Category: College Basketball

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College Basketball

OJ Mayo doesn’t give out his cell. He’ll call you.


You know those fluff pieces in newspapers that try to persuade you that an athlete’s reputation is undeserved and that he’s really a good guy? This isn’t one of those. If Lee Jenkins was trying to paint OJ Mayo in a good light, he absolutely fails in today’s New York Times article on the kid.

The article relates how a OJ Mayo came to sign with USC and it doesn’t exactly portray USC coach Tim Floyd in a flattering light either.


When Floyd answered the phone, he heard a teenager’s voice on the other end: “Coach, this is O. J. Mayo. I’d like to come to your school.”

Mayo had not been on an official campus visit. He had not seen the new arena, the Galen Center. He did not know anything about the current roster.

…
“I want to be different,” Floyd recalls Mayo telling him. “I want to leave a mark.”

Mayo’s mind was apparently made up. He was already looking ahead. “How many scholarships do we have for next year?” he asked.

Floyd stammered. “After this,” he said, “I guess we have three.”

Mayo went through the priority list in his mind. “Don’t worry about recruiting,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”

Before Floyd hung up, he asked one more time for Mayo’s cellphone number. “No,” Mayo said. “I’ll call you.

Now this is after one of Mayo’s friends had visited Floyd earlier in the day and told him that OJ wanted to market himself before going to the NBA and that the reason OJ wanted to go to USC was because LA gave him the best possible platform for doing so.

Basketball phenoms today are too worried about becoming a global icon and marketing and shoe deals, all before they play a second of pro ball. Sure Michael Jordan is the most recognized athlete in the world but he played for the love of the game and then everything else (colognes, clothing, Hanes, Space Jam) followed. OJ Mayo is more worried about his endorsement deals than he is about the game.

Now every sycophant and parasite in his entourage will just tell him that we’re just hatin’ but you can make a lot of money and not come off as an arrogant punk.

By the way, OJ’s first visit to USC? There was a documentary film crew following him. Of course.

Links:
[New York Times]: High School Star O.J. Mayo Boosts U.S.C. Before He Arrives
[SC]: OJ Mayo’s last dunk video

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College Basketball

Does Kevin Durant already have a Nike shoe deal on the table?



Already sporting Nike

If there’s any question whether Kevin Durant is going to go pro this season, a phone call from Kobe might have sealed the deal. According to Chip Brown of the Dallas Morning News, Kobe Bryant called Nike on behalf of Nike to pitch a shoe deal between $30M to $50M. (“Hey Kevin, I can’t wait till you come into the league so I can elbow you in the head. Oh, by the way, Phil Knight wants to give you $50M. “)

Based on the NBA rookie salary scale, Durant will make about $11M-$12.5M his first three years in the league. And here comes Nike throwing three times that just for promoting a shoe. It’s not LeBron’s $90M deal but it’s almost a guarantee that he will leave Texas.

We think they should let players get their own shoe deals in college. This way they won’t have to leave early so that they risk injury in the college game. What would Rick Barnes rather have? A team wide shoe deal for the Longhorns or Kevin Durant for 3 more years?

Links:
[Dallas Morning News]: Sneaker deal could be deciding factor if Durant is one-and-done

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College Basketball

Greg Oden’s summer league coach conveniently decides to start sports agency


Mike Conley Sr. thinks that Greg Oden is going pro after this season. How else would you explain his decision to start a sports agency called Mac Management Group? Conley Sr. has known Oden since the sixth grade and coached him in summer basketball. In addition to Oden, Conley Sr. also coached Josh McRoberts of Duke and Buckeyes Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook.


I’m not being presumptuous at all,” Conley Sr. said. “Getting into this business is not just for those individuals. I’m competitive. I want to be the best at what I do, and that’s not going to stop when I enter the sports management business.
“Hopefully I can attract and share a vision with some of the athletes I know, but also with others and move their careers forward.

Translation: I’ve known Oden all his life. If I can get him to sign with me, then I have a golden goose.

Here’s the best part:


I’ve negotiated a lot of different things. Almost everything in life is negotiated,” Conley Sr. said. “You have to know what it is you’re negotiating. You have to know when something’s a good deal. Outside of being educated about the process, the same principles exist, and that’s putting both parties in a win-win situation.

