NCAA is Serious About Academics

"My fellow Americans. I am not a scholar."

For the first time in it’s history, the NCAA has issued bans on post season play to some programs because of their prolonged failure to meet their academic standards.  This sounds pretty harsh, until you see who caught the brunt of the NCAA’s wrath.

“The NCAA on Wednesday added unprecedented punch to its long-running academic reform effort, hitting three teams - Centenary men’s basketball and Chattanooga and Jcksonville [sic] State football…”

Telling these three programs that they can’t compete in post season play is like telling Rosie O’Donnell she can’t have a boyfriend, or like telling David Wells he isn’t allowed to touch his toes.  The penalty kind of loses it’s punch when you take away things that were never going to happen anyway.

The only schools anyone gives a shit about to receive some form of punishment are the football teams at Mississippi and Minnesota, who each lost three scholarships, and the men’s basketball teams at Purdue, Ohio State, Tennessee and Indiana.  All the basketball teams lost two scholarships each. 

It should be noted that the only reason Indiana is on this list is because their entire team transferred when Kelvin Sampson got fired for cheating (again).  The NCAA rules regarding why and how teams are punished are pretty Joe Buck, so unfortunately having players that go pro or transfer hurts a program quite a bit.

Basically, the message sent today is clear. Don’t be a tiny school that doesn’t make any money and think you can get away with the same shit the big boys do, or you’ll get banned from doing the unachievable.

Tags: college basketball, College Football, Indiana, Joe Buck, Kelvin Sampson, Minnesota, Mississippi, NCAA, Ohio State, Purdue, Tennessee

Bubble Watch: Small School Screw Job

Good and bad news, neither of them are going to the tourney

Oh look, this again.  You may be wondering, what qualifies this jackass to pass judgment on the potential NCAA tournament teams?  Well, the same thing that qualifies me to write anything on this site, I, uh, have ten fingers and a pulse.  Today’s bubble teams include small schools that won’t be getting automatic bids and larger schools that won’t be getting automatic bids. 

Davidson- Steph Curry and the Sunshine Band couldn’t even make the Southern Conference tournament finals, but they have played the 165th toughest schedule and only lost 7 times.  So, I guess what I’m trying to say is Steph Curry deserves to be in the tournament, but not Davidson.  I’m starting a grass roots movement proposing to allow Curry to join any team playing Duke.  Come on people, we can do this.

Creighton- Seems like the Bluejays are always in the tournament, but after losing in their conference tournament semis, they’re in danger of missing out this year.  Most people will blindly support the Missouri Valley Conference because they’ve been good recently, but this year they aren’t great.  So, Creighton does deserve to be in the NCAA tournament, provided this is 2007. 

Saint Mary’s- They couldn’t topple Gonzaga, but the Zags will get theirs when the Devil comes to cash in the contract they have with him.  In the meantime, the Gaels did beat Providence and if the media has taught me anything this March, it’s that every team in the Big East is the greatest of all time.  Plus, without doing any research, I estimate St. Mary’s has something like 65-percent of the world’s Australian basketball players enrolled.  To avoid international incident, they should be in.  They’ll also get nods because star Patty Mills has missed some losses because of injury.  I hear Tom Crean is planning on faking an injury to his star player next year after game 1, then claiming their 18 losses were due to the injury.  And the Hoosiers will be dancing.

Oklahoma State- They’ve been bubbly all year under first year coach Travis Ford.  Their RPI is solid but they have only beaten 3 teams in the top 50.  The other knock on the Cowboys is that they start 4 guards, including a 230 pound point guard and a white midget.  The selection committee likes formulas, and that doesn’t sound like the formula for a good team.  Conventional wisdom says OSU needs a conventional lineup.

Florida- The Gators won back-to-back championships and are now in danger of making back-to-back trips to the NIT.  I believe the NCAA has a sense of humor and I also believe it would be hilarious if Florida missed the dance again, so there you go.

Tags: Creighton, Davidson, Florida, Gonzaga, Indiana, MVC, Oklahoma State, Saint Mary's, Stephen Curry

Bubble Watch: Everyone is Out

No, his name is Hevin Darris, he just became eligible

All anyone wants to talk about today is Terrell Owens, Alex Rodriguez and who is on the bubble for the NCAA tournament.  A quick look at the Bootlegger Sports front page reveals, we’ve already talked about two of the three, so why not go for the clean sweep.  This may be a recurring segment over the next week.  Then again, I may get bored halfway through this post and fly to Brazil, never to be seen again.  This blog is full of surprises. 

