NCAA Basketball FanHouse

LSU Hires Stanford Coach Trent Johnson

Michael David Smith — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:22:00 EST

Filed under: LSU Basketball, Stanford Basketball, LSU, The Word

Stanford basketball coach Trent Johnson is leaving to take the head-coaching job at LSU, multiple media outlets are reporting.

The news, which was first reported by Emily Turner of KMSS TV, means the Tigers have a proven winner at the helm of their basketball program. Johnson was the Pac-10 coach of the year this season and is well respected for his coaching acumen and his demeanor, even if what got him the most attention this season was getting ejected from a Tournament game. LSU fired John Brady during the season.

Johnson has been a successful coach at Stanford but may be motivated to leave in part because next year's team won't be nearly as talented as the one he led to the Sweet 16 last year. With the Lopez twins leaving for the NBA, Stanford was already going to look a lot different next season. The new Stanford coach will have a tough job ahead of him.

LSU Hires Stanford Coach Trent Johnson originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:22:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oregon AD: I'd Probably Talk to Phil Knight (Before Hiring/Firing a New Coach)

Brian Grummell — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:24:00 EST

Filed under: Oregon Football, Pac 10, Oregon Basketball, NCAA FB Video, The Word

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

Oregon AD: I'd Probably Talk to Phil Knight (Before Hiring/Firing a New Coach) originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:24:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Billy Packer Knows More Than CBS Pollsters: Women Don't Support Hillary Clinton

Michael David Smith — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:50:00 EST

Filed under: March Madness, NCAA Basketball Media Watch, The Word

CBS Sports analyst Billy Packer will call his 100th Final Four game on Saturday, and you'd think all the preparation would keep him pretty busy. But he's not too busy to do something that I find downright creepy -- walk up to complete strangers, all female, and ask them if they'd vote for Hillary Clinton. That's exactly what Packer does, Michael Hiestand of USA Today reports:

He'll tell you that Hillary Clinton's support among women is overrated. He randomly approached 123 women recently - without introducing himself - to ask if they'd vote for her. "None of them knew who I was, or cared," he says. He was surprised only three women blew him off - "you'd think they'd say it was none of my business." (FYI: Only six said they'd vote for Clinton.)

Can you imagine that? You're a woman walking down the street and all of a sudden some old man comes up to you and demands to know whether you'll vote for Hillary Clinton? Do you think maybe you'd be a little taken aback, maybe even scared, and you'd just tell him what you think he wants to hear?

Packer's poll results give us six women out of 120 who answered who would vote for Clinton, or exactly 5%. Meanwhile, the most recent national presidential poll that's been taken, the CBS/New York Times poll that was just released, says that in a head-to-head match-up with John McCain, Clinton would win, 48% to 43%. I can't find a male-female breakdown in that poll, but if Packer's survey is correct, and only 5% of women would vote for Clinton, then she must have nearly 100% support among men to reach 48% of the population as a whole.

Or maybe the CBS/New York Times poll has flawed methodology. Maybe Packer should spend some time during the Final Four talking about how his sample of 123 women is far superior to the poll that his colleagues at CBS News have conducted, and that the flawed polling used by his colleagues at CBS News is the reason Clinton's support has become "overrated."

Or maybe Packer should just stick to talking about basketball. Yeah, I like that one.

Billy Packer Knows More Than CBS Pollsters: Women Don't Support Hillary Clinton originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Choose Your Own Cinderella: Picking the Right Team to Pull the Tournament Upset

Shiloh Carder — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: March Madness, NCAA Basketball Fans, The Word

The NCAA tournament brackets have been released and now you sit in your office/breakroom/home trying to fill yours out. Not only do you want to pick the Final Four correctly, but you want to be the smart one that picks that big first round upset. There will be a ton of people who pick the eventual champion ... but rare is the man or woman who correctly picks VCU to beat Duke. If you can't win your office's bracket pool, the next best thing is getting that upset pick correct.

