8/14 - Some Links, Some News

-We've been talking a lot recently (here, here, and here) about the trend of universities renting hiring the AAU coach, or in some cases the father, of a big time recruit in order to get him to attend the school. These schools can only hope that it works out as well for them as it did for Kansas. The Jayhawks hired Mario Chalmers fathers, Ronnie Chalmers, in order to land the PG. Well, they did, and he ended up hitting maybe the biggest shot in KU basketball history en route to a national title. But now that Mario has moved on to the Miami Heat, Ronnie has resigned as director of basketball operations.

I don't know about anyone else, but I refuse to believe that hiring the parent or AAU coach of an athlete in order to get them to attend the school is ethical. I guess Ronnie Chalmers was somewhat qualified (he was a high school coach), but to me, this trend is just all sorts of wrong. It is how Memphis landed DaJuan Wagner (Milt Wagner, father), how Kansas State landed Michael Beasley (Dalonte Hill, coach), and now it looks like it is how Baylor will may land John Wall.

-More Jayhawk news. Remember during the draft, when there were reports that Darrel Arthur's grades were tampered with during high school? Well, Arthur and the South Oak Cliff School District have both been cleared of any wrong doing by the Superintendant's Office of Personal Responsibility.

-I've never actually seen film of Pistol playing before, but after watching this video, I'm convinced that he would have killed it on the And 1 mixtape tour.

-Coach K is a pretty surly dude. Check out his reaction to a reporters question about whether the US team dunking so much against China was showing off?

"There was no showing off," he said with an edge in his voice. "You dunk when you have to dunk. They have 7-footers. If you don’t take it hard, Yao would block it. He did block one. … I don’t know your definition of showing off, to me that’s hard basketball. I thought we played very hard. I thought we took it to the basket hard. Don’t confuse hard with showing off."

He then glared at the person who asked the question, a reporter with an accent. And he said: "Maybe it’s a difference in our languages. Maybe in your language playing hard means showing off."

It wasn't even that bad of a question.

-You guys remember Todd Bozeman? He's the old coach of Cal that was suspended for 8 years because of recruiting violations(admitting to paying a recruits parents $30,000). I have no idea if this is real (I'm assuming that it is) but Bozeman now has a blog. He's now the coach at Morgan State. And although his blog is pretty boring, I don't know if I've heard of another coach or player as notable as he is starting a blog on their on accord (he's on blogger as well).

-You want to know if you are can be a D1 coach? Take the test right here.

-In other coaching news, it looks like Jim Calhoun has beaten cancer for the third time and skin cancer for the second time. It sounds like he will be back at full strength.

-A couple of great reads. Gary Parrish writes about Milton Jennings, a top 10 recruit committed to Clemson who grew up with a very tough childhood but turned his life around and is now a great student as well. Dana O'Neil (I know, I know, I link to just about all of her columns) wrote a great piece on IUPUI's trip to Peru to give shoes to the poor.

-Some last tidbits. The field for the Jimmy V Classic has been announced: West Virginia will play Davidson, and Texas will take on Villanova. Keon Lawrence, a guard who averaged 11 ppg as a sophomore last year at Missouri, has announced that he is transferring to Seton Hall. He will be applying for an NCAA hardship ruling (two members of his immediate family are ill and he wants to play close to them) which, if granted, will mean he does not have to sit out the required one year for transferring. Chace Stanback, who played last season at UCLA, has decided to transfer to UNLV.