6th Grade Basketball Talent Likes Kentucky

Damon Harge doesn’t mess around. What a work ethic! Look for this kid’s name in the future.

John Wall, Before He Becomes Legend

John Wall wasn’t always the superstar he is today. Thursday night he’ll be the NBA’s #1 draft pick selected by the Washington Wizards. But LeBron, Kobe and others had much larger followings and hype at younger ages. They, however, didn’t have to deal with what John had to deal with.

Eric Prisbell writes a piece on Wall’s early life that shows all the world what John went through coming up. But what might be more noteworthy than the story, is the fact that Mr. Prisbell put his own career and press he’d get from the story ahead of the feelings of the person he was covering.

It wasn’t the writers job to uncover all the details behind Wall’s father’s time in prison and then relay them to John for the first time after John’s own Mother never relayed those facts to John. Nor did John attempt to find them out himself.

I think that’s selfish and fairly typical of today’s journalists who put their own agenda ahead of what’s best for our nation’s people.

1-Year-Old Has Mad Snowboard Skillz

She ownz.

NCAA Violations in College Basketball

Worth remembering since all the sports world seems to be trying to take down Kentucky and Cal. This comes from KSR.

Since Kentucky was charged with MAJOR violations in 1989:

-84 different Division-1 schools have been charged with MAJOR violations by the NCAA
-15 schools have been charged 2 OR MORE TIMES for MAJOR violations, including…..wait for it…..LOUISVILLE
-6 of the 11 other SEC schools have been charged
-Kansas, Indiana, Louisville, UCLA, Syracuse, Maryland, Villanova, and Memphis have all committed MAJOR violations. UCONN obviously has some charges coming.

-Coaches who have overseen programs when violations were committed, just to name a few:
Denny Crum (2 NATIONAL TITLES)
Jim Boeheim (1 NATIONAL TITLE)
Bill Self (1 NATIONAL TITLE)
Bob Huggins (2 FINAL FOURS)
Nolan Richardson (1 NATIONAL TITLE)
Jerry Tarkanian (1 NATIONAL TITLE)
Dale Brown (1 FINAL FOUR)
Jim Calhoun (2 NATIONAL TITLES)

Combined: 8 National Titles, 19 Final Fours (ALL BY NCAA-SANCTIONED CHEATERS)

Big Enes Is a Bad Man

When I heard that Kentucky was losing 5 players to the NBA Draft, I kind of expected it. But these weren’t your ordinary freshmen. I mean, John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins don’t come along everyday, right? How could Kentucky hope to reload that kind of talent? Apparently, you look to Turkey.

Our man Enes Kanter just exerted his will at the Nike Hoops Summit and almost brought the World Team a second straight victory. Yeah, he also happened to break the all-time scoring record previously held by one, Dirk Nowitzki. Uh huh, he’s pretty good.

Daily Show Blasts Racist, Stewart Still a Douchebag

Funny, funny stuff coming from the sarcastic fellows at the Daily Show. The guy is so clueless that he truly can’t see that what he’s advocating is racism. Ha!

NCAA Madness: Don’t Change the Tourny or We’ll Be on You Like Goverment on a Dollar Bill

Thought I had posted this before, but even if I did, it’s worthy of a double-post. Here some of the reasons why the NCAA should NOT change the field to 84 or 96 or any huge random number.

1. The current setup is widely considered the best post season in all of sports. Forking with it runs the risk of screwing that up.
2. Any decision where $$$ is the primary motive should be beyond suspect.
3. Adding more teams now, takes us further down the path of adding more teams later, which taken to its inevitable conclusion will kill the whole thing. NCAA is to common sense, what Bud Light is to real beer.
4. While adding more games may be fun for (some) fans, it increases the likelihood that the best team(s) in the country will have one bad game and we’ll end up with the winner being the best team of March, rather than the best team of the year.
5. Adding more less qualified teams makes it more like the NBA, which, for people who’ve been following the NBA for years believe it’s become worse, not better.
6. While I agree that people shouldn’t do things solely for tradition, maintaining a strong tradition does have some value. Kentucky fans know the value of a strong tradition.
7. No matter what the number of at-large participants, there will always be some that feel slighted. Any argument that tries to say there will be less of those is incorrect, unless of course, all the teams are entered which, in all seriousness, is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
8. The post season is a reward to teams that have superior regular seasons. Adding more teams to the tourney makes the regular season less important. The farther you go, the less important it becomes (see NBA).