You probably haven't even seen any of these underdogs play. So what are you looking for? Click the link that describes how you want to pick your Cinderella:

1. Pay attention to the front of the jerseys. Sometimes, certain teams can just get it done. Whether it is their coach, or system, or conference they play in ... sometimes certain schools just stand out.

2. Pay attention to the back of the jersey. Forget the school. If they were really that good, they'd be a household name every season. Sometimes it is just a player or group of players that stand out. Remember Davidson's Stephen Curry nearly beating Maryland by himself last year? That is what you are looking for. That guy.

3. Be a bit silly. Some people just like the name of the school ... or the mascot ... or something other than any real basketball related reason. You end up being correct more than the rest of us.

Latest College Basketball Photos

Head Coach Bruce Pearl speaks to his team and Tennessee fans after watching the NCAA selections at Thompson Boling Arena on Sunday, March 16, 2008 in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Lisa Norman-Hudson)

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Bruce Pearl discusses NCAA selections with assistant coach Jason Shay during the NCAA selections at Thompson Boling Arena on Sunday, March 16, 2008 in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Lisa Norman-Hudson)

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Bruce Pearl and his daughter Leah watch the NCAA selections at Thompson Boling Arena, along with Tennessee team members and Athletic Director Mike Hamilton, left, Sunday, March 16, 2008 in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Lisa Norman-Hudson)

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Tom O'Connor, chair of the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball tournament committee, addresses the media in a teleconference call following the bracket announcements in Indianapolis, Sunday, March 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Tom Strickland)

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Tom O'Connor, chair of the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball tournament committee, addresses the media in a teleconference call following the bracket announcements in Indianapolis, Sunday, March 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Tom Strickland)

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Tom O'Connor, chair of the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball tournament committee, addresses the media in a teleconference call following the bracket announcements in Indianapolis, Sunday, March 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Tom Strickland)

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South Alabama basketball players Daon Merritt, leaping on left, Brandon Davis, center, and DeAndre Coleman celebrate after being awarded an at-large bid to the NCAA Mens National Basketball Tournament on Sunday March 16, 2008 at the South Alabama Student Center. South Alabama will played Butler in the first round in Birmingham on Friday. (AP Photo/Press-Register, Chip English)

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Members of the Georgia basketball team react when their NCAA tournament bracket position is announced following their 66-57 win over Arkansas in the 2008 Southeastern Conference basketball tournament championship game at Alexander Memorial Coliseum on the campus of Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Sunday, March 16, 2008. Georgia will face Xavier. (AP Photo/Phil Coale)

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Drake University players Adam Emmenecker, left, and Bill Eaddy react as they watch the NCAA basketball tournament selection show, Sunday, March 16, 2008, in Des Moines, Iowa. Drake, the Missouri Valley Conference champions, will play Western Kentucky in the West Region on Friday in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

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Georgia guard Sundiata Gaines (2) holds up the MVP trophy after defeating Arkansas 66-57 for the Southeastern Conference basketball Championship at Alexander Memorial Coliseum on the campus of Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Sunday, March 16, 2008. Gaines, was named MVP of the tournament. (AP Photo/Phil Coale)

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Choose Your Own Cinderella: Picking the Right Team to Pull the Tournament Upset originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man Wanted In Eve Carson's Death Found Close By, But Miles Away

JJ Cooper — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: UNC Basketball, Duke Basketball, NCAA Basketball Media Watch, The Word

Ten miles separate the spot where UNC student body president Eve Carson's body was found and the house where police finally convinced Laurence Lovette to give up and turn himself in Thursday morning.

But figuratively, there's a lot more distance between Chapel Hill, where Carson was one of the most admired students on the North Carolina campus, and Durham, where Lovette was captured.

For proof, consider another student murdered just as he was getting ready to make his mark on the world. Graduate student Abhijit Mahato was murdered at his Durham apartment in January. Mahato had been working on PhD in engineering at Duke. Unlike Carson's murder, Mahato's was barely a notable local story, much less national news. Partly that's because he wasn't the student body president, and partly because he's wasn't a beautiful blonde, but it also was because murders happen in Durham (the per capita murder rate is 1.5 times the national average).

