Q&A: Reforming College Basketball, Arizona State's Next Football Coach and More
Welcome to another edition of The Press Break Q&A. We have plenty to get into, so a quick reminder that you can submit your topics on Twitter @KyleKensing, or email pressbreaknewsletter@gmail.com.
This probably isn’t a fun answer, but some of college basketball’s issues with style of play currently are cyclical and will improve with time. The college game was long more offensively fluid than the NBA, and the best programs were those that could push the tempo effectively.
In order to counter that, coaches began to emphasize methodical offensive pace and stifling defensive philosophies like the Pack Line. But in recent years — including in this year’s Final Four with Duke, Kansas and North Carolina — we’re seeing a shift back to the high-scoring teams being the tone-setters.
Part of the cycle coming back around is the long and arduous process of programs adjusting to one-and-done. The NBA’s age-limit rule was probably the single-most damaging move to the quality of the college game, as the blue-chip prospects being forced into college prevented the programs that signed such talent from developing chemistry. Thus, veterans teams — which usually means teams devoid of elite talent — performed better in March (when the majority of people are checking out college basketball), as did system teams.
Basketball, perhaps more than any other sport, is a player’s game. Incentivizing elite talent to stay around for more than a cup of coffee is going to be the A-1 solution to improving the on-court product, and we’ve seen some steps in recent years. The extension of the draft deadline is a biggie, and resulted in Buddy Hield’s unforgettable 2015-16 campaign.
NIL is going to be a boon to the college game, as we’re already starting to see with some of the players opting to return for 2022-23. I touched on this topic some in this story from the Final Four.
As college basketball czar, I would emphasize NIL opportunities more and negotiate with the NBA on contract rights. Eliminate one-and-done to give players an option to bypass college, but to avoid the issues inherent from preps-to-pro that started to surface in the early 2000s, open an additional, late signing period for incoming freshmen who choose to test the draft waters.
Meanwhile — and this is where negotiating with the NBA really comes in — allow pro franchises to draft the rights to college players and pay them a stipend of their contract and into an annuity before they make the jump.
Another immediate point of emphasis in my tenure as czar is working with conferences to retool TV contracts. ESPN was vital to college basketball’s popularity in the ‘80s and ‘90s. However, since acquiring NBA rights and shifting to the more Disney-fied style in the 21st Century — and with CBS teaming with Turner to lock up the money-making bonanza of March Madness for the foreseeable future — ESPN properties have treated college basketball like an afterthought at best and a joke at worst.
The network’s near-monopoly on college rights in general is a negative. As czar, I can’t make other media companies take on contracts, but I sure work like hell to spread out basketball coverage on more platforms.
This is actually a topic I want to get into in some more depth soon, so I’ll leave at this for now: I would like to see coverage more invested in promoting the game and its players during the regular season, and that won’t happen so long as ESPN hordes rights.
As far as rules changes to gameplay, I’m not so sure many are necessary if the game keeps elite players around for longer. To wit, offenses were more prolific in the era of the 45-second shot clock (and even predating the shot clock) than they have been for much of the 30-second shot clock era.
Eliminating zone defense is a slap in the face to the core audience, as the college game’s strategic differences from the pro game are part of its appeal. More talented and better-skilled teams around the nation will organically combat system defenses.
But, one huge change I would make a priority on defense: Reprimanding officials who continuously blow charge calls. Likewise, I would find a way to punish repeat flopping offenders.
It’s not right to fine players, even in the NIL era, so there would have be some other kind of punitive measure. Maybe docking of the NET rating based on what a rules committee deems excessive flopping? Wisconsin’s future seeding prospects are going to take a serious hit.
I’ll preface the following noting I’m interested to see how Arizona State performs this season. Despite the exodus of talent into the transfer portal and the bevy of coaches that left, there’s still a lot of intrigue about this Sun Devils team. Merlin Robertson is one of the most versatile defensive players in the Pac-12, and I loved Xavazian Valladay at Wyoming.
