Free from Coach DraKula, Elliott Williams flourishes

If you needed any further evidence that Coach K is a DraKula that drains the life energy out of his players, look at how well Elliott Williams is doing at Memphis, a brand new team with a 19yo head-coach! One more player, free from the energy-drain of Coach DraKula is able to succeed in his post-Duke-transfer career.

And the Memphis performance today may have some Tigers fans questioning the coaching skills of Calipari. If a 19yo head-coach-kid is able to almost beat #1 Kansas, what was Calipari doing with a lot better players? :)

Hot action right now!

Run to your local cable or satellite box, or sports bar, or open up ESPN360.com! Hofstra is beating UConn with seven minutes left in the game. And yes, the game is played at UConn - Calhoun is not gonna play a road game at Hofstra!

There's plenty of other exciting games that started or are starting, Arkansas vs Louisville, Gonzaga and Michigan State trying to repeat the excitement of the Ammo-Maui game of a few years ago. Crazy as it may be, there's even a rivalry game going on, the battle of New Mexico and New Mexico State.

And of course the big game of the night with Dookie Vitale calling the Calipari-less Memphis Tigers versus the Kansas Jay-Championship Stealers.

And a great game to watch on replay, Cal State Fullerton (yes, one of the schools Jim Rome used to use in his "academic" takes) managed to beat UCLA at Pauly in double overtime.

Regular readers of this crazy blog may recall how we pin-pointed how bad of a match Ben Howland was for UCLA and Pac-10, but because he was winning very few people complained. But his luck is over, the bubble has burst, and the Lavin super-talented recruits are gone :)

ESPN360.com is a must have for the college hoops fan

If your current ISP has an agreement with ESPN, you have free access to ESPN360.com from your home computer and home network. It is easy to find out, just go to espn360.com and you will know whether you have access.

On top of that, they have a feature where you can create an account there, and when you login with that account, you can also watch games when you are away from home, and the ISP you are using on the road (hotel, school, office, cafe, etc) does not have espn360 access. Of course it still needs to have enough bandwidth to broadcast the video!

There are boatloads of games there, more than you can get with a regular cable subscription for sure, and you can also watch replays of recent games.

Another big plus is that you can move forward and backward in the game, just move the game-marker using your mouse to the desired spot in the game's timeline. It's sort of like having a DVR.

One negative however is that ESPN360.com does NOT show the half-time show of the live TV broadcast, but shows canned segments from previous ESPN featurettes, such as John Wooten, the return of Isiah Thomas, Izzo talking to Andy Katz and such. So if you are watching a replay, be sure to use the marker and move ahead in the coverage!

You cannot jump over commercials once they start, but they are usually very short.

If you are a hardcore hoops fan, it may be worth it to consider switching ISPs if they offer similar plans and your current ISP does not offer ESPN360.

The ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia is out!

If you are the book type, rejoice! The ESPN College Hoops Encyclopedia is out and shipping from Amazon for around $33 with free shipping and handling. This is probably longer than "War and Peace", at 1200+ pages!

AT&T U-Verse DVR tempting for Hoops fans

If you are the gadget-type who like to plan ahead their gadget-powered college hoops season, please keep in mind that the new AT&T U-Verse video service that is making its way across the country is offering a much better DVR for college hoops fanatics: It can record FOUR programs at ONCE. So if UNC and Duke and Kentucky are playing at the same time, no problem! You can watch them all!

Also nice is that for an extra $7 a month, you can get DVR-players that feed off the main U-Verse DVR and can watch those games from different rooms. So if roommate A is a Dookie, he watches the Dooke game in his room. Roommate B watches the Kentucky game in his room, and roommate C throws a UNC watching party in the living room.

With more cable systems dropping analog channels and breaking your current recording situation (eg VHS records or DVRs with analog tuners), you will need to replace them.

Of course there's also online watching, but if you are a hardcore fan and want to save and analyze the games later on, you probably want to save them on disk or tape, since other than the NCAA tournament games, college hoops games are still not available for purchase :(

If you can't beat them, wear their t-shirts instead!

