Labor Day college sports round up

Hopefully y’all are having a great weekend full of football and barbecue. I’m getting ready for a move so in between football and nachos, I’m packing things up and getting this place all tidied up. This has been an eventful weekend, and I’m still full of vigor thanks to the start of the season. So what’s been happening?

SEC Players of the Week

Great news of Kentucky fans: the SEC released it’s player of the week list and Trevard Lindley was named the defensive player of the week. Congratualtions to Lindley, a two-star recruit out of high school, whose stepped up in a big way under Rich Brooks. Also congratulations to Alabama’s Mark Ingram – he was named offensive player of the week which was utterly unsuprising. Ingram had the game of his life against the Hokies and he really let people know that they Tide wasn’t just going to roll over on any games this season.

McAdoo’s Choice

In UK basketball recruiting news – James McAdoo has chosen UNC over all the other schools he was looking that. He’s going to be a Tarheel. Good choice by the junior power forward. I heard he was visiting on alumni weekend, you know, the weekend that draws the likes of Michael Jordan, and I can imagine that being there really helped seal the deal.

Isiah Thomas Renegs on Renegging

It looks like FIU will actually play UNC after all. That’s a good move for Isiah Thomas because dropping out of a CHARITY event because of a difficult opponent comes across as petulant and awful. Furthermore, playing the defending national champions will bring attention to FIU no matter what, and any attention, even if the team loses (which they will) is better than being totally ignored. Thomas, or someone who has some sway over his actions, must have seen the error of his ways.

Memphis Meltdown

Memphis is appealing the NCAA’s decision to vacate the historic 2007-2008 season (38 wins, y’all). They are not appealing any of the other punishments handed down by the NCAA, which is probably for the best. I doubt that anything will come of this – the NCAA isn’t big on having their rulings reversed, but I guess anything is possible (maybe), so we’ll just have to follow this story until it’s completely dead (hopefully soon). Selfishly, I want Memphis to win the appeal, just so I don’t have to hear any more idiotic Cal jokes or defend him to ignoramuses who barely even follow college basketball.

Bradford Bust-up

There is still no time table for when Sam Bradford will return. According to OK coach Bob Stoops, Bradford has a grade 2 or 3 sprain, either of which sounds pretty serious. Along those same lines, OK doesn’t know when Jermaine Gersham (you know, one of those players who chooses to put off pro careers so that they can make their legacy in college) will be back from a knee injury. Colt McCoy is praying for Bradford, and I’m guessing the whole Schooner Squad will be, too, especially if they wish to continue posing a Big (12) threat.

Punch Heard ‘Round the World

I’ve written enough about the Oregon player punching the player from Boise State, but if you want to read something in addition to that on the topic, try here and here.

UK Recruiting, Memphis money troubles

Two recruiting tidbits:

Doron Lamb

1. Doron Lamb, Boost Mobile Elite 24 Game MVP, has planned 3 official college visits to Kansas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. He is also looking at Marquette, Arizona, and UConn, but doesn’t have any visits planned to those schools. Lamb has seen his stock raise (maybe not as much as fellow MVP Tobias Harris), and he would be a great addition to the 2010-2011 UK team. The current team lacks a consistent, deep, 3 point shooter. At the Boost Mobile game, Lamb made 4 of 5 from behind the arc. Let’s hope his UK visit is a convincing one.

2. Tobias Harris talks to Adam Zagoria of Zag’s Blog and SNY.tv about his college choices. Harris will recieve in-home visits from UK, Syracuse, St. John’s, WVU, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, UTenn, Maryland, Louisville, GaTech, and UConn. That is quite a list, and until recently, UK was not one of the schools Harris was considering. When Coach Cal was at Memphis, some contact was made with Harris, however, he was uninterested. When Cal came to Kentucky, he talked to Harris again, and Harris decided to make an unofficial visit to Kentucky and make up his mind about including them on his list then. Well, the visit was a good one because Kentucky is now in play. When asked about Kentucky, Torrel Harris, Tobias’s father says:

Tobias Harris

Now people say, ‘Well, why did you add Kentucky? Cal [John Calipari] made an interesting point. He said, ‘I just got here. I’m new at this and then he recruited Tobias at Memphis and we really weren’t interested in Memphis at the time.

