My Best Friday in Months

A few quickies as I peruse rosters and start cobbling information for Blue Ribbon:

Ron Larris will not be returning to Georgia State. The juco transfer was the Panthers’ starting point guard last year.

“Ron will not be returning as a part of our program,” new head coach Rod Barnes said in a recent chat. “We wish him the very best in his future endeavors.”

My opinion: that is a tremendous use of coachspeak to say “I’m trying to get things done here, and [this player] is part of the problem, not the solution.” Though I haven’t spoken to Barnes since he was at Ole Miss, I see in the way he answers questions an enthusiasm that will greatly benefit Georgia State. Completely different feeling than the one I got from Michael Perry, who always gave me the impression that wherever Perry was, it was raining.

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I also received the Towson summer prospectus, which is chock full of great nuggets for what is surely going to be a transition year. I say that by thinking of George Mason. The Patriots graduated the heart and soul of their Final Four team, and any number of players had an opportunity to step up for Coach L. It was a very interesting season that may not have had its payoff until the CAA tourney.

I see that the post-Neal and underrated post-Abraham era has three starters returning who combined average a smidge greater than 16 ppg. Then I see guys like Crossin and Coleman and Spruill–known contributors–and try to factor them with some very highly-regarded transfers like Josh Thornton.

And I end up thinking George Mason. It will be interesting to watch this team.

Side note: Pat Kennedy, on CC Williams: “We had to depend on C.C. to be more of a play maker last year. That’s going to change. We’ve seen in practice he can
be much more. He’ll become a more complete player this season.”

And boy, do I love the potential of Tommy Breaux.

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Loren Stokes did not get drafted last night, but he will get a summer free agent shot. If that doesn’t pan out, Stokes will make a pile of money in Europe. I’ve sat next to scouts who say that.

Meanwhile, Hofstra fans, enjoy:

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Kyle, Greg, Mike, and Joe B.

A calendar clip-and-save: Kyle Whelliston will be chatting mid major hoops over at ESPN.com Monday afternoon at 4:00. Mark it on your calendar now because you will forget. How do I know? Because I always forget these things.

I’ll probably post a reminder, because I’m nice that way, but consider this your official heads-up to flood the site with CAA questions. (Hint: in early July, “how good will [My Team] be this year is not a good question.)

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My NBA mock draft, which I guarantee is more accurate than any of the other 12,538 mock drafts out there:

1. Greg Oden
2. Kevin Durant
3. through 61. Nobody cares, really. It doesn’t matter.

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A clarification from yesterday regarding Coach K…I received a few “what are you talking about?” emails so here it is, plain and simple:

You are the coach of probably the most recognizeable college basketball program in the past 25 years and the face of that program. You win. You win with guys like Bobby Hurley, Thomas Hill, and Quinn Snyder. You get beaten by a team in the NCAA tournament that just plain outplayed you, and come June you are whining about being tired and not being Duke?

And then say your players were fragile? Fragile? Think about that. F-R-A-G-I-L-E

And wonder–openly to the press–why people don’t like you?

Egad!

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I’m adding a link (over to the left, knucklehead) to the A Sea of Blue blog. I first gave it some time during the whole blogger-getting-tossed mess and have become a fan.

It’s not particularly relevant to anything CAA or mid major–except that they are contributors to a mid major curse. Last year their only away game prior to the start of conference play was at North Carolina. (Sorry Cats fans, but two games in Louisville and Thanksgiving in Honolulu don’t count…)

My agenda-driven dig aside, the guy that does it has some interesting and fun stuff from time to time. I recommend it.

This has nothing to do with sports…

…but take note. Check out the last 45 seconds, the important part.

Chris Dodd, a (D) running for President, has challenged the public to try to meet with their senators and congressmen and videotape those meetings. Then, post those videos on YouTube.

Money quote from this post and site:

“I asked whether this openness to YouTube came in part because the Dodd campaign has less money than others; it’s a way to get attention for nothing. Tagaris said that Dodd’s campaign is merely “the first one to do something everyone’s going to do, no matter how much money they have.”

Side note: this is no endorsement of Dodd. In fact, I don’t know that I could pick him out of a police lineup. Nor do I know anything about his stance on any issue other than Iraq. Rather, this is a wonderful example of what I’ve been talking about in regards to the way sports will be reported. Think about the YouTubes from fans in the stands, hallways, etc. at games.

This remains one of my favorites.

The way in which content is going to be collected and distributed is changing. Quickly.

Dating Coach K

Killing that iPod thing due to stupidity.

