Indiana Coach Punished

Indiana Hoosiers basketball coach Kelvin Sampson has been found in violation of NCAA recruiting restrictions. Apparently Sampson was involved in no less than ten phone conversations with recruits, calls in which he was not allowed to be involved. Sampson had been in trouble for recruiting violations during his career as the coach of Oklahoma’s basketball team, and thus was in a sort of probationary period of restricted access to hoops recruits. As punishment, the IU basketball team will lose one of its scholarships. Sampson himself will lose $500,000 in bonuses he would have received this year, though he is voluntarily giving up that money.

Indiana finished third in the Big-10 last season, were a 7 seed in the tournament, and lost to UCLA in the second round. The loss one scholarship will probably not have much of an adverse effect on the IU Hoosiers next year, as they will likely be a tournament contender once more. Sampson voluntarily giving up half a million dollars should probably alert him to the fact that he should lay off the hard pitch recruiting tactics for a while. 

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

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

Basketball News Picks Up after Midnight Madness

You will notice that the major sports news websites, such as ESPN.com, CBSSportsline.com and FoxSports.com have all started to amp up their coverage of the college basketball world. Exciting times are just around the corner. Official practices have started. Players are going to be getting injured and rosters are going to be set, and the business of the college hoops bloggers is going to be good, good, good.

There’s a nice video at the ESPN college hoops page about the North Carolina Tar Heels mascot who died last year during the tournament. Highly recommended. It’s just part of a string of new media that ESPN has recently rolled out in preparation for the start of the hoops season. There are also tons of lists out there. So many lists, in fact, that I feel like there should be a list of the top 15 lists for sports websites. Now there’s an idea for a blog. Stay tuned for my analysis and rankings about the best lists in the nation so far. Start getting into it, and start thinking about what tickets you want to get, because hoops season is just around the corner.  

To get NCAA basketball tickets at StubHub.com.

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

Midnight Madness Descends Upon America

Midnight Madness, the annual college basketball tradition, was held last weekend, with many of the nation’s top programs playing scrimmages and putting on spectacles to get prepared for the upcoming basketball season. You can get some pretty cool pictures from Midnight Madness’s that went down all around the country at SportsIllustrated.com. There are some pretty funny ones, including a picture of Maryland coach Gary Williams pumping up the crowd after stepping out of a Lamborghini, and one embarrassing picture if you are Jeremy Piven or Illinois Fighting Illini basketball fan, or both.

The real college basketball season will not begin for nearly another month, but the anticipation is already killing the fans of teams that are supposed to be good this year. If you are an alumni, student, or parent of a student associated with Memphis, North Carolina, UCLA, or Kansas, then you probably can’t wait for basketball season to begin. This is a great time to begin purchasing your tickets, because once the season gets underway, there will be a hug rush, and oftentimes the ticket prices start to rise. Also, if you think your team is a sleeper this year, get tickets before the rest of the nation realizes that your team is going to be good, and you could get some better seats for a cheaper price. 

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 15, 2007 - Post a comment

College Basketball Rankings at SI.com

If you check out Sports Illustrated’s website, SI.com, you can take a look at Luke Winn’s rankings for the top 16 hoops teams in the nation. There aren’t too many surprises in his list. As with most college basketball preseason picks this year, Winn has created a top 5 that contains, in no particular order, Memphis, Tennessee, North Carolina, UCLA and Kansas. The exact order has been changed so that you will go to his article and read his reasoning for each team.

If you get into the general team overviews of each school, you’ll see that Winn backs up his picks with more stats than usual, which is something that a college basketball fan these days hardly ever sees. Usually hoops writers will try to focus on name-dropping and call it analysis. You should check out the Oregon Ducks, which are included in the list. He points out that Oregon might have a problem with turnovers based on the stats of their returnees- and they have a lot of returning players. And for the more stats-oriented bloggers and blog readers, you will be happy to know that there are some great things to read at BasketballProspectus.com. This site just started up, and you will probably be hearing a lot of things coming from this blog about what they have to say about player efficiency and the like.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

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

Picture Your Backcourt

As the NCAA hoops season draws near, there are plenty of fans out there who claim that their team has the best backcourt in the country. Well, if you think you have the best ones, twos and threes in the nation, then you can compare your picks to SportsIllustrated.com’s pics. Luke Winn has put together a list of the 15 best backcourt combinations in the country, complete with a slideshow-style picture presentation. With typical Sports Illustrated images you can get to know the best guards in the nation- at least those chosen by Luke Winn.

The pictures are great, and you get a little blurb about each backcourt to go along with. If you’re like this blogger, then sometimes you are a real visual learner. So sit back and take a look at some of the best playmakers in the country doing their thing last season. You will notice that the Pac-10 is very well represented, with UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington State all making the top 15. On the other hand, there was only one SEC team chosen.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

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

CBS Sports.com Ranks the “Bigs”

In an effort to be more attuned to the actual game, CBSSports.com’s Gary Parrish has ranked the top 25 “bigs” in the country. The term “bigs” could refer to players listed as centers, forwards or even guards if they play around the rim. I like the idea of ranking the players this way instead of by standard positions, because it not only eliminated needless debate about positions for a lot of players, but recognized the fluidity of the college game…. Back to the rankings. You should really check them out to see if a player from your team has made it to the list. There were some interesting picks, save for the No.1 (Tyler Hansbrough, duh!). But after that the debate really begins. If you don’t like the picks, you can always comment on the message boards. You and ten thousand million other fans. 

