- We hope to have more up on this later today, but this article by Dana O’Neil quoting prominent college coaches (anonymously, of course) about what is wrong with college basketball is reaching an epic level of buzz right now. There is so much good material here that it’s difficult to pinpoint the best part, but one particular quote stuck out… “One of my players [who left early for the draft] was working out with another top-five draft pick,” a coach said. “They got to talking and my kid said something about not having money or whatever on campus. The other kid said, ‘My coach set up expense accounts all over town for me. Yours didn’t?” If we assume that the coach is referring to the 2009-10 season, he’s got to be talking about Kentucky, Ohio State, Georgia Tech or Syracuse, right? Who is your money on?
- Luke Winn gets all the tough assignments. This week he’s reporting back the Alps of Austria with the twenty NCAA players who performed the best in the European Under-20 Championships. Ok, maybe he wasn’t actually there (we have no idea, actually), but he still comes up with a good list. Leading the way is… say it with us, now… Arizona’s Kyryl Natyazhko from the Ukraine. The 6’11 rising sophomore averaged 17/8 in the tournament, which is great news for Sean Miller’s team as they bring back a deep front line with Derrick Williams, Jamelle Horne and Solomon Hill. Natyazhko only played eleven minutes per game last year, but with numbers like that, there are signs that he could have a breakout year in the desert in 10-11.
- In this article, Seth Greenberg comments on the First Four expansion of the NCAA Tournament, which some folks are humorously calling the Virginia Tech Invitational. You have to figure that the Hokies would have gotten a bid in two of the last three seasons had there been a 68-team field, so there’s probably some truth to that quip.
- Rob Harrington of USA Today takes a look at the summer recruiting circuit to see what themes have emerged as Las Vegas gears up with over 600 AAU teams in town for its various events this weekend. A quick primer — Michael Gilchrist is still #1, there has been no apparent “Butler Effect,” and players are milking the process to announce in made-for-tv style events.
- CBS Sportsline is doing an interesting piece called the Flourishing Five to while away the summer months where they break down the top five college programs in America who are at the top of the heap in both basketball and football. Their #5 choice is Pittsburgh, an interesting one to say the least. The obvious choices for the top two are Texas and Ohio State, but who are the others? Florida has to be considered among the top four, but the other one is a bit perplexing. Would UNC be an option with Butch Davis now at the helm in football? How about Wisconsin with Bo Ryan and Bret Bielema getting it done? The top four should be released over the next couple of weeks.
View Comments (6)
If we assume that the coach is referring to the 2009-10 season, he’s got to be talking about Kentucky, Ohio State, Georgia Tech or Syracuse, right? Who is your money on?
I am going with Kentucky followed by Georgia Tech. I would be shocked if it were the other two schools.
Definitely going with Paul Hewitt due to the desperation factor.
I'm guessing that Derrick Favors was talking to Demarcus Cousins while working out in NJ (seems the most logical). With all of the one and dones from Georgia Tech we haven't heard of any violations during Paul Hewitt's tenure. This allegation screams John Calipari and Kentucky.
the author of that "flourishing five" kinda lost my respect when he implied kansas being on the same level as memphis as far as blue-blood basketball schools are concerned...
"It's the equivalent of North Carolina pursuing Roy Williams or Kentucky reaching for John Calipari. Kansas and Memphis are nice, great even. But when North Carolina and Kentucky want somebody, North Carolina and Kentucky are usually going to get that somebody, plain and simple. "
oh yeah and my money is on the coach referring to kentucky
I don't think we can safely assume it was 2009-10, but if we are I'm going with Calipari or Boeheim.
I think it's a greater than 90% chance that the coach was talking about last year b/c it's still fresh in his mind. I like G.Floyd's analysis b/c we know for a fact that those two players worked out together. Does anyone know if Turner, Wall and Johnson ever worked out at the same place/same time?