Monday, February 26, 2007

Basketball-heavy Sports Stars of Tomorrow

This week's edition of Sports Stars of Tomorrow is basketball heavy as it has features on some high profile 2007 basketball players: Kevin Love (UCLA), Anthony Randolph (LSU), Jerryd Bayless (Arizona; no relation to reporter Skip Bayless) and Michael Beasley (Kansas State). Beasley said that he is trying to get a couple of his (basketball) friends to commit to Huggins State as well. Looks like Huggins is thriving away from Nancy and the other University of Cincinatti administrators/beauraucrats.

Update Tue 2/27/07: Thanks Kansas State fans for reading this blog. Fortunately I did not delete that episode, so I went back and played that segment again: The player names mentioned by Michael Beasley were Thomas Manzano and Greg Hill from Bridgeton. The episode aired last Saturday, however, I do not know when the interview actually took place. Sports Stars of Tomorrow is a magazine-type show with some features repeating. The Scout.com profiles: Manzano, Hill

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7 comments:

kkcat said...

As a fan of KSU I sure hope Beasley brings in some more talent with him. But I have been watching coach Huggs for a long time and he will get our program a little more respect, but he is NOT GOING TO TAKE US OR ANY OTHER TEAM TO THE PROMISE LAND because he is far from an elite coach.

ncaahoops said...

Are you a KSU fan or a KU fan with a KSU nickname? :-)

Huggins didn't have this type of talent (Billy Walker, Michael Beasley, Dom Sutton) the last few years at Cincinatti. When he had the talent (eg Kenyon Martin) he did quite well.

As far as being an elite coach, well he may not be at the same level as Roy Williams or Rick Pitino or Lute Olson or Jim Calhoun, but he is a couple of steps behind...

kkcat said...

No I am not a Ku fan by any means, Bite your tongue.
I Have a friend who relocated to Cincinnati many years ago and called me and told me not to get so excited over the Huggins hiring.
He told me that Huggins would always when against the teams he supposed to beat but cannot beat teams that are ranked. Well I did some investigating and he was absolutely right. His record is horrible against ranked teams. And it is happening this year as well. The record looks pretty good, but the quality wins are not there. Now with that being said I hope it does not go like this after this year, but if history has anything to say about it we are going to be some very disappointed fans.

Anonymous said...

Your first mistake was talking with somebody from UC. Most are so pissed he is gone and they are so horrible this year that they will say anything to try and make them feel better about the situation.

I'm not sold that you are a true KSU fan or that you know ANYTHING about Huggins and his coaching abilities. UC was in CUSA which didn't allow Huggins to recruit All-Americans every year. He was successful with average players. Some of them he was able to turn into All-Conference & All-American players that for one shows what kind of coach he is. He wasn't CUSA COY all those years for nothing.

To say he isn't doing great things at KSU this season shows you know nothing about basketball. He is dealing with a team that aren't his type of players. Next year you will see a glimpse of the kind of guys Huggins likes to deal with. Guys that LOVE to play tough defense. Being in the Big 12 will help him recruit top players but honestly some of you KSU fans don't deserve the success.

ncaahoops said...

Actually this season Huggins exceeded all expectations. Even with Billy Walker playing they were not expected to be an NCAA team this year, yet he is on the NCAA bubble without Billy Walker.

As far as previous years at UC, well all coaches have their bumps on the road, and it also has a certain level of luck and randomness. His last few years were not as successful as the early years, burt part of that may have been the deterioration of the relationship and diminishing support from the administration/beauraucrats. For example if Kenyon Martin didn't get injured, they could have easily been a national champion that year, which would have brought propelled the program to another level...

kkcat said...

Anonymous I am sorry that I struck a nerve with you. My buddy is far from a UC fan as he is also a KSU alum. Huggins was definitely an upgrade at UC as well as KSU but he is far from an elite coach. As for all of his wins and coach of the year, well you said it when you mentioned conference USA. It was a pitiful league. Next year we will see and I hope I am wrong. But I have seen him get out coached many times. His teams talent will keep them in the game in the first half and the other coach will adjust and the games over. Great recruiter, SO SO coach.

ncaahoops said...

While Conference USA wasn't at the level of the six "bcs" leagues, it wasn't pitiful by any stretch. In fact its swan song was six NCAA bids, and it produced Final Four teams such as Marquette and Louisville in the 200s.

The new Conference-USA is definately not a strong league, but the years Huggins was there, it wasn't a "pitiful" conference.

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