Apr 15
Syracuse had a big day shuffling players yesterday after Jerami Grant declared for the NBA draft and Frank Howard committed to the Orange:
Howard, a high school junior, made a verbal commitment to the Orange during a television appearance on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Monday night. He picked SU from a final list that included Maryland, Georgetown, Virginia, N.C. State and Ohio State.
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Apr 12
In a promotion connected to the NCAA Women’s national title game, Moe’s Southwest Grill ended up selling 20,000 $1 burritos to fans of the UConn Huskies after the women’s team won their ninth NCAA national title:
In a “If UConn wins, you win,” promotion, the 17 Moe’s Southwest Grill restaurants in the state lowered the price of burritos as the men’s and women’s teams advanced in the NCAA tournaments.
It is estimated that due to the promotion, Moe’s gave up about $500,000 of sales, but considering they had 20,000 burritos going out the door, there’s a good chance they’ll make that money back pretty quickly if they were able to bring in some new fans.
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Apr 11
Zach Price, a junior forward who played this season with Missouri, has been dismissed from the men’s basketball program:
Price, a 6-foot-10 transfer from Louisville who sat out last season, was indefinitely suspended from the team April 3, the same day he was twice arrested on suspicion of domestic assault and assault.
It looks like the off-the-court issues surrounding Price were just too much for the University to accept or be involved with. It’s too be expected with the nature of the allegations against Price, which include stalking and ramming someone with his car.
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Apr 10
The hammer has been dropped on the 2014 Horizon League champion; the NCAA has banned the men’s basketball team from postseason play next year due to academic issues:
The school announced Wednesday that it has been informed by the NCAA’s Committee on Academic Performance that it was denied its final appeal of a postseason ban for 2014-’15 because of cumulative Academic Performance Rate (APR) scores.
That means the Panthers won’t be allowed to compete in the Horizon League Tournament, which they unexpectedly won in March, or the NCAA Tournament, which they reached for the first time since 2006.
It’s unfortunate when this happens and it occurs all too often following a big year for a program. However, it must be noted that NCAA academic scoring is not strictly based on grades. There is a formula which also accounts or factors in players who leave before the end of the season, but is dependent on how long they were with the program. Just like everything the NCAA does, it’s possible for schools to do everything by the book and still run afoul of the rules, sometimes after the fact.
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Apr 10
One thing is for certain; the debate over whether college athletes at high-revenue college programs should be paid is not going away. This, despite the NCAA’s best efforts to frame the conversation with rhetoric about ‘student-athletes’, a term they coined decades ago to justify not paying the players in their employ.
Now the NBA has decides to wade into the fray a bit more, with newly minted commissioner Adam Silver mulling over what they might be able to do for those athletes:
“Rather than focusing on a salary and thinking of them as employees, I would go to their basic necessities,” Silver said. “I think if [Connecticut Huskies guard] Shabazz Napier is saying he is going hungry, my God, it seems hard to believe, but there should be ample food for the players.”
To be clear, the NBA isn’t talking about outright payment of salaries to players but rather a subsidization of any gaps in college attendance. On one hand, it’s good the NBA is paying attention…while on the other, it’s hard to see these comments and wonder why the NBA owners were claiming massive losses during the recent labor agreements if they can offer possible subsidies for thousands of college players. The truth has to lie somewhere in the middle; either the NBA is talking about a limited program, or it’s just more rhetoric designed to give lip service to the issue.
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Apr 9
In a move that most expected after his solid year, Kansas’ Joel Embiid has declared for the NBA draft. At his news conference on Wednesday, Embiid shared his reasons for turning pro: “Looking at different scenarios and gathering info of what was best for me … either way was best for me. Talking to my mentor, it was best the choice.”
There was quite a bit of speculation leading up to this announcement that Embiid might have had a change of heart after it seemed a near certainty that he would make this move earlier in the season. Embiid suffered nagging injuries this season but still managed to average almost a double-double as a freshman. Many consider Embiid the number one pro prospect in this year’s draft with this announcement.
