So it has begun...

As most everyone knows, practice started for D3 basketball on October 15th. Like everyone else, we went twice on Saturday and then twice again on Sunday. We got a lot of things in and our guys' heads were spinning, even the veterans. We've decided to implement some different things into what we do and it has put a lot of guys on the same learning curve. We are hopeful that our new schemes will work out.

The guys have been getting after it pretty good throughout practice, today was the exception. I wasn't exactly pleased with the way we were playing today. Some of it had to do with some new drills and us deciding as a coaching staff to mix the groups a little bit. It certainly wasn't pretty at times and I'm sure some of the recruits who came to practice weren't exactly impressed. I think it's important to mix in groups because we aren't going to sub five for five all time. It might happen some but that will be the exception.

We are pleasantly surprised by how some of the guys have played. As of right, we feel that we can probably put 14 different guys out there right now and not miss a beat. As we all know, that can and will change as the season progresses. It could be a higher or lower number. To have as much depth as we think we have right now, is definitely a good problem to have.

As a staff, it is always difficult to figure out the rotation for games. This year could be a little easier, as we have four different opportunities to see how the guys react to playing someone else and in a game situation.  On top of that, some guys shine better when the lights are on and others go to the corner. Hopefully, we have a bunch of guys that like the light. We will have a Alum Scrimmage first, then an foreign exhibition game, followed by another scrimmage, and then exhibition game before we open up the season.

We start with a game against Northwestern College on Nov. 15 as part of a doubleheader with the women's team. Other non-conference games will include @ UW-Eau Claire, UW-Whitewater, Cal Tech, and @ Chapman (CA). Once again it should be one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country.

To go back on some of my previous blogs, I was super wrong on my World Series predictions. St. Louis and Texas are playing some great baseball right and are certainly deserving of being there. I know that Fox is not happy with those two teams there because ratings must be brutal. Fox needs the Yankees or Red Sox there to drive up the ratings otherwise they will lose money.

It's almost here...

11 more days until practice officially starts and I can't wait.

So, this past weekend I was able to head to Madison for the Nebraska-Wisconsin football game. I got to experience pretty cool and it's down below. This isn't my video and I am clearly not tech-savvy enough to get it from my phone to here. I'll work on that.



I still think West Virginia has a better atmosphere and is louder. You be the judge.




Pretty cool stuff either way.

The Pennant Race

Just got done watching a Gamecast of the Yanks-Rays game and the Yanks just clinched a playoff berth. Now it's Boston's turn to completely falter and let the Rays in. This time of the year is great. Teams are scrambling for the last playoff spot and sometimes no one wants to win.

Looks like the Angels are quietly sneaking up into the both the West and the Wild Card standings. They aren't exactly someone I would want to play in the playoffs with them having Jared Weaver as their ace. They have a ton of team speed but probably don't have enough depth on the pitching staff to get through.

As usual, the Phillies are super dangerous at this point because of their three aces in Halladay, Lee, and Hamels. I don't want to see them but if the Yanks make it to the World Series, I'm sure the City of Brotherly Love will be waiting.

Now onto the Cy Young in both league. American League is easy, it's Justin Verlander. He has probably had one of the most dominant years in a long time. I certainly don't want to see him at all in the playoffs. You can count a win for the Tigers whenever he is on the mound. In the National League, it's got to go to Clayton Kershaw.  He leads the league in wins, strikeouts, and ERA. Any pitcher that has ever done that has won the Cy Young. This year should be no different. I know Ian Kennedy and Roy Halladay have had great years but you can't punish Kershaw for playing on a crappy team.

Now onto the MVP award, remember this is awarded to the Most Valuable Player. A player the team would sorely miss if he wasn't there. In the American League my vote goes to...Justin Verlander. He's the most dominant player in the league and his 24 wins don't go unnoticed. The Tigers wouldn't be where they are at right now without him. Adrian Gonzalez and Curtis Ganderson are right in the mix, but both of their teams have enough firepower to withstand them being off the field. In the NL, the award goes to...Chris Sabo and his goggles, just kidding. The award goes to Jose Reyes, and yes I am serious this time. The Mets aren't good but they are even worse when Reyes isn't on the field. I would say Ryan Braun is a close second but Reyes gets my vote.

I had a good talk last night with one of buddies about conference realignment and paying college athletes. This article pretty much sums up our conversation.

