Sr. writer/analyst/podcast host for @CBSSports, @CBSSportsHQ. Infrequent host—@RecordsandRiffs pod. Guitar player, wannabe drummer 🎶 I hope you're having fun🎶
Dec 11, 2022 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
Want to briefly thread out few pieces from some great writers on Grant Wahl—because the stories are good but also because it still feels surreal he's gone.
CBB fans may remember this story from May. The idea: Pit 200+ teams across the U.S. against each other in mid-Feb, after the Super Bowl. In late Jan., metrics determine matchups for noncon week of games. Unfortunately, the idea is dead (for now). The reason: skittish coaches. A🧵
WAC commish Brian Thornton—who helped concoct the ambitious plan—told me not enough leagues were willing to do this starting w/ the '23-24 season. Seven leagues were in, but the geography + travel logistics of it necessitated at least 10 leagues linking East-to-West be involved.
Oct 18, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Big East commissioner Val Ackerman tells @CBSSports the Big East is currently "good at 11" and not actively looking to expand to more members. Also confirms that the conference was involved in informal expansion talks with multiple schools in the spring and summer. (1/x)
Ackerman said that if the Big East were ever to expand, the most ideal time would coincide with the league's new media rights deal, which will begin on July 1, 2025. "We're keeping our eye on what's happening elsewhere, because we're kind of on the sidelines right now ... " (2/x)
Oct 17, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
With UNC earning the preseason No. 1 ranking, it means the Tar Heels break their tie with Duke.
UNC has been No. 1 in the preseason AP poll 10 times — the most in men's college basketball history.
What's more, No. 4 Kentucky is ranked for the 940th time, the most in history.
Creighton coming in at No. 9 is a preseason school record. Previous preseason high was No. 11 two years ago.
Arkansas at No. 10 represents the Hogs' highest preseason ranking since 1994-95, when the Razorbacks were the reigning national champions.
Mar 15, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
It’s now Tuesday on the East Coast and Colorado St—which is scheduled to play the first game of Thursday’s first round—still has not been told by the NCAA when and how it is flying to Indy to play in the NCAA Tournament, Rams coach Niko Medved tells CBS Sports.
Not normal. (1/x)
Medved—"It's 10 o'clock and we don't know when we're flying to Indianapolis and we don't have any answers yet. It makes it very difficult to plan your day tomorrow as far as practice and preparation right now, especially when we're scheduled for the first game of the tournament."
Mar 15, 2022 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
If you're looking to delve into some podcast goodness to get you properly amped for the NCAA Tournament, we've got five special episodes in the feed and on the YouTube channel ready for ya. Here's the Apple Pods link, if you're not already subscribed. bit.ly/3qafCnP
Some YouTube videos:
Selection Sunday special. GP and I dressed up and everything. (And I may have been recording from Dexter's kill room.)
Nov 3, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
"I am profoundly disappointed, dismayed and disgusted by the NCAA’s decision," OSU AD Chad Weiberg begins his press conference.
Link here:
Mike Boynton is crying and naming members of the NCAA enforcement staff involved in the case
"There was a single NCAA violation. A single player received $300. One player. Not a recruit, not a future recruit, not a family member. One player received $300. A secondary violation."
Nov 3, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING—The NCAA rejected Oklahoma State’s appeal and has banned the MBB program from the 2022 postseason, sources told @CBSSports. This is the first postseason ban handed down by the NCAA in relation to the 2017 FBI investigation into bribery/fraud in CBB recruiting.
@CBSSports Details on this story (with more to come): cbssports.com/college-basket…
Apr 28, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The NCAA Board of Governors made official on Wednesday the one-time transfer exception, allowing every D-I athlete to transfer without having to sit out if and when they decide to transfer for a first time. But if you thought this was the end of transfer confusion … think again!
The rub is what should/will happen with *grad* transfers, who for years now have been able to transfer and immediately be eligible. That is no longer the case; players who would theoretically transfer a second time as a grad transfer will have to apply for a waiver.
