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ESPN USAToday coaches poll.

 

1. Kansas (8) 741 24-9 9

2. Wake Forest (12) 724 21-10 15

3. North Carolina (6) 697 19-11 22

4. Georgia Tech (1) 604 28-10 3

5. Illinois (1) 598 26-7 11

6. Syracuse 557 23-8 19

7. Connecticut 541 33-6 1

8. Oklahoma State (1) 511 31-4 4

9. Kentucky 480 27-5 8

10. Michigan State 476 18-12 NR

11. Arizona (1) 475 20-10 NR

12. Duke 403 31-6 2

13. Louisville (1) 374 20-10 NR

14. Mississippi State 365 26-4 13

15. Texas 334 25-8 10

16. Maryland 316 20-12 24

17. Pittsburgh 247 31-5 7

18. Alabama 224 20-13 17

19. North Carolina State 218 21-10 20

20. Wisconsin 216 25-7 16

21. Notre Dame 214 19-13 NR

22. Florida 160 20-11 NR

23. Memphis 131 22-8 NR

24. Washington 108 19-12 NR

25. Stanford 64 30-2 6

 

They have NC State and Bama instead of Michigan and Cincinatti that I have. They are about 4 equal teams, so I can give them that. I just can't leave off Michigan, they are gonna be good, Horton is a stud.

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don't count on it.

 

Roy is a choker, just call him Larussa.

 

 

The man lost a chance to win with a team of Pierce/Lafrentz/Vaughn/Pollard.

 

Dean Smith didn't win a championship with Vince Carter, Ed Cota, Shammond Williams, Antawn Jamison, Brenden Haywood in the late 90's, and Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, Jeff McCinnis, and Shammond Williams in the mid 90's.

 

Jim Boeheim and Gary Williams were known as chokers until 3 years ago also. I know you are still bitter for some reason, but don't let it blind you forever. I know you are angry for Roy leaving Kansas, but show some anger at Self for leaving Illinois, Roy gave 15 years of his life to Kansas, I don't see why you need to trash him constantly.

 

By the way, how the hell does a coach choke? Does he forget how to coach? Does he change his game planning specifically for the games he chokes in? Should be go out onto the court and play the games for the players? Does he teach his players to choke? Did Roy choke enough in practice that it rubbed off on Hinrich and Collison? Every year that Roy was in the tourney, and it was every year, did he all the sudden get nervous and crap his pants leading his players to forget the gameplan?

 

Or maybe did they just get outplayed? Dean Smith's teams played in 11 final fours and only came away with 2 championships. But he's a choker also right?

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This is about Dick Vitale.

 

Very old but funny.

 

Day in the Life of Dick Vitale

 

 

5:30 am: Alarm clock goes off with the sounds of Duke's fight song. Vitale wakes up happy, ready to face another day.

 

5:35 am: Vitale enters the shower and uses Blue Devil Blue bar of soap while going over his to-do list mentally. Suddenly, his wife hears him blurt out, "It's a travesty that no one has hired Wojo yet! He's gonna be awesome babeee!!!" She wonders why she ever said "I do" 80 years ago.

 

6:00 am: Turns on ESPN to find SportsCenter replaying for the two hundredth time of the morning. When Duke's game isn't the first highlight shown, Vitale throws his bowl of Coach K Krunch at the screen. He sees the teams and yells something about "That damn West Coast bias"...Iowa vs. Missouri is the highlight being shown.

 

6:03 am: Vitale calls ESPN's employee direct line to complain about the lack of respect Duke is being shown during the broadcast. The producer tells him that because Duke beat Portland (not the Trail Blazers, mind you, but Portland U.) by 74, no one in the production meeting wanted that game to lead in with. Vitale threatens a boycott of Stuart Scott, the current anchor on air, and UNC alum. The producer laughs.

 

6:45 am: Vitale is on the phone to Coach K's secretary...at home. "Mr. Vitale," She says. "I don't go to work until 8 o'clock, please wait until I'm in the office. Coach K won't be in until 10 either. Stop calling me!" Vitale responds that he must have an exclusive interview with The Almighty, er, Coach K as soon as possible! He needs his opinion on what to wear to that night's game.

