Posted Monday, March 30, 2009 11:27 PM
Memphis has given Kentucky permission to speak to John Calipari about their head coach vacancy. Now, its just a matter of time before Calipari bolts for greener pastures in Lexington.
Kentucky looked a bit foolish letting Tubby Smith leave for Minnesota two years ago. All Tubby did in 10 seasons, was win 268 games, go 120-40 in the SEC, and oh yeah, win a national championship in 1998.
Smith's replacement, Billy Gillespie, had a couple nice teams at Texas A&M, but he only had coached at UTEP a couple years prior. If you are a prospective recruit, I think you would rather play for a coach like Smith over Gillespie just because of the experience he has which he can bestow upon you.
Now that they have dropped the ball on two occassions, expect Kentucky to do some damage control and hire Calipari. There are alot of upset boosters and the program is starting to take a step back, so they need to throw out the full court press on him if they want to return to prominence in the near future.
Its not a slam dunk that Calipari willl leave Memphis. Now that the NBA has increased the minimum age to play to 19, he often gets guys who intend to play in college one season (Derrick Rose, and very soon Tyreke Evans). Reason being, is that Memphis plays in a weaker conference, and so players have the opportunity to pad their stats a bit. Also, they do not get worn down as much as if they played in a upper echelon conference.
My money's on Kentuck... [More]
Posted Monday, March 02, 2009 02:47 PM
I love college football as much as anyone I know. At age 10, I can
still remember vividly the 1984 Orange Bowl, where Nebraska decided to
go for two points and win the national championship, only to come up
short, and lose 31-30 to Miami.
Seven years later, at the same venue, when Colorado beat Notre Dame
10-9, I decided that night that I was going to go to school in
Boulder.
When thinking of great college football postseason moments, I
would say there are two more college football postseason moments that
have rivaled the two that I just mentioned.
The first would be the Texas/USC Rose Bowl in 2006. You had the most
electrifying quarterback in college going against the most
electrifying running back in Reggie Bush. Young scores in the last
minute and Texas wins 41-38.
The next season, we see a David vs Goliath matchup, in Boise State
against Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. I dont think I know a single
person who bet on Boise. Boise executed a perfect hook and lateral on
4th and 18 to send the game to OT. After OU scores in OT, Boise does
the same, and runs a perfect statue of liberty play for the 2 point
conversion to win 43-42.
Amazing stuff.
But it could have been better.
My first memory of college hoops is when North Carolina
beat Georgetown to win the 1982 college basketball tit... [More]