Quick: Name the plucky, upstart scrapers who upset UConn on the way to the Final Four in 2006. If you named George Mason, you are correct. If you named some other team, you are dumb, because it says “George Mason” in the title of this post. If you named Bemidji State, you are even dumber, because they don’t play Division I basketball. Now that I’ve belittled you, my audience, I would like to direct you to the great Dan Steinberg at the D.C. Sports Bog:

“Wanted to give you a heads up that the Green Machine will be playing as Bemidji State’s pep band at the Frozen Four this week,” George Mason’s iconic band leader, Doc Nix, wrote to me this week. Can you say “perfect storyline for every D.C. media outlet trying to figure out how to cover college hockey?”

“There are a lot of connections there, aren’t there?” Bemidji AD Rick Goeb told me this afternoon with a laugh.

At first glance, you might go: “Whoa, cool! This is so fitting. Like George Mason, Bemidji State is the underdog playing with the big-name teams in the finals. Speaking of dogs, I need to go walk mine now. Jonah gets antsy when I’m on the Internet.”

But, that’s really not true. As Dan notes, Bemidji State has plenty of hockey championships, just not in Division I. Also, the only reason Mason’s Green Machine is playing for Bemidji State is because its own band had a scheduling conflict and a Capitals employee and Bemidji state fan — the games are being played in the Verizon Center — knew some people at George Mason.

This seemed a lot cooler when I first read about it.

I have no idea how to play craps. I know it involves some dice, and there are a bunch of markings all over the table, but yup: no idea. One time I watched people playing it for 45 minutes at Slots-A-Fun in Vegas and I think I came away more confused. Though, that could have been because a drunk bum was playing the entire time I was watching.

Anyway, North Carolina guard Ty Lawson knows what he’s doing at a craps table. Because he was winning big in Detroit on Wednesday night.

… Lawson said he won about $250 playing craps after the team arrived Wednesday night.

Coach Roy Williams gave the team a 1:30 a.m. curfew Thursday morning, and Lawson cashed in. He doesn’t have any more plans to gamble while he’s in Detroit.

“It’s probably the last time I’ll go there before the games start,” Lawson said during Thursday’s media interview session.

Man, a 1:30 curfew? I think Tom Izzo usually has his kids tucked in by nine.

HT: 850 The Buzz

I saw this during dinner last night. I’m glad I didn’t throw up my fish tacos. (Happens about 45 into the video.)

I would also like to congratulate Penn State on its win last night over Baylor. Big Ten, baby.

You are a Michigan State fan. (Actually, maybe you are not. But for the purpose of this post, let’s pretend. Think of me as Mr. Rogers or something.)  You live in Detroit. (Man, this hypothetical situation really sucks so far.) You have the opportunity to go see your team in the Final Four by purchasing the tickets the NCAA allocates to Michigan State. You’ll be seeing them play at Ford Field, like 15 minutes from where you live, which is pretty sweet. (See, it got better towards the end.)

Except, there is a slight problem. You won’t only be paying for just a ticket. You’ll be asked to pay for a hotel room, too, because that’s how it works for the Final Four: Universities get tickets and hotels for fans and it’s sort of a packaged deal.

From Matt Moore at FanHouse:

… they’ll be saddled with $175 hotel rooms for four days — which could possibly be farther away from the game than their actual residence. If you don’t want the hotel room, you’ll be paying a $50 surcharge per ticket. I guess it would have been too much work for the NCAA to judge each school on an individual basis or let the schools decide on their own. It’s not like the Final Four is going to be hurting for patrons.

To be clear about this, Michigan State could just eat the money and allow fans to buy tickets from them without the hotel rooms. They could also offer the hotel room package to those who might want to stick around or alumni who live farther away. In this sense, you could argue the university shoulders some of the blame. In doing so, however, you’d be ignoring that this public institution has been saddled with $300,000 worth of hotel rooms by the NCAA — in a state with a 12 percent unemployment rate, which is the highest in the nation.

Keep reading →

No, he’s not. At least not yet. According to reports though, he’s been offered the job.

The thing about the Arizona job is this: It’s got tradition. Lute Olson had a great run there. He sported a .758 winning percentage, and won a national title in 1997. But, it’s not one of those truly elite programs. You’ll name UNC, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Indiana. Arizona is second-tierish with a whole host of other schools. People always dog it because its out on the West Coast, and not everyone gets to see those games. As such, they sometimes get dogged undeservedly. I’m reminded of 2005, when Arizona was a very good team (that wasn’t getting the credit they deserve for it, the so-called “East Coast bias”), and had that Elite 8 game against Illinois all but won, until the Illini mounted that ridiculous comeback, won in overtime and then cruised to the title game.

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There’s no question John Calipari is a terrific score for Kentucky, for reasons that have been beaten into your brain the last few days: He recruits A-list talent and is a great coach. Couple that with the brand of Kentucky behind him — his shady recruiting tactics notwithstanding — and you have a recipe for success. I hear it tastes like a delicious candy-topped sundae.

But does the Wildcats’ hire mean they’ll now run college basketball for good? That college basketball as you and I know it is over?

Gregg Doyel of CBS Sportsline argues just that:

College basketball as you know it? It’s over. That sport doesn’t exist anymore, because that sport had a semblance of parity. One year North Carolina is the dominant program. One year it’s UConn. One year it’s Duke or UCLA or Florida. Maybe those teams don’t win the national title the year they’re dominant, or maybe they do. Either way, every year there is a team that, on paper, is the dominant program in college basketball. And every year it’s a different team.

Until now. Until John Calipari merges with Kentucky.

Again, Kentucky is going to be great with Calipari. Combining the two is kind of a scary thing to think about. But, I’m not sure much changes here. Calipari recruited A-list talent at Memphis; he can’t really recruit any better at Kentucky. So how do his teams become exponentially better and change the landscape of college basketball forever and ever amen?

Keep reading →

(UPDATE: The Memphis Commercial Appeal had it first with ESPN soon after: Coach Cal is headed to Kentucky. News conference is set for tomorrow.)

Yesterday, a TV station in Memphis reported John Calipari to Kentucky was a done deal. But, until Andy Katz or others had it as fact and there was a presser called, I wrote I was a bit dubious to that claim.

And here we sit 24 hours later without a decision from Calipari. There has been no presser. What there has been a lot of, however, is some deep thinking from Calipari. He hit up a donut shop and chatted with some friends this morning. He’s calling former coaches at Kentucky and hearing about the school’s tradition. But yeah, as of this late afternoon, Calipari is still mulling over the reported $5 million or so a year he stands to make, which would make him the highest-paid NCAA basketball coach in all the land. Is it possible Memphis can counter with something just as sweet? And would a matching offer make him stay in Memphis? I’m doubting that, though I imagine they are drumming up as much gold as they can for boosters and hitting up Cash4Gold.com like whoa today in an effort to match that offer. Meanwhile, the Door continues to gain a cult following.

Simply put, the dude is just taking his time. And he deserves that. It’s kind of a big decision. And no matter what any news outlets reported yesterday or continue to report, until Calipari steps in front of a podium in Lexington, or Kentucky announces his hiring, we’ll still be holding our breath.