Another award

So we have our ABC award. Talking with my wife Mrs. "March To Madness" while watching 300 I was like "I need another award for teams that overcame insurmountable odds and won a game. I thought...

"Sparta"

Mrs. March To Madness said "But don't they lose in the end?"

Well it's not about that. Don't bring logic into this. It's about the spirit of competition!

"Basketball's stupid."

So with my wife's support I now have another award!

The This Is Sparta Award. For the team that people picked to lose, but ended up kicking so much ass.

Mr. Data make it so!


Spartans, welcome!

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)

The Polish Connection

(Just like French but with more kielbasa!)


Mmmmmm, kielbasa...

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski calls in a favor and lands Rivals Top 100 prospect Olek Czyz. Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva commented by saying that the two will celebrate the signing afterwards by singing the Mazurek Dąbrowskiego and doing a quick polka.


Pomyśleć jestem sexy?

From bad to worse - Mike DeCourcy from The Sporting News points out another bad sign for Tennessee:

"True or false: You can win the national title without a post presence on either offense or defense. Tennessee would really like the answer to be true. It's false."

Ouch! He also takes a quick strike at O.J. Mayo.

(bow down)

Happy Friday to you!

Something is fishy...

First up in the queue, Carmelo Anthony paid $3,000,000.00 to name the new Syracuse basketball center after himself.

Hmmm... Only there for 1 year, but did lead the Orangemen to the NCAA Championship. Kind of torn there...



How much was Lorenzo Romar sweating before the NCAA finally declared his star recruit Venoy Overton eligible to play this year?!

Scene - Huskies campus on a cold Tuesday morning
Romar (briskly walking toward his office): Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck....
Student: Hey coach! How are we looking this year?
Romar: FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!


Welcome to the neighborhood, rookie...

Finally... Tennessee's star forward Duke Crews has been suspended indefinitely for violating "team rules". Team rules? Indefinitely? Something doesn't pass the smell test there. You get suspended for a game or two for breaking "team" rules. Indefinite suspensions happen when you are arrested for driving drunk with a trunk full of nose candy.


Ain't mine yo...

But school officials are maintaining that this is internal and has nothing to do with law enforcement. What, did he rape the university president's daughter?! The Tennessee blogs are blowing up over this with most people screaming WE'RE FUCKED!

More has to be revealed on this one...

I look around and see new things

As you can see we have added some more fun stuff like a feed and e-mail update section, and a posts by category section to your left (I did not go back and label ALL previous posts though, but going forward I will).

We are finalizing our blogpoll and will start pre-season top 25 voting next week. Any blogger who would like to be a part can e-mail me.

Finally I will also be blogging at CNNsi's FanNation, but they will just be reprints of my choice posts from here. Or what I consider "choice".

Another post coming later focusing on UT's Duke Crews suspension.

Keep hope alive!

[Ed. note: Post was delayed because of possible "terror" alert alarm here in the building I work in downtown LA]

"You did not vote for failure."
- Pres. George W. Bush

First in the queue:

The NCAA is starting to look at academics for Division 1-A basketball teams. Now I do like this on the surface. Look, these kids are getting a free ride and all they have to do is play basketball and go to class? Then at the end of 3-4 years they get a degree? Give ME a deal like that as I look at my student loan bill.

The part that makes me chuckle is NOW they find it important to look at and institute the APR (academic progress report) for basketball. Call me cynical but was it OK for low grad rates a year ago (or longer)? And do I think this will help? Fuck no, just like schools came up with easy or fake classes to help their star players pass, they'll find a way around this shit.

Next, I think there is still a little itty bitty tiny bitterness from Kansas State fans after Bob Huggins pumped and dumped them after one season...


We are in HELL!!!

Oh, and here is a bonus Wednesday Moment of Zen for ya courtesy of Lindsay Lohan. Safe for work unless your co-workers hate Ms. Lohan and her covered, bouncing mammary glands.

Your Wednesday Moment of Zen

I call it Midget Happiness...

Randoms

John Gardner likely answer for loss of DaShaun Wood at Wright State? Me no think so. Me thinks it's NIT time after that devastating loss.


D-Wood: Enjoying the benefits playing b-ball in Europe.

