If there was ever any doubt this from SB Nation — LeBron James, Kentucky And The AAU Revolution — should lay it to rest: From the beginnings in spring and summer AAU competition to college (now nearly mandatory due to the one-and-done arrangement) to the NBA the driving force is the almighty (not so much these days) dollar and not so much for the young man and his family.

However, basketball players are kept in the dark through most of their adolescence, prevented from using their talent to increase their social capital. In the name of amateurism, a concept invented to make it harder for lower-income kids to compete with the sons of privilege in the early 20th century, a firm barrier is ruthlessly enforced between the families of top players and people who could help them manage and handle the money.

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The official title is Backstage At The Final Four and it comes with two warnings: it's long, and because it is media (in the form of Brian Weinberg writing for Salon.com) commenting on media it is a tad on the incestuous side. Oh you'll recognize nearly all the names dropped: Forde, Goodman, Thamel, Davis, Anthony, Visser, Zagoria, et al, including Matt Jones who's style and relentless self-promotion earned him a larger than deserved spot (alas no mention of Mr. Logan or ASoB). At the core of the piece is a fact that anyone who follows sports (or nearly any other topic for that matter) already knows: the old media is slowly but surely being pushed aside by the new with all ensuing sociological and journalistic changes it entails. Oh, did I mention it's long? But if you're like me there isn't much to follow for a couple of days anyway. Plus it provides another opportunity to revel in championship #8.

Did you know that this week is NCAA Division III week? Neither did I. In the National Review Nicholas Frankovich takes a look at the, as he calls it, outmoded term, student athlete, and proposes some ways to make it more in keeping with the Platonic concept of the mind-body duality:

Another is to change the rules to reflect the reality, or suspected reality, that players for high-profile Division I teams are essentially employees of their respective colleges or universities. If they want to enroll in classes and take advantage of the tuition exemption available to employees generally, fine. If they meet academic standards for matriculating in a given program, fine again. If they don’t, they don’t, and that’s fine too. They still play ball, but now without having to maintain the fiction that they’re students when they’re not.

Of course during all this high moral plane pondering he does find time to mention (not in a flattering way) UK basketball and John Calipari. That aside it is a thought provoking piece.

Let's see it's been less than 72 hours since Calipari and the Cats brought UK's 8th national basketball championship and the glow, the euphoria, the pride still dominate the BBN. Add to that the one-and-done controversy, the Calipari-to-the-NBA rumors, draft possibilities and the upcoming NCAA signing date, and one can see that there isn't a whole lot of media oxygen remaining, yet UK has another #1 ranked team — Coach Gary Henderson's Bat Cats. UK #1 in SEC! UK #1 in nation — who would believe it? Not me. Cats won 20th straight game in Cliff Hagan stadium defeating Dayton 19-6 with 6 HR's including a grand slam. Ole Miss comes to Lexington for a weekend series. Time for some ASoB attention paid to the nation's #1 team: University of Kentucky Wildcats!

Kentucky (28-2) has now opened its season with a school-record 20 consecutive wins at Cliff Hagan Stadium, eclipsing the previous record of 16 consecutive home wins in 2006 and 2007. The Wildcats passed their first test as the newly ranked top-ranked team in the nation in a ranking by Collegiate Baseball, ranking No. 4 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll, No. 7 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll and No. 8 in the Baseball America top-25.

Poynter Review has an 18-month contract with ESPN to review and critique the network and its affiliates. The recent brouhaha over Bob Knight's reluctance, er, refusal to speak the word Kentucky has brought commentary from the reviewing entity and a response from The Worldwide Leader. Contributing were comments such as these:

“His failure to refer to the college basketball teams of Kentucky and Indiana by name is, quite frankly, childish and immature behavior that is reprehensible,” one reader wrote to the Poynter Review Project. Opined another: “That is pathetic, and it is just as pathetic that ESPN brass allow this farce to continue.” A third wrote that “I would like to know if ESPN still feels the positives of his employment continue to outweigh the potential damage to the college basketball arm of the ESPN brand.”

March Madness has slipped into the realm of politics (using the word in its broadest context) by being featured in dueling columns in National Review Online. First comes Andrew Cline (whoever that is) with Why Kentucky Needs To Lose, and that is countered by David French (only thing I know about him is he was born in the Commonwealth) who responds with feigned outrage and good humor. Nothing much new: NCAA, NBA, one-and-done, filthy lucre, etc.

Las Vegas Reviw-Journal reports that Muhammad's father, Ron Holmes, has acquired the services of high-profile attorney Robert Orr, former North Carolina — hmmm, isn't Durham in North Carolina? — supreme court justice, to represent the player, plus has hired William Trosch to represent him (Homes). Orr had one of the best descriptions of the NCAA rules and their administration that I've read:

"Certainly their impression is that they were within NCAA rules," Orr said. "I have often quoted the assistant dean of the Duke law school, 'The problem with the NCAA rule book isn't its length. It's that it's intellectually incomprehensible.' There's great confusion and lack of clarity in how the rules are applied."

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At the time of Tee Martin's leaving of UK for USC I posted that my main concern was the relatively old age (average 46),and then along comes the hiring of Martin's replacement, Pat Washington age 48. Not many responses to my regrets — understandable in the midst of a possible championship basketball run — but then I read this by C-J's Kyle Tucker and I don't feel so out in front of the reality.