Hey listen, Mike, just because you negotiated down the price of your plasma TV at Best Buy doesn’t mean you can go up against the sharks in the NBA front offices. LeBron James fired a real agent and hired three friends and they turned out to be bumbling idiots.

Run Greg Run.

Links:
[Indy Star]: Conley Sr. starting sports representation business

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College Basketball

The worst opening day in tournament history

No buzzer beaters, no major upsets, nothing. That was the worst opening day of March Madness in a long long time. The only “upset” was that of Duke by VCU but most people thought that Duke’s seeding was by reputation and they didn’t deserve a 6 seed anyway. Sure, Xavier and Michigan State pulled off 9 over 8 upsets but that’s pretty much a coin flip. So everyone drowned in chalk. Jason Campbell must be ecstatic.

For the rest of us, we got to celebrate a Duke loss and wait for Coach K’s announcement that his back hurts after he loses a couple of players to the draft. Other than that, the only “did you see that?!?” moment was a gruesome injury to Idong Ibok. Ibok landed awkwardly, stuck out his hand to brace himself and dislocated his elbow. CBS must have show the replay 5 times and you can see his arm flailing about. It was reminiscent of Shaun Livingston‘s dislocated knee.

Here’s the video of the play but it unfortunately (mercifully) cut short of the entire CBS coverage as they don’t show his forearm flailing about. However, you do see the huge dent in his elbow where no huge dent should be. Ibok was back on the bench in the second half but his college career is over.

Yes, the fact that the higher seeds mostly won is an indication that the selection committee did their jobs (except for letting Stanford in and watching them get blown out) but that’s not what makes the tournament great. If there are a lot of upsets, no one blames the committee, they just talk about what a great upset it was. Let’s hope we get a better Day 2.

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College Basketball

Top 10 NCAA Buzzer Beaters Video

Buzzer beaters are the best part of the NCAA tournament. Here’s ESPN’S take on the top 10 NCAA Tournament buzzer beaters of all time. You don’t really even have to watch to know who #1 is going to be. (Hint: a teammate cries like a little girl.)

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College Basketball

Leave The Guessing Up To The Experts



I’m unbiased baby!

At some point every year, college hoops fans come to a crossroads when it comes to filling out their tournament brackets. Whether it’s in the first round or the Final Four, there are always those toss-up games that will drive you to the brink of insanity. Well, now you don’t have to frantically scan through all the menial stats and scenarios because celebrities like Doogie Howser, Lauren Holly, and Dicky V (actually stay away from Dick’s picks, his bracket has Coach K’s kids winning it every year) have already done all the hard work for you. And if you think that all their predictions suck then you can rely on the national popular opinion. But, why do that when it’s so much more fun to ridicule individuals for your own mistakes.

Neil Patrick Harris,
Jeff Probst,
Tony Kornheiser,
Sam Hornish Jr.,
Lauren Holly,
Seth Davis,
Dick Vitale,
Clark Kellogg,
ESPN Experts,
National Bracket

It looks like an overwhelming number of votes are being cast for the Gators to make it through the entire field win a second consecutive championship. That’s just fine with us, as long as we can see a repeat performance of Joakim Noah’s spastic boogey.

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College Basketball

Nevada’s coach has anger management issues

The tournament is full of upsets other than the 12-5 and one of our favorites is to take a 10-7 upset. (Actually, a couple of these 10-7s look good this year…) But the main reason you want Creighton over Nevada is maybe we’ll witness Nevada coach Mark Fox going nuts after the game. Fox was almost arrested after losing to Utah State in the WAC tournament.

Quent Pirtle, the police officer who was on security duty for the officials that night said that Fox used “loud, boisterous and profane language toward the officials” and at one point chased an official up a stairwell. Fox also cursed at the officer and that Pirtle considered arresting him on charges of assault on a police office (What?) and a conventional assault charge for harassing the officials but decided to let college officials deal with it.

Fox will not be suspended from Nevada’s game on Friday in the opening round. College basketball is getting so soft. Nobody was talking about arrests when John Chaney threatened to kill John Calipari after a game. And by the looks of it, Chaney actually meant it.