If you're not from the Triangle (what locals call the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area), you might think that Duke, the expensive private school, would be located in Yuppie heaven, while North Carolina, a state school, would be housed in more of a working class area. It's actually completely the opposite.
Duke's immaculate campus sits in the middle of a lot of old tobacco warehouse history and the blight that arrived when the tobacco companies left. There are nice parts of Durham and parts you don't want to wander through alone at night. Chapel Hill is a college town surrounded by expensive homes, immaculate yards, and an outstanding school system.

Durham remains known for a Kevin Costner movie, the infamous Duke lacrosse case, and a dozen botched plans for its future.

Violent crime doesn't happen that often in Chapel Hill, which is one of the reason's Carson's death struck such a note in the community. (Obviously there are a lot of other reasons as well--she was a bright, beautiful, charitable leader.)

But the disparity in news coverage of these two murders matters for a couple reasons. For one, we didn't get to hear about Mahato's accomplishments and plans, like we did for Carson.

But also, the intense media attention generated in the Carson case helped the police quickly arrest the two suspects in the case. There wasn't that kind of attention in the Mahato case. The suspect remained at large for months, until Thursday, when he turned himself in. It was Laurence Lovette, the same man now suspected of murdering Carson. He's now facing potential murder charges for a pair of cases: the one that made national news and the one that didn't.

And it's hard not to wonder whether the fact that the first case didn't receive as much attention -- from the press, from police used to running into homicides at the seedier end of Tobacco Road -- made the second murder more possible.

Man Wanted In Eve Carson's Death Found Close By, But Miles Away originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Could John Calipari Land Terrelle Pryor?

Michael David Smith — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:01:00 EST

Filed under: Ohio State Football, NCAA FB Recruiting, Memphis Basketball, Conference USA Basketball, NCAA Basketball Recruiting, The Word, Memphis Football

Has Memphis basketball coach John Calipari dramatically changed the college football recruiting landscape by convincing the top high school quarterback in the country to concentrate on basketball?

That's the suggestion of Phil Fritz of the Capital Times, who cites "very reliable sources in Memphis" who say that Terrelle Pryor, a Pennsylvania high schooler who has fans of Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State drooling at his ability to run the spread offense, may very well end up at Memphis. Fritz writes that Pryor, who is listed by Rivals as the third-best small forward in the country, is being recruited by Calipari to play basketball.

I don't know Phil Fritz and have no idea who his very reliable sources in Memphis are, but I'm skeptical of this report. Earlier this week, Pryor was asked if basketball would play a part in his college choice, and he said:

"No, it won't," Pryor said. "I really like playing basketball and I'm still considering playing both football and basketball in college, but I'm not sure. I'm leaning toward just football, but I haven't decided for sure."

So, I'll take the word of Pryor over the word of anonymous sources at Memphis, even if they are "very reliable." Having said that, though, if Pryor is interested mostly in his long-term earning potential, as Fritz's report suggests, I do think basketball might be a better sport for him. Until the spread offense catches on in the NFL, I'll have more confidence that a very good high school small forward will make it in the NBA some day than I will that a great high school spread option quarterback will make it in the NFL some day. Maybe that's what Calipari has been telling Pryor.

Could John Calipari Land Terrelle Pryor? originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:01:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Illinois Is Very Good at Losing Close Games

Michael David Smith — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:59:00 EST

Filed under: Michigan State Basketball, Illinois Basketball, Big Ten Basketball, The Word

Michigan State beat Illinois 59-51 Thursday night to improve its record to 24-7 and 12-5 in the Big Ten. The win, Michigan State's second in a row, puts the Spartans on much more solid footing than they were just five days ago, when I noted that they were coming off a brutal February.

But I'd rather talk about Illinois, which fell to 12-18 and 4-13 in the Big Ten, good for 10th place in the conference. Considering that the Big Ten isn't very good this year, 10th place in the conference is pretty bad, and every Illinois fan agrees that this season has been a mess.

