Vitale makes outrageous comments about restricting recruits while coaches fly away to millions

Dick Vitale is loud and obnoxious, but this time he was serious when he claimed that players should not be allowed to "follow" a coach if there is a coaching change before they arrive on campus.

This is BULLCRAP! The coaches are leaving the universities just like that because someone offers 2 million instead of 1 million, yet the players, according to Vitale, should not be free to follow the coach.

Well, here is a newsflash. When it comes to committing to colleges, with collegiate sports, it is more like graduate school. In Graduate School, students want to do research under a certain professor, that's why they pick a certain graduate school. Similarly, a basketball student-athlete is like a graduate student in terms of basketball, they are "learning" and doing "R&D" under the coach.

If the coach leaves, their "R&D" is not what they signed up for. They signed up to do "R&D" with the said coach. If anyone is to be held accountable, it is the coach for leaving.

Of course no one is going to do that, because coaches (and colleges) make the rules and everyone gives coaches the golden glove treatment.

So who is left to screw? Why, who else, the student-athletes!

Dick Vitale, you are an IDIOT!

How do you get two big centers to commit together?

If you have been watching Louisville play in the Big East, you would ask yourself, "how did Rick Pitino manage to get two top freshmen centers"? You would be asking of course about Samardo Samuels and Terrence Jennings. Both have their specialties and skills set but they are both very very promising collegiate players. So how do you manage to convince both of them to commit together in the same recruiting class?

One way to do this is if you are Rick Pitino. Not necessarily because you are Rick Pitino, but because you point them to the scoreboard. About ten years ago, there was a certain Pitino era at Kentucky who won 2.5 national championships. And during that era one would find two very good centers in the team, Nazr Mohamed and Jamal Magloire. They may have played split the position when they played, but they certainly did not split their big NBA paychecks later on.

So Pitino (or other coaches) can sell the Nazr/Magloire potential to their prospective recruits.

Oak Hill Academy vs Montrose Christian (March 6)

ESPN2 is planning to show another high profile high-school game on March 6, at 7pm eastern (4pm pacific). The game will feature the "high school team" of the college-star-factory Oak Hill Academy visiting Montrose Christian of Bethesda (Maryland, not Israel).

The stars colliding in these game are two Villanova forwards, Isaiah Armwood and Mouphtaou Yarou, going up against Stephen Smith's crew, which is headlined by Keith Gallon who is planning to go to Oklahoma.

This is also a good way to scout future stars, so you can be the first to know in your sports bar or blog when people hear their names next year!

Classic High School games on ESPN Classic

There are two classic high-school basketball games scheduled to be shown on ESPN Classic in the next few days, so set up your VCRs and VCRs!

First up, tomorrow, Sunday February 22nd, at 11am eastern, you can watch a one-and-a-half hour edit of the classic 1954 game of Milan vs Muncie, a true Hoosiers story. That's right, the game is from 1954. Don't expect the footage to shine on your 50" HDTV, but you are watching living history!

Next up, a much more modern game, from 2002, LeBron James goes up against the Oak Hill Academy. This game will be shown on ESPN Classic at 1:30pm eastern time on March 6.

ESPN Classic has a live feed like ESPN and ESPN2, so there is no east/west-coast time like cable channels that offer "canned" shows.

McDonalds all-American selection show recap on ESPN2

Tonight, well actually, Thursday very early in the morning, ESPN2 will be showing a 30-minute recap of the 2009 McDonalds All-American selection show. The show will air (obviously tape-delayed) at 4:30am (Thursday) on ESPN2.

We do not have access to ESPNU, so we don't know if there is a longer special or a live special there. Sadly ESPN and Comcast continue their petty squabble and until they behave like grown-ups and FIX IT (to quote the guy from "SNL") we are boycotting ESPNU listings.

T-Mobile Showcase 2009 highlights on CSTV (CBS College Sports)

If you missed the 2009 version of the T-Mobile Showcase (Invitational) that aired on CBS College Sports (CSTV) during the holiday season, fear not!

CBS-CS has created a one-hour highlights special and it is showing it multiple times on CSTV. Check CSTV.com or your local tv listings for the exact dates and times. Or if you have a localized edition of CSTV, eg "the Mtn".

There were four men teams and four women teams, including Lawrence North (without Greg Oden!), South Atlanta, Duncanville and Garfield featuring some of the top recruits of 2009 and beyond. This please note was a high-school tournament, not an "all-star" type of game, so you don't get all the recruits in one place.

But a number of people think the high-school games can be more informative since you can see the recruits in a regular team environment where wins and losses actually matter and count.

Teamate star-wings end up being over-rated?m

We have seen this theme in the last few years. Look at Henderson and Ellington. They are nowhere near as good as their hype coming out of high-school.

And ask the Oregon and Kentucky fans about Hairston and Crawford, not exactly the players that were supposed to be when they were playing together in HS.

We are only talking about two wings on the same team, not any two teammates; for example, Oden and Conley continued to be awesome and awesome-r later on in college!