Aaron Rodgers' Neighborhood » college hoops

Idiotic Fans of the Week: West Virginia Basketball Student Section

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:02:19 +0000

West Virginia fans are insane…and not in the good way. The college basketball fans at the University of West Virginia were already known to be a bit unruly, or at least lacking in a bit of class, before last night’s game against Pitt. That reputation stems from a game earlier this season against Louisville, where the fans started chanting the name of Rick Pitino’s mistress, Karen Sypher, during the game. While that certainly isn’t classy, I think it’s within the realm of acceptable fan behavior. Yeah, it’s rude, but it could be used to rattle Louisville and it’s kinda funny/impressive that the West Va. fans were up on the name of the woman who is the source of Pitino’s legal troubles.

But last night against Pitt, West Virginia fans showed themselves to be insane in a bad, not even a little bit funny sorta way. First, a fan or some fans threw something out of the student section onto the floor. That forced the officials to stop the game to clean the court and coach Bob Huggins got on the stadium speakers to announce the obvious: that throwing stuff on the floor risks injury not just to the other team, but to the West Virginia players as well. After a cheer from the crowd things were ok for a while– until a person in the student section threw a coin which hit a Pitt assistant coach in the head, very close to his eye, which ESPN captured it on tape. On top of all the fan madness, pushing broke out between Pitt and West Virginia players that left an official on the floor getting stepped on while players confronted each other.

Overall, not a great atmosphere for a game, but one which I’m willing to say the crowd set the tone for. It only takes a few idiots to ruin a game, and West Virginia seems to have more than their fair share in the crowd. I’ve sat in many a student section and have never seen anybody throw stuff onto the court/field or attempt to harm the opposing team’s coach. When coach and player safety is at issue, something’s got to change. West Virginia has got to figure out a way to put a muzzle on the crowd, maybe have more security in the student section to throw out egregious fans. It’s unfortunate that it comes to that, but when your fans are certifiably insane it has to be done.

For now I’m interested to see how the Pitt crowd treats West Virginia when they travel to Pittsburgh later this year…

John Wall and the Absurdity of NBA Eligibility Rules

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:18:42 +0000

Earlier this weekend there was a a little tiff between Kentucky’s star point guard John Wall and coach John “Raise the Final Four Banner then Pull it Back Down” Calipari. After Kentucky’s upset loss to South Carolina, where Wall played poorly (13 points, 9 assists, 7 turnovers), Calipari criticized Wall, but said that he didn’t play all that badly. In response, Wall fired off this comment about Calipari “I just try not to listen to him and go out and play basketball and try and help my team win.” Wall subsequently met with Calipari and the two now say the relationship between them is fine.

But, what’s more telling about this event than Wall’s initial comment, which he said he made in frustration over the loss, is Wall’s explanation for why things are all good with Calipari now. Wall noted that he would listen to Calipari because his advice would help him “at the next level.” Wall also said: “The main thing is to listen to Coach. He knows what he is doing. Derrick and Tyreke are doing great in the NBA.” Interestingly, Wall never talked about Calipari’s advice being important to lead Kentucky to a national title– only what Coach Cal’s advice can do for Wall’s NBA career. These comments reveal that Wall is looking ahead to the NBA already, more so than winning the NCAA tournament for UK. If Wall were concerned with such things, you’d at least think he’d mention his team or their goals rather than simply the NBA and what Kentucky can do to get Wall better ready for the NBA.

Wall’s thoughts are illustrative of a broader problem with the NBA’s rule that players must spend 1 year out of high school before they enter the league. The current NBA eligibility rules forces players like Wall– people who are basically NBA ready–to go to college knowing full well that they will only be there for one year. Wall knows that he is simply biding his time waiting for his NBA career: he has bigger aspirations than winning the NCAA tournament. In the meantime, players like Wall take away scholarships from kids that would actually use them to get an education, maybe even stay a few years at their school, as opposed to simply biding their time until the draft. What good does it really do John Wall to take up spots of other athletes? Does John Wall staying at UK for one year, worrying about his NBA really help the University of Kentucky? Is John Wall really going to get an education staying at UK for one year? Don’t think so.

Ultimately, kids straight out of high school can be ready for the NBA. Unlike the NFL, high school kids can be physically ready to play the game and don’t need to bulk up or polish their skills as much. The success of Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, and Dwight Howard demonstrates people can succeed in the NBA without going into college ball. I don’t doubt John Wall wants to win the NCAA tournament, but I think that clearly isn’t his number one priority no matter what he says. His comments reveal that the NBA is his number one priority, which is fair given his talent. Wall should be leaving for the NBA is that is the case, rather than sticking around the college ranks where his team should be the number one priority.

The PAC-1 Conference?

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:17:12 +0000

Something very interested happened in today’s Bracketology by the (in)famous Joe Lunardi on ESPN.com. According to Joe, only one–count ‘em –ONE Pac 10 team will make it to the big dance this year. (The great Cal Golden Bears, in case you were wondering.) Even more embarassing is that the Pac 10 has ZERO teams ranked in the top 25 of the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll this week for the first time since the poll’s creation and has ZERO teams in the top 25 of the AP Poll either. As if it could get any worse, basketball powerhouse HARVARD currently has more votes than any Pac 10 team in the AP Poll at ONE. That’s right– no Pac 10 team even got a vote in the AP Poll this week. This begs the question: Is the Pac 10 that bad this year? Will it really only get one automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament?
Well, that Pac 10 isn’t as good as it has been historically, and it certainly isn’t a good conference by any objective measure, but there’s no way the conference only gets one bid come March. The favorite right now in the conference looks to be Cal, sitting at 10-5, has no great wins out of conference but explainable losses (to Ohio St., Syracuse, then undefeated New Mexico, Kansas, and UCLA in OT). Cal has had injury problems too, with Theo Robertson previously out and point guard Jose Gutierez currently injured. Bascially, it’s a team that has a chance to gel and perhaps make a run at respectability in the tournament. Cal’s RPI sits at 32, well within tournament respectability.

Washington also has the potential to be respectable and make it in. Washington started out strong at 10-2, but has lost 3 games in Pac 10 play. Washington has a good core who plays fast, and just needs to right the ship. Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas could easily get things together and put a run together at seasons end.

USC has been playing well, including beating recent- number 1 topping Tennesee , but will be unable to enter the tournament due to self imposed sanctions by the University for recruiting violations realted to OJ Mayo. While that may deflate the number of teams that can make the tournament in the Pac 10, it means the conference isn’t as bad as the voters think.

However, all that being said, the rest of the conference is pretty damn lackluster. The nonconference schedule was brutual for the Pac 10. The conference’s best win outside of USC’s beatdown of Tennessee is Washington’s victory over Texas A&M, ranked 35 in the current RPI. That’s not pretty compared to years past. While the Pac 10 undoubtably looks way worse than usual, I’ll guarantee that at least 2 teams end up in the dance, with at least 1 in the sweet 16.