Sunday Night Links
Posted by kj on Sunday, June 15th, 2008
The LSJ has an in-depth feature on incoming Spartan Delvon Roe written by Joe Rexrode. Plenty of encouraging nuggets:
- He’s on track to be 100% by the fall.
- The microfracture surgery on his knee wasn’t nearly as substantial as that of other basketball players who have undergone the procedure.
- He’s used the rehab time to improve his outside shot.
- His high school coach thinks he’ll play four years at MSU, as he seeks to develop NBA small forward skills (he’s 6′8″, 220).
- He’s showing signs of being a prototypical Izzo guy:
Moments after MSU’s season-ending 92-74 loss to Memphis, Roe sent text messages to every one of his future teammates, telling them to stay positive and start thinking about next season.
“I mean, who does that?” Izzo said. “They say leaders aren’t made, they’re born, and I think he might be one of those guys. I think he can lead for us right away.”
His high school coach also comments that he’s not necessarily a big-time scorer. He’s someone who does a lot of things to help his team wins. The obvious comparison for Roe, a highly-ranked high school power forward, is Zach Randolph. But from what I’ve read–and the one game I saw him play on national TV–I wonder if he can’t become a more talented Andre Hutson-type player.
Hutson was probably the least hyped of the starters on the early Final Four teams, but he was arguably the backbone of the team. He could score in the post, rebound, and defend–and he was an excellent ball-handler for a big man, serving as an outlet to break defensive pressure applied by opposing teams. MSU hasn’t had a big man like Hutson on subsequent teams (you know how much I love Suton, but he doesn’t have that same stabilizing presence). Roe could fit the bill.
Also from the Rexrode piece: Korie Lucious had surgery for a separated shoulder, but it was a minor injury and he should be 100% in a month.
Our long, regional nightmare is nearly over: The Chicago Tribune reports a deal between the Big Ten Network and Comcast is on the verge of being announced. The BTN will be on expanded basic cable everywhere in the Big Ten footprint except for Philadelphia. And we get on-demand videos of our team’s greatest games. And I didn’t have to put up an unsightly dish in my backyard. That’s a win, win, win!
There’s a new Penn State basketball blog: Crispin and Cream. The blog’s author has already performed a very useful service for the rest of us: compiling the list of scholarship players for each Big Ten team going into next season.
It’s one thing for Jordan Crawford to have decided he wanted out at Indiana. But now he’s thinking about a transfer to Kentucky (where his older brother just completed his career). Needless to say, this will not improve his standing in the eyes of the Hoosier faithful.
John Gasaway’s post-Big Ten Wonk gig hasn’t been fully satisfactory to many Big Ten basketball fans. But there is one by-product on the way that may partially vindicate him for his betrayal of our conference: he and Ken Pomeroy are penning a tome entitled “College Basketball Prospectus 2008-09” (affiliate link). If the book’s quality is in the ballpark of the preseason guides produced by the fine people at Baseball Prospectus and Football Outsiders, it should make for a dozen or so hours of great reading come November.
Filed in links2 responses so far
2 Responses to “Sunday Night Links”
DMPon 16 Jun 2008 at 1:28 pm 1Delvon expresses his sorrow through poetry. That’s all I need to declare me loves Delvon.
Zekeon 16 Jun 2008 at 1:42 pm 2Here’s hoping the BTN-Comcast agreement turns out a satisfactory deal… I have had thoroughly disappointing relations with Comcast, but with the addition of the BTN, I think it may be the lesser evil of the telecommunications market. Anybody have positive experiences for the BTN with other providers/packages?