John Rooke - Thinking Out Loud

John Rooke - Thinking Out Loud

Thinking out loud…and wondering if I can still hang onto the half of my wardrobe with the “Big East” logo affixed somewhere, or am I going shopping?

• Happy March Madness!

• Several outlets reported this week that Fox Sports wants the Catholic/Hoop 7 for NEXT year…which is one of the reasons they’re dangling upwards of $40 million a year to those schools. Apparently, when they debut as a new national network, they want the “new Big East” along for the ride. The announcement is expected this Tuesday…

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• And speaking of the “new Big East,” several reports indicate that the hoop schools may very well take the name…for a price…which perhaps also means the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden should remain in the future as well. It’s all about the $$$, and everything comes with a price tag. But it just can’t be the Big East without the Garden, can it?

• Call me crazy, but there’s a small part of me that would love to see the Friars, as well as the Hoop 7, stick around for one more “old Big East” swan-song. It’s not just for the addition of the Texas schools, however. I’d love to see next years’ Friars take a shot at the final “old Big East” title. Who knows? Maybe that shot will have to happen this year…

• Was there a little PC-love thrown to Providence by Rick Pitino this week? “I think they should (get the name),” Pitino told USA TODAY Sports in a telephone interview Thursday. “I think without question, the Catholic 7 deserves the Big East name. They should have, in my estimation, broken away from the football schools three years ago. I think they waited way too long. They should have been fed up a long time ago.” 

• Pitino added: “You have some of the great, great traditions in college basketball. They should have gotten together, made their strong basketball league, sell their own deal and they should be the Big East. They should be playing in Madison Square Garden.” Whoa…geez Rick, why’d ya’ ever leave?

• Xavier and Butler. Creighton. And then, Dayton and Saint Louis. Where basketball is important, and the tradition is solid. Welcome to the Big East…

• The “X factor” (sorry, Xavier) in all of this is Notre Dame. Mike Brey confirmed on his coaches’ show this week that the Irish may still be considering several options – heading to the ACC early, staying in the “old Big East,” or even jumping into the “new Big East” for a year. Don’t be surprised if a jump to the “new Big East” happens…they’re keeping options open in case the ACC implodes, and they never wanted to leave the Big East in the first place…

• We’ve chronicled Bryant’s stories here on GoLocalProv.com throughout the basketball season…but now, the nation is starting to catch on to the history unfolding in Smithfield, RI. As of this moment, the Bulldogs are record-setters – at 18-10, improving from 2-28 just one year ago, the 17-game improvement is on pace for the greatest single-season improvement for a team in 40 years. The only thing keeping this from being an all-time record (Towson, under former PC and URI assistant Pat Skerry is also pushing +17 this year as well) is the fact that the Bulldogs technically were still in transition into Division I last season…and therefore, not eligible for consideration…

• Stupid is as stupid does…last weekend, the Exponent Telegram in West Virginia reported the Big 12 Conference would be looking into travel “issues” the Mountaineers have faced in their first season in the league. One of the issues involved having to go out on the road, play Saturday, fly home Sunday, practice Monday, and fly out again Tuesday for a Wednesday game. Huh?

• It seems that Big 12 rules don’t allow teams to stay out on the road, so most of WVU’s time away from campus is spent traveling. Duh! Did anyone in Morgantown bother to look at the alignment of the league when they decided to join it? No bus trips here. The closest school to them is Iowa State – 871 miles away. The average distance between WVU’s campus and their conference opponents is 1037 miles. In the Big East, the furthest opponent was USF (955 miles) and the average distance to member schools was 430 miles…

• Hope you enjoy those paychecks, Mountaineers. Meanwhile, tell your “student-athletes” to suck it up, and keep playing for the dough, er, Blue and Gold…

• Stupid is as stupid does, Part II: More whining – from Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim…who ridiculed reporters following SU’s loss to Marquette this week and then took a shot at the Big East. Boeheim said “If they had signed the TV deal last year, it was $17 million per school. I guess they’re signing one now for about 2.5 (million). That was a good decision. The Big East brought it on themselves. Sign the TV deal and nothing would happen.”

