Larry Brown Sports » College Basketball

Tom Izzo Brings Down the House at Midnight Madness

Larry Brown — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:10:45 +0000

Friday night was Midnight Madness across the country in college basketball because Saturday is the first day schools can officially begin practicing. Many programs put on a show for their fans but none may have matched Michigan State’s display in East Lansing. They had more electronics there than a freaking KISS concert. You think they roll out that kind of red carpet for some marching band? Gimme a break — it was for Tom Izzo. Check out the festivities:

Yes, that was Izzo the great rolling into the gym in a freaking Formula 1 racecar. ESPN has a video compilation of the Midnight Madness parties. Georgetown and Kansas had some cool ones and then you had Kentucky roll out John Calipari to make a speech like he was Barack freaking Obama. Crazy people. As if having NFL, college football, NHL, MLB playoffs, and NBA preseason wasn’t enough, we now have Midnight Madness. I’m officially on overload.

So That’s What He Had Stashed in the Unibrow …

Larry Brown — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:12:12 +0000

It was a sad day on Wednesday when former Binghamton standout Emanuel “Tiki” Mayben was arrested for possession with intent to sell cocaine. You might better remember him as the guy who tried to make the unibrow famous in March Madness but failed when his team lost to Duke in the first round. Mayben was recruited to play at Syracuse out of high school but it never materialized because of grades. He played a season at UMass then went to Hudson Valley CC where they went 30-1, and he played last year at Binghamton.

There was actually an indictment from him selling several months ago as he was as part of an investigation of the cocaine game in Troy, New York. Mayben’s already been kicked off the team and we’ll probably never hear from him or Binghamton again. Let’s just hope the unibrow earns him cool points in jail.

Duke Deserves a Banner Taken Down

Larry Brown — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:54:21 +0000

With Memphis crying over having to take down one of its finest banners in program history because of the Derrick Rose SAT scandal, some people are saying the NCAA isn’t handling punishments evenly. Contributor JS emails in with a story from Gary Parrish at CBS Sports who says Duke got away with having Corey Maggette on their Final Four team in 1999 even though it was found out that Maggette took money while he was in high school. Duke still has the banner hanging at Cameron Indoor and Coach K still has all the wins on his record.

I’m guessing the NCAA just wants to be sympathetic because it’s reflective of the last time Duke was any good, but it really does show their selective enforcement of violations. If Maggette took money from AAU corrupter Myron Piggie (remember him, UCLA fans?), why wasn’t that season stricken from the Duke records? And an even better point (though extremely more difficult to gauge enforcement) is made by JS: why doesn’t the NCAA return the money it made off Memphis and Duke those years? Perhaps that’s why they’re so slow to dole out punishments.

President Obama Warning Oregon State that Craig Robinson Is in Demand

Larry Brown — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:35:03 +0000

Craig Robinson led Oregon State to an impressive turnaround season this past year. The team went 18-18 and 7-11 in conference play which was quite an improvement from their hideous 6-25 and 0-18 showing the previous year. With many head coaching openings out there, his name was tossed around, but never seriously considered for the major jobs such as Arizona, Memphis, or Kentucky. Outside of a few years at Brown, he only has the one season of experience at Oregon State. But a few more steps in the right direction and you never know what might happen. Robinson’s brother-in-law, President Obama has the same mentality and has already put Oregon State on notice:

“Craig Robinson is an outstanding coach. I think he’s shown that. I’m just stating facts. Anybody in Oregon and anybody who knows sports knows he turned it around. He loves Corvallis and I’m sure that as a young, successful coach he’s going to start getting offers.”

In these times when schools and fans grow unsatisfied quickly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see someone act fast in hiring Robinson, especially if he has another good season at OSU. With President Obama on his side, imagine the type of pull he’d have in recruiting. Who would turn him down? About the only limitation would be the Ivy League mentality he has and the Princeton Offense, which isn’t exactly designed for elite talent, so maybe he’d have to consider a new system. And you know whoever does get him will be praying for reelection.

Just How Crooked Was the Memphis Basketball Program Under Calipari?

