College Basketball Capsules: Calipari, Kentucky steal momentum from Louisville
LEXINGTON, Ky. — There’s a joke Rick Pitino likes to trot out when describing the difference between coaching at Louisville and coaching at Kentucky.
When you’re the coach at Kentucky, Pitino says, you’re with 100 percent of your friends. When you’re the coach at Louisville, you’re with 52 percent of your friends and 48 percent of your enemies.
Cue the rimshot.
It gets a good laugh more often than not, regardless of the audience for the only coach to lead both schools to a Final Four.
Yet these days, Louisville’s advantage in the state’s largest city is more tenuous than ever, and the inroads the Cardinals have made in the Bluegrass during Pitino’s watch are in danger of being erased.
Open a magazine. Turn on a television. Flip on the radio. Browse the Internet.
On the eve of the most anticipated season in one of the most basketball-crazed states in the country, it’s hard to tell which school is coming off consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament regional finals and which school fired its coach after limping into the NIT.
"Kentucky is all you hear about," said Louisville guard Edgar Sosa. "I’m from New York, and all my people from back home, they just want to know about Kentucky, what’s going on with Kentucky."
Louisville’s fight for respect throughout the Commonwealth has been going on since the days of Adolph Rupp and Wes Unseld. Yet never has momentum seemed to swing so suddenly from one side to the other without so much as a basket being scored.
Blame it on a perfect storm hard to imagine six months ago, when Kentucky was foundering as the Cardinals soared to the Big East championship in a season that included a second straight win over the Wildcats.
The plates started shifting in late March. The Wildcats fired Billy Gillispie the same night Louisville beat Arizona in the regional semifinals.
The Cardinals were upset by Michigan State two days later. The following week the Wildcats lured John Calipari away from Memphis with a contract that made him the highest paid coach in the country, breathing life into a program that spent the last decade slowly slipping off its lofty perch atop the college basketball world.
Shortly thereafter Pitino came forward and acknowledged he was working with the FBI to investigate an extortion attempt against him, a drama which played out all summer long and culminated with Pitino’s painful admission that he had a sexual encounter at a Louisville restaurant six years ago with the woman later accused of attempting to blackmail him.
Pitino kept a decidedly low profile all summer while the details slowly emerged, leaving a vacuum Calipari was only too happy to fill.
"Coach Cal is like magic," said former Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall. "And what he has done, I don’t know what you’d compare it to. Maybe if Bear Bryant came back to life."
Maybe, but the college football legend would need a primer on Twitter. Not Calipari.
The coach who brags about not having a computer in his office has gleefully invaded the Internet. He Tweets. He Facebooks. He generates money for charity through his Web site, which hawks everything from his latest self-help book to a DVD on how to coach the "dribble-drive" offense.
"Coach Calipari seems to have an aura of success that is certainly stirring fans up. And people are looking forward to this season with more anticipation than I’ve seen in a long time," said Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear.
There hasn’t been a holler or corner of the state Calipari has missed since the Wildcats made him the highest paid coach in college basketball in April. He’s dropped into the depths of a coal mine, glad-handed alongside the state’s top politicians and wooed one of college basketball’s most fervent fan bases with an energy that belies a coach who just turned 50.
"He’s like a god," said Kentucky junior forward Patrick Patterson.
One that can do no wrong in the eyes of the Commonwealth. There has been little backlash to the NCAA’s findings that Calipari’s 2008 Memphis team, which lost to Kansas in the national title game, used an ineligible player and stripped the team of its NCAA-record 38 wins.
And when the NCAA ruled star freshman guard John Wall must sit out two games for accepting illegal benefits from his AAU coach, everyone from Calipari to the players to the administration shrugged its shoulders.
It helps that he knows how to put on a good show. Calipari turned Kentucky’s annual Big Blue Madness into a show complete with a stage and a cameo appearance by budding rap star Drake.
The practice came on the heels of a night Calipari spent camping out with hundreds of fans for tickets to the season’s kickoff event. He even worked with Papa John’s — a major sponsor of Louisville athletics — to deliver pizzas.
Things were much quieter 70 miles to the west in Louisville, where the Cardinals opened practice with a grueling two hours of drills at the Yum! Center in front of Pitino, his staff and nobody else.
"We used that time to get better," said Sosa. "This is what we signed up for when we come to Louisville. We’re all about business."
