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By Sam, December 16, 2009 2:15 pm

#4 Tim Floyd

There was a time when I liked Tim Floyd. He seemed like a hard working coach. He won at Idaho, he won at New Orleans, he won at Iowa State. How can a guy win at places like that? Well probably the same way he won at USC by paying guys to play for him, or by paying handlers of guys to get their guys to play for him. It might seem like a real reach to assume that just because a guy was dirty in one place he was dirty every place but if he had to pay OJ Mayo to get him to So Cal, what do you think he had to do to get Marcus Fizer to Ames, Iowa? Besides being one of the few coaches to have ever been accused of physically handing money over to street agent directly Floyd is a real indignant SOB who probably yells at waiters and mistreats animals. Don’t be fooled by this wrong any longer he is dirty, arrogant, and undeserving of a coaching job in the NCAA.

The Lowlights:

• When he left to coach the Chicago Bulls he left the Iowa State program in the hands of another wrong…Larry Eustachy. If he had stayed at Iowa State that wrong never would have been allowed to go out partying with Co-eds and drinking Nati Lites in Columiba, Missouri on a week night.
• Compiled a 93-225 record in the NBA over five seasons and was by his own admission “not very good at it”.”
• Told a room full of boosters last season that: “Kansas has two players who would have been NBA lottery picks, Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins, and they are returning to school. Good for them. Our guys get an offer from Islamabad and they’re gone.” He said this two weeks before resigning himself.
• Paid $1000 cash to a handler of then recruit OJ Mayo as a means of gaining access to recruit him. Leaving one to wonder how long and how much of that kind of stuff had he been doing through the years? And why doesn’t he use a middle man? Even Kentucky in their hay day didn’t have coaches directly handing out cash.

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By Sam, December 9, 2009 3:59 pm

Since so many are deprived of the privilege of my insight during a basketball game I have decided to put my thoughts down for any and all to see as I watch the Runnin’ Utes and Jimmy Boylen take on the Wolverines tonight in Salt Lake City from the comfortable confines of my apartment in Ypsilanti.

2 hours to tip: I hope my power doesn’t go out. The wind is pretty intense and there are outages in the area. It would really suck to be without heat with temps in the teens.

pre game: Boylen getting the guys fired up in the Utah locker room sounded a lot like Al Capone in the Untouchables. No Pete Gillen unfortunately on the CBS College Sports telecast. Instead we get Greg Anthony who is not as bad as some of the dopes on the 4 letter network but still pretty tiresome. Utah’s mascot looks like some kind of huge pigeon.

15:25 1st half: Zack Gibson is so big, goofy, and pasty white I don’t know if they will let him leave Utah. Michigan comes out in man to man, and instantly gives up two open threes. Michigan is taking some bad shots and Utah has deflected the ball every trip down court. This game is pretty physical, and the refs are allowing some bumping. The Runnin Utes just brought in a kid from Battle Creek, MI. Manny Harris drains a three, and gets a turnover at the other end. Michigan 7 Utah 6

11:58 1st half: Harris with a nice behind the back to Morris for a three, and then gets back on defense to contest a shot. Stu Douglas couldn’t play in the MAC why did Belien recruit this guy? Greg Anthony just called Michigan the Ivy League of the midwest lol. Stu Douglas just bricked a jumper and Zack Gibson wedged it between the rim and backboard. Runnin Utes getting their running game going with back to back lay ups in transition. Foster is 7′3″ and just blocked a shocked Manny Harris. Michigan 14 Utah 13

7:46 1st half: Tom Izzo live on the phone tells the guys that Spartans are going to get on track, and recalling the rise of Jim Boylen. Michigan’s zone is suffocating in the half court. If they could take better care of the ball they would have a comfortable lead. This freshaman Marshall Henderson has decided to shot over the zone. Manny Harris is so much more athletic than everyone else on the floor he looks manic…and Marshall Henderson just hit another three, the kid has 16 points now. Plenty of empty seats at the Huntsman Center must be weather related. Utah 21 Michigan 18

3:36 1st half: Michigan has loads of freshman who look lost, its really a two man team. Stu Douglas misses another three. Three straight trips down the court Michigan makes one pass in the half court, misses a three and has nobody underneath in position to rebound. Utah by contrast is really trying to get a look against this zone and passing the ball all over the place. Uh oh Henderson is cooling off. Now who is going to score? Looks like Harvard got a win over Boston College tonight. Harvard basketball is becoming the BigTen of New England. Utah hasn’t gotten a good look but against the 1-3-1 in awhile but they are crashing well and getting some second chance points while Michigan’s bigs are standing around. Utah 25 Michigan 21

Halftime: Neither team is shooting real well but Utah is scraping more with 8 offensive boards to Michigan’s 2. Holy crap Stu Douglas just made a nice pass to Simms for an easy bucket. Another 2nd chance bucket for Utes counters that, and then a run out after a (who else) Stu Douglas missed layup forces Belein to take a TO down 8 with 1:30 left. Harris drives the lane and gets to the line coming out of the time out. Defensive breakdown Utah dunk. Stu Douglas turnover gives Utah another shot at the buzzer. It doesn’t go though. Utah 35 Michigan 27.

