Tag Archives: NCAA

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On Officiating and Relations…

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Here are a few little tidbits about officials, officiating, communication and common sense:

  • As an official, when a team is getting the breaks beat off of them, it’s good judgement to let the coach whine a bit.  There are even times when he/she should be able to get away with a little more than usual.  It ain’t personal.  We should get that!
  • I expect that a coach will lobby for his players.  There is a way to keep an open dialogue and lobby for an official to see things the coaches way in certain situations.  On the other hand, when a coach is constantly debating every play, (Foul!  Traveling!  Moving Screen) that coach will be tuned out.   At some point the coach may have a legitimate point, but by the time that happens their credibility is spent.
  • Good officials respect dialogue, but we don’t respect intellectual dishonesty.  This too will get a coach tuned out.  Don’t argue against what you know to be obviously true.
  • Officials who are too prideful to admit a mistake suck!  Other officials hate working with them as much as coaches hate seeing them on the floor of their games.
  • Officials who don’t listen to other officials who try to help them suck!  And their performance will will never improve.
  • Like players and coaches, no matter how hard we try,  there are nights when we just don’t have it. We are going to suck, and we know when we sucked!

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  • Not that we are there for the compliments, but a coach that can compliment a good call or acknowledge a diligent official working hard at his craft is wise.
  • The less a coach complains, the more credibility he/she has when they do express displeasure.
  • Officials who love the craft of officiating and doing a great job on behalf of the players rock!
  • Coaches and administrators whose motivation are educating their players through team building sports and competition rock!
  • Sometimes conflict is good, healthy and necessary.
  • Some officials hold grudges.
  • Some coaches hold grudges.
  • Respect should be a given.  Only earned respect is maintained.
  • There are coaches and officials who are doing what they do for all the wrong reasons.
  • Officials, coaches and players are human.
  • There is way more to being an excellent official than some officials and most fans would ever understand.
  • I learn something new and see things I’ve never seen before often while officiating.
  • Officiating and coaching are both fun and honorable jobs to have.

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Of Basketball and AAU Coaching Vampires

Since I’ve been posing items on everything from religion to politics, I have always kept it real.  Just because I happen to know both  Darius Cobb and Ben McLemore, I can’t keep silent.

Any coach who is not coaching for the right reasons does the kid, the coaching and the sport a disservice.

There is a distinct difference between whistle blowing and snitching.  Whistle blowing is done to expose corruption, where there are victims and a greater good can be accomplished.  Snitching as it relates to this story specifically reeks of jilted lovers and bitchassness.  For Cobb to participate in the game and then turn ‘state’s evidence’ because he obviously feels he was being set aside, shows a sign of immaturity not becoming a person of his age and experience.  I mean what’s next, keying Ben’s car or flattening his tires?  Perhaps spray paint ‘cheater’ on his hood?

Fact is if you are for the kid, then regardless of the uproar and the commotion that goes on before a draft, the kid whom you were there for is going to remember you.  *though he technically owes you nothing*

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Ben McLemore

Ben is going to be fine.  I pray the best for him going forward.   Unfortunately the other kids who played at Kansas are going to suffer.  Kids who are going to Kansas as freshman are going to suffer.  The NCAA is a horrifically exploitative institution as it is.  This only gives them red meat to go after more black kids and the programs they play for.  If you don’t believe me, Google Johnny Manziel and you will find it’s clear he violates every rule in the book!  But nothing is going to happen to Johnny Football you best believe that.  *By the way, I don’t think anything bad should happen to Manziel, the problems are the NCAA rules not the player enjoying the fruits of his success and the value he brings to a program.

I can’t even say how disappointed I am to read these stories.  I’ve always respected Cobb as a coach with a brilliant basketball mind. Yet If I had a son who was an up and coming potential player, or an average player, no way I would let him within 100 feet of him.  Most of the coaches I see in the game are not just competitive, but also caring, compassionate men and women who love the kids they serve.  I plan to be one of those coaches next year.  The others are bloodsucking mercenaries looking for fame and glory off the backs of the young people they are supposed to nurture and look after.  In this fashion, they are worse than the NCAA.

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Congrads to UConn!

UConn's Tina Charles, right, grabs a rebound over Louisville's Deseree' Byrd during the first half of the championship game at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

Though I love the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, I can’t be mad at UConn for utterly dominating the entire field of women’s college basketball for a whole season. 

When I watched the open practices the other day I looked for Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery because they were all the hype on TV.  Both of them are outstanding.  But the player I was most impressed with was center Tina Charles.  Watching the Jamaica, NY native it was clear that her skill set was some of the best I’ve seen.  So it’s no surprise that she dominated the championship game with 25 points and 19 rebounds.  She was just poetry and power in motion.

