28 Comments
Jan 27, 2023Liked by John Canzano

PAC 12 better be paying the BB officials well because the games I’ve watched recently they have taken an earful from the coaches. Verbal abuse, they should be calling more T’s on this behavior.

Expand full comment
Jan 27, 2023Liked by John Canzano

I LOVE to watch college basketball, and thanks to your writing, I’ve learned something new!! NET rankings, and its importance. I’m hoping the PAC gets more than the usual two invited to March Madness, but obviously we’ll have to wait and see which teams end up with more W’s than L’s…fingers crossed the Ducks can find some consistency on the court, and stay healthy. HC Altman probably reminded Dante that pre-game practice doesn’t usually involve slam dunks!

Expand full comment
Jan 27, 2023Liked by John Canzano

Check out the eight minute video in the Stanford Newsletter today featuring Cameron Brink (from Mountainside High School) before the Cardinal girls play Utah at home. The show follows her around for her game day activity up to and through the game, meals, meetings, shoot around, etc. What a Hoss!

Expand full comment

I'm so glad you do not have commercial advertising on you Bald Faced Truth. John Wilner and Pac-12 Hotline just bombarde everyone with WAY TOO MUCH Tom Selleck; 5 times in the same Hotline.

Expand full comment
founding

Speaking of OSU men's basketball......

I hate to say it but I believe that Coach Tinkle has come very close to the end of his rope. Getting to the Elite Eight is becoming more of a distant memory with each passing lopsided loss. We're staring at the end of a second straight disappointing season and I'm not sure if they'll give him another season to turn it around. I suppose it may depend on how good of a recruiting class is coming in next year.

Expand full comment

Beavs at the bottom again. Tinkle is building a road down the drain.

Expand full comment

John, where can I find part one of the basketball series? Just saw part 2, but can’t find 1. Thx.

Expand full comment

Hey John, I heard Bill Walton say on the broadcast tonight that margin of victory matters in determining who makes the tournament in college basketball. To what extent do you think?

Expand full comment

I would love to see you comment as well on the dogfight in the women's basketball in the Pac-12. What a group of terrific players and coaches!!

Expand full comment

Thanks, John

I don't get it. CFB and CBB today are completely capitalized. Why retain the socialist model of revenue distribution where conference members that invest far more in CFB/CBB get the same cut revenue-wise schools that invest far less?

Why an equal split of the proceeds when Team A makes the NCAA CBB tournament and has to share the revenue equally with schools that do not have teams good enough to play for a championship?

I get equal media sharing with NFL and NBA partners. It's professional sports where it is not every man for himself and players' unions negotiate with management.

CFB/CBB today is every man for himself but the revenue is distributed so that successful programs are subsidizing the weak sisters. Do the administrations at CAL and Stanford give a whip about on-field, on-court results?

Oregon was the 12th most-watched team in the nation in 2022, helped significantly by its football game at UGA. (The next 6 'big' OOC games vs 3 B12 teams will not come close to the 4M viewership threshold. What is Rob Mullens doing?)

As a Ducks fan, I do not want to leave Oregon State and Wazzu behind and I recognize that these two schools are competitive with Oregon in CFB/CBB. But they are not competitive in investment and viewership. How long can Oregon subsidize teams with less financial strength and remain competitive at the highest CFB/CBB competition level? (IMO, it will be less than a decade before USC is uncomfortable with receiving the same slice of the B1G pie as Northwestern.)

Meanwhile, I hope the Pac-10 sends more than 1 school, Arizona, to the CBB tournament. By the way, the "Pac-20" that was shot down will send many a team to this year's tournament.

I'm sorry if this comment is OT but today, it is all about the Benji's.

Expand full comment

Beaver men’s basketball has a very young team that plays hard. Reveno was a good toughness addition to the coaching staff. If the men can hold on to their players, good things can happen.

Hey John, the women’s Pac-12 basketball is a real tough win night in night out. Hope to see some coverage on them.

Love your stuff.

Expand full comment

Arizona fan really hoping we join the Big 12. Way better prep for March and we can destroy Pac 12 competition in the NCAA tourney instead of in Vegas. Pac-12 has been run to the ground by inept administrators, bad hires and favoritism and the expansion to 12 teams was the death blow.

Expand full comment

Adding Gonzaga for basketball would be a smart move in my opinion. The networks would have more reason to talk up our conference and carry games in prime time.

Expand full comment

Santa Clara grad here. They are 16-6 and #79 in the NET rankings. Not sure why you are disparaging them in this column.

Expand full comment

It may be close, but looks like the OSU men's basketball team will win more games than the football team. Over and Unders on the Beaver men's team? 12.....

Expand full comment

It seems like a lifetime ago that the Beavs went to the Elite Eight. I said at the time that Tinkle was welcome to stay as long as he wished.

I need to rethink that.

Expand full comment