Starting with the local teams....
Milwaukee Bucks - Website rumors swirled all day yesterday, with many claiming that Scott Skiles had been fired by the Milwaukee Bucks, but by late afternoon, it was proven that rumors is all that they were. The JS' Charles Gardner tweeted yesterday afternoon confirming that the Bucks would be keeping Scott Skiles and John Hammond for another year. So - John Hammond, what will you do this off season? Free agents? Trades? Draft? It is in his hands and he is more than capable, but can he pull it off? Time will tell.
Milwaukee Panthers - Why? Why, why, why? Why would Dave Begel write a story for OnMilwaukee.com suggesting that UWM get rid of their athletic program? This guy is out of touch.
This comes only days after Michael Hunt's JS story appeared to be lifted directly from one of Jimmy Lemke's pieces. Today Jimmy has a monster podcast on the marketing of Milwaukee Panther Basketball.
Listen up Milwaukee media....
If you don't like Milwaukee Panthers Athletics (Begel) then just shut up. If you don't want to cover Milwaukee Panther Athletics (Hunt) then instead of taking someone else's work, just don't write about them.
Now, to the University - It was reported that you would assemble a search committee to find a new athletic director in the coming weeks. Really? The coming weeks? As long as you took to make the decision to get rid of Costello, I would think that you had already had a game plan. Baseball season is in full swing. Basketball recruiting is in full swing. Soccer teams need coaches. In a few weeks? How about in a few hours? A search for a new AD takes time, and needs to begin YESTERDAY!
Marquette Golden Eagles - Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the ground breaking for the Al McGuire Center. It also marked the passing of the legendary Frank Zummach at 101 years old. Zummach was quite a figure in Wisconsin sports history, and was full of energy and wit. He will be missed.
Paint Touches' Mark Strottman dug up a pretty cool video of Jae Crowder working out in preparation of the NBA Draft....
Preps - Mark Miller of WisHoops.net has been busy lately, and now he has out his final rankings for the class of 2012(ppv). No surprise that Wisconsin recruit Sam Dekker is #1, but with one player headed to prep school and another the Juco route, when all is said and done, there could be 16 players from Wisconsin to play D1 ball out of this class. And the 2013 class is regarded as a better class? It is time high school basketball in this state gets the respect they deserve.
If he sticks with his previous timeline, I would Mark's 2013 rankings will be out soon.
Around the nation.....
I don't care if you love or hate Michigan basketball, you have to be pulling for this kid. Austin Hatch has been fighting for his life after a plane crash that killed his father and step mother left him in a coma. That was after having lost his mother and two siblings. He has no immediate family members left, but finally spoke to the media for the first time, and vows to still play for Michigan one day.
You may have seen that Michigan State basketball player Brandon Wood was arrested in Chicago after a late night argument ended with him striking an 18 year old girl. There are so many things wrong with this story. First off, he was with two other men, one being his father. Ok, who is out hitting on 18 year old women at 3:00am with their dad? Also, the 18 year old girl was with friends staying at her cousin's house. Why is an 18 year old out at the bars until 3:00am? And why, when staying at her cousin's house, does she bring guys back at 3:00 am? And finally, the hero of the night, 32 year old homeowner Alison Soria, who fought Wood off and called the police. So.... you may have seen the story, but have you seen Alison Soria? Wow. I mean, WOW!
So, Marquette's Buzz Williams passed on SMU, and SMU passed on Tony Benford in favor of Larry Brown and World Wide Wes. Maybe that was a good thing? Not only did Brown cause a huge stir when he cut four players including starting point guard Jeremiah Samarrippas, telling him he wasn't good enough to play for him. Well, the players are already coming in as they are expected to land Josiah Turner. So how is SMU going to pay for all of this? The SMU athletic department has racked up $113 million in debt and that number is rising!!
The NCAA has been criticized often for doing things that simply are not in the best interest of the student athlete. Well, this one takes the cake. No, I do not like Notre Dame, but the NCAA denied a 6th year of eligibility to Tim Abromaitis. Abromaitis was suspended for the first four games last year because he appeared in two exhibition games the previous year(for the record, that was previously allowed). So he returned to action in game 5, and blew his knee in game 6. That is still under the maximum allowed, so why did the NCAA approve him? They guy is an Academic All-American. He is in fact, a "student athlete". Trevor Mbakwe was granted a 6th year when he missed a year due to legal troubles, but Abromaitis is denied? Come on NCAA, that is absurd!
Amare Stoudemire - when Charles Barkley calls you stupid? Well, that means you are pretty freaking stupid.
The snack that smiles back - Dwyane Wade has partnered with Goldfish to write a blog about being a single parent. With all of the crap out there with NBA players having more kids than they can count, it is good to see that one of the biggest stars has the approach that he does.
Photo of the day..... Yep - Brandon Jennings gets a tat for a place that helped make him who he is today, Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles....
Video of the day....This is one game of shirts vs skins that I want to part of....