Geno Auriemma is no joke as a coach either.  I listened to him talk to some television people including former Huskie Rebecca’s Lobo the other day and it’s easy to see how he masters the art of motivation.  I mean he can talk for days and days about whatever subject and you have to listen to him because he is so provocative.  Typically Italian he’s going on with the hands and the hair is perfect.  But the knowledge is simple and profound.  This guy is an old school throwback of values and simplicity for excellence.  I can’t hate him like I used to.

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Calipari at UK? A With The Devil

I really like John Calipari.  I think he is a great coach and a tremendous motivator.  I hope he doesn’t chase the dollars and strike a deal with Satan in the Bluegrass state.  Remember the movie, “The Devil’s Advocate?”  That’s the University of Kentucky when it comes to the basketball program.  With all the success of the past decades, the administration is a disaster and they should have listened when Rick Pitino warned them not to fire Tubby Smith.  But that’s the SEC –  The good ole boy’s network.  Guys get fired even when they are successful.  Just ask Tommy Tubberville.  Teams in the SEC continue to hire the same tired cats that fit the good ole boy mode…  instead of the most qualified guys.  Remember when Alabama hired football coach Mike Shula?  Auburn recently hired a loser in passing over Turner Gill. 

UK basketball is the ultimate good ole boy’s network with the exception of when they got Pitino and Smith.  After failing miserably the last couple seasons, they want to get Pitino Jr. in hopes of reclaiming the glory days.  They want to give Coach Cal something like $35 million from what I hear.  And that is my point. 

As much as I love college basketball, that kind of jack for one coach is just over the top.  That cost will trickle down right to the tuition cost of the average student who wants to get in. 

And by the way, if he does take the job I bet you won’t hear anybody screaming about the economy and how Coach should have taken less like they did with Manny Ramirez.  But I digress.  The money would be good money and I am a capitalist.  But sometimes the money and the perks come with too great a cost.  They want Coach to see the money and desire the perks that come along with being a part of that system.  And that is why vanity is John Milton’s favorite sin.

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Basketball Jones and Hoops Junkies Week; Day 4

Seattle,

You are looking at pictures from a Seattle highway in the middle of rush hour.  But there are hardly any cars on this normally packed section.  It seems that Brackethoopolus has taken over this region and many of the regions across the nation.  Thousands upon thousands have called in sick.  It’s an epidemic!  It is predicted that many who do show up will take extended lunches or leave work early. 

Corporate work production will be lost in the billions.  But bars and pizza parlors are expecting a large windfall.   

Welcome to the NCAA Basketball Tournament!

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Basketball Jones and Hoops Junkies Week Day 3

Tuscon,

Reports are coming in that workers are moving very slowly today.  What seemed like slight cases of flu like symptoms have really gone to a new level.  Sneezes and coughs can be heard from office to office.  Alka-Seltzer and Robitussin are stocked in many cubicles.

In another strange twist.  Workers are scrambling with long pieces of paper that look as if they have some sort of cryptic maze on them.  Money is being passed around quietly and according to sources, sport handicapping sites are being dinged at as high a rate as any other time of year. 

Las Vegas gambling guru Lenny Grimes says the last time they have had this many calls and hits on the web site, it was the Superbowl. 

Something strange is happening.  I wonder if workers will make it in on Thursday.

Tomorrow we will wrap up this series in Seattle. 

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Charlie Bubba on AIG and Imus

It was a slow Monday evening.  No college basketball on television.  The World Baseball Classic is totally irrelevant no matter what Tommy Lasorda says about it being something we should care about.  So what was I to do?  Been a while since I’ve been over on the East Side.  So I head to one of my favorite watering holes for some special Crown.  The bartender called and told me that somehow he got a bottle of the Cask No 16 that Hines Ward was giving away to his teammates after the SuperBowl.  I was down for that!

No sooner than I walk in the door… I see my main man Charlie Bubba ghetto philosopher and street scholar of the hood.  It had been a while since I’d seen Charlie.  Or (Cholly) as we call him.  I thought to myself, “Now I know the evening will be exciting.  We can talk about the NCAA tournament.  Manny Ramirez or something.  But no politics cause I was tired of the news as it is.”  I tried to head him off at the pass when he laid eyes on me.

Me: Cholly whats up baby!  Who you got going to the Final 4?  Who’s going to take it all!

Cholly: Fuck that nigga!  That shit ain’t coming on till Thursday.  It’s MONDAY fool!  Hell who gone be president in 2012?  Who gone be Bristol Palin’s next baby-daddy.  Hell I don’t know.  Gotta wait till it get here.  Shit.

Me: Dang Cholly why you all “sensitive” today? 

Cholly: Man these fools tried to take my crib – 4Close on a nigga.  While these fuckers at AIG, (Always Is Gangsta) taking MY tax dollars for god-damn bonuses and shit?

Why did I ask?  He got me.

