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9/28
..there's a story in duke's school
newspaper today about how ben roethlisberger considered playing
football at duke, jokingly because he figured he'd get good seats
to basketball games.. all conjecture aside about how big ben could
potentially have turned around duke football, it got me wondering
how many people out there actually apply to duke simply because of
the dream of watching duke hoops.. i'll be honest, ive always
wanted to go to duke.. and when i applied to colleges, i applied
to duke and got shot down relatively quickly.. my dreams of going
to duke had nothing to do with the campus (i had never seen it) or
the raleigh-durham region (i'd never been there).. but had to do
with two things, a) i knew it was a good school, and b) the
thought of being a cameron crazy and going to games there seemed
pretty darn cool.. i imagine i am not the only kid in the world
who thought that, and the joke always was not to discuss duke
basketball on your application there.. but i guess my issue with
that was always, what's really so wrong about going to school
because they offer an activity which seems like it'd be a lot of
fun, enjoyed with people who seem to be having a great time..
because when it comes down to it, outside of looking in usnews to
see what how schools rank academically, there's really no great
reason to choose one school or another outside of just a general
"feel" that you belong there.. so my point of this rant, is
simply that if you're a prospective college student, don't feel
guilty about attending a school just cause you want to watch
big-time sports.. do not sacrifice your future career success on
this account, but its a perfectly valid criteria in distinguishing
between otherwise seemingly similar schools..
9/25 ..what if you
could put together any 10 or 12 teams in the nation to form the
ultimate college basketball conference.. kevin mcneill assembled
his power conference
from the nation's top programs.. but my conception of the ideal
conference is a bit different.. my conference would not just
include the nation's top 10 or 12 best teams.. but would have to
meet some other criteria.. the conference needs to be
regionalized.. not just for travel, but so that the passion
amongst fans is really there.. it needs to have built in rivalries
that have existed for decades.. for sake of money, it needs to
include large tv markets.. and lastly, some actual decent academic
schools would be nice too.. duke, unc, nc state, syracuse, uconn,
st johns, maryland, villanova, temple, virginia, georgetown, and
boston college.. the core of this conference is of course duke and
unc.. two no-brainers.. from there, my idea was either a
conference which worked its way west to include kentucky,
lousiville, indiana, and cincy, or one which moved north along the
atlantic coast.. i chose the latter for the larger markets, better
academics, and geographic unity.. this league includes the dc,
baltimore/maryland, philly, and boston markets.. the entire
northeast corridor is accounted for.. one tough decision was
omitting wake forest in favor of a 2nd team in philly besides
villanova.. i decided that ultimately 4 teams in north carolina is
overkill, and that another local rivalry in philly would do more
good.. i chose nc state over wake because it's a larger school,
with more alumn, in a better locale.. sorry winston-salem..
syracuse and uconn give this league 4 of the country's top
programs.. virginia, georgetown, and bc, besides representing
their city or state, also add a quality academic core to this
conference along with duke.. and unc and nova to a lesser extent..
st john's, despite its current struggles, is a must have in order
to lock in the nyc metro market, and to have access to msg for
conference tourney and other games..
9/23 ..we've
upped the quality of our recruiting section on chn by adding our
chn10 prospect ranking.. the
focus of the chn10 will strictly be the impact that the prospects
will have on the college level.. we'll include some basic info
about where players are headed, but we're not claiming to have the
latest scoop on which players are heading where.. there's already
an overabundance of sites that do that.. our perspective is simply
that of college basketball know-it-alls who want to know how the
big names will fare in college.. included will be statistical
projections of each player.. #1 on the list is obviously greg oden..
he's really in a class by himself.. in the same sense that dwight
howard was.. except that dwight howard stood out above a stacked
class.. the 2006 one is one of the weaker one's in memory..
especially when you consider players like davon jefferson and paul
harris are 5th year players.. we also will have a short 2007
ranking.. this class is really much more fun, and much better..