Though both coaches have taken the high road while talking about each other and claim there is no rivalry. Pitino, who played a role in Calipari’s hire at Massachusetts in 1988, has refused to talk openly about Calipari’s reception, one that rivals the overwhelming wave Pitino received when he was brought in to rescued the probation-ravaged program in 1989.
"I just want to talk about Louisville," Pitino said.
So does Calipari, who has made no secret his desire to take over the entire state, the home of Kentucky’s archrival included.
He raised more than a few eyebrows when word leaked out about a preseason practice at Freedom Hall, Louisville’s home floor. The practice was canceled due to excessive media coverage, though it certainly got Louisville’s attention.
"We were like ‘what?"’ Sosa said. "It’s something we dislike, but we can’t control."
When the Cardinals leave the unique but dated facility for a sparkling downtown arena next fall, Calipari plans to invade. He’s already measuring the drapes, telling a crowd recently he wanted to paint Freedom Hall blue.
It’s not personal, he claims, just business.
"We want people behind our bench," Calipari said. "We want the business leaders of the state, maybe from Louisville, to come and be a part of what we’re doing. (Louisville) is vital to the city, which is vital to this state. I will do nothing to hurt them, but try to beat their brains in when we play them."
Nothing else will do for fans of Big Blue when they collide at Rupp Arena on Jan. 2, even if the expectations around the program has gotten a little out of hand, even by Kentucky standards.
"How much does hype mean?" Hall said. "It doesn’t mean anything until you play the game."
Perhaps, but the experts have already weighed in. The Wildcats are No. 4 in AP preseason poll; Louisville is No.19. Kentucky’s freshman class, led by Wall, was rated tops in the country by Scout.com; Louisville’s was 21st.
The players stress there is respect on both sides, though the constant chatter among the fans can get tiresome. Louisville guard Preston Knowles, who grew up in Winchester, Ky., a few 3-pointers away from Rupp Arena, has come up with a pretty good way to bring Kentucky fans down a notch.
"Last time I checked I was undefeated against UK and that shuts them up," he said.
A rare moment of silence in a rivalry that only figures to get louder.
Thomas, FIU starting over together
MIAMI — Isiah Thomas knows what his first FIU pregame speech will entail. He’ll gather players Monday night, just before they take the court to open the season against defending national champion North Carolina.
The talk will be quick.
"God help us all," Thomas predicted he’ll say, fearing a rout.
In time, the plan will be for Thomas and FIU to help each other.
If ever a team needed revitalizing, it’s FIU, with nine straight losing seasons and a record over that span that doesn’t even rank among the top 300 Division I programs. So here to lead this colossal challenge comes a Basketball Hall of Fame player, an icon in the game, whose last stop with the New York Knicks began with spectacular fanfare and ended amid a spectacular flameout.
FIU views this as a reinvention of its program.
Thomas views this as a reinvention of himself.
"Our goal is to be a good basketball team by March," Thomas said. "If these guys keep working, I think we’ve got a shot."
Ah, a coach’s optimism. But make no mistake, Thomas understands the enormity of this challenge, which starts in Chapel Hill, N.C. against the sixth-ranked Tar Heels. Thomas’ collegiate playing career at Indiana ended with a win over North Carolina in the 1981 NCAA title game, but deep down inside, knows that Monday could be a long, long, long night.
"You’ve got to get the players first," said Rollie Massimino, who coached Villanova to the 1985 NCAA title and is now the coach at NAIA school Northwood in West Palm Beach, Fla., a little over an hour north of FIU’s campus.
Northwood beat FIU 71-61 in an exhibition game Wednesday night. It wasn’t a fluke, either.
"Isiah will get the kids," said Massimino, who gets his brain picked by Thomas regularly these days. "He will. He’ll do a great job."
Everyone, Thomas included, knows that job will take time.
FIU has produced two current NBA players (Carlos Arroyo, Raja Bell) but somehow lacks any sort of basketball identity. The home court is a gym more than an arena, the Golden Panthers have lost 20 games in three of the past four seasons, and since their last — and only — NCAA tournament trip in 1995, 230 different schools have qualified for the Big Dance, while FIU keeps waiting ‘til next year.
A year ago, FIU was 13-20. The last winning season was a decade ago, the last 20-win season was in 1997-98.
"It’s time for us to turn that around," said guard Marvin Roberts, a junior college transfer who said he "immediately" picked FIU when Thomas made the recruiting call.
It took a perfect storm of downfall for Thomas to find his way to Miami.
