Hoopraker

The Duke mythology that has continued to shield Tommy Amaker’s reputation and coaching career was dented further by allegations of questionable recruiting practices at his latest stop in Cambridge. (more…)

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Like hyenas lurking near the bounty of a lion, the Tigers are circling Bloomington. By all indications, Indiana recruit Devin Ebanks (Queens, NY/Thomas More (CT)) and one of the most highly regarded players in the country won’t wait for IU to name a new permanent coach and will instead re-open his recruitment. Still, Ebanks has yet to be formally released from his National Letter of Intent to IU. Such formalities are apparently but a minor detail to John Calipari’s Memphis Tigers. (more…)

big ten basketball, college basketball | 3 Comments »

Though there were tornadoes and lightning on the outside, the Horizon League contest in the Gentile Center on the Loyola University campus in Chicago, was a calm and well-contested game between Loyola and Butler. Nationally ranked No. 14, the Butler Bulldogs demonstrated their signature style in playing aggressive defense and executing an offense that features crisp cuts and passes, impressive spacing, and sharp shooting both from the outside and inside. (more…)

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Much is made of growing parity in college basketball and there is a lot of evidence that basketball in the Mid-Major conferences is every bit as good as it is in the six major conferences that rule the media outlets and, to a great extent, dominate the governance and management of the NCAA including Tournament selection process. (more…)

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The ink’s dry on the November letters of intent for the high schoolers fortunate enough to have been offered Division I basketball scholarships. Lost in the parsing of recruiting classes, the accolades of team rankings, and the rating of players with “stars” is an unseemly recruiting trend: A handful of coaches aggressively pursue verbal commitments from ninth, and in some cases, eighth graders. As the competitive dust settles, we must ask: When is a kid simply too young to be subjected to a coach’s hard sell and push for a verbal commitment? (more…)

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The story is an increasingly familiar one. Facing criticism from fans, alumni, boosters, and the media class, an athletic director capitulates to the most superficial elements of the peanut gallery, snow-jobs the president and the budget director, and makes a budget-busting hire that has glamorous curbside appeal. (more…)

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There is an unhealthy contingent of putative mavens who view college basketball through the myopic, exclusive lens of numbers. Several of these number ruminants have even “invented” their own proprietary statistical models which they claim to be the most accurate, the most predictive, the best reduction of the game and its teams and players to their essential value. Number of possessions, tempo, efficiency, pace, effective percentage, these are but a few of their buzzwords, their junctions of obsession. (more…)

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On what may be considered a quiet moment in the college basketball universe, I want to direct your attention to something off topic but far more important.

Friends of friends of mine, J. Robbins (formerly of the band Jawbox) and Janet Morgan, have a one year old son named Callum who, unfortunately, has S.M.A. (Spinal Muscular Atrophy).

In an effort to help Callum, a great group of talented musicians have put together a two cd collection of music entitled For Callum. All of the artists have donated their considerable talents with all sales proceeds going directly to Cal’s medical fund. Click here to order a copy of the album from DeSoto Records.

You can learn more about Cal, S.M.A., and how to make a donation to help cover Cal’s immense medical bills, much too much of which are not covered by insurance, by clicking here. Thanks for reading.

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