College Basketball

American Athletic Conference begins site search

Date: April 29, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: American Athletic Conference, Blau's Blog, College Basketball

The newly named American Athletic Conference will begin its search for a site for men’s basketball tournament in Philadelphia.

According to sources familiar with the process, representatives of the American will visit the historic Palestra in Philadelphia on Tuesday as a potential site of the men’s basketball tournament in March 2014.

Other sites that will be considered are Hartford, Memphis and Tampa. American Athletic Association commissioner Mike Aresco is intrigued by the Palestra because of its historical significance as one of the storied venues in college basketball as not only the home court of the University of Pennsylvania, but as a long time site of Big 5 basketball–Temple, Saint Joseph’s, Villanova, LaSalle and Penn–in a prime basketball market.

Rutgers hires a Rutgers guy

Date: April 18, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: Blau's Blog, College Basketball

Comments: 3 Replies

Phase One of the continuing Rutgers search for respectability in basketball was completed on Thursday when Rutgers came to an agreement with Eddie Jordan to become the next men’s basketball coach. In typical Rutgers fashion, the official announcement probably won’t come until next week, but then again its only the height of the spring recruiting season in basketball, so what’s the rush?

Jordan is a Rutgers guy, so he knows the place. Maybe that’s a good thing. Jordan knows the NBA better than he knows college basketball. Maybe that’s a good thing if you recruit players who are focused on that as a post college career. But then again if Rutgers were good at getting those kind of players, they probably wouldn’t be always looking for new basketball coaches every few years.

Rutgers could have hired Jordan three years ago, but hired Mike Rice instead. It looked like a good move at the time because Rice was the hot young college coach coming from Robert Morris. Who knew that he was a also a hot-headed young coach who verbally and physically abused his players.

Oh, well.

It’s time RU went into its shirts and Skinner mode

Date: April 17, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: College Basketball, The Grudge Report

Comments: 2 Replies

According to a report by Newark Star-Ledger sports writer (and former Jersey Guy of the Week) Tom Luicci, Los Angeles Laker assistant and former Rutgers star Eddie Jordan will begin final negotiations with his alma mater about becoming the next Scarlet Knight basketball coach.

It’s amazing how smart the Twitter world becomes AFTER Luicci posts a Rutgers story.

It is not a slam dunk certainty since Rutgers has been notoriously cheap in paying its coaches.

With the move to the Big Ten in 2014, Rutgers needs to upgrade its pay scale (past the $1.2 million per year level) if it wants to get Jordan.

Louisville provides a sense of order to wacky season

Date: April 9, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: Blau's Blog, College Basketball, March Madness, NCAA

Comments: 1 Reply

ATLANTA–In the end, they gave us back the game that had been threatened to be obscured by controversy, scandal and off the court headlines. Make that three games. Each one a little bit better, a little bit more dramatic than the last one.

No more nonsense about coaches acting like idiots and maniacs, verbally and physically abusing players. No more guessing games about who was in which league, with what name.

They gave us big plays by players with small roles and little plays by players with big roles with names like Peyton and Spike and Luke, whose spotlight dance moments brought them world wide attention in the twitter and blog world which now exists.

The world of college basketball turned its hungry eyes on the Georgia Dome on Monday night and Louisville and Michigan didn’t disappoint in a national championship game that will not have to back away from many of it’s 74 predecessors.

Title pre-destined for Ville?

Date: April 8, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: Blau's Blog, College Basketball, March Madness, NCAA

Comments: Leave a reply

ATLANTA–Truth stranger than fiction department: The moons seem to be aligned for Louisville and coach Rick Pitino this week as the Cardinals chased the national championship into Monday night’s title game against Michigan.

Consider this: Louisville has teams in both the men’s and women’s title games. Earlier last week, Pitino’s son Richard moved up a level from coaching at Florida International to a Big Ten job at Minnesota.

On Satuday, a horse that Pitino had a share of, GoldenCents won the Santa Anita Derby and became one of the favorites to win the Kentucky Derby.

