Top Recruits Shine in Las Vegas
The NCAA basketball word is always after news of the next big star. That’s why it’s important to get in on the buzz surrounding the summer basketball camps for high school recruits. Sports writers from all over the nation go to these camps to figure out which athletes will go where, and to report back the rumors to all of us college hoops fans.
Reporting for FOX Sports, Jeff Goodman went to Vegas for the annual summer basketball camps there- among the most prestigious in the country- and reported back about a few players who made the college scouts drool. He gives you the names, the schools they come from and the schools who are interested in acquiring their basketball skills once they can sign an letter of intent. At such a young age, it’s hard to tell how a player will turn out in college (some of them are still growing), however, some things become obvious when you watch the kids play. Checkout the article and see if any of the standouts are slated to go to the school you root for.
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Iranian Hoops Player Might Play for U.S. College Team
Juke Winn has a nice little article about Arsalan Kazemi, a young basketball player from Iran who hopes to play college basketball in the U.S. Oklahoma State and Seton Hall have already offered the young man a scholarship to play ball, but there are some things that could keep a promising young player from coming to the U.S. to play NCAA hoops. Probably the biggest obstacle facing Arsalan Kazemi will be his desire to play for the Iranian national team. If he plays in the U.S., getting onto the Iranian team would be very difficult.
This story is significant in that it is one of the very few areas where the United States and Iran are having some peaceful, non-threatening dialogue. The Bush Administration has been adamant about their desire to keep Iran from developing a nuclear program, and Iran, led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been just as adamant about developing a nuclear program. Tensions have been high between the two countries. However, having an Iranian sports star in America might help to promote some mutual understanding between the people of these two countries, if not between their leaders.
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Gary Parrish’s Latest Fan Voting Contest
As you are probably painfully aware, the college basketball season is way far down the road, and the news coming out of that part of the sporting world s slow and hard coming. The good writers at CBS Sports (mainly Gary Parrish) are trying their best to keep college basketball fans pumped. I think they’ve found that it’s easiest to get college basketball fans pumped if they were recently in the Final Four, and they have some of the most established basketball traditions. Therefore, Gary came up with a little fan vote-based tournament between All-Star, All-Time teams from North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, UCLA, Kentucky and Indiana championship teams of yore.
The trick was that the teams had to be made up of members from the championship teams themselves. So if Tyler Hansbrough’s Tar Heels had won the national championship, he might be eligible to play on the UNC team. As it is, he can’t be on the team, and that might be why they aren’t in the title game. Right now it’s UCLA’s All-Time team and Kentucky’s going at it. You should vote if you find this kind of thing interesting, or of you are a fan of the Bruins or Wildcats and you want to get pumped about history.
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Texas To retire Durant’s Number
It wasn’t too long ago that Kevin Durant was the National Player of the Year, so it’s amazing that he’s having a retirement ceremony this soon. Well, it’s a retirement ceremony for his jersey number. The famous Kevin Durant, now a pro player for the SuperSonics of the NBA, will have his No. 35 jersey retired from Texas Longhorns basketball, meaning that no other Texas player will be able to wear No. 35, in honor of Kevin’s accomplishments with the team. The only other basketball player from Texas to have his jersey number retired has been Slater Martin, No. 15, a former Longhorn who once scored 49 points in a college game, and was part of five NBA championship teams after college. DeLoss Dodds, the athletic director at Texas, had this to say:
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The Top Ten Most Prestigious College Basketball Programs
A few days ago we had a blog about ESPN’s search for the “most prestigious” college basketball program. It’s the slow part of the year for college basketball, so us hoops writers are all struggling to come up with things to write about. Bear with us. Anyways, the rankings were devised on a points basis, with good things like NCAA appearances and NBA draft picks earning certain points, with other things, such as losing seasons and NCAA penalties accruing negative points. Today they came out with the top ten on the list.
The cover of the story on the front page of ESPN’s college basketball home page says that the Duke Blue Devils are the most prestigious team, so I don’t feel bad spoiling the news. Were you expecting some other team? The rankings take into consideration everything from 1983 on, as that was the year that the NCAA Tournament began. Duke’s Coach K era has been in full swing, with few years of any lag, from the early 1980s ‘til now. Check out the list to see if your favorite team made the list’s top ten. Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you all back here on Monday.
