Rowley donating 3.6 ppg and 1.8 rpg to his homeland

Kyle Rowley will be representing Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean Basketball Confederation tournament this week. the CBC includes such basketball powers as Barbados, Antigua and Jamaica. sadly i was unable to find online betting odds to find out who the favorite is. it appears that T&T has a much stronger tradition in netball than basketball.

Chicago Invitational Challenge format = confusion

the official teams and dates were released today for the November tournament, but i'm pretty confused on exactly how it works.  NU will play Notre Dame on 11/27 with the winner meeting either Iowa State or Saint Louis the following night.  so the inclusion of Liberty, Mississippi Valley State, Tennessee State and Kennesaw State appears to serve no purpose other than to give the four "host" teams some guarantee wins at home.  the four smaller schools don't get to actually play in Chicago, so it's a bit ironic that they weren't invited to participate in the actual "Invitational."

on the plus side, ND will provide the Wildcats with an RPI booster.  Craig Brackins will be an absolute matchup nightmare if NU gets Iowa State in the second game in Hoffman Estates.

Delayed reaction on K.O. to USC

i apologize for not getting to this for a few days. i've been messing around with FBC on Twitter and sort of forgot that i hadn't posted anything here on this topic.

generally speaking, my thoughts are this: uhh, no. there is nothing in KO's past history or behavior that would indicate he is a good fit for this job, at this time. first of all, getting a program out of an NCAA mess takes patience. Roy Williams did it at KU, Rick Pitino did it at Kentucky, but all too often (e.g. the six guys who have been at UNLV since Tark the Shark left) it becomes too much for one man to handle. KO's 16 jobs in 31 years aren't a very good indication that he'll stick around to straighten things out.

USC's other problem is that they don't have many players left. currently their best player is UNC transfer Alex Stepheson, and beyond senior guard Dwight Lewis they don't have anyone who's averaged more than 18 mpg.

this article tells some pretty amazing stories about KO from his earlier college jobs, and while Northwestern is mentioned only in passing, the article really brought back memories of watching KO coach at NU. My favorite incident was during a home game. Sean Wink had messed up and it must have been something they'd been working on, because, boy, did it set off KO...

KO: Hey Sean!
[Wink runs down the court, tries to ignore the coach]
KO: Hey Sean!
[still ignoring]
KO: Hey Sean!
[Wink reluctantly looks towards the bench]
KO: Fuck you!

keep in mind this was at home while play was going on, in full view of fans and adminstrators. so no, i do not think KO will have the patience or the mental makeup to walk into a bad situation and make it better. during his tenure at NU, the Northwestern SID told me that KO's career goal was to be an assistant coach in the NBA. I expect he'll be back there before too long.

to Twitter or not to Twitter

Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com takes a look at coaches using Twitter. as far as i can tell, the Big Ten coaches currently using the site include Bruce Weber, Tubby Smith, Tom Crean and Thad Matta.

there can be plenty of debate as to the impact of a coach's tweets. what cannot be argued is that the list above represents 80% of the conference's active coaches who have been to the Final Four. (i fully expect Izzo to jump on board soon.)

i realize tweeting does not seem to fit Bill Carmody's personality, but his lack of visibility has already been highlighted, this would seem to be an opportunity with no downside. obviously our football coach dove into Twitter headfirst, so i'll follow his lead and use the medium as well, at least until i lose interest.

Let's hope that 'Gody stays in the draft

1. Example #347 of Northwestern's uphill battle in the P.R. department: I found out about this news from the Notre Dame blog in the Chicago Tribune. It was not listed on the Trib's Northwestern page, and of course there is no Northwestern blog.

2. Chicago Invitational Challenge seems a bit redundant.

3. Why is there an 11,000 seat arena in Hoffman Estates?