2007 #2 prospect kevin love is arguably better right now than
every player in the 2007 class besides greg oden.. oj mayo, the
2007 #1 is arguably the best prospect in all of high school
basketball, though oden will no doubt have a bigger impact because
of his size at the outset of their college careers.. the most
surprising player on our list is earl clark at #10.. clark is a
scottie pippen-like point forward, and a player we feel will rise
up the charts as this season progresses.. more importantly, in
terms of impact on college basketball, we feel his game is most
suited for putting up big-time numbers as compared to a guy like
chase budinger who might be a more gifted player at this point..
interesting note on budinger is that he's also an awesome
volleyball player.. a national-team caliber player, who seems to
be possibly one of the best in the country, if not the world, for
his age.. it will be interesting to see how this affects his
basketball career if at all..
9/21
..realistically, what are the chances that
cincinnati maintains an ncaa
tournament quality program over the next decade.. im guessing a
fair estimate is maybe 15-20%.. yesterday,
oregon announced they had signed
former cincy juco recruit ivan johnson.. who bailed on the program
when huggins left.. there was a great quote in an article in the
cincy enquirer when johnson first left from his juco head coach..
"Who wants to go to cincinnati without huggins? that's like going
to syracuse without jim boeheim.
without bob huggins, there is no cincinnati".. the point is spot
on, and the situation at cincy is an even more bleak one than
syracuse.. for one, i've been to cincinnati a bunch of times, and
i've been to the university a few times.. and all i can say about
both is that they're average.. what does cincy have as a city that
no other city has?.. overrated hotdogs that only the locals
like?.. that's about it.. and what does the university have that
no other university has?.. nothing.. it's just an average place,
with a pedestrian academic standing.. on this end, what does a
school like syracuse have that cincy doesn't.. well, syracuse is
simply a better school, with solid niche academic areas like
communications where its well respected.. more importantly,
syracuse is widely recognized by the general ny metro and
northeast public.. while cincy is recognized in.. cincy.. beyond
this syracuse will remain for the forseeable future the
destination of the nice ny metro middle to upper class suburban
population which should render money much easier for that program
to find than cincy ever will.. next, you have the fact that cincy
is located in a state glutted with division one schools, and in a
small little region glutted with division 1 schools.. xavier and
dayton are both near by.. miami isn't too far and louisville is
just down the river a short ways.. not to mention kentucky lurking
in the horizon.. syracuse on the other hand only has to compete
with schools that are hundreds of miles away.. and it's main
competition, schools in the metro area like st john's, rutgers,
seton hall, etc are not major players in the world of sports
either unlike cincy's competition.. lastly, cincy is not able to
feed off the super-talents that come out of the northeast urban
centers like syracuse is.. of course, right now cincy is actually
home to oj mayo and his crew.. but they're thinking ohio state..
which is another big minus that cincy has going against it.. they
have to compete with the major state school for attention.. while
luckily for a school like syracuse, new york has no major state
school.. sorry suny system.. so with all that said, cincy is
really in a tough spot.. a harder spot than almost any other major
program would be losing their coach.. and their success is a hand
i wouldnt be willing to bet on..
9/19 ..this
morning, while doing some college basketball "research".. ie,
killing time.. i came across the prep top 25 from prepnation.com
this past season.. taking a look at the list, i couldnt help but
be reminded how regionalized quality basketball talent is..
there's really 4 regions for college basketball.. the northeast,
mainly ny, nj, and philly.. the southeast, ga, miss, fla are all
full of basketball talent these days.. los angeles.. and chicago..
one could make a case for the baltimore-dc area as being a 5th
basketball hotbed.. and then you also have the major cities of the
midwest, particularly detroit.. but really outside of that, you
basically just have random talent which sprouts up in various high
schools over time.. the reason i bring this up is that it amazes
me how certain programs outside of these regions manage to succeed
in building quality basketball programs.. particular programs
which come to mind are olson's arizona..
