All the News That's Fit to Link

Seriously hope there isn't a political blog with that title that would get very mad at me. Welcome to this column where we go through the various Bearcats news of the day. I didn't include the story of the kid from Utah committing to UC because that is kind of old. I'm sure the other sites have that covered. On this hot as hell Thursday, we get to the current stories. That's what makes Bearcats Blog a rebel blog. Some other sites out there link to past stories. Well, every story you link to is a past story, but they link to stories from the distant past. Not this blog. The google news is set for last 24 hours, babaroo. 

A quick site note. I've said this before, but I'm serious. My interest in recruiting is not very high. If yours is and you want to write about it, drop me a line. My email is on the screen. You can reach out to me on twitter. You don't have to be a professional writer. Lord knows that's discouraged around these parts. But if you want to cover recruiting, get in contact with me. Your $0.00 contract will be rewarded with a $0.00 signing bonus. 

 
Image via MopUpDuty. There are no gifs of Brandon Phillips doing that. This is a travesty. Get on this, someone. 

The big news of the day is the UC is changing 5/3 Arena. Gone is the normal court. It's been replaced with this: 


If we are being honest, I can't say that I like it. And by can't say that I like it, I really hate it. I hate two tone courts. They are the worst. Hopefully this doesn't look ugly. I've been told this was news a week ago, but it's news to me now. I know what I said about not covering old news, but eff that shiz in the a. 

 The second big news of the day is that in 2014, the NCAA will probably have a 4 team playoff with a selection committee choosing the teams once the BCS ends. All the BS and drama aside, this is the way to go. A bigger tournament would be better, but the NCAA tournament didn't start at 64 teams. Let's have a real championship system first. 

October 6, 2012, the Battle for the Victory Bell is set. On Fox Sports Ohio, the Bearcats host Miami at 7 pm. It's the Homecoming game. It's always good to bring in the puff pastries for Homecoming. UC has whooped that RedHawk ass 6 times in a row. 

Brett McMurphy at CBS took an interesting look at the BCS standings since 2007. It has to do with revenue for one of the plans being based off the standings. When you go through the top 25 BCS teams since 2007:

11. Oklahoma State 55 (Big 12)
12. Stanford 49 (Pac-12)
13. Wisconsin 46 (Big Ten)
14. Georgia 42 (SEC)
(tie). USC 42 (Pac-12)
16. Cincinnati 41 (Big East)
17. Georgia Tech 39 (ACC)
(tie). Missouri 39 (SEC)
19. Arkansas 38 (SEC)
20. Penn State 35 (Big Ten)

Emphasis mine. Despite UC being 16th, the Big East only had 130 points. 74 of those came from future member Boise State. Boise has more points than the rest of the returning league COMBINED. 

Lost Lettermen is running Cincinnati week. They touched on Deontey Kenner yesterday. 

Saturday Blitz asks who's going to step up for the Cats? 

A ferver was kicked up yesterday when it was reported Ohio State was talking to the Bengals about playing their 2013 spring game at Paul Brown Stadium. I personally don't really care. For all of our love for Cincinnati football, to most people it wasn't a thing until 5 years ago. Ohio State is going to put more people in the stands for that game than UC had for either PBS game last season. This is one of the biggest programs in the nation with one of the biggest name coaches in the nation in the state that they pretty much run. You can find it insulting, I give it a big 'meh.' 


The odds for the college football season national champ have come out. UC is at 150/1. That's the same as Iowa, Louisville and Penn State. USC is the favorite. If you are in Vegas, place a very large sum on the Bearcats for me. At least 5 figures. I'm good for it. My name is Chris Bains. You can break my legs if I don't pay. 

In her weekly mailblog, Andrea Adelson, aka Double A but maybe Triple A if you add Awesome first, talked a little about Brendon Kay. 

As for what he brings to the field, Kay is more of a pocket passer, but Jones praised his athleticism and said the fifth-year senior is no slouch when it comes to running the football. He has mastered the offense while he's been on the sideline waiting his turn. I think all of us expect Legaux to be the starter, but I won't be surprised if Kay plays this year.

I am on the same boat. I thought Munchie would be the clear starter, but I'm really thinking that Kay could come out with the starting job before the season is over. 

Switching over to hoops, Matt at Down the Drive shows some concern for the future as it relates to bigs. With the 2012 class basically being a complete whiff, I'm very anxious about next season. Losing Wright, Parker, Mbodj and hey, maybe Kilpatrick if he grows another level, is going to be huge. UC is very thin up front. The 2 players for 2013 are guards. I share Matt's concerns. We all know the fall from a perennial NCAA tournament team to the shits is swift if you don't have experience and a good class. In St John's case, just plain inexperience killed them this season. It's too early to panic, but it's not early enough to have a watchful eye on what Mick and the coaches can get done. I orginally wrote Mick and the staff get done, but that sounded beyond creepy. 

When Jon Rothstein wasn't busy comparing Kyle Kuric to Dan Majerle, he wrote about the 10 glue guys for next season. JaQuon Parker hit the list at #2 of this very Big East heavy list. 

THE SKINNY: Pound for pound the toughest player in all of college basketball, the 6-foot-3 Parker was the main reason why the Bearcats were able to advance to the Sweet 16 last season. Undersized but never over matched, Parker played power forward for Mick Cronin and despite his size, had a breakout year playing out of the position. With one year left in his collegiate career, Parker will return to the perimeter next season as he’ll pair with Cashmere Wright and Sean Kilpatrick to give Cronin the best back court he’s ever had as a head coach.

 Koch wrote a weird half piece about Yancy Gates' odds at getting drafted next week. Gates worked out for the Spurs, Celtics, Warriors, Knicks, Trail Blazers, Kings and Pistons. I don't mean to slam on Koch, but this piece was that info, the info on Gates' career and then 3 sentences saying Mick thinks Gates will be drafted and 2 sites have him not being drafted. Why write this piece then? I don't get it. At least give us an opinion, Bill. 

For the record, I don't think he'll be drafted. I think Gates will sign with someone after the draft and go to summer league if they still have that, and we will see from there. Maybe the d-league. Maybe Europe.

As for the other odds and ends, UC named Gina Oliver coach of the women's lacrosse team. 

The Mick Cronin Bearcats Classic golf tournament is July 8. It's $1,500 a team. Just dinner is $200. You could be a weirdo and sponsor a hole for $500. I think we should get a kickstarter started for Bearcats Blog to sponsor a hole. It's not the worst idea ever. 

John Hughes doesn't care what the critics say in Cleveland. 

We close today with a sad story. Butch Jones is going to be at the game tonight. Rooting for Miami. I don't even know what to say about this. He shares an agent with Eric Spolestra and apparently they talk. I want to like you Butch, but man.