 

8:30 am: Vitale plays tennis with Grant Hill's dad and loses six-love, six-love. Afterwards, Vitale grabs the sweat-soaked towel Hill used and runs off with it. Later, his wife finds it in the closet next to the ones from Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Elton Brand and Corey Maggette's AAU coach. She calls her divorce lawyer...again.

 

10:15 am: Dick is doing an interview with ESPNews' Michael Kim about the young college basketball season. Kim asks him about the surprising Arizona Wildcats and their two top-five wins from last week.

 

"That's right, Michael, you heard it here first, Duke's Jason Williams is the best point guard in the history of basketball. Not just college basketball, but all of basketball at every level!!!"

 

Kim sighs and asks Vitale who his early favorite to win the Big XII is. "Personally Michael, I think it's an M&Mer, a mismatch babee, it's no contest. Duke could beat the Bulls right now. I know some of you out there in America are going to laugh at me, but I really think the two best teams in the NBA are the Lakers and Duke."

 

ESPNews immediately cuts to commercial.

 

1:30 pm: Vitale has lunch with new-signed Duke recruit Sean Dockery. Dockery thanks Vitale for helping him pass his ACT and asks him what he thought of "his boy Will Bynum" the other night in New York City.

 

"Never heard of him." Vitale says.

 

3:45 pm: Vitale is on the phone with Coach K asking if he can give the team a pre-game pep talk.

 

"But Dick, we're just playing Davidson, the kids will be fine."

 

Vitale then literally begs Krzyzewski to let him sit on the bench next to Shane Battier.

 

"He's in the NBA, Dick. Plays down in Memphis now, doing quite well as a matter of fact, had 30 last night."

 

"Oh," Vitale says. "Do you have his number?"

 

4:57 pm: Minutes before he is to be on the air along with College Basketball 2Night's analyst, Jay Bilas, Vitale is despondent.

 

"What's the matter Dickie V?" Bilas asks.

 

"The Network just called. They're sending me out west again. I have to cover the LSU-Tennessee game in Baton Rouge next week."

 

"Dick, that's not even close to the west. It's right off the mighty Mississip-"

 

"I know...I hate the Pacific Ocean."

 

6:10 pm: Tip-off of the game Vitale is covering: UConn vs. Fairfield (Why this game is on ESPN nation-wide is unknown to 99.3% of the country). The Huskies win the tap.

 

Vitale: "Duke should cut the nets down once again this March in the Georgia Dome, it's gonna be repeat city, babee!"

 

By mentioning Duke in a non-Duke game in the first 0.3 seconds, Vitale bests his own World Record by nearly a full second! His broadcast partner, Brad Nessler, congratulates him.

 

8:15 pm: UConn wins 102-60 behind sophomore phenom Caron Butler's quadruple-double. He scores 55, grabs 17 boards, dishes out 11 assists and records 11 steals as well. Many around the nation are calling it one of the best all-around single game performances they've ever seen. Nessler asks Vitale his opinion on Butler's game.

 

"When you break it down, it becomes clear that Jason Williams and Chris Duhon of Duke are far and away the greatest backcourt in history, babee! This Butler kid is nothing compared to the Super Soph Duhon! I saw a game last year where Duhon scored 14 points! He was flat out awesome babee!"

 

8:22 pm: Vitale is forced to go on-court to interview Butler. The Q&A goes like this:

 

Vitale: I'm here with Caron Butler, who shocked the nation by not signing with Duke outta high school. Caron, what is your take on Shane Battier?

 

Butler (stunned): "Uh, he was a great player last year. I have a lot of respect for his game."

 

Vitale: "Me too. Brad, back to you."

 

9:57 pm: Vitale watches the last minutes of Duke's 129-52 victory over a helpless Davidson club at the ESPNZone in Manhattan. Someone in the restaurant tells Vitale to shut up after he screams when Duke backup guard Andre Buckner scores on a layup.

 

"You're the most biased person alive, Dukie V!" the man yells. "You are the reason everyone outside of Durham HATES Duke, because you never shut up about them!"

 

Vitale leaves the restaurant, but not before taunting the crowd with chants of "Who's your daddy, Battier!" a la the Cameron Crazies.

 

No one gets it.

 

11:00 pm: Vitale is back home, watching SportsCenter. When Duke is not the first highlight shown, he once again calls the studio in Bristol, CT.