One of the picks immediately sparked this blogger’s interest, so I’ve just go to dish out my yibber-yabber. Hopefully I won’t spoil it for you too badly if I tell you that Parrish ranked Brook Lopez, the Stanford center, as No. 7 in the country. I understand putting him on the list, but as any avid reader of the Final Four blog knows, Lopez is going to miss a big chunk of games in the first half of the season due to academic ineligibility, and unless he gets his grades up, he might have to sit even more. It’s a big risk putting him so high in my books. No pun intended.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

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

Inspirational Hoops Story at ESPN

If you go to ESPN.com and look for one of the feature stories about Rob Jones, you will be in store for a nice little inspirational story. You can watch a video called “Jonestown: Game of Their Lives,” the story about Jim Jones, Jim Jones, Jr. and Rob Jones, a family that has been united by basketball and a shared tragic past. Jim Jones, as you will soon learn, was the leader of the religious cult known as The People’s Temple, the group known most notoriously for “The Jonestown Massacre.” Clearly Jim Jones, Jr. was spared from the mass suicide at Jonestown, but how that came to be was really remarkable. Without spoiling too much, I would recommend that you either read the whole article, written by John Fish and Chris Connelly, or watch the “Outside The Lines” video, which is pretty good as well.

Ron Jones, the grandson of Jim Jones, is now an accomplished high school basketball player in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is one of the most sought-after recruits in Northern California, and will most likely get to play for a D-I NCAA basketball program, where he can bring some honor back to the family name.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

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

Stanford’s Lopez to Sit, Study, Surprise

The Stanford University Cardinal Men’s basketball team will not be able to play their starting forward/center, the seven-foot Brook Lopez, when their season begins on November 9th. Lopez, who averaged just over 12 points per game last season, has failed to live up to the academic standards of the university, and will be ineligible for participation in intercollegiate athletics until after an exam period at the University in the middle of December. Hopefully by that time Lopez will have improved his grades to the point where he is eligible to compete. He can, however, practice with the team, although it is almost certain that he will have to get his homework done beforehand. What good is his practicing if he still can’t play this season?

In the article about this at ESPN, Lopez blames himself for letting everyone- the team, the coach, his supporters- down with his bad grades. I suppose that slacking off and not being able to compete for the school that has given you a scholarship to play is not the best thing in the world to do, but one should remember that this is Stanford, after all. I mean, not making the academic standards of a school with a reputation like Stanford’s shouldn’t be that big of a shame. Albeit that we don’t have the full story of why he’s ineligible here. This could turn out to be a good thing for Stanford. If they start out weak, but get a player in time for the tough part of the season, they could surprise a bunch of teams. Lopez himself will probably come back with a certain amount of fire, too.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 8, 2007 - Post a comment

Howland Staying Longer at UCLA

With the Bruins doing well and set to get a blowout win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the sports world in Westwood is focused on college football not college basketball. However, the Bruins hoops team did all that it could to get into the spotlight this past week, as coach Ben Howland has just signed an extension to coach the men’s team for another seven years. The contract includes a raise, so Howland will be getting more than a million dollars per season. It must be nice to coach at UCLA.

Of course, Howland has earned every cent of it. He has coached the Bruins to back-to-back Final Four appearances in only a couple years on the job. This year the Bruins will be facing a loaded Pac-10, but they are still considered one of the favorites to be in the Final Four this season. Fans of the Bruins can’t wait until the returning players get a chance to come back out onto the court to take on the likes of USC, Arizona, Oregon and Washington State. The Pac-10 could be a conference that sends four teams to the tourney this year, but not before one of the most stacked Pac-10 Conference tournaments to date. Make sure to get your tickets to the Staples Center for that one early.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

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

Notre Dame to Get New Arena

The Notre Dame football team is off to a disappointing start to the season, but that doesn’t mean that there can’t already be some good news for their basketball team. It as been announced that the Joyce Center, the home of Notre Dame hoops, is going to be rebuilt and expanded. With millions of dollars pouring in from various contributors, ND is only a few million away from reaching the necessary amount to construct a new facility. If all goes according to plan, the new arena will be constructed before the 2009 basketball season.

The Fighting Irish are expected to field a solid basketball team that has its eyes set on the Big East title this year. They will have some stiff competition in the form of Louisville, Pittsburgh, Georgetown, and Cincinnati, and you can read all about it in my blog a week or so ago about the increasingly strong Big East. They could probably field six tourney teams with a little luck. Getting a new basketball gym should help to not only draw more fans to Notre Dame for basketball games, but also to attract better recruits. Having to play in such a stacked conference, Notre Dame needs every advantage they can get to keep their program on top.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 4, 2007 - Post a comment


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