Ongoing pro/college basketball thread (2023-24)

[Carman Bulldog]

Originally Posted by Edward64

My vote is Duke & Indiana stays.

Let's just go ahead and make it 7 blue bloods.

The Athletic has Duke in and Indiana out...

College basketball program tiers: From blue bloods like Duke (and UConn!) on down - The Athletic

[Ksyrup]

Watched Cal's goodbye to BBN. Pretty solid, and I think he's right - it's time for a new voice.

It appears they've set their sights on Scott Drew. Not only hasn't he denied it, sources say he's in talks. It would be a double win for UK if they not only got a national championship-winning coach but one who publicly turned down Louisville 2 weeks ago.

[Ksyrup]

The local coverage of Cal leaving is expected, of course, but the coverage today of his arrival and introduction at Arkansas is weird. It's like breaking up with a GF you thought you'd marry but know you're probably better off without, yet stalking her social media to see who she's with.

[Ksyrup]

Sounds like Mark Pope is gonna be the choice.

[cartman]

an interesting choice. he did do a great job bringing BYU into the Big 12.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I figure Pope will be what gets Barnhart fired.

Weakest resume of any UK hire in 50 years, that'll turn into a short leash pretty quickly I imagine.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, reaction hasn't been good. In his defense, the fanbase still thinks they should be able to hire whoever they want and don't understand how much NIL, the portal and rising salaries even at lesser schools level the playing field somewhat. Even Hurley said it - at some point, the extra few million dollars is not a motivating factor.

Maybe Donovan was a possibility? But you're banking on the Bulls getting knocked out of the playoffs middle of next week AND you're putting all your chips in on a guy who's been out of college so long, the portal and NIL were nothing more than a 1950s article on what life in 2000 would be like. Could (or would he want to) make that adjustment?

On another note, this tweet was making the rounds among UK fans last night. I wonder if this guy has lottery numbers for tonight. From January 2023:

I can already predict the headlines:

“Kentucky pursues Scott Drew”

“Scott Drew signs lifetime contract with Baylor”

“Kentucky has reached out to Billy Donovan”

“Kentucky set to announce Mark Pope as next head coach”

— B3 (@ML_BBN) January 12, 2023

[Edward64]

Nice of him.

Houston Rockets center Boban Marjanovic purposely missed a free throw while his team was up big to send Los Angeles Clippers fans home with free chicken in the last game of the regular season.

With the Rockets up 105-97, Marjanovic stepped up to the line and missed his first free throw.

That got Clippers fans on their feet - as a second missed free throw would mean they would win free chicken as part of a promotion.

https://x.com/barstoolsports/status/1779692531791409238

[Ksyrup]

UK fans seemed to rally around Mark Pope with a pretty crazy introductory presser in front of thousands of fans. They pulled out all the stops with older players and several members of the 1996 championship team there, including Jeff Sheppard.

I feel pretty bad for Reed Sheppard from the standpoint that whether or not he goes pro has very little to do with who's coaching UK and more to do with his projected spot. But given that his dad was Pope's roommate, if he goes pro, you know people are going to treat that as a referendum on whether Pope can handle the job.

He said all the right things yesterday, although I thought the whole thing leaned a little too much into nostalgia (coming from someone who moved to the Lexington area less than 20 years ago). I told my wife - I hope that wasn't the highlight of his tenure at UK.

[Ksyrup]

Zion playing out of his mind for 45 minutes, scoring 40 points, and leaving the game tied against the Lakers with 3 minutes to go to an apparently injury no one saw or could tell happened (apparently a hamstring?), and then watching his team lose, seems like a pretty accurate summation of the Zion Williamson Experience.

[cartman]

oof. Jontay Porter banned for life from the NBA for betting on games. Apparently he hid an injury from the team, but told a bettor who laid a big parlay on him underperforming the next game.

[miami_fan]

So have I. Well I was not banned for betting on games.

[stevew]

Klay thompson put up 0 points in an elimination game…that’s wild.

