Road Trip

Someday this blog needs to have an offsite in Kinderhook, NY...

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/travel/escapes/24trip.html?em&ex=1188100800&en=b7b60c985c379347&ei=5087%0A

5 To Win It All

The Sporting News has write-ups on the five college basketball teams it thinks could win a national championship next year. Along with Georgetown, it lists Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina, and UCLA. Here's the Georgetown entry:

Georgetown

Required NBA-type talent: C Roy Hibbert, SF DaJuan Summers, SG Austin Freeman, PG Chris Wright.
Perimeter shooting: Absolutely. For a big freshman, Summers did a nice job in this department. Jonathan Wallace is accurate and makes them under pressure. But no one else is a volume shooter.
Size and power: Starting with 7-2 Hibbert, maybe more than any other contender.
Breakdown scorer: Georgetown did not have this sort of player last year, although Jeff Green was very clever at creating opportunities because of his ballhandling skill. Freeman might be the guy.
Point guard play: Not a strength. The Hoyas rely a lot on the Princeton system, which does not demand the point guard be creative. But if Wright can squeeze into the lineup crowded with Wallace and Jessie Sapp, he might provide this kind of spark.
X-factor: Can you win a championship playing Princeton ball? Well, yeah, you can win the Ivy League. And Georgetown proved you can win the Big East. Can you win it all, though? Or does the system ultimately stifle the greatest talents?

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news;_ylt=Ai.rbQYF1UAEqIWXudfWfwXevbYF?slug=ourpickforchampionisamon&prov=tsn&type=lgns

I have a few quibbles with this. First, and most obviously, after a Final Four appearance last year, there is no way that anyone can ask the question: "Can you win a championship playing Princeton ball?" We were two games from doing so last year. And why in the heck can an offense that permits you to win a Big East Championship and a Big East Regular Season Championship not permit the team to win a national championship. That's just silly. Also, how can you pencil Freeman and Wright in as NBA talent, and then claim that guard play is a problem? Finally, Wright is going to be a breakdown scorer before Freeman. Not that Freeman can't get to the hoop, but he won't really do so in a classic "breakdown."

Ball State Update

After getting kicked around in the local and national press for a few months now, Ronny has come out swinging with a Michael Wilbon article today in the Washington Post. I think most people recognize Wilbon as a pretty fair guy, so if he's seen the evidence and is convinced, I wouldn't be surprised if a jury would see it similarly. I imagine this will be settled out of court, but as they say, the plot thickens.

Picture Becomes Clearer At Ball State, and It's Not Pretty

There are people at Ball State who want you to believe everything that went wrong is Ronny Thompson's fault. They tell folks Thompson is arrogant and distant and a bad basketball coach. They tell you Thompson didn't extend himself to the booster club. They point to a new black coach as indication that everything's hunky-dory on campus and that Thompson's claims of a racially hostile environment are bogus, despite the coach's photos of hateful signs laying on the floor of what used to be his office. What they don't tell you is that the Ball State athletic program was already dealing with a selling-books-for-profit scandal that suggested to the NCAA a lack of institutional control and took place long before Ronny Thompson was hired. Some of these same Ball State people aren't forthcoming with the fact that the basketball team had only five players when Thompson arrived and was told by his boss to pass on cocktail parties and concentrate on recruiting. They don't tell you that they didn't even have basketballs for practice or that the players weren't going to class. They don't tell you Ronny's wife was so worried about the expression of racial hostility that she put her two children in the car and drove from the Ball State campus in Muncie, Ind., to Chicago. They don't tell you that Thompson and his attorney allege the violation of federal civil rights laws, state civil rights laws and the school's own equal employment opportunity policies. And they certainly don't tell you that Thompson, at the insistence of his suspicious pop, Big John, kept a detailed diary of every meeting and phone call, with quotes, notes, times and supporting e-mails. He has photos, tape recordings and memos that he shared on a recent afternoon while telling his story.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/13/AR2007081301102.html?hpid=sec-sports

Reggie Miller a Boston Celtic????

If this happens, Boston will move in one season from the youngest team in the league to probably the oldest. See http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2966170

Another Rivers? Another Austin?

Interesting tidbit from Jeremiah Rivers about his brother's basketball ability. I imagine JTIII will monitor his development.

Georgetown guard Jeremiah Rivers was as excited as anyone when the Boston Celtics landed Kevin Garnett earlier in the week. Rivers’ father is Celtics coach Doc Rivers. Jeremiah also said that his little brother, 15-year-old Austin, is the real deal. "He’s 6-foot-2 and can shoot lights out. He’s kind of like Austin Freeman."

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/goodmanonfox/2007/08/03/COLLEGE_HOOP_CALENDAR_NEEDS_BREAK

Clark Shines in Las Vegas

NBADraft.net has posted its list of the top 20 performers from the 2007 RBK Summer Championships. As has been reported here, the duo of Chris Braswell and Jason Clark performed very well. But Clark's performance earned him a spot on NBADraft's top 20.

17. Jason Clark 6'3 PG Woodbridge, VA. (DC Triple Threat) Georgetown has always loved long, athletic guards that can defend. They found a gem in Jason Clark. He showed in Vegas that he does have an offensive game. Strong with the bounce, end to end speed, decent jumper but where he excels is defensively. And not just quick hands or anticipation either...but a true lock down defender with excellent footwork. Future Big East defensive player of the year.

http://www.nbadraft.net/2007lasvegas005.asp