Mayo, USC in Scandal; Obama Thanks Heels

As much as we hate this kind of thing, it’s all over the college basketball press today, so we’ve got to at least mention it. According to reports, O.J. Mayo, former USC basketball player and current NBA player, was essentially offered a bribe to play at USC. The repercussions of this incident at USC, if the allegations are true, could be disastrous. Let’ hope this is all a false alarm.

In other, more lighthearted news, President Obama held a ceremony of congratulations for the NCAA basketball champion North Carolina Tar Heels. It’s customary for college and professional sports teams who have won the championship to be honored at the White House. Just a few weeks ago the President shot a game of P-I-G with members of the UConn Huskies, the women’s college basketball champions. Obama thanked the Tar Heels for “salvaging my bracket and vindicating me before the entire nation.” Obama played hoops with the Heels before the season began and also picked them to win in his bracket.

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Permalink - Posted in General on May 13, 2009 - Post a comment

NCAA Basketball Truth and Rumors about UCLA, Miami, Oregon

Pauley Pavilion is getting a face lift, but there appears to be some trouble in securing funds needed to revamp the exterior and add seats to the stands. Will the Bruins side with long-time fans who have been with the team for years, or sell out to the donors with big pocket books? Stay tuned. This is going to take a while to figure out.

The Miami Hurricanes are trying to grab John Wall, one of the most highly touted high school basketball recruits. Wall has several good potions, and he’s taking his time mulling over the decision. He recently took a trip to Miami to visit the campus and meet the coaches. Wall was impressed. Does that mean he’ll be a Hurricane for a year?

Oregon Ducks point guard Kamyron Brown is transferring, but his destination is unknown. The Ducks are loaded at point guard right now, so he’s probably going to try to go somewhere where he can get more playing time. Our guess is he signs with a strong mid-major that needs a point- can we suggest Gonzaga, St. Mary’s or San Diego?

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Permalink - Posted in General on May 12, 2009 - Post a comment

Lance Stephenson: A Risk Worth the Reward?

Most of the nation’s top high school basketball recruits have been signed up and committed to a university by now. Kids have until May 20th to hook up with a University and a scholarship, but most sign with a school in their junior season or, at the very latest, early April of their senior year. Not Lance Stephenson. Apparently he’s still without a school or many possible schools to sign with, despite being a McDonald’s All-American and one of the most famous names in high school basketball for the past two year. As Gary Parrish hints at here (but doesn’t go into too much detail), apparently he’s a scandal waiting to happen.

Would you, as a college basketball coach or Athletic Director, advise taking a commitment from Stephenson? Likely he’ll be in your program for one year, average 18 points, 8 rebounds a game, give you adequate media hype and boost your win total, maybe even lead you to the big dance. However, if your school ends up losing a scholarship or getting fined because he’s not an amateur, it is worth it?

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Permalink - Posted in General on May 11, 2009 - Post a comment

Will Rick Pitino Leave Louisville for Sacramento Kings?

Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino might leave his current job for the vacant head coaching position with the Sacramento Kings. Well, at least that’s what the rumors floating around the sports world are saying. However, Louisville does not seem to reciprocate the same kind of interest in this story. According to the Sports Illustrated article about it, the Louisville athletic spokesman, one Kenny Klein, has not addressed the issue.

So the question on most college basketball fans’ minds right now is: Would Rick Pitino be wise to leave his job with Louisville? Obviously, being the Final four Blog, we have a little bias. We’d love to see him stick around the college game. However, money does seem to have a lot of influence these days. Rick has a good team, a great program, a winning history and an overall great situation in Louisville. If he left for the Kings, he’d have a young but struggling team, an insecure job at best and, well, almost no chance of winning a championship anytime soon.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on May 8, 2009 - Post a comment

Big News from the Big Ten

Any Big Ten fans out there?  There’s a lot of news coming out of the upper Midwest these days. Let’s start form the top.

  • Last year’s runner-up for the national championship, Michigan State, recently found out that guard Kalin Lucas will return to play for MSU. He was the Big Ten Player of the Year last season.  His return is huge for the Spartans, who will likely keep most of last season’s Final Four-caliber roster in-tact.
  • In other guard news from the Big Ten, Penn State has landed a 6-6, 240 guard from Middletown, Ohio, a prep by the name of Bill Edwards. Apparently the kid has a versatile offensive game, and he’s the son of a former professional basketball player.
  • The Big Ten has decided that it will not expand. This story is considered more of a football-related narrative, but if anything does happen with adding a team to the Big Ten, it will have an effect on the larger college sports landscape as a whole. Apparently Penn St. football coach/legend Joe Paterno has been chirping up about adding another team or two to the Big Ten. The commish of the conference nixed the idea, though. So for now the Big Ten will remain as it is.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on May 7, 2009 - Post a comment

Predicting the NBA Draft Order

The NBA Draft is usually the worst day of the year for college basketball fans. All of the amazing athletes you’ve come to know and love are moving onto the NBA, where you’ll likely see them sitting on the bench instead of knocking down threes and throwing alley-oops. This year, it seems that the college game will lose consensus Player of the Year Blake Griffin first overall in the NBA Draft. According to this ESPN article by Andy Katz, Griffin seems to be a lock to go No. 1 overall. After that, it’s anybody’s guess.

