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NBA / NCAA Basketball

Page 18 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Can any sports story even temporarily supersede what happened this past weekend? Yes, maybe, but it's not good news. An FBI sting has revealed an extensive operation among several universities to pay recruits to attend their schools, with the recruits retaining the services of financial managers if and when they make it to the NBA. The schools implicated so far are Arizona, USC, OK State, and Auburn, along with most likely Louisville and Miami. Louisville apparently funneled $100K secretly and illegally to a recruit. And this may be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The shock, of course, is not that this is happening, but that so much hard evidence has now accumulated.

https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-needs-give-louisville-basketball-death-sentence-bombshell-allegations-prove-correct-181930063.html

https://sports.yahoo.com/fbi-probe-uncovers-massive-college-basketball-scandal-snaring-big-time-programs-144631716.html
 
Re:

Merckx index said:
Can any sports story even temporarily supersede what happened this past weekend? Yes, maybe, but it's not good news. An FBI sting has revealed an extensive operation among several universities to pay recruits to attend their schools, with the recruits retaining the services of financial managers if and when they make it to the NBA. The schools implicated so far are Arizona, USC, OK State, and Auburn, along with most likely Louisville and Miami. Louisville apparently funneled $100K secretly and illegally to a recruit. And this may be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The shock, of course, is not that this is happening, but that so much hard evidence has now accumulated.

https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-needs-give-louisville-basketball-death-sentence-bombshell-allegations-prove-correct-181930063.html

https://sports.yahoo.com/fbi-probe-uncovers-massive-college-basketball-scandal-snaring-big-time-programs-144631716.html

Like you said, the worst kept secret but maybe college sports in general especially the ones that offer lucrative salaries post college are in for a shake up of sorts. Obviously it's not only success and history that attracts young players to certain colleges............
 
Re:

Merckx index said:
Can any sports story even temporarily supersede what happened this past weekend? Yes, maybe, but it's not good news. An FBI sting has revealed an extensive operation among several universities to pay recruits to attend their schools, with the recruits retaining the services of financial managers if and when they make it to the NBA. The schools implicated so far are Arizona, USC, OK State, and Auburn, along with most likely Louisville and Miami. Louisville apparently funneled $100K secretly and illegally to a recruit. And this may be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The shock, of course, is not that this is happening, but that so much hard evidence has now accumulated.

https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-needs-give-louisville-basketball-death-sentence-bombshell-allegations-prove-correct-181930063.html

https://sports.yahoo.com/fbi-probe-uncovers-massive-college-basketball-scandal-snaring-big-time-programs-144631716.html
This sounds like the SMU football scandal back in the 80s (though, on a much larger scale), ESPN did an excellent "30 for 30" documentary about it. http://www.espn.com/30for30/film?page=pony-excess

That this kind of corruption exists in college hoops should surprise no one, it'll be interesting to see how it all turns out.
 
I am really considering buying a League Pass for the upcoming season. Watched a fair amount of basketball back in the day but these off-season moves have really caught my attention. Melo, Russ and PG, Harden and Paul, Wade, Thomas and LBJ, the Thunder, the Spurs.. man, there are some extremely talented teams out West that I would like to watch. Meanwhile the East looks more trash than ever apart from Cavaliers obviously. Always been a West-guy, I remember I liked watching the Thunder, Warriors and Nuggets running up and down the floor all day.
 
Re:

Valv.Piti said:
I am really considering buying a League Pass for the upcoming season. Watched a fair amount of basketball back in the day but these off-season moves have really caught my attention. Melo, Russ and PG, Harden and Paul, Wade, Thomas and LBJ, the Thunder, the Spurs.. man, there are some extremely talented teams out West that I would like to watch. Meanwhile the East looks more trash than ever apart from Cavaliers obviously. Always been a West-guy, I remember I liked watching the Thunder, Warriors and Nuggets running up and down the floor all day.

There are some exciting players entering the league or at least players that show a great deal of potential for excitement and one in particular who while not drafted this year, will be playing his first official game this season.
The new players I'm looking forward to watching are Dennis Smith Jr., a point guard with Dallas out of NC State and Ben Simmons who was the first pick by the 76ers in the 2016 draft but didn't play last year due to injuries.

