It has just been announced that ESPNU is retroactively amending its Top 200 Basketball Recruits from the 2007 class. With Taylor King having transferred from Duke to Villanova at the end of the 2008 season, King will now be eligible to play for the Wildcats in the upcoming season.
Hence, King’s listing as the 37th best high school recruit in 2007 has been lowered by ESPNU, now ranking him 79th in that 2007 class.
In an unrelated bit of news, ESPNU has also announced that it will be changing Seth Curry’s high school recruit ranking from no. 152 to 8. Congrats on the move, Seth.
We are fans of Bill Simmons. We enjoy his writing on ESPN.com, his podcasts, etc. But we feel obliged to make a quick point. We caught Simmons on PTI’s “Five Good Minutes” segment yesterday, very interested to see how he fared on live TV. In our opinion, it did not start well.
First question asked is whether Ron Artest was an upgrade over Trevor Ariza?
The answer: “No, Ariza was all about the intangibles: three-point shots, guarding the other team’s best perimeter guy…”
At which point, we also did a slow motion “Noooooooo.” Last time we checked, the ability to make outside shots was a tangible skill, as is being a good defensive player. We knock other writers or aqnnouncers for misusing the term (just a little pet peeve of ours), so needless to say, we were saddened to see one of our favorite writers do the same.
You can watch the segment by clicking here.
Don’t believe we’ve been annoyed by it before? Check here.
If you want to get any news about Kentucky sports, you can always tune into Kige giving you the scoop from his basement.
But now, for all the ACC scoop, it’s just a quick walk up the stairs, apparently, to the first floor of Kige’s house with Heather Dinich.
As you may know, big moves were made in the off-season between Auburn and Iowa State. Auburn hired last season’s ISU coach, Gene Chizik, as its head coach. And then Iowa State hired Auburn’s defensive coordinator of last season, Paul Rhoads, as its head coach.
Just a few weeks ago, Auburn found its way on the front page of many websites and publications, and ranked in the top 25, due to its 5-0 start. On that same day Auburn improved to 5-0, Iowa State lost by one point on the road to Kansas State. Since that day, Auburn has lost 3 games in a row, losing by a combined 49 points over that stretch. Meanwhile, Iowa State has gone 2-1 in that same period with a road win over Nebraska this past weekend and only a 5-point loss at Kansas.
As it turns out, both teams have an identical 5-3 record at the moment. Of course, the 5 wins that Rhoads has tallied in his first 8 games equals the amount of wins Chizik had in two years at ISU.
Not sure what any of this means - though we’re pretty sure we’ve stated before that we think Iowa State may have gotten the better of this switcheroo. ISU plays at Texas A&M this weekend, where a win gets them one step closer to a shot at the Big 12 Championship game. On the other hand, Auburn will host Ole Miss - where a win will get them within 3 games of the SEC West lead but will find them Independence Bowl eligible.
You may have heard about the Chiefs’ Larry Johnson kinda losing it on Twitter Sunday night. According to this story, he basically said his dad was a better coach than the one he had, and then proceeded to call anyone who disagreed with him an inappropriate term.
Of course, then he issued the following apology, only ESPN - we think - did not get the entire quote written down. They quoted: “I regret my actions. The words were used by me in frustration, and they were not appropriate. I did not intend to offend anyone, but that is no excuse for what I said. I also want to apologize to all the kids who view athletes as role models. I was not a good role model yesterday and hopefully I can become a better role model.”
But our inside source says that’s not where the apology ended. Johnson went on to say, “But to all the kids who don’t view athletes as role models, hell yeah I meant all that stuff I said. I ain’t apologizing to some bunch of [bleeps] and [bleeps] and [bleeps] on Twitter. Screw that. You don’t disrespect me like that without me bringing the heat. And I got more money than them.”
We feel the full apology was far more entertaining.
We have a friend who is a backer f the energy-alcohol drink Sparks. If you have not heard of it, check here. Anyway, he passed along his submission for their next ad campaign. Very nice…
Because you’ve got too much at stake to be using cocaine.
Um, we were under the impression that John Calipari was supposed to take his team to the Final Four before these things came out…
Some quick research revealed that…
(1) Teams with a quarterback from Purdue on the team this season = 14-0.
(2) Teams without a quarterback from Purdue on the team this season = 62-76.
Don’t you wish your team had drafted or traded for a QB from Purdue at some over the last 8 years?