Last night, I headed to Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington for the George RR Martin signing of A Dance With Dragons. (If you haven't read the series, its the basis for the HBO series A Game of Thrones. Tru and others who enjoy fantasy fiction should definitely pick it up.) After the signing, my friends and I decided to hit PF Changs for dinner. As we neared the completion of the meal, I made comment to the waiter about the empty table set for 28 right next to us. He told us "The national team is supposed to be here." To which we asked "The Dominican National Team?!!?" "Yes" "And is their coach supposed to be with them?" "Yeah, but they're 40 minutes late and we close in 15 minutes." Needless to say, we all ordered beers/desert and sat back to see if an extra 20 minutes would top the night off perfectly. Unfortunately, it was not to be. (And truth be told, the waiter seemed a bit relieved that they didn't show up at 10:30 at night.) Thought I was this close [ ] to meeting Coach Cal over some lettuce wraps! LOL

Now that it looks like there will be football this season, I can dare to dream... The Forty Niners are playing at the Bengals on September 25 for Week 3. I have never been to an NFL game, but would like to see the Niners in person. (Technically... the St. Louis game every year would be an option as well; but its at least two hours further away than Cincy.) So I have no clue how to go about this... do I have some way of getting tickets through the Niners that would put me in an "away" section of some sort? Do I just try to get the best tickets I can from the Bengals? Do I just go StubHub or something like that? I feel like a complete noob about all this.

There's been a lot of hullabaloo about this whole "vactated wins" thing lately. My question is this: If the theory is that the game is vacated due to the use of an ineligible player, then shouldn't both wins and losses be wiped off? Why is it entirely okay that the player played if the team loses, but its a major no-no if they win? Shouldn't the game as a whole get wiped out?

This is fun to watch.

 

And now I will need to fill in this section with the requisite word count for this to be a FanPost instead of a FanShot.  So I will utilize my time by wishing the very best in the new year to all of my friends and fellow contributors here at A Sea of Blue!  Here's to a year full of Big Blue wish fulfillments on both the hardwood and the turf! 

ESPN reports that Cobb is a finalist for this new award.  The article says it is being given to the "most versatile" player in college football.

I think its a great award that recognizes the evolution of the game.  With more and more players getting involved in Wildcat formations, special teams, etc while still playing the traditional running back/wide receiver role; its hard to recognize them for the special talents that they are.

I'm hoping Randall gets the recognition that he so richly deserves.

Last night I was reading over Ninjames' well written piece about his changing feelings about Mike Singletary's status as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers when I came to some startling revelations.  I thought about writing this piece last night, but decided to think on it some more before moving forward.  Now that I've gathered my thoughts, I want to lay out for you the comparisons I have now made between Coach Sing and the former coach of my favorite college basketball team:  Billy Gillispie.

I know that many around here are football fans first and foremost and likely have very little knowledge of who Billy Gillispie was.  Those that do know probably just know the surface of the matter and think that he was fired from college basketball's all time winningest program just because he didn't win enough.  Without getting too much into old news, I will lay out the groundwork for my post.  First you must understand the situation he was hired into.  Over the previous 8 years, Kentucky had slipped from 3 straight title games (with 2 wins) to the point that they were losing in the second round of the NCAA tourney.  The program was on the cusp of the longest stretch without a Final Four in school history.  In that atmosphere, head coach and all around nice guy Tubby Smith left for Minnesota.  The school bungled a coaching search and in an effort to avoid further "no" answers wound up hiring the up and coming head coach from Texas A&M Billy Gillispie.  Two years later, he was fired.

Follow me after the jump and I will explain why I see some alarming parallels between the 49ers head coach and this fallen basketball star.

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via i154.photobucket.com

My son expresses his displeasure with our favorite football team.

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I was just listening to Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN radio and Greenberg actually picked the Niners to go to the Super Bowl.  (He had them losing to the Ravens.)  Considering his track record...  we are now officially doomed. 

