At least he played basketball. I'd be more upset that they put in a bunch of executives and announcers.

No controversy in UConn vs Alabama.

Congrats to the Huskies.

A blast from the past.

Hogs basketball are looking for a new HC. I read the below this morning and said, hmmm name sounds familiar.

Glad he's being considered but don't really know how good he'll be, his recent UALR record isn't that impressive. Also, didn't know he was a HC for the Raptors & Wizards pre-2001. I seem to recall his nickname was "skywalker".

Jans is a great coach, but awful human being.

Will Wade would probably make the most sense. He's happy to wait out the right offer though and wanted $4 mil per year from WVU. He's like making a deal with the devil. There's a lot going on that you have to be prepared to deal with.

Amir Abur-Rahim is another guy that should get consideration there.

Congrats to South Carolina and the perfect season.

They were impressive for sure.

Calipari to Arkansas. Wow.

Some pretty heavy smoke suggesting that Calipari is deep in negotiations for the Arkansas job. I guess it would be a mutual parting.

Gonna cause a shockwave to see who ends up at UK. I’d guess Hurley will be their first call.

Nice! Calipari & Petrino and the Hogs backed with NIL money from Waltons, Jerry Jones and Mr. Tyson. The $ for Calipari must be pretty nice.

How did it happen? Kentucky's Calipari is the new Arkansas coach - ESPN

It's less than at UK.

He just knew he had to get out on his terms. Apparently expressed interest in Ohio State too.

As someone here in Lexington said - he finally read the room.

The rumor that I heard was that Cal was asking Ohio State for more NIL money than they spent on football last year. That was pretty much the end of that conversation.

Edit: Cal was asking for far more per player budget for NIL than the football per player amount. Something like 4 - 1. At Ohio State. I'm sure there was laughter.

Who knows if this works out for UK in the short-term, but this seems like a good set of circumstances for them. Much of the fanbase wanted Cal gone - not just for the multiple underperforming teams, but the way he handled criticism was getting pretty tiring. Even after the Oakland loss, basically throwing the team under the bus and never taking any responsibility for the lack of Xs and Os. Now, they are out from underneath a $33M buyout.

Barnhardt looks pretty bad, though. Just backed Cal, did a big interview with him, and then it appears he was kicking the tires at multiple schools to get out.

Conventional wisdom sounds like they make a run at Hurley and Billy Donovan, then work down the list. Nate Oats? Take a run at Scott Drew - would be a great get plus a slap in the face to Louisville? They just have to avoid a Billy Gillispie situation. I assume that means Bob Huggins is a no-go, lol.

Oh and of course I forgot the funniest option - Rick Pitino.

He was the king of the 1 and done era but now that everyone is paying players his X's and O's are being exposed. He's never been strong there, but his dribble drive offense did a great job of showcasing the 1 and dones and helped prep them for the next level.

He's not a good coach for the portal/NIL era. He'll win enough to keep most places happy, but not at Kentucky or any other blue blood with national title expectations.

Huggs has been convinced he's getting nearly every open job this off-season and his family is trying to get him to retire. No one is calling.

It feels like Calipari and Pitino have been coaching forever.

I read that Tre Mitchell (a pretty good, but not great college basketball player for Kentucky) has played for 4 schools in the past 4 years and all 4 coaches have lost their jobs within a year of him leaving:

UMASS - Matt McCall
Texas - Chris Beard
WVU - Bob Huggins
Kentucky - John Calipari

The last three all lost or changed their jobs fairly unexpectedly. McCall made it into the next season, but was fired before the end of the year.

Yeah, I don't see this as a good move for Arkansas. He's a pretty bad in-game coach who relied on huge talent advantages over the years. Not sure he's going to get that advantage at Arkansas like he had at Kentucky.

Musselman is a much better coach.

The NIL budget bump says that might not be so true (assuming he's willing to use it)

He had 2 lottery picks on his Kentucky team this year (both might go top 5). Probably 5 guys altogether who will be NBA players on that team. Getting talent isn't the issue at Kentucky. They have more raw talent than any team in the country.

Yep. That's been the bone of contention with fans. He can't coach. This team has had bad 3 point D for the entirety of the year. Beginning in November. They didn't or couldn't fix it. It's why they went out in the first round. They have talent, but no one to coach them.