So it's a little jarring to look at the Ken Pomeroy ratings, which are probably the single best snapshot of the college basketball season, and see Illinois ranked 39th in the country. The Illini are the highest-ranked team with a losing record, and they're ahead of teams like 25-5 St. Mary's, 25-5 Vanderbilt and 23-6 Davidson. How is that possible?

I don't claim to have Pomeroy's statistical knowledge, and I therefore can't give a definitive answer, but I can say that it's got to be in large part about the way Illinois loses so many close games.

The Michigan State game was just the latest example of the Illini playing fairly well against a good team, but not actually winning: Illinois actually led by as many as 10 points early in the game before the Spartans pulled it together. It's been like that all year for the Illini: They lose a lot, but they hardly ever lose by a lot.

That means the Illini are a better team than that pathetic 4-13 Big Ten record would suggest. Wins and losses are what it's ultimately about, but in all sports, it's been pretty well established that counting up total points scored and allowed over the course of a season is a better indication of a team's quality than just tallying wins and losses. And in terms of points scored and allowed, the Illini don't have the resume that you'd expect a 4-13 team to have.

Combine that with the fact that Illinois has played one of the toughest schedules in the country, and the Illini have really not been a terrible team.

They haven't been a good team, either -- they did lose to Tennessee State at home, for crying out loud -- but as this season winds down, it actually hasn't been quite the catastrophe that a 4-13 Big Ten record would suggest. Illinois is good at keeping its losses close. That's better than nothing.

Illinois Is Very Good at Losing Close Games originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:59:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mark Cuban Doesn't Think Much of the NCAA

Brian Grummell — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:52:00 EST

Filed under: Indiana Basketball, NCAA FB Scandal, The Word

Theirs is a flawed mission

Sayeth Cuban (emphasis mine):

One summer I visited Indiana and there were some players working out and playing on the Assembly Hall court. After watching a few minutes, I walked in the hall and there were a bunch of other players just standing outside. Waiting. I of course asked why they weren't on the court with their teammates. Turns out that no more than 4 players could be on the court at one time. Imagine telling a cello player they couldn't practice with more than 4 members of their school orchestra.

This was just the first of a list of inane rules that the compliance officer who was at the gym went on to list.

Spend enough time as a fan of college athletics and you almost get numb to the absurdities. Mark Cuban has seen only tip of the iceberg but is already aware of the monster that lies beneath.

The NCAA is an organization that supposedly prides itself on making sure that athletes are students and attend college with the intent to be students. What the NCAA fails to understand, IMHO, is that often students attend college with a specific goal or dream in mind. It may be to graduate and become an accountant, a musician, an artist, a teacher and any number of other professions. Every student who goes to school, post high school is given every opportunity and encouraged to maximize their effort and optimize their resources to achieve their goals. Unless of course they happen to attend a school that is a member of the NCAA and their goal is to be a professional athlete. In those cases, the NCAA does everything it can to make sure that the athlete is not a typical or traditional student.

For these student athletes, rather than doing every thing possible to excel in their chosen field, they face rules and restrictions that are exceeded in quantity and complexity by the US Tax Code.

Bingo. Not every student-athlete will grow up to be a professional in sports. But some do!

Just as the cellist gets roped into general ed courses that have nothing to do with his or her pursuit, the wannabe athlete gets roped into classes they aren't necessarily interested in. That's fine and dandy, but when that's all over there's no matching restriction on time with professors and peers for the cellist the way there is for the athlete.

(H/T: The Wizard of Odds)

Mark Cuban Doesn't Think Much of the NCAA originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:52:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Indiana to Pay Kelvin Sampson $750,000; Sampson Leaves and Agrees Not to Sue

Michael David Smith — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:41:00 EST

Filed under: Indiana Basketball, Big Ten Basketball, NCAA Basketball Coaches, The Word

ESPN is reporting that Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson has agreed to a $750,000 buyout, ending his coaching career at Indiana and agreeing not to sue for wrongful termination.

