NCAA Basketball Pac 10

Interesting piece from ESPN's "Outside the Lines" series profiling the unusual hiring of Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny. Kilkenny was a well-heeled Oregon booster with ties to former Nike founder Phil Knight.

OTL: "The next time you consider hiring or firing a coach will you call Phil Knight first? To see what he thinks?

PK: Yeah, I'd probably would talk to him about it, I would talk to some other donors too.

This kind of stuff makes the NCAA incredibly squeamish, but Kilkenny comes across as honest about the murkier aspects of his ascent and relationship with Knight.

Previously at FanHouse
Oregon's Filthy Rich AD Draws Preschool Teacher's Salary

I direct your attention to this story from Oregon:

Jeff Gaulton, the nightclub's co-owner, says he routinely comps Ducks [athletes playing for the University of Oregon].

For Oregon, this could be trouble. Because to the NCAA, this is taboo.

"I had no idea," Gaulton says.

Letting athletes in free while making others pay constitutes what the NCAA calls an "extra benefit."

Gaulton admits comping any and all Duck athletes who have wanted to gain admission. The cover charge is only $10, but good luck trying to explain that to the unblinking NCAA. According to the article, any benefits under $100 can be forgiven if paid back, but what happens to Oregon if many of its athletes were regulars with dozens of visits to Taboo over the year?

That kind of payback will cost the athletes a pretty penny. It's an almost impossible to navigate situation determining exactly how many visits each of its hundreds of athletes possibly made to that night club. Now USC's also getting roped in, as Gaulton says O.J. Mayo and several USC basketball players also came in gratis.

Have fun with all of that, Oregon and USC. In the meantime, it's a stupid rule. It discourages booster funny business, but if the NCAA wants to get serious about smaller perks it should expand its enforcement wing instead of placing heavy burdens on institutions to monitor these difficult to catch (until it's too late) situations.

(Belated H/T to DuckSportsNews)
Sorry, No Photos

On paper, Wazzu's 51-47 win over Gonzaga looks like a top-10 beating a top-20 team. Good win, but nothing special. But what isn't quite as clear from the box score, is just how hard it is to win at Gonzaga.

The Cougs' victory is the first time that the Zags have lost at home while ranked, and I believe it's only the third home loss in 66 games.

GU could be considered the toughest place to play in the country and WSU went in there, played their style game and really shut down a good Gonzaga team.

Wazzu held GU's leading scorer, Matt Bouldin, to 0 points on 0 for 9 shooting and GU shot just 26% for the game.

The Cougs, 8-0, should jump in to the top-5 in next week's rankings if they can handle Portland State Sunday. This solid defense has Final Four written all over it.