When FIU first asked him to visit, Thomas had no plans to take the job. He thought it would be a three- or four-day paid getaway out of New York, a chance to reconnect with some friends and play some golf. His reputation and pride were stung from the tumultuous end of his time with the Knicks, debacles that included a sexual harassment lawsuit, "Fire Isiah!" chants at Madison Square Garden and being found unconscious in his home by rescue workers after taking sleeping pills last fall.
His intrigue built quickly. On April 13, the deal was done. That night, team was summoned to meet its new coach.
"Isiah Thomas? THE Isiah Thomas? Here?" was how fifth-year senior forward Marlon Bright remembered his initial thought process. "Somebody with his resume truly has a lot of options when it comes to basketball. So it’s already been a surreal experience."
Thomas had little time to recruit for this season. His efforts for the 2010-11 season, though, have already been noticed around the country, with a handful of players on the top-100 lists already saying they’ll sign with FIU.
Clearly, if Thomas wasn’t there, that wouldn’t be happening.
"He’s been very open with us about everything," Bright said. "He strikes all of us as someone you can really trust. What’s out there is what’s out there. We know him for who he is. He’s a man who looks you in the eye and shakes your hand and wants you to be better."
Thomas expects there to be some long nights this season, and his roster has some glaring holes, particularly in its amazing lack of size — only one rotation player might be taller than 6-foot-6.
So he’s already eyeing the end of the season: Thomas can envision FIU going to the Sun Belt Conference tournament, playing its best basketball, and taking its chances.
"By the time January, February gets here, I hope we’re a pretty solid unit," Thomas said. "If we’re a good unit going into conference play, then we’ll take our chances with the four games in March. And if we win the four games in March, then it’s a good year."
Thomas signed a five-year contract, one that doesn’t have him drawing a base salary this season.
He does not regret it, insisting despite his fame and fortune, he remains a simple guy with simple needs.
There’s no glitz and glamour; postgame dinner for the team Wednesday wasn’t the catered delights the Knicks would enjoy on their custom charter jet, but rather a pile of pizzas delivered from a chain restaurant. And FIU does most of its travel by bus, something else for Thomas to get used to.
"We’re starting from the bottom. We want to go to the top," Thomas said. "And the journey, the ride along the way, is the most important thing. ... The journey, to me, that’s the most enjoyable part. This is the fun part. It starts now."
-- Tim Reynolds
Gonzaga has same expectations despite rebuilding
SPOKANE, Wash. — This is the closest to a rebuilding season Gonzaga basketball has had in years. Four starters from last year’s Sweet 16 team are gone.
Matt Bouldin leads a small group of returning letterwinners, joined by 10 newcomers who have never played college basketball.
"I’d rather look at seven veterans that have been here for four years," coach Mark Few said. "A majority of the people on the floor are new to this program."
Not that anyone in the West Coast Conference takes much comfort in that. The Zags have won nine straight WCC regular-season titles and made 11 straight trips to the NCAA tournament.
Portland has all five starters back from a team that finished 19-13 last season. But coach Eric Reveno doesn’t expect the Zags to be down.
"Can we compete for the second or third spot?" Reveno said. "How close are we to Gonzaga?"
The other WCC coaches predicted Gonzaga would win the league again, despite the loss of starters Austin Daye, who became a first-round NBA draft pick after his sophomore year, Josh Heytvelt, Jeremy Pargo and Micah Downs.
Gonzaga’s nine straight league titles is the longest active streak in the nation, and tied for fourth-longest in history. Kentucky won nine straight conference titles from 1944-52. Connecticut won 10 straight from 1951-60, while UNLV won 10 straight from 1983-92. UCLA has the longest streak with 13 consecutive titles from 1967-79.
The non-conference schedule, as usual, is ridiculously difficult to make up for the Zags’ lightly regarded WCC schedule. The Zags have games against No. 2 Michigan State, No. 9 Duke, No. 17 Oklahoma and No. 23 Illinois, plus Wake Forest, Memphis and Washington State. They play Colorado in the Maui Invitational and then either Arizona or Wisconsin in the second game.
"That schedule has always served us well," Few said. "Hopefully this year will not be different."
Bouldin is a senior and All-West Coast Conference selection who scored 13.6 points and dished 3.4 assists per game last year.
"I think this year’s team is going to need me more as a leader," Bouldin said.
"Matt has had a great career already," Few said. "As he goes, so our team goes."