Problem is that word "raw". In the bought & paid for professional NCAA of today, the one & dones are gonna cut it, even less so against guys playing their 5th or 6th year of hoops for their 3rd or 4th team.

That's how he chose to construct his team. There was nothing stopping him from grabbing some solid juniors and seniors in the portal to round out the roster. Or just recruiting guys who wouldn't be 1-and-done. His best player this year was a Senior too.

UConn is doing it with young talented players too. They just have a vastly superior head coach. If you gave Hurley that Kentucky team, they'd be in the Final Four.

My first calls would be to Hurley, Drew, and Oats. After that it gets dicey. Pearl would probably take the job right now if they would agree to making his son HCIW. That's the hang up he's having with Auburn right now on an extension.

I think all 3 of them would be upgrades. Hurley with Kentucky backing would be scary.

I think Oats is the most realistic. Could move from FB school to basketball school, $18M buyout but compared to what UK just saved with Cal, almost a bargain?

No info yet on the incentives.

Sources - John Calipari finalizing 5-year deal with Arkansas - ESPN

Yeah I don't see Hurley leaving UConn but with Kentucky he at least takes the call. Drew hasn't shown any interest in leaving Baylor. He knows he has it good there. Oats is a hell of a coach and could improve his situation a great deal jumping over to Kentucky.

I have always considered there to be six NCAA “blue bloods:” UCLA, Kentucky, Kansas, UNC, Duke, and Indiana, but I think UConn now having six titles, with 3 different head coaches, has to put them ahead of Indiana and (hot take) maybe even Duke at this point. At least until Duke proves they can win a title without Coach K

Down goes Foul Ming, so good on UConn I reckon.

UConn was good enough to let Edey get his without changing up their approach too much. As I said earlier, these teams that don't have the talent level of UConn would have been better off just letting him eat in the paint, trapping their guards, pressure them, and try to get them out of their style of play. Giving heavy minutes to the last big on your bench because your other guys got in foul trouble in the first half isn't a winning strategy.

Edey was 15-25 for 37 points and 10 boards, but UConn bigs mostly stayed out of foul trouble. Clingan had 4 fouls, but still played 31 minutes.

Gotta give Edey his props on conditioning and avoiding fouls. Being 300 lbs and playing like 95% of the teams’ minutes in these high stress games is impressive to me.

My vote is Duke & Indiana stays.

Let's just go ahead and make it 7 blue bloods.

Oats has apparently publicly stated he's not leaving Alabama.

UConn's offense was actually a beautiful thing to watch. They were simply playing at a higher level than anyone else in the country.

Apologies to Cuervo, but watching Purdue get crushed last night felt good. I may never get to see IU win another championship, but at least I didn’t have to watch Purdue win. And it was nice that the outcome was never in doubt.

I was in a pretty big bracket pool. $4500 total. I came in second for just over 1k. It was actually a tie so it came down to final score. The guy who won did so easily. I picked 70-63 so was two points off. The other guy said 97-93!!! I likely take second anyway but man he made it easy.

March Madness is still the best event in sports.

You get the combination of the best team winning in the end, but the fun of a total Cinderella who shouldn't have even made the tournament making the Final Four.

Nothing else gives you that mix.

I picked Connecticut to win it all, but I was behind everyone else who did :-)

Congrats :)

So I finished 11,565,400 in ESPN's Men's Bracket Challenge-yeah me? I did much better in the ladies bracket where I picked mostly chalk because there still seems to not be a lot of parity there yet.

yeah. You had to have both teams to have any hope.

I won the office pool. A cool $80!

Regarding Calipari, it seems awfully strange that news broke about 36 hours ago and it's still not confirmed/done. I guess he's dotting i's/crossing t's to make sure all of the commitments (NIL, etc) are documented. Still seems like it is taking longer than you'd expect given how long the news has been out.

My conspiracy mind wonders if UK leaked it so that he doesn't back out.

After getting UConn's NCAA tournament win correct in my bracket, I end up at 75.6% percentile (like 7.5 millionth place) in the ESPN bracket stuff.
That's despite the fact that Uconn was my only correct pick in the final four AND in the elite eight.

