Archives › Eric Angevine
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Bo knows Bill Self? If he didn’t know him before, he’ll know him soon enough. The 10th-year head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks will play in a celebrity softball game alongside former Royals like Bo Jackson, George Brett and Mike Sweeney on Sunday. Self, who played college hoops at Oklahoma State, was also apparently quite…
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As a man of a certain age, I’m very tempted to employ the phrase “back in my day”. It gets more difficult to resist with each passing season. Especially with basketball going through absolutely seismic changes in organizational structure over the past half decade. For instance: “back in my day, it was called the Big…
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I’ve interviewed plenty of coaches. Some at the top of the profession, some in the middle, and some who seem mired in the doldrums. Typically, a coach in a difficult situation will try to strike a balanced tone when discussing the upcoming season: walking the line between rah-rah jingoism and monotone defeatism. Nobody wants to…
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The Olympics will be full of basketball players who attended U.S. colleges. Perhaps more on non-U.S. squads than on Team USA, given that stars Kobe Bryant and LeBron James never set foot in college. Team Great Britain is excited about a chance to defend its home turf as hosts of the event, and the group…
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It’s easy to forget the lockout casualties when you think about the NBA’s rookie class. We just watched the draft after all, haven’t we seen all of the new guys? Not really. Duke’s Kyle Singler, who fled the shortened NBA season to play in Spain, will be returning to U.S. shores, ready to start his…
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It’s hard enough to make an NBA team roster as a second-round pick, but plenty of players cling to an even tinier shred of hope, accepting summer league invitations in hopes of jumping to the big leagues after an impressive showing. One such player is Iowa’s Matt Gatens, a senior who is leaving behind a…
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Last week, the itinerant troubadours of NBC College Basketball Talk regaled you with the ballad of the NBA draft prospects. My own verse was about the centers, and I rated my top ten on their ability to succeed at the next level. At the time, Miles Plumlee was supernumerary to that effort. What a difference…
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According to recent rumblings from expansionpocalypse central, the CAA is making a bold move to preserve the league, shortly after deeming departing members Georgia State, VCU and Old Dominion ineligible for postseason play. Per the Watauga Democrat (no offense, but that’s probably the first and last time I’ll type those words in this space), the…
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The Pac 12 overall has been a bit of a disappointment in recent seasons. Even the league’s top teams have performed below expectations. Below even that level is the series of subpar seasons suffered by the Oregon State Beavers, a once-proud program that last made the NCAA tournament in 1990, and last won a game…
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Exhibition season always brings exciting travel opportunities for college hoops teams, with some flying off to Italy, France or other exotic destinations. The Austin Peay Governors don’t have quite such an exciting trip in store, but a nice August sojourn to the Great White North will allow the team to escape the summer heat of…
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Assuming that no other schools plan to leave or join the Atlantic Coast Conference in the next few months, the question remains: given the expansion that the conference has gone through recently — adding Syracuse and Pittsburgh from the Big East, will there be any realignment of the Atlantic and Coastal divisions? Florida State president…
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Brian Gregory did a great job in landing Kentucky transfer Stacey Poole. Poole was lost in the shuffle as a Wildcat, and has a chance to shine as a Yellow Jacket. Perhaps even more importantly, Poole’s family ties worked in Gregory’s favor this weekend, as Stacey’s younger brother Solomon Poole chose to attend the Atlanta-based…
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Isiah Thomas may not have worked out as a basketball coach at Florida International, but he had an eye for unpolished talent, which is an important skill a mid-major coach can have. He proved it by nabbing an early commitment from Chicago Marshall’s Milton Doyle, a player one Chicago Sun Times reporter called “the ultimate…
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You may not know the name Amaurys Fermin. The senior has been part of a rebuilding process at Cal Poly under coach Joe Callero for the past four years, helping the team go from a 7-win cellar-dweller in the Big West to an 18-game winner this past season. Things were getting better under Fermin’s floor…
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For ODU and VCU, the decision to move to more visible conferences like C-USA and the A-10 makes sense over the long term. There will be more money, including larger dollops of revenue sharing from multiple teams making the NCAA tournament. In the short run, however, each has had to make a painful decision: to…
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All this week at CBT, we’ll be spotlighting the top players at each position for the 2012 NBA draft. Monday featured the top point guards; Tuesday was the shooting guards; Wednesday the small forwards; Thursday The power forwards. Today we wrap things up with the centers. 1. Andre Drummond (UConn) We were all prepared to wait for Andre Drummond…
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When the Southern Conference meetings ended on Friday, a head count revealed that the league still had the same number of schools as it did when the meetings began. That was the main positive to come out of the sit-a-thon. With the Colonial Athletic Association losing several members in recent weeks, the SoCon has been…
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Getting the number one pick in a professional sports draft is great, assuming there’s an obvious pick to be made. It can be terrible if you’re – for the sake of example – the 2007 Portland Trailblazers, or, for that matter, the 1984 Portland Trailblazers. For the New Orleans Hornets, the No. 1 pick in…
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Things a boy cannot do in ninth grade: Algebra Change the radio station in the cafeteria Grow a moustache Speak in the same octave from one day to the next Stand up from behind his desk after Sex Ed class Things a boy can do in ninth grade: Accept a scholarship to play division I…
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According to the Omaha World-Herald, Walter Pitchford is transferring to Nebraska. That’s welcome news for a Husker program that has often struggled to find quality big men. Pitchford is 6’10″, 221 lbs., and he’s joining a team that will be losing two post players a year from now. He’ll be a prime option for the…
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It’s been over a year since former BYU star Jimmer Fredette played a college game, but how could I pass this story up? He’s still a folk hero to collegiate hoopheads, and everybody likes a good wedding, am I right? Yep, Jimmer got hitched this past week, marrying his college sweetheart Whitney Wonnacott at the…
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What can Brown do for you? Hopefully, win an elusive Ivy League title. To that end, the Bears brought back former player Mike Martin, announcing him as the program’s 31st head coach on June 1. Martin played for Brown from 2000-04, and served as a team captain in his senior season. Martin will be one…
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It’s a time of transition for Old Dominion University. Not only is the school preparing to move its sports teams to Conference USA soon, the dominant men’s basketball team is bidding farewell to a young player who was in line for more playing time next season. Late Friday afternoon, Monarchs coach Blaine Taylor announced the…
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Kyle O’Quinn was most recently seen helping the Norfolk State Spartans shock the Missouri Tigers in the first round of the NCAA tournament (yes, I am aware that it is technically the second round. I’m not much for technicalities). That national coming-out party has the shot-blocking whiz under serious consideration by NBA teams in need…
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Last week, we learned that Kansas recruit Perry Ellis earned a perfect 4.0 from Wichita Heights high school, and served as one of the school’s valedictorians on graduation day. Lest the KU commit come off as just a goody two-shoes, today’s news should remind us that he’s a pretty darn good basketball player, as well.…