Jan 27, 2021 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Earlier today the NCAA sent out its latest approved protocols and schedule to select high-ranking people across the membership about the 2021 NCAA Tournament, CBS Sports has learned. This is gonna have to be a thread, since there’s plenty of new information to disclose.
All NCAAT-qualifying teams within 350 miles of Indianapolis will be required to travel by charter bus. And in an effort to combat COVID-19 positives that could surface after arrival in Indianapolis, teams’ traveling parties will split up into three busses.
Nov 29, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
SJU returned a positive result on Saturday evening, source told CBS Sports. It was tested on Saturday AM b/c it was planning to play @ Mohegan Sun against Seton Hall and needed to pass those tests to clear coming to Mohegan. S. Hall opted out Saturday before test result was known
This is the situation: Saint Joe's, Gonzaga, Auburn + Kansas all tested Wednesday in Fla. Gonzaga had multiple positives in its program but the games went on. Kansas scheduled to fly to Indy today in advance of its game Tuesday vs. UK. Kansas played Zags on Thurs, Joe's on Friday
Nov 28, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
The Seton Hall-Saint Joe’s game being nixed hours after it was announced was curious. It’s also a prime example of just how precarious CBB scheduling is/has become in 2020 and why even things that officially get announced aren’t set in stone. Here’s what happened, per sources …
Joe's was so willing to play SHU at Mohegan that it flew out of Fla. as quickly as possible Friday; the game was agreed to Fri evening. Organizers paid to have Hartford Healthcare’s COVID tests driven from CT to Philadelphia super early Saturday AM so Joe’s could clear protocols.
Nov 28, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I can’t fully boil this into one or two tweets, but Jim Boeheim (who had COVID-19) is on ESPN and advocating for CBB teams to not shut down for 14 days if a player tests positive for COVID, cites SU's regulations and safeguards and suggests it’s excessive to pause for two weeks.
Citing lack of data suggesting transmission happens during competition. Also explaining the extreme measures Syracuse goes to to not have its players near each other for more than even a couple minutes during practice, no more than 4 guys in the locker room. (It was on ESPN2.)
Nov 27, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Jay Wright tells me he is open to playing one more game at Mohegan Sun this weekend if an opponent can be secured ASAP. Wright and VU love the environment here and feel securing another opponent would be prudent from a scheduling perspective. We’ll have an answer on this tomorrow
Anybody still up? The decision is in at 1:45 a.m.—Villanova is staying for another game in Bubbleville and will play Virginia Tech at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, source tells CBS Sports. Game is currently scheduled to be broadcast on ESPNews.
Oct 25, 2020 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
THREAD: College basketball’s season starts a month from today, but behind the scenes, according to sources, widespread concern is quickly escalating over the stability -- if not survival -- of every Orlando-based ESPN event. This is a huge deal.
That’s more than two dozen teams, many of them from power conferences, whose late November/early December schedules have suddenly come up for grabs. This has been a staggering late-October plot twist in the scheduling game.
Feb 10, 2020 • 11 tweets • 6 min read
Many have a Kobe story; Ryan Badrtalei has hundreds. Most don’t know Kobe's path from All-Star to NBA 🐐 cut through the school in his backyard: UC Irvine. This is how a UCI assistant privately became Kobe’s longtime trainer and confidant—untold until now. cbssports.com/college-basket…
Will thread out some photos and context to Ryan and Kobe's friendship. Most of these images have never been seen before. they crystallize the connection between Kobe, Irvine and how Badrtalei got as close as almost anyone outside the NBA w/ Kobe in the second half of his career
Apr 25, 2019 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Today in federal court, FBI video wiretaps were played that included former USC assistant coach Tony Bland talking to Christian Dawkins about establishing a recruitment and payment scheme for then-prospect Marvin Bagley III.
Another video wiretap was played that included Clemson assistant coach Steve Smith talking to Christian Dawkins and an undercover FBI agent about the recruitment and potential payments to be made to Zion Williamson's family. These wiretaps were caught in July of 2017.
