Hoops HD August Session

Posted on August 26, 2015 by David Griggs

On this month’s offseason episode, Kyle goes to the NCAA Library in Indianapolis.  How exciting!!!

David Griggs is absolutely thrilled to hear about all the research he’s been doing.  So, we get an update from Kyle on what he saw and experienced while at the NCAA HQ, and an update on the College Basketball Database that he’s been putting together for the site.  It’s coming!!  We promise!!

In addition to Kyle, Chad is joined by Jon, John and David.  The panel discusses the NLRB ruling and how that impacts not just college basketball, but all college sports.  They also talk about the two new selection committee members this year, and whether or not the imbalance of FBS representatives vs non-FBS representatives will matter.  They also touch on what’s happening at North Carolina, and how the NCAA’s thinly spread enforcement staff could be contributing to why they’ve been so slow to act.

Last but not least, they go over the rules changes and discuss what impacts they feel it will have on the game this upcoming season

 

…and for all you radio lovers out there, below is an mp3 version of the show….

Posted in Commentary, News and Notes, Podcasts, Videocasts | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Hoops HD August Session

Hoops HD July Session: News & Notes, Coaching Changes, and Transfer Banter

Posted on July 17, 2015 by David Griggs

Joby hosts this month’s offseason session and is joined by regulars David, John and Chad (sort of).  They begin with hitting the news and notes from the past few summer weeks, including Fred Hoiberg’s departure from Iowa State, Shaka Smart’s move to Texas, and Rick Barnes’s move to Tennessee.

The main topic of the evening is the transfer rules, and how the panel basically feels it is unfair that so much is working against the players.  They discuss what changes they think they should be made, and how coaches having less control over the players would actually lower the transfer rate rather than raise it.

The final topic that’s discussed is the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from South Carolina’s state house, and how doing so now allows the state of South Carolina to host men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament games.

 

And for you radio lovers out there, below is an mp3 version of the show….

Posted in News and Notes, Podcasts, Videocasts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Hoops HD June Session: News & Notes, Restarting the Border War, and More

Posted on June 17, 2015 by David Griggs

Chad is joined by David, John and Joby as they delve into the News and Notes of college basketball.  They talk about how NKU has moved from the Atlantic Sun to the Horizon League, and how NJIT was able to join a conference.  They also look at the different rules changes that have been passed and discuss what impacts they think they’ll have on the game, the two most notable being the shot clock and the possibility that the graduation transfer rule may change.

The main topic tonight is something that David Griggs has not shut up about for over two years, and that is the Border War Rivalry between Kansas and Missouri.  The panel wanted to discuss the history of the rivalry, and how they feel restarting it would be different since it’s not a conference game, but would still be beneficial.

All of that, and more….

 

And for all you radio lovers out there, below is an mp3 version of the show…

Posted in Commentary, Live Chat, News and Notes, Podcasts, Videocasts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

News, Notes and Puppet Rants (June 5th)

Posted on June 5, 2015 by David Griggs

-We will be doing our June Session podcast within the next week or two.  Be on the lookout for that.  Barring something totally unexpected that deserves immediate attention, it will be our final podcast of the athletic year.  On July 1, we will OFFICIALLY be in the 2015-2016 athletic year, so this year will suddenly be last year and next year will suddenly be this year.

-This is old news, but Northern Kentucky has moved from the Atlantic Sun to the Horizon League.  2015-2016 will be their final year as a transitional program.  The Atlantic Sun is now down to just seven full members, which is the minimum a conference is allowed to have while still being an automatic qualifier.  We’ve said this before, but NJIT would make sense despite being a geographic outlier.  Most A-Sun teams travel in the OOC portion of the season anyway, so this would be just one more trip.  And, NJIT has plans to build a new arena, and would be a formidable basketball program by Atlantic Sun standards.  They advanced to the semifinals of the CIT a year ago, and anyone who can do that would be an asset to a league like the A-Sun.  If this is going to happen, it  needs to happen before July 1st, so let’s take to Twitter and make this happen!!  #NJITtoASun!!!!  #TeamOfThePeople!!