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Noncons are beginning to close up. I understand ODU is now finished, and VCU is looking for one game, against a top 75 RPI team. So doing my best Chuck Woolery impersonation, I chose to head over to Basketball Travelers to see what I could do.

Presto, VCU is looking for a home and home with a December 19 open date. My mind said Charlotte, who also wants a H/H and has the 19th available. Sadly, UNCC (that’s old school) checks in at 146. It was 104 in 2006.

I recommend Missouri State, if only to promote the CAA/MVC Challenge mid major fans want to see.

Hey, I did see Florida is looking for a neutral site game……..in Tampa.

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From yesterday, there is this item to consider. Tip of the cap to The Truth About Duke via NCAA Hoops Today.

According to a column in the Greensboro News-Record, it seems Coach K is a mite peeved at the Duke hating that occurs these days.

“The tipping point, members of the Duke program think, came during the 2007 NCAA tournament, when it was reported that members of the media were cheering loudly in the press room at Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem as they watched the Blue Devils lose to Virginia Commonwealth in Buffalo on TV. Though most of the cheering was done by a television cameraman who was a VCU grad, those at Duke saw it as an example of just how damaged their relationship with the media had become.”

The money quote, for me:

“They haven’t become ‘Duke’ yet,” he said. “We didn’t have juniors and seniors who have gone through that kind of stuff. So, you’re a much more fragile team.”

Fragile?

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Fear not for the lack of specific items. I’m pulling together the information to prepare for Blue Ribbon in the next week or two. All of these crazy player movements will be written.

Ranting up for lost time

My apologies for the delay in response. I was crushed yesterday with the details of Paris’ coming home party…

Actually I had lunch yesterday with Da Commish, and Mr. Yeager was earnestly excited that the summer meetings went very well. Heap big on their summer agendas: television contracts and scheduling. We talked technology as well, which I point out mainly because they are thinking about more than RPI over on Patterson Ave. Rightfully so, I might add.

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I also woke up yesterday morning and was told some horrible news. Eric Clark, one half of VCUs famed Wheelchair Posse, passed away suddenly on Sunday. A memorial service will take place in Clark’s hometown of South Hill, VA Wednesday morning at 11:00am. Respects can be sent to:

Gethsemane Baptist Church
512 West Atlantic St.
South Hill, VA 23970

Anybody who had ever had the fortune to meet Eric was touched by his spirit. Anybody who heard him speak at his friend Ryan Moser’s memorial service was moved to tears. I don’t know the details of his passing, and this isn’t the space for that kind of stuff.

All I know is that Ryan and Eric represent an ideal we all seek: strength, courage, enthusiasm, humor, and faith.

The Wheelchair Posse will be greatly missed.

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The folks at NCAA Hoops Today have got me thinking (again) about tomorrow’s blog post already. I’m going to get a bit of verbal vomit working in about two minutes so I’ll need to save it for tomorrow. Hint: it’s amazing what happens to your brain when a CAA school whips you.

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What’s on my iPod right now: Solsbury Hill, by Peter Gabriel.

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So a little more on the future of this blog…

You may not care but I do. It’s important because you need to know what I’m trying to accomplish here, and you need to know you can trust what I write. That blogs have grown is both number and popularity is not exactly news. But with that incredible growth has come the inevitable fork in the road: credibility.

The fork has caused a huge rift in the mindset of blog content. You have the MSM folk, many who blog because they must. The very survival of the printed newspaper is in serious jeopardy with the advent of technology and the means of content distribution. Add to that the rise of the “guy in the basement” blogger, who will fight credibility if only because there is no media conglomerate behind him. Still deeper is the mainstream blogger, who makes a living from the blog.

And then throw in competition.

So it becomes a matter of trustowrthiness to The Legion, which is why I outlined the other day the missive of my approach to how I write.

The day will come where I want to add advertising or Google programs or whatever. A man can only eat a sandwich and type a blog so many many days in a row. There is life outside the office, and I’d like to be able to have lunch with Tom Yeager or Anthony Grant or Blaine Taylor and not worry about when I’m fitting in a blog post. I’m not a guy who sits in the basement with nothing better to do.

You need to be comfy that when an advertiser pops up on here it doesn’t mean the content is compromised. Assuming good taste, the ad content, to me, is irrelevant. It is a means to an end: getting me outside more.

And that doesn’t mean a lack of humor. My first question to Bill Coen when we catch up next month will be whether or not reigning CAA freshman of the year Matt Janning hit puberty in the offseason. I can’t wait for Bruiser to sugar coat a quote, like last year when he told me that his team was one of the worst shooting teams he had ever seen. Funny things are funny, and if I see them that way, that’s what I’ll write.