[stevew]

I thought Mark Pope was the former coach of Yale for the past few days. I guess I forgot what the BYU logo was.

[stevew]

Probably another all time bad take, but if this Chicago team gets to the playoffs they could give the Celtics trouble.

[RainMaker]

The Celtics have destroyed them in each game this season and the Bulls will likely be without Caruso. Bulls would be lucky to get a gentleman's sweep out of it.

[stevew]

Oh if Caruso is out, there’s no hope. Bulls might not even beat the gimpy Heat without him.

[stevew]

Holy shit that Nuggets game!

[Edward64]

No idea how good Knox is but always happy to get a 5-star prospect!

John Calipari has flipped a 5-star prospect from his former team.

Karter Knox committed to Kentucky back on March 9. With Calipari leaving Kentucky to become the head coach at Arkansas, Knox has decided to play college ball in Fayetteville.

[Ksyrup]

Younger brother of Kevin Knox, former Cat of course.

[Ksyrup]

So... the Pacers/Bucks playoff game on NBA TV is blocked in my area? WTF?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

So... the Pacers/Bucks playoff game on NBA TV is blocked in my area? WTF?

Blackout restrictions apply to live game games on NBA TV for your local NBA team. That means Bucks games on NBA TV aren't available live in Milwaukee.

Blacked-out games will be available for viewing after the game has ended. You can find them in the NBA League Pass Archives.

Basically it's a way to force local market viewers to watch the local/regional provider (in this case Bally)

[Ksyrup]

I understand blackout restrictions. Applying them to postseason is ridiculous. I don't even have a local provider to watch even if I wanted to. Of course, I suppose they could be showing games on Peacock or Paramount+, so it achieves the same purpose of making sure as few people watch as possible!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I understand blackout restrictions. Applying them to postseason is ridiculous. I don't even have a local provider to watch even if I wanted to. Of course, I suppose they could be showing games on Peacock or Paramount+, so it achieves the same purpose of making sure as few people watch as possible!

The local coverage AND the national partners have to have some protection against a league entity in order to (somewhat) provide value for the absurd prices they pay the league.

NONE of the rules have anything to do with fans (of any team) whatsoever, never have. These aren't sports leagues, they're TV content providers.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by stevew

Holy shit that Nuggets game!

I thought it was real smart to not call a timeout. Lakers looked so gassed at the end and giving them a breather would have only helped them. Lakers weren't ready for the elevation.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The local coverage AND the national partners have to have some protection against a league entity in order to (somewhat) provide value for the absurd prices they pay the league.

NONE of the rules have anything to do with fans (of any team) whatsoever, never have. These aren't sports leagues, they're TV content providers.

I get all of that. It just seems that once you get into the postseason, local rules sgould no longer matter when it's a nationally televised playoff game. The local blackout rules are pretty ridiculous anyway. I live hours from 3 different teams (Memphis, Cleveland and Indy) that I'm "blacked out" for - even though I have a streaming service from which I can't even purchase the local channel to watch if I wanted.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The local coverage AND the national partners have to have some protection against a league entity in order to (somewhat) provide value for the absurd prices they pay the league.

NONE of the rules have anything to do with fans (of any team) whatsoever, never have. These aren't sports leagues, they're TV content providers.

I get all of that. It just seems that once you get into the postseason, local rules should no longer matter when it's a nationally televised playoff game. The local blackout rules are pretty ridiculous anyway. I live hours from 3 different teams (Memphis, Cleveland and Indy) that I'm "blacked out" for - even though I have a streaming service from which I can't even purchase the local channel to watch if I wanted. So who's rights are being protected in that scenario?

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The local coverage AND the national partners have to have some protection against a league entity in order to (somewhat) provide value for the absurd prices they pay the league.

NONE of the rules have anything to do with fans (of any team) whatsoever, never have. These aren't sports leagues, they're TV content providers.

