Big Take on the Big Ten
What will happen in the Big Ten this college basketball season? Well, you can check out the recent article at ESPN.com to find out all about it. The Big Ten, as you well know, is chock full of NCAA D-I basketball powerhouses, and there will undoubtedly be a lot of Big Ten schools in the running to get to the NCAA Tournament in 2007. Make sure that you know what ESPN knows before people around campus start talking about the prospects for the upcoming season by getting the inside scoop.
Who do the experts at ESPN think will take the top spot in the conference? Well, according to Doug Gottlieb, the Indiana Hoosiers should be the most powerful team in the Big Ten, followed closely by a number of other teams, most notably Michigan State and OSU. Ohio State has lost a lot of players, as any NBA fan will tell you. College football got underway yesterday, but unfortunately for college hoops fans the season of collegiate basketball is not neigh for another couple of months.
Until that time you can get Big Ten tickets at StubHub.com.
Little Trouble in Big West
Perhaps it is the case that too much of the NCAA basketball fans out there follow the most obvious and over-exposed teams. There are a lot of good hoops fans who like teams that are not in the spotlight like North Carolina, UCLA or Ohio State. People who went to college at a smaller school, or a school in a weaker conference need some hype too every now and again. So that’s why Friday I will focus on a conference that might not get as much respect and media attention that it, justly or not, needs to get.
The Big West is just a bunch of (mostly) public schools from California, so if you are part of the giant UC or CSU school systems or from the Golden State, you probably have a stake in how this conference turns out. You can get a preview of the Big West from ESPN’s Shoot Around. It will tell you about the top returning players, the expected finish in the conference, the trends, etc. From what the article is saying, it looks like the traditional Big West big boys will be at the top again, with a few possible exceptions. Check out the article…
… and then go to StubHub.com for some Big West basketball tickets.
Top Hoops Recruiters
There’s a free preview of what the ESPN Insider feature has to offer the college basketball fan at ESPN.com right now. The story highlights a few of the schools that came out as big winners in the recruiting game this year. You can take a look and see if your school made the list of those that did the best job of securing the nation’s top prep basketball player talent. It might not surprise you to hear that UCLA topped the list, although somewhat surprising is the fact that another Pac-10 school, Arizona (which has struggled to get quality players lately), was the No. 2 recruiter. Not every prep player has committed to a school yet, so the rankings can change.
I wouldn’t want to plug ESPN’s Insider program too much, but for a sport like college basketball being able to see some of the exclusives is more important than for, say, Major League Baseball, wherein information on players and teams is quite transparent through several media outlets. Of course, the best way to become an expert at a certain sport or team is to get into the games and see them live.
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.
A Look at Ivy League Hoops
The Ivy League is known for their academics more than their hoops, perhaps, but that won’t stop them from being the subject of today’s blog. You see, the Ivy League, though hampered by smaller enrollment numbers, strict academic guidelines and a general lack of respect, is probably one of my favorite sports conferences for exactly those reasons. These schools don’t have the same athletic budgets that Ohio State and Florida have, and they can’t (and don’t) just pass their athletes through one year of underwater basket weaving 101 courses to get them to play semi-pro basketball for the NCAA, so they get all the more accolades when they wind up in the Tourney about to knock off some jock school like Florida State.
This year the Ivy League is hard to predict, as it appears that the traditional powerhouses, Princeton and Penn, are going to have tough seasons, while Cornell and Yale are looking at a shot at the Tourney. The sleeper pick in this conference is probably Brown, which has two of the top returning scorers in Mark McAndrew and Damon Huffman.
If you would like to get Ivy League basketball tickets, you should go to StubHub.com.
Picks for the WAC
The Western Athletic Conference looks like it will be another highly competitive conference when the NCAA basketball season gets underway. If you are looking for a few answers to how this group of teams out west is going to shake out over the stretch of the season ESPN has given their take on the subject in their WAC Shoot Around. It might be surprising to see that Nevada is not expected to return as the top team in the WAC, which, according to ESPN’s group of experts, will be Utah State. The Nevada Wolfpack was devastated by graduation and the NBA Draft, and will only have one player returning from the starting five. Of course, Nevada had won the conference three straight times under the leadership of Coach Fox.
Utah State is supposed to be the winner this year, followed by New Mexico State and Fresno State. Utah State finished fourth in the conference last season and participated in the NIT, as did Fresno. ESPN seems to like Utah State’s coach and their more highly touted returnees. If you are a fan of Boise State then you should be excited to hear that the Broncos are expected to climb up the standings to fourth this year, right above Nevada.
If you would like to get WAC basketball tickets, you can go to StubHub.com.
