Author Archives: Kent Sterling

5 problems in college basketball that aren’t really problems at all

Rick Pitino might have been the most arrogant cheater in college hoops, but he isn’t the only one.

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 big brains proposing massive changes in the governance of college hoops.

Sadly, the problems identified by Bilas, Fraschilla, and others with skin in the game have been widely accepted and ignored facts of life for generations – at least for fans.  And it’s the fans who separate basketball from cross country by consuming it on TV and buying expensive tickets at giant arenas like the Yum! Center, Dean Dome, Rupp Arena, and Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Continue reading →

Hoosiers “weak” in near record setting loss – now comes growth

Archie Miller was refreshingly honest in his post-loss comments, but that was all that was refreshing about IU’s season opener.

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 supposed to instill a level of simplicity on defense that would lead to tenacity, but last night his Hoosiers were anything but tenacious.

The game wasn’t as close as the 21-point difference would indicate.  In the history of Assembly Hall, no opponent has scored more than 93 points in regulation.  Indiana State got their 90th and final point with 5:01 remaining, and if they had not taken their foot off the gas that record would have been obliterated.

INDIANA STATE did that to Indiana in Miller’s first game as coach of an iconic program. Continue reading →

LiAngelo Ball & UCLA Bruins arrested for shoplifting forgot first rule of international travel

These three UCLA Bruins forgot the American laws do not govern the rest of the world.

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 the store.  In China, a guilty verdict can come with a three-to-ten year jail sentence.  And as you might guess, incarceration in China does not feature cable TV and conjugal visits.

Whether the accused players – LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley, and Jalen Hill – are found guilty or not, their alleged idiocy should serve as a lesson to anyone who has not seen films like “Brokedown Palace” and “Midnight Express.”

After being released on bail, the three freshmen are required to remain at the hotel where the team was staying until the legal process concludes, which could drag on for weeks or months. Continue reading →

Who’s to blame for the Andrew Luck mess – let’s rundown the top 5 candidates

When Jim Irsay speaks, blame for investing in the ideas expressed belongs to listeners

The return of Colts quarterback Andrew Luck has been a shiny tchotchke dangled in front of fans’ noses since the opening of training camp.  

It was shattered yesterday as the Colts finally placed Luck on injured reserve, which ends his season.

Colts fans are rightfully miffed that their team is missing the roster’s only difference maker.  That anger requires a target, because that’s the societal requirement for being pissed off these days.

Let’s take a specific look at a variety of potentially blame-worthy candidates to decide whether they truly deserve culpability for the mismanagement of the injury or the Colts response to it:

Jim Irsay – Blaming irsay for saying wacky things is like blaming a cow for mooing.  It’s just what he does.  Irsay blathering about pristine biceps and other Luck related shoulder jargon while investing great optimism in his imminent return was reckless, but that should be expected and dismissed.  We assessed it as relevant, and for that we are to blame.  Living a life as a billionaire removes a significant level of consequence for weirdness and irresponsibility.  We have no such excuse, and should have known better than to listen. Continue reading →

Colts Chuck Pagano will be fired – the sting will pass, everyone will be fine

Chuck Pagano’s days behind that podium at the Colts offices are numbered.

There is no path through this regular season for the Indianapolis Colts that leads to a seventh season with Chuck Pagano as head coach.

Pagano is a certain goner.  The Colts enjoyed an ascension with Pagano as coach from 2012-2014, and then came a decline which has gathered significant steam during the first seven weeks of the 2017 season.

Six seasons as a head coach in the NFL is a good run – a really good run.  Pagano is living his dream and stashing away piles of cash much higher than he could have dreamed when he began his career as a graduate assistant at USC just over 30 years ago.

Maybe his ultimate goal was to win a Super Bowl, stand at the podium on the 50-yard-line, and accept the Lombardi Trophy from commissioner Roger Goodell.  That moment will not be his, but that doesn’t mean he’s a washout.

The moment he is relieved of his duties will come during the next three months – maybe sooner rather than later – and it will be miserable.  Walking out of a building filled with people he led will be unpleasant.  There is no way for Pagano to do it without seeing himself as a loser. Continue reading →

NCAA’s College Basketball Committee will waste its time and ours

Only positive created by formation of the committee is an answer from Mark Emmert to the question, “What are you doing to fix college basketball?”

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 one very important component – the presence of those who have corrupted the game.

If you want to catch a crook, you need to employ one.  The FBI became very good at catching forgers when it hired Frank Abignale, one of the world’s best forgers.

Good and decent people don’t think like thieves.  They can’t understand the whys of corruption, and so they are the worst candidates to fix it.  Those who circumvent and break rules to accomplish their goals – both in basketball and finance – must be a part of identifying and fixing the issues facing college basketball. Continue reading →

Rick Pitino’s firing is nothing more than kibble to satisfy our not so robust appetite for change

This is how many million bucks you can make every year by taking advantage of a ridiculously naive system.

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 depravity of coaches who work with shoe companies to funnel cash to the families of athletes.  I get it.  I’m mad too.

Cheaters get the material things that many covet but can’t afford, while those who operate in the best interest of the student-athletes within the rules get fired because they can’t compete with the cheaters.

This isn’t unique to college hoops – or even college athletics.  Wall Street is filled with similarly motivated thieves, who pay for their estates on Long Island with money filched one way or another from the retirement funds of trusting middle class dupes.

The banking system is never going to change because the rewards for bad actors are immense while the consequences are virtually nonexistent, and the same is true for college basketball.  Coaches are paid millions to lead young men onto the basketball court to compete against similar groups of students. Continue reading →