Won’t Somebody Think About the Kids?

Tipoff

We have to talk about bylaws. The Horizon League, like every other conference, has them. Those bylaws state that when a member institution leaves the conference, the student-athletes that belong to the departing institution will be barred from participating in the postseason tournaments hosted by the scorned conference. On one hand, it makes sense that there would be punishments for conference members to depart for greener (as in, money) pastures. The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is leaving for the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) next season. The Horizon League on Wednesday announced the UIC athletes would not be allowed to participate in next month’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments (or any other winter or spring sport, for that matter). Those are the bylaws, after all.

Those bylaws were written by the “adults” at the member institutions, the athletic departments. The athletes at those member institutions were not involved in those bylaws however many years ago nor in the recent decision by UIC to leave for the MVC. The athletes had every belief they would be able to compete for that coveted NCAA tournament bid when they signed up to play this season. Only now, mere weeks before the tournaments, the adults in the room have told them “those are the rules.”

Rules can be changed. The adults in this situation need to get together and figure out how to shift the burden back to their own shoulders. The Horizon League could, for example, withhold payments to member institutions that typically get paid out after each basketball season. Each conference gets a payment from the NCAA based on how many teams participate and advance in the men’s basketball tournament. Whatever bylaws they have should be thrown out and rewritten to avoid this shameful display of following the rules.

The Mixtape 

The Field of 68 team puts out lots of great content each week. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

• On the Field of 68, we had “Fielding the 68,” our very own bracketology special. Host Ky McKeon of Three Man Weave, Lukas Harkins of Heat Check MBB, and Andy Bottoms of Inside the Hall went through their brackets, beginning with the basics of seeding and developing the bracket. This is the most in-depth bracketology show you will get, brought to you by real, live bracketologists. Lukas is so dedicated to bracketology, he doesn’t even have time to take down the Christmas tree well into February. That’s dedication, folks!

• Besides brackets, you must be hearing a lot about analytics this time of year. No name is bigger in college basketball analytics than Ken Pomeroy, host of the wildly popular website kenpom.com. Pomeroy joined the Miller Brothers, Archie and Sean, to talk about tempo-free stats, the weather, curling, and anything else that popped into his mind.

• On After Dark, Jeff Goodman, Sport Illustrated’s Kevin Sweeny, and Randolph Childress played the most fun college hoops game show, “Fraud or For Real!” Are Duke, Michigan State, UCLA, and others facing the usual hiccups during the season or putting a bandage over more serious problems? For more from Randolph Childress, check out my interview with him in Four Point Play, below.

Four Point Play 

Every week, we’ll check in with one of our podcast hosts and see what they’re up to besides producing compelling content for us at The Field of 68.

This week, we checked in with Randolph Childress, former Wake Forest standout, NBA player, assistant coach, and frequent guest of the Field of 68: After Dark! show.

1. You have been around the ACC as a player, coach, and parent of an ACC player for nearly 3 decades at this point. With just one ranked team and at most 5 teams with a realistic shot at reaching the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this season, how did the conference get to this point and what is it going to take to get back to being the premier conference again?

• To the honest, some of it is transition. The business of collegiate athletics is moving really fast. The ACC that I played in is not the one that is going on now. There is a lot of change going on with legendary coaches. You had Rick Pitino. You still have Jim Boeheim still, Coach K stepping down at the end of this year, Roy Williams stepping down last year. Some people want to take a wait-and-see approach with those programs. We don’t know what those teams will look like. It is difficult to commit to a university when there is so much uncertainty. This is a down year, but I believe it will respond.

1. Things got a little interesting on Monday night when Virginia went into Durham and knocked off Duke. How do you see the race for the ACC playing out down the stretch? Who is winning the conference regular season title and major awards?

• If I had to say Coach of the Year, Steve Forbes, Jim Larranaga is right there. Steve Forbes is the guy right now, but there is a lot of basketball left to be played. Where Wake Forest was picked and where they sit right now, how could you not say Steve Forbes. I would say Mike Brey is another guy. For Player of the Year, people are going to say that I am a homer, but how could you not go with Alondes Willliams? You could not have told me before the start of the year that this was what we would see from him. Unless you are telling me Trae Young was playing in front of him at Oklahoma, I don’t know who was starting in front of him at Oklahoma. Nobody saw that one coming. That race is all but over. I think Duke is the most talented team in the league. I know they lost to Virginia. I covered the last two Virginia games before that and was not surprised by what I saw. They are playing their best basketball right now. Some of their guys are getting better on offense. That staff felt they could split the two games with Duke, although they didn’t think they would get that game at Duke. Virginia has been the best program in the ACC, year-in and year-out, the last 5-7 years.

1. Let’s talk about your Demon Deacons. They have been one of the few bright spots in the ACC this season. What has second-year head coach Steve Forbes done to get Wake Forest back in contention so soon?