Seriously, though, it is why I am open with my contacts and biases. It is why I’m not going to try to present both sides of the story. It is why I will always write for you what my eyes see and my brain processes. You are free to disagree and start that conversation.

Which, by the way, is the whole point, right?

I’m going to be poking around with the model of this thing, trying to figure it out and manage the best site for the people who read it.

Right now that means starting aggregate all YouTube’s associated with CAA schools. Basketball first.

I’ll eventually find the organization I like, but feel free to chime in and let me know what would work best.

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Anyway, I’m officially off my soapbox. For now. And note, that Greg Paulus flop is still one of my alltime faves.

Counting Down to Stella

Nor’Easter has hired its new athletics director, Peter Roby.

Roby is a former head basketball coach at Harvard University, marketing vice president at Reebok, and since 2002, Director of Northeastern’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society.

“Peter brings a unique set of skills and perspective to college athletics,” said Northeastern President Joseph Aoun. “I am confident that under Peter’s leadership, Northeastern’s program will set a standard for ethical practices and athletic excellence.” President Aoun also thanked Trustee George Behrakis for chairing the search committee and thanked all the committee members for their unanimous endorsement of Roby.

Utilize every bit of PR spin you need, but this one is easy: the guy was a coach, understands sneaker companies, and studied sports. He has the goods.

It’s not a guaranteed success, because fund-raising is vital, but Roby certainly starts his tenure ahead of the game.

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What’s in the iPod right now: Naima, by John Coltrane.

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I’ll expand upon yesterday’s post in the coming days. I re-read it about 12 times, and when combined with the emails I’ve received I realize I owe you some detail.

There’s no such thing as writer’s block

So when I need to escape from my real job, my mind doesn’t wander to the normal places. There’s no mental list of my weekend to see how much free time I can open up to watch golf on the couch. (Clarification: The golf is on teevee, and I am on the couch.) It doesn’t go to the rationalization behind why a Snickers bar is the perfect health food right now, and quite frankly, anytime. It does wander to a few expected places, too. (Re: territory we don’t cover here.)

No, many times it goes to the random and unexpected phone call saying: “you’ve done a wonderful job with that blog. We’d like to hire you to blog for us for $150,000 per year, if you can pull it off five times a week.” (Most times I end up moving to the Caribbean but that’s unimportant to the point of all this.)

Then I consider what the perfect topic or information for today should be, and it hits me: this is June and my blog is about college basketball. No, it’s about mid major college basketball. One conference.

Crap.

In that spirit, I sit here right now, staring at the words “In that spirit,” and wondering what in the hell I’m going to write next.

(Side note: What’s playing on my iPod right now: Time Bomb, by Rancid.)

But seriously, there is a side note to all this. I’m going to spend the summer clarifying the mission of what’s going on here, and you will see a ton of changes slowly roll into this space. My mission has always been to help you think about mid major basketball, especially as it relates to the CAA. My role as an information provider is not to give you both sides of the story and let you decide. That’s a journalistic gaffe.

No, my aim is to write what I see. I’ve got a fairly large ego, but I’m not arrogant enough to think I can play the role of information conductor. There is a huge difference, mainly because bias cannot help but to creep into any reportage.

The difference is that I will admit my biases’ up front: I went to VCU. I used to hate ODU but thanks to Blaine Taylor I have an incredible respect for what they do and what he’s trying to accomplish there. Pecora and Coen are at the top of my favorite coaches list, and I’d move to Wilmington in about three seconds.

By saying “presenting both sides and let you decide” is to pretend bias doesn’t exist. How would you ever know I gave you both sides equally?

It’s not about being first with information–it comes so quickly through so many sources that the value of being first is diluted.

No, we’re going to be the most informative, whether it’s how I see the Northeastern players reacting to their coach, or the bread pudding at Caffe Phoenix in Wilmington. (See, bias. But informative.) You will undoubtedly be a part of it.

We’ll spend the summer dipping into the overall college basketball landscape, because there is the time. Plus, mid majors have become incredibly relevant in the past five years.

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I have a friend who, in the middle 1980s, was the editor of a national CD and music magazine. His knowledge of music minutiae and trivia constantly amazed me. I never thought I’d ever run into anyone with as much information at his synapse-tips.

I stand corrected.

I Can’t Get Enough of This Subject

What’s on my iPod right now: Rush, by Big Audio Dynamite.

I was chatting with an assistant coach last night, and the subject of the transfer rate of players came up. I told him I was amazed at the length of that list.