 

"Dick," the producer says. "Duke won by 77, no one cares! Caron Butler had one of the best games ever, Michael Jordan broke his legs, Barry Bonds AND Jason Giambi signed with the Yankees and Arizona beat another top-five team. Those are our lead stories!"

 

Vitale responds angrily. "Nobody cares about those things! Michael Dunleavy and Carlos Boozer both dunked tonight...with authority babee! I heard Coach K even played Casey Sanders and Nick Horvath together tonight! These are important things the country must know about! And how about the suit little Wojo was wearing? If he's not head coach material I don't know who is! And speaking of suits, get that Stuart Scott off the air, he's a Tar Heel babee! We hate those Chapel Hill guys. ...Hello?"

 

All he hears is: "If you'd like to make a call, please hang up or try the number again."

 

11:59 pm: Duke is the last highlight shown, and now Vitale can go to bed. He brushes his teeth with the 1992 Final Four toothbrush Thomas Hill used, flosses with the same strand Trajan Langdon used before the losing the '99 championship game and prays to his shrine of Battier.

 

All he asks for is that Duke gets respect around the country and that no one, especially ESPN, sends him out to the West Coast to do a game. Because he hates going to Nebraska.

 

He gets into bed and thinks about the next day. Someone named UCLA is playing against someone named Stanford.

 

"Hmm," he thinks. "Never heard of 'em

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BIG TEN BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY

Conference looks at adding games

By Michael Pointer

November 1, 2004

 

CHICAGO -- Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said during the conference's basketball media day Sunday the league will study changes to its regular-season and postseason tournament schedules after the 2004-05 season.

 

Among the options to be considered: Playing an 18- or 20-game conference schedule instead of the current 16, and having a tourney format in which teams earn their way into the field. All 11 teams currently participate.

 

"Some people thought it might put more spice into the regular season," Delany said. "March (and the NCAA tournament) has come to dominate the sport. Conference races have become more about seeding and positioning.

 

"Athletic directors are thinking, 'How will this make the regular-season games more relevant than they are now?' "

 

Chicago is hosting the men's Big Ten tournament in 2005. It returns to Indianapolis in '06 and Chicago the following year.

 

Delany said Big Ten officials would like to receive an offer from one of those cities that would convince them to make it the permanent site.

 

"We've had experience with the two and they've been satisfactory," he said. "But I want to develop it to where it's a hard sellout and people get used to where it's at."

 

Big Ten teams currently play six conference rivals twice during the regular season and four others once, but traditionalists have called for a full round-robin schedule, which would consist of 20 games. The conference has used the 16-game schedule since the 1997-98 season.

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I'd lower those expectations....... I am guessing it is going to be another long year for the Hoosiers.

Nah....It's not going to be bad year; they'll be in the top half of the Big Ten and be back in the tourney. However, this is really only the beginning. I think 05-06 is the year that we're going to have some serious fun.

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Nah....It's not going to be bad year; they'll be in the top half of the Big Ten and be back in the tourney.  However, this is really only the beginning.  I think 05-06 is the year that we're going to have some serious fun.

I hope you are right, but color me skeptical until I see something showing me that on the court. My guess is we are looking at 17-14 or something like that. To me, that is a long year for IU basketball.

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This year is Illinois' year...hopefully.

 

I think IU could be real solid in 05-06 as well if the young guys take their lumps now and learn what it's like to play in the Big Ten and against some tough non conference foes.

 

17-14 is a long year by IU standards, all things considered. It's essentially a rebuilding year, something that IU doesn't like to hear.

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Bracey's not staying, and I honestly don't think thats going to hurt us either.

I agree...... until I see differently, I believe Bracey is as much a part of the problem as anyone. He's selfish and Davis allows it. Until Davis changes how he treats his "boys", IU is going to continue to have problems. Trust me, I this.

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Not many here care but UNC snuck by Winston-Salem State in their first exhibition game 113-54. Jawad Williams and Rashad McCants both had 20 plus, Marvin Williams had 8 points, but Quentin Thomas was actually the better freshmen out there today. Big Damion Grant dominated defensively with 4 blocks in 8 minutes of play, he's running the floor great. 10 guys for UNC played today, all but Melvin Scott and Wes Miller played well. Defense was noticably improved from last year, lots of great on the ball defense leading to easy fastbreak oppurtunities. This is going to be a fun year :-).

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