Hooray For Links! February 21

I was never a big proponent of doing link dumps and the like on this site because, well, it didn't really make sense to me. Why would I simply reproduce things that are already out there? But as I did my own scouring of the Intertubes for college hoops content, I realized there was just too much quality (and, at times, utterly awful) stuff out there to simply leave untapped. So I give you Hooray For Links! which should appear at completely random intervals. Because without links, it's not really a blog, it's just a place to put thoughts I might not want to forget.

Them links be after the jump.
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- Before we get into anything of substance, great Louisville blog Card Chronicle shares this video of a rapping UL fan, makes world worse place. Reminds me of a young Ghostface. I really should've dedicated a single post to this.

- I really enjoyed Grant Wahl's article in Sports Illustrated a couple weeks ago on the Dribble-Drive Motion Offense that everyone seems so excited about. Now, if you aren't a hardcore basketball person, this whole piece is a waste of your time. It's an in-depth look at how the philosophy was originated, how it works, who is using it and what personnel suits it best. If you enjoy dunks, cheerleaders and screaming at the TV, you probably shouldn't read this. Anyway, the DDM offense has been made most popular by John Calipari and Memphis, which is odd because the Tigers don't really have the ideal players (i.e. jumpshooters) for the offense. But they do have Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts, who are both perfect for the penetration and kick offense. They also have Joey Dorsey, who is ideal for this offense because it requires no post scorer and puts a team's big man on the weak side of the ball for offensive rebounds and drive-and-dishes. Still, you wonder if the shooting will be Memphis' tragic flaw. The offense was created by Vance Walberg, who was a JuCo coach at the time, then got a job at Pepperdine and recently resigned/got fired (the one problem with the article is it makes little mention of Walberg's tenure and departure at Pepperdine). Over 300 teams across the country, at all levels of play, now use it and the article contains praise from Larry Brown and Bob Hurley. So if your retinas aren't singed from Bruce Pearl's suit (by the way, the Vols are perfect for DDM and they don't run it), look for that offense Saturday night.

- Kansas State Head Coach and Crazy Person, Frank Martin seems to be getting a lot of love for KSU's success this season and this feature by Chip Brown at the Dallas Morning News continues that trend. Martin, despite being a raging lunatic on the sidelines, actually does seem like he cares about his kids and knows the game. HOWEVA, he still has a very shady past and it seems like no one knows about it besides me and Robert Andrew Powell, the Miami New Times reporter who broke the 1998 story on Martin fabricating addresses for the state champion high school team he coached (which included Steve Blake and Udonis Haslem), an investigation that led to his resignation. Certainly people deserve second chances and performance speaks for itself, but read the 1998 story and then read Brown's feature and see if there aren't some serious contradictions in some of Martin's "do it the right way" quotes.

- I don't like pointing out when I'm right -- actually, who am I kidding, of course I do -- but back at the end of January I had post on the four teams I thought were capable of winning a championship. I picked Kansas, UNC, UCLA... and Louisville. The CHN message board destroyed me for this at the time and much time-wasting vitriol ensued. Well we all know what Louisville has done since and in a recent post at the fabulous Basketball Prospectus the fabulous Ken Pomeroy (I'm not gay) pegged the Cardinals as his "No. 6" team behind the obvious top five of Memphis, Duke, UNC, Kansas and UCLA (this was posted on Feb. 13, so I figure Tennessee is now in there, moving Louisville to No. 7... but I was still right! /stares into distance).

- I've been following the bizarre story of Tim Parmeter, Eastern Arizona JuCo coach who, as originally reported by Gary Parrish, was coaching through the murder-suicide of his ex-wife and child but was recently fired amid allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a 16-year old while he was married. I'm not going to elaborate any further on it, and I've gotten some comments here that were both interesting and abhorrent, but if you haven't seen this bizarre story, here is a good follow up from the Arizona Republic.

- I'm really sick of the Kelvin Sampson thing and, besides posting on The Big Lead's anonymous source that said he was going to be fired last Friday which obviously turned out to be wrong, I'm going to ignore it on here. But this piece from Andy Katz served as a great one-stop source for all the nonsense surround Sampson.

- Against all odds, ESPN.com's college basketball coverage has been outstanding lately. In the beginning of the year they just seemed to regurgitate the same played-out storylines but there have been a number of really good, deep pieces lately. I'd like to think a big part of that is the addition of Philly's own Dana O'Neill, former Philly Daily News writer, who turned in a GREAT feature on Alcorn State and the unglamorous life of basketball in the SWAC. It's long but a great read for those sick of the power conference slobbering.

- Keeping with the ESPN theme, Chris Low takes a good look at the long, hard journey of Tennessee-Martin's Lester Hudson, who is one of the most talented players in the country. Hudson has overcome a rough childhood and academic problems to make it to Division I, and he is probably is good enough to play in the major conferences.

- And one more to throw at you, Heather Dinich's feature on Towson junior Tony Durant, who just happens to be the older brother of Kevin Durant. It's a great look at the odd emotional predicament Kevin's success has caused for Tony, who I somehow didn't even know about until I read this piece.