-North Carolina is about to go through the NCAA equivalent of a full body cavity search.  The NCAA has accused UNC of five level 1 violations, which basically means they could be looking at a postseason ban for the sports that were involved.  The violations include lack of institutional control for failing to monitor its academic programs, extra benefits, and not cooperating with the NCAA, The report mentions that 169 student-athletes were involved, and 15 of those were men’s basketball players, so this is no small thing.

-UAB has announced they intend to reinstate their football program, which should allow them to remain in Conference USA.  This is good news for their basketball program seeing as how the three best basketball centric conferences (Big East, Atlantic Ten and Missouri Valley) likely would not have had much interest in adding UAB, which would have likely resulted in them landing in a league like the Sun Belt as a non-football member, or the Atlantic Sun.

-Fred Hoiberg has left Iowa State for the NBA.  He did an unbelievable job with the Cyclones, especially the past two seasons where the team entered the NCAA Tournament as a #3 seed in each of those years, and won two Big Twelve Tournament championships.  Unfortunately they were inflicted with injuries going into the 2014 NCAA Tournament, but still made the Sweet Sixteen, and they were upset in the round of 64 by UAB in the 2015 NCAA Tournament, but despite that the program was having a terrific run.  I for one am kind of sad to see him leave the college game.

 

-And finally, I will close with my rant on the Graduate Transfer Waiver, or more accurately, those who oppose this waiver.  Here’s the thing.  People in college athletics love to claim that these are student-athletes, and that academic are important, and that it’s about getting a free education.  Well, if that’s the case, then what the hell is a “Graduate Transfer??”  There’s no such thing.  In the world of academics, which people in college athletics (falsely) claim to value, graduating and enrolling in another institution to seek an advanced degree, or simply to seek a second undergraduate degree is NOT transferring.  Transferring is when you begin a degree program at one school, and opt to complete that same degree program at another school.

So, I guess what I’m saying is that if college athletics actually does value academics and claims to be tuned in to academics, then they should not refer to college graduates as transfer students when they enroll in another college.  The only thing that should change about the “Graduate Transfer Waiver” is the name.  It should be called the Graduate ENROLLMENT Waiver” since these players aren’t technically transfers…at least as far as the academic side of things is concerned.

….and no, this waiver should NOT go away.  You cannot claim to have the best interest of the student-athletes in mind, and then take away one of the few things that is advantageous to them.

 

Griggs

Posted in Commentary, News and Notes | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hoops HD May Sessions Video Podcast

Posted on May 8, 2015 by David Griggs

Chad is back with David, Joby and John, and they hit on many issues in this year’s first offseason podcast.  Some of the News and Notes include the Horizon League and Big Sky changing their conference tournament formats, the new coaching changes, the possibility of a thirty second shot clock and whether or not that will properly address the game’s issues, and a look at some of the upcoming OOC games.

The main topic tonight is conference realignment in hind sight.  Each of the panelists discuss how they think it has impacted or changed the game, and whether not we’re better off post-realignment than we were pre-realignment.

 

And for all you radio lovers, below is an mp3 version of the show…..

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Hoops HD May Sessions Video Podcast

Puppet Ramblings: Final Four, and More….

Posted on April 6, 2015 by David Griggs

Be sure and follow our Twitter account @HoopsHD as we count down to the 2015-2016 season.  #CollegeHoopsCountdown

 

FINAL FOUR

-I gotta say, when you love college basketball on a macro level, you’re actually LESS interested in the Final Four than most other people.  The reason??  There’s only four teams, and by that point it’s rare that I have a strong connection to any of them.  That probably does this site a huge disservice because when college basketball is on its biggest stage, I’m not nearly as interested as I am in, say, the start of the Patriot League Tournament, or for that matter, the OOC game between Georgia State and Old Dominion to see if one of those teams can get inside the bubble and make the tournament.  In any given weekend during the season, there’s close to sixty games that are interesting.  This past weekend, there were only two.  So, even though it’s college basketball’s biggest stage, for those that love it on a macro level, we ironically kinda feel that it’s already over.

-With that said…..

-DUKE HAS BEEN THE MOST IMPRESSIVE TEAM THIS YEAR.  I know Kentucky was unbeaten.  I know Duke had bad losses, but Duke’s best wins were better than Kentucky’s.  They won at Virginia, they won at Louisville much more easily than Kentucky did, and they had some other impressive road wins as well.  On top of that, they’ve blown through the NCAA Tournament and beaten some good teams along the way without really breaking a sweat.  It would have been great theater with a great storyline if they were facing Kentucky tonight.  I think most would have viewed Duke as the underdog, when in reality they would have been every bit Kentucky’s equal.