Utah has 10 offensive boards. Michigan has 8 rebounds total.  Manny Harris has 11 pts. Utah freshman Marshall Henderson has 16 pts. Michigan is lucky to still be within striking distance after a lazy half of basketball.

CBS College Sports really wants me to watch Army/Navy on Saturday. At least they don’t have a countdown clock. Over on ESPN Dukie V is calling the Kentucky/UConn game at MSG. On the deuce the Raft is calling the Nova/St. Joe’s game at the Palestra. I think that is very telling.

The CBS live look in the locker room is awesome. Boylen on the whiteboard wanting to make Harris work for everything is classic. That guy is so intense and awesome, one of the best in the game today. This is the best halftime ever, no commercials just Boylen imploring the Runnin’ Utes to get after lose balls. I was watching the clock behind him that was 6 and a half minutes of live locker room access. I can’t believe we got to see that.

14:05 2nd half: Marshall Henderson trys another three right off the bat and all of a sudden can’t buy one. Neither can Douglas (shocking) or Harris, looks like the lid is on the basket early. Utah has two blocks, and Henderson pulls off a nice little revers lay up. Stu Douglas turns it over with the shot clock running down. Henderson just fouls Douglas hard in transition giving him 3 and putting Stu Douglas at the free throw line where even he has difficulty failing. Utah is starting to find some lanes to the basket in the half court and has stretched it to double digits. Michigan hits a three then gets a quick bucket by Harris after a turnover but Utah right back down the floor for an and1. Utah 41 Michigan 34

11:54 2nd half: Big night of upsets too Oral Roberts gets Mizzou and Green Bay takes out Wisconsin. Manny Harris is taking it inside now at will and getting to the line. If only he could convert. He misses two and Michigan is still down 8. Tighter D now and Harris is on the verge of taking over. Manny Harris drains a fade away three and gets Michigan within 3. Utah gets a much needed TO. That was an impressive individual effort by Harris 5 pts and and a steal in between. Now an and1 from Harris at the other end with a chance to tie. wow. Misses the FT gets his own board but makes the mistake of giving it to Lucas Perry who promptly gets it blocked and it goes down to the other end for an easy lay up and a bad foul. Big sequence there. Utah 44 Michigan 41

7:53 2nd half: Manny Harris is carrying too much dead weight out there, its like Coffee Black and the Flint Tropics. Only Stu Douglas is no Jackie Moon. How this 7′3″ Foster isn’t more dominate is beyond me. He just gets a dunk and gets back on D to alter Simms’ shot and force an air ball, but he’ll probably disappear again after that sequence. Nope another bucket for the big fella and a block on Simms, and another on the next trip. Thats five on the day and three in the last 60 seconds. Stuie Douglas needs a TO trying to inbound around the big man. There is not much Beilein or any coach can tell Stu Douglas to help him. The kid is probably the worst player in the BigTen. Oh for the love of god Michigan just tried another deep transition three…and it wasn’t even Harris. Utah 48 Michigan 43

3:26 2nd half: Marshall Henderson gets back into the action with a nice little runner to stretch the lead back out. Greg Anthony thinks that winning is important to making the NCAA tournament. Interesting thought. Why does Simms think he should be taking 3’s? Is everyone on that roster determined to take an ill advised shot at a key moment or is it a coincidence? Utah follows that up with an open three pointer to stretch it back to 7. Manny Harris answers, but can’t do it all…I don’t think. But he has gotten them back to within 4. Foster is now owning Simms in the block though. Here is a predictable sequence 1.) Stu Douglas misses a shot with nobody under the basket 2.) Utah moves the ball quickly down court and hits an open three 3.) Belein calls time out 4.) Manny Harris is going to have the ball in his hands and be asked to make up for the non sense that just happened. Runnin’ Utes are running now! Utah 62 Michigan 51