My women's, uh, not good. My last correct pick there was Iowa in the E8. Finished in the 23rd percentile, quite possibly my worst women's bracket ever I think.

I had iowa over SC so i was sitting pretty good there had iowa won.

Nah, having seen IU/Purdue from the other side I get it. In a way though, not having the outcome ever in doubt was easier on my nerves. UCONN was the better team so it doesn't feel as bad. (I don't know if my son shares that line of thought, haven't talked to him yet.)

The fact that it was UCONN though is a bit annoying; despite visiting there in Younger Kid's round of college visits, I've never had a positive view of any of their teams (to put it nicely). And to add a Hurley to that mix... :puke:

Yep. I can understand that. I tend to root against the UConn teams too.

And I get the Hurley thing too. The Duke win over IU in 1992 is still the game that I would most like to reverse the outcome on. So Hurleys are not my favorite people either.

The Athletic has Duke in and Indiana out...

College basketball program tiers: From blue bloods like Duke (and UConn!) on down - The Athletic

Watched Cal's goodbye to BBN. Pretty solid, and I think he's right - it's time for a new voice.

It appears they've set their sights on Scott Drew. Not only hasn't he denied it, sources say he's in talks. It would be a double win for UK if they not only got a national championship-winning coach but one who publicly turned down Louisville 2 weeks ago.

The local coverage of Cal leaving is expected, of course, but the coverage today of his arrival and introduction at Arkansas is weird. It's like breaking up with a GF you thought you'd marry but know you're probably better off without, yet stalking her social media to see who she's with.

Sounds like Mark Pope is gonna be the choice.

an interesting choice. he did do a great job bringing BYU into the Big 12.

I figure Pope will be what gets Barnhart fired.

Weakest resume of any UK hire in 50 years, that'll turn into a short leash pretty quickly I imagine.

Yeah, reaction hasn't been good. In his defense, the fanbase still thinks they should be able to hire whoever they want and don't understand how much NIL, the portal and rising salaries even at lesser schools level the playing field somewhat. Even Hurley said it - at some point, the extra few million dollars is not a motivating factor.

Maybe Donovan was a possibility? But you're banking on the Bulls getting knocked out of the playoffs middle of next week AND you're putting all your chips in on a guy who's been out of college so long, the portal and NIL were nothing more than a 1950s article on what life in 2000 would be like. Could (or would he want to) make that adjustment?

On another note, this tweet was making the rounds among UK fans last night. I wonder if this guy has lottery numbers for tonight. From January 2023:

I can already predict the headlines:

“Kentucky pursues Scott Drew”

“Scott Drew signs lifetime contract with Baylor”

“Kentucky has reached out to Billy Donovan”

“Kentucky set to announce Mark Pope as next head coach”

— B3 (@ML_BBN) January 12, 2023

Nice of him.


https://x.com/barstoolsports/status/1779692531791409238

UK fans seemed to rally around Mark Pope with a pretty crazy introductory presser in front of thousands of fans. They pulled out all the stops with older players and several members of the 1996 championship team there, including Jeff Sheppard.

I feel pretty bad for Reed Sheppard from the standpoint that whether or not he goes pro has very little to do with who's coaching UK and more to do with his projected spot. But given that his dad was Pope's roommate, if he goes pro, you know people are going to treat that as a referendum on whether Pope can handle the job.

He said all the right things yesterday, although I thought the whole thing leaned a little too much into nostalgia (coming from someone who moved to the Lexington area less than 20 years ago). I told my wife - I hope that wasn't the highlight of his tenure at UK.

Zion playing out of his mind for 45 minutes, scoring 40 points, and leaving the game tied against the Lakers with 3 minutes to go to an apparently injury no one saw or could tell happened (apparently a hamstring?), and then watching his team lose, seems like a pretty accurate summation of the Zion Williamson Experience.

oof. Jontay Porter banned for life from the NBA for betting on games. Apparently he hid an injury from the team, but told a bettor who laid a big parlay on him underperforming the next game.

So have I. Well I was not banned for betting on games.

Klay thompson put up 0 points in an elimination game…that’s wild.

I thought Mark Pope was the former coach of Yale for the past few days. I guess I forgot what the BYU logo was.

Probably another all time bad take, but if this Chicago team gets to the playoffs they could give the Celtics trouble.

