good case for why Pelphrey will succeed, and why they might have been better off with him than some of the other, higher profile NCAA basketball coaches.
If you would like to root for Pelphrey and the Hogs, get Arkansas Razorbacks tickets at StubHub.com for some games next season.
Best Individual Team?
A lot of people have an opinion about what NCAA basketball team was the best in history. Recently ESPN published a list of the best teams in the past 10 years, with the 2007 Florida Gators making the top of the list. But what if you included the past 50 years, who would be the best?
And what determines “best,” anyhow? If best means the most dominant, the most effective, then you would probably come up with a team that’s a lot different from “best” meaning most inspiring. For example, one might make an argument that Emilio Estevez’s original Mighty Ducks team was “better” than the second one, the national all-star version, simply because the characters were more compelling and the story of that team was better.
So while you are thinking about going to StubHub.com to purchase your NCAA Basketball tickets, muse over what makes a team “better” and whether or not you agree that the Gators were the best of the past 10 years.
New 3-Pt. Line Affects Offense, Defense
The NCAA decided a while back that the official distance of the men’s 3-point line should be increased by about a foot. Reactions to this change from players, coaches and fans have been mixed. By and large there is support for the moved line. As Andy Glockner of ESPN.com points out, the increased distance will probably not affect a team’s offense as much as its defense.
The main disadvantages contended by opponents of the rule change were based on the assumption that teams that otherwise could rely on good three point shooting to beat higher caliber teams would not be able to do so with such regularity. That is, when Small Enrollment University takes on the University of Bigathleticbudget, SEU couldn’t hope to beat the big boys by getting hot from behind the arc in the second half.
Apparently the difference in three point percentage is not big enough to make a difference either way. The big change will be with zone defenses. Teams will now have more square footage to cover. So if you are interested in seeing a bit more man-to-man D’s out there, try getting dome NCAA Basketball tickets at StubHub.com for games next season.
Green Goes, Hibbert Stays at Georgetown
Both Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert of Georgetown were expected to be picks in the NBA Draft’s first round this year. However, Hibbert is electing to stay in school to finish out his senior year. Green is determined to go through with entering the NBA, despite the fact that, had he stayed at Georgetown, he would have had a a good shot at winning the NCAA Championship.
Hibbert will stay, but the Hoyas will lose their top scorer and play-maker in Green. Hibbert said of his decision to stay, “I said to myself, ‘Do I really want to go in the draft and sit on the bench? My heart was here. … I feel like I have unfinished business here.”
It remains unclear whether or not Hibbert will now get a chance to settle his business without the help of Green. Last year the two juniors led the Hoyas to the Final Four. If you would like to see where Hibbert can take the Hoyas, you should consider getting Georgetown Hoyas tickets at your source for tickets to see traditional post players, StubHub.com.
Oden Surprised about NBA Draft
Greg Oden, the former Ohio State Buckeye center, was surprised to hear that Portland and Seattle had received the top two draft picks in the NBA Draft Lottery last night. Memphis and Boston, the teams with the worst two records last year and thus the best odds of getting a No. 1 or 2 pick, fell to numbers 4 and 5 respectively. Since Oden is generally considered to be the top draft pick available, with the possible exception of Kevin Durant from the University of Texas, he will probably be headed to the Pacific Northwest in a very short time.
Oden had few words to say about the possibility of playing for the Blazers or Sonics. I, for one, think that going to Portland over Boston is probably going to be better for the guy. The media attention and scrutiny in Beantown can be very trying, or so I’ve heard. Portland also has a much shorter gap to bridge between losing and winning.
Oden’s destiny lies in the Pacific Northwest, but yours is at StubHub.com, where you can always get great NCAA basketball tickets to see the next Oden rise to stardom.
NBA Draft Lottery Tonight
The NBA Draft Lottery will commence tonight, so we will know what team has what pick number. Then the real analyzing can begin. The teams with the best odds at getting the number one pick are the teams that did the worst this year, which makes the chances for the Boston Celtics much better than, say, the Clippers or Kings. The Memphis Grizzlies and Milwaukee Bucks, along with the Celtics, have the best chances of getting the number one pick.
Most people believe that Greg Oden and Kevin Durant have the best possibility of going No. 1, but once we know the order of the teams, the speculation will take into account the specific needs of each lottery team.
If you got Ohio State Buckeyes basketball tickets for games last year, you probably got to see the overall number one pick in the draft, regardless of what team gets the number one ball in the lottery. As of tonight, people will be one step closer to buying NBA basketball tickets at StubHub.com to see Greg Oden, but for now we still have to refer to him as a Buckeye. Besides, he has another three years of college left to complete.
Who Will be the next Lord of Duke-dom?
Andy Katz of ESPN.com wrote an interesting article the other day which got my brain to thinking. He claims that three of the biggest and best names in the NCAA basketball coaching will have no clear successors, though they all seem to be close to retirement age. Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, Lute Olsen of Arizona, and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke have made their intentions, or non-intentions clear. The guy who steps into their shoes is going to be any body’s guess.
Many believe that the coaching jobs at Duke, Connecticut and Syracuse will, as Katz says, “stay in the family.” This got me to drawing comparisons… with the Presidency. You see, America is like… a college basketball team, and the president is like the coach. Sometimes the coaching job gets kept in the family (Adams, Roosevelt, Bush, Clinton?). But when their is no heir apparent (Cheney will not run), the job is up for grabs, and things get a lot more interesting.
I suppose one could draw a few more parallels, but this will have to suffice for now. Will people still buy Duke Blue Devils basketball tickets as much as they always used to if Coach K. isn’t around anymore? Probably. But for now, you can still get Duke tickets at StubHub.com to see Coach K. in the flesh.
UNC Extends Roy Williams’ Contract
The University of North Carolina has extended the coaching contract of their famous coach, Roy Williams, making him a part of the Tar Heels organization until the 2014-2015 season. While his base salary is only $325,000, he could potentially earn about $2 million per year if he meets certain academic and athletic expectations with the Heels.
Said UNC athletic director Dick Baddour, “Roy Williams is the most complete coach in the country. I knew when we hired him he was an outstanding basketball coach, but he has also exceeded our every expectation in the manner in which he runs a basketball program. He believes in character first, he coaches for all the right reasons and he is a first-rate ambassador of our university.”
So it looks like if you get North Carolina Tar Heels tickets for their home basketball games, you’ll be seeing a lot of Roy Williams for a long time. Make sure to check out StubHub.com for these sports tickets, an just about any other tickets you need.
Kentucky Wins Battle over Patterson
One of the nation’s top recruits coming out of high school, forward/center Patrick Patterson, (who I will call Pat-Pat or Double Down Pat, or, my personal favorite 2-Pat) recently committed to play for the University of Kentucky Wildcats. 2-Pat had been recruited by both Florida and Duke but chose, on the last day of signing, to play for Billy Gillispie’s Wildcats.
Had Pat Patterson gone to play for the Florida Gators, he would have joined Jai Lucas, one of the nation’s top point guard prospects who decided a few days ago to play in Gainesville. Double Down Pat was the high school teammate of O.J. Mayo, who has signed with USC. For Patterson, the ability to play closer to home, to allow his family and friends to watch him play, was a major reason for choosing the Wildcats.
If you would like to see Pat-Pat play at Kentucky, you can always check out StubHub.com for some nice Kentucky Wildcats tickets for next year’s college hoops season.