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yoco :: College Basketball
(a sports weblog) news and commentary on men's college basketball and the ncaa tournament

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Friday, January 14, 2005

usc has a dream

-- Edgar Thompson of the Palm Beat (FL) Post profiles ESPN's "Bracketologist," Joe Lunardi. (Gotta love the media writing about the media). Joe's current full-time gig? Assistant vice president of communications at St. Joseph's. He also serves as the Hawks' radio color analyst and has worked 290 consecutive men's basketball games. And counting.

-- Ben Smith of the Fort Wayne (IN) Journal-Gazette rips into Indiana-Purdue of Fort Wayne administrators for firing Doug Noll with 13 games left in the season. Big-time basketball at IPFW? Smith thinks this is a ridiculous notion. As do I.

-- Time (of all news sources) has today's must-read on how George Raveling, then a 24-year old former All-American basketball player at Villanova, came to stand on stage next to Martin Luther King during the March on Washington and ended up with the original typewritten "I Have a Dream" speech.

-- North Carolina State lost a "must-win" game to Duke yesterday evening. Add Julius Hodge to the growing list -- Ryan Gomes, Lawrence Roberts, etc. -- of seniors who probably regret their decision not to turn pro early.

-- Herb "back on the hot seat" Sendek needs Tony Bethel to get healthy sooner rather than later.

-- The University of Southern California will hold a press conference this afternoon to announce the hiring of Tim Floyd as the school's new basketball coach. The school will also hold a news conference on Monday to confirm that Floyd did not change his mind (again) over the weekend and will indeed lead the Trojans.

-- Ahead of the Wake Forest - North Carolina game, Rob Daniels of the Greensboro (NC) News & Record covers Wake's version of Krzyzewskiville. Chris Paul will visit the faithful tonight to demonstrate his appreciation.

-- Looking for "little things" to motivate his Fighting Illini, Bruce Weber noticed his team had lost a few first place votes in the latest AP poll. He made sure his players were aware of the slap in the face and told the media "I don't think anyone respects us." Memo to B-Web: You're no longer coaching an underdog. Time to start acting and talking like a juggernaut.

-- My name is Ben Howland and I am a candidate for Coach of the Year.

-- Too bad Memphis last night defeated Marquette. The win robbed eager columnists and bloggers of the ability to this morning make jokes at John Calipari's expense.

-- Gregg Doyel dribbles in favor of Tulsa hiring Matt Doherty. A very persuasive suggestion, so much so that I'm now of the opinion that Doherty deserves a higher profile gig than the one with the Golden Hurricance. As for Nolan, he too ought to be welcome at Tulsa. The "winningest coach available," Richardson is an instant recruiting and public relations boon -- for some schools, all press is good press.

-- Tom Kensler's ground-breaking research suggests Kansas owes its success to the Jayhawks' senior class. More evidence that nothing gets by those Denver Post staff writers.

-- The Herald & Review's Mark Tupper, himself a blogger, observes that the coaching carousel of two years ago worked out well for 14-1 and third-ranked North Carolina (Roy Williams), 12-0 and second-ranked Kansas (Bill Self) and 17-0 and first-ranked Illinois (Bruce Weber). The numbers speak for themselves.

-- A freshman to watch: LSU's Glen Davis. The big fella amassed 28 points and 14 rebounds in the Tigers defeat of the Gamecocks.

-- Jamie Dixon gets a much-needed public relations boost.

Pitt is playing on national network television three times in the next two months. If Pitt and CBS Sports had their way, the Panthers would have played another national network game on the road. The only problem was some high-profile teams declined CBS' offer.

CBS tried to make games at Duke, Michigan State and Illinois, but none of those schools wanted to play host to the Panthers, a university source said yesterday.

-- Two days later, Steve Sneddon still can't get over the UTEP-Nevada game. Guess it really was a must-see.

-- Eric Crawford of the Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal checks-in with the first of what is sure to be many articles about how the more things change (Bob Huggins' recovery) at Cincinnati, the more they stay the same (the Bearcats' winning games).

-- My best wishes to Penn State's Marlon Smith. May he recover from whatever it is that is keeping him in serious condition at Hershey Medical Center.

-- The underrated Stu Dorando of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch pens a nice read about former St. Louis University and current Washington coach Lorenzo Romar's recruiting success. For old time's sake, Dorando includes a "What might have been" at SLU.