no one ever comes out of phoenix or tucson worth a dime.. williams'
kansas.. topeka and wichita, enough
said.. richardson's arkansas..
there's never top 25 prep programs in arkansas.. and majerus'
utah.. on the flip side of course, you
have those few programs which manage to fail despite having a
never ending supply of local talent.. rutgers is surrounded by
consistently great prep basketball programs.. northwestern in
chicago.. st john's and ucla's recent struggles are hard to
imagine, though this is only a temporary depression.. usc has no
excuse for not being consistently good.. nor does georgia.. in
each of the above situations, you have programs near by which
steal the home grown talent.. uconn is particularly good at
stealing local metro talent from the likes of seton hall, rutgers,
and st johns.. down in so cal, arizona and utah have done good
jobs over the years stealing.. northwestern and depaul have to
fight with the monster big ten state schools for talent.. georgia
has tech to deal with..
9/17 ..earlier
this week, umass picked up a
very solid transfer in gary forbes.. forbes was a solid
contributor for virginia last year
averaging over 9 points and 4 boards per game in his sophomore
season.. he was on the verge of being declared academically
ineligible at virginia, and he now must sit out a year after his
move to umass.. new head coach travis ford has really set things
up for umass to have a pretty powerful roster in the 06-07
season.. this season the minutemen should be solid behind star
rashuan freeman.. but everything should come together in 06-07..
freeman, art bowers, and maurice maxwell will all be seniors in
06-07.. and forbes will join the team as well.. on top of that
solid fouresome, umass also added center luke bonner, a transfer
from wvu will be eligible
for the first time in 06-07.. bonner played sparingly as a
freshman at wvu in 04-05, but the 7 footer was one of the nation's
top big men coming out of high school.. he should certainly be a
major contributor at the a10 level.. lastly, two years from now
incoming freshman point chris lowe should really be coming into
his own.. lowe, out of mount vernon, ny was travis ford's first
major recruit, and a player who was being courted by many high
major programs.. with this much talent, there will be a lot of
excitement in amherst the next few seasons..
9/15 ..we recently
had an article on chn about the now defunct
metro conference..
which folded 10 years ago, but at one time featured some of the
best college basketball teams in the nation.. the league whose
history is most closely tied with the former metro is the also
defunct great midwest conference, which folded after just 4 years,
as the majority of its members moved into the
cusa along with some
of the former metro teams.. this league featured just 7 teams for
each of its five years.. cincy, memphis, dayton, slu, depaul,
marquette, and uab.. while dayton ended up in the a10, these other
teams of course ended up in the cusa up until this past season
when four of them bolted for the big east, and slu joins dayton
back in the a10.. this league actually was pretty solidly
constructed, unlike the eventual cusa.. for one, it was relatively
geographically centered in the midwest.. with birmingham being the
lone exception.. more importantly, it had a pretty good grasp on
some important tv markets.. chicago, milwaukee, cincinnati,
memphis, saint louis, etc.. all but dayton are considered major
markets.. the league also featured some top quality basketball,
led by the dominant bearcats.. cincy won all four conference
tournaments, and advanced to the elite eight in two of those
years.. the stud player on cincy in those years was nick van exel..
one of the most fun college ballplayers to watch in the early
90's.. the most amazing part about cincy's dominance, is that
before the 91-92 team, the bearcats had not made the ncaa's in
over 15 years, and hadn't been in the top 20 in over 20 years as
well.. this was the beginning of bob huggins' greatness.. and its
amazing to think that he took cincy from being a pedestrian team
in the metro conference, into a dominant team in the short-lived
great midwest, then into a great team in the bigger and more
competitive cusa, and finally into the elite big east..
unfortunately for bob, he will not get to see his team make that
final big east step.. and even more unfortunately, there's a great
chance cincy will return to the pedestrian status it held prior to
the great midwest now that huggins is gone..