It's rather stunning that Sampson, who repeatedly and remorselessly violates NCAA rules, can pocket three-quarters of a million dollars on the way out the door. But Indiana was spooked by what happened to Ohio State, which lost a wrongful termination lawsuit after firing coach Jim O'Brien.

ESPN also reports that, as expected, assistant coach Dan Dakich will serve as head coach for the rest of the season. Given how well Indiana has played, "the rest of the season" could go into March or even the Final Four in April, as long as no players quit to protest Sampson leaving. But if the team Sampson built does make a title run, it will do so without him.

Indiana to Pay Kelvin Sampson $750,000; Sampson Leaves and Agrees Not to Sue originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:41:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kelvin Sampson Is In Trouble Again

Tom Fornelli — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:24:00 EST

Filed under: Indiana Basketball, Big Ten Basketball, NCAA Basketball Coaches, NCAA Basketball Gossip, The Word

I have to say, that as an Illinois fan I've never exactly been a big booster of Indiana basketball, and when Kelvin Sampson and the Hoosiers took Eric Gordon away from Champaign I was pretty angry. In fact, I was very angry, but in the back of my mind there was a little voice that helped keep me from going insane with rage.

That voice kept saying to me, "Don't worry, Tom. Kelvin is going to get that program in trouble somehow, and karma will set everything straight."

It appears that karma has finally caught up to Sampson once again. According to ESPN's Andy Katz, the NCAA is going to announce some major violations against Sampson and Indiana on Wednesday.

The NCAA sent a notice of allegations to Indiana University last Friday detailing major violations in the men's basketball program, multiple sources told ESPN.com.

Larry MacIntyre, assistant vice president for university communications at Indiana University, confirmed to ESPN.com that the school did receive documentation from the NCAA last week.

The Associated Press reported on Tuesday night that the school will make the allegations public on Wednesday. University trustees president Stephen Ferguson told AP that school officials this week reviewed the report, but that the NCAA is not expected to make its ruling until this summer.

Indiana AD Rick Greenspan took a big chance when he brought Sampson to Bloomington, where he left Oklahoma dealing with the ramifications of his active fingers. Now it seems that the Hoosiers are going to pay a hefty price for taking that chance.

(Thanks to Inside The Hall, which is a pretty good blog considering it's about Indiana basketball)

Kelvin Sampson Is In Trouble Again originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:24:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Athletes Get Perks, Schools Pay

Brian Grummell — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:20:00 EST

Filed under: Oregon Football, USC Football, Pac 10, USC Basketball, The Word

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)
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Athletes Get Perks, Schools Pay originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Va Tech-Duke: Deron Washington Plays Dirty

Michael David Smith — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:32:00 EST

Filed under: Duke Basketball, ACC Basketball, NCAA Basketball Video, The Word, Virginia Tech Basketball

Duke beat Virginia Tech Thursday night, and the player of the game was Duke freshman Kyle Singler, who scored 10 of his 16 points during an 18-9 run that allowed the Blue Devils to pull away in the second half.

But the real story of the game was Virginia Tech's Deron Washington, who played dirty throughout, tripping Singler at one point, undercutting DeMarcus Nelson on a dunk at another, and intentionally bumping into a Duke huddle. Here are some YouTube highlights (UPDATE: Better video courtesy of Awful Announcing):

Washington got an intentional foul and eventually fouled out of the game, but he never got a technical, and I find it shocking that he wasn't ejected. Duke loses some sympathy because its players flop too much, but last night, Duke was in the right and Washington was in the wrong.

Va Tech-Duke: Deron Washington Plays Dirty originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:32:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It Didn't Stay in Vegas for Louisville

Charles Rich — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:44:00 EST

Filed under: Louisville Basketball, Big East Basketball, NCAA Basketball Coaches, The Word

Louisville's new assistant coach, Walter McCarty only recently left the NBA lifestyle for coaching. Old habits die hard. That or he was showing a couple of the kids at Louisville what the future could hold.

At LAX nightclub (Luxor) on Wednesday: Former NBA pro Walter McCarty and members of the Louisville Cardinals basketball team, toasting shots of Patron tequila and glasses of Veuve Clicquot champagne after their win over UNLV.

