FIVE MO' THINGS, 2/5/13
1) Signing Day is tomorrow. It's a huge day for college sports programs, fans of college sports programs, and obviously, successful high school athletes and their families.
The amount of attention and coverage devoted to signing day is at an all-time high, most of which is very informative, and some of which is sorta creepy. There are adults who know way too much about the lives of 15 year-old basketball players.
The creepiest part of signing day is when otherwise normal people send Tweets to high school kids trying to convince them to attend their favorite college, then berate them and cuss them out when they decide to go elsewhere.
Please don't do that.
Also, our annual pledge: If any area high school has academic signing day ceremonies similar to the ceremonies where athletes sign letters of intent (the best part of signing day, by the way), we will post the photo on the blog and read the names on the air. Send them here.
2) Paul Daugherty wrote about Scott Rolen, and I thought he did a solid job of portraying how difficult the decision about whether to retire has to be. OK, so it's not like when he kisses his kids goodbye and walks out of his front door that he's going off to war, but for a guy whose priorities seem to be in order, I'm sure this is a tough choice for him. And it's why we should let him make it on his own timetable.
3) Mick Cronin has signed too many guys. And that means someone on the has to go. If next year's class, which recruiting "experts" seem to be high on, has better players than what the Bearcats have now, we'll be all too happy to make an incumbent player expendable. And yes, I can name one or two players I'd prefer to not see play anymore.
But there's a problem highlighted here, and it's far from a UC issue. Coaches can find replacements for players already under scholarship and run them out. That might not be a big deal to you and I as fans, but for a business (yes, business) that laughably claims to have the best interests of the student-athletes in mind, the practice of coaches running kids out simply because another new player might be better doesn't seem to really serve the kids, now does it?
Mind you, this isn't exclusive to UC, and we have no idea what Mick and his coaching staff know about the composition of next year's team and what variables will affect it. There are probably one or two players who would be better served by playing elsewhere and the pressure to win demands that roster upgrades trump everything and nearly every school.
But if the players have little mobility, should the schools have the flexibility to not renew scholarships simply because a newer player might be better. Perhaps a player isn't a kid athletically, but what if he's getting it done academically and finding success within a specific program at his school? Maybe he's developed relationships at that school he doesn't want to relinquish. The system punishes players if they decide one place isn't a good fit, but if someone else decides for them that they don't fit, the system also punishes them?
That doesn't work.
4) Basketball in the Hoosier State. IU is ranked number one again. Butler will probably win eight or nine more flukey games this season. And the Indiana Pacers are the best NBA team that no one continues to talk about. They've won 14 in a row at home after beating the Bulls last night. They're third in the East, and as stingy defensively as anyone in the game. While I'm no Indy fan, I'd love to see them add a piece as Bob Kravitz implores them to, just to make the Eastern Conference all the more interesting.
5) Your "Hit Play, Turn Up, And Walk Away" video of the day is a commercial for a high school hockey team. I'll be singing this in our hallways for weeks....
We can barely crank out video blogs yet these high school kids are making full-length commercials. I'll crank out another blog in advance of today's radio show. Catch us today on ESPN1530 starting at 3:04. Be at the Holy Grail for our UC watch party tomorrow. I'll have some UC/Villanova tickets to give away, in additon to some other stuff....
