Man, even I find this a little dirty

So, if you haven’t seen the story Josh Selby, let me give you a little bit of background here…

Josh Selby was Tennessee’s prize basketball recruit.  The proverbial crown jewel of the class.  Selby’s a consensus top 10 national recruit, and he committed to UTenn back in September of last year. Now all of the sudden, after attending a basketball camp with his mother, Selby has decommitted to UTenn and is now looking at Kentucky and Oregon.

Now, given the landscape of recruiting in 2009, the commitment/decommitment rituals of the high school student are nothing to be surprised at.  Shit, when I was 17/18, I was emo-confused about what I was going to eat for dinner.  So, why is Selby’s case so special?

Hint Number 1: Tennessee is an Adidas school
Hint Number 2: Kentucky and Oregon are Nike schools
Hint Number 3: The camp that Selby attended was a Nike camp

See where this is going? 

The man at the center of this controversy is a man named William Wesley.  Name ring a bell?  How’s about his nickname, “Worldwide Wes”?   His Wikipedia page...

See, no one knows how or what the hell purpose Wes has, but he’s always at the center of these things.

So, to recap:

1) Selby recruits to Tennessee, an Adidas school
2) Selby attends a Nike camp with his mother
3) Mother chats with William Wesley, noted Nike shill and good friend of John Calipari (now coach at Kentucky. Former coach at Memphis where both of Selby’s cousins play)
4) Selby de-commits from Tennessee and now is interested in Kentucky.

The NCAA seems sit on a pretty high perch when it comes to slapping people with recruiting restrictions…loopholes sure are fun.

Last Chance Bitches!

Last chance to try and prove you know more about college basketball than I do. We have a bracket challenge over at ESPN, link here, or just search for the group name The Big and the Brown.

Winner gets a free post to gloat, tell us how much we suck, what ever. But I'm the defending champ, so if you want to take the strap off me, you better bring the heat.

Time to try and prove your as smrt as me.

I mean smart. Like dirty nasty spiteful smart. What?

ANYWAY, its time for me to put up my championship belt of brackit savyness, and challenge you sexy reader (and brown) in a battle of pick em's. Here is the Big and Brown pick em group on ESPN, or if you need to search, search for the name of the group, the big and the Brown.

Its a battle to the death I tell you! Try and knock me off my horse, Bizzle. Catch me if you can Bear. Suck my Alabama nuts Gerry! I Dersive a Challenge!!!

Are you ready for a Packer-less tourney?

For the first time in my lifetime, I’m going to watch the NCAA tournament without the condescending and sour tones of one, Billy Packer.

A lot of people hate Billy Packer because he was never happy. Remember how pissed he got a mid-majors winning games? I think the world is chock full of happy people. Oprah, Jim Nantz, Terry Bradshaw, Big. Why can’t we have the signature voice of the tournament call it anymore?

The thing is, Billy Packer was very smart about the game of basketball, and isn’t that what we’re really looking for in a color guy? The PBP man tells you what’s happening, and the color guy tells you why it’s happening.

Top of your head, what color guys in college basketball actually do a good job of breaking down the game as it happens? Bilas? Knight? (If you said Vitale, you’re an idiot.)

Anyway, Clark Kellogg is going to be the replacement for Packer now, and all I have to say is, okay. Kellogg is, ironically enough, like corn flakes. He’s just there. He' doesn’t have any flavor, he doesn’t have any taste, he just commentates.

Can’t we promote Gus to the number one spot?

(SIDE NOTE: I’m using Windows Live Writer to post to the blog site now, so if this doesn’t go through properly, it’s Bill Gates' fault)

Its tourney time!

one of the man things I've missed about talking with you fine fine people over the last few weeks is I didn't have a chance to chat up College Basketball. I didn't get a chance to tell you that I think UNC is overrated, or watch for Louisville to make a strong push late, or even that Pitt might be the best team in all the land.

to be fair, I also didn't get a chance to tell you that the Irish would push late to make a bid at the dance, and that Kentucky would win the SEC. So you take the good with the bad.

This is one of the more fun weeks of the sports year, as its the start of the big dance (duhhh). 90% of America don't watch College Basketball till this week, and I've giving that 5 percent of the remaining 10 percent are college kids who go to their schools basketball games. So over the next few days you will be poking around the Internet, looking for some info on how to pick a good bracket. You'll hit up ESPN, but everybody does that so its no fun news. You'll try your fav blogs, looking for help, but what do we know? My mom's basement doesn't even have cable! So you'll do what you normally do, and that's this.

Random Things Dudes do to pick their brackets:

Rule 1. Always pick a 5 seed to get upset, this ALWAYS Happens.
Rule 2. Remember the Darling teams of last year and the year before, they have to be good this year too, right? (George Mason, Gonzaga, the team that curry kid played for)

Rule 3. Do some research, find one low seed that you can learn something about, and then pick them to make the sweet 16, and tell everybody how you saw this coming/how it didn't work. "I thought that if (insert team) could hit some threes, and (insert best player on team) could stay out of foul trouble, they could really do it." even if they lose, you like kinda smart.

Rule 4. Outside of the one team that you picked above, have the rest of the sweet 16 be favorites or just really mild upsets. 5's over 4's and so on. You'll get at least 8 or 9 of the 16 teams that way.

Rule 5. If you don't know anything about the teams, pick the cooler name, so if your right, you can brag. "Fuck yea, I had Xavier in the final 4!"

So there is a little help for you non basketball people, who still enjoy the tourney. Follows those rules and you won't look like a jack ass come April.