UConn Freshman star Andre Drummond gave red-shirt freshman Michael Bradley the best gift ever this season. Since Drummond is using UConn basically as a stepping stone to his NBA career, he has decided to forego his scholarship, and remain on the team as a walk-on. He basically took the scholarship from Bradley because he is a much better player. However, Bradley does not have much to work with. He is an orphan who grew up with very little. People were constantly accusing Drummond of “taking a scholarship from an orphan”, but since they were trying to resolve this without the media, they both had to remain silent, and just accept the verbal abuse.
With Bradley sidelined with an injury for now, he can only sit and watch his team move up in the rankings. Drummond will most likely go this year in the draft, barring any injuries of course. He is 6-11 and can score and rebound better than most at his size. As soon as he gets stronger, he will be a force in the middle.
University of Southern California Quarterback Matt Barkley has decided to forego the NFL draft and complete his senior year next season. He would have most likely been a top 10 pick and had the potential to make millions next year for whichever team needed a quarterback after Andrew Luck gets chosen. I can go along with this decision for the sole fact that I respect his chase for a national championship after being royally screwed the last two seasons because of Reggie Bush and others taking bribes.
Hopefully Barkley can go through his final season the same way he did this season—on top. He threw for 3,528 yards, 39 touchdowns, and only 7 interceptions. If he keeps up with this pace, he could go down as the best quarterback in the elite school’s history. The Trojans (insert condom reference here) will most likely be pre-ranked in the top 3 teams next season, and he will almost certainly be the front-runner for the Heisman (even though their pick doesn’t always win.. See Andrew Luck)
Just over a month in and there have already been a few different #1 teams in the country. There have also been many players who have stepped up, or fell off the radar. I thought it would be fun to vote on who has been the best player in the NCAA ( I only did ranked teams players). If you are unsure, do not just vote for North Carolina players because I’m pretty sure thats what everyone in the coaches poll does…
As I’m sure most are aware, there was a bench clearing brawl with just seconds left in Saturday’s Xavier vs. Cincinnati NCAA basketball game. The game was very physical in the first half, and both coaches were warned during halftime that actions would be taken if it didn’t stop. With just under 10 seconds left in the game, a player from each side started pushing and shoving, which led to Yancy Gates throwing the basketball at a Xavier player along with several punches, one which drilled Xaviers Kenny Frease directly in the face sending him to the floor. That wasn’t all Frease got. While he was on the floor attempting to get up, Cincinnati’s Cheikh Mbodj decided to kick him in the face. The fight eventually ended and the game was called with just under 10 seconds left. Yancy Gates received the longest suspension, six games, while the others got anywhere from one to four games.
What I find most disturbing is Cheikh’s Mbodj’s actions. What a coward. You can see in the video he pretty much had nothing to do with the fight and the only thing he can think to do is kick the guy in the face while he’s down. There is absolutely no room in sports for things like that. That guy is a complete coward and should be suspended longer than anyone else involved. An Ohio prosecutor also said he is considering bringing charges against some players involved.
This brings me to the other two players would made absolute idiots of themselves during their postgame press conferences. Xavier guards Tu Holloway, and Mark Lyons. When asked about the fight they replied by saying “That’s what you’re going to see from Xavier and Cincinnati, we got disrespected a little bit before the game, guys calling us out. We’re a tougher team. We’re grown men over here. We’ve got a whole bunch of gangsters in the locker room — not thugs, but tough guys on the court. And we went out there and zipped them up at the end of the game.”
How stupid can two kids that attend Xavier University be? Apparently pretty stupid. The only reason most of these “gangsters” are able to attend these schools is to play basketball, not do what they did back on the streets. Yes, Yancy Gates deserved the six game suspension, but it should not have been the longest suspension handed out from this mess. Just because of their stupidity and unprofessional manners, both Tu Holloway, and Mark Lyons should be severely punished. It was a disgrace that this happened in the first place, but then when they are given a chance to show remorse they acted like the thugs they truly are and referred to themselves as gangsters and basically said Cincinnati had it coming. That’s class at his finest. Both schools ought to send those gangsters a message and show them that their actions are not acceptable by suspending the players involved for a minimum of 10 games.
It was a weekend full of upsets in college basketball. And it wasn’t just me feeling upset that Duke and North Carolina both won. #1 Kentucky was upset by unranked, but undefeated Indiana at the buzzer. Probably the most exciting game of the year so far in my opinion. #2 Ohio State was also upset by #13 Kansas. It should be mentioned, however, that the Buckeyes were playing without the best player (in my opinion) in the league due to back spasms. I think they will still be ranked near the top once he is back and well.
Usually, I wouldn’t comment on a team like Xavier that no one cares about, including myself, but if you watch the news at all, you should know what happened. A bench clearing brawl, including everyone that could reach an opposing player, ended a blow out by #8 Xavier of Cincinnati before the game was even over. The only thing that was missing was Ron Artest running into the stands and punching fans in the face. I am willing to bet that Artest (or as he now likes to be called Metta World Peace??) is laughing like hell remembering his ‘glory’ days with the Pacers.
The Kentucky Wildcats remain on top of the Coaches Poll for men’s basketball after slipping by UNC on Saturday. A last second block sealed the win as they proved that having all-stars doesn’t mean anything (See Miami Heat for details). However, because they lost against a number 1 seed and they have the best overall line up in college basketball, they remain at #6.
Duke dropped from #4 all the way down to #5? Wait a minute, how do they only drop one spot after getting smoked by #2 Ohio State 85-63, you ask? Because they are the Blue Devils. No one will count them out of the top ten even if they lose the next 3 games because of their constant dominance of unranked teams. Seeing as they don’t face another ranked team until the Tar Heels in February, you can expect to see them up here for a while.
These next 4 weeks are kind of on the dull side for most NCAA teams with Christmas tourneys and non-conference games (With the exception of Ohio State vs. #13 Kansas this Saturday). Therefore, many teams will not be changing position unless they somehow get upset by their random opponents. Let’s hope that UNC and Duke are some of those teams…
Syracuse associate head coach, 65 year old Bernie Fine, was fired late Sunday night in the midst of child molestation accusations against him. In his 36th season (a long ass time for an assistant coach to stay without leaving to be a head coach somewhere else), Fine is being accused by two former ball boys. I think he took their title as Ball Boys a bit too literal. In fact one of the guys who accused him is actually being accused of molesting a 14 year old boy…Probably just displacing the blame. However, I can understand why they had to let him go due to the big news of the Penn State scandal. I am also willing to bet that other assistant coaches around the country are going to get accused as well. Gotta love sports…
UPDATE: So it turns out Fine’s wife said that all of this was true over a phone conversation so ignore everything I said about how it might be fake. Lock him up!
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