Updated 3/8 for @greggdoyelcbs
Per Greg’s article (nothing draws page views like controversy!), here’s his primary reasons FOR expanding the field, with my comments beneath.

Greg: But it’ll water down the regular season and conference tournaments!
Most every agrees that this is truth. You found a single example, George Mason, that supports this view but if it were worthwhile, wouldn’t we have like a dozen? A gross? A buh-zillion?!?

Greg: But what about the student-athletes? Think of the extra time they’ll miss from school!
Not a big point for either side of the issues, most assuredly not the NCAA as they push for morerevenuemorerevenuemorerevenue.

Greg: The tournament is three weeks as it is. Last thing I want is for it to grow to four weeks.
Who says this? I haven’t read a single article using this point. Talk about your straw man. It’s not that growing something that people like even larger is automatically a bad idea but keep in mind that the newly added games won’t be ones anyone will car about. Murray State vs. Louisiana Tech?!? *yawn* And I’m a huge college basketball fan.

Greg: But the No. 1 seeds will get a first-round bye. That’s not fair.
Right, so why expand it? More byes=bad, plus who doesn’t love symmetry? I say we go back to 64. Moving to 65 was a mistake.

Greg: But 96 teams? I don’t want to see those crappy teams in the tournament!
Out of the new additions to the tourney, a few will win a game (maybe two) but most will be less memorable than a recent Steve Martin movie. Why add the also rans? They had their chance to solidify their tourney position down the final 2-3 weeks of the season (yeah, the season that had meaning) so if they didn’t get done then, why subsidize them like a new Obama dis-incentive plan.

Greg: But I’m against expanding the tournament to 96 teams. I just am.
If this is their primary reason, it says more about the person and their lack of communication skills than it does the merits of keeping the best post season in all of sports as the King of the Hill.

Under the Lights: Kentucky Basketball

In case you missed the behind-the-scenes look at Kentucky Basketball, WildcatWorld.com has put these up on YouTube for us. Fine right chaps, if I must say so.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Ref Bias: Winning Team Gets More Calls Against Them

Just finished watching Kentucky beat Vandy today. What sticks in my mind was how bad the referees were; on both sides! But remember:

Refs favor the home team, the academics say. They’re big on “make-up” calls. They make more calls against teams in the lead, and the discrepancy grows if the game is on national TV.

This comes from an AP story about an article published in the The Journal of Sports Sciences. Bottom line? Refs are simply human too and, at least subliminally, pull for whoever is losing.

More interesting stuff in the article.

Spreading UK Love in Iraq

Just saw this over on Kentucky Sports Radio.

The above picture is of a long-time KSR reader David Kaelin, who has been in Iraq and Afghanistan for some time and presented a Patrick Patterson jersey to two members of the Iraqi Government last week.

How cool is that?

John Wall on the Cover of Sports Illustrated

I’ve been giving it a lot of thought and I’ve decided to devote this entire blog to John Wall. So with that in mind, I give you…

I still might change my mind, but for now… let’s run with this.

The Great Wall of Kentucky

I’ve never seen a better Freshman basketball player in my life. John Wall is astounding. Check this:

Consider that Wall has played eight games and scored key points in the final minute to help win four of them. Some great college players will go entire careers without doing that. But Wall has already hit a game-winning jumper to beat Miami of Ohio, hit a pull-up jumper followed by free throws with 0.5 seconds remaining to force overtime in an eventual victory against Stanford, made two free throws with 4.3 seconds remaining to secure a win over North Carolina, and converted an I-can’t-believe-he-just-made-that three-point play with 30.8 seconds remaining to beat UConn.

If it sounds amazing, that’s because it is amazing.

If he sounds awesome, that’s because he is awesome.

What he’s doing would be incredible if he were a Senior but the guy has played just 8 games! I’m blown away.

Tiger Slow Jam

It’s not nice to make fun of people but I don’t care. This is hilarious! Tiger Woods knew better but screwed around anyway. Whatever he gets in return… he deserves.

No Such Thing As Duke Bias?

And some continue to claim there’s no such thing as Duke bias in the media. The nerve of these people. I believe this screen cap should put an end to those silly-heads.

Miami Coach Responds to Stupid Reporter Question

Charlie Coles is the head basketball coach at Miami (OH). After losing to UK on a last second shot, he naturally went to the post-game press conference where Dick Gabriel asked him how he let the game get away from him.

It’s almost as if Gabriel was at completely different game. Dork.