The Olympics are finally here. I love the Olympics. It gives us a legitimate reason to watch women’s team handball and doubles badminton. Seriously. Race-walking. Trampolining. Synchronized diving. These are all Olympic sports. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.
- I love the Team USA opening ceremony outfits. Call me un-American, I don’t care, those things are legit
- ESPN unveiled the brackets for all the preseason tournaments. Yup all of them. The Maui Invitational, CBE Classic, Las Vegas Invitational, Puerto Rico Tip-Off, Anaheim Classic, Diamond Head Classic, Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic, Old Spice Classic, and Charleston Classic. Wait, none of them are actually tournaments
- Jeff Eisenberg provides more concise information about the slate of November tournaments
- ESPN also continued to pump out their Summer Shootaround content. They tackled the SEC on Thursday, and Doug Gottlieb thinks MIzzou is a lock to win it. This can’t make people in Lexington too happy
- Former-Indiana and Southern Miss guard Neil Reed, the man who was choked by Bobby Knight after an altercation following practice, passed away on Thursday after suffering a massive heart attack on Wednesday. Reed was 36 years-old. Bruce Feldman provides a must-read on the Reed he knew
- More tragic news emerged on Thursday. Michael Haynes, a former-UTEP forward who transferred to Iona, was shot and killed near his home in Chicago. Haynes tried to breakup an altercation over a stolen necklace and was shot three times. Words cannot express how disgusting this is. My heartfelt condolences go out to the entire Haynes family
- Las Vegas has become the hotbed for AAU tournaments and is the community watering-hole for college coaches. But as Jeff Goodman points out, not all teams reap the benefits of Sin City (Great-Read Alert)
- Kevin Brockaway makes an excellent point about the ship being used to host the Georgetown vs. Florida aircraft carrier game. Do humanitarian efforts outweigh war-crimes? (Another must-read)
- Southern Conference commissioner John Iamarino believes the conference may have to reinvent itself through realignment
- Xavier head coach Chris Mack is a fantastic guy. Hilarious, entertaining and well-respected. If there is only one coach in the country worthy of making a “Call Me Maybe” spoof video, it’s him
- Kansas State senior Jeremy Jones has decided to leave the program. The guard played in 20 games last season and averaged 3.1ppg and 8.3mpg
- Iona big-man Josh Gomez has decided to transfer to Bowling Green
- I don’t know much about Duquesne freshman Quevyn Winters. But what I do know is that he’s a lock for the 2012-2013 All Name Team
- St. Joseph’s suffered a huge loss today, as guard Kyle Molock re-tore his ACL and will be out for an extended period of time
- Bruins Nation is here to dispel eight myths about the 2012-2013 UCLA squad. Both myths are quite interesting and should require the next 3-5 minutes of your day
- I’m interested to see how Pittsburgh fares this year. Jamie Dixon is going to give a lot of minutes to unproven freshman. But if there’s a coach who can elevate the level of his team’s play, it’s Dixon
- @RobDauster may or may not have some issues with this article, but I think it’s worth your time. Jason McIntyre of the Big Lead goes in on the UNC academic scandal and how it affects the basketball team. The Tar Heel Blog issues an apt response
- Former-Missouri big-man Ricardo Ratliffe was drafted into the Korean Basketball League after not getting any summer league invitations
- A good-read on new Indiana assistant coach Kenny Johnson, a former AAU guru who is using his skills to help the Hoosiers off the court
- Pretty cool story from up north. The MAAC has no former basketball players participating in the 2012 Olympics, but former-Manhattan women’s guard Rosalee Mason got to carry the torch during it’s 70-day trek from Athens to London
- This is something Louisville fans can hang over the heads of #BBN members, right? U of L was the smartest basketball team in the Big East last season
- Yes, Mookie Jones career at Syracuse is over. Well, no, technically it’s not officially over, but we all know he ain’t going back. I think “Mookie being Mookie” has finally caught up to him
Troy Machir is the managing editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @TroyMachir.