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Can John Calipari Continue To bring In Top Recruits

admin — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Of course he can! The better question might read: Could John Calipari bring top recruits to a service academy or Ivy League school?

Kentucky is to basketball what Churchill Downs is to horse racing. What turf-pawing, wide-eyed colt, fresh off a year of stakes racing would not want to strut his stuff where legends once roamed? Would not a young thoroughbred, likely hailed as the next Secretariat, wish to prance where 23,000 blueblood-thirsty fans and a national t.Never heard of this before? Get up to speed here.v. audience could witness his every stride? He would pick the biggest races in which to run; it wouldn’t matter who worked as his trainer. The only problem, however, is a decided lack of Triple Crown threats coming out of Calipari’s stable. His recruits are quick out of the gate, looking like odds-on favorites at the head of the stretch but, alas, they tend to fade near the wire. Then, once they are made lean and fast by Calipari and his core of handlers, their ears perk as bugles with richer tones sound relentlessly close and fat-cat agents promise them golden oats to race at other venues.

The commonwealth of Kentucky gets top recruits, Calipari is just good with the groomer’s brush.

What NBA Teams Are Benefiting From Lockout

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

If you are looking for teams that have benefited from the lockout, you need to look at teams who are ready to play after only a few short weeks of practice. These may not be the teams with the best talent, but these are the teams that are ready to go now and will have the legs to get through a tough 66-game sprint of a season. When you are looking at the Western Conference, there are two teams that automatically come to mind: the Memphis Grizzles and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Both teams are young, which means that there players are more apt to survive this type of season. Also, both teams are almost completely intact from last season, which means that they don’t have to incorporate new blood into the lineup, which could hinder some teams considering that there was almost no training camp this season.

In the Eastern Conference, the team that may have benefited most from the lockout was the Miami Heat. Not only do they have one of the best starting lineups returning from last season, but the lockout also took a lot of attention off of a team that was reviled last season. Expect big things from the Heat this year.

What Effect Will The Lockout Have On NBA Fans

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

When the NBA tips off on Christmas Day for the first time this season, not doubt it will do so in front of packed houses, despite the lockout. Of course the league will have lost a small percentage of fans, but of those fans it has temporarily lost, a fraction of them will never come back to the fold. The state of the economy and the high jobless rate across the country has left many fans with little patience to watch billionaires argue with millionaires over who gets the biggest slice of the struggling fans’ dollar. Many fans also have jobs that depend on the existence of an NBA season.

For many fans, the lockout will mean that they will be able to save money they normally would spend on going to the games, and save time that they normally would spend in front of the TV. Casual fans will switch their attention to college hoops in the meantime, and the lockout will barely be a blip on their radar. Probably the people who will be most affected will be the eventual NBA champions, because their trophy, won in an abbreviated season, will always bear an asterisk next to it in the mind of the fan.

What Conference Will Surprise People In College Basketball

admin — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes down to it, these are lean years for the Pac-12 men’s basketball conference. Gone are the days where UCLA was a national powerhouse, or when Arizona was favored in March Madness, the 2011-12 college basketball season looks to be one where the NCAA doesn’t hear much from Pac-12 teams, at least when you look at the conference on paper. The thing is, while the conference doesn’t currently have a team in the Top 25 rankings, the truth is that there are some teams that could surprise some people as the season goes on, especially come tournament time.

Stanford is looked at as the “class” of the Conference. While they are the closest team to the Top 25, they are also the team that has played most consistently during the season. Cal has also looked pretty good this season, especially the last couple of weeks where they have been dominating (lesser) opponents. From here, there is a big drop off, though teams like Oregon State and Arizona could make a run into the tournament later in the year. Though most people don’t expect a lot from the Pac-12 this season, we may see some interesting things later in the season.

Should The NCAA Expand The College Basketball Tournament More

admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

There has been significant talk about the ideal size of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, fueled by the ever growing number of schools that want to participate in the championships. In 2011 there will 342 schools competing for 65 spots in the tournament, meaning fewer than one in every six will qualify.
So what is the big deal about making an appearance in the tournament? Only one team will win, and a real “dark horse” candidate has not succeeded since Villanova nearly thirty years ago. There are a number of reasons schools are clamoring for access including the amount of money the schools receive for making the appearance. Just as schools are well compensated for a bowl game appearance in football; every game that a team plays in the NCAA Basketball tournament earns them a share of the television revenue. Revenue that can help cut down the expense of running a program and in some cases even fund additional sports programs on their campuses. Additionally, the exposure for the schools acts as free recruitment for future players and brings awareness of the school overall. Schools like Davidson and Butler have seen increases in quality players attending their school as well as attracting the non-athlete.
So the demand is there, but how many is too many teams for this tournament? Some coaches, most notably Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, have called for expansion to 128 teams as a solution to the problem. That would include a third of all teams into the field and create a real potential for the upsets that people love to see during tournament time. I mean, we all love the underdog, right? Personally, I think that expansion is warranted but must be carefully watched and evaluated. The true spirit of the tournament is to granted young men an opportunity to represent their schools on the biggest stage imaginable, and to deny them access because there simply is not enough room is disappointing.