What’s with New York Hoops?
Andy Katz of ESPN.com has investigated the problem with New York-area hoops. Why are Rutgers, St. Johns and Seton Hall so bad? Why can’t they get the best coaches, the best players, or even get much fan support? This is a very interesting article that seeks to get to the bottom of the issue, right down to the bedrock of talent in the New York area. Every year there are great basketball players who graduate from New York high schools, so why don’t they decide to go to college locally? There are a lot of answers, but I think the real reason lies in the mindset of high school seniors.
If you’re a kid who has an opportunity to go to school anywhere in the country, where would you go? Southern California? Florida? Texas? Ohio? New York? To a lot of urban teens, the prospect of going to a bigger, filthier, noisier city is just not appealing. Would you rather walk to practice in sunny, 75-degree weather, or ride the subway next to Stinky the Hobo? It seems like Los Angeles-area athletes like to either stay where they are or go to Texas. East coast talent likes to go to the SEC, and Northeast talent goes anywhere but New York.
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Arkansas-Related College Hoops News
There are a couple of stories coming out of the Arkansas hoops world, both of which involve members of the 1994 National Championship team. Let’s start with the bad news. Yesterday, former Razorbacks guard Corey Beck and a friend of his were shot by two would-be robbers. Beck and his friend were driving when two masked me approached their vehicle. The attackers shot Beck in the hand and face with a shotgun, but Beck managed to drive away to a nearby fire station for assistance.
In some better news, Corliss “Big Nasty” Williamson has decided to retire from the NBA, and will instead become and assistant coach at Arkansas Baptist College. Williamson was a big part of the same 1994 Arkansas National Championship team as Beck. Williamson was drafted by the Sacramento Kings in 1995, played 12 seasons in the NBA, averaging 11.1 points per game over his career, and won a championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004. Though Arkansas Baptist College is nowhere near the level that Arkansas is, this kind of move would be seen as a first step in a larger coaching career. ABC is overjoyed with Williamson’s decision. Corliss’ former Razorbacks coach, Nolan Richardson, has expressed his support for him as well.
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A Big Look at the Big East
They don’t call it the Big East for nothing. This is one huge conference with a lot of teams that will deserve to make it to the NCAA Tournament. The best teams from last season, Georgetown, Louisville and Pittsburgh, should be near the top again, but there are several other teams that are worth worrying about if you are a fan of a team in this megaconfernce. ESPN’s Shoot Around will give you the highlights for each team as you prepare your mind for a season of college basketball in the Big East, which should be as competitive as ever. Last year six teams went to the dance, and this conference could send an equal number this year as well.
If you like experience, then you might want to look at Seaton Hall as a sleeper in this group. You will notice that they have a few big guns returning from a team that showed some potential last year, though their record wasn’t anything to get too optimistic about. Notre Dame should have a solid group that will distract fans of the Irish from thinking too much about the football team. Overall, it should be another wild year in the Big East. Stay tuned, hoops fans.
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Ohio State Gives Coach Matta a Raise
Ohio State University has decided to give their men’s basketball coach a raise of about $500,000. This brings his total annual salary around $2.5 million per year, which is near the amount that the football coach at OSU receives. He also gets tons of other bonuses, like free jet travel and the like, and there are more incentives in his contract if he continues to have success at Ohio State. The Buckeyes are expected to have a much tougher time this year, as they have lost Greg Oden and some of their other more famous players from the team that got to the NCAA National Championship game last year.
All the while Ohio State University is contending a judicial decision that awarded their former coach, Jim O’Brien, millions of dollars in compensation for what apparently was an illegal termination of his job. I’m not exactly sure if either of these two events are related, and if they are, why they are happening at about the same time. Rather odd, but I guess when you have the kind of athletic budget that OSU has, you can gust give out millions and millions whenever you please.
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Gonzaga Still Dominating the WCC
If you are interested in seeing how the West Coast Conference will turn out this year then you ought to check out the ESPN Shoot Around. It highlights the best things about each team in the WCC, but mostly will tell you all about how Gonzaga will continue to dominate the conference, hoops-wise. The Zags will return to action this season with one of the strongest teams in the school’s history, and one of the toughest schedules. Because the Zags play in the WCC, they get a lot of easy games against WCC fodder like Loyola Marymount and Portland. Coach Mark Few has made sure that nobody can blame their good record on lackluster opponents, landing as many non-conference games with first-rate teams as possible.
There might be other teams in the WCC that can make it to the Tourney, though. Chief among them will be St. Mary’s, San Diego and Santa Clara. The easiest way to do that in the WCC is to win the conference tournament, but not many have been able to accomplish that feat lately. So check out the mid-majors this season, as the WCC attempts to gain some respectability.
