Category — College Basketball

Someone please warn Vince Young before he blows a gasket again in the strip club.
OU fans living in Texas might soon be able to flash their colors on their license plates. The Department of Motor Vehicles in Texas is considering a measure that would make Boomer Sooner license plates available to its hated Sooner residents. No word yet on how much insurance rates of those fans will skyrocket, but we can’t imagine the liabilities this will create.
Dallas Morning News

Though it doesn’t receive the notoriety of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team, the 1960 club was something to behold. Led by Jerry West and Oscar Robertson, the U.S. crushed the competition en route to gold. The difference between the ’92 club and the ’60 team was that the latter was made up of college players, which was common until the U.S. became disgusted in the ’70s and ’80s when the Russians and a few others were beating up on the U.S. This led to the Dream Team, featuring Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Charles Barkley, among others.
But the 1960 Olympic team also was in a league of its own. Nine players from that club went on to play in the NBA, including West, Robertson, Jerry Lucas, Bob Boozer and Walt Bellamy.
Robertson offers some recollections of the team, which will be inducted, along with the ’92 Dream team, into the basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.
N.Y. Times

The reputation of the Louisville coach took a major hit this week, when he had to admit the intimate details in court of his 15 seconds (according to him) of sex with the blonde Karen Cunagin Sypher at an area restaurant years ago.
Pitino, a married father of 5, has been testifying this week in an extortion trial involving Cunagin Sypher, who is accusing him of rape.
The incident has made Pitino the butt of many jokes.
Lexington Herald-Leader

Known as the “Big Dipper,” the former Kentucky All-America was found dead at his home in Lexington, Ky. Turpin reportedly committed suicide. He was only 49. Turpin and Sam Bowie formed the “Twin Towers” at Kentucky in the early ’80s. He was the 6th player taken in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets.
Lexington Herald-Leader

The stench at USC continues to be offensive.
On the heels of the Trojans releasing highly-touted offensive lineman Seantrel Henderson from his letter-of-intent because the prep star didn’t want to attend the school due to sanctions leveled by the NCAA, USC got more bad news today. The athletic program was forced to apologize to 5 schools it had accused of illegally trying to entice freshman running back Dillon Baxter to transfer.
Athletic Director Mike Garrett, who’s seat got a bit hotter, sent a letter of apology to Florida, acknowledging that Baxter had lied about the Gators asking him to consider transferring.
Officials at ‘Bama, Oregon, Fresno State and Washington, where former SC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian is head coach, said they also received letters of apology.
For USC Coach Lane Kiffin, it adds another embarrassing item to his checkered resume. Though Kiffin had nothing to do with USC landing on probation, the Baxter soap opera comes under his watch. The irony is it involves another false accusation against Florida.
At Tennessee, Kiffin made allegations (later proven to be inaccurate) that Florida Coach Urban Meyer had illegal pursued one of his signees, wide receiver Nu’Keese Richardson. Kiffin was forced to apologize to Meyer.
And if that isn’t enough, Richardson was one of several Tennessee players arrested last November for armed robbery.
ESPN.com

