The Dagger

Just a few days ago, Nate Robinson, former University of Washington stud and current New York Knicks leaper, was given a tremendous honor. He was the first player to have his jersey retired in the history of the NBA summer league. The shirt was lifted to the rafters -- the rafters being the gym wall about 10 feet above the basketball hoop -- and Robinson's summer league prowess would forever on display.

Did I say "tremendous honor"? I meant "embarrassment." Sorry. (The jersey was quickly un-retired.)

Kevin Durant's situation is not quite that embarassing, but it is almost as confusing. Texas has announced it will retire the No. 35 Durant wore during his one season with the Longhorns, a year in which Durant was, admittedly, amazing, and was, deservedly, the consensus national player of the year. But his team only reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Durant only played one season. Does that resume merit a retiring of garments?

Marco at Storming the Floor proposes an unwritten rule about jersey retirements:

The STF ruling.....a player needs to play at least three seasons or lead the team to a national championship to have his jersey retired. Or make a gigantic donation to build a new athletic facility. That also works.

I'd agree with that. (Especially the last bit. Money talks, son.) Barring Carmelo Anthony-level success, one-and-done stars that missed out on team accolades probably don't deserve the symbolic retirement. Then again, who cares? Let each university do what it wants, right. It's not really worth getting too worked up over. It's just July, is all.

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Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn (one of the better college basketball writers working, for what it's worth) unleashed a college hoops prediction column the other day, and it was a good one. All the requisite items are there: North Carolina winning the national title, Davidson failing to be as good as advertised, Marquette sliding through on talent, and so on. Good stuff.

It holds a hidden gem, however, one The Wayne Fontes Experience found all the way back in November of 2007, back before any of us even knew who Stephen Curry was: Detroit's 2009 Final Four logo. I hadn't seen this yet, and you need to. I give you ... burning tire thingy!

Impressive. In one fell swoop, Detroit's logo people managed to take a proverbial bowling pin to the head of clean design AND allude to Detroit's sad metropolitan struggles. Hey, that tire's on fire! Just like the dreams of thousands of blue collar workers who once built autos for the whole world! Exciting.

Detroit 2009: Feel the crushing civic depression!

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It was just a few months ago that the National Association of Basketball Coaches decried the latest hot new thing in recruiting: taking commitments from extraordinarily young players. By "young," I mean 13- and 14-year-old naifs barely out of middle school, kids that should probably be, like, playing for fun, or something. We can all probably agree that it's a bad idea to recruit such youngsters -- it's exploitative and creepy and lowers the already-drooping bar for how employees of higher institutions should behave.

The decision was a smart one by the NABC. It allowed them to openly "ban" the practice and show the casual viewing public -- and bloggers that like to make fun of college coaches for generally being horrible people -- that they got it. Unfortunately, they have no way to enforce their decree, and Billy Donovan, after taking a commitment from ninth-grader Austin Rivers, is once again telling the NABC to shove it:

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All the way back in April, MJD officially declared Derrick Caracter's career over, and with good reason. Caracter had just announced his intention go pro despite constant weight problems and an inability to capitalize on his insane talent. "Damn Shame" was lazy, fat, and, at that moment, entirely self-delusional. But especially fat.

Since then, Caracter has staged something of a comeback. When he realized that no one in the NBA wanted anything to do with him, it seemed as if he would transfer, even as he was telling anyone who would listen that he was back on Louisville's team. (This was news to Pitino.) Now, it appears as if the two have worked something out -- Pitino will allow Caracter back on the team in 2009-2010 if Derrick can get his act together for a year.

This should be good.

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Goodness, this offseason is long. Have I mentioned that yet? The season has been over for a little while, and besides a smattering of stories here and there, the thing just marches on and never relents and COME ON IS IT BASKETBALL SEASON YET? No. No it is not. It's not even football season. Yikes.

But enough of my whining. It's hard enough for a college basketball blogger to make hay in the offseason -- it's going to be even worse for North Carolina, who are the hands-down favorites to win the NCAA title despite it not even being August yet. Expectations are bad enough in-season, but at the All-Star break? Good luck, kids:

It’s only July, yet the six players at Monday’s offseason interview session were already hearing questions about whether they can live up to the expectations and even whether they could go unbeaten. The players are quick to say they can handle all that even as they acknowledge the importance of keeping their focus amid the hype. “It’s going to be hard because everyone’s going to be talking to us about it and asking about it and pushing for someone to say they’re going to guarantee a national championship,” Frasor said.

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There has not been a Final Four in my lifetime that wasn't called by Billy Packer. For as long as I've known of hardwood floors, orange basketballs, and 10-foot rims, I've known of Billy Packer. That's been my life as a college basketball fan.

But that comes to an end in 2009, as the legendarily grumpy Packer has been removed from CBS's NCAA tournament coverage. I don't know if they simply notified him with a phone call, or if it took a team of 14 angry lumberjacks to actually chisel his crusty old buttocks out of the chair, but he's out.

From the Miami Herald:

CBS has decided to replace Packer, 68, with studio analyst Clark Kellogg on its lead announcing team.

