Kentucky coach John Calipari has always been a self-immersed twit and a blight on college basketball, so please don’t misunderstand my thoughts on the stupidity of the postgame handshake ritual as a validation of his decision to blow it off last night. Kentucky got beat, K-State celebrated, and Calipari left the floor without waiting to shake […]
Coaching changes bring a change of culture. Culture change brings adversity. Adversity brings roster changes. Such is the cycle of life in college basketball. Curtis Jones was recruited to Indiana by Tom Crean, and he played his freshman season for the former coach. When Archie Miller replaced Crean, it became clear very quickly that the […]
Slapping hands while repeating “Good game” 20 times without making eye contact is not good sportsmanship. It’s a show, and it’s presence as a mindlessly followed tradition has consequences. Today, it nearly resulted in a fight between Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin and a player for rival Xavier. When I was in high school, a player from […]
Smart college basketball experts like Jay Bilas and Fran Fraschilla have recently written treatises about how to cure college basketball. The unfortunate truth that renders their well-intentioned thoughts unnecessary is that it isn’t sick. Rick Pitino’s ouster at Louisville, indictments against assistant coaches, shoplifting in China, and academic fraud at North Carolina have coaches piously posturing and […]
If anyone needed proof that life isn’t a movie, last night’s opening night debacle for the Archie Miller Era at Indiana stands as solid evidence. No one other then Indiana State coach Greg Lansing would have approved the script that had the Sycamores hitting 17 of their first 22 three-pointers to win 90-69. Miller was […]
Getting popped for shoplifting in China is no joke. That should not be one of the lessons learned by UCLA freshmen as they travel to play basketball in that country thousands of miles away geographically, but far more distant culturally. In America, most shoplifters are stopped, stripped of items they “forgot” to pay for, and maybe banned from […]
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It would be nice if college basketball could move past the cheating that unnecessarily taints the game, but if the construct of the committee empaneled but the NCAA to study and correct corruption is any indicator, it will never happen. NCAA president Mark Emmert announced the formation of the 14-person committee yesterday, and it lacks […]
I get pissed off at cheaters, so I tend to ignore them. Changing them is too hard. College basketball is filled with different degrees of cheaters, and Rick Pitino was neither the best nor the worst of them. He’s just the guy who most recently got caught. We are now supposed to rage against the […]
Helping people is what I enjoy best, and today my efforts are to help former Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean compile his list of reasons not to pick up the phone if the University of Louisville calls. I also want Louisville fans to wrap their arms around a few facts as they build expectations as […]