Larry Brown — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:37:46 +0000

We’ve already discussed some of the alleged violations committed by the Memphis program regarding Derrick Rose’s bogus SAT test. I indicted John Calipari saying that he likely knew what was going on with Rose. When the report about Rose having his high school grades changed came out, it only further confirmed my suspicion. Well now there’s a report by Gary Parrish suggesting that four-year forward Robert Dozier also had SAT issues but was still accepted by Memphis:

According to a source, Dozier took the SAT once before trying to enroll at Georgia, but that score was flagged after the school received a tip that the score might be “fishy.” At the time, Georgia was still dealing with charges of academic fraud under Jim Harrick and determined to be extra careful with everything. So the school asked Dozier to take the SAT again, and a source with knowledge of the situation told CBSSports.com that the second score was “not enough to resolve the issue.” Put another way, Georgia officials were not properly convinced the first test and second test were taken by the same person, which led to the end of Dozier’s time as a Georgia recruit in August 2004.

That sounds like it all makes sense to me. Dozier wound up committing to Memphis for a second time about a month after his second SAT test. Before that, he attended Laurinberg Prep along with three other future Tigers. That makes me wonder what kind of shady relationship Memphis and Calipari had with this Laurinberg Prep. Regardless, whatever doubt that may have existed regaring Calipari’s knowledge of Rose’s issues have now been eliminated. This is what we call a disturbing pattern, my friends. But as long as he continues to bring in the top quality players, Kentucky won’t care. That is, until the NCAA comes investigating, which they already should be doing.

Sounds Like John Calipari Helped Derrick Rose Cheat on the SAT

Larry Brown — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:34:18 +0000

Hmm, so Memphis offers John Calipari more money than Kentucky in the immediate future but Cal jumps to Lexington, saying that coaching at Kentucky was his dream job? I guess it’s entirely possible, but now something tells me he was ready to jump ship so quickly because he knew the NCAA was getting ready to crack down on Memphis for major violations. Yeah, I’d say knowing a guy cheated on the SAT is a pretty big deal. The Memphis Commercial Appeal says the Memphis program is being accused by the NCAA of major violations:

The allegations include “knowing fraudulence or misconduct” on an SAT exam by a player on the 2007-08 team.

The NCAA alleged the prospective player became eligible after an “unknown individual” completed his SAT. The player, said the NCAA, “subsequently competed for the men’s basketball team through the 2007-08 season, which included his participation in the 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.”

The only player who fits the description in the report (a guy who only played on the team during the ‘07-’08 season) is Derrick Rose who’s currently with the Bulls. The punishment as of now is that the team could forfeit its 38-win season and Final Four appearance of two seasons ago. I’m pretty sure the punishment will be much harsher — almost program killing — if the allegations are proven to be true. And they better darn well follow Calipari to Kentucky — he can’t just escape the problems and violations he committed by running away from them. They should follow him the way Kelvin Sampson’s problems followed him to Indiana.

Maybe this will temper all that excitement created when John Wall said he’d go to Kentucky. And maybe now this also explains why the school fired Billy Gillispie — they knew Calipari wanted to get out of Memphis and that they’d be able to sign him. Ahah! Everything’s starting to come together!

I Guess Tim Floyd Was Pretty ‘Hands On’ with O.J. Mayo

Larry Brown — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:31:34 +0000

Between the investigation of all the Reggie Bush stuff with the crooked Michael Michaels and the leaked O.J. Mayo information, it’s no wonder that USC decided not to bring Renardo Sidney aboard. Why would they want another problem on top of current problems being investigated? Well with rumors swirling that the NCAA was going to hand down penalties on the SC programs, information got picked up by Yahoo! that basketball coach Tim Floyd was involved in some pretty shady stuff when he recruited O.J. Mayo. As Yahoo! tells it:

[Louis] Johnson, a one-time Mayo confidant, has told both NCAA investigators and federal authorities – including the FBI, IRS and U.S. Attorney’s Office – that [Tim] Floyd gave at least $1,000 in cash to Rodney Guillory, a man who allegedly lavished Mayo with improper benefits while the guard starred for the Trojans.
…
Johnson also said Mayo received approximately $30,000 in extra benefits from Guillory while playing for the Trojans. He first made those allegations to ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” in May 2008, producing a litany of receipts to back up his claims, including purchases of food, clothing and a 42-inch flat screen TV for Mayo.

When the ESPN report came out my first reaction was to say that Mayo made the error of having the wrong people around him — ones that would rat him out. Never did I realize that Floyd would be dumb enough to make this big of a mistake. Moreover, the story that Mayo “picked” USC on his own and that Floyd just fell into O.J. seems now like a semi-truth; it was much easier for Mayo to tell USC that he wanted to go there so long as they met his monetary needs.

