With the beginning of November comes the return of the Morning Dish here on Hoopville, a signal of the season beckoning. And as we look forward to the start of the 2017-18 season, there is a decidedly different feeling in the background right now.
It’s now been over a month since the world of college basketball was basically turned upside down around noon time one morning. When news broke that four high-major assistant coaches were among ten arrested as part of an ongoing FBI investigation, it was like a shot across the bow. And it has had me pondering quite a bit in recent times.
While I have long been a big sports fan, period (of note, I enjoyed the World Series that concluded last night), college basketball and what surrounds it had a special place in my heart when I was younger. I played baseball competitively until I was 29 as well as basketball, and I bowled quite a bit as well over the years. In fact, as a kid I was a bigger bowling fan than any other sport, including candlepin bowling, something that is basically non-existent outside of some of New England. I not only watched local candlepin bowling on TV, but always looked forward to the Professional Bowlers Tour on ABC at 3 p.m. every Saturday as well, right before ABC’s Wide World of Sports. The late Chris Schenkel and Bo Burton Jr. were fixtures on my television.
College basketball has been in my life since the mid-1980s, but it really took off in the 1990s for me. There’s just something about being on a college campus with the college game that does it for me. It helps that I was involved in the basketball program at my alma mater, so I got even more of a feel for it. The coaches I was blessed to know all helped me as well; as I’ve remarked in this space before, I have no truer friend in the world of basketball than current New Hampshire assistant Ken Dempsey, and he was there from the beginning at Northeastern. Along the way I have been fortunate to develop many relationships with coaches that have been about much more than just basketball.
The college and pro games are different. Players’ lives off the court are very different, but even on the court, the game is played differently, from the lack of zone defenses professionally to the shorter shot clock and overall pace of the game, among other things. The pro game might have better talent overall, but the college game has long been more interesting and enjoyable to watch.
All the same, it’s been no secret that the college game has issues. Indeed, college football is surely quite similar in that it’s long been widely believed that some are not playing fair, that players are getting paid under the table. There has simply been no smoking gun to nail anyone to this point.
Now, though, it looks like there has been just that, and perhaps a lot more. This could be serious. Very serious. The impact on the game could be enormous.
The operative word there is “could.” The cynics among us, and I confess to having a little of that in me, have reason to believe a few might get hit hard, but otherwise, the effect this will have will be minimal. Things will be business as usual before you know it. We’ve heard it said for years that the NCAA is so mad at Kentucky, they punished Cleveland State.
Hopefully, that won’t happen. But to be sure, college basketball is going to be different when the outcome of this is known. Either corruption will reign supreme and go unpunished, or we will see many coaches suffer the same fate Rick Pitino has, along with many eligibility questions. Regardless of the result, the game will have had a black eye.
At a time like this, one might wonder: why stay involved in the game in any way? As a member of the media, you take this along with the big hit that college sports coverage in the media took about seven months ago with the layoffs at ESPN, and you wonder what the future is. You wonder if it’s worth it to continue with a sport having a black eye and possibly much more.
The answer is that it still is, and it helps that Hoopville also runs competitive events. In fact, it’s in that part of our operation that the answer becomes clear, as well as the reason. It is very much worth it to stay involved in the college game and what is connected to it, and the reason is that this is about the kids.
Youth sports are about the kids, and we should never lose sight of that. Yes, college basketball has borderline grown men, but most of them are still not even old enough to order an alcoholic beverage. High school kids are, of course, younger.
I know this intuitively, and so do those who have done well in the world of youth sports. A high-major head coach I had a conversation with at a major recruiting event a few years ago was quick to reiterate this as well, noting that it isn’t about the college coaches, or the referees, or the event directors, or the travel team coaches. It’s about the young players.
And it’s in that vein along with others that we continue our coverage of college basketball this season. We hope you’ll bring us along for your ride.
Side Dishes
No surprises in exhibition games on Wednesday night. One stat that’s out there from them is Arizona freshman big man DeAndre Ayton going for 31 points and 10 rebounds in the Wildcats’ exhibition win. Ayton figures to be one of the best freshmen in the country this season.
A couple of the games on Wednesday night were hurricane relief games. Villanova beat Drexel in one, and Canisius traveled to Colgate and beat the Raiders, with both games being decided by double digits.
Tonight’s Menu
Exhibition games continue tonight, and below are some noteworthy ones.
- Clemson and Georgia Tech host games among ACC schools.
- Big East contender Seton Hall hosts La Salle in another hurricane relief game.
- In the Big Ten, Maryland and Minnesota host exhibition games.
- CAA favorite College of Charleston hosts Bob Jones University.
- It’s a busy night in the SEC as Auburn, Georgia, Mississippi State and Tennessee all host an exhibition game, and Florida goes to Jacksonville in a hurricane relief game.