A few hours later, the Cardinals, trailing Wichita State by as many 12 points in the second half, came up with a second rally to post a 72-68 victory. The win was sparked by a remarkable 34 points off the bench.

Now it gets really eerie. The comeback, sparked by three three point shots by Luke Hancock, begins at approximately 7:45 p.m.

Is Atlanta failing in its good host role?

Date: April 7, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: American Athletic Conference, Blau's Blog, College Basketball, March Madness, NCAA

Comments: 4 Replies

ATLANTA-What happens when a city that brings a Final Four to visit, then tells its guests that it really doesn’t want their money once they get here?

Say hello to Atlanta, the host of the Final Four and, according to more than a few fans, not the most gracious of hosts.

The case in point was Saturday night’s Final Four semifinals which started at 6:07 p.m. Eastern Daylight Stadium time and ended after midnight. With more than 70,000 people coming out of the Georgia Dome, many of them staying in the downtown Atlanta area, the potential for revenue for food AND drink seemed high.

Only problem? Very few places in the downtown Atlanta area were still serving food. “You have 70,000 people coming out of the Dome, who WANT to spend money,” said one official attending the game. “And there were very places down town where they could do that. What’s that about?”

Ville won because it knew it would

Date: April 6, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: Blau's Blog, College Basketball, March Madness, NCAA

Comments: Leave a reply

ATLANTA–Officially, it will say that Louisville won its way into Monday night’s national championship game by beating Wichita State, 72-68 on Saturday night.

Well, not exactly.

Coach Rick Pitino’s team won not because it was better–it was, but not by very much. The Cardinals won because they never thought they would lose.

Good and great teams do that.

“No I never think we’re going to lose,” said Pitino, who has taken teams to the Final Four at Kentucky and Providence. “I mean, not since being down 31 points with 15 minutes (68-37) to go on Fat Tuesday in Baton Rouge.”

Pitino a slam dunk choice for Hall of Fame

Date: April 6, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: A Jersey Guy Takes Note of the World, College Basketball, March Madness

Comments: 2 Replies

ATLANTA–Things a Jersey guy took note of during the week: It took too long, but Louisville coach Rick Pitino has been elected into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. Pitino’s credentials as a head coach are impeccable. Louisville will be the third team he has brought to the Final Four-Kentucky (national championship as well), Providence and Louisville.

Despite his failure to turn the Celtics around, he did win a division title with the Knicks. But Pitino’s legacy is as a college coach and in terms of overall achievement and impact on the game, few men have had a greater influence in their time frame than Pitino. And in terms of the sheer X’s and Os part of the game, Pitino can match his blackboard with anyone.

Rutgers has had a tough week, with the Mike Rice mess. Both basketball coach Mike rice and Director of Athletics Tim Pernetti resigned, the headlines are all negative for a school that needs an image remake. And consider the logistical problems for the Scarlet Knights, which started this season as a member of the Big East, became a member of the Big Ten in November, will become a member of the American Athletic Conference in July and then become a member of the Big Ten again in July 2014. The AAC (formerly Big East) would like to simply called The American Conference, but in the twitter world we live in, it’s going to be AAC in lots of posts and outposts, not to be confused with the ACC or the CAA.

Big East continues to be headline grabber

Date: April 5, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: Blau's Blog, College Basketball, March Madness, NCAA

Comments: 3 Replies

ATLANTA–No matter how you look at it, the Big East is going to be a presence in this Final Four. Not only on the court, but off the court. And not always in a good way.

Let’s review the week, in regards to the Big East.

Rutgers is black hole of college bb

Date: April 3, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: Blau's Blog, College Basketball, March Madness, NCAA

Comments: 1 Reply

It is not a good day to be a Jersey guy–at least not a Jersey guy that has anything to do with The State University of New Jersey–Rutgers.

Once again RU is in the news. Since it is in that March/April window when college basketball grabs the headlines, it would be reasonable to assume that an RU story would have some connection with basketball.

Well, this morning it does. But not in the way the folks along the banks of the Raritan would hope.

We have another scandal brewing, involving the men’s basketball program.