Excellent article about the inevitable problems of the multi-million dollar, college basketball industry being marketed as amateurism:

Excerpt: "Yes, laws were broken, and the coaches and shoe company executives involved should be punished. They abused the trust they’d earned from players to stuff their pockets.

Yet, what are we really talking about here?

Because the feds’ report charging Chuck Person (Auburn), Lamont Evans (Oklahoma State), Emanuel Richardson (Arizona), and Tony Bland (Southern Cal) with fraud and conspiracy can’t be surprising. Not because those four coaches already had raised our suspicion. But because they operate in a morally cloudy system.

And everyone knows it.

That’s what happens when a business is marketed as amateurism. A sleight-of-hand the NCAA has pulled off for decades.

Well, this week’s news may finally change that. The fallout could be seismic."

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/2017/09/27/college-basketball-scandal-louisville-rick-pitino-one-and-done/709273001/

Not really a laughing matter but that's funny!

Of course, the NCAA saw fit to bust UOP for some pretty small potatoes by comparison to scandals like the academic fraud at UNC which has still gone unpunished. But, hey, the FBI sent some heads rolling today and it looks like there's a lot more to come. I guess cheaters will be cheaters until the FBI busts them.

I hear ya, maybe someday when you feel like you have the means you'll be able to subscribe. Hopefully, all those years of study will pay nice dividends for you in the near future!

Please understand that I'm not making a judgement about bypassing the paywall of the Davis Enterprise, but I choose to pay for a digital subscription. All local newspapers throughout the country are struggling in the digital age and very small newspapers like the Enterprise are disappearing quickly.

I've read the Enterprise for free for years and I appreciate their coverage of local Davis news as well the writing of scribes like Bob Dunning. It's not cheap but I want to support them and I hope they won't go under like so many small town rags have.

Article about what the FBI investigation could eventually change in college basketball:

Excerpts: "As more schools are ensnared by this investigation, a more equitable future for college basketball could emerge, where major universities like Louisville, and the similarly implicated University of Arizona, have less of a stranglehold on the sport as they lose the ability to throw around cash. But it’s not just the schools that are now on notice. So too are corrupt AAU coaches, self-interested financial advisers, and multinational apparel companies with a stake in all of it."

"While the game has months of bad headlines ahead of it, if this is the end of what acting U.S. attorney Kim called the “dark underbelly of college basketball,” then it’s a good thing. And if it leads the NCAA to try to stamp out opportunities for bribery by ending the farce of forced amateurism, then it’s even better."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/09/explaining-the-fbis-college-basketball-investigation.html

The downfall of Rick Pitino:

https://www.aseaofblue.com/2017/9/27/16371900/rick-pitino-louisville-cardinals-kentucky-wildcats

North Dakota's coach, Bubba Schweigert, seems like a soft-spoken, high quality coach. I expect we will have our hands full this Saturday.

Heads are beginning to roll in yet another college sports scandal. I guess it should come as no surprise to those of us who love college basketball that this is happening. The irony is that all of this has been happening right under the nose of the NCAA but "unbeknownst" to them and it's the FBI that is exposing the corruption.

College athletics has become big money for the power conferences and the NCAA and the big name programs are the NCAA's cash cows. Little wonder that this kind of stuff happens on the NCAA's watch and goes unnoticed until something so egregious happens that they have to go public and act surprised. For example, UNC is still awaiting the outcome of their academic fraud scandal and Louisville is still being investigated for providing "escorts" to potential recruits. The little guys get hammered hard and fast by the NCAA but the elite programs fly under the radar and investigations drag out forever.

The union of corporate greed with "win at all costs" college athletic programs is the bane of amateur, college athletics. It's made a mockery of the amateur, college student-athlete ideal at the highest levels of college sports. What a shame.

I like the games with UOP also but, in general, our pre-conference home schedule leaves a lot to be desired for Aggie fans: UOP and Northern Colorado are nice but Holy Names and William Jessop won't get many fans to the Pavilion. So we only have 4 home pre-conference games out of 14 total and 2 of them are not very interesting.

On the other hand, the women's pre-conference schedule is really good at home and on the road:

Home: Washington State, Pepperdine, Portland State, Sac, San Francisco, Central Florida.

Road: Pacific, SUU, Seattle, St. Mary's, Oregon State, Yale, Fordham or Hartford.

A couple of comments for Coach Les:

Les on Siler Schneider: "He steps into the forefront. He becomes that guy opposing teams are preparing scouting reports for."

Les on Chima Moneke: "Wasn't satisfied with accolades. He's adept at playing out on perimeter as well as inside. He's expanded his game."

https://twitter.com/BigWestMBB

Nice analysis... (Y)

A game like this, where we had some early chances and missed and then got burnt with some big plays that left us in a deep hole, is the kind of adversity that can teach a young team a whole lot. It won't be easy for the players to watch the game film this week and see where they broke down and made mistakes but they can learn a ton from it.

We'll be ok if we learn from our mistakes, make some adjustments, put it behind us and get thoroughly ready for North Dakota. Learn, move on and get better...

Ryan is doing some very meaningful work:

Excerpt from the article: “The awesome thing is these techniques work anywhere you want to perform better, not just sports,” Sypkens says. “Business, athletes, doesn’t matter what it is — our goal is to not just build great basketball players, but also to build great citizens and give people the tools necessary to become successful.”

A parent makes a comment about Ryan: Great story that is very well written. The Syp's Touch Program has changed my son's life! Thank you.

The final stats are telling:

Total yards: WS 430 Ags 373 - not a huge disparity given the 41-3 final score.

Rushing yards: WS 222 Ags 13 - we've had problem running the ball and Weber forced us into being one dimensional on offense.

Passing yards: Ags 360 WS 208 - but Weber got all their passing yards on only 8 completions which equals an average of 26 yards per completion.

The big plays killed us: 98 yard TD run, 67 yard TD pass and a punt return for a TD.

We had 2 early 1st and goals inside the 5 and came away with 3 points.

Maier's first INT was big also even though the D limited the damage to a FG. Maier has a tendency to throw dangerous passes into tight coverage when he pressured and he got pressured a lot. I know those passes at least give the receiver a chance to make a play but he had 2 INT's and several others were close.

They have players who can make the big plays and they burned our DB's often and we weren't able to create any pressure on Cantwell.

They were the better team but I don't think we played very well either. We failed to contain their big plays, turned the ball over and failed inside the red zone. If we could have found the end zone early in the game when we had a chance, it might have given us some energy.

We need to put this one behind us and play better next week.

There's some noise coming from across the Causeway...Sac just destroyed SUU 54-27. That's an impressive win for the Hornets.

Poly falls to 0-4 after losing to NAU 28-10 and EWU roars back to beat Montana 48-41.

I like your "glass half full" perspective...I'm still working on it after the past 6 years!

Sac 30 SUU 14 at the half

NAU 14 Poly 3 at the half

Montana 24 EWU 13 with 4:51 to go in the 3rd

Sac is destroying SUU...27-7 with 4:08 to go in the 2nd quarter...

Yep..with a resounding thud...

Sac State is battling SUU tough...7-7 at the end of the 1st. They'll be licking their chops after they see the Aggies 41-3 beatdown at Weber today...

I'm sure he is in concussion protocol. Hope he doesn't end up with lingering symptoms.