So he said, ‘I’m at Kentucky. Can you give me a shot here?’

So we said, we’ll take an unofficial [on the way to the Nike Global Challenge in Portland, Ore.]. If we like it we’ll consider it. We took a visit to Kentucky. We liked it. I thought it was a great situation so we added them on the list. That’s why they got added. You can’t fault a coach if he got a new position.

Tobias added:

It was a good visit. I liked the program. I liked the style of play. And Coach Calipari’s a good coach also.

(All quotes from Zag’s Blog.)

Now on to Memphis – it looks like Memphis will be giving up a lot of dough, and Coach Cal may have to join in on that. Memphis has to give back 85,000$ that have already been dispersed and up to 530,000$ that has not. Coach Cal may have to give back his 300,000$ bonus (a bonus he got for taking Memphis to the FF). Even with all this money being thrown around, I feel the worst for Rose’s teammates. Their accomplishments are no longer recorded, and that has to hurt.

I’m on the update train

A bit more news tonight before I call it a day (aka focus on writing something for The Phoenix Pub). Only two more quick notes.

A young, hopeful Elliot Williams, before he made a pact with the Devil, I mean Blue Devils

First – Elliot Williams has been cleared to play for Memphis. His transfer waiver was accepted and he will be ready to play the 2009-2010 season. Williams is transfering to Memphis from Duke in order to be closer to his sick mother. Since Latavius Williams left Memphis to pursue greener pastures in China, I’ve been hoping to see Elliot Williams at Memphis. He will add experience (well, some) and depth to the team, and hopefully help lead the Tigers to a solid post-Calipari season.

Second, the Pitino-Sypher story is getting another twist. Don’t get too excited. It isn’t as insane of a twist as the last one that came out. This time, it looks like Sypher will be undergoing psychiatric evaluation in order to see if she is mentally competent to stand trial. I don’t even know what to think. Her actions were the actions of a desperate, troubled woman, but I don’t know how detached from reality she really is. I’ll be following this trial with great interest.

Memphis Mayhem

Well, I’ve been sitting on this story all day, just trying to think it through. For those of you who still haven’t heard: Memphis received a ruling from the NCAA that says that  John Calipari will be stripped of another Final Four appearance and that the whole 2007-2008 season will be vacated. According to the committee, the NCAA cleared Rose, but after he was cleared, his SAT score was canceled. This means that it was up to the school to know that the score was canceled and that he was ineligble to play. Memphis plans to appeal the decision. Calipari was disappointed by the ruling.

UK fans, myself included, are sort of scrambling to figure out how we feel about it. I’ve read blogs and comments that range the gamut from ‘oh we’re fucked’ to ‘oh the NCAA is fucking kidding.’ I mean, there is reason be a bit upset about the ruling. Corey Maggette is a name that’s been popping around a lot, and with good reason. The outcome of HIS case is dramatically different, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering he was a Dukie. The Arthur situation at Kansas is different enough not to draw a clean parallel, but it still angers up the blood to read about these two players and the see how differently Rose was being treated.

Personally, I am incredibly saddened by this news. I’m sure the shock and disappointment will fade soon enough (college football starts Sept 5!!), but right now, I feel really blown away by the news. Calipari is now the first coach to have 2 Final Four appearances vacated at 2 different schools. That is bad no matter how you look at it. Even though he has had nothing stick to him, it’s not great news that trouble seems to hang out with him. I hope that the Eddie Sutton disaster as alerted the UK Compliance Office to how important their job is, but if it hasn’t, I’m guessing they’re getting a very strongly worded memo right about now. UK needs to stay as clean as possible because any success it has under Calipari will be viewed with some suspicion. Calipari needs to stay as clean as possible because this is his last chance to make a real, good name for himself. So far, his career is illustrated by Camby and Rose and nothing can erase that. However, he can hopefully inject some positivity by doing well at UK.