Links:
[SI]: Police: Nevada’s Fox abusive, profane

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College Basketball

New School Bracketology


Every year sports dorks from around the country can’t wait for the selection show to end so that they can run over to their X-Box and meticulously enter the entire field into their favorite NCAA hoops game and fill out their brackets according to the random crap that the simulations spit out. Kinda sounds like the BCS. But regardless, the game has pull when it comes to some office pools so here are the results from NCAA March Madness 07 and College Hoops 2K7.

In March Madness 07, No. 2 Wisconsin defeated No. 3 seed Pittsburgh, 90-72, on the left side of the bracket to set up a championship game against No. 4 Texas after the Longhorns defeated No. 1 seed Ohio State, 76-73, in a battle of freshman phenoms. In the final game, Kevin Durant’s 27.5 point per game average throughout the tournament was simply too much for the Badgers to overcome as Texas takes the title with an 87-64 victory.

2K7 comes up with a totally different scenario. Their Final Four consist of Maryland, Kansas, North Carolina and Texas A&M. In the semis, No. 4 Maryland upsets the top seeded Jayhawks by three, 64-61, while North Carolina narrowly avoided the third seed Aggies, 77-73. In the end, the Tarheels cut down the nets as Tyler Hansbrough led North Carolina to an 83-80 victory over the Terps.

Wonder how far George Mason made it in March Madness 06?

Links:

[IGN.com]: MARCH MADNESS PREDICTIONS

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College Basketball

Odds and Ends: A true American hero



Who runs a $22 office pool?

Michigan state representative Kim Meltzer wants to decriminalize NCAA tournament pools because “what makes March Madness unique is that all kinds of people and sports fans of all levels fill out their brackets and enjoy the tournament. It’s a crime we consider that a crime, and I want to change it.”

Bravo Kim! Bravo! Any pool that’s $20 or less would be legal. Although nobody ever gets prosecuted over an office pool, it shouldn’t be illegal to throw your money away to the guy who just moved here from Bangladesh and is picking teams based on mascots. Hell, the office pool is probably the only chance sports geeks get a chance to talk to that cute girl in marketing. God Bless America and the bracket!

In other news…

[Sign On San Diego]: Adonal Foyle is now free to make fun of Canadians

[WrestleZone]: When your false teeth come flying out during a match, you might want to stop wrestling

[Nashville City Paper]: Even Pacman Jones knows he’s in a heap of trouble

[The Offside]: Sometimes you just gotta check the ol’ undercarriage

[The Big Lead]: Bill Belichick won’t have to testify for banging Sharon Shenocca

[10,000 Takes]: Yeah but where are the strippers?

And finally, we hope you signed up for March Madness On Demand cause it’s gonna be crazy this Thursday. Here’s a list of the announcer schedules. Sadly, one of the most intriguing Cinderalla matchups (Butler/ODU) has Kevin Harlan on the mic.

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College Basketball

So You’re Telling Me There’s A Chance

We’re all degenerate gamblers at heart, so what better time to cut loose and let your inner Pete Rose come out than March Madness. After all, who doesn’t love to place a bet on a Cinderella school? Usually, they’ll get bounced in the first or second round but, hope was given to small schools across the country when the March magic carried George Mason all the way to the Final Four in last year’s tournament. Not too shabby considering that they opened the tourney with 400 to 1 odds.

Here are some of the lines for this year’s tournament, starting with the favorites to win it all.

#1 Seeds: Florida 7/2, Kansas 4/1, North Carolina 5/1, Ohio St. 6/1

#2 Seeds: Georgetown 8/1, UCLA 9/1, Wisconsin 15/1, Memphis 20/1,

Notables: Texas A&M 10/1, Texas 12/1, Maryland 25/1, Pittsburgh 25/1, Butler 35/1, Oregon 35/1, Washington St. 35/1, Arizona 40/1, Louisville 40/1, S. Illinois 40/1,Virginia Tech 45/1, Duke 50/1

Long Shots: Texas Tech 125/1, BYU 150/1, Gonzaga 150/1, Arkansas 200/1, Illinois 200/1, Purdue 200/1, Stanford 200/1

Don’t see any action that you like? Well, your odds are still better than trying to fill out a perfect bracket, 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 1, but the payoff isn’t nearly as good.

Links:

[Bodog]: ODDS TO WIN 2007 NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP