What Are the Top Non-Conference Games of 2009-10?

The college basketball season will be here before you realize it. School is starting up, the college football season is almost underway, the weather is cooling down, and the fans are checking out tickets at StubHub.com. But what games would you most like to see? More specifically, if you could get tickets to see one or two of the best non-conference games in the nation, free of charge, and you get free hotels and flights, what games would you choose? We found this interesting Bleacher Report article by Jameson Fleming that goes over a few good ones. Bear in mind, there is a Southeastern bias. There’s even a map with the game locations pinpointed. Here are a few of this highlights from Felming’s list:

  • December 12th- North Carolina vs. Kentucky. John Calipari vs. Roy Williams, the returning champs who have been gutted vs. the once-lowly Wildcats who are stacked with fresh talent.
  • December 12th - Ohio State vs. Butler. The Buckeyes and Bulldogs are consistently good, and they both ought to be even better this season. Excellent matchups all around.
  • Jan 31st - Duke vs. Georgetown. Both team lost some key contributors, but this is the kind of game where it’s more about emotions than talent. Get tickets now!

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

Permalink - Posted in General on August 27, 2009 - Post a comment

What’s To Come in the SEC

The Southeastern Conference wasn’t exactly at its peak last season. The SEC sent Tennessee, LSU and Mississippi State to the NCAA Tournament and a slew of others to the NIT, but none of the teams seemed to make their usual splash on the national stage- that was mostly reserved for the Big East and the ACC. But this year could be a lot different, and it all starts with John Calipari, the somewhat controversial new coach of the Kentucky Wildcats. According to the ESPN SEC Shootaround, Calipari has done wonders with the team in just a short while, making the Wildcats one of the top teams in the preseason. John Wall highlights a stellar recruiting class for Kentucky, and they will have the proven play-making abilities of Patrick Patterson.

But Kentucky isn’t the only show in town. Mississippi State looks to get their program into the national spotlight, with many returning starters, including the defensive center of the team, Jarvis Varnado. The Bulldogs ought to be one of the best defensive teams in the nation. Ole Miss and Tennessee ought to do just fine- possibly get into the NCAAs, and Vanderbilt, fresh off an Australian adventure sponsored by their coach, could make some noise.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on August 26, 2009 - Post a comment

School Hall of Fame Inductees: Bob Knight and Tom Crean

Bob Knight will be honored with a spot in the University of Indiana Sports Hall of Fame. Why is this big news? Knight is the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history and took Indiana to three national titles. Well, there was some bad blood between Knight and the University after he was fired in 2000. This is a big time move to get Knight and Indiana back on the same page. According to the ESPN article about this news, Knight has said about his behavior at Indiana:

“I’ve simply tried to do what I think is best. Regrets? Sure. Just like the song. I have regrets. I wish I could have done things better at times. I wish I would have had a better answer, a better way, at times. But just like he said, I did it my way and when I look back on it, I don’t think my way was all that bad.”

Tom Crean will also be inducted into a Hall of Fame, the Marquette Athletics Hall of Fame. He left Marquette for Indiana before last season, but Marquette still wanted to honor Crean and his 2003 Final Four team.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on August 25, 2009 - Post a comment

No Gaming on Basketball Games in Delaware

 A federal appeals court decided the other day that the State of Delaware will not be allowed to start an advanced form of sports betting, which had been the state’s plan up until the feds basically put a stop to it. The courts explained that the 1992 ban on sports betting does not allow Delaware to go forth with it’s plans. We wrote about this case when it was in the preliminary stages just a few days ago.

So what does this mean to you? Well, if you were planning on betting on individual NCAA basketball games (or individual NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL or other sports league games), you’ll have to fly to Vegas to do it. Or do it online like everyone else. Delaware, along with Montana, Oregon and Nevada, has less stringent rules about sports betting. However, the wagering of money on individual games in Montana, Oregon and Delaware was banned. Delaware was trying to get past the ban in order to raise state revenue. Like most other states in the union, Delaware is looking for any way to raise some capital.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on August 24, 2009 - Post a comment

Florida State Inks Coach Hamilton

How would you like to earn a cool $1.5 million? No big deal- all you have to do is get the head coaching job for the Florida State Seminoles basketball team, achieve a 131-96 record for the past few years there, and then sign on for another contract. Leonard Hamilton just did it. He signed to coach for the next five years and will be paid a salary of one and a half million dollars, with bonuses due for stellar achievement. The bonuses are pretty sweet. He’ll earn a total of $175,000 for a national championship ($100,000 of which is just for reaching the Final Four) and sums of $50,000 for being named the Coach of the Year, getting to the NCAA Tournament or winning the ACC regular season title.

