Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. Conference tournament play is upon us, which gives us plenty to talk about, but unfortunately an off-court matter is taking priority.
We start by talking about the reports that came out last Friday regarding the FBI investigation into corruption and bribery in college basketball. A Yahoo! Sports exclusive, along with a report by ESPN late in the evening, blew the doors off of this after there had been much speculation about the extent of this. In particular, Arizona head coach Sean Miller appears to have an uncertain future, which we discuss along with some of the ethical matters involved from a journalistic and FBI standpoint.
As we finally get to on-court matters, we look at a great piece of history that has just been made. Kansas wrapped up its 14th straight Big 12 regular season title, beating the record for consecutive regular season conference titles set previously by John Wooden’s great UCLA teams. It is a remarkable streak, to be sure, especially considering the strength of the Big 12 in recent years, as well as the Jayhawks looking quite vulnerable at times this year.
Next, we talk about Notre Dame getting Bonzie Colson back from injury, a great development for the Fighting Irish. Colson was playing like a national Player of the Year candidate before a left foot fracture he suffered in practice, and without him and later a couple of other players, the Fighting Irish struggled for a lot of that time. If the Fighting Irish make a run in the ACC Tournament, they become a very interesting team for the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee to evaluate.
Conference tournament play has begun, and already we had a couple of surprises in the Northeast Conference Tournament on Wednesday. We talk about that and early Big Ten Tournament action as well, then look ahead to some of the others that start soon.
Finally, we look ahead to more conference tournament action, and also note that there is now talk that Gonzaga could leave the West Coast Conference for the Mountain West.
We hope you enjoy the podcast, and be sure to share it with your fellow college basketball fans. We look forward to returning with more college basketball talk next week.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
