Most media days are rather substance free, as there are lots of media trying to hit as many coaches and players as possible and vice versa. The Big East Media Day, even more so. 16 teams each with their head coach and 2 players plus the Big East Commissioner and various Conference underlings. That’s easily more than 50 people to try and get to. Add in the pre-arranged media appearances for coaches and players to work around, and it is not only a logistics nightmare, but completely exhausting for everyone.
This leads to crankiness, including from the media.
Here’s the thing about the Big East: It’s too damn big. The marquee outside Madison Square Garden said, “Big East, 2005-06, A Sweet 16.” That’s right, 16 teams. Louisville, Marquette, DePaul, now in the Big East.
The commissioner spent his opening remarks in an oddly defensive (for a season-opening speech, at least) stance. It will work, he insists. It’s not too many teams. He admitted the schedule was “dysfunctional.” Actually, he admitted it was even more dysfunctional than it had already been. He admitted that some people were unhappy that only 12 of the 16 teams would make it to the conference tournament at the end of the season. He talked about the league’s great coaches then later one of the legends, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, downplayed the conference expansion and noted that the reason was, of course, football. No move in the Big East, he said, was ever done because of basketball.
No, it’s all about money.
Not exactly a revelation. Nothing that hasn’t been written here before. She definitely paints broadly and without context. The schedule is the way it is because the TV contract demands so. That will change when the contract ends. The reason for the dissatisfaction with the 12 teams only is it creates more pressure on the coaches to make the BET for job security (i.e., self interest). She also has it wrong about doing it for the money. It was for survival.
The big star at the media day was not Calhoun or Boeheim, but Pitino. Not a shock. He’s new/old to the league. A outsized personality and good with the one-liners, and his team is coming off a Final Four appearance. Plus, he gets a reaction (as Chris demonstrated).
As for the preseason poll by the coaches, I don’t think anyone is really sweating it.
“We were picked fourth and won it two years ago. Boston College wasn’t picked to win it last year,” Dixon said. “The health of guys, when you play teams, when teams get hot at certain times … there’s too many things that come into play and things can change.
“We’re going to have some guys surprise some people and be good players for us.”
Dixon is expected to regularly mix-in his four incoming players — guard Levance Fields, swingman Sam Young and post players Tyrell Biggs and Doyle Hudson — with his veterans.
…
“It’s so hard to tell,” junior forward Levon Kendall said. “You try not to worry too much about the preseason polls. Nobody has played yet. It’s really wide-open.”Junior center Aaron Gray isn’t guaranteeing anything more than the best effort the Panthers can offer, especially knowing that the league has been fortified with several more heavyweight programs.
“We knew it wasn’t going to get any easier with teams like Louisville and Cincinnati coming in our league,” he said. “It’s something we’ve been preparing for all year.”
I’d say one of the more difficult things was picking the All-Big East Team with 16 teams. That’s probably why they ducked naming a 1st and 2nd team and made it a 10-man squad.
Naturally, if Pitt is in NYC, then there needs to be some recruiting work going on.
In addition to appearing on two ESPN2 television shows yesterday, Dixon did some recruiting on the trip to New York. He was at a local high school at 6:30 a.m. yesterday to see a player. After taping of the ESPN2 show “Quite Frankly” yesterday afternoon he was going to go watch another recruit play and then hop on the last flight back to Pittsburgh.
And Aaron Gray keeps talking with Chris Taft.
“He was telling me I have to hold down that center position,” Gray said yesterday. “He told me not to worry about people on the outside, listen to the people who matter. He was just saying, ‘stay positive.’ “
Taft, Pitt’s center the past two years, left school early to play in the NBA. He is in training camp with the Golden State Warriors.
Gray and Taft came to Pitt at the same time and remain close friends. Gray said he speaks with Taft every few days and hopes to follow in his footsteps to the NBA.
Gray will be coach Jamie Dixon‘s starting center this season. He has dropped 15 pounds and is looking forward to the opportunity of finally escaping from Taft’s shadow.
“One of my big concentrations during the offseason was conditioning,” Gray said. “For our team to be successful, I’m going to have to play at a high level. And I’m going to have to be out there on the floor a lot. I’m going to have to stay out of foul trouble.”
Lots and lots of questions for 2005-06.
