NBA Players Tweeting at Half Time

The past week has shown NBA players starting to post to Twitter during Half Time of their games.  Charlie Villanueva of Milwaukee posted here.  "We're playing the Celtics.  Tie ball game at da half.  Coach wants more toughness.  I gotta step up."

He was promptly scolded by old-school coach Scott Skiles.  Skiles and the Bucks claimed it portrayed a lack of focus.  

Then, a couple days later, Shaq comes through with a post of his own at half time.  His coach, Alvin Gentry, didn't seem as concerned.  

I really don't see what the difference between posting a comment on Twitter or stopping to answer a TV reporter's questions.  It does symbolize a start of a shift to giving an update to your fans and friends, rather than to the general public.  It creates access and intimacy among your followers.  I think we'll get to a point where college coaches are posting updates (or maybe one of their assistants anyway) during halftime, pregame, and postgame, as it will become a way to show off your style and your adjustments to your fans, recruits, and players' families.  It will create a family atmosphere.  It just needs to be done in a way that doesn't make you feel there's a lack of focus.

An NCAA Map of Success

OK I admit it. I am both fascinated by basketball and by maps. I think I could spend hours staring at static maps, let alone interactive ones that tell the history of success in the NCAA tourament! The NY Times put together this map (pictured above) that plots NCAA Tournament Final Four appearances and National Titles on a map of the 48 contiguous US States (no Final Fours yet for Hawaii or Alaska... maybe when they can keep Trajan in-state).

Bigger circles mean more success, of course. You can click in and see the years and performance of teams.

I would love to see another one, of all NCAA appearances, not just Final Fours. I think if I was a recruit it'd be interesting to see how my prospective school looked on this map too. Or the teams we were set to play against.

The map also shows how a school competes against other schools for share of mind in a region (look at the differences in the Duke/UNC area versus Lawrence, Kansas!) Enjoy.

President Obama fills out his bracket

This is worth a watch, if you haven't seen it -- the Commander in Chief filling out his bracket.



Madness is here!

My Time at the Missouri Valley Tourney

On the eve of what is without a doubt my favorite day of the sports each year, I want to quickly recap a great time I had out in my trip to the conference tourney -- the Missouri Valley Tournament.

I had the pleasure of sitting next to Kyle Whelliston from Mid Majority. Kyle is a great guy who started his own site awhile back after going to school at a mid major (Drexel, I think) and (rightly) noting that there just wasn't much coverage on schools that weren't a part of the Big 6/Power/BCS/whatever you want to call them conferences.

Kyle has a mascot, Bally, who goes with him on a ridiculous number of games. He took a shot of me with Bally courtside at the tourney. It's posted with a sweet caption that's worth a click. Here - I'll make it easy: click this article

Bracket Week

It amazes me that with SO many people filling out brackets this week, that we still don't have a crazy experience out there on filling out your bracket. I heard a number of people who make sure they buy a USA Today on Monday after the selection show, as it lays the teams out pretty easily.

The coolest thing I've seen launch this year around the Tourney is the March Madness download pack from EA Sports. Essentially, you can go to Xbox LIVE Marketplace, and buy the add on for the tourney, with all teams set up as their seeds and (Relative) power. Then play the game. Pretty sweet.

I'm waiting for the broadcast of the selection show inside your Xbox 360. Can I have that next year, please?

Too Much Madness?

Is there too much March Madness?

After coming down from my Selection Show high, I learned that Drake had been chosen to play in the CIT (no, not the NIT). That's the CollegeInsiders.com Tourney. They are matched up on the road against Idaho.

So this year there are now 4 post season tourneys: the NCAA, NIT, CBIT (College Basketball Invitational Tourney), and CIT. To me, the CIT (and CBIT for that matter) are really like those early college football bowl games -- get a .500 record and you can qualify. Don't get me wrong, I think as a senior you should get the chance to play another few games. I get it. It's just that College Basketball postseason was so clean until the last year.

Here's the Onion's take on things.

NCAA Expands March Madness To Include 4,096 Teams

And here's a link to the CIT field. Something tells me there won't be too many brackets filled out here just yet.

Selection Sunday is here!

Today is the day!  I can't wait to see how this bracket unfolds.  My thoughts are you can't go against Memphis and Louisville as 1-seeds.  I'll give the others to Pitt and U Conn.  

Bracket Mania off this link.  

And you can follow the picks live from Coach Calipari's house here.

March Madness on your phone!

Wow how things have changed. I thought things couldn't get much better when CBS rolled out March Madness online last year - letting you watch whatever game you wanted, for free. Well, now you can catch it on your iTouch or iPhone this year. So that means as long as you are able to connect to the internet, you can watch games. Oh the number of people that will be watching this in their meetings, or from a cafe, or well anywhere. I don't have an iPhone (yet) but this just about makes me feel compelled to go and buy one. Almost there! Here's the link.

Topps Live Brings Baseball Cards to Life

I have to admit it. I collected baseball cards growing up and now have a closet full of them in my old bedroom in my parent's house. There once was a day where I told my mom to "never let me sell them, like so many other adults did." Fast forward to now. No, I'm not really pondering selling them. But I have wondered if there will ever be a generation of kids who will ever be back in the mode of wanting to collect baseball cards again. They are static visuals and a freeze frame moment in time that quickly becomes outdated.

Then I saw this - Topps Live. And I started to visualize what was possible. So yes, this is neat on its own - hold your card up to a scanner and unlock a virtual experience with a hologram of your player. But to think what could become possible if this takes off? Could we get to a point where the virtual version of a player changes as the season unfolds? Not just in their statistics but in what they are able to do? Could we see hologram highlights of the last night's game? (Or of an at bat that is in progress?) I think this connection is exactly what could be the start of baseball cards becoming relevant again... if they do this right.




That's crazy. Here's a link to the story in the NY Times: