After a couple of months into the investigation, Memphis has now had their 2008 Final FOur taken away. This is all due to the use of an ineligible player (Derrick Rose), that's name was never technically revealed. He took a his SAT several times in Chicago, IL and then when he really needed the score, he traveled to Detroit, MI to take the test. He finally got the required score there. It's very unusual for someone to take a test out of their geographic reason, although I took my first SAT four and a half hours away from home. I was playing in an AAU tourney that weekend and didn't want to miss the tournament so I took it up there. Rose took his test to be closer to the infamous Worldwide Wes, who makes his home in Detroit. Weird how this all works out.
The one nice thing the NCAA did was not to penalize the players and new coaches at Memphis. They weren't a part of the problem and shouldn't get schoalrships taken away or a postseason ban. They did receive three years of probation, which is only a minor problem for the program. The NCAA has to look into John Calipari, he should be punished. This is his second run-in with problems that he didn't take the fall for shady dealings in his program. The first problem was with Marcus Camby at UMass and now the Derrick Rose situation at Memphis. Don't think Kentucky won't be on probation by the time he leaves there. Hopefully, things won't get swept under the carpet like they do at...
DUKE
Duke had a similar situation with Corey Maggette during his one year at the school. It was proven that Maggette took money from an AAU coach (myron Piggie) who was given the money through two different agents. Duek knew all aong and played Maggette throughout the season and didn't receive any penalities for playing an ineligible player. The Final Four banner still hangs in Hansborough Indoor Stadium. This is clearly a double standard in how the NCAA handled the Memphis and Duke situations. Just because Coach K is "Coach K" doesn't mean that he doens't break the rules and obviously he did in this situation. I'm pretending that Coach K is the only one to "severly bend" the rules but he got caught and nothing happened because it's Coach K and Duke. NCAA needs to take away their banner pronto.
Brett Favre is back, blah, blah, blah.
The Yanks took six of their last seven against the BoSox and it looks like there has been a severe reversal of roles. The Yanks played with more energy, danced a little bit in the dugout (ARod looked like a fool trying to join in), and got better pitching (though it wasn't great, it's still better). Matsui is starting to play better and seems to finally use to the DH role, although I still don't like him. Derek Jeter is once again putting up great numbers with his .333 batting average. He has to be the prime candidate for MVP although Texieria will probably steal a lot of votes from him. Texieria does so much for the Bronx Bombers, his timely hitting, his great 'tude, and probably the most important, his fielding.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
It's Back
After about a one month hiatus, I'm back and hopefully back to get on this at least a couple of times a week. No internet at home though, we'll see how this works. After a busy eight weeks traveling to Sioux Falls, SD (recruiting), Washington DC (wedding), Vegas (recruiting), and then Myrtle Beach, SC (vacation) I'm finally back and refreshed for the new school year.
We have a great recruiting class coming in along with a couple of other possibilities that we should find out about before school starts. Right now, we have eight freshmen coming in. A big class but we needed it since eleven total guys from last year's team are not with us because of many different factors which include graduation, chasing girlfriends, transferring, and a mutual decision to part ways. I believe we will be more talented, more athletic, tougher, and have a higher basketball IQ than we did last year. Usually that means we will have more wins, but experience plays a huge role as well. So we'll see. We will need to get another class of talented players in order to reach our goals off winning the conference, making NCAAs, and then a National Championship.
Many things have happened since I've been gone and I'll hit as much as I can...
Favre is back, which isn't surprising at all. Everyone up here loves him because he is playing for the Vikes now, they hated him when he was with the Packers. His decision making is simliar to how I figure out which pair of Jordan's I'm going to wear for the day. I start with the white and blue 4's or then flip 3's, or do I surprise everyone with the 23's. Well Brett, you surprised no one. Honestly, I don't care one bit about #4.
LIONS WIN THEIR FIRST PRESEASON GAME!!!!
Usain Bolt is fast, really fast. It's amazing to me to see him run. He is a head taller than everyone else and just seems to be in cruise control while everyone else is running into potholes. Mark my words, he will change sprinting forever. You'll see taller sprinters over time, who will look more like 400 and 800 runners, long and lean.
Yankees are taking over. To watch the Yankees over the past month has been great. They've worn down the rest of the league. Sabathia, Burnett, and Swisher have brought an excitement to the clubhouse and it clearly has made a difference in how the team is. Whip cream pies for game winning hits, personal handshakes, and dancing on homers. This certainly isn't the Yanks of old but it's refreshing to watch guys have fun. Boston is fading and looking like the Yankees the past couple of years. Papi stinks, Varitek stinks, Lowell is old, Papelbon isn't the same, should be interesting to see if they make the playoffs.
