Categories
College Basketball

NIT: Nothing says second rate tourney like Virgina


Poor West Virginia, they are never gonna live this down. Just like sports fans referring to the Chiefs as the “Chefs”, a little gaffe by the company that the NIT folks contracted with to make the championship T-Shirts will make the Mountaineers from now on be referred to as the West Virginas. Who knew a proofreading mistake could provide so much juvenile amusement.

The company said that the correct spelling of West Virginia will be shipped to fans. The West Virgina t-shirts will be collectibles. Just think, only a handful of people associated with the team have that t-shirt. Now, we’re not saying the shirts will have Inverted Jenny status but it should fetch a pretty good buck on ebay.

Links:
[AOL Fanhouse]: Congratulations, West Virgina, NIT Champions

Categories
College Basketball

So this is why Billy Packer is trying to ruin college basketball!

Here’s some random YouTube goodness for this Friday. An interview with Billy Packer where he reveals his motivation for ruining March Madness for us.

Rooting on power conferences? Check. Rooting for favorites? Check. Impossibly smug attitude? Check. Wrong about tons of details? Check. Loves Duke? Check. Billy Packer not being a sports fan really explains everything doesn’t it?

Categories
College Basketball

Correctly picked the Final Four this year? New York Times says BFD


You know that annoying guy in your office or the blogger who is flexing his muscles this morning because he correctly picked all four teams in the Final Four? Show them this little article from the New York Times.

Last year, of the 3.1 million entries in the ESPN bracket pool, only 4 people had the correct Final Four teams, this year, with 3.3 million entries, 161,869 have it right. (Roughly the same number of people as had sex with Paris Hilton.) Picking last year’s Final Four was either genius or stupidity. Picking this year’s Final Four is just boring.

So when someone brags today about their awesome picking prowess, just tell them so did your grandmother. (We’re a little bitter this morning because there is no way Florida should have covered 7 points against the Ducks. The end of the game was absolutely fixed for points. Damn you Adam Zahn, damn you to hell. )

Links:
[NY Times]: So You Picked the Final Four? Join the Club

Categories
College Basketball

You thought North Carolina choked? Check out Winona State

We have no idea where Barton or Winona State is but they provided an incredible finish to the NCAA Div II basketball championships yesterday. If the D1 boys could pull off a finish like this, we’d be talking about it forever.

Not only did they come back from being down 7 points with 45 seconds left, Barton ended Winona State’s 57 game winning streak that spanned 2 years. Anthony Atkinson is the man of the hour after scoring 10 points in the final 39 secs. We haven’t seen that kind of one man show since Reggie Miller did it to the Knicks in the 1995 playoffs.

Links:
[West Coast Tribune]: Winona State falls to Barton in title game

Categories
College Basketball

E-E-F-G-C-A-G-G: It’s gold, Jerry, gold!

Usually the only music we notice during sports telecasts are snippets of pop/rock songs that we suspect are picked out by interns and floated up the flag pole. Sometimes you get cool stuff (Seven Nation Army) and sometimes you get the latest nickelback song (more on this below*). In any case, the song that’s been drilled into our brains for four days last week, and will be for another four days starting today is the CBS college basketball theme song.

In case you can’t think of what it sounds like, here’s an mp3 file:

Bob Christianson wrote the theme back in 1992 and, according to this article, composers can make as much as $100,000 per year of such a song from royalties. $100k! For something he did 25 years ago.


Christianson said he doesn’t tell many folks that he composed the NCAA theme, but occasionally he can’t resist a moment of self-promotion when he enters a sports bar during March and hears the theme blaring on TV.

He may tell the nearest patron: “I just made another two dollars.

This is rather amusing as everytime we hear the opening theme music to a basketball game, we’re about to lose $100.

*Tiger Woods and Roger Clemens were hanging out backstage with Nickelback. We’ve never liked Clemens but Tiger Woods just dropped out of our Top 10 athletes for having terrible taste in music.

Links:

[Baltimore Sun]: The perfect score

Categories
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

Categories
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

Categories
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

Categories
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.

Categories
Washington Redskins

Jason Campbell is drowning in chalk


If you’re a Redskins fan, do you want a QB that takes risks or do you want a QB that just manages the game. Now an NCAA bracket isn’t a personality test but according to Jason Campbell’s bracket, he might be the biggest…er.. fraidy cat in the NFL. Look at this thing.

All four 1 seeds in the Final Four. 7 out of 8 1-2 seeds in the Elite Eight. (The exception is Duke… go figure.) And his sweet sixteen has 12 of the 16 overall top seeds. This is a travesty. You shouldn’t even be allowed to touch a bracket if you’re gonna go this route. His eventual champion? North Carolina of course.

Imagine Jason Campbell in the playoffs if the Redskins don’t get the #1 seed. “Oh, we’re a lower seed, we’ve got no shot.”

Links:
[AOL Sports]: Blog Bet: Would You Take the 1-Seeds vs. the Field?