Who on earth do these people think they are fooling?
The only thing that has been resolved with yesterday's announcements that the Big 12 will in fact survive is pretty much the same thing we could have come up with when the NCAA infractions committee released its report on USC last week. It was put most succinctly by CollegeFootballNews.com's Pete Fiutak:
"First, this is about business at the highest level; this isn’t necessarily a sports story."
As SBN's Andrew Sharp describes in depth, the entire notion that the NCAA abides by any sort of "principle of amateurism" is a farce. Sharp's piece -- which is long, but worth the read as an analysis of just how absurd and corrupt the NCAA has become -- essentially revolves around the following excerpt:
Reggie Bush, Realignment, Recruting Violations, Etc: The NCAA Should Give Itself The Death Penalty - SBNation.com
See, on the surface, it works. The idea that sports agents and their associates could strike a fatal blow at a "Principle of Amateurism" seems reasonable enough. Same with the notion that "participation in intercollegiate athletics should be motivated primarily by education, and by the physical, mental, and social benefits to be derived." All these ideas make sense in theory. But coming from the NCAA, downright insulting.Like they're the foil in a bad morality play, except nobody's picking up on the motif here.
Because, sure, participating in amateur athletics should be motivated by those things, but what about the people governing them? How can an organization that exists solely to generate more revenue from these "intercollegiate athletics" stand there with a straight face, telling athletes that their sole purpose in all of this is to be gratified with "physical, mental and social benefits."
With the NCAA, it's "do as we say, and look the other way when we do the exact opposite."
When framed in terms as stark as Fiutak's or well-reasoned as Sharp's it becomes painfully obvious that what we're seeing from the NCAA is a complete lack of integrity, which essentially has three components: distinguishing right from wrong, acting upon what you decide, and a willingness to act upon your beliefs even at the risk of being unpopular. Apparently, the grown ups in charge of upholding the NCAA's "principle of amateurism" have a difficult time modeling the principles they claim to uphold when it comes to lining their own pockets.
One of the great joys of the Seattle sub-regional was having the opportunity to meet Texas A&M coach Gary Blair. I personally found the guy hilarious - he's probably one of the better storytellers in women's college basketball... or perhaps as Gonzaga University coach Kelly Graves said, "A master of hyperbole."
After he mentioned to the press during the pre-tournament media day that WNBA scouts were "looking pretty hard" at senior small forward Tanisha Smith, I wanted to get his thoughts on what Smith offers a WNBA team and what she still needs to work on. Smith is a player that has not gotten quite as much attention as other prospects who are clearly less athletic and less versatile, if not less skilled.
A few questions turned into a ten minute conversation as the team headed to the bus after practice the day before a heartbreaking 72-71 loss to Gonzaga. What began as a conversation about about Smith and her WNBA potential, led to implicit commentary on the WNBA, insight into how Van Chanellor filled the final two spots on his Houston Comets' rosters, and the suggestion that Nolan Richardson "have a conversation with Rick Pitino" about the transition from college to the pros, all while getting through most of a bag of Cheetos.
Full transcript of the chat after the jump.
For more on Smith: WNBA Draft Capsule: Tanisha Smith, small forward, Texas A&M
When the NCAA women’s basketball tournament tips off on Saturday, the Big 12 will be solidly represented in the brackets. With seven teams in dancing and one of the strongest overall seasons for the conference, they will be a force to be reckoned with in their respective matchups. To pander to my constituents, errr the Big 12 fans of the world, I would like to point out some impressive statistics before we move on. As many know, the seven conference bids ties the Big East for most represented conference in the 2010 tournament and no Big 12 team is seeded lower than sixth for the second consecutive year. Since the beginning of the aughts, the Big 12 has made 69 NCAA tournament appearances, second nationally, and can boast a championship game appearance by Oklahoma in 2002, a final four berth by Texas in 2003 and a 2005 national championship by Baylor.
*I will be mentioning potential matchups, but am purely going with the seedings. As we all know in March Madness, it’s well...madness, and such things cannot be expected. The potential matchups are just for the sake of argument and to show one of the potential paths to advance in the tournament.
Thankfully for the other six, but not so lucky for Iowa State, there is only one Big 12 school in the Dayton region – also known as the ‘can anyone ever beat UConn’ region. Iowa State is hosting first and second round action at Hilton Coliseum and is making its fourth consecutive tournament appearance. The Cyclones are slated at the four spot, so if all goes according to seeds will meet up with the undefeated Huskies in the Sweet 16. Iowa State is led by Allison Lacey who has been ailing recently, missing not only the end of the regular season, but also the Big 12 tournament. With Lacey rested and healthy, this three point shooting squad could be deadly to their opponent. Their possible road to the final four would go through (13) Lehigh, (5) Virginia, (1) Connecticut, (2) Ohio State.