Too much Tebow

So it turns out that Steve Spurrier of the Gamecocks did not vote for Tim Tebow. Spurrier said that he was embarassed, claimed that he did not actually fill out the ballot, and asked that his vote be changed to Tebow. Spurrier had voted for Snead. Look, I get it that Tim Tebow is great, but out in the SEC, the only two choices could have been Tebow and Snead, and while Tebow seems like a more obvious choice, it’s not like picking Snead is just pissing your vote away. More than anything, I’m upset at how much scrutiny this has recevied. If he didn’t want to vote for Tebow, why should he? I know that coaches shouldn’t base their votes on personal biases, but if anything personal biases would have driven former-Gator Spurrier to go with Tebow. Why his vote became such a big deal, to the point of a public apology and a change is absolutely beyond me. A more appropriate response would have been to not hound all the coaches in the SEC and forcing out a confession. Seriously, anything other than this would have been better. I guess I’m glad it’s over, but when I look back on it, all I see is a bunch of BS.

So now that that is out of the way, what else is in the news?

Karen Sypher might need a public defender now that Thomas Clay is officially off her case. Selfishly, I want the case to get started, so we can start getting some information out. As it is, it’s just been prosecutor and police hoopla without any real news.

Not to be outdone by Calipari’s desire to recruit in China, Josh Pastner is looking to Canada for great players. On the one hand, I fully support more Canadians and really any individuals from foreign countries playing basketball here in America. On the other hand, if many Canadian players are coming to prep schools here, how is it really any different? We’d still be looking at the same high schools, the same match ups, the same everything, except that the kid wasn’t born here.

Shake ups

Adding more fuel to the why-the-hell-was-Ricky-Rubio-drafted fire, comes news of his impossible buy-out. As is, to play for the Timberwolves, Rubio would have to buy himself out…at around 6.6 million. Now, Rubio only earns about 100,000$  and the Wolves can only contribute 500,000$ to the buyout…and that’s awful long ways away from 6.6 mil. Seriously, this stupid situation really gives Hasheem Thabeet a run for “Ridiculously Highly Ranked Player” of the 2009 NBA draft.

Bad news for Josh Pastner and Memphis fans – Latavious Williams has decided to go pro…in China. There was always some question whether Williams would qualify academically, and this news seems to indicate that he was either incredibly moved by Brandon Jennings (doubtful) or that he sensed that he would not qualify and/or didn’t feel like spending a year in classes when he could be making money. Even with Barton and Elliot Williams, this is a big blow to Memphis.

After a long break

I’m back in business and back in Lexington. I had forgotten how much UK gear everyone wears here. It’s a good look. I wish it’d make its way out west.

People are doing their rivalry rankings, and not to be outdone, I will be doing one in the next few days, too. Pat Forde of ESPN has already put his out, and while he generally favors the Louisville Cardinals over the Wildcats, he made some interesting picks. Right now, UK is in 2 out of his top 3 rivalries. The UL vs UK rivalry is in its rightful number 1 spot, while the UK vs UT rivalry is down at number 3. It’s a fun little read, but I can guarantee my list will be way better, so stay tuned.

Eric Bledsoe has really been making a name for himself at the summer work outs and pick up games. I am not surprised. I always thought that Bledsoe was a great get for the program and point guard who could compete with and push John Wall. With the departure of Meeks, the team is able to reshape in a way that allows Bledsoe to show off his talent and make an immediate impact. He has never seemed to back down from a challenge and he is incredibly athletic. I love hearing these stories of how he is just exceeding everyone’s expectations and I cannot wait to see him UK blue.

Ralph Willard has been replaced at Holy Cross. After Willard made the somehwat puzzling move from head coach to Rick Pitino’s assitant, Holy Cross has been scouting for their new coach. Well, now they have him: Notre Dame associate head coach Sean Kearney.

Ricky Rubio is staying in Spain. I’ve already talked about how he’s thrown a bit of a childish fit and that the Timberwolves wasted a pick on him, so I won’t continue that here.