• Well, coach…here’s the cheese to go along with your whine…it wasn’t $17 million per school if the deal had been accepted. It was closer to $13-14 million, but let’s not quibble over facts. The consensus was, at the time, that the league could do better. And it potentially could have, had your school (and Pittsburgh) not betrayed everyone else by departing. Secondly, it was Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg who led the parade of presidents to vote against the deal…and then led your school by its nose out of the Big East a short time later. Funny how you left out a very important fact…

• A message to my media brethren: Stop asking Boeheim about the Big East. What do you expect him to say? He’s going to support his program, and his program’s undoubtedly stupid decision to abandon its eastern identity for a southern-based future and an extra few million dollars on the backs of the schools’ student-athletes. Good luck with that. Ask West Virginia how the change is working for them. Oh, and ask Boston College, too…

• I’m reminded of a quote from Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, who once said “Loyalty is something you give regardless of what you get back, and in giving loyalty, you're getting more loyalty; and out of loyalty flow other great qualities.” I suppose this hasn’t made the rounds inside the “Melo Center” on campus at Syracuse…

• My buddy Statbeast sez loyalty is easy to measure in his household. Love is grand. Divorce is 20 grand…

• Good grief. Next level hideousness, courtesy of Adidas. Please. Make. It. Stop…

• There is so much to enjoy about college athletics – still – with rivalries, pomp and circumstance, cheerleaders, bands, crazy fans and so on. Then, there’s Alabama football offering a scholarship to an eighth-grader. Which they did this week. Seriously…

• You may not know who she is, but she’s been a driving force behind ESPN becoming the behemoth that it is. Rosa Gatti retired this week after 33 years as the network’s communications’ “guru,” evolving from establishing simple policy and procedure to heading the corporations’ communications department and community outreach. Gatti was the Sports Information Director at Brown before she moved to Connecticut, and prior to Brown became the first woman SID in the NCAA’s major university division at Villanova in 1974…

• Count rapper 50 Cent among those who have tried, and failed, to win the heart (if not affection) of sideline reporter Erin Andrews. Painfully awkward…

• Tweet of the Week – again from Rick Pitino, courtesy of @EricPrisbell (USA Today): "If a 16 is ever going to beat a 1, it will be this year. And a double-digit seed could win the title." Keep this in mind as you start thinking “brackets” in a couple of weeks…

• Coach of the Year in the Big East? Hard to go against Georgetown’s John Thompson III, or UConn’s Kevin Ollie coaching with so much uncertainty surrounding the Huskies’ program. If Villanova stays on the NCAA bubble, you can’t forget Jay Wright, either. But if the Friars somehow win out…Ed Cooley deserves to be right up there…

• There will be a snub when it comes to all-Big East post-season teams. There may be more than one. Bryce Cotton has led the league in scoring for the entire year. Kadeem Batts should be the Most Improved. And LaDontae Henton is 3rd in rebounding, 2nd behind ND’s Jack Cooley in double-doubles. Someone isn’t going to get what he probably deserves…

• I really did laugh out loud when I heard the story about the Saint Louis radio announcer who told off an official while on the air. Shame on the official for having such incredibly thin skin…and rabbit ears. Yo, fella. Come to the Big East, and get a load of my partner, Joe Hassett. You wouldn’t last a half. But then again, Hassett might not, either…

• I’m reminded of two true tales here…one, when Texas A&M play-by-play voice Dave South was ejected from the 1993 SWC Tournament for giving the “choke” sign to an official…and two, when Hassett tried to reach over the press table in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1999 and grab Mike Kitts for what he thought was a “horrible” call as the Friars played the Razorbacks. I thought Joe was gone, but Kitts ignored him…and we all laughed about it at the airport after the game – including Kitts. Such is life in the Big East, especially when you’re on the road…

• Can’t leave out the story of the Providence Hockey Friars, who find themselves in the running for a regular season Hockey East title with two weekends left to play in the regular season. Like what Ed Cooley is engineering with basketball, Nate Leaman might just have the skaters a bit ahead of schedule, picked for 6th in the pre-season…which bodes well for the future…

• Leave it to Tom Terrific to provide the ultimate sacrifice – in the wallet – for the good of his team. Brady’s restructured contract and three-year extension this week creates another $15 million in salary cap space over the next two years…and certainly leaves open several possibilities for signings, or re-signings. Maybe if more star players stepped up like this, perhaps we could actually control the outrageous contract signings we see in pro sports these days…

• Of course, if more star players had wives who are actually making more money than their husbands – like Tom’s – that would also make it easier to sacrifice. Just sayin’…

• Before we anoint Brady for sainthood, however…he IS receiving a $30 million signing bonus, as reported by ProFootballTalk.com this week for his, ahem…flexibility. Overall, he’ll receive $33 million over the next two years – counting the bonus – which is actually $3 million more than he would have made under his former deal. Nice math. But to his credit, he didn’t have to do this. Brady says he just wants to win…and everything he has done in the past backs that up…

• So now I’m going to do another flip-flop on Wes Welker, seeing as Brady obviously wants him back in a Pats’ uniform. With the extra cap space, they probably get a deal done…but keep in mind, Welker wants the extra year(s), not necessarily the $$$...

• Why are so many analysts/experts “cool” on Aqib Talib? So let’s franchise an offensive tackle (Sebastian Vollmer) coming off of knee surgery instead? Maybe not even use the tag on anyone? Excuse me, but when did good cornerbacks start growing on trees?