ACC Predictions
ESPN is handing out some thoughts on the state of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The ACC looks like it will put together another bunch of excellent teams this year, with North Carolina expected to be the best of the bunch, followed by- you guessed it- the Duke Blue Devils. The Pac-10 is widely considered to be the best conference this year, at least as far as the preseason predictions go. However, the ACC looks pretty good too, and the Tobacco Road teams will again get plenty of coverage as the season starts. In addition to having a few of the most storied and successful NCAA basketball programs, the ACC also has some of the best rivalries in the country.
All in all it looks like this year will be a good one to get tickets to the ACC. They have some of the nation’s most popular stars, including Tyler Hansbrough, Sean Singletary, Tyrese Rice, and Brandon Costner. These players, and some of the many recruits that the ACC reloaded with this year, will probably be some of the most hyped athletes during March Madness.
To get ACC tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Expand the Tournament?
NCAA basketball is a sport that gets a lot of attention and has its share of controversy. There is the ever-blurring line between amateures and professionals, recruiting questions, academic issues, and event class warfare- that between the haves and the have-nots. Teams who barely make the NCAA Tournament every year, especially those in Mid-Major schools, are hoping to expand the Tourney by at least three teams. This means more bracket-busters, tighter schedules, and more games… but also more March Madness.
Said a NCAA coach in a recent Andy Katz article, “Every time the tournament has gotten bigger, it’s gotten more popular, it’s become better. I think now we have an NCAA membership of over 330. We currently let about 20 percent of the teams into the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA now owns both tournaments, the NIT and the NCAA. Fan interest in the NIT against the NCAA, there’s no comparison. It makes sense to sort of wrap it all into one tournament, expand the field. It’s going to be better for coaches, obviously, from a job-security standpoint. I think you’re going to have a better tournament.”
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Richardson Coaching Mexican National Team
Nolan Richardson, the former Arkansas Razorbacks head coach is now coaching the Mexican National Team for the upcoming World Championships. There is a pretty interesting article written by Andy Katz about Richardson at ESPN.com, and if you have the time, you should really check it out. From what it sounds like, the Mexican team is improving in the international scene, and getting a quality college coach to help the program succeed is a great thing for both Mexico sports and Richardson. Even though some would say that Richardson is past his prime, it will probably soon be proven that he can still help players get better.
Some of the quotes that the article attributes to Richardson are pretty comical. He isn’t the most fluent Spanish speaker. One time Richardson was lecturing his team at halftime, saying, “The way we play, there’s no room for no one loafing offensively or defensively. No room. Nobody plays like us. Nadie. You gotta believe that. Nadie. We don’t have to scout nobody. Porque we’re gonna play the way we wanna play. … And if they wanna play like we wanna play, we’re in control.”
If you would like to get Arkansas Razorbacks basketball tickets, you can go to StubHub.com.
Oregon Ducks Get Huge Boost
The University of Oregon recently received a huge donation from Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny. The donation, which is the largest philanthropic gift in school history, is reportedly worth $100 million. Though not specifically designed to be used for an arena exclusively, it is a well known fact that McArthur Court is one of the oldest college basketball arenas in the nation, and certain elements have been pushing for a larger, more modern basketball arena. With Oregon hoops in the spotlight again this year, a new arena will only help the recruiting process and other intangibles in creating a better program in Eugene, Oregon.
Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny said, “This extraordinary gift will set Oregon athletics on a course toward certain self sufficiency and create the flexibility and financial capacity for the university to move forward with the new athletic arena. Now we can roll up our sleeves and get to work on making the arena a reality.”
To get Oregon Ducks basketball tickets, go to Stubhub.com.
Richard Jefferson Donates to Arizona
Former Arizona Wildcat and current NBA star Richard Jefferson has pledged to give his alma mater, the University of Arizona, $3.5 million dollars over the course of a few years. The money is supposed to be a part of the $14 million that will help to build a new gym for the basketball and volleyball teams. His donation is now the single largest donation made by a current NBA player to his former school. Lute Olsen, the long-time Wildcats head coach, said of Jefferson’s contribution, “Richard has always been a stand-up guy. For him to make this kind of statement about how much he cares for this program speaks volumes to Richard’s character. This is a very, very generous gift.”
The main beneficiary of this gift will be the University of Arizona, which is hoping to compete in a very strong Pac-10 in the next few years. Of course, Jefferson is getting accolades and a lot of good publicity as well. Finally, a good sports story! Here’s to donations that athletes make. They make them all the time, and this one only made the headlines because it was so large.
To get NCAA basketball tickets to see the Wildcats, go to StubHub.com.