10/30 - Some Links, Some News

-The Mountain West and the Missouri Valley have agreed upon a challenge series, similar to the ACC/Big 10 Challenge. All 19 members in the two leagues will participate, but since the MVC has one more team, there will be nine games annually. The goal is to get a four year agreement, starting as early as 2009. This is great news for both conferences, as it would assure a quality opponent each year, and a non-conference home game every other year. For a mid-major (actually, the reason that the MWC entered into this deal is that they wanted to get their better teams guaranteed games without conceding mid-major status by entering BracketBusters), it is so tough to get non-conference home games against quality opponents. It is also great news for fans. Think about some of the match-ups: Southern Illinois vs. UNLV, Creighton vs. BYU.

-Gus Johnson, who is the best college basketball play-by-play announcer, has signed a deal with the Big Ten Network. Maybe now people might actually watch some of those games. According to Awful Announcing, he will be joined by former players Steve Smith (Michigan State) and Kendall Gill (Illinois).

-"We would have ruined college basketball". That is a direct quote from the headline of one of Tark's recent posts on his blog Shark Bytes. I knew that blog was a great idea. Read the article. Apparently, Jason Kidd, Jacque Vaughn, Ed O'Bannon (which is common knowledge, he signed there), Shawn Kemp, and Jalen Rose all wanted to go to UNLV. Can you imagine that team?

-The first ESPN/USA Today coaches poll was released.

-More Arizona news: class of '09 recruit Abdul Gaddy has decided to attend Washington and forward Jeff Withey has decided to transfer. If Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill both enter the draft this year (both are projected as first rounders), Arizona's 2009-2010 roster will be devoid of just about any high-major talent. This Arizona situation may be worse than what Tom Crean is walking into at Indiana.

-Players getting in trouble: Brandon Fields of Nevada had his shoplifting charges dismissed, but still remains suspended; Southeast Missouri State forward Calvin Williams was suspended after being arrested for possession of a controlled substance (weed), driving without a license, and driving without headlights; Ohio University sophomore Maurice Pearson was suspended indefinitely after he was found guilty for shooting a couple sorority girls with an Airsoft gun, which fires soft pellets at a low rate of speed.

-This happened a mile from where I grew up. This happened a mile from where I live now.