Good luck, Leonard. The ACC looks like it should be good again this season, with Duke and North Carolina leading the charge, as usual. Hamilton will have a few of his starters back, and he’ll enjoy a nice feeling of job security. Enjoy your weekend college hoops fans and we’ll see you back here on Monday.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on August 14, 2009 - Post a comment

Dick Vitale Submits His Top 40

Like everything Dick Vitale does or says, his preseason college basketball picks were completed with an enthusiasm at least 75% greater than everyone else who follows college basketball. That’s why, instead of a top 20 or top 25, Dick Vitale has a top 40 list that you can see at ESPN. Not only does he predict the order of the best 40 teams in college basketball coming into the season, but he also gives a short line or two about each team. What a basketball workhorse!

Dick picks Kansas to be the best team in the nation, followed by Kentucky, Michigan State, Texas and Duke. But as we’ve seen in recent years, freshmen oftentimes have some of the biggest impacts on the top tier teams. If Kentucky’s frosh are as good as people say, they should do fine. Michigan State is a safe pick, as they were the national runners-up last season and return almost everybody. Take a look at the list and see if your favorite team makes Dickie V’s list.

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

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

Kentucky Guard Posterizes Stackhouse

 

Instead of focusing on Rick Pitino today, as every other sports blog has chosen to do, we’d like to draw your attention to some other college basketball related news. An incoming freshman by the name of John Wall just posterized NBA veteran Jerry Stackhouse. Wall, who will play of John Calipari next season on the Kentucky Wildcats and was listed as the No. 1 recruit in the nation by many prep sports media guides, was able to throw down a humongous dunk on Stackhouse in a recent summer league development game.

The video, which can be see all over the internet, shows Wall easily breaking down a perimeter defender and then driving hard to the hoop. Stackhouse was left there as the last man to guard the basket, but ended up getting stuffed. Nice dunk, John.

The bigger story here seems to be this: Why is it so impressive to dunk over these NBA veterans? Remember the LeBron case? In this instance, it was Jerry Stackhouse, an old guard who almost never plays near the hoop. Dunking on, say, Shaq or Dwight Howard, 7-footers who know how to keep a wiry guard down, now that would be more impressive.

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

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

Duke Looking Good Early; Delaware Not Getting any Tourneys

The Duke Blue Devils are looking good already. Just ask Jon Scheyer. Last season Duke made a run in the NCAA Tournament and were consistently one of the top teams in the nation in the polls. But they had lost some players over the offseason, most notably Gerald Henderson, who went to the NBA. Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated sat down with one of their top returning guards, Jon Scheyer, who expounded on how good Coach K’s team is going to be next season.

In other news… last week we talked a little about the affect gambling has on the game of college basketball. Apparently the NCAA (along with the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL and MLS) are all a little on the grumpy side about the state of Delaware allowing sports gambling. The First State wants to allow single game betting. The sports leagues don’t want it. But getting on the bad side of the sports leagues can hurt your bottom line, as this article points out, there’s no chance a Tourney would go to Delaware. But then, was there a good chance it would have gone there at all, regardless?

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

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

College Hoops Arena Wars Continue

Gary Parrish of CBS Sports is running an arena wars contest, a mostly voting-based poll that pits one arena against the next. We talked about this a few blogs ago. Gary picks two arenas that have something in common- like Cameron Indoor Stadium and the Dean Smith Center (Duke vs. UNC). It’s not a contest about which team is better right now, per se, but rather which arena has the best experience for the fan. You can include tradition, noise level, crowd size, the relative strength of the hoops program, anything. Well, they’ve narrowed it down to nine arenas. Here they are:

Cameron Indoor Stadium (Duke)

Allen Fieldhouse (Kansas)

Pauley Pavilion (UCLA)

ASSEMBLY Hall (Indiana)

Rupp Arena (Kentucky)

Memorial Gymnasium (Vanderbilt)

Breslin Center (Michigan State)

Carrier Dome (Syracuse)

University Arena “The Pit” (New Mexico)

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

Permalink - Posted in General on August 10, 2009 - Post a comment

Which Conferences Will Be the Best in 2009-2010?

The landscape of the 2009-10 college basketball season is taking shape and the games haven’t even started. In fact, they’re a long ways out. But it’s nice to make predictions and use some of the known information about the teams to get an idea of who’s going to be good, who’s going to be bad, and which teams will be wild cards. FOXsports has a nice little segment at their college basketball section dedicated to discussing the college basketball power structure as it concerns the conferences. Last season the Big East was decidedly the superpower. In year’s past the Pac-10, the ACC and the Big 12 have been dominant. Who will it be this season?

Josh Herwitt seems to think that the Big 12 will be the conference with the best teams in the coming season. They’ve got returning stars, a nice batch of incoming freshmen and they’re due for a nice batch of NCAA Tourney teams. The Big Ten and ACC make up the top three. It seems that the Big East and Pac-10 had a big exodus from their rosters and it’s not in the bag that their teams will be at their usual level of play.

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

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


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