Fin

So there are folks like @rushthecourt and @ballinisahabit who have been covering college hoops proficiently and professionally. I have been honored to call them along with several others "blog mates" even though I'm not as technically knowledgeable and my modus operandi has always been to be as stupid silly as possible when talking about basketball. I remember during Bracket Busters week many years ago I was watching the Memphis/Louisville game. All Darius Washington had to do is make his foul shots and the Tigers would be in the Tournament. When Washington missed his final shot and broke down on the court I wanted to talk to someone, anyone about it. That got me started blogging. A few years later I approached some bloggers to do a weekly blogpoll. I only expected about 5 of them to participate but imagine my surprise when over 20 bloggers signed up. Then advertisers started e-mailing and began PAYING me for my blog. Then other bloggers began asking me questions and inviting me out to events. Then With Leather mentioned me, then Sports Illustrated came calling... Those were the heydays of my blogging experience and I thought (and wished) that it would never end.

Well, I guess all things good and bad do come to an end. So it is with some sadness I announce that I will not be continuing this endeavor going forward. There are a few reasons for this:

1) Work. For those who don't know I work in the Finance/Investment arena and the way the market has been and with my new responsibilities of managing even more money my work life has become all consuming.

2) 11 month old son. He's been kicking my ass. The time I do not spend at work is devoted to him. We can always sit down and watch college hoops but there is a big difference between watching and writing. As soon as my laptop is out he takes it and jumps on it. I don't know how other bloggers with kids can do it.

3) General malaise. I just don't have the same passion to write anymore, probably due to the first two issues.

So what I found out is that Twitter is more convenient for me to comment on basketball (or football or politics or cooking). That is where I will be found from now on. I may post here occasionally but don't expect it.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me throughout the years, like my West Coast posse! It's been real, it's been fun. And...

GO AZTECS

Too proud to foul?

I think I'm going to be sick

Hey Badgers?

Always
Be
Closing

You had the game well in hand, then allowed the Irish to outscore you by 18 points. You don't start to foul Notre Dame until the final 30 seconds when the game was well out of reach. The announcers during the game and fans afterward were openly questioning your strategy.

Wisconsin... You win the ABC award of the week. Geez.

Post game analysis - SDSU/Gonzaga

Can't close games.
Horrible three point shooting.
Can't win the games they should.
No signature wins. Ever.
Dependent on other teams doing badly.
2nd tier recruits.

All those demons were exercised last night. At 1:30 am we discovered we had a good basketball team. A really good basketball team. At HOME Gonzaga only led once during the game. SDSU made the three point shots they had to make in the second half. And they closed the game by playing nearly error free basketball, outside of that charge call with 38 seconds left. DJ Gay and Kawhi Leonard can flat out ball. And the Aztecs leave Spokane with their first signature win.

Where are you now, Coaches Poll?

Xavier on top

...only with dudes

What was really impressive about the George Washington / Xavier contest was how the Colonials were physically beating Xavier and the Musketeers mustered enough to rally in the final 2 minutes of the game to win 76 to 69. Don't believe us? Look at this chart!


What the freak?

So yes, George Washington wins the ABC award this week. Wasn't there a movie made about what the Colonials did?

Le sigh

Oh, c'mon George Mason. Well, we've got our first award for the season.

For you Patriots, leading 6th rank Villanova until the final minute of the game whereby you had an epic collapse of judgment. You get the Always Be Closing award.


Where was Blake during that collapse...

As the liveblog stated

Shame on you...

Miscellaneous thoughts and the final countdown

First, the news...

UCLA forward Nikola Dragovic angry over the inferior quality of opponent, tosses ex-girlfriend down stairs, misses game.

The 20-year-old Dragovic of Belgrade, Serbia, went to the apartment he shared with the woman and found his belongings had been dumped out front, police officer April Harding said.

"He and the ex-girlfriend began to argue. He got mad and pushed her down," Harding said.

Dragovic was taken into custody and booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery. Bail was set at $20,000.

The arrest caused him to miss No. 4 UCLA's 76-42 exhibition victory over Biola.

Dayton transfer Desmond Adedeji celebrates making the starting lineup at center, subsequently gets arrested and jeopardizes position.