I like the up-tempo game too, being a big fan of Magic and the Lakers back in the day (except when they were beating up on my Pistons!).
 
Re: Re:

Angliru said:
Valv.Piti said:
I am really considering buying a League Pass for the upcoming season. Watched a fair amount of basketball back in the day but these off-season moves have really caught my attention. Melo, Russ and PG, Harden and Paul, Wade, Thomas and LBJ, the Thunder, the Spurs.. man, there are some extremely talented teams out West that I would like to watch. Meanwhile the East looks more trash than ever apart from Cavaliers obviously. Always been a West-guy, I remember I liked watching the Thunder, Warriors and Nuggets running up and down the floor all day.

There are some exciting players entering the league or at least players that show a great deal of potential for excitement and one in particular who while not drafted this year, will be playing his first official game this season.
The new players I'm looking forward to watching are Dennis Smith Jr., a point guard with Dallas out of NC State and Ben Simmons who was the first pick by the 76ers in the 2016 draft but didn't play last year due to injuries.

I like the up-tempo game too, being a big fan of Magic and the Lakers back in the day (except when they were beating up on my Pistons!).

Be interesting to see how the Bucks go this season. A young team on the up by the looks of it. I am also interested to see how Simmons goes with so much hype about him before he was injured.
 
Re: Re:

Angliru said:
Valv.Piti said:
I am really considering buying a League Pass for the upcoming season. Watched a fair amount of basketball back in the day but these off-season moves have really caught my attention. Melo, Russ and PG, Harden and Paul, Wade, Thomas and LBJ, the Thunder, the Spurs.. man, there are some extremely talented teams out West that I would like to watch. Meanwhile the East looks more trash than ever apart from Cavaliers obviously. Always been a West-guy, I remember I liked watching the Thunder, Warriors and Nuggets running up and down the floor all day.

There are some exciting players entering the league or at least players that show a great deal of potential for excitement and one in particular who while not drafted this year, will be playing his first official game this season.
The new players I'm looking forward to watching are Dennis Smith Jr., a point guard with Dallas out of NC State and Ben Simmons who was the first pick by the 76ers in the 2016 draft but didn't play last year due to injuries.

I like the up-tempo game too, being a big fan of Magic and the Lakers back in the day (except when they were beating up on my Pistons!).
Thinking of following Warriors and Thunder, they are just so talented and explosive and play very high scoring games (I suppose). Pretty mainstream teams, yes, but have liked Warriors since Ellis-Curry and there was just something about Thunder that I liked with Russ, Harden and KD. KD is obviously at Warriors now, but Melo and Russ are also great fun to watch. I like Melos laid back attitude, he reminds me a bit about Ronaldinho.

Bucks seem super talented as well, same for T-Wolves. Im talking myself into buying LP now..
 
Re: Re:

Tricycle Rider said:
Angliru said:
If Louisville has to vacate their 2013 national championship, I wonder does that mean the runner up, MIchigan, is declared national champion for that year?
As far as I know that title will be left vacated, with a possible asterisk.

Anyone know any better? (I'm much too busy and/or lazy to look it up.)
Update on this...

I haven't been able to find any vacated championship titles in NCAA basketball, and in college football there has been only one and that is USC's 2005 Orange Bowl title. (This was back during the BCS, Reggie Bush era.) On that note...

I re-watched the "Pony Excess" documentary again yesterday, the only team ever to get the NCAA death penalty was SMU's football team in the 80s. This not only killed SMU's football program for a season, it also messed up other teams' playing schedules where a lot money was involved. (TV rights and all that jive.) So I'd be really surprised if the NCAA themselves hand out a death penalty now to a basketball team, the Feds may not feel so generous, though.

This is a mess on such a massive scale, it'll be interesting to see if any players come out and say they've been paid by recruiters and agents to enroll at a specific school. Some of them I'm sure are already in the process of transferring to some other "less blemished" schools.
 
Re: Re:

Valv.Piti said:
Angliru said:
Valv.Piti said:
I am really considering buying a League Pass for the upcoming season. Watched a fair amount of basketball back in the day but these off-season moves have really caught my attention. Melo, Russ and PG, Harden and Paul, Wade, Thomas and LBJ, the Thunder, the Spurs.. man, there are some extremely talented teams out West that I would like to watch. Meanwhile the East looks more trash than ever apart from Cavaliers obviously. Always been a West-guy, I remember I liked watching the Thunder, Warriors and Nuggets running up and down the floor all day.

