DL536: Where Jim Burr, Tim Higgins, Earl Walton & Cowardly Big East Make Me Curse…A Lot

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(THERE IS CURSING IN TODAY’S SHOW. A LOT OF IT.)

Forget impartiality. Today’s show is hot fire directed at the old, out of touch, terrible officials employed by the Big East and the cowardly way the conference handled the screwjob given to Rutgers at the end of their Big East Tournament game against St. John’s yesterday afternoon.

Would Rutgers have won the game? Maybe not, but 1.6 seconds is an eternity in basketball and the refs just quit doing their jobs and got protected by the conference office. This could be a REALLY LONG rant, but just listen. Oh, and if you don’t think the Big East is cowardly for their decision to not do anything, consider them cowardly for how they scrubbed down the AP story on their own website.

Here’s the AP story in full at ESPN. Here’s the version the Big East put up. Yeah…that tells you everything.

An absolute joke.

We must credit the job ESPN did in handling this story. Someone got it right, and the network pulled no punchingREAD MORE

What’s On In Sports, Tonight: March 9th

Fail.

Now on to the rest of the field:

7 p.m.

ESPN- MBB: South Florida at Cincinnati. Sean McDonough (PbP), Jay Bilas & Bill Raftery (PbP) ESPN2- MBB: Robert Morris vs. Long Island. Jon Sciambi (PbP), Laphonso Ellis (Analyst) ESPNU- College Lacrosse: Manhattan at Johns Hopkins. Mike Corey (PbP), Quint Kessenich (Analyst)

7:30 p.m.

Fox Deportes- Copa Libertadores: Guarani (Paraguay) vs. Estudiantes de La Plata (Argentina). The Mtn.- WBB: Mountain West Championship 2nd Round. Versus- NHL: Chicago Blackhawks at Tampa Bay Lightning.

8 p.m.

NBA TV- NBA: New York Knicks at Memphis Grizzlies.

9 p.m.

ESPN- MBB: Marquette at West Virginia. ean McDonough (PbP), Jay Bilas & Bill Raftery (PbP) ESPN2- MBB: Montana vs. Northern Colorado. Roxy Bernstein (PbP), Miles Simon (Analyst)

10 p.m.

The Mtn.- WBB: Wyoming vs. TBD.

Thursday Daytime

12 p.m.

ESPN- MBB: Pittsburgh vs. TBD. Dave Pasch (PbP), Doris Burke & Fran Fraschilla (Analysts)

12:30 p.m.

ESPN2- MBB: Kansas vs. TBD. Brent Musburger (PbP), Bob Knight (Analyst)

1 p.m.

CBS College Sports- MBB: UAB vs. ECU. Roger Twibell (PbP), Wally Szczerbiak (Analyst) GolTV- Europa League: Braga vs. Liverpool.

2 p.m.

ESPN- MBB: Syracuse vs. TBD.  Dave Pasch (PbP), Doris Burke &READ MORE

DL535: Joke Referees, Villanova’s Madness, Tressel’s Cheating & Tiki’s TV Failure

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We have four topics today and while Jim Tressel is taking over every show in the world, we decided to start with actual sports first, then get into that whole cheating mess.

• First, Robin Van Persie called the referee that gave him a double yellow in Arsenal’s farewell Champions League match “a joke.” He actually said, “It’s just a joke. He’s been bad all evening. He’s been a joke all evening, whistling against us. I don’t know why he’s here tonight. I think it’s a joke.”

What happens to RVP, or his teammates who sarcastically tweets about how good a job the ref did? Sir Alex was slapped for questioning an EPL referee, but what does UEFA do about it? And how great is it when athletes just don’t care and say what they want? It’s really great.

• Next, we rip on Villanova. A lot. We also talk about ESPN putting the Big East women’s final on the mothership while the Big East men’s first round was on ESPNU. What do youREAD MORE

DL529: Down The Jim Calhoun NCAA Violation Rabbit Hole (Wait, That Sounds Bad)

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We spend (almost) the entire show talking about the NCAA’s ruling to suspend Connecticut head men’s basketball coach for three Big East…next year…for his role in a series of major recruiting violations.

We also take a look at some of the national reporters and pundits. Read along with us, friends!

• Here’s the official ruling from the NCAA.

• Let’s start with Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports:

No postseason ban.

That’s honestly all that matters.

Sure, UConn coach and Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun, he of two national championships, took a whack from the NCAA when the organization finally rendered its decision Tuesday afternoon, after a nearly two-year investigation.

Maybe a light slap on the wrist is a more appropriate term.

• Here’s ESPN’s Pat Forde:

On Tuesday, the NCAA Committee on Infractions knocked a chunk out of the Cult of the Head Coach by suspending Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun for three Big East games next basketball season. As penalties go, it’s not a haymaker — especially when you consider what all transpired at UConn in its recruitment and enrollment of formerREAD MORE

Jim Boeheim Thinks Being Tournament Tested Is “Bullshit”

I love Jim Boeheim. I want to hug the old curmudgeon sometimes. Eh, he’d probably just say it’s bullshit. From Tannenwald at Soft Pretzel Logic:

Reporter: You came up with an overtime win at home [against Rutgers on Saturday], and then a tough, tough game on the road here. Do games like this help you at this stage of the conference season?