He knew the exact number of transfers–coaches know that kind of minutiae–and though I’ve forgotten that number, it was about 240. Now, factor in the list of kids that don’t cut it academically and will transfer that aren’t on the “chose to go elsewhere” list. It’s nearing one player per D1 team. Five years ago, that list may have been about 40. Wow.

So here’s the immediate two questions:

1. Is the one-year sabbatical, especially considering you get to practice with the team, outdated and no longer a deterrent? You could argue it’s a year to get physically and mentally mature, and to become a part of the new team.

2. Considering the coaching carousel, is it fair to “penalize” the kids and not the coach?

Look–the competitive nature of any industry will see that competition define trends and nuance in search of an advantage. I can make the argument that the one-year sitting rule actually promotes transfers. I get a year to mature, grow, get to know the team and the coach and the system and the new college, all in a better situation than I was leaving? And my only penalty is no game action for a year? Where do I sign up? Heck, what coach wouldn’t want that?

I’m not smart enough to know the answer, but it’s out there. It’s kind of like the Lords of the Masters. Tiger ate up the course, along with everyone else, so they decided it needed more length. Adding 30 yards to holes here adn there worked for a time, but technology caught up with them.

And all the while the US Open kept growing six-inch rough and it remains the major golf tournament with the highest scores.

It’s just become about so much more than a kid wanting more playing time.

Sometimes, You Just Have to Say…

Format note: the “find a song title or artist that relates to the content” manner of titling the blog posts is being retired today. I know you’re saddened by this. I’m not. The titles usually ended up being something I had just listened to or was listening to at the moment. Not as creative or kitchy as I set out. So we’re moving forward to the new means of personalizing this thing, with the debut of:

What’s on my iPod Right Now: In the Morning, by Big Head Todd and the Monsters.

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Last year note to consider: More than 42,000 fans attended the CAA tournament last season, a record for the conference. The semifinals and the championship were both sellouts. Before you bring up “I saw empty seats!” I want you to name me one sporting event that is sold out that doesn’t include corporate foof no-shows.

Exactly. The tournament continues to grow, which is what is important and notable in the big picture. It was William Wallace who said it best: “”You’re so concerned with squabbling for the scraps from Longshanks’ table that you’ve missed your God-given right to something better.”

The league is growing.

And that brings us to the next year’s note to consider: CAA teams welcome back 67% of their starters from last season. And this doesn’t include the injured TJ Carter, or high impact transfers like Abdullah Jalloh at JMU or Josh Thornton at Towson.

It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll (But I Like It)

Today, we border on the absurd.

First, a lot of people are going to have some fun at Tiger’s expense. But holy gamoley is he cut.

Here’s my fear: Tiger has been a trendsetter in golf, even (or especially) as it has to do with fashion. I’m scared of seeing Stu from accounting down at the local course wearing that gear. You know Stu, the guy with all the Tiger Gear, including the TW hat he bought at Dick’s. Stu’s claim to fame is the that he would’ve made it onto The Biggest Loser had he saved enough vacation days.

In true Sofia Petrullo fashion, “picture it…”

Second, Barry Bonds hit another home run over the weekend. I’m personally rooting for the guy, if only to first send the MSM into the full-fledged froth they’ve been building up for more than a year; and then second to shut them up. I can’t wait until the HTT mindlessly sdearch for their next ridiculous platform. (Note: Holier Than Thous.) Look, I don’t like the guy, but the way he handles those foofs makes me smile.

Third, some CAA hoops. It’s no secret I’ve taken a liking to Poor Bill Coen, the head man at Nor’Easter. I dubbed him Poor Bill last season after every conceivable break went against him, including, perhaps, dandruff. Coen was undaunted and his Huskies finished fifth in the standings, and I loved the vibe I got when I took particular note of how he coached and how the kids responded to him. Plus the guy is a rocket scientist. Literally.

So I figured out while mowing the lawn on Sunday how we could get Nor’Easter through its difficult road schdedule in a hurry. I am promoting one long road trip, much like a concert tour. We’d send Coen and the XXX down I-95, zip west on I-66 to I-81, down I-64 and then south to the Beach. Three weeks and two giant RVs.

WED–at Hofstra
SAT–at Drexel
MON–at Delaware
WED–at Towson
SAT–at Mason
MON–at JMU
WED–at VCU
FRI–at W&M
MON–at ODU
SAT–at UNCW
SAT–at GSU

Granted, the tough stretch is four games in seven days down the I-64 corridor, but I’m a benevolent schedule-maker. After ODU ends the gauntlet, they get nearly two weeks in and around Wilmington.

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We’ll get back to some serious stuff tomorrow, but for now just relax.