The Michigan State blog that’s not a Michigan State blog, Sparty & Friends, reminds us that a mere ten years ago, a certain talented MSU point guard also went down with an ankle injury that forced his team to grow up without him. Mateen Cleaves missed twelve games for the 1999-2000 Spartans, and when he came back, MSU won its second national title. Kalin Lucas is more of a scorer while Cleaves was more of a distributor, but the comparison is interesting. One necessary distinction, though, is that Lucas likely will not be out very long (1-3 games).
WVU’s president Jim Clements said that he was “appalled and embarrassed” by the fans’ behavior in their game against Pitt on Wednesday night, which included someone throwing a coin that hit a Pitt assistant coach just under his eye. He promised better security, but there are limits to what can be policed in these situations. Honestly, despite what Gary Parrish wrote yesterday, we’re not convinced that college basketball is on the brink of a major incident between athletes and fans any more than we were ten or twenty years ago. We have trouble believing that the student section fervor is any worse, and it may actually be better. People have always thrown things, and fans have always been obnoxious.
Arizona reportedly will self-impose sanctions as a result of a violation during Lute Olson’s tenure in the summer of 2008. The violation involved a letter on Olson’s letterhead sent to boosters asking for donations for an AAU basketball tournament called the Arizona Cactus Classic. The proposed sanctions will not include a postseason ban, but it will include the loss of a scholarship and less recruiting trips.
Luke Winn’sPower Rankings this week find K-State moving into the top five despite the loss at home to Kansas last weekend, but he missed one thing in his lead about the horrific still photos. While the two he chose were obviously very scary, they weren’t nearly as horrific as this one. And we say that completely wishing it weren’t true.
Dan Levy at The Sporting Blog lays out his guidelines for when it is appropriate for fans to taunt their opponent in light of the unconscionable decision by the Colorado student body to use the “overrated” chant in a game they were clearly going to lose (see below). Come to think of it, can we just retire the “overrated” chant altogether? When you’re winning the game, you’re marginalizing your team’s big win by using that chant; and when you’re losing, well, you shouldn’t be chanting anything at all when you’re losing.