The Cardinals were in Las Vegas last week, for one of the many holiday tournaments happening around Thanksgiving. The Cardinals were upset the next night by BYU.

Apparently that story wasn't well received by Louisville's Athletic Department.

They were pissed and complained. Quite a bit it would seem. To the point where they were demanding a retraction to the story. All the same they did concede that McCarty was at the club, but he was alone and just had a drink. After all, that is why people go to popular, loud, crowded night clubs. They go solo to have a single drink before calling it a night.

Kenny Klein, the school's sports information director, called it a "completely erroneous report" and added, "we have people crying for lawsuits."
...
"Bottom line, I know they got cameras all over those casinos and pictures don't lie. I guarantee you that there's none of our players in that casino at that time," Klein said Friday.

He's right about photos not lying. We checked and found Louisville player Juan Palacios among the photos posted on the local nightclub Web site, Napkinnights.com.

Our sources say McCarty and Palacios were in the LAX nightclub's VIP section early Thursday with several male friends, including a young white man who appeared to be a seven-footer. Palacios, 22, is injured and has not played this year. ...

A bottle of $400 Patron was charged to an Eric Scott's credit card, I'm told, and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, which goes for about $300, was paid for in cash.

Oops. Apparently Napkinnights is about showing the hot nightlife in clubs all over the country (here's the photo album from the club and night in question, and I think this is the photo). Eric Scott is the Director of Basketball Operations at Louisville and also happens to be the the older brother of Louisville junior guard Will Scott. The 7-foot, young white man would almost certainly have to be the also injured David Padgett.

In the face of that evidence, the Louisville Athletic Department has revised its position.

Klein told The Courier-Journal yesterday that Palacios was indeed at the club. But he said Palacios, 22, was under different curfew restrictions than the rest of the players because he is injured and inactive. Palacios injured his right knee in preseason practice and has not played this season.

Klein also said Palacios is very religious and doesn't drink alcohol. Klein said Palacios told him he was not drinking at LAX.
Klein said he wasn't sure if Padgett, 22, was at LAX that night.

Not a big issue to me since both Padgett and Palacios were legal. But the Louisville Athletic Department might want to either verify facts or be sure there is no contradictory evidence before issuing denials and silly legal threats.

Oh, and Rick Pitino might want to remind McCarty he's a coach not a player any longer. Even with the players of legal age and injured, he is not their buddy. He's a coach and supposedly the adult.

It Didn't Stay in Vegas for Louisville originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:44:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lil' Romeo Announces His Signing at USC

Charles Rich — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:05:00 EST

Filed under: Pac-10 Basketball, NCAA Basketball Recruiting, USC Basketball, The Word, USC

Normally we don't bother talking much about recruiting. Especially not when it comes to a single- or two-star recruit. We especially don't bother when the subject was discussed back in April when Percy Miller made his verbal to USC.

Still, this is the early signing period, and Miller (aka rapper Lil' Romeo) is making the minor celebrity news reports. What really makes this worth observing is that he had a press release issued on the subject of his signing.

Percy Romeo Miller 6'1" All-American point guard for Beverly Hills High School has signed-on with the USC Trojans Basketball team as a member of their 2008 Class. The agreement, made official last week, makes Miller the first hip-hop entertainer to get a full athletic scholarship to a prestigious academic university such as USC.

Okay, I'll ask. Who was the first hip-hop entertainer to get a full athletic scholarship to a crappy school?

Also signing with the Trojans is 6'7" shooting guard DeMar DeRozan of Compton High School. Both DeRozan and Miller previously played together in the AAU League team, P Miller Ballers. On the court, Miller has been compared to Allen Iverson while DeRozan has been compared to LeBron James. [Emphasis added.]

I'm at a loss for who exactly compares Miller to A.I. (I mean, aside from Mr. Miller or his entourage). DeRozan, though, is actually one of the best recruits in the country (but draws a Paul Pierce comparison).