- Two posts from fellow Ravenous Shark Fightin' Blue Hen Dan Steinberg at the outstanding DC Sports Bog. First a great reaction to the idiot court storming from Syracuse fans when the Orange beat Georgetown at home last week. Second, an ever greater post, a report from last night's Virginia Tech-Maryland game where Dorenzo Hudson puked on the floor. If you are a sick, twisted freak here is the video.

- This Deadspin post has all sorts of Bob Knight goodness. Apparently current Nets coach and former Indiana manager was a bit of a douche back in the day, and may have taped Bob Knight giving a terrifying, profanity-laced tirade at halftime of a game, which has made its way onto the Intertubes. Within the post is the story on Frank and audio of Knight's shitstorm. And here is Terry Hutchens original story on the tape.

- Awful Announcing notices something that I too have noticed recently. Brent Musberger (pictured above) is careening toward senility (during a college game he blurts out that the Wizards want to trade Caron Butler!). Between this, his insistence on calling every player only by his first name ("What a rebound by Jamarcus") and his bonechilling ogling of Erin Andrews (I know, pot/kettle/black), I am worried Brett might poop himself during a conference championships game this year. And if only for the comment section, here is Deadspin's approval rating on Musberger. (Yes, I've also found the Brent Musberger Drinking Game, here's to binge drinking Brent!).

- This story has been written about 12 million times but in case you just can't get enough Duke-hating, some fella at MSN tries his hand at explaining why nobody likes the Blue Devils.

- From Scott Van Pelt Style, apparently former Duke forward and obnoxious towel waver Reggie Love is a bodyguard for our next President Barack Obama.

- From the motherland CHN, a nice column on Gonzaga, specifically the dichotomy between Josh Heytvelt and Jeff Pendergraft. Kinda follows a previous sentiment I had on the Zags that with all these All-Americans they have lost the scrappiness and chemistry that made those old Gonzaga teams so great.

Tim Parmeter Story Takes Odd Turn

I don't post all that much on here, so when I do get a hold of a story, I feel obligated to follow it through with updates. It's kinda weird because I've found myself following these strange stories, while ignoring others for no good reason. But I suppose that's what blogs are for. Anyway, a couple weeks ago I told you about Gary Parrish's great story on Tim Parmeter, coach of Eastern Arizona junior college. He was using coaching to cope with a horrible family tragedy where his ex-wife killed herself and their son and blamed the whole thing on him. Then I told you about Parrish's update on the story that Paremeter had been fired on allegations he had a relationship with a student. Well, as a reader passed along, the Eastern Arizona Courier has some more details on the investigation into the ordeal and, well, they aren't pretty.

The alleged victim first met Parmeter at the EAC gym and was invited to Parmeter's office along with a friend, according to police reports. Parmeter said he was going to give them a T-shirt.

The friend eventually headed back to the gym, leaving Parmeter and the victim alone in his office.

He kissed the girl on the mouth before she left the office, and that incident quickly escalated into a sexual relationship which was frequent in nature.

The girl, now 18 years old and a full-time student at EAC, was 16 years old when the sexual relationship began.

Parmeter and the girl started meeting several times a week and had sexual intercourse at his house and in his office.

Parmeter has denied the allegations. There were explicit e-mails found that were sent from Parmeter to the girl but he claims she gained access to his e-mail and sent them herself.

Jesus. Obviously the guy must be going through hell after what happened to his family, but if this is true it's completely indefensible. Sad story all around and even though Parrish's original piece was outstanding, it is certainly marred by these events. I guess this means the Lute Olson method of taking time off to deal with your personal issues may be the right strategy. Hope Parmeter gets his life together.

The Drake Still Loved, Pope Plays, Parmeter Story Not As Good Feely As Before

There were some interesting developments in a few stories I recently posted on, so let's update.

First, I continue to Loooooveee The Drake as the Bulldogs won the Valley battle of the unbeatens Saturday, topping Illinois State 79-73 at home. The Drake has first place all to themselves now. They won this one without Valley leading score Josh Young again, and were led by Adam Emmenecker, he of the buzzer-beater against Bradley and mid-major poster boy story (former walk-on, white, named Emmenecker). The real test for The Drake comes tomorrow night though, as they travel to Creighton, a team I found to be mighty impressive when it won at Northern Iowa on ESPN last week.

Second, in a sign that the hoops gods are certainly looking down upon this humble, albeit shallow, sports blog, the day I posted the first Drake item (linked above), they actually played The Drake episode of Seinfeld on FOX that night. The Drake, team of destiny.