Also back is junior guard Steven Gray, who averaged 9 points and 3 rebounds last year. Sophomore Demetri Goodson will take over for Pargo at point guard.
A key to success will be the play of 7-foot post player Robert Sacre, who missed nearly all of last season with foot problems. He spent the summer working out with former Gonzaga star Casey Calvary.
"I helped Casey lose some weight," Sacre joked. "We pushed each other."
Many of the freshmen will have to contribute this season, Few said.
Newcomers expected to get plenty of playing time are Mangisto Arop, Sam Dower, Kelly Olynyk and Elias Harris. The freshmen include 5-foot-10 guard David Stockton, the son of Gonzaga and Utah Jazz great John Stockton.
The Zags are not ranked in the preseason Top 25, which Sacre said they can use as a motivating tool.
"We will come guns ablazing," Sacre said. "Call us Yosemite Sam, I guess."
-- Nicholas K. Geranios
NCAA clears Indiana freshman to play basketball
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana freshman Bawa Muniru has been cleared by the NCAA to play college basketball this season.
The Hoosiers had been waiting for the NCAA’s eligibility center to make its ruling on Muniru, a 6-foot-11, 260-pound center from Tumu, Ghana. Muniru played high school ball the last two seasons in the U.S. The decision takes immediate effect.
Coach Tom Crean said he understood it would take the NCAA time to do a thorough review and appreciated the work done both by the eligibility center and compliance officials at Indiana.
The Hoosiers host St. Joseph’s in their final exhibition Monday night, then open the season at home against Howard on Nov. 13.
NCAA clears Stephenson to play at Cincy
CINCINNATI — The NCAA has cleared freshman Lance Stephenson to play at Cincinnati without having to miss any games.
There were questions about whether the 6-foot-5, 240-pound forward would be eligible because of his involvement in a documentary. Stephenson was a prep star in Brooklyn, but his off-the-court issues made many schools back away.
Stephenson averaged 28.9 points, 10 rebounds and 3.9 assists in his senior season at Lincoln High School. He was picked as the Big East’s preseason rookie of the year, and coach Mick Cronin calls Stephenson a difference-maker.
The Bearcats open the season Nov. 16 against Prairie View A&M.
Women
Buckeyes look to pile up more hardware
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A visitor steps inside the door to the Ohio State women’s basketball office and is immediately funneled along the left wall of the hallway.
There’s not much room to get through. Stacked along the right wall are seven towering Big Ten championship trophies, their shorn nets neatly circling each base.
It might get even tighter in that hallway.
Ohio State, ranked No. 3 in the nation in the Associated Press preseason poll, is loaded with talent. Even though the Buckeyes graduated two starters, there are plenty of possibilities waiting in the wings to improve on last year’s squad that went 29-6, won its fifth straight Big Ten regular-season and second conference tournament title and then made it to the NCAA regional semifinals before falling.
Still, don’t expect coach Jim Foster to get tendinitis from patting himself and his players on the backs.
"I tell my kids, we’re the preseason favorite — what do you want us to do? Have a banquet now?" he said, sort of joking in a caustic way. "What is it? It’s like winning the pole in an (auto) race."
The thing is, Foster has quite a driver in this race. Point guard Samantha Prahalis is as flashy — no-look and behind-the-back passes — as any guard in the country. But it’s more than glitter; she was among the national leaders last year with 6 assists a game. She triggers an Ohio State team that is not like what most people expect when they think of the Big Ten. The Buckeyes are fast, athletic, can jump and can play a variety of styles.
"I think we’re capable of winning the national championship," said Prahalis, the conference’s freshman of the year last season. "Some people think we can get there, some people think that we won’t. But we know that we can get there. It’s a long way off, so we’ve still got a lot of work to do."
The key inside and out is Jantel Lavender, a 6-foot-4 track star of a pivot. Faster than most teams’ point guard, she is usually Prahalis’ wingman on the break. When she’s not sprinting 70 feet to hit layups — a slower defender well behind her — she can post up for spin moves and bank shots. Try to muscle her and she’ll face the basket and hit a 15-footer or drive past slower players for easy buckets.
"The reason why the team is a lot better is because we have everything," said Lavender, an All-American and Big Ten player of the year each of her two seasons who averaged 20.8 points and 10.7 rebounds a game last season. "We can play defense, we can play great offense, we can run. Everybody’s fast. You add all those things together and it’s why we’re so highly ranked at the start of the season."
