Derek DeNote
I know you’re thinking (or perhaps bitching) that I haven’t
written a blog in while, but hey. Give me a break…apparently being a basketball
manager at a DI school doesn’t mean that I get someone that does all of my
schoolwork for me. Needless to say, I have been swamped with work, but luckily
I got back from my 4th final of the week for the final 9 minutes
left in the Indiana vs. Butler game on Saturday.
Goddamn, Brad Stevens is a great coach. If I was in charge
at Butler, I’d literally give this man whatever he wanted to stay here for
eternity (I’d even give up of being in charge and let him be in charge if
that’s what he wanted). I’d venture to say that when I kick the can, Brad Stevens
will be considered the best coach in college basketball history. He’s doing all
this at some small school with a historic arena but not nearly the amount of resources
that some of these other schools have. Stevens turned down millions and a
private jet from Illinois, so I’m certain that he is either at Butler for a
lifetime, meaning they would have to improve their facilities even more, or
Stevens has his eyes set on one singular goal and that will be the only place
he leaves for. My co-blogger, Hoov Daddy, suspects that Duke may be this
destination, and I also believe that this seems awfully plausible considering
Stevens’ brilliance may be the only one comparable to Coach K’s basketball IQ.
He is an absolute basketball genius. I feel as if he’s cheating this year too
because he has an ESPN top 100 recruit in Kellen Dunham. Stevens is sort of
handicapped by the fact that he has a shooting guard running his offense,
Rotnei Clarke though, so perhaps it balances out overall. (Now is a great time
to discuss his awesome name. Rotnei… how cool is that? I’m fan of Derek because
I always say no one has it, but let’s face it: one of the greatest baseball
players of lifetime has Derek. But Rotnei Clarke can say, without question, no
one else has the name Rotnei. Also, to piggyback off that, I cannot wait to
hear Bill Raftery, my favorite college basketball analyst, scream, “Rotnei!”
followed by “ONIONS!”)
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| Basketball isn't the only sport thriving at Marquette. Just ask Michael "Da Captain" Kiely. |
The vastly superior team athletically is obviously Indiana,
and don’t get me wrong, Tom Crean is no slouch himself. Crean turning that
Marquette program (shout out to da Captain if he reads this…) was great for
college basketball, but him resurrecting this Indiana program from the flaming
pile of dog poop (he called the shit poop) that Kelvin Sampson left it in,
sanctions and all, is something else entirely. Calipari may be the face of
illegal things in college athletics (and probably justifiably given his paying
of 40 G’s and all the cocaine and strippers [the last two are just a guess]
Marcus Camby wanted at UMASS), but at least he has won and has been successful.
WHAT THE HELL WAS KELVIN SAMPSON DOING?! To put this into perspective, Kelvin
Sampson can’t even coach in college because he did so many screwed up things
that his sanctions actually follow him, and the school was persecuted too. He
truly must have lived by the saying “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”
Back to the game. To put it simply, this was Rotnei versus Yogi.
(Well okay, maybe it wasn’t, but let’s take a moment to appreciate two of the
greatest names in college basketball this year.) Just when I was about to happily
take my nap knowing a good mid major just knocked off the number one team in
the country, Indiana’s Yogi Ferrell (sadly not Berra because this would be
funny since he’s like 90/not exactly known for his jump shot) hits a three to
send it into OT. In OT, just when it looked like big bad Indiana was pulling
away, Rotnei Clark hits back-to-back threes giving life to the Bulldogs! And to
once again emphasize Stevens’s badass coaching… What does he do…? He draws up
the winning play for a former walk-on, Alex Barlow. It was a simple isolation, in
which Stevens picked the most unathletic guy on the court for Indiana (the
white kid not named Zeller) and let Barlow gradually move him into the paint
and then hoist up a nice floater, letting it rattle around the rim before going
through the cylinder.
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| Yogi Berra isn't exactly spillin aces on his sick J's at the ripe old age of 90 something. |
Obviously Butler is very good this year. I was skeptical of
them after their poor showing against Xavier to open the season, but that may
speak to how good this year’s young Xavier team is. The most important thing about
this Butler team besides Steven’s brilliance is Rotnei Clarke’s official status
as a member of my club of favorite college basketball shooters. He joins the
esteemed company of Kyle
McAlarney, J.J. Reddick, Colin Falls, Matt Carroll, Gerry McNamara
and TJ Sorrentine (mainly because of Gus Johnson’s call when he
drains it from way down town against Syrauce). Clarke has one of the
quickest realizes I’ve ever seen and it appears that Stevens has given him the
green light as soon as he passes over half court, which fair because that’s
where his range starts.
You may be reading and complaining that I didn’t cover Indiana
enough, but, quite frankly, I do not care, you BCS homer. Everyone has seen
them enough on TV this year and if you haven’t… well that’s your fault. If you want
to know more about Indiana go to any major sports media outlet and you can read
their BCS writings. This year the non-BCS may be stronger than ever, do not be
the slightest bit surprised to see someone holding the National Championship
trophy not from a BCS conference for the first time since UNLV in 1990, when
Tark the Shark roamed the sidelines.
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