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My boy Herb Pope finally played Saturday after being involved in all sorts of craziness. Haven't seen highlights because, you know, he plays for New Mexico State, but he had five points and nine rebounds in 23 minutes, getting off nine shots in the process. In a sign of just how versatile the 6-8 forward's floor game is, he also had four assists and six turnovers [REDACTED]. My obsession with Pope is well-documented and I suppose it has more to do with his flaws than his game, but in all seriousness, it's good to see this kid actually get on the court. There have been many players before him who have been through shit half as bad and screwed up half as much and let it completely derail their careers. Let's hope basketball will phase all the other crap out for Pope. And this weekend, hoops fan will get their first, and maybe only, look at Pope as the Aggies play Utah State Saturday, 6 p.m. on ESPN2. It will also be a battle of the top two teams in the WAC right now, for those of you more interested in that hotly-contested race.

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And finally, a weird update to Gary Parrish's outstanding story on Eastern Arizona head coach Tim Parmeter, which I posted on last week. Parmeter was coaching through an awful tragedy where his ex-wife committed a murder-suicide with his infant child. Well, he's not coaching anymore and it has nothing to do with grief. Parrish posted an update this morning, writing that Parmeter had been fired after being accused of having a relationship with a student at the junior college and that she might not have been of consenting age when the relationship began. There's an investigation into the case and everyone, including Parmeter, did that thing where they say they want to comment, even though they don't, but they can't because of legal issues. Not sure what to make of this and it's obviously all accusations right now, but if you've read Parrish's original story, this is certainly tough to see.

Three College Hoops Stories That Everyone Should Read

Rarely do I do link dumps but this past week I've read three of the better college basketball stories that I ever had and felt the need to pass them along. One is from Gary Parrish at CBS Sportsline, one from Wright Thompson at ESPN.com and the other from Gary Smith at Sports Illustrated, who is, for my money the best sports writer in the world. Thompson and Smith's are really long just so you know that going in.

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First, outstanding piece from the venerable Gary Parrish, who seems to "get" college basketball and its many untold stories better than anyone else out there, on Eastern Arizona JuCo coach Tim Parmeter, who is coaching through an unbelievably awful tragedy. In late December '06, in the midst of an ugly divorce from his estranged wife and after a particularly vicious argument, he came home to find her and their two-year-old son Ryan dead in his in the garage of a murder-suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Later, suicide notes were found and in one addressed to Parmeter, he was blamed for the entire ordeal:

Don't ever try to convince yourself otherwise -- this event is absolutely, completely your fault. You created it. You could have prevented it. You encouraged it. You found our pain funny. ... If I have the opportunity to haunt you, I will. ... I pray you will see our faces in your mind's eye and wonder what Ryan could have been and what we could have had if you had only chosen love.

I won't go into much further detail, I highly suggest reading the whole thing for yourself. Very well written, very well told and very powerful. Back when Lute Olson took a leave of absence to deal with his divorce I said the story put the game in a proper perspective. Not to trivialize Olson's situation, but this blows that out of the water. Although for Parmeter, who only took a week off in '06 after the events, coaching the game was therapeutic. He even held practice this year at the exact same time he found his dead ex-wife and child, 11:12 AM December 30, so he'd have something to distract him.

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Next up, I came across ESPN.com's story of former Washington State star Tony Harris' November death in Brazil. It's written by Wright Thompson, one of the better feature writers in the US, in my opinion, and while it's long, it's well worth it (the lengthiness might explain why it was only ESPN.com's lead story for a few hours yesterday, despite nothing newsworthy happening, I guess articles about the NBA All Star Game, a mere six weeks away, are more interesting).

Anyway, it's an amazingly written narrative, which is fitting because it reads more like fiction than fact. Harris, who led Kelvin Sampson's 1994 Washington State Cougars to the NCAA Tournament and was playing professionally in Brazil was experiencing some serious mental problems, specifically paranoia, resulting from a troubled adult life. The story profiles his madness, with a Heart of Darkness metaphor that is harrowing, Harris' plan to escape some unknown danger, his disappearance and the subsequent investigation by an international detective. It's a real life mystery and it's reality makes it all the more powerful. The death still hasn't yet been deemed a suicide or homicide. Like with Parrish's story on Parmeter, I'll leave it at that, but if you can handle some sadness today, it's an unbelievable read.

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Finally, Gary Smith's story on San Diego freshman Rob Jones. This story was done a month or so ago by Connelly at ESPN as a TV piece and was very well done but this article is just incredible. Jones, who is a starter and third leading scorer for San Diego, is also the grandson of notorious cult leader Jim Jones, who led the People's Temple and was responsible for a mass suicide of over 900 people. Jones' adopted son, Jim Jr. is Rob's father and avoided the mass suicide that occurred in the cult's plantation in Jonestown, Guyana because he and some other members of the Temple were playing basketball in a nearby city. Jim Jr. went through serious depression and guilt, which is ultimately being erased by Rob's interest in basketball, the game that, as Smith puts it, both ruined and saved Jim Jr.'s life.

Smith is known for his long narratives and rarely fails to deliver the goods. Even though I knew this story beforehand, to read it in his words adds a whole other dimension.

So if you've got a half hour to kill, instead of playing Solitaire, do yourself a favor and add some culture to your college hoops fandom. There will be plenty of Duke-hating, face-painting and AP poll-bashing to come.