Providence-  has a win over Pittsburgh and all the terrible teams in their conference.  They have a chance to beat Villanova tonight, that would put them in.  If they can’t do that, they’ll need to win some at the Big East tournament, which I understand is 10 rounds long, so there should be ample opportunities. 

Boston College- They are sporting wins over UNC and Duke.  They’re not just in, they’re heroes in my book.  Sure, their resume isn’t spectacular, but every other bubble team is rooting for them.  Why?  So they can meet in the 8-9 game. 

Wisconsin- Just being associated with the Big Ten and not being Michigan State or Purdue should blackball you from the tourney, but if this team was from the Big East, they’d be a lock.  As it is, they just finished being swept by fellow bubblers Minnesota and their final game is against Indiana.  Just playing the Hoosiers should disqualifies you from the Big Dance, so the Badgers are against the wall.

Texas A&M- Oh boy, we’re scraping the bottom of the barrell now.  Their recent loss against Colorado proves about as much as Rick Majerus’ recent victory over starvation, so they’ll have to beat Missouri to even sniff the dance.  Unfortunately for the Aggies, the Big 12 is filled with mediocre bubble teams and has no representative on the selection committee.  Get those maroon and white muffin baskets ready booster club.

South Carolina- How terrible is SEC basketball?  A division winner might not make the tournament.  The Gamecocks have ZERO wins against the top 50 and losses to numerous non-tournament teams.  There has to be some unspoken rule to ensure ‘power conferences’ get more than 2 teams to the madness though right?  Turns out, there is a rule like that.  It reads: “beat a quality team”.  Actually, SC has to make the tourney so a careless CBS announcer can make an unfortunate reference to their nickname.

Tags: basketball, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Boston College, Colorado, Duke, Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Missouri, NCAA, NCAA Tournament, Pittsburgh, Providence, Purdue, SEC, South Carolina, Texas A&M, UNC, Wisconsin

Indiana Apparently Sucks at Everything

Indiana’s leading scorer, Devan Dumes, has been suspended indefinitely by head coach Tom Crean. Now I know what all of you are thinking, and you’re right. I don’t give a shit about Big 10 basketball this year either.

With the possible exception of Michigan State I’d call Big 10 basketball downright unwatchable, which may explain why most of the usually rabid MSU fans at the game didn’t even react to Dumes’ attempted beheading of their center, Tom Herzog. That, or despite his best efforts he missed by a good foot.

In real time it’s hard to believe he was actually throwing bows with the intention of hitting anything. You can bet your ass if Kelvin Sampson was still at Indiana, Herzog would be eating through a straw today.  

I guess if anyone can take something positive from this video it should be Dumes’ girlfriend. If she pisses him off bad enough he might just lightly brush her shoulder in his fit of rage.

Tags: basketball, Big Ten, Devan Dumes, Indiana, Kelvin Sampson, Michigan State University

Kelvin Sampson Runs A Tight Ship

The Indiana Star is reporting today that last season’s Indiana University men’s basketball team looked more like a scene from New Jack City than a college hoops team.  Former Hoosier and current Clipper (is that an upgrade?) Eric Gordon is quoted in the story, saying multiple players’ drug use caused separation and turmoil amongst the team and essentially ruined a promising season. 

So you can add that to former coach Kelvin Sampson’s list of accomplishments.  Did this guy even show up to practice?  I know he spent all of his time committing recruiting violations, but you canwalk around with a cell phone on your ear and still see that half of your players are too coked out to play… allegedly. 

It makes you wonder if all of Kelvin’s teams were so poorly managed.  I know at least one of his players was busted for drugs while he was at Oklahoma, so maybe this was an on-going thing.  Maybe it was even the key to his success.  If so, that’s one hell of a recruiting pitch.  Other schools may give you a car, or tell you you don’t have to go to class, but a Sampson team gets dime bags after every practice. 

I’m just glad that players like Gordon who didn’t want to be a part of that lifestyle got out of there when they could.  Now Gordon can relax and just play ball in the NBA where no one even knows what drugs are. 

UPDATE: Gordon’s Clips head to Milwaukee on Saturday to meet up with the Bucks and assistant coach Kelvin Sampson.  Be sure to DVR that post-game handshake and somebody check Kelvin for a shiv made from a basketball pump.

Tags: basketball, Eric Gordon, Indiana, Kelvin Sampson, LA Clippers, NBA, NCAA