1. Michigan senior guard Spike Albrecht, the star of the first half of the 2013 national title game, announced on Friday that he was ending his basketball career early due to an ongoing hip injury. Unlike Grayson Allen, who used his national championship game to catapult him into the national spotlight, Albrecht had a solid albeit unspectacular career at Michigan (to be fair, Allen was much more highly recruited than Albrecht). Albrecht, who earned co-MVP honors last season, will be most remembered for his performance in that game against Louisville where he filled in for Trey Burke, who had to sit much of the first half because of foul trouble. Albrecht also gained some notoriety for his attempt to parlay his fame into a date (or at least a response) from Sports Illustrated swimsuit model (and Michigan fan) Kate Upton. Unfortunately for Spike that does not appear to have worked out for him, but we wish him the best of luck in his recovery and whatever path he decides to pursue next.
2. When we heard that Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford had been kicked out of his son’s high school basketball game we assumed it was an example of a coach trying to get away with his typical insolent behavior. However, that does not appear to be the case as multiple witnesses at the game said that Ford did not appear to be out of line and that the official overreacted. Now we wouldn’t put it past a coach or an athletic department to plant anonymous sources to defend a coach, but we also wouldn’t be shocked to hear that an official let the “power” get to his head. In any event, we suspect that Ford will be keeping a very low profile at games going forward.
3. It seems like every year something triggers a group of journalists to wage war against the idea of students rushing the court. This year, the trigger appears to be Randy Peterson, a journalist at the Iowa-Iowa State game, who suffered a compound fracture when students rushed the court. Even Peterson’s admission that he tripped did not stop the journalists from piling on and trying to make it the biggest issue in all of sports. Some people might find this amusing given our site’s name, but we don’t feel as strongly about the topic as many others do. We don’t have a problem if you don’t want students to celebrate a big victory with their team on the court, but don’t make up some story to support your view. In terms of the actual practice, we have commented on the topic before (and had our words completely twisted by a national publication that said the exact opposite of what we told them) so we will just leave you with Kenny Ocker’s thoughts on the practice and the reaction to the push to ban it.
4. We figured that with Michael Olawakandi out of the NBA since 2007 we would not hear much about the basketball program at Pacific (other than when Bob Thomason retired), but potential NCAA sanctions can change that. The school has suspended head coach Ron Verlin and an assistant while the the NCAA investigates the school for academic misconduct. The investigation reportedly centers around Joe Ford, a former assistant, who helped student stay eligible through online courses and provided them with impermissible benefits. Ford left the school for Idaho, but resigned from that position when these reports surfaced.
5. With all the attention that Taylor University gets for its annual “Silent Night” we are surprised that more schools don’t do something similar. This year was no different as the school got plenty of attention including from ESPN where they were featured on SportsCenter. For those of you who aren’t familiar, the students, who are just about to start finals week, dress up in their pajamas or various outfits and remain silent until the team scores its 10th point and then they essentially go crazy. It’s a neat ritual and we wish other schools would find their own unique way to engage the students more to make college basketball more an integral part of the college experience even if only for one night a year.

nvr1983 (1398 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2015 at 7:15 am by nvr1983 and is filed under morning 5, Regular Features. Tagged: michigan, oklahoma state, pacific, ron verlin, spike albrecht, taylor university, travis ford. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.