Get Used to Washington State

If you haven’t heard already, Washington State is on its way to a television set or a Sports Center special section near you. Last year the Cougars of Pullman, Washington were a surprising team for many Pac-10 basketball fans. They ended up making the tournament and did better than several of the more high-profile west coast programs, such as Stanford, Washington, Arizona and Cal. Their coach, Tony Bennett, won the consensus national Coach of the Year Award for bringing their program up from near-nothing to a nationally ranked bracket buster. Their two star players, Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver, will be playing in the upcoming Pan-Am Games.

About their recent surge to popularity, Coach Bennett said, “If our experience and depth is legit, then we’ll have a better team than last year and maybe win more games. I do expect them to play at a high level of basketball, but where that puts us no one knows. It’s critical for our program to embrace the underdog mentality.”

But it looks like the Cougars will not be underdogs for very long. When you get Washington State Cougars basketball tickets, you will be checking out StubHub.com for tickets to see a preseason top 10 team.

Permalink - Posted in General on July 17, 2007 - Post a comment

U.S. College Players Beat Serbia

The U.S. Under-19 team has just beaten the Serbian National team, one of the strongest teams in the international field. The games of the Under 19 World Championships are being held in Serbia as well, adding to the pressure that the American team must have felt while playing in a hostile arena. It took some last minute heroics from the sharp shooting American squad to seal a closer-than-it-looks victory over the Serbian team by a score of 82-78.

Stephen Curry had a game-high 19 points, three of which came from a clutch downtown shot to give the U.S. the lead for good in the closing two minutes. Said Curry after the game, “This was a great game for both us and the Serbian team. I really enjoyed playing in this game. I think this is what the [U-19] World Championship is all about, close games going down to the end. We had to make great plays going down the stretch to win this game. I give credit to Serbia for making a great run at the end of the game and playing great team ball.”

The Americans are now 3-0 in tournament play, and will advance to play in the second round versus a tougher opponent in the basketball-rich country of Lithuania. After that comes Brazil and France. When the boys from Team U.S.A. come back home, you can get NCAA Basketball tickets at StubHub.com to see them play.

Permalink - Posted in General on July 16, 2007 - Post a comment

Mali Gets Mauled

The United States of America’s Under-19 team routed Mali yesterday in the first game of the U-19 World Championship in Serbia. The US team, made up of college hoop stars and high school seniors had no problem overwhelming team Mali, quickly jumping out to a 34-5 lead, and never looking back. DeAndre Jordan had a game-high 20 points, with several of the players also scoring in double figures.

This will probably be one of the easiest teams that the US faces in the tournament. Their next scheduled game is against China, and after that they will face Serbia, before the elimination rounds begin. Many people believe that the US team is one of the best that has been put together in a long time, event though players like Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, who would have been eligible to play, will not be helping the US cause.

The teams sent from the US have not exactly lived up to the standards we place on them in recent years, either in the Olympics, the World Championships, or the youth tournaments like this one. Soon enough, it seems, the United States will have a more competitive soccer team than a basketball team. Excuses abound for the poor play of Americans in international tournaments, but overall, sports fans really want to see some improvement from the newest batch of basketball stars. You can see these players in the US by getting NCAA basketball tickets at StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on July 13, 2007 - Post a comment

Hoops Coaches Going after Younger Kids

Pat Forde of ESPN.com recently had a rather eye-opening and disturbing article about a not-so-new trend in college basketball these days: the tendency for top programs to get verbal commitments from players in Jr. High and even elementary school. The article starts out by telling the story of Ryna Boatright, a basketball playing eighth grader who has verbally committed to USC after he graduates from high school in 2011. Other coaches at programs around the country have been going after very young players, some even have been approached by coaches while still in fourth grade.

Forde goes through some of the obviously negative aspects of this trend. Basically, he doesn’t like that the prospects still have plenty of time to prove unworthy of a scholarship, and that the verbal agreements are so easy to get out of that they’ve become almost meaningless. But here’s my question: Won’t these verbal agreements get into a young player’s head? I mean, if I’m Joe Good Eighth Grade Basketball Player, and I’m already set to play at USC, why would I listen to my high school coach, care about getting good grades or even at improving my game? I think getting players that young is counterintuitive.

Too bad, though, that we can’t got to StubHub.com to start buying USC Trojans basketball tickets to games in 2011 so that we could see, maybe, Ryan Boatright.

Permalink - Posted in General on July 12, 2007 - Post a comment

Hoyas to Make Final Four in ’08?

There are a bunch of people with opinions about which teams will get to the Final Four next year, and one of them is the Georgetown Hoyas, who, if you will remember, made the Final Four last year. The one knock about Georgetown is a big one. They lost their number one player from last season, Jeff Green. Green was one of the cogs in both their offense and defense, and will be sorely missed.

The good thing is that most of the rest of their team will remain in tact. In fact, Roy Hibbert, Jonathan Wallace, DaJuan Summers and Vernon Macklin will all be returning, and there is nothing better in the college hoops world than a team full of experienced Final Four players. Just ask the Florida Gators.

