john riek – Rush The Court

D.J. Gardner Learns the Reality of the Social Media Era the Hard Way

nvr1983 — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 22:39:10 +0000

Over the past two years few programs have had to deal with as many major issues related to eligibility and suspensions as Mississippi State has had to. From the initial investigation and year-long suspension of Renardo Sidney to the nine-game suspension that Dee Bost had to serve last year and finally the ugly fight between Sidney and teammate Elgin Bailey in the stands at the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii last December the program has had a difficult time getting out of its own way and putting its best possible team on the court. This time it involves a player, D.J. Gardner, [...]

11.10.09 Fast Breaks

rtmsf — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:58:18 +0000

In getting all the preview stuff together, we lost a little track of the news other than the endless suspensions and injuries…

NCAA Not Backing Down on Renardo Sidney. If the information that Gary Parrish wrote in his “Three Storylines” articles is true, then Mississippi State’s Renardo Sidney may not play this season at all. According to the Sidney family attorney, the NCAA requested additional evidence beyond what the Sidneys gave them two weeks ago — specifically, “records that identify the sources of each [bank] deposit, cellular phone records for every family member since Jan. 1, 2006, records to indicate where every payroll [...]

RTC 2009-10 Top 65 Games: February/March (Part Two)

zhayes9 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:57:57 +0000

The final two-part edition of our Top 65 games delves into the exciting stretch run of the final five weeks. These highlighted games should have tremendous implications on seeding and conference standings with heated rivals doing battle in the final push towards March Madness. Here’s a preview of what’s guaranteed to be the best slate of games 2009-10 has to offer (top games of November/December, January and the first part of February/March in case you missed them):

February 16- North Carolina @ Georgia Tech (#36 overall)– Many believe Georgia Tech has assembled the talent to [...]

RTC 2009-10 Top 65 Games: February/March (Part One)

zhayes9 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:54:54 +0000

Note: we are not including projected matchups from the preseason tournaments in these 65 games because those will be analyzed separately.

February 1- Texas [...]

09.03.09 Fast Breaks

rtmsf — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:50:40 +0000

On the eve of college football’s start… let’s get caught up on the news and notes from the last week in roundball.

Preaching to the Choir. Gary Parrish wrote an article that was ostensibly about the A10’s financially-motivated decision to move from its ancestral home of Philadelphia to its Sun Belt environs of Newport News, Virginia, but morphed into a scathing critique of the rapidly increasing revenue gap between the power conferences and the mid-majors. We liken this a little bit to what has happened in major league baseball over the past twenty years or so. It’s not an issue of there once being equality where [...]

RTC 09-10 Class Schedule: Kentucky Wildcats

zhayes9 — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:51:18 +0000

Ed. Note: for all of the posts in the RTC 09-10 Class Schedule series, click here.

Just a mere five months ago, the once proud and feared Kentucky basketball program was mired in a state of chaos. The Billy Gillispie era at the university turned out about as well as the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination. Mystifying losses at storied Rupp Arena to such powers as Gardner-Webb and VMI, puzzling interviews with ESPN’s Jeannine Edwards making the blog rounds and exposing Gillispie as a clown, point guards refusing to enter games, rumors of bar scenes [...]

05.26.09 Fast Breaks

rtmsf — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:30:57 +0000

It’s been a while since we updated things (Wall to Kentucky), so let’s get caught up this evening…

RIP Wayman. You’ve undoubtedly heard the sad news about 44-year old Wayman Tisdale’s passing on May 15. Obviously, we never met Tisdale, but everyone agrees that he was a person who touched the lives of many through his athletic and musical career. ESPN takes a look back here, and CNNSI reflected on his legacy in the state of Oklahoma here. Jeff Goodman tells a story about Tisdale following through on a promise to a budding jouralist (him). Tisdale’s public memorial service was last [...]

2008-09 Conference Primers: #1 – Big East

rtmsf — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:13:27 +0000

Rob Dauster of Ballin is a Habit is the RTC correspondent for the Big East Conference.

Predicted Order of Finish (from the coach’s pre-season poll, released at Big East media day):

Connecticut (9) Louisville (3) Pitt (3) Notre Dame (1) Villanova Marquette Georgetown Syracuse West Virginia Providence Cincinnati Rutgers Seton Hall St john’s DePaul South Florida

WYN2K. You hear that? You know what that is? That’s the sound of RTC stealing my thunder. I’m not much of a statistician myself, but just by looking at that pre-season poll I can tell you this – the Big East is loaded. If you live outside of Big East country, then you are probably sick of hearing about how good [...]

DJ Augustin Has Little Wee Arms

rtmsf — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:59:53 +0000

Apologies in advance for the small text on the table below. You can see the entire cache of numbers here on a document we saved at Google Docs (fully sortable). Alternatively, check the list (also sortable) over at DraftExpress, who we owe our eternal thanks to for providing these initial numbers.

So what we’ve done here is color code highlight the best five (light green) and worst five (beige) performances in each category. For basketball purposes, we’re assuming that height, weight and length are good things, body fat is a bad thing, and athletic ability in terms of vertical jump, agility and sprint [...]