There are some exciting players entering the league or at least players that show a great deal of potential for excitement and one in particular who while not drafted this year, will be playing his first official game this season.
The new players I'm looking forward to watching are Dennis Smith Jr., a point guard with Dallas out of NC State and Ben Simmons who was the first pick by the 76ers in the 2016 draft but didn't play last year due to injuries.

I like the up-tempo game too, being a big fan of Magic and the Lakers back in the day (except when they were beating up on my Pistons!).
Thinking of following Warriors and Thunder, they are just so talented and explosive and play very high scoring games (I suppose). Pretty mainstream teams, yes, but have liked Warriors since Ellis-Curry and there was just something about Thunder that I liked with Russ, Harden and KD. KD is obviously at Warriors now, but Melo and Russ are also great fun to watch. I like Melos laid back attitude, he reminds me a bit about Ronaldinho.

Bucks seem super talented as well, same for T-Wolves. Im talking myself into buying LP now..

We're on the same wavelength. :) Those same teams have been my favs to watch for years. Curry and Monta Ellis were the draw for me too. Westbrook's intensity and always high revving motor have always been a joy to watch.

The draw for me with the Bucks and the T-Wolves were their young guns, soon to be rulers of the NBA. Now the T-Wolves have added some veteran leadership to go with their young talent, they should be ready to make a run for the playoffs this year. The Bucks with the "Greek Freak" ready to make that next step to elite status like the your T-Wolves.

I'm very curious to see how the pairing of Chris Paul and James Harden works out especially with both accustomed to being the one running the show.

Edit: Funny (I have to laugh to keep from crying!) story relating to basketball and cycling: Coming up as a youngster basketball was my sport. Loved it then the way I love cycling now. By my late twenties to mid thirties cycling came into the picture and eventually pushed basketball to the side until it became a once a year activity at my family picnic. It would always start as just shooting around, evolving to playing 21 then half court and if feeling especially ambitious (stupid!), full court (which would last all of about 1 or 2 games before the August heat and sun would drain me). This year I began completely out of synch which was to be expected but things began to flow like the old days, the ball handling trickery (always loved the point guards!) slowly returned as did my shooting touch. When all that came together so did my motivation to lock up my opponent defensively. I soon began looking up at the sky hoping for the sun to go behind the clouds as it was sucking the life out of me such that I began looking on the sidelines for my back up point guard from the bench (there was none of course, the next generation of kinfolk aren't ballers at all). I had to quit mid game but the fact there weren't any protests from the other guys made me feel a little better knowing maybe they were as worn out as me.

As my family picnic involved missing cycling, this year I decided that I would take up my friend's idea of revisiting an old route that we used to regularly ride when we first founded our cycling club. Very hilly challenging route of about 40 miles the day following the picnic. I woke up sore as hell but figured I would ride the soreness away. Didn't happen but I didn't think too much about it as I was mad that half the group bailed mid ride, one being the dude who thought up the idea of the ride in the first place! So 3 bailed and 3 of us continued on, one guy being the strongest guy in the club.

Long story short, not allowing my old joints to recover from that hour and a half of basketball on asphalt resulted in the acceleration of the aging of my joints (or so it felt like for the following month and a half). Sharp knee pain 4 days after that infamous ride on my first ride meant I had to cut short a ride after 2 miles. I had occasional a minor hip issue prior to this and it also seemed to worsen. My doctor diagnosed it as tendonitis/arthritis and I am just now getting my knees to feeling somewhat normal. The hip is another story.

All a result of trying to revisit glory days of the past. Really just trying to have a little fun on the court but forgetting that one of the reasons I took up cycling was to avoid the common injuries that come with playing basketball. I kept saying that this year would be the year that I quit altogether but it was one year too much.
I'm back on the bike but getting out of the saddle is an issue and have yet to try any serious hills .
 
Nomad said:
Good article on the issue you brought up with the potential "death penalty" for Louisville:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/02/might-death-penalty-be-horizon-louisville-basketball
That is, indeed, a good article, it pretty much sums up most of my thoughts on this. (The only reason why it's not all of my thoughts is because we don't know what the Feds know.)