Dick Enberg couldn’t believe his good fortune. At Harry’s Coffee Shop in La Jolla, just blocks from his home, the longtime broadcaster got an unexpected surprise late last year.
“I was about halfway through my waffle and I said ‘I think I’m being offered a job here,’” Enberg said.
Oh my.
The proposal came from the Padres. They wanted Enberg as their play-by-play announcer. What he initially believed to be a social meeting, arranged by his friend George Mitrovich, between him and Padres President Tom Garfinkel, quickly became all business. Enberg was intrigued. Why wouldn’t he?
Still, there were compromises to be made, details to work out. But Enberg wouldn’t concede one substantial detail.
“My wife (Barbara) has become accustomed to a style of living and I have to respect that,” Enberg said with a laugh.
Though money was a sticking point and Enberg would have to relinquish some of his national broadcast duties, the two parties finalized a deal last December. With it, Enberg gave up calling college basketball for CBS and even more significant, lost his Sunday perch on NFL telecasts, where he was paired with Hall of Famer Dan Fouts. The latter was the toughest concession. Fouts and Enberg were good together. They connected and their strong chemistry in the booth related well with audiences.
“We did our first game and it was in synch,” Enberg said. “It was one of those wonderful things. I could start something and he always knew where I was going and he’d follow up on it. By the end of the year, I would have stacked our work up with any announcing team in the NFL. I think CBS recognized that as well as anyone.”
Fouts gave Enberg all the credit.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the greats in this business, but Dick ranks among the best,” Fouts said. “He’s as pleasant a guy as you could ever work with. It was fantastic.”
Enberg said he told Fouts about the Padres in November, when they had dinner before a Broncos’ game in Denver.
“He said ‘you (SOB),’” Enberg said laughing. “But he was happy for me. He still calls me and razes me about things I say on the air even now. But that was tough (parting ways with Fouts) because things were sailing smoothly in our relationship.”
His relationships with CBS and ESPN remain solid. Enberg worked Wimbledon and will work the U.S. Open and Australian Open. At the time we spoke, he was negotiating for a part-time return to NFL games with CBS after the Padres’ season ends.
Baseball has always figured prominently with Enberg. He played it at Central Michigan University and coached it at Cal State Northridge, where he also worked as a professor. Cal State Northridge was what brought the Michigan native west. After a gig he desperately sought as play-by-play announcer for the University of Indiana basketball broadcasts fell through, Enberg accepted the Northridge position in the early ‘60s. He also kept his broadcasting pipes sharp with a variety of side jobs in the L.A. area.
Eventually, Enberg’s broadcasting work caught the eye of Gene Autry, who hired him as a pre-game host for Angels’ telecasts on KTLA in 1965. In 1969, Enberg became the Angels’ play-by-play announcer for radio and TV. A year later, he was paired with the late Hall of Famer and legendary Don Drysdale. They were a popular duo, with Drysdale frequently needling Enberg by calling him “Professor.”
“Dick Enberg and Don Drysdale were the best broadcasting team of all time, any sport,” Reds’ broadcaster Marty Brennaman, an award-winning sportscaster himself, told MLB.com recently.
Enberg also worked as the UCLA basketball and the Los Angeles Rams’ lead announcer.
Still, as much as college basketball, the NFL and tennis were the heart of his broadcasting career, baseball remained his passion. Enberg is scheduled to work 110 to 120 games this season on Channel 4 with Hall of Famer Gwynn and former Padres pitcher Mark Grant as analysts. Like them, Enberg brings considerable insight to the game.
Winner of 14 Emmys, nine Sportscaster of the Year awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Enberg is the only person to win an Emmy as a sportscaster, writer and producer. In more than 45 years in the business, he has covered Super Bowls, the Olympics, the Masters, Rose and Orange bowls and 14 Final Fours.
Enberg, 75, also is an accomplished writer, having penned a one-man play years ago called “McGuire.” It is Enberg’s tribute to the late coach and broadcast partner Al McGuire, his dear friend and former colleague. The play was staged across the country, including a run at the North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach.
But he’s giddy sharing the spotlight with the Padres.
“I knew this was the right thing to do,” he said of joining the club. “I like the new ownership and the spirit of the club. The joke around the ballpark is we’re shopping at Wal-Mart while the Yankees shop at Neiman-Marcus. But that’s OK. Here we are six or seven weeks into the season and the Padres are in first place. That’s a wonderful bonus.”
Oh my, indeed.

Image courtesy of the North County Times

Tom Izzo turned down the Cavs today and decided to stay at the Michigan State. Makes sense to us. Why take the Cavs’ job when you aren’t sure the franchise (LeBron James) isn’t returning? Without James, the Cavs are in a serious rebuilding mode and maybe worst.
Detroit Free Press

Bill Walton, who gave John Wooden more gray hairs than any of his UCLA players, Gail Goodrich, Walt Hazzard and Jerry Norman offer their thoughts and perspective on the late coach, who passed Friday at the age of 99. Goodrich and Hazzard played on Wooden’s 1st national championship team in 1964.
L.A. Times

As T.J. Simers says, much will be said and written about the legendary coach during the next week or so. We’ll start with Simers, who spent considerable time with the Wizard in the past few years.
L.A. Times

The legendary coach passed today after being hospitalized since May 26 for dehydration. He was 99.
Wooden guided UCLA to 10 national championships and was college basketball’s greatest coach. He retired from coaching in 1975 after leading the Bruins to his final national championship. Reports of Wooden being in “grave” condition began circulating Thursday night.
We’ll obviously have more on the coach during the weekend.
ESPN LA