The Charlottesville Cardinals recently beat the living tar out of Virginia. Former Cardinals coach Tom Vandever was quoted as saying "We hammered them." The Cardinals are now being mentioned as a POWERHOUSE basketball program. Y'all better start figuring them in the 25 polls.

How could this tiny program reach national prominence so quickly? They put their opponents in wheelchairs.


Say my name, BITCH!

Very cool story nonetheless.

NCAA Hoops Today points to a great article about the Gonzaga Flex. It's just like the Princeton Motion (my fav) but without the perpetual weak screen, the absence of which does tend to slow down play somewhat IMO.

Now, time for the humiliation moment of the day...

Here's an article about how top ranked teams don't want to play SDSU at home. The "excuse" was that we didn't have the room to schedule them in. The truth was that we sucked ass so much last year no team will give us the time of day.

*hangs head in shame*

I see the future...

Will this be me after watching the Aztecs beat up on enough teams to possibly make it as a 13th (or lower) seed only to lose the last remaining 7 games to qualify for the NIT ("Not Invited Tournament")?



(HT: EDSBS)

Criminally minded

Sometimes I feel NCAA rules are just plain ridiculous. Designed to protect Student-Athletes from unscrupulous schools/coaches/general public, they have turned into a murky twisting back river mess of contradiction and double-speak.

Take for instance the whole UNC "mess". Prospect Iman Shumpert played a little shoot around with Sean May, Raymond Felton and Marvin Williams. Because Felton was on the UNC basketball team in 2005 and is no longer a student, he could be looked at as a representative of the Tar Heels interest thus violating NCAA law with him speaking to Shumpert.

Yer kidding, right? So freaking what? Anyone going after a recruit is a representative of that school. Just because he does not work for the school or go to class makes him DANGEROUS to the recruit?

Use some common sense, guys. This is such a non-issue.

How unlucky is SMU? First they got the Death Penalty for their football program and now narrowly avoided NCAA sanctions on their basketball program!

"SMU reiterates its commitment to competing at the highest level with integrity throughout its athletic programs and, like the NCAA, considers the matter closed at this time."
- University statement

Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha! Yes Mustangs, your track record shows it.


A symbol of excellence!

And Auburn's Frank Tolbert shows that you can't just TAKE a man's SUV now. He don't play that shit.


Jail or no jail, I'm GETTING my SUV back!

(knock knock knock)

Housekeeping!

Couple of changes around here. Added a "Save to del.icio.us" button on my posts for some of y'all. Plus put a SDSU logo on the main web page. Minor things, but enough to make you think that I care.

Got some great feedback on the college basketball blogpoll. So far it looks like 4 blogs will be participating to start. I plan on initiating the first blogpoll in a few weeks.

I'm taking the Mrs. to Vegas in a month. She wants to see Zumanity. Why do I say that here? Because I'm just so excited.


That's what I'm talking about...

No post today

It was a nut cracking day at work...



See y'all Monday!

IT'S HERE!!!

I'm THIS happy...


2007-08 San Diego State Non-Conference Schedule

Date	Opponent	Time	TV
Nov. 5	Point Loma Nazarene	7 p.m. PT	TBD
Nov. 9	vs. Liberty	5:30 p.m. PT	TBD
Nov. 10	vs. Portland	8 p.m. PT	TBD
Nov. 11	at Fresno State	4 p.m. PT	TBD
Nov. 17	UC San Diego	7 p.m. PT	TBD
Nov. 19	at San Diego	7 p.m. PT	TBD
Nov. 24	at California	TBD	TBD
Nov. 28	at Loyola Marymount	TBD	TBD
Dec. 1	Western Michigan	7 p.m. PT	TBD
Dec. 4	UC Riverside	7 p.m. PT	TBD
Dec. 8	vs. Saint Mary's	Noon PT	TBD
Dec. 17	Navy	7 p.m. PT	CSTV
Dec. 22	at Arizona	TBD	TBD
Dec. 28	Sam Houston State	8 p.m. PT	The Mtn.
Jan. 9	Northern Colorado	7 p.m. PT	TBD

The full schedule can be found here.