Final: Well it looks like David Kool doubled up his high school rival 34-17 and got the Broncos a win over Eastern Illinois and back to .500 despite getting only four points from the bench. 4 points! How can you expect to…. I’ll address the Broncos at another time. Right now the Utes are pouring it on in the midst of a 9-0 run. Maybe Michigan should try another 3 before they set up in the half court.  And they did. Wow. I am speechless. Anthony thinks some of these shots would fall if they were from Zack Novack. I’m not buying that though. This has been a text book display of bad shot selection. Now Michigan busts out their own 7 footer to counter Foster. Too bad there is only a minute thirty left and they are down 13. Still might have been worth a try a few minutes ago when Foster was doing his best Wilt impression.  Harris is gassed. He just air balled a 4 footer. No foul. Maybe one last awful deep 3 who is gonna take it… Vogrich who misses it. Utah 68 Michigan 52

Here is what I learned tonight:

• CBS College Sports lacks the shameless self promotion of ESPN but makes up for it with high quality production, good HD broadcast quality, and a whole bunch of Jim Boylen
• Manny Harris should have gone to school some place else because he is surrounded by stiffs
• Utah is tough, and I wouldn’t want to play them in March
• Michigan is an NIT team
• Stu Douglas is the worst player in the Big Ten! Okay in fairness I knew that going in but now I have hard evidence.

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By Sam, December 9, 2009 3:31 pm

The season is now in full swing as we move through December and mercifully no longer have to watch the brutal disappointment that was the 2009 college football season every week. I took in a couple of games in November to try and get a feel for how my teams were going to look this season and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised in both cases.

On November 15th we headed through the ruins of Old Detroit and took in the Western Michigan/Detroit Mercy game at Callahan Hall. This game holds special significance to the Broncos because their best low post player from last season LeMarcus Lowe was sitting on UDM’s bench as a recent transfer. This is the guy who wanted to be closer to his ailing mother who lives in Flint so he left Kalamazoo for Detroit. Either that or those degenerates gave him a fancy shirt with a tiger on it, some gold chains and a previously owned Ford Taurus. At any rate the Broncos had something to prove after a 10-21 season and a major off season defection, and even in defeat showed enough to leave room for optimism. They never let the game get away from them and held their own physically on the road. A far cry from their performance last season.

Down the road in Ypsilanti Eastern Michigan is in a pivotal year for their program. Charles Ramsey is in year 5 of a very disappointing tenure that has yet to produce a winning season, and with a healthy senior lead team that includes the return of All MAC point guard Carlos Medlock from the injured list it is now or never for C-Ram. I was able to check out EMU once in person already this season when they soundly beat a pretty average Cansisus team from the MAAC in front of a very sparse crowd last week. They then followed it up by being soundly trounced by 51 at Ohio State on Saturday, but all in all I feel like EMU has had a good start to the 09-10 campaign as they sit at 5-3 with a steady diet of cupcakes on deck before heading into MAC play. If they can shake off an embarrassing performance and keep rolling forward they should be decent this year. I would like to be all in on the EMU bandwagon but I have seen this team fall apart to many times under Ramsey and to many promising players fail to develop after good early season performances. I should have a better feel for them after I see them in a tough game against somewhat even competition (I’m giving them a pass in the Ohio State game for now because I think Evan Turner breaking his back really threw them off).

Right now I don’t see either of these programs as championship contenders even in a weak MAC, but there is reason to hope that they might develop into contending programs. We shall see.

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By Sam, October 29, 2009 2:33 am

And  so is the VCU Pep Band Director! Thats right he was only a junior, we get another season of the worlds greatest Bandie!

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By Sam, October 21, 2009 11:03 pm

#5 Bo Ryan

Bo Ryan is the darkness reaching out for the darkness. He and his grind it out and get to the line style has done incredible damage to the national perception of big ten and midwestern basketball. He lacks class in victory, and victories in March. He has turned the bigten conference season into a mind numbing waste of time and energy, and brought the annoying cheese heads into the college basketball universe. Wisconsin basketball wrongs up my college basketball universe every February, and then is exposed to the world every March. To hell with Bo Ryan and his wrong group of wrongs.

The Lowlights:

• Kirk Penny
• Brian Butch
• Joe Krabbenhoft
• Alando Tucker
• Michael Flowers
• Okay okay I know that this isn’t really a list of negative accomplishments in the traditional sense but the fact that I can recall that group of players from memory is proof positive that I wasted many winter nights watching this EOF field a team that was never once entertaining. These bums cost me hours of my life that I will never get back.

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By Sam, October 13, 2009 5:32 pm

#6 Tyler Hansborough

Perhaps no player in the history of college basketball was able to get more undeserved credit for the success of his team than this marginally talented waste hillbilly messiah. Hansby was the only guy who I ever saw play that could make me root for Duke. Hansborough did most of his damage gyrating in the paint in an effort to get to the free throw line, and when in rare instances someone did happen to make contact with this baby rhinoceros he would flail his arms about as if we were struck by some type of nervous disorder. Without a friendly whistle and a dominate supporting cast this jorts wearing trailor park deity would have been a third team all conference player. Instead he spent four years as a media and fan favorite for one of college basketball’s most over indulged programs.

