10.22.09 Fast Breaks
Posted by rtmsf on October 22nd, 2009It’s coming fast and furious now. Eighteen days…
- Adidas/Nike Flap at UCF. So you probably know that Michael Jordan’s other son (the one not acting all wishy-washy at Illinois) is a freshman guard at Central Florida. It didn’t take long, but Marcus Jordan has already become notorious in the national media for something other than his play on the court. The issue is that UCF allegedly promised him during his recruitment that he could wear Nike shoes (hundreds of millions of dollars to the trust fund might have something to do with that), but the school has an airtight agreement with adidas that all of their sports teams will be outfitted with their shoes and apparel. This is a huge deal for UCF, who, as a mid-major cannot afford to lose the $3M that adidas is paying for the privilege; but, it brings up issues of individual rights versus contractual obligations and appears to be getting messy. The practical solution would be what often happens when a rich kid is in trouble – Daddy Warbucks swoops in with the checkbook in hand. The Jordan brand could theoretically buy out the adidas contract and add UCF to their portfolio, but ultimately that would have to be Nike’s decision, and we’re not convinced there’s enough added value in a mid-level CUSA team to justify the cost. Of course, bad publicity is still publicity, and there will probably be people somewhere out there that want to buy the shoes that MJ designed for his kid(s), so that’s another factor that the company may consider. A final possibility is that Jordan could play in his bare feet, but that would probably reduce his height to 6’1.5 and his quickness by a factor of half.
- UK Lowballed Gillispie. Word was released late last week that one reason Billy Gillispie pursued legal action against UK was because they lowballed him with an offer well below one year of his current salary and buyout ($925K). Was there a single good decision involving Mitch Barnhart and Billy Gillispie over their two-year relationship? Let’s recount: 1) hiring him (bad idea); 2) hiring him without a contract, instead relying on an MOU (worse idea); 3) hiring a driver for him and generally ignoring his extracurricular activities all over town (even worse idea); 4) firing him (ok, that was a good idea); 5) lowballing him with a $925k offer of settlement when he was owed $6M from the MOU agreement (horrible idea because it only pissed him off; a reasonable offer would have likely been accepted); 6) settling with him for $3.25M (anything ending this debacle now is a good idea).
- Preseason Stuff. 10 teams under the radar in 2009-10, Parrish’s top 10 point guards and top 10 wings, Goodman visits Notre Dame and Michigan State, Luke Winn’s 16 impact freshmen, and Seth Davis breaks down Cal. The Big East media came out with its preseason awards here, and Zagsblog followed up with its preseason awards this week (Gody: POY; Oriakhi & Stevenson: ROY), but why aren’t Syracuse’s Wesley Johnson and Seton Hall’s Herb Pope (both made the all-Big East team) eligible for the “rookie” award? Here’s the SEC’s, and it makes absolutely zero sense that John Wall was voted second for SEC POY but didn’t even make the all-SEC first team. Florida #5 in the SEC East is just painful for Billy Donovan. And once again, here’s Vegas Watch’s SEC preview, where we too came up with the conclusion that Florida is the fifth best team in that division.
- Quick Hits. Larry Drew: the key to UNC’s repeat hopes? Kansas: moving forward. UCLA: facing a ‘rebuilding’ year in Westwood. Memo to Dana O’Neil: It’s CORN HOLE not CORN TOSS. Butler & Purdue: seeking to play in their back yard next April. Midnight Madness: a nice pictorial of several from CNNSI. Jay Wright: talks about the Bataan Death March of Big East scheduling. Illinois: back in the mix locally recruiting-wise. Binghamton: freeze all records for investigation (h/t Carpy). Rivalry: is UW-Gonzaga back on? Memphis: makes a statement at Midnight Madness. Isaiah Thomas: yeah, that’s a 5’8 guy. One man’s bracket: not enough B10 teams, and JMU in the CAA? Brady Morningstar: $500 and keep your nose clean for a year (at least Self suspended him for the semester). Pitino: finally moving on?