• Now, if Darrelle Revis enters the equation…fine. I’ll make that sacrifice for the good of fandom and allow his presence, coming from the “dark side.” I would also say that the Honey Badger, aka Tyrann Mathieu from LSU, could be there for the taking since the Pats have a history in doing their homework on “troubled” players…

• NFL.com listed its Top 85 players available via free agency, but with the cream of the crop destined for franchise tags, the best “probably available” is Pittsburgh WR Mike Wallace. If you’re looking for speed, you can find it here…but the guess is the Patriots will go the draft route, rather than pay Wallace…

• Not for nuthin’…but the Pats’ Vollmer is listed 7th on this list. Could some of the money saved in Brady’s restructured contract wind up in his hands? It probably should…but with chronic back – and now knee troubles – is he worth it?

• Manny Ramirez is back. Sort of. He has an agreement to play for a team in the Taiwanese league, if he can’t find a spot on a major league roster. Oh yeah, this’ll go over well…

• John Lackey made his Red Sox spring debut this week, and predictably struggled after missing last year recovering from Tommy John surgery. Laughed out loud at this Twitter exchange between Pete Abraham, the Boston Globe Sox beat writer, and a fan: “Tall // RT @krjr33: @PeteAbe how's Lackey look? Not on tv…”

• Ok, in the interest of reporting both sides of the story…watch out for OF Jackie Bradley. It’s early, yet. But his play at the plate and in the field has been eye-catching. He’s probably destined to start the year in Pawtucket, but if he continues to swing the stick this spring…

• I’ve decided that Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are ageless. Like Dick Clark before them, (and let’s not forget Mick Jagger, either) they must have a deal with the devil to stay forever young…because the way they rocked out the Dunkin Donuts Center this past week was remarkable. Think of the iconic bands of the last 50 years…and “The Who” has to be in the top two or three, with The Beatles and Rolling Stones. They belong there…

• For a couple of, ahem, older gents, Daltrey and Townshend can still bring it. The Who is remade, of course…over time having lost drummer Keith Moon in 1978 to a drug overdose, for instance…but their Quadrophenia Tour in the US told the story of the band, and how it related to history through the decades of their existence. Fascinating, exhilarating, entertaining…it was quite the world history lesson. Best class I’ve ever been to…

• Paul Pierce’s pain in the neck (nerve problem) is something that will apparently not heal itself anytime soon. Which isn’t exactly big news, but also not exactly good news for the Celtics’ stretch run…

• Thoughts and prayers go out to the UConn football family, and the family of senior fullback Martin Hyppolite. Hyppolite was seriously injured in a fatal auto accident in New Hampshire last weekend…

• Best of luck – not that they’ll need it, they’re pretty good – to the RIC Anchormen and head basketball coach Bob Walsh…as they host Hobart in the NCAA Division III tournament this weekend. Regular season and tournament champions, again, in the Little East…Walsh’s teams continue to make the post-season a rule, rather than an exception.  Seven straight years in the NCAA's...

• Our mailbag question/comment this week comes from Bobby in Warwick, RI via Facebook, on PC’s chances to reach the NCAA Tournament. Prior to this year, 124 of 130 active Big East teams to reach 10 league wins have reached the big dance – “John, presuming the Friars win their final three regular season games to finish at 10-8 in the conference (and 18 on the season) I really don't think it is enough. They will need at least one more in BE tournament. Some bad losses out of conference will hurt and I know they were short in some of those but I don't think the selection committee will weigh that too heavily.” Bobby: None of those losses will help, of course. But what WILL help is winning, potentially, 8 of your last 9. In this league, especially. The Penn State, Boston College and Brown losses all came with injured players out of the lineup, which gets taken into consideration. It's a LONG shot, but I'm just sayin'...

• Interested in having your questions on local RI sports (including the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics) answered in a somewhat timely fashion? Send ‘em to me! It’s your chance to “think out loud,” so send your questions and comments to [email protected]. We’ll share mailbag comments/Facebook posts/Tweets right here! Follow me on Twitter, @JRbroadcaster…and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/john.rooke ...

• Don’t forget to join us for GoLocal Sports on 103.7 FM, every Saturday from 7:00-9:00 am! Call in (401) 737-1287, or text 37937…and send email to the show - [email protected].

• The recently released “Rhode Island Radio” from Arcadia Publishing is available for sale, and the book tells the story of the 90-year history of radio in our state through photographs, clippings and memories from many of the personalities who have graced our airwaves. Join me for a book signing event and talk TODAY – Saturday, March 2nd at Barnes & Noble on Route 2 in Warwick, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm! If you’re in search of the gift that says “Rhode Island,” you’ve found it. Or, find it in local bookstores and online right here…