• He got old and he got old fast. That is the name of the game right now. For one, he is great, he has a magnetic personality. He is someone you enjoy being around. He allows you to play and gives you so much confidence. I know that was an issue when I was there. To get transfers into the university was not that easy. You can see what has happened now with the one-time transfer portal and transfer rules. Most teams are going to get old and stay old. That is the name of the game right now. There are three freshmen this year that are the cream of the crop, including Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren, and Jabari Smith. Some of the other guys just need more time. What Coach Forbes has done, he has an older team. When you have experience, you have a shot. Duke has all that talent, but they are a very young team.

And one!

1. You recently got to broadcast your first in-person game as an analyst for the ACC Network. Looking back at your playing career, you are most well-known for that signature move during the 1995 ACC tournament where you crossed over UNC’s Jeff McInnis to the point that he fell over, motioned to him to stand up, and then hit a jumper over him. Now that you are calling games, what do you want to be your signature line when a player does something special like that? If you don’t have one catchphrase yet, what are the leading contenders?

• You know what, some of my friends have told me that I have to get a catch phrase. Whatever comes to me will come. I just want it to be natural. I have gotten a lot of advice, and what everyone has said is to be who I am. It’s been great, the atmosphere. It’s been an adjustment. It is the game action and then the postgame interview. We can be live at halftime, for 30 seconds, or for 2 minutes. I don’t have a catch phrase yet. What I can tell, is you can no longer cross anyone up and tell them to get up because you would get a technical these days. 

Stay tuned for upcoming episodes of Field of 68: After Dark! to hear more from Randolph Childress.

Thursday Superlatives

Each week, we will shine a light on a team and an individual player that has captured the hearts of the world of college basketball.

• Team of the Week: Gonzaga

  • I’ll be completely honest; I don’t really want to write about Gonzaga here. Sure, the Bulldogs have been impressive, laying waste to WCC defenses yet again. BYU is a likely at-large team this year. No matter, as the Bulldogs ran them out of the gym on Saturday night, 90-57, in Provo no less. I really want to highlight Chet Holmgren. The thin power forward has been on a tear of late. He splashes 3’s off the dribble. He blocks shots, grabs the rebound, navigates the court in transition, and finds teammates for easy layups. After a slow start to his season, he is displaying the full arsenal of skills that have made him a must-see prospect since his days playing high school basketball in Minnesota. Prepare for the bright lights of the NCAA Tournament, Mr. Holmgren. 

• Player of the Week: Caitlyn Clark, Iowa  

  • We need to preface this by observing the midcourt logo inflation affecting college basketball. Midcourt logos are huge these days. Still, when you can pull up from the logo off the dribble and splash the net, you have what the kids call “range.” Caitlyn Clark of Iowa has more than that. She is a baller, a certified bucket, and so on and so forth. The nation’s leading scorer is doing incredible things for the Hawkeyes, including when she scored 46 points in a game at Michigan last week.

Box Score

Basketball can be told through the numbers. We take a look at some of the numbers from the last week of college hoops.

• 1,000. Purdue University became the first men’s team to reach 1,000 wins in the Big Ten conference on Saturday. Congrats to Field of 68’s own Robbie Hummel for the prominent spot on the graphic. He looks unsure of what to do next. I assume he shot the ball. (Purdue Men’s Basketball)

• 65. Texas Tech head coach, 65 years old, is the oldest head coach to ever reach the AP Poll Top 10 for the first time in his career. By less than a year, he beat out Phog Allen, the guy who shares the name of Allen Field House at Kansas University. (Jared Berson, ESPN Stats & Info)

• 4. Noah Batchelor, a 6’6” forward from IMG Academy of Florida, became the 4th and final high school senior to decommit from Memphis. Batchelor announced that he is reopening his recruitment while Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway commented that he plans on relying more on transfers and experienced players rather than younger players. (Memphis Commercial Appeal)

• 2. Generally speaking, spitting on someone is rude. It’s also illegal and in very poor taste during a pandemic. UCLA’s Mac Etienne, disgusted with the fans and losing at Arizona, was arrested after spitting on Arizona fans twice following the game. (USA Today)

• 1. Arkansas has played its home games at Bud Walton Arena since the building opened in 1994. In spite of sharing a conference with frequent AP Top 25-ranked teams, including Kentucky and Florida, the Razorbacks had never faced the AP #1-ranked team in the nation until Auburn played there Tuesday night. It was an explosive atmosphere as the home team took down the Tigers in overtime. (Andrew Hutchinson, HawgBeat)

Around the Rim

This section highlights some of the best writing on college basketball to hit the web. Consider these your extra credit assignments for spring semester.

• Stadium | Why Do So Many Former NBA Players Struggle as College Coaches?

• Heat Check MBB | NCAA Tournament Bubble Watch 2022: What will it take to reach March Madness?

• Sports Illustrated | He Looks Like a Lineman and Plays Like a PG. He’s David Roddy—the Man in the Arena.