However, USC’s influx of transfer talent; Utah returning a bevy of key pieces from its Rose Bowl run; and a slept-on UCLA team will all be tough. I’m not sure there’s much room for upward mobility this season, and another year of the 7-or-8-win status quo won’t be enough to buy Herm Edwards more time in light of the NCAA investigation and bad PR.
Had this all gone down on a slightly faster timeline, bringing back Billy Napier could have been a home run — though I’m not sure anyone in Tempe would be in a rush to welcome back any one from the Todd Graham era, even if it was an assistant who spent just a year on his staff.
Either way, Florida snatched him up after a great tenure at Louisiana-Lafayette, so I’ll pivot elsewhere.
Jim McElwain: It remains baffling to me that a coach could lead a program to consecutive SEC Championship Games, only to get pushed out before conclusion of his third season. Regardless if the slander heaped on him from his abbreviated tenure at Florida is warranted — it’s not — it was bookended with excellent runs at Colorado State and Central Michigan.
McElwain has extensive Western roots, having played at Eastern Washington and been an assistant to Fresno State legend Pat Hill. He has an eye for offense, which is the element of the game I see Arizona State as being best-equipped to make its name nationally. He comes from the Nick Saban coaching tree, which could really work to unlock ASU’s potential as a recruiting power.
And, while less relevant to on-field success, he’s affable and open with media. College programs in major metropolises with a variety of other sports options need coaches who actively promote the team, and McElwain would excel in that regard.
Jay Hill: Longtime Kyle Whittingham assistant Jay Hill built Weber State into one of the most consistent winners in FCS over the past five years or so, including a stretch of three straight double-digit-win campaigns. Hill’s Wildcat teams play similarly to Whittingham’s Utes, disciplined and physical.
While I reiterate my belief that Arizona State is best served building on an offensive identity, thus making a potential offensive coordinator hire the most significant staffing development of a hypothetical Hill regime, a hard-nosed philosophy often maximizes potential above its recruiting rankings.
Jeff Grimes: A well-traveled assistant whose past stops include coaching offensive line at Arizona State, current Baylor offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes strikes me as the potential under-the-radar candidate who could immediately flourish at a major program much in the same vein as Sam Pittman at Arkansas.
Grimes did an excellent job with Baylor’s Big 12-winning offense this past season, and I suspect his stock will only continue to climb.
Jimbo Fisher’s impromptu press conference to respond to Nick Saban’s NIL complaints was certainly one of the more bizarre episodes in college football recently. The suggestion that someone slap Saban has to be the single-most bizarre facet to all of it.
I’ll Saban credit: Despite his stature, he was a tough-as-nails defensive back for Kent State and he gives off a kind of quiet, old man you don’t want to mess with energy today. Among his exploits with the Golden Flashes is facing down a University of Tampa squad in the Tangerine Bowl that included “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff at running back.
Orndorff was renowned as one of the most legitimate bad-asses in professional wrestling after his football career. So, keeping in that theme, I’ll offer up for Fisher’s proposal University of Miami alum and 1991 national champion Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — if for no other reason than The Rock’s wrestling slaps in which he’d spit on his hand before delivering were always good for a pop.
“Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, Money isn’t everything — it’s the only thing! is the Texas Longhorns. A former college standout in the state of Texas at the former West Texas State, DiBiase actually came from humble beginnings that bely his “Million Dollar Man” character. Be that as it may, his declaration that money isn’t everything — it’s the only thing sure makes him sound like a Horns booster.
Bret Hart, Monday Night Raw March 1997 is UCF. The beginning of Bret Hart’s ‘97 heel turn was this profanity-laced tirade following a Steel Cage Match with Sycho Sid. The Hitman became labeled as a whiner and malcontent in the subsequent weeks, but the fact is…everything he said was correct.