“If they were at a program that wasn’t deemed a basketball school, a program that was a power program in the BCS, then it wouldn’t be as big a concern. Florida sells itself. Ohio State is a brand. Michigan, Texas are brands. Kentucky is not a football brand. Joker is a good coach; I think he’s a good guy. His coaches – there’s nothing wrong with Pat Washington – but unfortunately Kentucky is not a big brand name in football and might not be able to get away with having no young guys to recruit.”

Including 954 college basketball victories. New York Times feature piece on Oregon Tech's (NAIA DII) Eddie Miles.

For years at the school he calls “my Notre Dame,” Miles drove the team van to away games, washed the sweat from uniforms and endured 13-hour bus rides up mountain passes and through storms. “All the way home, I’m thinking, As soon as I get back, I’m turning in my resignation. This time, for sure, I’m going to retire,” Miles said. “And here I am.”

He shrugged.

“I’m a coach.”

Every time I review a UK game I look for possible DDMO plays and have a very difficult time in differentiating them from other plays. Now it is entirely possible (likely even) that my understanding of the DDMO (I've read and viewed much about the system) is so minimal that I'm unable to identify it, but then I read this from Kevin Stallings:

"They don't run the dribble-drive motion (offense) very much," the Vandy coach said. "That's one of the big fallacies about Kentucky basketball. ... They run set plays about every time down. Every once in a while, they run a little dribble-drive. Two, three times a game."

Stallings concluded his digression by saying, "The dribble-drive is more a figment of people's imagination."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/02/09/2062632/uk-notes-vandy-looks-to-step-it.html#storylink=cpy

And I thought, maybe I'm not quite so dull. Further rumination led me to consider that the DDMO was adopted by Calipari as not so much an alternative systems but rather as a means of differentiating himself from other coaches, thus providing a great marketing opportunity — especially to the elite player who wants a system that utilizes and accentuates his individual talent. Not much DDMO in 2010 because the presence of Wall, Cousins, et al wasn't conducive. Not much last year either. Hard to note this year as well although the personnel seem nearly perfect for DDMO principles. Have we been hoodwinked by that sly old trickster? Hmmm.

Remember — it hasn't been all that long ago — when you could pencil in a UK win over Vandy? Last year and the future portrays a whole new future for the Commodores. How did the 'Dores just sign their best recruiting class in history? Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples takes a look at the process and the success.

Franklin seems to be succeeding. Vanderbilt doesn't get players Ohio State wants. It got one this year. Vanderbilt rarely beats Tennessee for players. It did this year. "It's the best class I've ever been associated with," Franklin said.

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Business Insider compiles the list using the following criteria:

1) Architecture, ambiance, and aesthetics

2) History: an aggregate score of the historical importance of the team, the games played at the stadium, and the venue itself.

3) Passion How much do the fans care about the team who plays there? The roar of the crowd can do more for a stadium than almost anything

Guess what's missing.

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera says he had hoped to be through commenting on the actions of the NCAA but the recent decision on UConn freshman Ryan Boatright's eligibility was so egregious that it deserved a few hundred more words Including:

Longtime watchers of the N.C.A.A. tell me that they have never seen an athlete and his mother thrown under the bus the way Ryan and Tanesha Boatright were on Saturday. One rarely gets so clear a glimpse of moral bankruptcy.

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera continues his virtual one-man campaign against what he sees (and that with which I agree) as the NCAA's hypocritical stance as a defender and protector of the student athlete when in reality it is a typical bureaucracy which is unswervingly dedicated to the rigidity of its self-serving rules. The victim this time is a woman basketball player from, of all places, Harvard. The Crimson should be crimson in its cowardice in not defending one of its students.

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera with another in a series of highly critical commentary on the NCAA. This most recent deals with the rather strange circumstances of the eligibility of University of Connecticut's freshman point guard Ryan Boatright.

“The N.C.A.A. is like the Gestapo,” wrote one parent in an e-mail. “It’s out there, we all fear it, and it is all-powerful and follows its own rules and makes them up as they go along. Who are they protecting? The same thing the Gestapo protected: themselves.”

Joe Nocera follows up his earlier New York Times piece accusing the NCAA of being a cartel in the manner of OPEC with a 6-page proposal for paying college athletes for their efforts.

He limits his pay-for-play proposal to only the male football and basketball participants, and he is not oblivious to the Title IX conflict and recognizes many of the other difficulties of such a practice including many of those cited previously here on ASoB, but his reasoning and that of others provides much food for thought. He concludes with this:

To hear the gnashing of teeth by those who believe that money will soil college sports is to hark back to the days when baseball was on the cusp of free agency, or the Olympics was considering abandoning its longstanding adherence to amateurism. In both cases, critics feared that the introduction of serious and legitimate money would damage the sports, turn off the fans and lead to chaos. Instead, baseball and the Olympics got much better.

College sports will become more honest once players are paid, and more honorable. Fans will be able to enjoy football and men’s basketball without having to avert their eyes from the scandals and the hypocrisy. Yes, it’s true: paying players will change college sports. They will be better, too.

I'm in general agreement with Nocera's deprecative view of the situation as it currently exists and expect a steady but deliberate move toward a more equitable distribution of revenue.