9/11 ..today is
the first real day of nfl games, and its a glorious one at that..
with college football going and now the nfl, it means that summer
is coming to a close and basketball is coming shortly around the
corner.. while jim calhoun and jim boeheim were the biggest names
inducted into the hall of fame.. you should not overlook the
induction of women's coaching great sue gunter.. gunter coached
for four decades, and retired as the 3rd winningest coach in
women's hoops.. trailing only pat summit and jody conradt.. as
much as men's college hoops has changed since the early 60's when
gunter became a head coach at middle tennessee state, the women's
game experienced an even more radical transformation.. gunter was
at the forefront of this transformation, and managed to mantain
continued success until the very end.. the team she put together
in final seasons went on to make two consecutive final fours
following her forced retirement in early 2004 due to an emphysema
attack.. gunter died this past august, but was able to learn about
her worthy induction into the hall of fame before hand..
9/07 ..somewhat of
a big loss for baylor this week, with the announcement that
mohamed kone will not be eligible to play for them.. instead, kone
has now joined valpo where he will be ready to play this season..
kone is a 6-11 big man, who had a fine juco season last year,
averaging 14 and 10 per game.. as kone was projected to be a major
contributor in the big 12 this year, you have to imagine he will
be able to some serious damage in the horizon league this year..
there's been some discussion on chn's message board recently about
the top 10 programs of all time.. it's an interesting debate, and
i wanted to share my views on this.. some of the top 10 are simply
not debatable.. kentucky, ucla, unc at the top.. kansas, duke,
indiana in the next tier.. louisville has to be on the top 10 as
well.. but then the last 3 get iffy.. some possible choices..
cincy, uconn, arkansas, arizona, michigan, syracuse, michigan
state.. now, while of course all-time means all-time, you simply
cannot count dominance in the 50's or 60's as being nearly as
impressive as in the 90's or 00's.. the game is at such a high
level of development and competitiveness, that I do think more
recent success trumps that of old.. with that said, i think the
last 3 in the top in no particular order has to be michigan state,
cincy, and uconn..
9/02 ..you've
probably never heard of head coach dave balza.. and i'll bet many
division one coaches have never heard of dave balza either.. but
dave balza knows division one athletes.. and they seem to want to
play for him.. balza is the head coach at division II florida gulf
coast university.. and for one reason or another, he's managed to
load his roster with fivedivision-1 transfers.. granted, we're not
talking the jj redick's of the world, but balza is a name to look
out for in the future.. his most recent pick up is little used
wing man leon woodstock, who played for troy last season.. his
best pick up may be beau bauer, a junior shooting guard who
averaged over 10 points per game for ipfw last year.. casey
wohlleb played in 27 games as a freshman for marshall last
season.. and has the type of body to do big things in division
two.. also in the mix is sophomore adam liddell who got some scrub
minutes for purdue last year.. and roman narmbaye who was a
non-factor for la salle last season.. true, the fact is that some
of these players really had no business being on d1 rosters.. but
the more important fact is that balza seems to be a coaching
commodity to look out for in the future.. he took over a near
dormant and probation-laden program at small saint joseph's
college, and got them to 18 wins in his 3rd year.. now at fgcu,
the eagles have won twenty games in all three of seasons, and now
in just their 2nd full year of full ncaa eligibility, they could
be a team to look out for in the postseason tournament..
8/10
..been spending my days recently
working on a new series of interviews for chn.. it will be 100
interviews in 100 days to accompany our 144 team college preview..
each interview will be from a head coach or star player from 100
different schools.. we have some great interviewees lined up, and
the 1st ones should be up any day.. here's a selected list of who
we've set up so far.. we've only got through schools beginning
with letter f as of now.. arizona's hassan adams.. cincy head
coach bob huggins.. fsu head coach leonard hamilton.. duke's
shelden williams or jj redick.. gw's pops mensah bonsu.. baylor
star pg aaron bruce.. air force and former nuggets head coach jeff
bzdelik.. arizona state head coach rob evens.. new depaul head
coach jerry wainright.. bradley star marcellus sommerville..
clemson head coach oliver purnell..
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