Cholly: Come on C!  How many times these white boys, these anti-big government, anti-government helping out anybody, anti-welfare shit on the little man leaches keep coming back to the Amerikkkan people begging for hand-outs?  I hope Bama (Obama) knows what he’s doing.  Cause last time he talked about how it wasn’t about being pissed at them, but about saving the economy even though they pissed over the last stash they got.  Now they just made an ass out of him as far as I’m concerned.  Cause the same shit keeps happening over and over again. Give them assholes money, and they put it in their pockets.  Then I hear this broad talking on TV about how they were “contractually obligated” to give these bonuses.  What?  Like they were contractually obligated to give them money for the hoes they paid for at the spa a few months back?  Right?  That’s some bullshit!  First of all, who is giving out the bonuses anyway?  The same mother fuckers who asked for the money?  The same folks who are on the board deciding that they were “contractually obligated” to pay themselves all that loot?  The same jokers who’s decisions ran the company down in the first place?  What kinda shit is that?

Cholly was really angry.  I tried to get a word in but he kept going.

Cholly: And what if somebody with some balls at the top decided that these bonuses were not going to be given out.  If the others tried to sue, what fuckin judge is going to side with them.  I know they don’t write up contracts that say, ‘Even if you run the company into the ground and we are strapped for cash, we’ll still give you millions for the trouble you put us in.’  I just don’t see that happening.  And hell if they didn’t get multiple bailouts, where the fuck would they have gotten the money?  I’m telling you man!  They say they don’t want no socialist government and shit, but they can’t be trusted to run these businesses on their own obviously!  And why is Bama nem’ keep giving them the money with no fuckin oversite?  You keep trusting the same robbers and thieves to do the right thing?  That just goes to show you.  White folks broke the mode on crime I don’t care what they say?

Me: Well man you have said a mouthful Cholly.  Care for some of this No. 16 to take the edge off? 

Cholly took the drink and swished it around his mouth before swallowing.  “This some good shit here boy!”

Me: I’m sorry about…

Cholly: And did you get a load of that Imus bullshit he was saying about his prostate cancer?  ‘I think I got this from stressing all that media pressure at my doorstep a while back. ‘ First of all I don’t give a fuck about your prostate!  Second of all you opened your fool ass mouth and said some shit you shouldn’t have calling some black college educated women, ‘nappy headed hoes’ and then blame us for making your life stressful?  Cry me a fucking malt liquor bitch!  Sucks to be you huh? I tell you C, only in this country do white folks think such dumb ass shit.  Then he calls Giuliani about his dick getting hard.  First off Rudy ain’t getting no pussy he ain’t paid for.  Have you seen that guy? What is going to do, rub his little cabbage patch head against a woman’s…

Me: CHOLLY! That’s too much information bruh!

Cholly: Yea you know what I’m saying.  Who would want to fuck Imus anyway?  That crinkled up old dude.  Every timeI see him I think to myself, “There goes Maude!”  Look at his face, the way it looks if it can get hard he can use that!  He may want to get it circumcised first… 

Me: Alright Cholly I’m about to bounce. 

After a couple glasses of the No. 16, I was good to go but Cholly was just getting started.  This was my time to exit cause he was already on a mission as it is.

Me: Cholly man I’m sorry about the house?  What are you gonna do about it?

Cholly: Man I don’t know.  But Cholly Bubba always work thangs out.   Maybe I can catch one of them AIG niggas at the ATM machine.

I gave Cholly some dap and bid bye to he and the rest of the patrons.  Always having to have the last word though…

Cholly: Louisville!  Rick Pitino bitches!  Cardinals all the way over that robot Tyler Hansbrough for the championship!

Me: Whatever!  Carolina all the way! 

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Basketball Jones and Hoops Junkies Week, Day 1

 

 

It’s that time of year again.  Beware!

There is a strange germ in the air.  It usually hits the nation on Selection Sunday when the NCAA selection committee fills the field of 64  65 to decide a national champion for college basketball.  By Thursday, this infection will hit it’s peak causing millions to miss work. 

Scientist (called Bracketologist) have named this  strange infection and it’s commonly known now as Bracket-Hoopollous.  BB&G currently have correspondents all over the nation tracking this phenomenon.  And we will report on this very predictable infection as it spreads across the nation.

DAY 1

Brooklyn NY,

Many are starting to feel slightly under the weather.  It’s nothing serious mind you.   The men and women with these symptoms mostly say it could be allergies with the weather changes and the greenery around starting to bloom.   A sneeze here, a cough there.  No real cause for concern.  Just something to keep an eye on. 

Not leaving anything to chance, they put their vitamin C on their desk cubicles so that the boss can see it. 

That’s it from Brooklyn.  Tomorrow we go to Nashville to see if this infection is the same in the Midwest.