Nike and USC had a little bit of an "oops!" moment, when the accidentally designed a UCLA-color-themed shirt for ...USC. That's right, UCLA-colors on USC-branded gear! Don't believe me? Check them out at Lost Angeles.

The Rick Pitino scandal

We take a break from summer break with a comment on the news of Pitino's affair with a lady somewhere out there. It looks like Pitino didn't eat enough humble pie in the NBA, so he is getting another freshly re-heated pie in 2009.

That's what it is, but at the same time, the reactions and overreactions to these are as usual over the top. People screw up all the time. He was a basketball coach, not a priest. He's certainly not the only coach with "indiscretions" and it's not like there is a long line of them waiting to "confess" to their adoring fans.

It's really a personal life type of thing, but of course it will be tabloid fodder and scandal-du-jour material.

Some reactions:
* A Sea of Blue
* The Quad (NYT)
* The big story at the LCJ

Live-blogging the 2009 NBA Draft

The big trade has hit the world of basketball! The Philosopher-Diesel, Shaquille O'Neal has been traded to play with LeBron James with the Cleveland Cavaliers! This is the big news of the day, which, no doubt with dominate and affect the NBA Draft. As we speak, the PTI power-duo is discussing this.

We will be live-blogging the NBA Draft in the next few hours so please stay tuned!


Live Blogging the 2009 NBA Draft (latest updates first)

It looks like the TarHeels have done better than expected so far! And so did the PitinoVille players with T-Will and Earl Clark into the lottery.

The haters are now eating their words! Tyler Hansro, getting yelled "overrated" by the NYC crowd, is picked at #13 by the Larry Bird Pacers.

The European version of Pistol Pete (maybe) is the fifth pick and he goes to the TimberGophers who are picking next as well.

And the Sacto Queens get a Calipari recruit, Tyreke is #4!

Getting picked #1 by the Clippers? Do it still sting? Is it still a career-ending omen?

Apparently David Stern likes to get boo'ed, he kept repeating the LA Lakers :)

7:30pm eastern time! It is about to get started! Of course we all know who is going to be the #1 pick, so the big question really is for the #2 spot!

Vince Carter to Orlando. Is that how you go for finalist to Champion? Because the last time they made the finals, it didn't exactly turn out well the years after!

Jay Bilas to appear on Pardon the Interruption discussing the NBA Draft in the next five minutes!

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NBA Draft 2009: IN or OUT?

With the NBA Draft just two weeks away, ESPN's super-guru Chad Ford has just updated his NBA Draft page (as of early Tuesday morning) with who is in and who is out. It still needs a few more "returns" to come in before it is FROZEN for the NBA draft, but it can help you get a pretty good idea so far.

Some college teams and college basketball coaches are certainly going to cry, but others are smiling because they are getting some of their promising young players back!

The thieves of the 2008 championship are certainly smiling, both Sharron Collins and Cole Aldrich are returning!

Tim Floyd is out of USC (again!)

The Coaching Carousel took a not-so-unexpected spin when Tim Floyd bolted (or was pushed out) of USC - breaking news of the story, both in text and in video on espn.com.

As many had predicted, "touching" OJ Mayo would have caused them troubles, and it looks like the $1000 rumors are indeed directly linked to the OJ Mayo recruiting.

You can watch the 7-minute video at the aforementioned website, with the one and only Andy Katz talking to the studio guy over the phone.

And this brings up the question, who is going to want to be the next USC coach after this mess, with players bolting out, the NCAA investigators drooling, and things like that.

One year worth of Sports Illustrated for $20 (limited time offer)

Amazon is currently running a Gold-Box promotion where you can get a one-year subscription to SI (Sports Illustrated) for $20 with free shipping. The deal is in your Amazon Gold-box, you have to check there or add the magazine to your shopping cart to see this price.

However, please note this is a very limited time promotion, the $20 price is good only until 5pm eastern (2pm pacific) today, Monday May 4, 2009!

Their regular annual subscription price is $39 per year.