Boeheim: I think that’s all [cow-based fertilizer], you know. All that stuff, it’s all [cow-based fertilizer]. We could play next week and get in the same game next week and lose. We could have ten of these in a row and win them, then get in a tournament and have one and you lose it. It’s all [cow-based fertilizer].

Tannenwald certainly transcribed this answer for a PG crowd. Make no mistake, the “bullshit” was flying from the acerbic coach last night.

Now, obviously Boeheim doesn’t believe it’s all bullshit. Surely, winning these close games is great now and gives the team a load of confidence, but it doesn’t mean a whole heap of anything come NCAA TournamentREAD MORE

Call of the Day: Bill Raftery’s New Years Lingerie is “Explosive”

Is there any doubt the Big East is the best basketball conference in the country? They have, what, a dozen or so ranked teams right now and, last night, it was one of the few NON-ranked squads that took down 13th-ranked Georgetown with a nail-biter at Madison Square Garden. Does Steve Lavin have the magic back with the Johnnies?

Bill Raftery thinks he might. And Raf was in vintage form last night on the call, with solid-as-always Bob Wischusen. Not only did we get an ONIONS call with about 55 seconds to go, but we got two lingerie references during the eventual game-winning drive.

Explosive, indeed. Good job by Wichusen to back off the call during the drive, letting Raftery get his exuberance out. That could have easily been two guys talking over one another, but Bob was very aware which guy was driving that bus. The coaches clip board is so old school perfect too.

Good to have you back, Big East basketball. And let’s hope Raftery gets more games like this the rest of the year.READ MORE

College Football: Where Every Week Is The Playoffs, Unless You Are (Or Play) A Mid-Major

There is one Big East team ranked in the BCS Top 25 (that is, unless you count TCU) and that’s West Virginia at 22. There are two ACC Schools in the BCS Top 25 with Virginia Tech sitting at 13 and Florida State at 23.

There are six SEC schools in the BCS Top 25, with three of those six placing in the top ten (Auburn 1, Arkansas 8, LSU 10).

There are two Pac-10 schools, both in the top five. There are three Big Ten schools and five Big 12 schools (or four and four depending on who gets to count Nebraska now that the season is over).

By my math, that’s 19 of the 25 BCS-ranked teams coming from “power conferences” with the other six teams being (in order): TCU (3), Boise State (11), Nevada (15), Utah (19), Hawaii (24), UCF (25).

Of the ten schools invited to participate in the BCS this season, just one — TCU — is from a non-power conference, despite the fact that six ended the season ranked higher than Connecticut, whoREAD MORE

Rebranding The Suddenly Directionless Big East

Though it made little sense for the Big East to suddenly settle on Villanova as an additional football school when Notre Dame is still a full-but-football member of the conference, today’s announcement might make even less sense. Villanova has a nice FCS program and is a sensible addition to the league, but in no way do the Wildcats make the BIG EAST more attractive for recruits, television contracts or bowl affiliations. To the league, adding Villanova was the first step in trying to save the football conference.

The next step should be — should always be — a demand for Notre Dame to join the conference for football or get out. What’s the old saying: why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free? Well Notre Dame has been milking its relationship with the Big East for way too long. Today, the league will cement that relationship — we’d rather have you for basketball, baseball and volleyball (et al) than not have you at all.

So, with that, The BIG EAST will include a teamREAD MORE

Call of the Day: Embrace the Clairvoyance of Jesse Palmer, Not Alternate Uniforms

The Big East was showcased on Thursday Night Football this week as the West Virginia Mountain Bananas took on Marshall’s Thundering Herd. What’s that…the team with white helmets, white jerseys and green pants that’s playing a big game against West Virginia is not, actually, Marshall?

It’s USF? More on that in a minute.

WVU took care of USF, thanks in part to some big mistakes, like this interception just before halftime.

WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE INTERCEPTION

Jesse Palmer’s comments, right as USF was snapping the ball: ”It’s okay if you go into the tunnel 10-3 down at half.”

Whoops. As Rece Davis said, it was “right on cue.” And seriously, USF, trying to run a spread offense from your own 14 yard line with less than a minute to go in the half makes about as much sense as going on national TV in Marshall’s uniforms.

One more point about the uniforms, as we’ve discussed this a bit earlier in the week with regard to Nike taking over the NFL uniforms: teams that don’t have a national identity should not useREAD MORE

Villanova For Big East Football? Yeah, They Totally Asked The Wrong Philly School

The Philadelphia Daily News broke the news today that Villanova has been asked to join the Big East in football. They are, per the report, pondering the decision.

This made sense years ago. When the Big East got rid of Temple and started looking around the entire Eastern Seaboard for new teams to join the league — and replace the departing Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College — they should have stayed in house and forced Villanova to join football or get out.

Yes, if this off-season has taught us anything it’s that some major conferences have long been too concerned with making all their schools happy. The Big East invited Connecticut and Villanova into the league for football back in the late 90s and when one said yes and the other said no, it should have been the beginning of the end for Nova in the Big East. Remember, Villanova has a good basketball history, but was far from the powerhouse they’ve become under Jay Wright when that offer was proposed. They had good teams in theREAD MORE