-PEOPLE THAT SAY KENTUCKY BLEW IT ARE OVERSIMPLIFYING IT.  Kentucky did not blow it.  Wisconsin is REALLY good.  Not only that, it is the kind of team Kentucky has not matched up well with all year.  We’ve pointed this out before, but if you look at the few times Kentucky has sweated (Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Georgia, Columbia for a half, Buffalo for a half, LSU, etc) they all had something in common.  Those teams did not try and run with Kentucky.  There really is a Paper-Rock-Scissors element to college basketball match-ups.  Had Kentucky played Arizona, I think they would have run them off the floor.  Notre Dame fits the definition of a very good team that likes to play half court.  They just couldn’t hit their outside shots in that game, but they still almost won.  Wisconsin fits that definition as well, but they did hit their open looks.

I thought that was a fantastic college basketball game.  Both teams were familiar with each other (even though Cal said Kentucky did not watch any film.  I’m  not sure I believe him.  I just think he wanted Wisky to think they didn’t watch film).  One team would go on a run, and then the other team would adjust, and it was back and forth for the entire game.  It was one of the best played games I’ve seen all year.  To say Kentucky simply blew that is really not giving both teams credit for just how well they played.

I know people don’t like Kentucky.  I understand that, and appreciate it.  But, you can’t just say they blew it.  They had a chance to win, which is more that can be said for the 347 div1 teams that did not make the Final Four.  It’s okay to feel good about them not winning, but I don’t think anyone has any room to talk about how they “blew it.”  No one has ever been 38-0 before, so while 38-1 is not what they wanted, they still had a historic season, and they did a lot to boost the interest in college basketball this year.

 

CIT

-I thoroughly enjoy watching this tournament every year, and seeing NJIT reach the semifinals and play as well as they did at against Northern Arizona made it more exciting.  This tournament gives some legitimacy to teams who are in one bid NCAA Tournament leagues, because it gives them something to play for once it becomes clear that they are not going to be competing for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.  Congrats to the Evansville Aces, who are a program that is definitely trending up and who have a lot of players back for next season.  They were able to pick up some hardware, get the feel of a postseason tournament, and are now able to take a strong finish into the offseason, which should help them out next year.

 

NIT

-Stanford failed to impress me at any point from about mid-February on, but they really did play well in this tournament, and are also taking home some hardware.  Despite them not winning it, I still think Miami FL was the most deserving team that was left out of the NCAA Tournament.

 

CBI

-I’m not a huge fan of this one because I don’t like the Gazelle Group, and don’t like that it’s a pay for play event.  It’s my right to feel that way and I’ll just leave it at that.  With that said, it was very exciting to see that much electricity around the UL Monroe fan base as they advanced through that tournament and ultimately ended up hosting the deciding game.  Congrats to Loyola IL, who doesn’t have a whole lot of recent history, but who played very well this year and appears to have their program going in the right direction.

 

OTHER TIDBITS 

-This website continues to be a work in progress.  Basically, it’s our own playground.  We cover the things we want to cover the way we want to cover them.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I like the conference tournament info and Survival Board, I like the Under the Radar podcasts and that there is a review each week, I like the Bracket Racket podcasts that review the power conferences each week, and I like the bracket projections each week.  This offseason the content will slow down some just because there isn’t a whole lot going on, but at least once a month we should have something.  One of the things we want to focus on is how we feel the game can be improved, so we will likely be writing and podcasting about that periodically.  We will also be covering News and Notes as we feel it is necessary.

-For us, it starts in October.  It really does.  March does not just fall out of the sky.  It is the culmination of everything that happens all season long, and there are some very important basketball games in November.  So, if you love the tournament, then you’ll love the regular season because it’s what shapes the tournament.  351 teams are basically fighting for the top 40 spots so they can safely make the field without having to win a conference tournament.  That makes the regular season hugely important.  Our work starts in October, and I say this every year, but MARCH REALLY DOES START IN NOVEMBER!!!

Posted in News and Notes | Comments Off on Puppet Ramblings: Final Four, and More….