Stony Brook University police charged a student who is expected to start at center for the school's basketball team with driving while intoxicated yesterday morning.

Desmond Adedeji, a 6-foot-9, 305-pound transfer student from the University of Dayton, was pulled over on the campus' South Drive at 6:15 a.m., a police spokesman said.

Binghamton University's Malik Alvin gets punished for practicing safe sex...

Binghamton University basketball player Malik Alvin has been suspended from the men's team until legal matters related to an incident last month at Wal-Mart are resolved.

Vestal police have charged Alvin, 20, with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, after an alleged incident with a Wal-Mart employee who police said confronted Alvin for alleging leaving the store without paying for a box of condoms.

Hey, did you know you can book the Duke cheerleaders for your next event?

(pause)

We were gonna show a picture of the current squad, but... Just click on the link if you wanna see.

So, we are approximately one week away from the beauty of college hoops. We must say that this off season was HORRIBLE. People thought that all we did was talk about AP news clippings. We do talk about games and teams and such, you know. Like original content! For example, today we will be posting the preseason blogpoll. And starting in about a week we will begin our Always Be Closing and This Is Sparta awards. So I guess we are trying to say hold on baby, the season is almost upon us.

Jayhawks - You teh winner!

I don't care what anyone says, if Chris Douglas-Roberts did not miss those two free throws and Derrick Rose did not miss that one, the Tigers would have been crowned king last night.



Memphis? Alec Baldwin is here on an errand of mercy and he has a lesson for you...



All in all a very exciting game though. I was watching it with the guys, some of whom don't even like college basketball. And even they were into that game!

End game bracket -



Tomorrow we will have our Moment of Zen and also our off-season posting rules. College hoops is now done until winter. =(

What's your name anway?

I'm not being bitter. I think this is well deserved. Stanford had the lead over UCLA for almost the ENTIRE GAME. Then allowed the Bruins to catch up. Then proceeded to collapse in overtime.

Tied at 63 after regulation, the Bruins dominated overtime by outscoring the Cardinal 14-4. Brook Lopez and Mitch Johnson scored Stanford's only baskets...

Stanford Cardinals, you win the Always Be Closing award!


Fuck you, that's my name!!!

UAB has angry fans

Alternate title: Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting).

Memphis (not MemPIS college students) managed to beat UAB 79 to 78 with five seconds left in the game. UAB did have a chance to come back with 2 seconds left but they took the shot after the game was over so it didn't count. The Blazers fans didn't like that so all hell broke loose.



From Scripps Howard News Service:

Though coach John Calipari called the scene "ugly," he said Sunday he was disappointed with the reaction of his players.

"They were wrong, but our response was wrong too," Calipari said. "My only issue was our guys being smart enough to know, we're creating our own happiness. Why would you let what they say do or throw -- paper cup, (urine), beer, popcorn -- have an effect on the happiness we're going to have? You wish it didn't happen, but just show maturity when it does."

Nice, coach. Very zen like. But who cares, lets go to the tape!



I say DAMN that one UAB student threw that booze bottle like a molotov cocktail!


That shot should have COUNTED! Revolution now!!

The blogosphere reaction is even better. This from a person called "hueys":

stfu you obviously don't know about the tigers

and oh yea, your team just got beat in your own "ghetto" homecourt by a bunch of "ghetto niggers" who are a "GANG (team)"

does that make sense to you?

Uhhhh, no. Stupidity rarely makes sense.

UPDATE: Almost forgot... Alabama-Birmingham, you win the Always Be Closing award! You had those Tigers, man!

Late night hoops dancing

Even though Valpo lost to Butler...

Wait. Valpo was LEADING Butler until the final minute of the game. And they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory losing 68 to 71.

So first, Valparaiso you get the ALWAYS BE CLOSING award.

However, the Crusaders do have some seriously funky fans worthy of Soul Train.


Gotta have soul! Before that loss rips your soul out so painfully.

You thought I forgot...

No way Mark Turgeon!

40 to 28 at the half, and your Aggies got outplayed nearly 2 to 1 in the second half to get beat 67 to 78 by the Wildcats?!

