NCAA Basketball - why aren't coaches & players treated the same when "transferring"?

NCAA coaches & players have totally different rules, and something isn't right about that. Washington St. men's basketball coach Tony Bennett is taking the open head coaching spot at the University of Virginia (read about it at http://tiny.cc/wEQya). I have no issue with him switching jobs, and going to the ACC school with the state of the art basketball facilities that UVA alum Jeff Kelberg keeps mentioning when he says they can't settle for mediocrity. He will be able to start coaching the team right away, and will be sitting on the Cavaliers bench all next season. (As the article shows, this also was a big surprise, because Bennett turned down the Indiana coaching spot last year, which led everyone to believe he probably planned to stay at Wazzu for a long time).

Meanwhile, the Cougars have players like soon to be sophomore Klay Thompson, the son of former Minnesota Gophers/Portland Trailblazers/L.A. Lakers great Mychal Thompson. Klay got upset and according to his father, wanted to go somewhere else, but dad calmed him down and reminded him that he'd have to sit out a year if he transferred to another school (a talk he likely had with oldest son Mychel last year, when Pepperdine coach Vance Walberg resigned mid-season). Why should Klay have to sit out though, if he wants to do the same thing his coach is doing?

I believe if the head coach of a school quits/is fired/goes to another school, kids from that team should be allowed to transfer with no penalty of sitting out a year, and kids who want to transfer to that team should be allowed to play right away as well. It wouldn't penalize kids who made this huge college decision based on a coach who is no longer going to be there, and it might give some other kids a chance to get more playing time, simply because kids who were recruited by the original coach want to go elsewhere.

That's really the only "fair" option, because heaven knows the NCAA would never make the coaches sit out a year, nor would that really make sense to anyone. Just even it out for the kids. Those Washington St. players are the ones who put the wins up on the board that made Tony Bennett desirable to a team on the other side of the country!

Meanwhile, the Washington St. head coaching spot is open now. According to the Seattle Times article by Bud Withers (the link found earlier in this blog), all 4 leading candidates have some sort of connection to my Gonzaga Bulldogs:

• Portland St. coach Ken Boone might not have coached with the Zags, but he holds the rare honor of having coached a team to victory at Gonzaga in the 2nd version of the "Kennel," the McCarthey athletic center. Since the new Kennel opened in the fall of 2004, the only opposing teams to win there have been Santa Clara, the aforementioned Washington St. (coached by Tony Bennett) and Portland St. this season.
• Ray Giacoletti just finished his 2nd year as an assistant coach for the Zags, after being the head coach at Utah and prior to that Eastern Washington, which is in the same general vicinity as Gonzaga & Washington St. He took a Gonzaga team known for being all offense and no defense, and turned them into the team that finished with the 2nd best opponent field goal shooting % in the country this season (after being #1 up until the last week of the season, when Memphis took over...speaking of schools where the head coach is about to take another job).
• Billy Grier, San Diego Toreros head coach. Prior to his last two years in the sunshine, and the 2008 NCAA tournament upset of UConn, Bill Grier spent 16 years as an assistant to Mark Few, Dan Monson & Dan Fitzgerald when they took their turns as head coaches of the Zags.
• Dan Monson, Long Beach St. head coach. He is, of course, the Gonzaga coach that started the string of 11 straight NCAA tournament appearances, and the only one to lead them to an Elite 8 (with both Mark Few & Billy Grier on his staff). Then he decided to take the money and head for the "greener pastures" of the Big Ten, and the sanction riddled Minnesota Gophers. Unfortunately, someone forgot to water the grass in those pastures, and he endured a long, bumpy, probably not all that fun ride in Minneapolis, but as a Gopher fan, I appreciate that he got the team out from under the weight of the scandal, and got the players back into class again! They didn't win enough though, so he was given the opportunity to resign before they were going to show him out the door if he didn't.

Odds are, one of these men will be named the new Washington St. Cougars head coach. I hope its someone that young sharpshooter Klay Thompson enjoys playing for over the next 3 years!

Tonight's Random Thoughts/Tidbits

After I told my mom that I would probably write a lot about sports in my blog, she said she hoped I'd do more than that, because I have such deep thoughts that I could write. I can see it now - "Deep Thoughts with Liz Strand" but for some reason, that "Deep Thoughts" title sounds familiar already. Hmmm.

I'm in the mood for shorter tidbit thoughts, so here goes:

• I get how the 5-hour Energy drink/shot could be effective, as it does include the amount of caffeine that is in a premium coffee, which ranges from 100-200 mg, depending on where you get it. Apparently brewing at home is closer to 100 mg, while Starbucks is closer to 200 mg. What I don't get, however, is how the Decaf 5-hour Energy works. Caffeine doesn't always work for me. Sometimes it actually makes me more tired, among the other odd ways I react to it, so I thought I'd try the Decaf version (only 5 mg of caffeine), and it actually worked, making me feel more energized and lively for a few hours. My question is, was that 100% psychological, because I believed that it would work, or does the "Energy Blend" in it, plus a few other vitamins, actually make a difference?
• Back to sports (sorry mom, but at least I had one non-sports thought there). The #4 seed Vanderbilt women's basketball team definitely gave #1 seed Maryland quite a scare today, before falling short at the end. It reminded me of the #3 seed Gonzaga men vs. the #2 seed UCLA team back in 2006 (picture Adam Morrison crying on the court and it will all come back to you). Vandy led by 18 in the 1st half; Zags led by 17. Vandy led by 9 with about 5 min left in the game; Zags led by 10 with about 5 min left in the game. Vandy only scored 3 points the rest of the game; Zags only scored 2 points the rest of the game. I have a friend who is a Vanderbilt fan, so I was pulling for them to win, plus I have a healthy "sports-related bitterness" feeling toward Maryland coach Brenda Frese, after she used the University of Minnesota women's team as a stepping stone/group of girls to walk all over on a very brief stop as the head coach of the Gophers. Bummer. Thankfully, the Vanderbilt loss won't enter my nightmares like the Gonzaga-UCLA loss did for many days after it happened. (I'd say those nightmares were still happening now, but that might lead some people to question my sanity, so I'm sticking by my story that they only lasted a few days).
• I admit that I did not participate in Earth Hour tonight, as I was watching the Hopkins-Osseo Boy's Basketball MN State tournament game between 8:30 and 9:30, although I didn't actually have a light on, as I always watch TV in the dark in my basement. I was a bit curious though, since my sister is in Las Vegas celebrating her 30th Birthday right now - exactly how would Vegas go about turning off the lights for an hour? That would be bad for tourism, but could really up the overtime hours for those crime lab stars on CSI:!
• I'm wondering if it is possible to have an addiction to something that technically has no addictive qualities. In honor of Sarah's 30th birthday, while she is celebrating in Vegas, I ordered a Cookies by Design frosted pan cookie for me to share with the parents (I did order her a cookie package that she got in Vegas too). I cannot resist it. Its a large pizza size chocolate chip cookie with a lot of frosting on it. I have to continually fight the urge to eat it. I also love chocolate, but as people may recall from back in the day when I had the candy jar on my desk (and had the extra candy locked up to protect it from Newman & other candyaholics who would stoop to theft in order to get their fix), I had no problem ignoring that and not eating it...although the same cannot be said for some people who walked past my desk a lot! So why do the frosting covered cookies have a pull on me that I feel I am powerless to resist?

On that note, I'm going to let my tired little brain get some much needed rest, and hope it has some energy tomorrow!

How Zags could've beaten North Carolina

I have a few thoughts in my mind, which must be what kept me awake until 6:20am today. Just to clarify, I in no way think I know more than Gonzaga Head Coach Mark Few, nor am I questioning anything he did. I'm just expressing what I observed about the game.

The turnovers were a huge issue, and leaving jump shooters open was a problem, but I think if Gonzaga had taken good shots, they could've beaten North Carolina. Rick Pitino, head coach of #1 overall seed Louisville, said after their win over Arizona yesterday "That's the great myth for us. People say you're not a good shooting team. We're not when we take challenged shots. When we pass, we're a great shooting team. Our press feeds off the passing and the scoring." ( http://tiny.cc/RickPitino ) That was a major issue for the Zags, and I believe it stems from how they played against "lesser" teams all year. They took way too many long jump shots without ever passing the ball inside, or driving the ball inside first. On Friday, those shots usually didn't go in, and North Carolina was able to get the long rebound and run down in transition to score. Over, and over, and over.

Gonzaga was able to get away with doing this all season long against teams that were not as good, but by getting in those bad habits, it kept coming out on Friday night against a much tougher opponent. When the Zags drove inside first, or passed inside first, good things happened! Heytvelt scored or was fouled, Bouldin took a smaller defensive player to the hoop, or it was passed out for an easier jump shot for someone like Gray. I'd been arguing this point to my family watching the game with me, the whole night. Clark Kellogg started to say the same things on CBS all throughout the 2nd half (I'm fairly certain I never thought that Billy Packer and I were on the same page in the past!).

I completely believe that UNC is the best overall team in the tourney this year, and as Mark Few also said "It's just -- and I've said all along, if all 16 of us, if we all play at the top of our game, North Carolina wins the national championship. I just feel like, when they're playing at their highest end, they're better than the rest of us. " (http://tiny.cc/LL5nY ) I also believe that North Carolina didn't necessarily play their very best, but had a chance to show off their best skills because of offensive mistakes made by Gonzaga .

Alas, we'll never know. Thanks to Jeremy Pargo for 4 years of intense dedication and fun moments; to Josh Heytvelt for showing everyone how a tough experience can make a person better overall, both on and off the court; to Micah Downs for taking on the true "Zag" role this year, as the biggest hustler & scrapper on the team, combined with a very high talent level; to Ira Brown for showing fans some special athleticism and energy off the bench; and to Andrew Sorenson for always being fun to cheer for, for always being the first off the bench to great teammates, and for making us all smile with the 15 pts on senior day!

Liz's First Blog Post

I have always done a lot of writing in the past, and I started text messaging before it was the cool thing to do (way back in 2000...). I gave in to peer pressure and joined Facebook, and write too many thoughts there, and I started the microblogging on Twitter, but I've never done an actual blog. I'm guessing no one will be standing in line to read my blogs, but I figure this is a good way for me to get some of my thoughts "on paper" and express them, because I've always found that things make more sense when I write them down. Even if no one else reads them!

This blog won't have one special subject matter or focus, but it will just be whatever is on my mind. Of course, most of the time, that would be something related to sports! But some Disney thoughts might creep in as well, or just random things that come to mind. I just want to get myself writing again, and see if that inspires me to do more writing!