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Apr 9
Derrick Gordon, a significant contributor to the UMass basketball program this past season, has announced to his team – and the rest of the world – that he is openly gay:
A minute later, the sophomore shooting guard stood and walked into the room, accompanied by University of Massachusetts men’s basketball coach Derek Kellogg. Gordon faced his teammates, a group of guys he liked but had always kept at arm’s length.
That was about to change.
Kellogg spoke first. “We’re all here together, and we need to love each other for who we are,” he said. “One of your family members, your brother, wants to let you know something about himself.”
There was a pause. And then Kellogg, sensing that Gordon needed help, tried breaking the ice. “I wanted to let you all know I’m gay,” the coach said. His players all looked at him, stunned. What?
Gordon took his cue and spoke up.
“No, he’s not. But I am.”
ESPN reported this story and caught up with Gordon a few days after he told his family and teammates.
Apr 8
The offseason in college basketball should be re-dubbed ‘Transfer Season’. It’s become an annual event where waves of players decide to switch schools, something that used to rarely occur and is almost certainly a symptom of two major factors: AAU and the NLI that players have to sign once they commit. The latest players to announce their intentions to transfer sent shockwaves into the Maryland Terrapins, with freshman Roddy Peters, sophomore Shaquille Clear and junior Nick Faust announcing that they had requested and been released from UM:
Peters, a 6-foot-3 guard from District Heights who averaged 4.1 points and 2.1 assists while playing 15.1 minutes per game, departs after one uneven season at Maryland. Playing an unexpectedly large role with sophomore Seth Allen sidelined by injury for the first 12 games, he started often and averaged more than 20 minutes per game. But he struggled in the second half, playing more than 15 minutes once and making eight of 33 shots during the final 15 games.
Head coach Mark Turgeon has confirmed the transfers.
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Apr 7
The Twitter universe erupted in last minute controversy just before the NCAA national title game, and one of the more incendiary stories came from guard Shabazz Napier, who was quoted as saying “There are hungry nights that I go to bed…starving…I’m not able to eat and I still got to play up to my capabilities”.
This of course created a reaction but Napier’s comments were taken a bit out of context from the original story.
“We as student athletes get utilized for what we do so well. We are definitely blessed to get a scholarship to our universities, but at the end of the day, that doesn’t cover everything. We do have hungry nights that we don’t have enough money to get food and sometimes money is needed,” the senior told reporters. “I think, you know, Northwestern has an idea, and we’ll see where it goes.”
So Napier’s comments were more along the lines that as a basketball player at a high revenue program, he and other players feel as though their talents are making some people rich while they get none of the money. This is an ongoing debate, and many UConn students jumped on Reddit to comment about the sensationalist headline, such as whether it’s actually true that college athletes at Connecticut are going hungry. Some students state that due to the athletes’ schedule, there isn’t anywhere for them to get the food from their meal plans. Other students claim that the athletes should be able to get as much food as they want, but they have better student housing located farther from where the food is available. You can read the whole debate here.
This comes on the back of comments by NCAA president Mark Emmert, who claimed that ‘converting’ student-athletes to unionized employees was something that nobody wanted (In reality, they are already employees, using the word ‘convert’ does not change the law. But that’s for another time).
However, Emmert and the NCAA can’t be happy that Napier was able to use the platform of the national title game to draw even more attention and sympathy to the issue surrounding paying the athletes that bring in billions of dollars to their coffers.
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Apr 6
New feature! A snapshot from social media of the trends and fan reactions surrounding certain events in the world of basketball. As Kentucky and UConn advanced to the national NCAA title game with wins in the Final Four, fans weighed in around the world with their thoughts. So here goes!
That was a great college basketball game.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) April 6, 2014
Heartbroken Badgers set sights on #FinalFour return next season: http://on.si.com/1oDSARG pic.twitter.com/tHRgeaQOEX
— Skip Bayless (@SInow) April 6, 2014
— Skip Bayless (@sportingnews) April 6, 2014
— Chas Wolfe (@highmajorscoop) April 6, 2014
—(@stackmack) April 6, 2014
—(@BrandonClayPSB) April 6, 2014
—(@eamonnbrennan) April 6, 2014