In all seriousness though, it is nice to see the Niners getting some love from the national media.  Sure most of it comes with the caveat "best team in the worst division in football" but its been a long road through the wilderness and I'm glad that we finally look to be coming out of it.  It will be nice to be able to see a game or two out here in the eastern time zone without forking over the cash for Sunday Ticket.

Just saw this come across Coach Cal's Facebook feed:

Our medical staff took Terrence to an imaging center in Detroit for an MRI this morning. He has been diagnosed with a stress fracture of the rib which has affected the motion in his left arm. We hope to have him back in mid-September when we begin individual workouts

I hate that he won't be able to take full advantage of the learning opportunity that this Canada trip affords the team.  On the flip side though, at least he'll be able to rest and should be ready before the season.

(Even as a medical professional though... I gotta wonder how he ended up with a stress fracture in the rib of all places.  Has he been breathing to hard?!!?  Kind of unusual spot for this type of injury.)

So in my boredom between appointments, I was perusing nbadraft.net's latest mock draft.  I got curious about Utah having a high lottery selection and I hit their link for Outstanding 2010 trades and saw that the pick had been acquired through a 2004 trade involving sending Tom Gugliotta to Utah and Stephon Marbury to New York.  Out of all the tomfoolery, Utah obtained two conditional first round picks... one of which was an unprotected pick in this year's draft.

As we all know, the New Jersey Nets have the best chance at landing the number 1 overall pick (25% chance); but the Knicks/Jazz have a 2.2% chance to obtain that pick. 

I knew that NBA deals got convoluted, but never in my wildest dreams did I think that a deal from 2004 involving an aging player averaging 2.3 points a game would affect where John Wall plays basketball.

ESPN.com says that the NCAA is proposing a bracket that would include 32 more teams and would incorporate a bye for the top 32 teams.  Furthermore, they have stated that it would be played in the same timeframe as the current 65 team tourney.  I have yet to find an article that explains it further, but from what I've seen the tournament would commence as usual and then play Tuesday - Sunday in the second week.  (Which is bizarre to me.) 

My question is... how would the seeding work from there?  I looked at a standard 16 team region and went from there.  Hopefully I can get this to sort itself in a rational way, but I looked at the 1-8 seeds getting a bye and then set up the next 16 teams with a 9 playing 24; 10 playing 23; etc.

 
            1

9

24

            8

16

17

            6

14

19

            4

12

22

            3

11

21

            5

13

20

            7

15

18

            2

10

23

 

I would presume that the current 16th seeds would likely end up as the 24th seeds under this format.  (i.e. East Tennessee State et al would end up with lower seeds than the UConns, UNC's, and Arizona's that would have made the tourney this year under a 96 team field.)  So essentially, a top seed like Kansas would have played a team like Northern Iowa (if a nine seed) in their very first game instead of the second round.  Additionally, look at the Big East tournament this year with their dreaded "double bye" system.  3 of the 4 teams with byes ended up losing their opening game.  Many people think that a bye is actually a disadvantage because of the "momentum" that the other team gets playing that opening game.  I'm not old enough to remember it, but #1 DePaul famously lost their first tournament game after recieving a bye.

There are plenty of reasons for the NCAA to expand the tournament, unfortunately none of them have to do with basketball.

Teen picks perfect bracket through 2 rounds.

I tried to post this as a FanShot, but it had problems recognizing my link for some reason.  So I'll post here instead.  Apparently, this teen beat 13 million to 1 odds to pick a perfect bracket through the first two rounds.  Something tells me this kid's parents need to book a trip to Vegas!!!

And now the fanpost is giving me grief because its not long enough!  I tried to post a FanShot oh programmers of SB Nation, but you denied me!!!!  Is this long enough now?!!?

Bad news for Mountaineers fans, good news for us I suppose.