Now looking at this I can point out 4 must wins (Cal, Loyola, Saint Mary's and Arizona). Arizona for obvious reasons, Cal and Loyola because of quality RPI wins and Saint Mary's because of the Wooden Classic. I mean every game is a must win, but those four I feel are really important.

Which leads me to my yearly caveat about San Diego State -

"I realize they will never be a powerhouse in my lifetime. I realize they will never make it to the top 25 in my lifetime. All I want is for my Aztecs to make it to the first round of March Madness. That is all I ask, that is all I want. To see my school on national TV in March while drunk and screaming at either a) home, b) a bar, or both is my yearly dream. In God I pray, Amen."

Hurry up Midnight Madness!!!!

University of Memphis, Inc.

Look, I know that teams want to play overseas during the off-season to change things up, get some new exposure, etc.

I've made jokes about teams wanting to go to Mexico (USC) and The Bahamas (Indiana) as more of a vacation than a tune-up.

But John Calipari takes the cake! He's talking about market share and merchandising. Television deals and revenue streams.

Don't go down that road, dude... That is why the NBA sucks ass and college basketball is riding high. Because of the purity of the sport, the worship of the "student-athlete". They are just kids, not business executives.


Exactly...

*gets down from soap box*

Second, no Oden, no Lewis, no problem! Dream... The impossible dream...

And even if it's from Dickie V., he has the inside scoop on the 2008 NCAA selection committee.

God I really despise him...

Hey, that's pretty funny!

(Major HT: EDSBS)

I've never hidden the fact that I like college football. Something to do before basketball season starts. And sometimes I can mix the two up as Jeff with March Madness All Season pointed out today (117 tea... No? 335 teams?!).

But this picture crosses all sports -


Girlfriend on the right leans over and whispers "Our basketball team isn't that good either."

Ok, enough Colorado bashing! That's not what we're about!

Maybe I'll be able to post more substantive items if work lets up. What a day...

And now, a message from BC's coach, Al Skinner

HERE'S YOUR WEDNESDAY MOMENT OF ZEN! AAAARRRRRRRR!!!! (NSFW)


More posts maybe later if work lets up...

How would you like to have THESE parents?

No pressure, right mom and dad?


Relax, your son plays for STANFORD.

Wait until the 35 second mark for mom to mentally break down.

Slow news day? Never...

Looks like the Pat Summitt / Bruce Pearl hookup story is getting legs. Remember, you heard it here first. Right?

University of Colorado's Coors Events Center bans Coors beer. Are you freakin' kidding me?! Well hell, you can't buy pizza at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium either. What's next, no nachos at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl?


Those Colorado fans might need to drink once their season starts.

Hey, Air Force released their full 2007-08 schedule. Aztecs? Hello? Bueller? Bueller?

The Big Ten - Catch it!

Great article about the lack of firepower from this year's Big Ten conference. I hadn't really though about it until now, but WOW did they lose some key players!

* Ohio State lost Greg Oden & Ron "Clutch" Lewis
* Wisconsin lost Alando Tucker and Chris Rock Kammron Taylor
* Illinois lost Warren Carter
* Purdue lost Carl Landry and David Teague.

To me, Michigan State seems to be the only power right now with Drew Neitzel. I know the article mentions Indiana, but c'mon. Unless Gene Hackman is patrolling the sideline, my gut reaction is they will not go very far this year.

(HT: Mlive.com)

Oh, and man I have a sizzling hot Wednesday Moment of Zen for you guys. First one I will have to do behind a link. No technical nudity but... Anyhow, two more days. Just think of an "L" type word.

No f'ing way!

Ok, last week I made mention of Pat Summitt filing for divorce after hearing that Bruce Pearl was Jewish, in hopes of hooking up with Brucie. The joke was not that Ms. Summitt loves Jewish men, but was that Ms. Summitt and Mr. Pearl seems to be almost like husband and wife. Both coaching the men's and women's basketball teams at Tennessee. Both showing up to each others games either in body paint or in a cheerleader outfit.

Now... FUCKING BRUCE PEARL FILES FOR DIVORCE!!!

Oh I almost guarantee that by the start of March Madness next year they will be dating.

They almost have to.


Pat: I want him.
Bruce: Don't go there... Not YET at least.

