April 2014

UConn Women's Basketball NCAA Champions 2014

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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Zach Price Missouri basketball jail mugshot

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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PJ Dozier upward star basketball

Harry Giles (PF, 6’9″, 2016) and PJ Dozier (CG, 6’4″, 2015) are two of the top basketball recruits in the nation, with Dozier holding offers from North Carolina, Kansas (among many others) and Giles holding offers from Duke, UNC, Kentucky, Georgetown and pretty much everyone else.

But the recruiting world hasn’t seen them in a while; both had serious injuries that have kept them off of the court for some time. That will change this weekend, as both are participating in the Phenom Hoops Challenge with their respective AAU teams in Greensboro, NC.

While it’s just their first time back in uniform, with such sought-after recruits, there is a lot of interest in how their recovery has gone thus far and how they look on the court.

For fans of Kentucky, Duke, UNC, Kansas or any of the other far-flung schools that are actively recruiting the two players (among several other high profile recruits), many of the games on the final day of the event (Sunday) will be broadcast online at NetCastSports.com.

Full schedule of the day’s broadcast coming soon, and we’ll have more information about the broadcast times – the games being broadcast on Sunday are several of the playoff games for the 17U teams at the tournament, so the final matchups won’t be set until the teams finish pool play. But we’ll work to keep everyone updated. You can also follow @NetCastSports on Twitter for more updates.

University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin Basketball

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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Adam Silver NBA basketball

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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Tacko Fall basketball

They say you can’t teach height, so players who are over 7′ tall already come with basketball skills most of us will never have. At 7’5″, Tacko Fall, a 2015 Center playing at Lutheran South Academy in Texas, comes in as the current tallest high school basketball player. With interest from Baylor, Texas Southern and Houston, he’s no doubt got a lot of colleges interested in any player who can touch the rim without leaving the floor.

Naturally, just being tall isn’t enough to make you a superstar, but it’s a really good starting point. As a general rule, big men develop their game later than other positions, so it’s often difficult to tell how good a player will be at Tacko’s size.

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Joel Embiid Kansas basketball NBA draft

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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Derrick Gordon UMass Gay

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.

Shabazz Napier Championship NCAA

The NCAA has reached a deal with the NCAA to extend their current sponsorship through 2020. The deal involves both Turner and CBS Sports.

Under the agreement, which was signed on the eve of Connecticut’s 60-54 victory over Kentucky in the NCAA’s National Championship basketball game, Northwestern Mutual retains the marketing and promotional rights in the life insurance, wealth management and retirement planning services categories and will have exclusivity in the mutual fund category from 2015.

When an agreement like this is reached, it allows the sponsor to use official logos, names, teams, and similar items. Northwestern began the relationship with the NCAA in 2012.

It’s ironic that this deal was put together on the same day that UConn guard Shabazz Napier made waves nationally with comments about the disparity between the profits that the NCAA rakes in and the lack of pay for players. Napier, always outspoken, may have unintentionally created more revenue for the NCAA by increasing ratings for future deals.

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Shaquille Cleare Maryland

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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