Conference Realignment

After last season's movement, now comes the biggest movement of them all with universities going after spots in certain conferences. It's too bad it has to be this way but it comes down to the almighty dollar, like I have said before. I'm going to talk about the Big East first because it will be the conference most affected by the conference realignment because of the way the conference is structured.

As of last season the Big East had 16 members. It somewhat created a mega-conference for basketball. Now, the challenging part is that college football is going to ruin that conference for all. Pittsburgh and Syracuse have already jumped ship and the conference could go to shambles. The biggest problem for the conference is that several of it's schools either do not have football (Marquette, Providence, St. John's, and Seton Hall), played at the 1-AA level (was Villanova and Georgetown), or compete as an independent (Notre Dame). Football is the sport that schools get the most money because it isn't technically controlled by the NCAA. The NCAA has no control over which schools go to bowl games or the BCS rankings. The NCAA Tournament for basketball is huge money maker for the NCAA and they get a lot of the money from that while in football the conferences get the money.

I'm not sure what I will think once the Big East doesn't have it's tournament at Madison Square Garden. There have been so many memorable games there and now with Steve Lavin bringing back the Red Storm, the Mecca of Basketball is making it's way back. Who can remember Ray Allen's shot over a Georgetown defender for UConn to win at MSG? What about Da'Sean Butler making game winning shot after game winning shot leading WVU to it's first ever Big East Tournament title? What about Kemba Walker carrying the young Huskies on his back last season? What about the 19 overtime game between UConn and Syracuse a few years back? That is some of the most exciting basketball of the whole year.

I don't want to see the Big East go away. I could probably do away with Big East football. What about this idea? Why can't schools align themselves to conferences for certain sports? It would save Big East basketball. We already have a 1-AA for football, could there be another level added on to that?

Don't be surprised to see four mega-conferences with 16 teams each and then they separate from the NCAA. The NCAA is essentially a monopoly with no wiggle room for it's members, that could change quickly. The worst part of that is that it would greatly affect D3 athletics. We wouldn't get any funding to our championships.

If is this all about the student athlete then why do have college football games on Thursday and Friday nights. Why does South Florida play Marquette on a Wednesday night in hoops? Don't say it's about student athletes when money is coming in and helping the WHOLE university.

I'm Back and it's Been a Long Time

Alright, so I finally decided to make it back to blogging and hope to keep you updated on most if not all of the happenings going on with our program throughout the rest of the year. My summer was great and it didn't seem to last very long. I was able to do some traveling to Alexandria, VA then to Sandusky, OH (Cedar Point and Callahan Auto Parts). I went to Chicago for my first trip to Wrigley and then headed back to NY for a quick trip back home. Probably won't be heading home for Christmas this year, so it was good to be home and see family for a little bit. Enough of me and now onto the Pipers. Yes, school has started and we have everyone on campus as we planned. I think we have a pretty good recruiting class for this season that will once again feature a slew of out of state kids. No names at the moment because we haven't had our first practice yet. It's always great to see the guys once they get to school and then it almost gets back to 'normal.' Normal is when basketball actually starts. The guys have been playing since classes start and I can actually hear the squeak of their sneakers right now as they are playing open gym. We have a little time before we start on October 15th and I hope the guys are getting in shape. The more than get in shape now, the less we run once practice starts. I'll go over some more stuff as this week rolls on. Topics will include Conference Realignment, Baseball's Pennant Race, College Football, and my Detroit Lions

The "U," G'town brawl, Dook's antics

All across the news the past couple of days is the news about The "U" (in case you Minnesotans didn't know, they aren't talking about Minnesota) and all the allegations that Nevil Shapiro has laid on them. It's definitely disappointing to hear but in all reality it happens at a lot of major institutions. They might not be extravagant as all the sex parties, clubs, yachts, and abortions that Shapiro paid for but it still goes on.

Yahoo did a great job of getting information about the allegations and has a lot of documentation. My biggest issue is, how exactly do you trust a convicted felon? Also, how does The "U" not keep track of this guy a little more. He was on the sidelines during games, had access to basically all of the players and coaches. Plus, Miami knew that he partially owned a sports agency business. Oh wait, he donated money to the athletics' department and that is why they turned a blind eye. It makes sense, it's all about the $$$ at that level.

The biggest problem for Miami right now is that they have new coaches in both men's basketball and football, both seem to have very good reputations and they are going to get absolutely hammered by the NCAA for something they didn't have a part of. Hopefully, they at least had some knowledge of this before they signed their contracts, but my guess is that they didn't.

