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Around Town
By Yoni Cohen on Tue May 02, 2006 at 01:49:43 PM EST
Conference Call -- The field has been set for the ACC-Big Ten "Challenge." Ohio State at North Carolina is Must-See TV.
Miss-ing the Point -- If every Andy Kennedy signee meets academic eligibility requirements and enrolls at Ole Miss this fall, the Rebels would have 14 players, one over the NCAA maximum for scholarship players during a season.
The South Shall Rise Again -- Former Cincinnati point guard Devan Downey will transfer to South Carolina. In 2004, Downey was named Mr. Basketball in South Carolina. If former Georgia Tech guard Zam Fredrick follows Downey to South Carolina, the Gamecocks are apt to make noise in 2008.
Net Gain -- Colorado’s Richard Roby is nowhere to be found on campus. According to press reports, Roby claims to be taking classes online to make sure he maintains his eligibility in the case he opts to return to Boulder.
By Yoni Cohen on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 01:16:55 PM EST
After a short post-NCAA Tournament hiatus, I'm back with today's news.
Glengarry Glen Ross- Manhattan will on Tuesday announce the hiring of Pittsburgh assistant Barry Rohrssen. A graduate of Xaverian High in Brooklyn, Rohrssen "managed a nightclub, owned a stake in a restaurant and played bit parts in television shows and movies" before deciding to coach full time. After stints at St. Francis, UNLV, and Pittsburgh, Barry will take over for Bobby Gonzalez.
Red, White, and True- Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky doesn't mince words: "There is no greater priority for us than improving men's basketball." After a rough transition -- only Memphis, UAB, Houston and UTEP last year finished the season with a winning percentage better than .500 -- Conference USA is in grave danger of becoming an NCAA also-ran. Had John Calipari bolted Memphis for North Carolina State, I would have written about CUSA's decline for Fox Sports.
Three-for-One- New Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin has three cellphones. Even then, his voicemail fills twice a day. (You do the math: 3 phones X 41 messages per voicemail...)
Carpe Diem- The Dean of the Mountain West Conference press corps writes up Lon Kruger's focus on 2007.
The Thrilla in Manilla- The NYT publishes a very short, but enjoyable, piece on the challenges American ballers face in the Philippine Basketball Association.
By Yoni Cohen on Thu Mar 23, 2006 at 02:28:16 AM EST
My colleague at Fox Sports, Jeff Goodman, just broke the story.
My instant reaction? Huggins might have done better, but only if he had left the Midwest. He can, over time, build a winner at K-State.
Second thought? Billy Gillispie moved to quickly to commit long-term to Texas A&M. The Big 12 might not be big enough for Kansas, Texas, Texas A&M, and Kansas State to all be perennial Top 25 clubs.
By Yoni Cohen on Sat Mar 18, 2006 at 12:41:55 AM EST
Mike Anderson: "Firt of all I've never been prouder of a group of guys. When you look at our basketball team you talk about a team that quote overachieved...A lot of adversity took place with this basketball team. We lost a lot of our size and of course we lost Demarrio...I'll take the blame for that loss. Time just kind of ran out on us...It was a defensive battle...I thought Crawford scored one of the key buckets in the game...My hats off to our guys for coming out and competing."
By Yoni Cohen on Sat Mar 18, 2006 at 12:35:58 AM EST
Rather than take notes in Microsoft Word, I'll blog (the end of) Kentucky's press conference after the win over UAB.
Q: Coach, what happened to Joe in the first three or four minutes?
Tubby Smith: "He got poked in the eye. His vision was blurred. But he came back in the game and made some big plays. He's fine."
Q: Tubby, you had some big rebounds...
A: "They were up on us six to one early in the game. Our guys made a conscious effort to go to the boards. And when you're missing that many shots, there are a lot of rebounds to be had."
Q: Your thoughts on facing Connecticut? Will your team be a little looser than if you were a 1 seed?
A: "They're awesome. Great talent. Rudy Gay and Marcus Williams. They've got some talented people and they've got depth. Scoring. Size. It would take a great effort on our part to compete with them. But I thought we came in very loose tonight. I think our guys feel that they deserve to be here and that we can play with any team and we've been able to survive a tough game tonight just like UConn did and hopefully that will give us some more confidence."
- The knee of George Washington forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu. The absence of the Colonials' top rebounder and No. 2 scorer for the final four games might be why they received only a No. 8 seed. He is expected to try to play in the Colonials' opener against North Carolina-Wilmington.
- The ankles of George Mason forward Jai Lewis. Sprains in both ankles might be why the Patriots' best player had a poor game in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament loss to Hofstra. If he's healthy, George Mason could give Michigan State a scare.
- The ankle of Indiana guard Robert Vaden. The Hoosiers need his outside shooting to continue rolling, and he might play against San Diego State.
- The eye of Villanova guard Allan Ray. Although he is expected to play, Ray needs to see clearly to help shoot down Arizona or Wisconsin in the second round.
- The ankle of LSU forward Tyrus Thomas. He was missed in an 81-65 loss to Florida in the SEC tournament, but should be back this weekend.
Of all the major forms of betting — lotteries, poker, craps, slots, football — college basketball is almost certainly the easiest to fix.
It is played by young men who don't usually have a lot of money. With just five players on the court, one person can determine the outcome. And the point-spread system, in which bets are based on the margin of victory rather than wins and losses, allows players to fix a game without losing it...
Mr. Wolfers has collected the results of nearly every college basketball game over the last 16 years. In a surprisingly large number of them, it turns out that heavy favorites just miss covering the spread. He considered a number of other explanations, but he thinks there is only one that can explain the pattern. Point shaving appears to be occurring in about 5 percent of all games with large spreads.