As far as determining the rest of the field, experts are somewhat torn. Ricky Rubio, a Spanish guard, is widely speculated to go second, but even that pick is in the air. Hasheem Thabeet, James Harden, Jordan Hill, DeMar Rozan and Tyreke Evans are all expected to be top ten picks. Which player goes where will probably be determined more clearly when the NBA Draft order comes out.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on May 6, 2009 - Post a comment

Offensive Rebounding in the Big East

Yesterday we looked at offensive rebounding from a defensive perspective in the Pac-10. Today we’re going to go over some stats on offensive rebounding from an offensive perspective in the Big East. As you probably know, grabbing an offensive board greatly increases your offensive viability. You usually get the ball after a missed shot and either you have an easy put-back or can re-set the play. It’s one easy way to instantly improve your offense. Some Big East teams were better at this than others. Let’s take a look. According to KenPom.com, the Big East ranked like this in terms of offensive rebounding.

Rank of Big East Teams: Offensive Rebounding

  1. Pittsburgh
  2. West Virginia
  3. Cincinnati
  4. UConn
  5. St. John’s
  6. Villanova
  7. Providence
  8. Syracuse
  9. Marquette
  10. Louisville
  11. South Florida
  12. Rutgers
  13. Georgetown
  14. DePaul
  15. Seton Hall
  16. Notre Dame

What’s interesting is that despite having a top ten in the nation rebounder in Luke Harangody, the Irish were last on the list. DeJuan Blair powered Pitt to the No. 2 offensive rebounding team in the nation. Cincy and St. John’s snuck in the top tier despite not being elite in the conference standings.

Permalink - Posted in General on May 5, 2009 - Post a comment

Offensive Rebounding in the Pac-10

Are you a fan of Pac-10 basketball? Well, you’re going to have to wait a while for play to resume, but until then you can pour through all of last year’s stats in an effort to find out what your particular team has to work on in the coming offseason to get to the top of the standings. Today we’re looking at offensive rebounding stats as a determinant of defensive rebounding in the Pac-10, via KenPom.com. Basically, this statistic gauges how well a team keeps their opponent from grabbing an offensive rebound. Why don’t you just determine which team grabs the most defensive rebounds or the most rebounds overall?  Well, offensive rebounds are actually very important to creating scoring opportunities on offense, so consequently not allowing opponents to grab offensive boards is just as important to playing good defense.  See how the stats line up fairly well:

Defending the Offensive Rebound

  1. Washington State
  2. Arizona State
  3. Washington
  4. UCLA
  5. USC
  6. Cal
  7. Stanford
  8. Oregon State
  9. Arizona
  10. Oregon

Overall Defensive Efficiency

  1. Washington State
  2. Washington
  3. USC
  4. Arizona St.
  5. UCLA
  6. Stanford
  7. Cal
  8. Oregon State
  9. Arizona
  10. Oregon

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Permalink - Posted in General on May 4, 2009 - Post a comment

Mid Major Offensive Efficiency

We’re closing out the week here with some offensive efficiency talk. Oftentimes the best college basketball teams in the nation are the teams that play offense the most efficiently. This stat conveys, on average, how many points a team will score in 100 possessions. Last season North Carolina, the eventual national champion, had the highest offensive efficiency ranking at 124.2. Other NCAA Tournament teams like Pittsburgh, UCLA, Arizona St., Gonzaga and Oklahoma were in the top ten. But what about the mid majors? Last season’s tournament was short on Cinderellas, so we’re going to try to give you an idea about the best of the small schools, in terms of putting points on the board. Here are the most offensively efficient mid-majors:

Top Ten Mid Majors: Offensive Efficiency

  1. Gonzaga
  2. Duquesne
  3. North Dakota St.
  4. Oakland
  5. Wisconsin Green Bay
  6. Rhode Island
  7. Eastern Kentucky
  8. St. Mary’s
  9. Western Kentucky
  10. Siena

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Permalink - Posted in General on May 1, 2009 - Post a comment


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