Let me make a few things clear. First of all, I’m pretty confident this sort of stuff where runners direct players to schools and agencies happens on a regular basis so it shouldn’t be shocking. Secondly, I can’t believe Floyd was dumb enough to actually deliver money to a player’s runner himself instead of just having a booster do it. Third, everyone’s doing it the only difference is USC is being investigated for it (and correspondingly getting caught). The NCAA looks the other way with this stuff otherwise half the country would be on probation. If they’re going to investigate and punish schools, they should do it fairly and proactively, not only when they get tips. Bottom line is collegiate sports are pretty corrupt and there aren’t any easy answers to fix it. I’d just as soon as get rid of the guys who are only on campus to play sports and not be students but you’d still wind up with coaches trying to gain an edge in recruiting regardless. There isn’t a whole lot to do to change things especially when so many people love the games the way they are. And with the revenue they generate, there isn’t much reason to make changes.

John Calipari Hiring Tony Delk, Scott Padgett to Coach at Kentucky

Larry Brown — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:50:45 +0000

And that’s why Kentucky brought John Calipari in to coach them. That, and because he’s taken UMass and Memphis to the Final Four. While Billy Gillispie would have been fine job-wise if he had won a few more games and probably would have had great success at UK, I never saw him hiring the former stars of the program. That’s something Calipari’s already doing:

Saying he wanted to help them launch coaching careers, new UK coach John Calipari on Thursday said he would hire former Wildcat players Tony Delk and Scott Padgett.

“I’ve done this many times. What happens is with guys like that, they’re in positions of assistant strength coach or assistant equipment manager,” Calipari said.

“This is not a money thing,” Calipari said. “If you want to get started in this profession, I will help you.”

The new coach also said he will have 4-5 guys around every year who want to get into the coaching profession.

I’m not exactly sure how they can afford to just hire anyone and dole out all kinds of funds but this is a great way of stepping up fan relations. This guy is really smooth. I said you better have a great replacement in mind if you’re going to fire someone who’s good and Kentucky had that. Imagine how much easier it will be to recruit when all the Kentucky legends are on your side making phone calls. Coaches should take notes from Calipari on how to work alumni-relations. Are you listening, Sean Miller?

Isiah Introduced as ‘Isiah Thompson’ for Florida International Press Conference

Larry Brown — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:43:49 +0000

I already talked about Florida International’s interesting choice of hiring Isiah Thomas as their new basketball coach. I guess when you’re FIU and your only claim to fame is Carlos Arroyo, you might be inclined to bring in a big name to help put you on the map. Problem is, as you’ll see in this video of Jim Rome giving his hilarious take on the matter, Zeke was introduced as “Isiah Thompson” for his introductory press conference Wednesday. Skip ahead to around the 2:10 mark if you want to laugh your ass off.

Think that’s a bad omen? I’d say so. Isiah also got grilled by Chris McKendry in an interview on ESPN. She played hard ball asking him what he’ll say to recruit’s families when they ask about the sexual harassment case, and what really happened with the suicide attempt. Zeke’s classic response was that many of these parents name their children after him and then he passed the suicide thing on to his daughter again, of course. At least some smart person gave him the great idea to donate his first year’s salary back to the school. That’s some genius P.R.

Greg Paulus to Disappoint College Football Fans Now, Too

Larry Brown — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:31:28 +0000

The whole year of backing up Nolan Smith at point guard in his senior year at Duke must have been the lowest of the low points for Greg Paulus. Paulus came into Duke with super-high expectations — the guy was the Gatorade National Player of the Year in football coming out of high school in Syracuse. But when Coach K comes calling, sometimes you have to go try and live that dream. Things however ended more as a nightmare as Paulus got demoted from his starting gig in his senior year. Once Duke made its swift exit from the tournament, the Green Bay Packers apparently came calling for a workout. As if that wasn’t enough, Michigan football apparently is hot on the trail for Paulus’ services:

According to sources close to the situation, the former Duke point guard was in Ann Arbor on Tuesday meeting with Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez about the possibility of playing this season for the Wolverines.
…
He watched Michigan practice Tuesday afternoon and could fit in with Rodriguez’s spread offense. The Wolverines don’t have a clear-cut starting quarterback, and Paulus could come in and play immediately.

I understand that Paulus was all-everything come out of New York, but it’s been four years since the guy played competitively. They really think he’s going to be worth much? I sure don’t think so. Who was the last transition guy to make it, Chris Weinke? I guess if you’re Michigan and you were 3-9 and facing somber days hitting the Makers Mark bottle, you’re open to anything. I can’t imagine a transition would work well but I could be wrong. Also, can someone please explain to me how he has the eligibility to play football after burning four years at Duke??

(via Ballhype)

Larry Brown Sports » College Basketball

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