Louisville might get smacked the hardest because they may have been the most blatant offenders (again, we don't know what all the Feds know), by no means do I believe they are the only ones, though. The whole system is rotten through and through, I say do away with college basketball entirely because everyone knows college hoops are just a farm system for the NBA anyway. (At least in college football they mostly pretend they're getting an education and a degree, in hoops it's become more of a one-and-done situation.) This will never happen, though, hoops are too much of a cash cow for some schools. So round and round we go.
 
Haha, that was a great read. My only consideration is the price, I think its pretty spicy and a little too much. Then again I dont really wanna download the games and such, so thats probably the best and honestly only option to follow the league closely.
 
Tricycle Rider said:
Nomad said:
Good article on the issue you brought up with the potential "death penalty" for Louisville:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/02/might-death-penalty-be-horizon-louisville-basketball
That is, indeed, a good article, it pretty much sums up most of my thoughts on this. (The only reason why it's not all of my thoughts is because we don't know what the Feds know.)

Louisville might get smacked the hardest because they may have been the most blatant offenders (again, we don't know what all the Feds know), by no means do I believe they are the only ones, though. The whole system is rotten through and through, I say do away with college basketball entirely because everyone knows college hoops are just a farm system for the NBA anyway. (At least in college football they mostly pretend they're getting an education and a degree, in hoops it's become more of a one-and-done situation.) This will never happen, though, hoops are too much of a cash cow for some schools. So round and round we go.

I think that would be a bit extreme. There are college players that are using basketball as a means to actually advance themselves. I would say that those involved in the unsavory type of activity are in the minority when you look at the entire landscape of the collegiate sport. I'm likely biased and selfish in my opinion on this as I would greatly miss certain aspects of the sport if it were eliminated altogether, especially March Madness.

Edit: Corrected (in bold)
 
Re:

Valv.Piti said:
Haha, that was a great read. My only consideration is the price, I think its pretty spicy and a little too much. Then again I dont really wanna download the games and such, so thats probably the best and honestly only option to follow the league closely.

I don't watch it obsessively like I used to and the price is excessive for that package but I can still follow via highlights, youtube, the NBA website and app to kind of satisfy my NBA fix, keeping me caught up to a certain extent.
 
Re: Re:

Angliru said:
Valv.Piti said:
Haha, that was a great read. My only consideration is the price, I think its pretty spicy and a little too much. Then again I dont really wanna download the games and such, so thats probably the best and honestly only option to follow the league closely.

I don't watch it obsessively like I used to and the price is excessive for that package but I can still follow via highlights, youtube, the NBA website and app to kind of satisfy my NBA fix, keeping me caught up to a certain extent.
So you don't have LP?
Anyways, I never watch it live, back when I watched it a lot I only watched the day after. I like that way more than live since all breaks are cut out so a game doesn't take more than 1 hour and 30 minutes, that way you can watch a game a day or such. I just don't think I can follow it properly unless I actually watch the games, so.
 
Angliru said:
I think that would be a bit extreme. There are college players that are using basketball as a means to actually advance themselves. I would say that those involved in the savory type of activity are in the minority when you look at the entire landscape of the collegiate sport. I'm likely biased and selfish in my opinion on this as I would greatly miss certain aspects of the sport if it were eliminated altogether, especially March Madness.
True, I love March Madness, it's actually the only time I really follow college basketball. (Have to fill out my annual brackets!)

I don't really know what the answer is, there are so many questions as to how to solve this corruption situation. One thing is for sure, though, if I were playing for a traditionally sucky team right now I'd feel slightly relieved. I'd be like - oh thank goodness we suck, maybe this means we're not under investigation! :lol:
 
Step is a liar-liar-pants on fire. Of course I appreciate his ability, but I've never really cared for his pretend zen. As he has become increasingly more spoiled, he can't control his act. Throwing your mouth piece (anything) is childish and chicken sh*t. Step, you're just a BB player.
 
Re:

jmdirt said:
Step is a liar-liar-pants on fire. Of course I appreciate his ability, but I've never really cared for his pretend zen. As he has become increasingly more spoiled, he can't control his act. Throwing your mouth piece (anything) is childish and chicken sh*t. Step, you're just a BB player.

Yeah he seems to put off quite a few fans with some of his antics.
 

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