The Memphis region is the tournament home of 4-seeded Baylor and 6-seeded Texas. Baylor, on the top half of the bracket, is poised with a Tennessee waltz in the Sweet 16. Baylor is coached by Kim Mulkey, one of a select few that have both played (Louisiana Tech) and coached (Baylor) in the NCAA tournament and the only women’s head coach to have won a national tournament as both a player and coach. The main talk of the Bears squad revolves around freshman Brittney Griner. Griner’s size and shot blocking ability have already put her in the Big 12 record books with a single season record of 183 blocks. Along with the block party, she averages 18.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. More infamously as of late, the talk around Griner has hinged on her right hook after a nose-breaking punch to Texas Tech’s Jordan Barncastle and subsequent two-game suspension. Their potential road to the final four would go through (13) Fresno State, (5) Georgetown, (1) Tennessee, (2) Duke.
Seniors Andrea Riley and Tegan Cunningham, surrounded by the 4th-seeded Cowgirl basketball team
The crowd gathered at Boone Pickens Stadium, in eager anticipation of hearing the results and rewards of a hard-fought season. And those results came early in the evening’s festivities. ESPN started their selection show with talk of – who else – UConn and moved quickly into unveiling the first bracket, Sacramento.
To the surprise of some and the expectation of others, Oklahoma State landed at the fourth-seed facing off against Chattanooga, winners of the Southern Conference. Don’t count head coach Kurt Budke among those who were surprised – this is just what he anticipated. "The committee told us that they would reward us for what we accomplished this year," Budke noted, "and the committee kept their word."
He continued making the case for the Cowgirls’ high seed, though he needn’t feel it necessary to justify after OSU’s 23-10 season and Top 20 finish. "Just looking at pure numbers of nine Top 50 wins, six Top 25 wins; RPI was 12, strength of schedule seven. Just by going by the numbers, we were a four seed."
Who? The Aggies of Texas A&M.
Where? College Station, TX, home to the George Bush Presidential Library.
When? Sunday the 14th in Kansas City, MO.
How? 19 points from Danielle Adams led the way as A&M held on to a six-point halftime lead to win 74-67 over Oklahoma.
Upset? Yep. Texas A&M was the fourth seed and knocked out previously undefeated Nebraska in the semifinals before beating third-seeded Oklahoma.
RPI: 7
SOS: 3
I should probably let our esteemed Big XII contributor freelantz handle this, and I'm sure she'll bring a lot more in-depth analysis of the Big XII champions sometime during March Madness. But until then, I offer up this tiny morsel.
Three players score in double figures for the Aggies: junior forward Danielle Adams (16.0), senior guard Tanisha Smith (15.0), and sophomore guard Tyra White (10.7). Adams is also the team's leading rebounder at 5.7 per game (almost exactly half of them offensive!), but with five players snagging at least four boards a game, rebounding is clearly a team effort for Texas A&M. Junior guard Sydney Colson leads the team with 4.4 assists as half of a point guard platoon.
Best out of conference win is against Duke. But when you play Nebraska, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor, and Texas in conference, you don't need an out of conference resume. A rough patch in late January/early February where the Aggies lost four out of five looks bad at first look, and the Texas Tech loss still isn't great, but again: the other three of those losses were at Baylor, at home to Oklahoma State, and at Nebraska.
If you need me, I'll be shutting up about the toughness of the Big East.
As the University of Connecticut takes the court in tonight's Big East semi-final game, everyone will be talking about "the streak". With a win over Notre Dame, Geno Auriemma's squad will have 71 consecutive victories. What will be a new women's college basketball record that will break UConn's own 70-game streak from 2001-2003. You cannot deny their greatness and sheer domination in the sport of women's basketball. I even had a recent debate about how many Division I men's teams this current UConn squad could beat. Personally, I think that number would be fairly impressive.
But today I want to share the love and give some pub to the only other undefeated women's team in the 2009-10 season - the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Nebraska is known for it's prowess on the football field, or even the baseball diamond, but never on the hard-court. This year is different. This year head coach Connie Yori has taken her team to unimaginable heights - perfection. The Huskers are batting 1.000, with a 29-0 regular season record, 16-0 in one of the toughest conferences in the land.
The four seniors on the 2009-10 Cowgirl basketball team have played their last home game at Gallagher-Iba Arena, a 78-70 triumph over #13 Iowa State. After the game, each lady had a chance to address the crowd of 2,563 and say their final farewells to the supporters.
Head Coach Kurt Budke
We appreciate you all sticking with us this year. It’s been a special year so far, but we’re not done yet and we appreciate you coming out to the last one here tonight. I’m going to turn this over to my seniors real quick. I want to thank you again – we love you guys – and we’ll see hopefully some of you in Kansas City.
Andrea Riley
Well, first of all I just want to say thank you for all of the support on behalf of the seniors. It’s been a great, great journey. I don’t want to cry, so I just want to say we love you guys and we want you all to come out and support us in Kansas City because we gonna get OU!
Riley leaves Oklahoma State as the all-time leading scorer in school history and a finalist for the Nancy Leiberman Award. She has amassed 2,632 points, 683 assists, 454 rebounds and 281 steals in her four years at OSU.