Don't worry, fans. Lil' Romeo won't let the rigors of college and college basketball derail his acting career or his planned reality series with his dad. Even better, you can go see him right now while on his "multi-city mall tour."

Previously on FanHouse:
No Limit Soldier Enlists at USC
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Lil' Romeo Announces His Signing at USC originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:05:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Grandson of Cult Leader Jim Jones Prepares for College Basketball Career

Michael David Smith — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:27:00 EST

Filed under: Mid-Majors Basketball, San Diego, The Word

Freshman forward Rob Jones is just hoping to get some playing time this year at the University of San Diego, so you ordinarily wouldn't expect to see much of him on ESPN.

But Jones will be the subject of this Sunday's Outside the Lines, and not for what he's done on the basketball floor. Jones will be profiled because he's the grandson of Jim Jones, the cult leader who orchestrated a group suicide that left 913 people dead in Guyana in 1978.

Rob Jones' father, Jim Jones Jr., also played basketball. In fact, he was on a Jonestown basketball team that traveled to play in a game in another part of Guyana just before the group suicide, and as a result he became one of the few survivors of Jonestown. He now says, "basketball literally saved my life."

Both Rob and Jim, who spoke to reporters in a conference call arranged by ESPN today, seem proud of their backgrounds, though not of what Jim Jones did. Rob, who averaged 17 points and 14 rebounds a game as a high school senior, says of his teammates and other people his age, "Most of them don't know the true story, the whole story." He says he hopes to use his college basketball career to "change his name to a positive."

As for Rob's father, he says, "I'm Jim Jones Jr. That's who I am, and that's how I was raised. I'm very proud of my name. Not in a reflection of the horrific events of Jonestown, but in what Peoples Temple tried to create, a society without racism, sexism, ageism."

(Jim Jones Jr. also says, "I still get Kool-Aid jokes, probably once a week," from people who know his name is Jim Jones but don't realize he's the son of the infamous Jim Jones.)

Outside the Lines airs Sunday at 9:30 a.m. ET on ESPN. The above photo shows the November 21, 1978 cover of the Argentinian newspaper Clarin.

Grandson of Cult Leader Jim Jones Prepares for College Basketball Career originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:27:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The ACC Has Been Performing Background Checks on Officials for a Year

Shiloh Carder — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:09:00 EST

Filed under: UNC Basketball, Georgia Tech Basketball, Duke Basketball, Boston College Basketball, Maryland Basketball, NC State Basketball, Wake Forest Basketball, ACC Basketball, NCAA Basketball Gambling, Clemson Basketball, The Word

With the sports world buzzing over the NBA's gambling scandal involving a referee, the commissioner for the Atlantic Coast Conference has come out to say that they've been performing background checks on their officials since the last school year. Commish John Swofford:

"It's not a catchall, end-all by any means, but it does show a proactive way of looking at this and hopefully raising red flags if there are any to be raised."

"There wasn't anything that we saw that concerned us, that stimulated our belief that we should take this route," Swofford said. "But this whole issue of gambling is so prevalent in our society. ... We just simply want to do everything we can proactively to have that kind of integrity in our officials as well as our student-athletes."

The ACC is primarily doing this with their football and basketball [both men's and women's] officials. According to Swofford, the ACC and Big Ten are the only leagues to do these checks ... though more could follow suit in the wake of the NBA's problems. The domino effect of this could be mistrust in all officiating, especially in basketball. According to the article, the league has been looking into "any ties to gambling on sports, officials' credit histories and criminal and driving records at the local, state and federal levels."

Most long-time ACC fans know the snide remarks of officials favoring the "Big Four schools" [UNC, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest] ... with Duke, specifically, being targeted as a program that gets beneficial calls.

The ACC Has Been Performing Background Checks on Officials for a Year originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:09:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Recapping the Premature Hoops BlogPoll '07

Charles Rich — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:42:00 EST

Filed under: ACC Basketball, A-10 Basketball, Big 12 Basketball, Big East Basketball, Big Ten Basketball, Conference USA Basketball, Pac-10 Basketball, SEC Basketball, Mid-Majors Basketball, NCAA Basketball BlogPoll, The Word

Well, there you have it. The Premature FanHouse Hoops BlogPoll for 2007 is complete. After the jump is the full list with links to each of the top-26 team post/preview.

