Midnight Madness!!!!

Midnight Madness is almost here! If you’re reading this from a college dorm somewhere across the nation, you’re probably well aware that this weekend marks the official start of college basketball practices, which is traditionally signified by Midnight Madness. What’s Midnight Madness, you ask? Well, since the NCAA has rules dictating when a college team can begin their practices, college teams like to get the best jump they can on the season- by starting practice at 12:00 AM on the day that practice can begin. Teams have made a big deal about this event by organizing huge rallies around the men’s and women’s basketball teams. There are giveaways, skill competitions, sometimes even scrimmage games, all in the hopes of getting some excitement going about the upcoming season. Sounds absolutely mad, doesn’t it?

If you’re looking for some of the best Midnight Madness events to attend there’s a good breakdown of the main ones at Rivals.com. Some teams don’t do Midnight Madness, so you should check your local listings. Luke Winn, the college basketball writer from Sports Illustrated.com, has 20 questions for teams heading into Midnight Madness, which is interesting if you follow one of the major players in the college basketball world. Well, enjoy your weekend of festivities and the Final Four Blog will see you here next week.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on October 17, 2008 - Post a comment

Bob Knight Returning to the Sidelines?

Bob Knight, the fiery college basketball coach of a thousand YouTube clips might be coming back to the profession after leaving his post on the sidelines of Texas Tech, where he spend a few years coaching in what many though would be his final stint in the profession. However, in a local Indianapolis public television interview Bob Knight seemed to hint that he might return to coaching if the circumstances were right.

The Final Four Blog would be a big fan of Coach Knight returning to the college basketball scene, as a coach, as an assistant, as whatever. We all miss him. Even though he was famous for being a hot head who could explode at any minute, he was still a great coach, and, in the end, I think we the viewers benefit from having guys with that much passion on the sidelines. Who wants another Coach K? Sure, he’s almost as successful as Coach Knight. But he doesn’t have the personality, he doesn’t inject opinion-making, he doesn’t make you pick sides. Even though we might think of Coach Knight as a distraction or a menace, I think we all secretly liked to have him around. The world needs villains, and there’s no villain more beloved than Bob Knight.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on October 16, 2008 - Post a comment

USC’s Daniel Hacket Talks with Luke Winn

If you’re a fan of Pac-10 basketball you probably have heard of Daniel Hacket, a combo guard on the USC Trojans basketball team. He sat down with Sports Illustrated.com’s Luke Winn, one of the Final Four Blog’s favorite sports writers, recently. You can see his interview here. If you’re following the action this summer in the hoops world, you probably are well aware of a few of the major moves going on around USC. One in particular came up a couple of months ago. Brandon Jennings, who had thought about going to USC, along with another Pac-10 school, Arizona, decided to go to Italy to play professionally. You might not know that Hacket’s father played professional basketball in Italy, and that Hacket lived in Italy for a while when he was younger.

Winn makes sure to ask Hacket about the move to play in Italy, which might have been an opportunity for Hacket. However, it appears that Daniel wanted to play in the US college basketball system so bad that he sped up his high school schedule and finished a year early. Very different situations, obviously. In fact, Daniel Hacket and Brandon Jennings seem like polar opposites.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on October 15, 2008 - Post a comment

The Best Frontcourts

Sports Illustrated put together a great slideshow showcasing the nation’s top frontcourts. What is a frontcourt, you ask? Well, typically a frontcourt refers to the players on your team in the center, power forward and small forward positions, the 5, 4, and 3, in basketball lingo. Sometimes, especially in college basketball when taller, post-oriented players are at a premium, a team will play with an uneven amount of guards and small forwards. Take Duke from last season. They didn’t have a very good “frontcourt” in the typical sense of the word, but smallish players got in the mix when they had to. The Stanford Cardinal, on the other hand, used two centers, the Lopez twins, as their frontcourt. So frontcourts could consist of one, two, three, or even some bench players.

According to Sports Illustrated, Louisville has the best frontcourt by far, consisting of no fewer than three future NBA first rounders. If you are a fan of North Carolina, Tennessee, Xavier, Pitt, or some of the other traditionally good basketball programs, you might want to see where your team ranks. This list tends to favor teams with good returning frontcourt players, as the froshkies have yet to prove themselves.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on October 14, 2008 - Post a comment

Prep Star Orton Commits to Kentucky

Daniel Orton, a 6-10 center who is ranked as the No. 12 high school basketball player in the nation, has verbally committed to joining Bill Gillispie and the Kentucky Wildcats next season. The Wildcats have landed a nice recruiting class, and this player might just turn out to the be cherry on top. Apparently Daniel Orton has great potential to be a star not just in college but also, potentially, in the pros. He’s got post moves, can block shots, and rebounds effectively. Who wouldn’t want this kid coming to their school to play some hoop. Clearly this is good news for Wildcats fans.