And finally, University of Pitt's basketball coach Jamie Dixon explains how successful his program is both on the court and off by having two of his players arrested in the past few months.

Coach, get control of your men!

Ok...

To all the bloggers out there who read this, I am thinking about putting together a weekly college basketball blogpoll like the one at MGoBlog.

I just have to think how I would run it. I don't want to make it as complex as Brian's.

I think we would need 5 to 10 bloggers to make it viable.

Thoughts (if any)? Does someone else have it?

Random walk

You know, I never knew Bruce Pearl was Jewish?! Meanwhile Pat Summitt filed for divorce upon hearing the news, in case there was a snowball's chance...


L'chai-im! (HT: NCAA Hoops Today)

On the advise of Bill Callahan, the Nebraska Cornhuskers basketball team started recruiting linebackers to beef up their inside court presence.

More thoughts after a commercial break...



Finally, sometimes it is nice to see the good side of sports, so I'm glad this blogger is taking on that challenge.

We'll still stay dirty, but amen to bloggers like that.


YYYEEEEAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

Good Friday to you all.

Xavier University starts eating meat

After years of regular cupcake feedings, someone points out the importance of RPI to coach Sean Miller.


RPI? Is that that D&D stuff with the 8 sided die?

Sean, red meat does a strength of schedule good.

The legend of Ovinton J'Anthony Mayo

USC definitely boosts it's stock with the signing of O.J. Mayo, the world's nation's top point guard prospect. His amazing abilities both on and off the court are something to marvel at...

* Averaged 20.5 a game as an eighth-grader, leading his school to its first Kentucky state tournament

* Won the Mr. Ohio Basketball title, the second sophomore ever to win the award behind LeBron "King" James

* Knowledge of the Force rivals that of Master Sidious. Can deploy thought bombs to render all opponents impotent

* Led Rose Hill (KY) Christian Academy to the Sweet 16. He was named first team all-state in 2002-03

* Co-MVP of Reebok's ABCD underclassman all-star game

* Helped China ratify the Kyoto Protocol treaty while scoring 200 80 points against Mater Dei High School

* Ranked by Rivals.com as the #1 player in the 2007 class

* Over a three minute span in the fourth quarter of the Roundball Classic he had 13 points and 2 assists, cutting his opponent's lead from 25 points to 11

* Cock size listed at an official 6 feet flaccid


We are all witness. Even with the technical.

I'm gonna sue! Well, no...

Rutger's Kia Vaughn has dropped her lawsuit against Don "Crazy Honkey" Imus.


Who you callin' "nappy headed"?!

In what amounts to one of the most skull crushing schedules so far, The University of Rhode Island plays the following teams this season:

UAB, Boston College, Toledo, Syracuse, Texas A&M, Duquesne, George Washington, St. Bonnaventure, Richmond, Dayton, Xavier and LaSalle.


Rhode Island... Pwnd!

Oh, almost forgot. Jesus O.J. Mayo is here!!! USC is gonna be in the Final Four now!

And now, your moment of Zen. You deserve it.

Silly Wednesday morning stuff

More substantial posts and a Moment Of Zen(tm) later...

Another episode of Amazing Decisions!

Wake Forest's leading scorer Anthony Gurley leaves to attend... UMass?!

No no, I would much rather sail on this splendid boat today than spend a weekend feasting on steak and lobster at the house that Prosser built. What did you say this boat was called? Titanic? Travis Ford is her captain? Sounds like a fine ship!"


Fine ship indeed...

First...

You must go here. NOW!

And make a note of it, mere mortal. Basketball Prospectus dot com is coming mid October. The blog world rejoices.


We are indeed not worthy...

So hey, how about going to The Bahamas, kick back, have some drinks and write it off as a official school basketball trip?

There should be a picture of Indiana's new coach Kelvin Sampson next to the dictionary definition of "curry favor".


Hey man, pass me the Mai Tai, I mean the BALL man...

And in 8 weeks, Tar Heels will hate Duke again...

You gotta love the county court

Probably no posts from me today even as I have a shitload news items to go over. I had to go take care of a traffic ticket today and it was mind numbing. I saw a women cry about not going to jail. TEN, count them, TEN people in a row plead guilty (through an interpretor) to driving without a license.