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Big XII: A Look Ahead
Taking a look ahead into my crystal ball (or more precisely ESPN’s Shoot Around), I can see that the Big XII has lost some talent, but that new stars are set to rise in this conference full of sleepers and potential Tourney contenders. According to most predictions Kansas will be the best team out of the Big 12, and ESPN rightly predicts that they will be one of the best teams in the nation. While the Jayhawks have lost the playmaking Julian Wright, they still have a talented group of returnees that has the one thing that will make any team a contender- defense. They were the best in the nation last year at keeping their opponents at bay.
But besides the obvious, is there a team you should look out for in the Big 12? The stats say that Nebraska has the best returning player in Aleks Maric, an Australian who is pretty much unstoppable down low. He won’t be enough to keep the Cornhuskers above water alone, though. If one of their recruits can step up and become a second option on the perimeter, then they could be a scary team. Then there is always Kansas State. The Wildcats have a young, 7-3 center who is developing into a playmaker. If they don’t run into injury problems they will surprise a lot of teams.
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Ohio State Must Pay O’Brien
Ohio State University must pay their former coach, Jim O’Brien, $2.4 million in owed compensation, ruled an appeals court today. O’Brien, who had been the coach of the Buckeyes from 1998 to 2004, was fired after he loaned a player on his team $6,000. He later admitted to the university that this was done. When the news of the incident broke, OSU fired O’Brien citing a breach of his contract. Loaning players money of any kind is highly illegal in the NCAA. O’Brein then sued the university for wrongful firing. The sum he was awarded today was not the full amount that he had requested, but was still seen as a victory for the prosecution. OSU plans to appeal the ruling at a later time.
Ohio State was the runner-up to the national championship last season in college basketball, but their program had been stripped of many of their top players from last season, including Mike Conley Jr. and the number one pick in the NBA draft, the recently injured Greg Oden. This ruling will likely not change the outcome of the upcoming season of NCAA basketball for the Buckeyes.
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Summer Reading Hoops-Style
Since the college basketball season is still a long ways away, there aren’t a lot of good things to write about for a blog. Some players get injured or arrested or earn their freedom from suspension while the devil has time to make a playground of their idle minds. But one thing that this downtime does give us college hoops bloggers is an opportunity to get some summer reading done. There are a lot of good books out there on the subject, and reading anything is good, but there is one that stands out above the rest.
If you have never gotten a chance to read John Feinstein’s A Season on the Brink you should do so right this instant. Widely regarded as the “bestselling sports book of all time,” A Season on the Brink chronicles the ’85-’86 Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball team. The drama of a season would make for an interesting book in itself, but the character of head coach Bobby Knight really makes the book crackle with intensity. If Season is the Moby Dick of sports literature, then Knight is its Captain Ahab. It’s a must read for any fan interested in college basketball or just some fun summer reading.
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Pitt’s Point a Perp
Pittsburgh Panthers point guard Levance Fields was arrested last weekend outside of a nightclub. According to reports, Fields was getting loud with another person outside of a club when an undercover police officer asked him to be quiet. Fields attempted to take control of the officer’s gun. A scuffle ensued, Fields got Tasered by another security guard and then he was arrested. He was booked with aggravated assault, disarming a police officer, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.
The official word from the Pittsburgh coach, Jamie Dixon is that they are going to let the criminal justice system run its course and then make the necessary moves, which will probably include suspension. Fields would be the top returning player in the scoring and assists department for the Panthers, who are expected to be hurting this year in the wake of four graduating starters. Without Fields the Panthers would lose a floor general with experience. Of course, Pittsburgh is always in the running for the Big East title, and they might not even need him by the time the season begins.
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Gotta Love Hoops Players
A recent article for Page 2 at ESPN has got me thinking. Can you name a college basketball player who has been universally disliked, even by his team’s own fans? It would be pretty hard to come up with one, right? Even for players who have been known for major screw-ups, college basketball players and college football players generally don’t have the pressure of being disliked by their own fans. Take, for instance, Chris Webber. He famously called a timeout when Michigan didn’t have one and lost a huge game for them. It has been haunting him ever since. But if he had stayed around for another season at Michigan I don’t think that fans would have given up on him or booed him.
There are a couple of reasons why. First off, there is a certain amount of reluctance to put negative energy into a player- especially if he is going to be gone in four years, max. If you don’t like a player you aren’t stuck with him. Secondly, there is no exchange of money so there is little resentment for a lack of performance. Also, college hoops has typically been more about teams than individual players, so you would find more resentment for Bobby Knight than any player. Isn’t it great to be a fan of hoops?
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