So, Midnight Madness is (was last night) here! Basketball practice has begun.
UK raised their banner last night. (Ugh. :mad:)
But Louisville is pre-season #1.
Also, the Ohio Valley power of basketball is back, with Louisville, Kentucky, and Indiana in everyone's top 5.
Lindy's
1. Louisville
2. Indiana
3. Michigan
4. N.C. State
5. KentuckyAthlon
1. Indiana
2. Louisville
3. Kentucky
4. Kansas
5. SyracuseSporting News
1. Indiana
2. Louisville
3. Ohio State
4. Kentucky
5. MichiganDick Vitale/ESPN.com
1. Louisville
2. Indiana
3. Kentucky
4. Kansas
5. N.C. State
Going to be a fun year!
KU coach Bill Self favors adding a stipend for student-athletes
Kansas basketball coach Bill Self used to hold a pretty hard-line stance when it came to the contentious issue of compensating NCAA athletes beyond the traditional parameters of a scholarship.But every year around the NCAA Tournament, Self began to see a noticeable disconnect. The television revenue dollars continued to pile up, the NCAA collecting billions, while the parents of his players had to cough up four or five figures to follow their kids to different tournament sites around the country.
“I used to be totally against it,” Self told The Star. “I used to be totally against doing anything other than room, board, books, tuition and fees. But I’ve changed. And the landscape has changed also. It was always big business; now it’s huge business.
“And when you’re sending players from the West Coast to East Coast to play sports, to miss more classes, and the schools benefit from that financially, why shouldn’t the people that are responsible for the business, and that would be the student athletes.”
I've been in favor of paying players for the same reasons. It's good to see Self taking a logical look at the issue and using his secure standing to make his case.
Of course it has to be equal, that's why it is a stipend and not a salary.
How many players are we talking about and how much money? I think the NCAA can foot the bill themselves. I'd be okay with stipends up to $50K a year. At the very least, let the players get a check from EA for use of their image.
Honestly, I just think the players deserve a big cut of the action. I don't care how it is funded. Straight from the NCAA, a tax on all teams, whatever. But there are billions of dollars being collected by the NCAA and schools. I'm sure there is a number that could go to the students and families that make it possible.
Charleston just decided to leave the SoCon for the Colonial, presumably after this season.
Cremins has retired back to Hilton Head, and the new coach is Doug Wojick, last seen repeatedly taking Tulsa to the NIT.
This year's team should be good if they can avoid last year's plague of injuries.
Hopefully they can pull the upset when they host Louisville.
Georgia meanwhile will likely again finish in the bottom half of the SEC.
This is frustrating. So far, both of the Gopher games have only been available through a subscription service. Their next game is on ESPN3 which I hate using. Sure, the fourth game is on BTN but then the game against Duke in the Atlantis tournament is on something called AXS.tv, whatever the f*ck that is. BTN has alternate channels that they use to broadcast concurrent football games, I don't get why they don't use those for basketball as well.
AXS.tv is what HDNet used to be. It's 340 on DirecTV. It seems to be on most cable systems, too.
I'm guessing they are paying the Big 10 more than they make broadcasting on their own.
I just checked out AXS, and they are showing the Rolling Stones Steel Wheels tour right now. It's the only Stones show I ever saw, and I thought they were too old to be touring then. The concert was 22 years ago. FFS, I'm old, and they are still touring.
Not that this belongs here, but that Stones show was part of a three day stretch of among my favorite concerts. The night before I saw Nirvana open for 24-7 Spyz at the Outhouse in Lawrence, KS. The night after I saw the Butthole Surfers at the Bottleneck.
The most striking difference is that I used binoculars to watch the Stones at Arrowhead Stadium. At the Outhouse, the pit was so packed and violent I ended up face down on the stage with people on top of me. I eventually crawled onto the stage, two people deep, and got hit in the head by the bass player. I don't think it would be a good idea to go into the stories from the Butthole Surfers concert.
I'm guessing they are paying the Big 10 more than they make broadcasting on their own.
BTN only has the rights to Big Ten team home games so that game couldn't actually be on there. My point about BTN was about the other games. During football season they have at least four alternate channels that they can have games on but they don't use those for basketball for some reason. I think, so far, they've only had the two Indiana games on.
The Battle 4 Atlantis tournament is another issue. It's relegated to being on the NBC Sports Network, which, I guess, not many people actually get, and half the games are on AXS. Kind of a sh*tty deal for what is easily the best tournament field of the year.
Ah, there's something in the air that I haven't felt since March. It's time for Hilton Magic and The Mayor has us all believing in Iowa State again after too many non-magic seasons. I'm excited to see what the Clones will do this year with another set of castoffs.
Thank you, SLU, for making sure Kansas doesn't have to play the Aggies CBE Classic. SLU is looking to have a down year, made worse with the forced retirement of Majerus due to health concerns. But they ran over A&M 70-49.
So it looks like Kansas is in the process of taking Washington State down, and will face the Bilikens in the final tomorrow night. That should be a fun game.
the Kansas SLU game was better than the 73-59 score indicated. KU ran out to a big lead, but SLU then proceeded to stick around and never let Kansas run away the rest of the game. They even close to within 9 after being down by 18. SLU lost their best defender to fouls early, and then a groin injury, as Jordair Jett played just nine minutes.
Kansas is really, really good when they remember that playing tough defense is the key to scoring lots of transition points. They are young and seem to lose intensity during periods. Every time SLU started to make a run, Kansas' length and speed would crush their Bilikens.
Ben McLemore, the redshirt freshman is freaking awesome, and he and Withey are going to help Kansas gone a long ways in the Tourney this year. It's a different team without Thomas Robinson, but I really like it.
I really hope the Atlantis tournament gets such abysmal ratings that the better teams stop going there until the get a better media deal. This is f*cking ridiculous. NBC Sports was running the f*cking Dan Patrick Show while there are games.
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