The Celtics have destroyed them in each game this season and the Bulls will likely be without Caruso. Bulls would be lucky to get a gentleman's sweep out of it.

Oh if Caruso is out, there’s no hope. Bulls might not even beat the gimpy Heat without him.

Holy shit that Nuggets game!

No idea how good Knox is but always happy to get a 5-star prospect!

Younger brother of Kevin Knox, former Cat of course.

So... the Pacers/Bucks playoff game on NBA TV is blocked in my area? WTF?

Blackout restrictions apply to live game games on NBA TV for your local NBA team. That means Bucks games on NBA TV aren't available live in Milwaukee.

Blacked-out games will be available for viewing after the game has ended. You can find them in the NBA League Pass Archives.

Basically it's a way to force local market viewers to watch the local/regional provider (in this case Bally)

I understand blackout restrictions. Applying them to postseason is ridiculous. I don't even have a local provider to watch even if I wanted to. Of course, I suppose they could be showing games on Peacock or Paramount+, so it achieves the same purpose of making sure as few people watch as possible!

The local coverage AND the national partners have to have some protection against a league entity in order to (somewhat) provide value for the absurd prices they pay the league.

NONE of the rules have anything to do with fans (of any team) whatsoever, never have. These aren't sports leagues, they're TV content providers.

I thought it was real smart to not call a timeout. Lakers looked so gassed at the end and giving them a breather would have only helped them. Lakers weren't ready for the elevation.

I get all of that. It just seems that once you get into the postseason, local rules sgould no longer matter when it's a nationally televised playoff game. The local blackout rules are pretty ridiculous anyway. I live hours from 3 different teams (Memphis, Cleveland and Indy) that I'm "blacked out" for - even though I have a streaming service from which I can't even purchase the local channel to watch if I wanted.

I get all of that. It just seems that once you get into the postseason, local rules should no longer matter when it's a nationally televised playoff game. The local blackout rules are pretty ridiculous anyway. I live hours from 3 different teams (Memphis, Cleveland and Indy) that I'm "blacked out" for - even though I have a streaming service from which I can't even purchase the local channel to watch if I wanted. So who's rights are being protected in that scenario?

I get all of that. It just seems that once you get into the postseason, local rules should no longer matter when it's a nationally televised playoff game. The local blackout rules are pretty ridiculous anyway. I live hours from 3 different teams (Memphis, Cleveland and Indy) that I'm "blacked out" for - even though I have a streaming service from which I can't even purchase the local channel to watch if I wanted. So whose rights are being protected in that scenario?

From what you describe, if I'm reading it right, the national network partners like TNT.

They're not paying for those rights only to have the league compete against them with their own channel (the games were simultaneous / overlapping, right?)

I think so. I don't know. One game ended, I wanted to watch the end of the other. I couldn't. It's a freaking playoff game. That's a stupid setup, I don't really care who gets what out of the deal.

The trailer for FXs “Clipped”
Looks pretty good. Ed O’Neill as Sterling and Laurence Fishburne as Doc Rivers.

Amazon Prime has framework deal for NBA broadcast rights, per sources, putting pressure on TNT, NBC - The Athletic

Hoooleee Shit.

In what will be a landmark move in sports media history, the NBA and Amazon Prime Video have the framework of a deal that will make the streaming service one of the main homes for the league’s games, executives with direct knowledge of the talks told The Athletic.

It is expected that Prime Video’s package will include significant regular season and postseason games, perhaps even some conference finals. The anticipation is that the final contract will be for at least a decade and begin the 2025-2026 season.

ESPN/ABC, as the website Puck reported Thursday, also has a framework of a deal with the expectations that an agreement will be completed. ESPN/ABC are expected to keep the Finals on its networks for the duration of its deals. Like Amazon, ESPN’s new contract is also expected to be at least a decade in length.

All of the details are not finalized yet, but all sides are under the expectations they will get done. The NBA, Amazon and ESPN all declined to comment.

The NBA prefers to have three companies involved in its new deals, but has not ruled out adding a fourth.

The NBA is finishing up nine-year deals that pay it $2.6 billion on average from ESPN and TNT Sports. Those contracts end after the 2024-2025 season.