Isiah Thomas got his first big time recruit to verbally commit. It should be interesting to see if the kid stays with it because he already committed to Kentucky. Renardo Sidney got cleared by the NCAA. If he didn't, "lawsuit city" to the NCAA. Latavious Williams is the only HS senior planning to go to Europe. He will have his hands full to say the least. Duke got Andre Dawkins to enroll early. He already had enough core courses and did well on his SAT. It gives Duke three guards now to go along with Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith. Daniel Hackett did this a couple of years ago and did ok. Hollis Thompson did it as well at Georgetown, he ended up redshirting second semester and didn't lose eligibility. I still don't this happening on a regular basis like it does in football. Tommy Anaker is once again making noise with his recruiting. He gets high profile players interested and who wouldn't want a Harvard education? A couple of issues I have with that, can those same players adapt to the rigorous course work and can Amaker coach them to get some wins.
As everyone knows, I'm a big fan of the US National Soccer Team. We did pretty well in the Gold Cup sporting a roster of their "B" team. Got 2nd to Mexico, after giving up five goals in the 2nd half. We then went to Mexico City and lost 2-1 in World Cup Qualifying. We've never won there, that should happened soon. Maybe if Landon Donovan didn't play with the swine flu we would've won. I wasn't able to catch either game (no cable at mi new casa) so I was naturally disappointed in our inability to establish ourselves as a power.
That's it for now, have a good one.
We have a great recruiting class coming in along with a couple of other possibilities that we should find out about before school starts. Right now, we have eight freshmen coming in. A big class but we needed it since eleven total guys from last year's team are not with us because of many different factors which include graduation, chasing girlfriends, transferring, and a mutual decision to part ways. I believe we will be more talented, more athletic, tougher, and have a higher basketball IQ than we did last year. Usually that means we will have more wins, but experience plays a huge role as well. So we'll see. We will need to get another class of talented players in order to reach our goals off winning the conference, making NCAAs, and then a National Championship.
Many things have happened since I've been gone and I'll hit as much as I can...
Favre is back, which isn't surprising at all. Everyone up here loves him because he is playing for the Vikes now, they hated him when he was with the Packers. His decision making is simliar to how I figure out which pair of Jordan's I'm going to wear for the day. I start with the white and blue 4's or then flip 3's, or do I surprise everyone with the 23's. Well Brett, you surprised no one. Honestly, I don't care one bit about #4.
LIONS WIN THEIR FIRST PRESEASON GAME!!!!
Usain Bolt is fast, really fast. It's amazing to me to see him run. He is a head taller than everyone else and just seems to be in cruise control while everyone else is running into potholes. Mark my words, he will change sprinting forever. You'll see taller sprinters over time, who will look more like 400 and 800 runners, long and lean.
Yankees are taking over. To watch the Yankees over the past month has been great. They've worn down the rest of the league. Sabathia, Burnett, and Swisher have brought an excitement to the clubhouse and it clearly has made a difference in how the team is. Whip cream pies for game winning hits, personal handshakes, and dancing on homers. This certainly isn't the Yanks of old but it's refreshing to watch guys have fun. Boston is fading and looking like the Yankees the past couple of years. Papi stinks, Varitek stinks, Lowell is old, Papelbon isn't the same, should be interesting to see if they make the playoffs.
Isiah Thomas got his first big time recruit to verbally commit. It should be interesting to see if the kid stays with it because he already committed to Kentucky. Renardo Sidney got cleared by the NCAA. If he didn't, "lawsuit city" to the NCAA. Latavious Williams is the only HS senior planning to go to Europe. He will have his hands full to say the least. Duke got Andre Dawkins to enroll early. He already had enough core courses and did well on his SAT. It gives Duke three guards now to go along with Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith. Daniel Hackett did this a couple of years ago and did ok. Hollis Thompson did it as well at Georgetown, he ended up redshirting second semester and didn't lose eligibility. I still don't this happening on a regular basis like it does in football. Tommy Anaker is once again making noise with his recruiting. He gets high profile players interested and who wouldn't want a Harvard education? A couple of issues I have with that, can those same players adapt to the rigorous course work and can Amaker coach them to get some wins.
As everyone knows, I'm a big fan of the US National Soccer Team. We did pretty well in the Gold Cup sporting a roster of their "B" team. Got 2nd to Mexico, after giving up five goals in the 2nd half. We then went to Mexico City and lost 2-1 in World Cup Qualifying. We've never won there, that should happened soon. Maybe if Landon Donovan didn't play with the swine flu we would've won. I wasn't able to catch either game (no cable at mi new casa) so I was naturally disappointed in our inability to establish ourselves as a power.
That's it for now, have a good one.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)