thesportsfag | my gay sports blog

Just a couple of weeks ago most college basketball fans, including myself, thought Kansas’ visit to Austin would decided which school would go on to win the Big 12 regular season title. Both teams had been ranked #1 at different points in the season and seemed like they were on a collision course.

That was before Texas was exposed as just another college basketball team with mediocre guard play and before Kansas established themselves as the only team capable of winning a Big 12 road game. So instead of a battle for the top spot, the Longhorns were merely trying to close the gap between the Big 1 and the other 11.

The Jayhawks improved to 23-1 (9-0) with an 80-68 victory at Texas that wasn’t as close as the final score indicates. Kansas took charge midway through the first half, forcing the Longhorns into 17 turnovers versus only 6 assists. Senior point guard Sherron Collins almost out-assisted Texas by himself as he dished out 5 and scored 15 points.

Two tough road games, Texas A&M and Missouri, remain on the Jayhawks Big 12 schedule, but with every other team in the conference already earning three league losses, Kansas’ win Monday night locked up the regular season title and #1 seed in the Big 12 tourney.

The website SportsByBrooks is reporting that the NCAA’s proposal to expand the college basketball tournament is a done deal.

According to an unnamed source at ESPN who was quoted on the website

“It’s a done deal with the expansion of the tournament. Depending on how soon a (TV) deal is done, the added teams could start next year. The NCAA confirmed that bidders would be interested in 96 teams, so they’re going with it.”

I was skeptical at first but then I heard it reported on the Colin Cowherd show on ESPN radio just a few minutes ago.

I’m not one of these guys who thinks it will destroy March Madness, after all didn’t we all love Hoosiers? Yes, it does make the regular season even more meaningless but it’s almost there with 64 tournament teams.

I do find it somewhat laughable that the NCAA continues using the student/athlete argument when explaining why they haven’t embraced a college football playoff, while at the same time expanding the NCAA tournament.

Hopefully the post season NIT will go out of business.

When the college basketball rankings are announced this week, Kentucky will be No. 1 for the first time since 2003.

Texas assumed the No. 1 ranking last week but dropped games at Kansas State and Connecticut this week while the Wildcats undefeated run continues under first-year head coach John Calipari.

Just four games into the conference schedule there’s little doubt as to who’s gonna win the SEC and breeze into the NCAA tourney. The only question that remains is when will Kentucky be forced to vacate these wins under the weight of an NCAA investigation.

How serial con artist John Calipari, the only coach to have Final Four appearances vacated at two different schools, is allowed to coach is beyond me. Even more puzzling is why a school would allow this guy to be a leader of young men. I’m on board with Bobby Knight on this one.

The real losers in the ‘alleged’ John Calipari/Derrick Rose scandal are the University of Kentucky administration officials who hired Calipari. We know Calipari is a loser and obviously Derrick Rose is one as well. But what about the KY administration officials who knew about this investigation and the prior scandal at UMass and decided to hire him anyways? To hire this ‘man’ who puts winning above all else does not speak well of an institution of higher learning.

Of course, he’s never been ‘named’ in any of the investigations which have forced two prior schools to vacate wins and remove the Final Four appearances from their record books. Of course Eddie Sutton was never ‘named’ in the NCAA investigation that led him out of Lexington either.

One of the most storied basketball programs in NCAA history has fallen on hard times of late and has chosen to sully it’s reputation rather than do things the right way. There’s no doubt that John Cailpari will win at KY. But what will the program look like when he flees, er I mean leaves? Hey KY, lemme know how this works out for ya.

We often hear that quarterback is the most difficult position to play in football and while that may be the case I’m beginning to think it’s not as difficult as some former QB analysts would lead us to believe.

How else do you explain Greg Paulus being named as the starting quarterback for Syracuse. Is Syracuse that bad? Is there such a lack of talent in upstate NY that they’re going to roll with a guy who hasn’t played a down in over four years? No doubt Paulus is a tremendous athlete but is the QB position one such that you can take that much time off and still be the best QB out there? One week of practice this fall and Paulus beats out Ryan Nassib who was named the starter after Spring practice.

What other professions can you take off four years, get a week’s worth of uptraining and then be named the leader of the organization? Seriously, customer service agents practice more than Paulus has before they are allowed to speak to customers. Yet, here’s a guy about to lead a major college football program, really?

So I’m starting to question how difficult playing QB must be relative to other professions. An airline wouldn’t allow a retired pilot to return to the cockpit that quickly. So QB’ing can’t be as difficult as being a pilot. I guess a mechanic could return to work with little or no training so QB’ing must be at or more difficult than repairing cars.

There’s no way a baseball player could take off four years, practice a week and be ready to start at a major college program. Would a basketball player be able to step into the starting point guard role at Syracuse with only a week of practice after a four year absence? I doubt even Greg Paulus would’ve been allowed to take over the point guard role at Syracuse under these circumstances.