The advancement in the Amazon and ESPN talks leaves incumbent Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns network TNT Sports, to face off with NBC, owned by Comcast, for the likely last package of games. Warner Bros. Discovery has the right to match deals, but NBC could try to structure an agreement in a way that makes it difficult.

While there is still work to be completed for the final arrangements, the current packages are going to be pruned slightly to create the third partner. In one arrangement, ESPN will cut down from around 100 games to around 80, according to executives briefed on the talks.

A natural landing spot for Amazon’s regular-season games could be Thursday night, where it already has the NFL from September to early January. The NBA, in recent years, has moved its games off Thursday during the time period to not go head-to-head with the NFL. It is expected to then have significant playoff inventory. Amazon has shown interest in global rights, which has been a key part of the NBA’s negotiating strategy as it lined all of its domestic and international deals to end following the 2024-2025 season.

The NBA has made it clear that it wanted to define itself for the next frontier of viewing with streaming at the forefront.

With ESPN, Amazon and the NBA all under the impression that they will complete deals, this puts the onus on TNT Sports, which has had the NBA since 1984. It is in a fight with NBC, which was the lead partner of the NBA before losing its rights in 2002. NBC, with its streaming service, Peacock, wants back in and is competing with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports for a deal.

So is TNT out the door?

It's believed that it's between TNT and NBC/Peacock for the Third Package.

(The NBA has not ruled out a fourth package, but I get the feeling it'd have to be a huge deal to get a fourth carve out of games)

The situation it reminds me of is the NFL deal, when they signed on with NBC, and told ESPN "There's one package left for Monday Nights. It's not going to be as important as Sunday night, AND you're going to have to pay through your ass to keep it".. but ESPN had to pay it because they couldn't live without football.

The game is barely three minutes in and the refs seemed to be allowing a lot of contact in the Knicks vs. Sixers. Don't chnage shit refs!

James Harden hit a three to put the Clippers up by 31 with 5:42 remaining in the 2nd quarter against the Mavs.

The game is now 78-76 Clippers up with 1:17 left in the 3rd.

If the Clippers lose this one...

Irving took a lazy 3 down by 2 (top of the key, no ball movement, just dribbled a few times with a guy on him and shot), missed it, and then the Clippers went on a little run to get some breathing room.

I am not sure it is the best strategy to rip Sixers fans for letting Knicks fans overrun Wells Fargo Arena but it was shocking to not really know who was the home team without looking at the TV. That is not supposed to happen with that fan base and that city.

WNBA preseason getting more eyeballs than ever before, thanks to CC22 but they have the games buried on their app because NBA underestimated the value of this TV deal.

#5 for the Timberwolves might have a future in the NBA.

As long as he doesn't look at guys after making baskets or he will get T'd up by these piece of shit NBA refs

Nuggets completely out of control. Malone charges onto the court and verbally abuses the ref. Murray sarcastically clapping in front of the refs multiple times. Now someone on their bench threw a heat pad onto the floor. Zero technicals

Be interesting to see how the NBA reacts to Jamaal Murray throwing a heat pack onto the floor during live play

I don't know how many examples there are of it but I remember Haslem got suspended way back in the day for throwing a mouthguard on the court when he got upset. That was in the playoffs.

I'd think a suspension if it was a bench guy but they likely won't suspend a star like Murray for a playoff game.

I've seen the full clip now and Murray actually threw a towel onto the floor before he threw the heat pack. Fucking ridiculous

I would not be surprised if they do suspend just to say they suspended a star. It would also be a shot across the bow at the official who said that it would have just been a technical if the crew had saw it. That being said I would not suspend him. Count me as one of those people who do not want the league to remove a player from this series and give the Nuggets an excuse. This is especially the case since no one was actually hurt. I know it should not matter but it does for me.

100K fine I believe.

And Celtics, with no KP and Tatum having a below below average game shooting wise, still beat the Cavs by 25.

Can we get that 11 more times please?

My son decided to get really into the NBA this year, so this is the most I have watched in probably 20 years. I’m hoping for a Boston-Minnesota finals.

Let’s just skip ahead to the conference finals

NBA punishing Jamal Murray for throwing a heat pad on the court pic.twitter.com/klLRNR8jBl

— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) May 7, 2024