I prefer Google Maps

February 6th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

Via the Fanhouse and the always entertaining EDSBS, comes this handy little college football recruiting map. Just select a school and BAM! it spits out where all the program’s recruits are located geographically. (With signing day looming tomorrow, this isn’t quite up to date all the way yet.)

I can only assume this idea is about to take off. In fact, I bet you Matt Leinart and Tom Brady already have this set up for the amount of women they’ve each boned. Obviously, Tom has the leg up on the East Coast, with Leinart holding down the trim on the Left Coast.

It’s all just a battle for the Midwest now, folks.

Yep, the wacky, wild Web is at it again

July 31st, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

Remember earlier this summer, when we made mention of the Washington Post’s lengthy profile on that 10-year-old basketball phenom?

Creepy? Yes. Wrong? Maybe. Surprising? No.

And the Big Lead has done a good job of digging up the dirt on some slimy AAU basketball coaches. What I’m getting at here is that the college basketball recruiting game is an over-the-top-hey-can’t-you-leave-my-fourth-grader-alone-already type of operation as much as it’s a corrupt, dirty and frightening practice.

OK, so I’ve done a mediocre job setting the stage as far as what’s going on in the recruiting game in 2006.

Well, after running across this Sports Illustrated article, college recruiting appears to be getting decidedly weirder.

The culprit this time? MySpace.com. (I prefer the cleaner interface of Facebook, thank you very much.)

The trouble all stems from the MySpace page of Patrick Patterson, a recruit that has peaked the interest of many schools, including Kentucky. Well, some UK fans got on his page and starting leaving him comments pleading for him to come to UK.

Apparently, this is a big no-no under the “unacceptable written contact with recruits by representatives of the institution’s athletic interests,” so UK went ahead and self-reported this secondary violation.

Odd. Just extremely, extremely odd. That a university has to report violations stemming from what a 15-year-old kid is typing on a Web site in his parent’s basement is almost beyond comprehension. (No matter how small the penalty for the school, if any is even incurred.)

Now, the SI article does a good job of pointing out this absurdity and urges the NCAA’s Recruiting Subcommittee to update their rule book on Internet matters such as this when they meet in September. Realize that it’s damn near impossible to monitor the Web for violations such as this (not to mention a complete waste of time and money) and that it’s probably not worth patrolling. However, setting limits on other electronic communication, such as text-messaging, is a worthwhile endeavor.

Seems to make the most sense to me.

There’s something wrong with this, right?

July 5th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

I’ve become a real fan of The Big Lead over the last couple of weeks. Not only are the fine fellows over there good writers, but they have a real knack for finding some real unique and interesting stuff to post about.

Today, the Big Lead dug up a lengthy feature from the Washington Post on a 10-year-old basketball prospect. I’ll continue with my ass kissing and quote the Big Lead on this one:

Is it pretty amazing to watch a baby-faced 10-year-old do these things? Yes. Is it grotesque to see a 10-year-old featured in one of the biggest newspapers in America? Yes. Now, USA Today or some other frothy publication will come and beat down his door for an interview, further swelling the 10-year-old’s head. Or worse yet, the dirty street agents that have tarnished high school and college basketball will pounce on the kid and his parents, filling their heads with visions of how’s the tyke is Bob Cousy in diapers. Gregg Doyel needs to totally be all over this.

Good stuff, indeed.

There’s apparently some video of this kid balling it up on the Post’s site, so check that out if you feel so inclined.

We’re pretty sure basketball recruiting is actually going to come to what this video depicts soon. Sad, really.