The voting for #1 was very close. One point separated Memphis from North Carolina after tallying the ballots. Memphis even appeared #1 on one more ballot than UNC, but there was a little more consistent top-tier support for UNC in the voting. Kansas and UCLA each received a vote as the #1 preseason team, and the final point totals between Kansas and UCLA was only 2 points difference.

All of the top-10 teams appeared on every ballot as did USC. The entire top-20 appeared on over half the ballots.

As for major conference breakdowns:

Pac-10: 6 teams
Big East: 5 teams
ACC: 3 teams
SEC: 3 teams
Big 12: 3 teams
Big 10: 2 teams

The other four teams came from Conference USA, the West Coast Conference, Atlantic-10 and Missouri Valley Conference.

The Pac-10 is heading into the season believed to be the deepest conference this season. Considering only 2 of the 7 FanHouse College Basketball bloggers are based on the West Coast, the Pac-10 is getting a lot of early respect. The Big 10, not so much.

Heck, if this was before conference realignment, the big story would be Conference USA dominance as the old C-USA would have had three teams in the top-10 (Memphis, Louisville and Marquette) rather than one

The teams that didn't make the early preseason poll, but received some support:

Alabama
Butler
Clemson
Florida
Kansas State
Ohio State
Notre Dame
Syracuse
UNLV
Virginia

Recapping the Premature Hoops BlogPoll '07 originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:42:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Premature Hoops BlogPoll: No. 20, NC State

Shiloh Carder — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:54:00 EST

Filed under: NC State Basketball, ACC Basketball, NCAA Basketball BlogPoll, North Carolina State, Carolina, The Word

This week, FanHouse is taking a way too early look at the top teams heading into 2007 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. It's a time-honored filler for the off-season, and who are we to buck tradition? Today we look at teams 20 through 16.

One thing that held NC State back last year was depth. There was a bulk of the season where they played just 6 or 7 guys. This year, the Wolfpack will return four starters, bring in two transfers and four freshmen. Oh, and they return of the ACC's best big men.

In a conference with Tyler Hansbrough and Josh McRoberts ... Brandon Costner's name wasn't heard as much. He should be. He was dominant last year, leading all ACC freshmen in scoring. Not just that, but he was a beast during the ACC tournament, showing his perimeter game as well as his post precense. Now State will put McDonald's All-American J.J. Hickson alongside him ... making him much more of a mismatch. Costner's my sleeper pick for the ACC Player of the Year.

A big issue will be replacing guard Engin Atsur. The Wolfpack seemed lost without him last year. Transfers Farnold Degand [Iowa State], Marques Johnson [Tennessee] and freshman Javier Gonzalez will get the opportunity to fill the void. There's also the ongoing immigration problems with Gavin Grant. Those are key losses, but their only significant ones. This was a very thin team that got a lot of playing time last year and a crash course in how coach Sidney Lowe wants things done. The same thing could happen this year with six new faces on the roster.

Why they should be ranked here: They bring back five of their top six scorers [provided Grant comes back] and this team that got a ton of court time last year welcomes in a very good freshmen class. Also, the ACC should be down a bit after losing several underclassmen to the NBA. The Wolfpack can rack up some wins.

Why they should be ranked higher: This team won 6 of its last 9 to end the season ... which included an improbable run to the ACC Championship game. In that game, they gave UNC all they could handle. If that is a sign that these players are grasping Lowe's system, this could be the start of the next great era of Wolfpack basketball. Oh, and this kid Hickson is one heck of a talent.

Why they shouldn't be ranked: Losing floor general Atsur hurts, and they have no experienced replacement. Incoming freshman Javier Gonzalez may get a shot, as will the two transfers ... but there are enough experienced point guards in this league that could expose them.

Premature Hoops BlogPoll: No. 20, NC State originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:54:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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