An announcement is expected Monday, but CBS representative Leslie Anne Wade confirmed the story Sunday night.

CBS believed the time was right for a change and that Kellogg deserved a chance to work with Jim Nantz on the lead team.

Packer says he's going to pursue "other projects in basketball," presumably, driving around to all of the mid-major programs in the country and punching their head coaches in the stomach.

I guess that's how Packer as a Final Four institution will be remembered; as a curmudgeonly fellow who didn't have a great amount of respect for mid-major programs, but made up for it with a more than healthy respect for the ACC. Honestly, I don't know of a lot of people who ever enjoyed his work.

That said, even if there was a little too much Archie Bunker in him, he was also very honest, blunt, and willing to share his knowledge of basketball. He taught the viewing audience about the game. And for anyone to hold down such a prestigious gig for 34 consecutive years is remarkable. That will never be topped.

Welcomed in to the seat next to Jim Nantz at the Final Four table is Clark Kellogg, who previously worked as a studio analyst through the NCAA tournament. It's unfair to judge Kellogg before he has a chance to actually do it, but I will say this: I've always found -- and I'm not alone in this -- CBS's NCAA tournament studio show to be bland, dry, unentertaining, and uninformative.

If it were up to me, they'd have sent Bill Raftery in, Jerome.

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Former Arizona recruit Brandon Jennings is heading to Europe, and in response, Arizona head coach Lute Olson is heading to BitterOldManville. Lute is now swearing off potential "one-and-done" kids forever.

"It's a situation now that if someone's a 'one-and-done,' we're not going to pursue them anymore, no way," Olson said from his Tucson office.

[...]

Olson, 73, a basketball Hall of Fame member who guided the Wildcats to a 1997 NCAA title, labels the so-called one-and-done situation a "farce," and is pushing for reform as a member of the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches.

Olson suggests that elite prep players be given a choice: opt to declare for the NBA draft immediately after high school, or be committed to spending a minimum of two years (Olson would prefer three) in college.

Tubby Smith, Tim Floyd, and Jim Boeheim are also quoted in the article, and they're all still salivating over one-and-done guys. When Boeheim was asked if he'd stop recruiting one-and-done players, he said, "Are you crazy?"

Lute isn't coping very well with losing Jerryd Bayless to the NBA Draft, either. And on this subject, he actually sounds far whinier.

"Jerryd said all along he wanted to stay here two years," Olson said. "But then you get the agents working on the kids and parents all year. You might have the kid in your controlled environment for some time, but when [outsiders are] on the parents, you have no idea what's going on."

I've got all the respect in the world for you, Lute, but come on. Your sour grapes are not necessarily an indication of a broken system.

Let's be realistic. Jerryd Bayless was a lottery pick. He went 11th overall, and could have gone much higher. Maybe the system we have isn't perfect, but it doesn't take some overwhelmingly powerful force of corruption to tell a kid that if he's going to be a lottery pick, that he should go. A lot of coaches give this same advice to players.

Myself, I don't see what's so terrible about the system. Would anyone argue that one year of Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose, and OJ Mayo was bad for college basketball? This last year was fantastic. Largely because of those guys.

At the end of the day, I'm afraid that what we have here is a coach who's frustrated by the fact that he doesn't have a point guard. I feel for you, Lute, but ... if you're looking for someone to blame, you can feel free to find a mirror.

If you're going to recruit a guy as talented as Jerryd Bayless, and another guy as talented as Brandon Jennings, who also can't make the grades ... you probably ought to have a back-up plan. If anyone's guilty of wronging the Arizona program here, it's the head coach who should have planned better. Things change, and you've got to change with them.

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On the left: hopeful, fresh Teddy. On the right: ehhhh.

Weirdness of the day: Former Florida standout Teddy Dupay was charged a month ago for beating and raping a woman at a Utah ski resort. For his trouble, he got to pose for this brilliant mug shot, which, in case you're confused, is most definitely the photo on the right.

MJD's coverage of Matt Jones' mug shot today was spot on, and I thought it couldn't get any more disturbing than Jones' wide-awake, cocaine-infused eyes, but I dare say this Teddy Dupay shot wins the day. Seriously. That hair? Is this 1989? Is Dupay auditioning for a role in a Miami Vice spinoff?  What on Earth is going on?

Anyway, Dupay will be arraigned Monday, and the details of his case are sordid and damning. They involve marks on bodies and the words "got a little rough" and all sorts of other inferences one makes when discussing rape cases. It's probably best to not get into it here. I'd prefer to just stare into those haunting, pastel-enhanced eyes.

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Pictured: Demar DeRozan, Jerime Anderson, Malcolm Lee and Greg Monroe

Those of us that follow college hoops have been falling over ourselves for the past day describing Brandon Jennings' situation as "trailblazing." In fact, while there's a chance Jennings' decision changes the way recruits look at their options, just as great is the potential that Jennings fails in Europe and scares away any potential second-wave Euro recruits. Anything could happen.

Still, as Pete Thamel wrote in the New York Times yesterday, other recruits are keeping an eye on Jennings:

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