Foster isn’t one to blather on about how good his team is. But even he is quietly optimistic.
"We’ve got a chance to be pretty good," he said in what passes for hyperbole from him. "We’ve got pieces."
Lots of them. Shavelle Little is a two-time defensive player of the year in the conference who averages almost 3 steals a game. She runs the show in Ohio State’s frequent forays into fullcourt pressure. Brittany Johnson is a pure shooter who has yet to really find her role, even though she hit 44 3-pointers a year ago.
The Buckeyes’ blend of size, speed and athleticism continues through the roster. Guards Alison Jackson, Maria Moeller, Cherise Daniel and Amber Stokes each add something different. Andrea Walker and Sarah Schulze provide strength, defense and rebounding.
On top of that, Foster has signed the No. 1 player from a different state each of the last three years, adding Tayler Hill this season. A two-time player of the year in Minnesota, she scored almost 4,000 points in high school.
No wonder everyone thinks so highly of the Buckeyes.
"I love it," Prahalis said. "It’s like, they’re all expecting a lot from us. Everyone’s looking at us now as No. 3. It’s a big deal. But for us it’s good that everyone thinks we’re that good because we have to live up to it. We’ve got to work hard and really push because we want to stay right up there."
Do that, and Ohio State might just have to build a bigger hallway.
-- Rusty Miller
Lindsay Schrader back and healthy for No. 4 Irish
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame guard Lindsay Schrader believes tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee three years ago might have been the luckiest break in her basketball career.
If not for that injury, she wouldn’t be back for a fifth season with the fourth-ranked Fighting Irish, who have never been ranked this high heading into a season — not even in their national championship season of 2000-01.
"If it wasn’t for me tearing my ACL, I wouldn’t have had an opportunity like this," Schrader said. "I don’t think I’ve been this excited for a season. This team brings atmosphere and an attitude that I can’t wait for everyone else to see."
The Irish return everyone from last season’s squad that went 22-9 but lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. They also added one of the nation’s top high school recruits, guard Skylar Diggins, whom coach Muffet McGraw describes as the most talented player to ever sign with the Irish.
Schrader leaves no doubt about what she wants to accomplish in her fifth season: at least a Final Four appearance and definitely a victory over top-ranked Connecticut. A national championship would be nice, too.
"I want to go out with a bang," Schrader said. "I want to finish my career saying I beat Connecticut."
The Irish are 4-22 all-time against UConn and haven’t beaten the Huskies since 2005, the season before Schrader came to Notre Dame. The Irish believe they can beat UConn after giving the Huskies one of their toughest games last season. They’ll get their first chance Jan. 16 after Big East play begins.
"Most other people say, ‘Oh, great, we have Connecticut,"’ Schrader said. "I say, ‘Bring it on."’
The Irish plan to bring a potent offensive attack and a pressing defense to opponents this season. They return four players who averaged double figures in scoring last season in Schrader (12.6 points), guard Ashley Barlow (12.7), forward Becca Bruszewski (10.7) and guard Melissa Lechlitner (10.6).
Diggins also is expected to add some offense, as are guards Natalie Novosel and Brittany Mallory.
One of the biggest questions facing the Irish is whether they will be strong enough in the post to play with elite teams. McGraw is hoping Erica Solomon, a 6-2 sophomore who scored 6 points a game last season averaging 16.5 minutes, can be at least part of the answer.
"If she is our most improved player, I think we would have had a great season," McGraw said.
Another challenge with 14 players will be finding the right combination at the right time.
"It’s going to be a challenge, McGraw said.
McGraw is hoping the Irish will be have a big home court advantage after selling a record 7,500 season tickets fueled by excitement over Diggins, who is from South Bend.
"I think we feed off their enthusiasm and their energy," McGraw said of the fans.
Schrader believes having five seniors adds a sense of urgency that was missing last year.
"The last time around you just put your full effort into it and do the best you can," she said. "That’s what we’re going to do."
-- Tom Coyne
Eastern Ill. assistant basketball coach dies
CHARLESTON, Ill. — Jackie Moore, a 28-year-old assistant women’s basketball coach at Eastern Illinois, has died.
The university says Moore died Wednesday night at a hospital after collapsing as she started a workout.
School spokesman Rich Moser says doctors said Moore’s heart "just stopped." Moser says an autopsy is planned.
Moore was in her third season at the school. She graduated from Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tenn., in 2005, and was from Windsor, Ontario.
EIU canceled all sports events this weekend.