Matt Pilgrim’s future has been decided. The former Cat (who never saw a moment of game time thanks to his transfer from Hampton) will now be at Oklahoma State, choosing the program over Memphis. There was news that Calipari and Pastner were working together to get Pilgrim to Memphis, and Pilgrim himself said he hoped for a meet up against Kentucky. Whatever happened at Oklahoma State must have been special. I hope that Pilgrim is successful in getting a transfer waiver. I would like to see the guy described as amazing and “a beast” play, and that 20 second clip from him at Hampton isn’t cutting it.

Seriously?

Look, I respect Dan Wolken. He covers Memphis basketball well. But his recent piece on how Calipari would have had an even better class had he not left Memphis is just about the ridiculous (or at least the most blinded-by-fandom) thing I have ever read. I’m not trying to knock Memphis when it is down. Pastner is doing a great job so far, and hopefully Matt Pilgrim will be joining him at Memphis and rounding out a very solid recruiting class.

However, there is no way one can compare Calipari’s class at Memphis with his class at UK. At Memphis, he had Demarcus Cousins (2), Darnell Dodson (4 star JuCo), Will Coleman (4 star JuCo), Nolan Dennis (58), Xavier Henry (8), and probably John Wall(1).  He managed to bring Cousins (2), Dodson (4 star JuCo) and probably Wall (1) with him to UK. Daniel Orton (22) and Jon Hood (40) were recruited by the previous administraion and both stayed on with Calipari. Jon Hood is a better player than Nolan Dennis (who I am sure will have a great career at Baylor), and there is no comparison with Orton. Xavier Henry went to Kansas, which is too bad (and also up in the air), but Calipari managed to snag Eric Bledsoe (23), an underrated (from what I’ve been reading about pick up games) point guard. Just doing a side by side comparison shows that UK’s class was better than what Memphis’s class could have been.

UK and Memphis had different needs, but there is no comparison. UK added three unique players to the class, all of whom are absolutely phenomenal. It isn’t just hot air to say that the combination of Calipari and UK is greater than the sum of its parts. What Wolken’s article sounds like is Aesop’s old fable about the grapes. I hope that Memphis has a great year this coming season, so I don’t want this to be taken as a disparaging of the whole team. I’m just saying that if Wolken will be calling for an end to “revisionist” history, maybe he should stop writing such articles.

Zag does it again

According to Zagsblog (I’ve been citing him A LOT lately), Derrick Williams has commited to Arizona. This is a nice get for Sean Miller. Miller has been on fire with recruiting (nothing new, considering his success at Xavier), and he’s built up a team that I think should be sneaking its way into pre-season top 25 polls: after the commitments of Williams and Jones, I feel like I have to add them to mine. Honestly, the extension of recruiting way past the usual cut-off thanks to coaching changes and assorted turmoil has really helped both Miller and Pastner – two first year coaches (well, first year ever for one) who are likely to really charge onto the scene this coming season. Miller’s chances for a top 25 spot are looking good, and the way things are working out at Memphis, Pastner could be leading the team to another C-USA conference championship.

This does make it less likely that Stephenson could find a spot on the Arizona roster, but given the stories coming out of Cincinnati, it seems unlikely that Arizona and Stephenson was meant to be.

Best of luck to Derrick Williams at Arizona and congratulations to Sean Miller on capitalizing so well on such a strange situation (come on, the mess at USC can only be described as “strange”).

Oh, and even those these rankings often don’t mean anything: scout.com had Arizona’s recruiting class ranked number 12, and that’s before the Derrick Williams commitment was factored in. Arizona is really gunning for that top 25 ranking. Sean Miller has really revitalized the program.

Mid-major mash-up

If you’re having a lazy Sunday, check out a piece I wrote for ThePhoenixPub on the 5 mid-major threats to watch come basketball season. It’s a hoot.

Today could be a crazy day, what with Pilgrim’s visit to Memphis and the relationship between Lance Stephenson and the Cincinnati BearCats heating up. I’ll keep you posted.