I get all of that. It just seems that once you get into the postseason, local rules should no longer matter when it's a nationally televised playoff game. The local blackout rules are pretty ridiculous anyway. I live hours from 3 different teams (Memphis, Cleveland and Indy) that I'm "blacked out" for - even though I have a streaming service from which I can't even purchase the local channel to watch if I wanted. So whose rights are being protected in that scenario?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I get all of that. It just seems that once you get into the postseason, local rules should no longer matter when it's a nationally televised playoff game. The local blackout rules are pretty ridiculous anyway. I live hours from 3 different teams (Memphis, Cleveland and Indy) that I'm "blacked out" for - even though I have a streaming service from which I can't even purchase the local channel to watch if I wanted. So whose rights are being protected in that scenario?

From what you describe, if I'm reading it right, the national network partners like TNT.

They're not paying for those rights only to have the league compete against them with their own channel (the games were simultaneous / overlapping, right?)

[Ksyrup]

I think so. I don't know. One game ended, I wanted to watch the end of the other. I couldn't. It's a freaking playoff game. That's a stupid setup, I don't really care who gets what out of the deal.

[stevew]

The trailer for FXs “Clipped”
Looks pretty good. Ed O’Neill as Sterling and Laurence Fishburne as Doc Rivers.

[SirFozzie]

Amazon Prime has framework deal for NBA broadcast rights, per sources, putting pressure on TNT, NBC - The Athletic

Hoooleee Shit.

In what will be a landmark move in sports media history, the NBA and Amazon Prime Video have the framework of a deal that will make the streaming service one of the main homes for the league’s games, executives with direct knowledge of the talks told The Athletic.

It is expected that Prime Video’s package will include significant regular season and postseason games, perhaps even some conference finals. The anticipation is that the final contract will be for at least a decade and begin the 2025-2026 season.

ESPN/ABC, as the website Puck reported Thursday, also has a framework of a deal with the expectations that an agreement will be completed. ESPN/ABC are expected to keep the Finals on its networks for the duration of its deals. Like Amazon, ESPN’s new contract is also expected to be at least a decade in length.

All of the details are not finalized yet, but all sides are under the expectations they will get done. The NBA, Amazon and ESPN all declined to comment.

The NBA prefers to have three companies involved in its new deals, but has not ruled out adding a fourth.

The NBA is finishing up nine-year deals that pay it $2.6 billion on average from ESPN and TNT Sports. Those contracts end after the 2024-2025 season.

The advancement in the Amazon and ESPN talks leaves incumbent Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns network TNT Sports, to face off with NBC, owned by Comcast, for the likely last package of games. Warner Bros. Discovery has the right to match deals, but NBC could try to structure an agreement in a way that makes it difficult.

While there is still work to be completed for the final arrangements, the current packages are going to be pruned slightly to create the third partner. In one arrangement, ESPN will cut down from around 100 games to around 80, according to executives briefed on the talks.

A natural landing spot for Amazon’s regular-season games could be Thursday night, where it already has the NFL from September to early January. The NBA, in recent years, has moved its games off Thursday during the time period to not go head-to-head with the NFL. It is expected to then have significant playoff inventory. Amazon has shown interest in global rights, which has been a key part of the NBA’s negotiating strategy as it lined all of its domestic and international deals to end following the 2024-2025 season.

The NBA has made it clear that it wanted to define itself for the next frontier of viewing with streaming at the forefront.

With ESPN, Amazon and the NBA all under the impression that they will complete deals, this puts the onus on TNT Sports, which has had the NBA since 1984. It is in a fight with NBC, which was the lead partner of the NBA before losing its rights in 2002. NBC, with its streaming service, Peacock, wants back in and is competing with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports for a deal.

[RainMaker]

So is TNT out the door?

[SirFozzie]

It's believed that it's between TNT and NBC/Peacock for the Third Package.

(The NBA has not ruled out a fourth package, but I get the feeling it'd have to be a huge deal to get a fourth carve out of games)

The situation it reminds me of is the NFL deal, when they signed on with NBC, and told ESPN "There's one package left for Monday Nights. It's not going to be as important as Sunday night, AND you're going to have to pay through your ass to keep it".. but ESPN had to pay it because they couldn't live without football.