One big question everyone has right now is, what will be the penalties? Will the NCAA give them the "death penalty?" I think it's highly unlikely because the NCAA needs "The U" to be good in football for them to make more money. I heard yesterday on the Doug Gootlieb Show that the NCAA should fine them $10 or $20 million to set the record straight. The pocketbook is where it hurts. Makes sense but you certainly don't want to take away anything from the normal students that don't do anything do for the school (was that too harsh?).

Another solid story coming over the news today is that Georgetown brawl that happened this morning over in China. There is finally video on it and it's below. To think that the Hoyas just met with Vice President Biden yesterday, what a turn for US-China relations.

Here is the video...


This morning I got to watch Dook take on the Chinese Jr. National Team and I got to see a little bit of what Dook will do this season. WHINE!!!! It was unreal, every time a call didn't go their way all the players and coaches looked like a six year old girl who didn't get a candy bar on their trip to the store. Even Coach K got into the refs face on a non-call along the sideline. These aren't ACC refs, they don't care who you are.

Long Time No Talk

It's a been a long absence for me from the blogging world and there are certainly a lot of things to cover. Today I'm just going to talk about the whole big time college athletics and it's pay to play model and potential conference realignment.

I get pretty worked up when I hear the Big Ten and SEC commissioners talking about "their athletes" needing extra money to cover living expenses. That is a complete and utter joke for them to say that, especially at those schools. In the SEC their athletes are treated like Gods and with the exception of Vanderbilt they rarely have to worry about academics because athletics come first. Does anyone know what these athletes get for their scholarships?

On top of their "free education" they get a scholarship check. What does that check include? It usually ends up being roughly $750 or more. Really? Yes, the athletes usually have their training table which costs about $8 a pop for dinner and possibly a lunch as well. So they get that taken out of the checks and then the rest is theirs for "other food" and housing. I would say that the athletes might pay $500 a month in rent at the high end and the rest is for the new iPhone and video games. They have plenty of money for "living expenses."

Another way to get around this is for the athlete to file on taxes as an independent and then they can live in Section 8 housing for super cheap and have even more money. On top of that, many of these athletes qualify for a Pell Grant which could get them up to $5,500 for the year. So...on top of the scholarship check they get the Pell Grant and they can't live a quality life? Are you kidding me?

And I still haven't mentioned free tuition, free books, free tutoring, better academic facilities to use than normal students, and I haven't even mentioned the free gear (I guess I just did). On top of this, they travel very nicely on charter flights and stay in extremely plush hotels on the road. Tough life they live at that level.

What about the D3 athlete? They generally pay for their own tuition and play "for the love of the game." We sometimes drive our own cars to games and don't get mileage. At some places have to pay for their own gear. Actually could get penalized for missing class because of games. Practice is scheduled around class instead of the other way around. We generally travel on the day of the game not the night before to "get use to the surroundings." The Super 8 Hotel and the Hampton Inn are great places to stay because they have continental breakfast.

WVU would stay in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night if they played them Thursday night (complete waste of money if you ask me). No Friday nights in a local hotel to "get away from distractions," for Saturday night's game. All meals on the road are catered and cost at least $20 a pop per person. Think about that for a football squad. Lots of cash money.

So...I don't want to hear they have it bad. They do get paid and have an opportunity to actually make money if they are smart. Now, what the NCAA should do it make it mandatory for every "student-athlete" that gets a check take a money managing class for them to be "smart" with the money they receive.

I could go on forever but let's move on...

Texas A&M almost made the move to the SEC and apparently it could still happen soon. I'm not exactly sure why TAMU would make the move and why the SEC would take them. TAMU plays second fiddle in the state of Texas and flat out isn't better than the 'Horns or the Sooners.

All I keep on hearing is that the SEC wants to break into Texas. You want Texas and not A&M. Texas is the draw and A&M is the ugly step sister. They certainly aren't the draw nationally that Texas is. Plus, TAMU would be average at best in the SEC. It doesn't make to me. Plus...

Isn't it about the student athletes not the money?????? Apparently it's all about the money and not about the student athlete. People need to start making educated decisions for their student athletes because according to the NCAA most of the athletes go professional in other aspects of life. Stop being hypocritical. Say it's about the money when it is. That's reality, no matter what the NCAA says.