Its a shame really, Truck Bryant has been solid if not spectacular for them all season long.  He's their second leading three point shooter and does an effective job of getting them into their offense.  He'll be replaced by the guy he replaced due to injury a couple of years ago, Joe Mazzula.  Offensively, Mazzula doesn't bring much to the table (probably due to repeated shoulder injuries). 

It'll be interesting to see what Huggy bear does with his defense.  Shifting to a 1-3-1 could be effective for  him.  Washington is red hot right now and I think they could give WVU a run for their money.

Considering that we're still lamenting a Keith Bogans sprained ankle 7 years after the fact, I have some sympathy for Mountaineer fans... but ultimately, anything that weakens the field is good for us and I'll take it.

Chad Ford's mock draft lottery on ESPN.com seems to think so.

I've run the lotto similuator more than a handful of times, but it generally seems to come up very similar every time.  Wall at number 1, Cousins at number 4, Patterson at 11, and Bledsoe at 14.  To my knowledge, that's unheard of.  I know there have been a handful of teams to get four players drafted in the first round, but four out of the top 14 seems to be an embarassment of riches.

One of the most intriguing things to come out of the sad story of Derrick Miller's season ticket fraud arrest here in Hardin County is that his name isn't Miller... its Millar.  And its been spelled wrong for decades... including on his UK jersey.

Today's News Enterprise article on Derrick Millar.

Overall, I find the entire story to be a sad case of wasted potential.  He made some poor choices after he left school and hasn't been able to capitalize on all the opportunities legally afforded to our heroes of yesteryear in this state.

In last week's edition... Coach Calipari said that winning an SEC title wasn't important (and then promptly lost to Tennessee.)

This week, we travel across the country for sage words from Ben Howland as he talks about taking blame for the debacle at UCLA.

But all of it starts right here with me. I'm in charge of making this program competitive year after year, but I did a poor job of evaluation of some of our recruits — from a talent, as well as a character standpoint.  (Emphasis added)

ROFL

Okay... just to illustrate for everyone here:

       Bus           

UCLA Players

Yeap, Howland pretty much threw his players under the bus with that one.  Nothing quite like taking the blame by saying its your fault because you chose bad players! 

via farm5.static.flickr.com

 This picture comes from North Carolina's loss to FSU last week.  Check out  the time left in the game and all the empty seats in the stands.

 It basically confirms everything I've always thought about UNC fans.  They like to talk big when they're winning and act like they are the only True Blue team in college basketball ... but when times are tough, they show their true colors to be a much more pale shade of blue.  I would be embarassed to call myself a fan of that program.  Sure, Rupp's crowd got a little quiet at times in recent years (other than the times when they would boo their own players... heh) but never did you see a crowd walk out with less than 5 minutes gone in the second half.

Shameful.

So at this point, its pretty much a foregone conclusion that Kansas will pass UNC for #2 on the all-time wins list at some point in the near future.  UNC is sitting at 1998 right now... and Kansas will go for the tie tomorrow (Feb 27) against Oklahoma State while UNC plays at Wake Forest.  I feel it is a safe assumption that the two will come out of the weekend tied at #2 on the all-time wins list. 

Kansas then plays Kansas State at home and then closes the season at Missouri.  Assuming they win out, that will have them hit 2000 on the road. 

Conversely, UNC's schedule after a presumed loss on the road to Wake Forest will then include Miami at home and then a trip to visit the red hot Duke Blue Devils.  I believe the TarHeels are still favored to win the game versus the Hurricanes at home and lose at Duke.  This would close out the regular season at 1999 wins.  UNC would then have a shot at win number 2000 in the first round of the ACC tourney... unfortunately for them, if the tourney started today, they'd play Wake in an opening round game. 

The scenario I have laid out above would sit UNC at a whopping 15-17 (4-12) on the year.  Even the NIT would balk at taking a team with a conference record that bad with an overall losing record to boot.  So that could leave UNC considering an invite to the CBI tournament.  (Which honestly, I didn't even know existed until last year...)