It's a racket by the way. They just pay a fine and go about their way.


Oh yeah, it's like a cash machine...

Poor guys. I was shaking my head the whole time.

Anyway, paid my ticket and got into work after 5 hours. Yup. Now it is catch up time and I don't want to stay late here in a Friday.

I'll post some basketball stuff either this weekend or Monday. Have a great weekend, everyone!

I should go to bed now...

But as NCAA Hoops Today reminded me in a brief conversation we had -

6 more weeks until midnight madness

And I am... Excited!



Are you?

Quick note to Steve Fisher

Please talk to Ernie Kent. ESPN2 is national exposure. The MMMMMMTNNNNN is not...

Lazy bitches...

ShootAround news -

No real news to report if you're an Aztec fan. We have no top returning players except Jerome Habel. Oh, and he was just thrown off the team.



"There's this thing about sitting in a defensive stance for half a college basketball game: It gets old fast. Your knees ache. Your mind wanders. You lose focus and start doing things like cheating on screens and going over the top of them when you know such a decision will only lead to a back-cut and layup for the other guys.

San Diego State junior wing Lorrenzo Wade hopes that's a thing of the past with at least one Mountain West Conference opponent this season, that a change in coaching at Air Force might convince the Falcons to play a less deliberate and measured style, and his knees won't desire so much postgame ice."

Princeton man, Princeton

(HT to ESPN)

Here is an early top 25

Not by me. Mine will come later.

This is from Kurt at SEC Hoops.

One man's vision here.

I agree with almost everything there except for the top 3 and that is just a matter of switching position.

SDSU's 2008 Conference Schedule

(ed. note: this took over FOUR hours to post. one because I am an HTML dummy and two because the site crashed. uggg.)

2008 San Diego State Mountain West Conference Schedule

Date	Opponent	Time	TV
Jan. 5	TCU	7 p.m. PT	The Mtn.
Jan. 12	at New Mexico	7 p.m. MT	The Mtn.
Jan. 16	Utah	8 p.m. PT	The Mtn.
Jan. 19	Wyoming	8 p.m. PT	CSTV
Jan. 23	at Brigham Young	6 p.m. MT	The Mtn.
Jan. 26	UNLV	1 p.m. PT	VERSUS
Jan. 29	at Colorado State	7 p.m. MT	The Mtn.
Feb. 6	Air Force	8 p.m. PT	The Mtn.
Feb. 9	at TCU	TBD	TBD
Feb. 13	New Mexico	8 p.m. PT	The Mtn.
Feb. 16	at Utah	2 p.m. MT	VERSUS
Feb. 19	at Wyoming	7 p.m. MT	The Mtn.
Feb. 23	Brigham Young	8 p.m. PT	CSTV
Feb. 26	at UNLV	7 p.m. PT	CSTV
March 1	Colorado State	7 p.m. PT	The Mtn.
March 8	at Air Force	1 p.m. MT	The Mtn.

"The fact that we have been selected to be on national television five times is an indication of how others feel about San Diego State basketball," (SDSU Head Coach Steve) Fisher said. "We are very pleased the entire country will be able to see Aztec Basketball."

Yeah, ummmm.... Right... I live in LA 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?!?!?!

That non-conference schedule better be way more national than that shit...

FYI

Mountain West ShootAround is Thursday (9/6).

Fine, a Wednesday moment of Zen...

There's no "I" in T-E-A-M

UAB's basketball team wanted to demonstrate how they believe in team unity and sticking together by fighting amongst themselves resulting in an entire starting lineup being arrested!


Fight Fight Fight! Arrest Arrest Arrest!

Say WHAT?!?!?

First Michigan loses to Appalachian State. But I got one better in the world of college basketball...

The Washington Huskies lose to a Greek farm team...

Even better, they were 2 - 3 in Greece.

What would Superintendent Chalmers say?


LORENZO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, at least one of the school's teams are getting it done.

Damn... Just, damn...

How can you allow this to happen?



They are kicking Michigan's ass up and down the field, my nachos are soggy and my slurpee has melted. I am so depressed right now.
- Ron, a Michigan fan