Speaking of recruits verbally committing to schools, in the Gary Parish article about Orton, he shows a lost of the top recruits as ranked by Scout.com. Apparently four of the top five have and six of the top ten have not yet committed to a school. There’s still a lot of talent out there, and the balance of power in the recruiting world could sway greatly in a short time.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on October 13, 2008 - Post a comment

Do Pros Mean Titles in College Hoops?

Garry Parrish, prolific writer for CBSsports.com, has a theory that the very best college basketball teams all have pro caliber players on their rosters. Just look at Kansas from last year. They had no clear superstar, but pretty much their entire starting roster was gutted by the NBA Draft. They had future pros on their team, so they won the championship. Seems to make sense. However, we’ll check back on this theory when all of the Kansas National Champions are in the league five years from now. Will they have all survived, or were they considered good basketball players because they played on a great team? But I digress.

The point is that Gary Parrish has an article about the college basketball teams returning to play this year with the most sure-thing pro basketball players on their roster. Not surprisingly, North Carolina was on the top of the list. Other schools, like UConn, Gonzaga, and Duke are on there as well. If you want to see the players that Gary puts in his list of future NBA draft picks, check out his article.

Of you are looking for NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 10, 2008 - Post a comment

Which Conference Got on the Offensive Glass: ACC vs. Pac-10

Offensive rebounds are one of the best things for getting more productivity out of your offense. When you’re shooting at a clip of about 40% per night, which should be a reasonable figure for a team on any given night, getting another shot at a score will increase your chance of scoring double time, so you’re effectively now shooting at 80% on a given possession down the floor. Using the stats at BasketballProspectus.com we can see the average offensive rebounding percentage by a conference. We used the ACC and the Pac-10 to demonstrate.

Offensive Rebounding Percentage

ACC - 35.5
Pac-10 -  33.5
The data seems to indicate that, after adding up all the O-rebounding percentages in these two conferences and then dividing them by the number fo teams, that the ACC was two percentage points better on the offensive glass versus the Pac-10. While that might not seem like much, the difference between these two teams in that area, if they were composite conference teams, would mean the difference between a national ranking of roughly 80 for the ACC, and roughly 150 for the Pac-10. Two extra possessions can go a long way.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on October 9, 2008 - Post a comment

Recruiting Buzz

Derrick Favors is ranked as the No. 1 high school basketball recruit in the nation by Scout.com, the leader in the high school recruiting internet information industry. However, he’s yet to agree verbally or otherwise to any college. Apparently, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution via Truth and Rumors at Sports Illustrated.com, Favors no longer favors Connecticut. He’s crossed it off his list. He’s now considering Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Memphis, Georgia, Florida State and N.C. State.

In other news, Indiana, which has been getting some press lately for Coach Tom Crean’s insistence that the University be given some slack with regard to NCAA violation penalties, has landed a center who should be an anchor for the team in the next few seasons. Apparently Bawa Muniru, a 6-11, 255-pound senior in high school has agreed verbally to attend the University of Indiana. He’s considered a top prospect among some established recruiting websites. Clearly this kid will take up a lot of room in the paint. Keep a look out for him.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on October 8, 2008 - Post a comment

Florida Re-Signs Coach Donovan

Billy Donovan, current head coach of the Florida Gators men’s basketball team, has re-signed to coach at Florida through the 2012-2013 season. The contract is apparently worth about 19.5 million, excluding any incentives that he might earn. According to the article about the contract, Billy Donovan could receive about a quarter million dollars if the Gators win another championship while he’s coaching the team. On the flip side, if he’s caught violating NCAA rules and is fired for that reason, he’ll receive just one month’s salary severance.

This contract is bigger news than it otherwise would be because Billy Donovan was involved in a rather embarrassing and public scandal last year. He briefly signed on to coach the NBA’s Orlando Magic, but left about two days after agreeing to the job in order to re-join the Florida Gators. The debate rages over whether he made the right decision. Some people game Donovan guff for changing his mind, but others think he made the right decision, ultimately. The Final Four Blog would also like to commend Florida for making the move to keep Donovan, who is an excellent coach. Florida is acting wisely to make sure his golden parachute if he leaves in disgrace is fairly small. Other universities should follow suit.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on October 7, 2008 - Post a comment

Coaches vs. Cancer Introduces Host Cities

Coaches vs. Cancer has announced the locations of the opening rounds for their annual tournament, the popular and well-attended 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer. Michigan, Southern Illinois, Duke and UCLA will serve as the host institutions, so games that take part in this series will go down at these universities during the opening rounds on November 10th through the 13th. There are many schools entered in the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament, and judging by the teams that are hosting the event, this should be a great meeting of some good teams early in the season.

Coaches vs. Cancer also has a Division II tournament that will take place at Michigan Tech, California (Pa.), Arkansas-Monticello and Presbyterian. Since the National Association of College Basketball Coaches and the American Cancer Society teamed up in 1996 the event has raised over $4 million to benefit cancer research and the search for a cure. If you’re interested in attending the tournament regional sites or the finals in New York, make sure to check out StubHub.com.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on October 6, 2008 - Post a comment


 Page 2 of 3 « 1  2  3 »