You Don’t Need to Play to Coach

To some it might seem odd to teach something that you aren’t very good at yourself. Could you imagine your college English professor never having written a college-level essay before? Neither can we. So that’s why sometimes it is hard to grasp the concept that there are a lot of college basketball coaches out there who have never played Division-I NCAA basketball before. Most any coach has at least played high school ball, but some, such as Mark Few of Gonzaga and Bruce Pearl of Tennessee, never played in college. As you can tell, both of those men have done quite well for themselves as college coaches. And as Andy Katz points out, there have been plenty of good college players who stunk as coaches.

I suppose, to some extent, being a basketball coach is more about strategy and knowing how to do something (as opposed to actually being able to do it). For instance, that first analogy I used with the professor was a little but off, because being able to teach at the college level requires that you were able to do those things to earn your doctorate. Unless you were some rare case, you had to come up through academia. With coaching, there are no such PhD. requirements. Furthermore, only a select few people have the physical characteristics to play basketball. Having a 6-9 frame is a big part of playing basketball at an elite level, but being so genetically lucky is not required of professorship.

To get NCAA basketball tickets go to StubHub.com.

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

Greg Oden’s Grecian Replacement

Ohio State was ranked the number one college basketball team in the nation right before the NCAA Tournament last year, and then they went on to the Tourney finals, only to lose to Florida. But last year was last year. This year is almost upon us, and the Ohio State Buckeyes have changed a lot over the past few months. Besides staying in the news because of lawsuits with their former coaches, the Buckeyes lost five of their six top scorers from their ’06 team, none more intrical to their success than Greg Oden. Oden, one of the best pure centers to come out of college basketball in years, has some big shoes to fill.

But you can read all about Oden’s Grecian replacement right here in Andy Katz’s article. Katz gives the low-down on the back-downer from Greece, a baller complete with international awards and the admiration of Greg Oden himself. Ohio State’s main star, and the player everyone expects to be the most responsible for any success they have next year, is sophomore David Lighty. They will also have a point guard with experience, as well, though he did not play much when Mike Conley Jr. took his starting job at OSU.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on October 2, 2007 - Post a comment

Parrish Rates the Points and Combos

Gary Parrish of CBS Sports Line has decided to go about ranking the college basketball players in a bit of a different way this year. He is ranking the players by general categories instead of by positions, since in college basketball positions are much more translucent than in the pros, and because in college many players’ roles are difficult to define. Not to mention, several of the best players in the nation next year have not even played one second of actual college basketball- so who knows where they will fit in on the court?

Today we get Parish’s rankings for the little guys, the points and combos. There are a few players on the list who you will remember from last year, but (to spoil it a bit) he has a true freshman as his pick for the number one point/combo in the nation, Derrick Rose. You should really read the whole article and see if your team has a guy listed. If you have somebody who you know should have been on the list, then you should write a rant about it, because half of the fun of these lists is the debate.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on October 1, 2007 - Post a comment


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