ESPN has the Georgetown Hoyas ranked as the number five team for ’08, which is a bit better than I would have ranked them. Still, the Hoyas and the UCLA Bruins will return players that made up the bulk of their teams, minus their biggest stars respectively. In college, I would argue that the team as a whole is more important to a successful program than any individual star. If you agree, you can get Georgetown Hoyas basketball tickets at StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on July 11, 2007 - Post a comment

Hoops’ Top Frosh for ‘08

Greg Oden and Kevin Durant will still probably make the headlines of this college basketball blog for a while, but officially they should be NBA news by now. Other popular players like Joakim Noah, Mike Conley and Corey Brewer are all gone as well. New players will have to step up next year to become the nation’s most watched athletes. Probably the top returning stars include Tyler Hansbrough from North Carolina and Chris Lofton from Tennessee.

But there is no denying that freshman dominated the headlines last year. With seven taken in the first round of the draft, some of the gurus at ESPN already have their picks for who next year’s class of freshman lottery picks will be. Fran Fraschilla seems to think that the list includes Eric Grodon from Indiana, Derrick Rose of Memphis and O.J. Mayo of USC.

Of course, there could be a lot of other freshman basketball players we haven’t heard much about who will make a name for themselves when the season starts. In order to see them become stars right before your eyes, you need to get NCAA basketball tickets at StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on July 10, 2007 - Post a comment

Dickie V’s Draft Picks

You’ve got to love the indomitable spirit and enthusiasm of college basketball announcer Dick Vitale. He is so lovably prejudiced that it’s both sad and heartwarming. I recently took a look at his NBA Draft projections and was more than a little taken back by what I saw. Some of his picks were pretty obvious (i.e. Oden, Durant) but the rest of the list took a sharp turn from reality.

Apparently after Durant, Dickie V thought that the trio of Florida stars would be picked in this order: Al Hortford, Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer. Noah fell to number nine in reality, as NBA scouts know that he is actually undersized for his position, has little offensive value, and his biggest upside is his personality, which is actually really annoying.

The biggest error Dikie V made was with the one Duke star, Josh McRoberts, who he thought would go at number 17. In reality, McRoberts was picked at number 37. He sure does love those Blue Devils. Of course, I wouldn’t want any other announcer at the game I attend when I get my NCAA Basketball tickets at StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on July 9, 2007 - Post a comment

Under 19 Team USA Prepares for Battle

The USA Under-19 Basketball Team will be playing in Novi Sad, Serbia in a matter of days. Though recent international basketball competitions have left American hoops fans disappointed to say the least, the college players on this year’s squad look as good as any of the teams put together in the past six or so years. Interestingly enough, Greg Oden, Kevin Durant and Spencer Hawes would all have been eligible to play if not for the fact that they are now playing in the NBA.

The roster being sent overseas is: Darrell Arthur, Soph., Kansas; Michael Beasley, Fr., Kansas State; Patrick Beverley, Soph., Arkansas; Matt Bouldin, Soph., Gonzaga; Stephen Curry, Soph., Davidson; Jonny Flynn, Fr., Syracuse; Donte Greene, Fr., Syracuse; DeAndre Jordan, Fr., Texas A&M; David Lighty, Soph., Ohio State; Raymar Morgan, Soph., Michigan State; Tajuan Porter, Soph., Oregon; and Deon Thompson, Soph., North Carolina.

If you are traveling to Serbia in the next few weeks, you might get to see these players in action. But if not, you are going to have to wait for the start of the hoops season to get NCAA basketball tickets at StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on July 6, 2007 - Post a comment

Be Cool; Stay in School

This year’s NBA Draft seemed to prove the worth of the new rule outlawing high school players from entering the NBA. Though some thought that the rule would unfairly hurt the NBA teams, the players and the NCAA, it seems as though, at least in a few ways, having players get a year of college ball under their belts has made them more valuable as NBA Lottery picks.

Although Greg Oden and Kevin Durant might have both made the lottery last year as high school seniors, there is now way you can deny that Oden taking the Buckeyes to the national title game or Durant having a season that he did at Texas didn’t help to seal their spots at the top. Furthermore, upperclassmen seem to have benefited the most from getting more exposure in the NCAA. As junior Nick Young of USC recently said, “I just felt like GMs and scouts aren’t seeing seniors as a risk; they’re seeing them as a sure thing.”

Of course, there are others, like Bobby Knight, who don’t like the fact that players like Oden and Durant are now forced to use the NCAA for a year, and the phoniness of knowing that a player isn’t in college to get an education, but to play basketball. Still, thanks to the rule, you will get to see players you otherwise wouldn’t have when you get NCAA basketball tickets at StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on July 5, 2007 - Post a comment

2007 NCAA Hoops Coaching Changes

The 2007 off season has been one that has seen plenty of coaching changes. We are all familiar with the recent incident at Florida, with Coach Billy Donovan leaving for the Magic just to change his mind 48 hours later. But there have been plenty of other coaching changes that might have passed by under the radar.

There is a fairly exhaustive list of the coaching changes in the NCAA at CBS Sportsline. You’ll notice that there are a few schools that usually make the top 25 on the list, and some well known coaches who are leaving or going. Some of the names and places to highlight include Arkansas getting rid of Stan Heath and adding John Pelphrey, New Mexico getting Steve Alford, Princeton adding Sydney Johnson, and Rick Majerus going to Saint Louis.

There are other, lesser known coaching changes you might be interested in as well, including that regarding the University of San Diego Toreros, who released Brad Holland and picked up Bill Grier. Make sure to keep updated on all of the coaching changes, and the resulting changes in the prices of NCAA basketball tickets at StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on July 3, 2007 - Post a comment


 Page 2 of 3 « 1  2  3 »