The Lowlights:

• Psycho T as he was known by the frat boys at UNC was at the line more than Noel Gallagher at the height of his What’s the Story fame. He set an ACC record for most trips to the free throw line. The ACC is the same confrence that was home to referee favorites Michael Jordan, Shane Battier, and JJ Redick.
• He jumped off of the balcony of a house into an above ground swimming pool to wild cheers yet when someone puts a forearm on him to position for a rebound he flops down like he has been shot and requires the attention of the training staff.
• Gerald Henderson elbowed him in his big goofy face breaking his nose and making him cry. Thats right a rough and tough Dukie made this muppet weap.
• His idiot parents were on TV more than he was welling up with pride every time he went into wild histrionics putting up a shot.
• He behaved like a coaches pet, charlie hustle, off the bench spot shooter yet had the size to play like a man, making him the antithesis of Antonio Smith.
• Won a completely illegitimate POY award over Michael Beasley in 07-08 based on longevity and celebrity.
• Was given credit for being a great leader for being part of the Tar Heels 2009 National Championship team even though he was arguably the 4th best player on that ubber talented squad.

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By Sam, October 12, 2009 10:06 pm

#7 Sonny Vaccaro

This jock sniffing suspected pedarist has done more to professionalize amateur basketball and to undermine the college game than anyone else. He would be higher up on the list but he did most of his damage earlier in his career. Now he is more of crank than a real threat to anyone. He is the man who brought shoe money into college basketball (working for Nike, Adidas, and Reebok) and created the meat market summer camps with his legendary ABCD camp. He was a tireless advocate for players skipping college and heading straight for the pros until the NBA changed the rules, and lately has been advising 17 year olds with bad SAT scores to go to Europe to prepare for the NBA skipping college all together. Stop it you creepy old shoe salesman, just stop it. In an upcoming HBO Movie he will be played by James Gandolfini…nuff said.

The Lowlights:

• Began the first corporately sponsored summer camp for 13 and 14 year olds in the United States while working for Rebook.
• Was the first executive to sign players to shoe sponsorships before the played a minute in the NBA
• Encouraged and funded Ed O’Bannon’s lawsuit against EA Sports for using the likenesses of former players in their popular “March Madness” series
• Encouraged 17 year old Brandon Jennings and provided him representation for skipping college and playing a professional season in Italy before he was eligible for the NBA draft.
• Tirelessly advocates against the NCAA’s authority as a governing body, and exploits young basketball players jeopardizing their eligibility for the gratification of his own ego.

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By Sam, August 13, 2009 1:34 am

#8 Ronnie Thompson

John Thompson Jr.’s son and JTTIII’s little brother are about the only things on this guys resume that get him work in basketball. He was Brian Ellerbe’s number one assistant at Loyola (MD) and had one horrific season at Ball State compiling a 9-22 record and alienating virtually the entire university community in the process. His brief tenure at Ball State was such a disaster after committing the same NCAA violation twice in the same calendar year, having no on court success, little recruiting success, and not being able to cope in the confines of a dysfunctional athletic department that he did the only thing that his arrogant, entitled, immature mind could come up with…He resigned claiming Muncie, Indiana as a seething hotbed of racial unrest, and filed a lawsuit against the school he had just set the single season loss record for. He brought national attention to Ball State for his wrongness which is no easy task.

The Lowlights:

· Allowed/ directed assistant coaches to observe off season workouts during the summer he was hired. After this violation was reported to the NCAA by the athletic department he did it again the next summer resulting in further punishment from the NCAA

· Posted a school record 22 losses in his only season at Ball State

· Lost 6 players from his roster and 4 of his recruits in his 15 month tenure

· According to star guard Peyton Stovall told his players “not to trust white people,”(coincidentally the roster included no white players even though there were 4 on scholarship when he was hired) and used the N word very liberally

· During the second internal investigation of NCAA violations he reported on receiving racially hostile notes under his office door…which later were shown to be printed in the basketball offices

· After receiving a vote of confidence from the AD and president he sent several carefully worded emails, secretly tape recorded all of his conversation with athletic department officials (for 3 months) and resigned filing a law suite the next day.

· In an interview with ESPN hack Michael Wilbon which his dad sat in on Ronny made some of the following claims:

o That he was instructed not to “socialize,” but to recruit.

o That his wife and child had to flee in the middle of the night for fear of racial violence.

o That he had to purchase basketball’s for practice as the program didn’t have any when he arrived.