Here is this week’s Hoopsville Podcast.

Last week, I was asked if I could put in where each interview and reporter was in each segment. While the little voice in my head screams to not give up all the information for the show, so you can all listen to it all, I will help those listeners who don’t want to listen to the entire show! 🙂

For all of you podcast/iTunes folks, the first file should upload to your iTunes automatically (right?!).

Part 1:
Chatting with Pat Coleman
Great Lakes Region Report – Matt Florjancic
West Region Report – St. Scholastica Coach David Staniger

Part 2:
NABC Coach’s Corner – Wabach Coach Mac Petty
Hoopsville Rant
Northeast Region Report – Mark Simon
South Region Report – Marcus Fitzsimmons

Part 3:
Atlantic/East Region Report – Gordon Mann
Provident Pride School of the Week – Centre Coach Greg Mason
Midwest Region & WIAC Report – Bob Quillman

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From Rochester, New York, welcome to the JP Morgan Chase Scholarship Basketball Tournament.

Each winter for 42 years the colleges from this area have gathered for a men’s basketball tournament. In 1992-1993 the women’s teams joined the fun. And while the name has changed with the times and bank mergers, it’s still a great event and a good opportunity to put eyes on a slew of East region teams at once.

On the women’s side, St. John Fisher plays NAIA Division II Roberts Wesleyan in the third place game (1 pm), which we’ll broadcast live. Obviously the game has no impact on the Cardinals’ Division III season, but it does matter to Coach Phil Kahler’s quest for 800 wins. He entered the season with 784 wins and the Cardinals won 13 last year, needing a three-win improvement to get him the milestone.

The championship (5:30 pm) features No. 22 Rochester, the top seed in the tournament, and cinderella-story Nazareth, the seventh seed. Tough to see the Golden Flyers (5-7) hanging with the Yellow Jackets, but they weren’t supposed to win the first two games either. JC DeLass and WYSL do a fantastic job so we’ll just link to their broadcast below.

The men’s games should be particularly interesting given the depth of this year’s field. The third place game features two teams who are likely to see a lot of each other, Geneseo State and Brockport State. In fact, they’ll see each other again on Tuesday night to re-open conference play.

The Knights picked up their first loss last night after Nazareth rallied from a double-digit second half deficit. The Golden Eagles have played better this week after dropping three straight to start the New Year. They pushed No. 1 Rochester to the limit last night. But it’s tough to have a moral victory and lose five of six so Brockport needs the win here today against Geneseo State (3 pm). We’ll broadcast that one.

The men’s title game (8 pm) is a rematch from earlier this year, won by Rochester 68-51. The Unpronouncables (Onyiriuka and Ndubizu) combined for 42 points and 21 rebounds in that one. Nazareth is playing without injured Ryan McAdam but has already had a nice showing in the tournament. WYSL will carry that broadcast.

Webcasts

1 pm : Roberts Wesleyan 79 St. John Fisher 67 F
3 pm: Brockport State 83 Geneseo State 59 F
5:30 pm: Rochester 83 Nazareth 46 F
8:00 pm: Rochester 87 Nazareth 75 F

In addition to the broadcasts, we’ll keep the blog updated throughout the day and post coaches interviews later. So check back in between all the other big games, the NFL playoffs and whatever else your Saturday entails.

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I am certainly not a fashion expert or a style guru – being color “deficient” doesn’t help! However, when it comes to recent trends in uniforms, I feel I have to speak up!

 What are with the baggy uniforms? There are some guys out there playing with shorts that don’t stop until they are below their knees – some women might compare them to carpi’s! And the uniform tops are so baggy they look more like a baggy t-shirt one would wear to bed! Seriously?! Do they have to be that baggy?!

Don’t get me wrong, I certainly don’t want to go back to the days-of-old where the uniforms were as tight as spandex and the shorts probably revealed far more than many wanted to know. But, the recent trend has been to the rather far extreme. As I said, shorts on some guys (mainly small guards) end up below their knees and tops on most guys are so baggy I think guys are battling for more than position under the basket, they are trying to get unwound from an opponents jersey.

 There is another problem. The uniforms are so loose and the shorts hardly ever tied tight, that there is quite a bit of time wasted while referees ask for players to constantly tuck their jerseys back in. It is a rule, after all, that uniforms be tucked in so the uniform doesn’t come into play during a game.

If a ball touches a player’s uniform on the way out of bounds, even if it might not touch the player’s body, it is considered having touched his body. So, refs want the uniforms tucked in to avoid issues like this. Of course, uniforms are so baggy these days, it doesn’t matter if they are tucked in. That’s because sometimes the ball might touch a uniform but the player is actually two feet from the ball!

It is really ridiculous! Do the uniforms really have to be this baggy? If this is a fashion “thing”, what exactly are the players trying to “say” or represent? And who exactly is in charge of picking the size of the uniforms? Can we chat about not giving the 5’6″ point guard an XL, but more like a M or L at most?

I am worried that if these uniforms keep getting bigger and baggier, some championship game is going to be decided by them. Imagine a guard bringing the ball up the court, but only dribbling in one hand. That’s because he has the other hand holding up his shorts. However, his defender then decides to get aggressive and the guard needs to use both hands to protect the ball. That results in his shorts sliding down, he trips, the ball comes lose, the defender (who is now using one hand to hold his shorts up) gets a free lay-up at the buzzer for the win. Now, that would be a strange finish to a game! And all thanks to a baggy jersey!