Hart was cheated in the 1997 Royal Rumble, stuck into a four-way match for the vacated championship, and when he finally got his one-on-one rematch almost a year after losing the WWF Championship to Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XII, was attacked by the Undertaker.
And that’s only noting the storyline instances of Bret Hart being cheated, as Shawn Michaels famously refused to have a rematch with Hart behind the scenes. Like UCF exactly 20 years later, when it had very valid gripes about its exclusion from the College Football Playoff in 2017, Hart voicing his complaints became deemed as whiny.
But dammit, Hitman deserved a real title shot and so did the Knights!
And speaking of non-power conference teams with legitimate gripes, Paul Heyman’s 2000 shoot on TNN’s treatment of ECW is the Big East. Like ECW, Big East football was ahead of its time. Rich Rodriguez’s offenses at West Virginia, the swagger of Miami, Michael Vick at Virginia Tech — all of it was like looking ahead 10-to-20 years in the future.
And, like ECW, Big East football is defunct; killed off by its top players leaving for more lucrative opportunities in the leagues awash in television money. TV networks also played a more active role in each entities’ demise than merely being able to offer more for programs and performers.
The systematic deconstruction of the Big East is a topic on which I plan to deep-dive soon, but will tease that day saying that TV very purposefully sabotaged the conference.
Deeming NC State the team most likely to disappoint is almost too obvious. I mean, it IS NC State, after all. But alas, I love the pieces the Wolfpack return and the defense is too good for NCSU to backslide too dramatically.
Sadly, I have to go with my adopted team of 2021, Wake Forest. Sam Hartman’s play last season was otherworldly, and the Demon Deacons now have the best wideout in the conference (A.T. Perry) with Jordan Addison exiting Pitt for USC. However, Wake won too many close and wildly high-scoring games a season ago for that style to be sustainable for another year.
Short answer: No.
Longer answer: It wouldn’t have mattered if CSKA Moscow could have continued to field a team in this year’s EuroLeague competition, as the majority of non-Russian talent opted to walk at the outset of the Ukrainian invasion.
Without Joel Bolomboy1, Daniel Hackett or Johannes Voigtmann willing to suit up, CSKA wasn’t going to beat anyone.
So much of the traveling I’ve done is tied to sports — for example, I went to Boone, North Carolina last October expressly to attend a football game. And it ruled! I really enjoyed Boone, but I can’t necessarily rank it in favorite places to go since my stay consisted almost entirely of walking around the Appalachian State campus.
In terms of my favorite spots to vacation, my top four:
Palm Springs/Desert: The Coachella Valley is a perfect family vacation destination (so long as there isn’t a music festival in town). There are resorts that cater specifically to families, so my wife and I are able to keep our kids busy and happy, and because of the heat, swimming options are top-notch. Palm Desert has a variety of great restaurants, too. If I was a golfer, I’m sure I’d love the area even more.
Las Vegas: Perhaps a lame or easy choice, but the truth is, I still love Las Vegas as much now as the first time I visited. People who hate on Vegas confuse me, because it’s one of the few cities in the U.S. where you can pretty much find anything to cater to your own, specific interests.
Lake Tahoe: The best family vacation I’ve ever had was to Lake Tahoe in 2017. The summer weather was perfect, making for a fun time swimming in the lake. Tahoe’s natural landscape is breathtaking, and the food was top-notch. You can take a trip to Tahoe in the summer and hike, bike, swim then end the day doing some gambling at the casinos; or go in the winter to ski and take in some hoops at the sports book.
Kauai: My wife and I took our honeymoon in Hawai’i’s Garden Island, and I can confidently say it’s the embodiment of the word paradise. We spent most of our time on the beach, where a sea lion just plopped down and chilled at one point. The water was so blue and clear, I could see urchin on coral while I swim. And Waimea Canyon is one of the most incredible natural marvels I’ve ever seen.
That’s two Weber State references in a single Q&A!