So here's my point of discussion:  You're the UNC AD and you sit down with Roy Williams to discuss an invite to the CBI.  Do you take the invite and get win number 2000 in that less than prestigious tournament or do you shut it down for the year and open next season with a win versus a patsy at home to wipe the slate clean?

I never noticed this until recently, but a rational KU fan that I interact with on another board pointed it out to me.  Watch after a made baskets, UK players are tipping the ball over to the ref or into the cheerleaders instead of leaving it for the opposing team.  After he pointed this out to me, I started noticing it myself and Patterson particularly seems to do it a lot.  The KU fan said he saw Memphis do it quite often as well and said he thinks its something Calipari teaches them to do.  Obvioiusly the advantage to UK would be that the other team can't inbound the ball immediately and it allows UK to set up their defense better.

His argument was that this should be a warning on the first offense and then a technical foul on subsequent offenses for Delay of Game.  I've just now started noticing it (Patterson did it after almost every basket against Florida) and I don't know if this is explicity against the rules, or if it is just a "loophole" that the team can exploit.

Anyone else know anything about this?

In college basketball, it seems to be widely accepted that Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA, and IU are the "royalty" of the sport.

With the recent defection of Lane Kiffen from Tennessee to USC, it's got me wondering:  "Just where does UT stand as a program compared to others?"

There doesn't seem to be a clear cut order to me, and there also seems to be a LOT of teams with strong traditions to cling to.

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So I'm sure this will be a hot topic of conversation.  In a speech to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, Bobby Knight questions why Calipari is still allowed to coach.

 

"We've gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that's why I'm glad I'm not coaching," he said. "You see we've got a coach at Kentucky who put two schools on probation and he's still coaching. I really don't understand that."

 

There's so much wrong with this statement that I don't even know where to begin.  It seems to dovetail nicely with Tru's commentary on the front page regarding media groupthink.  Calipari has been dubbed a "bad guy" by the media, therefore he must wear the black hat.  Now in comes Bobby Knight wearing his white hat to save the day????  I'm sorry, did I miss when Knight all of a sudden became a paragon of virtue and agreed with the media in general?  Does taking a paycheck from ESPN to sit courtside (which I will unashamedly admit that I love hearing him commentate a game) automatically change his outlook when it comes to listening to what the media has to say?

And when did Bobby Knight become the moral compass for sports?  At what point did the man who threw a chair and got banned from Peurto Rico become an expert on human behavior?  At what point did the man who promised to mold and protect young men and then choked one of his own players become a model of integrity?   When did the guy who rose to the blatantly obvious bating of a sportswriter's son on campus become a paragon of self-restraint?

None of these past behaviors of Bobby Knight's has any bearing on the integrity of Coach Calipari.  In fact, I recognize that I am engaging in one of the oldest forms of argument whereby I attack the messenger's credibility instead of the veracity of the message.  However, I cannot abide this sort of palaver of the worst sort.

Rotnei Clark hits on 13-17 threes as Arkansas wins 130-68 over Alcorn State.  The former Gillispie recruit and Willie Warren chum scored 51 points.  Pelphry has a gem in that one.  I remember watching the grainy Youtube videos of him a couple summers ago when Gillispie was still new and fresh to us.  Its a shame we missed out on him, he's the kind of zone-buster that Calipari could really use right about now.

Congratulations to Rotnei.

I'm almost positive that I heard on ESPN radio last night that BBM is being carried on ESPNU.  Please... please... please tell me this isn't true!  In years past, I have watched it live on WAVE 3 out of Louisville.  I would hate to miss it because Comcast and ESPN are still in a pissing contest...

I did see the link below in the FanShots that its available online, but its not the same as watching on TV.  It will be a travesty if I was able to watch the schedule revealed on local television but BBM is only carried by the World Wide Leader.

The likelihood of beating South Carolina has been the topic of much discussion around this website for the last few days.  Quite simply put, beating South Carolina has the potential to mean the difference between a mediocre season and a good season.

So what have we seen tonight as college football kicks off for the season on ESPN?

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