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What is a Fieldhouse, Anyway?
Sports Illustrated writers are going down the ranks, giving fans columns about their most cherished sports venues. There are several pretty famous sports writers at SI, so it’s interesting to see what they think defines a great sports venue. As it pertains to college basketball, there are two articles- one about Pauley Pavilion (by Damon Hack) and the other about Allen Fieldhouse (by Jack McCallum).
College basketball venues are a hard lot to rank- as the quality of the team you’re seeing is going to make a big difference. Suppose you were rating baseball stadiums. Things like hot dog price, the comfort level of the seats, the parking- these might be more important. At college basketball games, you’re standing, screaming, chanting- and if you get a hot dog you’re going to miss something big. Whereas with baseball you want a place you can relax for up to six hours, with basketball, you want to get the most out of your ticket through getting pumped and participating. Hard to define a feeling, an atmosphere, but we’ll say that both UCLA and Kansas are about as good as they come.
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Luke Winn’s “Fearless” Predictions
Don’t get us here at the Final Four Blog wrong. We love Luke Winn. In fact, we put his blog and his column as the link in our blogs about once a week, sometimes more when the college basketball season is in full swing. However, the guy has made some pretty weak predictions that he’s passing off as “fearless.” The Big East will be good? UNC might make the Final Four? Duke will fall short of expectations? These are not bold predictions. These are the things that have happened for the past decade or so. Look, we’re not at the level of Luke Winn, and our little blog might not get the kind of coverage that the Sports Illustrated Blogs get, but we will at least surpass their predictions with fearlessness.
SOME TRULY FEARLESS HOOPS PREDICTIONS
- Bobby Knight will return to coach… Oregon State to the NCAA national championship game.
- Tyler Hansbrough declares, but goes undrafted.
- Because of the altered line, Butler goes the whole season without making a three-point shot.
- UCLA occupies all four spots in the Final Four
- Jimmy V calms down a bit.
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Gary Parrish Avoids Vegas Thrills, Not Skills
Gary Parrish, a regular here at the Final Four Blog, is in Las Vegas, Nevada this week to check out some of the best hoops stars in the nation. Plenty of the best incoming freshmen will be on hand for one of the many basketball tournaments hosted in the City of Sin over the summer. You can see some of the players who will be the big names in college basketball before they get to the NCAA. You can watch for all the head coaches and assistants, and, according to Gary Parrish, you can watch as some of the young basketball players- all teenagers- try to sneak into the casinos to gamble.
There’s not much to this story except that Gary’s a bit miffed that he can’t spend all day and night at the blackjack tables drinking watered down gin and tonics. And while that’s a real shame, and I’m pretty sure Gary takes his job seriously, you can’t help but compare Parrish to the likes of ESPN sportswriter Bill Simmons, who would, without a doubt, have been at the craps table as soon as he checked in. Or, at least that’s what he would have written about. Gary, we hope you actually try to have a little fun while in Vegas. So long as you don’t write about it, the stories can all stay there.
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The Most Prestigious NCAA Hoops Team?
The minds at ESPN have tried to figure out a good system for determining the level of “prestige” for college basketball teams. It’s very complicated. Their system goes by a point system wherein your team can score points for having things like first round draft picks, NCAA Tournament appearances, conference titles and so forth. You can lose points for having a losing record for a season or getting penalties from the NCAA. It sounds like a pretty fair system, though there are some intangibles that will add to your school’s prestige, even though they might not show up in the stats.
ESPN is listing the 41st through 50th most prestigious college basketball programs today. Clearly there are more mid majors down here on the list, including Western Kentucky, which earned big points for getting to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen last season. There are other big-time sports schools, like Pitt and Wisconsin in the 40s. So take a look at the list to see where your school ranks in terms of prestige.
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Sutton Hancock Downsized
Eddie Sutton, basketball legend, had a huge signature on the court of the Oklahoma State basketball court. However, in the floor’s redesign, his signature was downsized, in order to accentuate other parts of the basketball program. Why is this news? Well, think about it. If you get tickets to see the Cowboys play at their home court, you’re eyes will be on the floor more than any other thing. The design, the special symbols and logos on the court are all very important to note, as they will flash hundreds of times on the screen for each game. It’s really a high visibility place- it’s a wonder they haven’t opened it up to advertisers yet.
Athletic Director Mike Holder said:
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