ALWAYS BE CLOSING!

Hey A&M, I'm on an errand of mercy.

It's double awards time!

Drew Drew Drew... Michigan State led UCLA by 11 points at the half!

How could you let Mbah a Moute take over the game like that?! UCLA ends up winning 68 to 63.


Ummmm, insert your own comment here...

Sparties, you guys get the first Always Be Closing award. Aren't you proud.


Put that Gatorade DOWN! Gatorade's for CLOSERS!

Next!

Oregon... That was simply embarrassing. St. Mary's came out and fucking bitch slapped you 99 to 87!

Gaels (whatever the hell those are), you receive our The Is Sparta!!! award for laying the lumber to the Ducks. Methinks there may be a missing persons report for Oregon on next week's blogpoll.


Spartans, prepare for glory!

Light post

Work surrounds me and blogpollers want to know why Gardner-Webb is not getting more love.

The Week One Blogpoll will be released by Wednesday AM.

Hey, the Vols think they are who they thought they were!



Improved depth should enable Pearl to dole out minutes based on defensive intensity, which players peg as the reason they blew a 17-point halftime lead in an NCAA regional semifinal against Ohio State.

"We’re fixing that now," (Wayne) Chism said of the team’s defense. "Our biggest key is improving our defense and stopping the other team’s top players. If you don’t go hard, you don’t play."

Always. Be. Closing. They would have won that award if I had it last season. What a meltdown against Oden and the Buckeyes.

Exit Sandman...

I know, we are a college hoops blog. But if we were blogging about college football, I would have given Virginia Tech our Always Be Closing Award. How can you lose a 10-0 lead with only 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter?!?!?

Congrats Boston College. You are #2 for another week.

First up, the bible gives us a preview of the Mountain West Conference. I would like to point out Mr. Pomeroy's opening statement:

This is year two of the Mountain West's grand experiment to televise its games on its own network. Unlike the Big Ten, which undertook a similar venture for the 2007-08 school year, the MWC took this step while simultaneously severing its relationship with ESPN. Because of a lack of exposure through satellite distributors, the MWC's network (called "the mtn."), and thus the vast majority of MWC basketball games, are available only to parts of a seven-state footprint in the west. The games that do appear on national television are relegated to networks that are not yet familiar to the casual sports fan (CSTV and Versus.).

In an era where the proliferation of televised games has driven the popularity of the sport to unprecedented levels, the MWC is playing a dangerous game.

Now, I said as much over a month ago when I responded to Steve Fisher's comment about getting "national" exposure:

Yeah, ummmm.... Right... I live in Los Angeles with a pretty good selection of channels on basic and cable. And I don't have The Mtn. (yes, I am pronouncing it THE MMMTNNN). Or VERSUS. Or CSTV. So how in the SAM HELL can he say we have NATIONAL TV EXPOSURE?!?!?!

Preach on, Mr. Pomeroy.

As far as what he had to say about SDSU? I'm not going to even link it. Go, just go stick your head in the sand like the rest of us and pray.


Yeah, feels good down here...

The USA Today's pre-season coaches' poll was released and it seems like universally (CSTV/Blogpoll/Coaches' poll) there are the same top five (Memphis, UCLA, North Carolina, Kansas, Georgetown), just in different orders.

Are Kentucky fans passionate or just fucking crazy? 23,313 of them showed up...for practice.


We're just talking about practice!

And it looks like Billy Donovan's back might save him from fresh technicals that the refs plan to give out this year for "bad" coach behavior. Hey, if you can't move you can't slug the motherfucker.

Hey, did you know Donald Trump (or his organization) is teaching people how to generate thousands of dollars in profit immediately? Ummmm, maybe he needs to take his own class. The man hasn't been profitable in years and has been living off of debt financing (and refinancing).

Happy Friday!

New weekly award

I think I came up with a new award I will give out once a week when the season starts. It will be called the "Always Be Closing (ABC)" Award. This will be given to the team who had a seemingly unbeatable lead only to blow it at the end and lose the game.

Mr. Data, make it so!


Coffee's for CLOSERS!


(HT: Hey Jenny Slater)