***Read the Rivals.com Boost Notebook here***
NEW YORK — Josh Selby cocked back his right arm and threw down a monstrous one-handed jam on Kendall Marshall that was the highlight of the Boost Mobile Elite 24 game before 1,800 at the Gauchos Gym in The Bronx.
“The crowd was getting a little bit bored so I did that for the excitement. We needed our chance to get the momentum and that’s what we did. We got the momentum after that,” Selby said.
“Crazy,” Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Jennings called it.
“Bananas,” Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love said.
“Straight out of Vince Carter,” New York Post columnist Pete Vecsey explained.
The dunk was one of several exclamation points Selby flushed in the game. He finished with 18 points and was named Co-MVP but ended up on the losing end as Skip to My Lou beat Selby’s Goat team 133-120 in a tight, hot gym after the game was moved from the outdoor Rucker Park because of rain.
Because of the shift, the game won’t be shown on ESPNU Saturday night. Somebody made a bad decision by not moving this game to Fordham when the forecast called for thunder showers.
Queens native Doron Lamb of Oak Hill (Va.) Academy poured in 23 points, six rebounds and five assists and then posed for pictures with family and friends in his AAU team’s gym. Tobias Harris of Dix Hills (N.Y.) Half Hollow Hills West added 20 points. The duo were named Co-MVPs for Skip.
“It’s a big thing for me,” Lamb said. “I should’ve got it [MVP] last year but John Wall and Lance Stephenson got it. This year I had to come out and get it.”
Roscoe Smith of Oak Hill added 22 points, Harrison Barnes of Ames (Iowa) High and Memphis-bound guard Will Barton of Brewster (N.H.) Academy had 18 apiece and Joe Jackson of Memphis White Station added 10.
For Goat, Kyrie Irving of Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick and Myck Kabongo of Newark (N.J.) St. Benedict’s scored 16 apiece and C.J. Leslie and Syracuse-bound guard Dion Waiters tallied 15 apiece. Leslie added 11 rebounds.
Still, the story of the night (aside from the rain and the move) was Selby’s dunks. He had three in a short span in the second quarter and then showed some touch by floating in a 10-foot rainbow shot that drew a foul. He made both free throws.
After decommitting from Tennessee, Selby is wide open and he and his mother, Maeshon Witherspoon, who sat courtside, will soon set out a schedule of in-home visits.
“To be honest, I don’t need no help with my scholarship,” he said. “I got about 15 schools looking at me right now. That’s all I need because if I had more schools looking at me, that’s more headache.
“I’m cool with the schools looking at me because they’re all big-time, Division 1 schools.”
NOTES:
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JessieWildcat / August 22, 2009
AZ,
Who is the WORST ONE?
Geoff Calkins is PUNCHING AWAY. NO HOLD BACK SLUGGING.
Brave to YOU, Geoff!
Someone perspective on who is WORST? Cali -Kentucky or Rickie Dickie Pitino or Memphis AD (who knew.)
And the WORST commentary could be the Forde ,from ESPx !
RICK IE DICKIE PITINO:
IT is not a secret that Forde co-wrote a book with Rick Pitino and is one of his good friends. No harm in that. But the way he has handled, and covered, the Pitino scandal has been beyond bizarre. Lets be clear, with the personal and professional relationship Pat has with Pitino, he should have ZERO coverage duties on the Pitino scandal. That should be beyond debate. But apparently the folks at the World Wide Leader disagree. When the Karen Sypher allegations first hit, ESPN sent Pat to interview her and do a story on her and her credibility. He questioned her sanity in the piece, refused to write her allegations and from the ESPN perspective discredited her. Then, when the Courier Journal finally reported the allegations and showed that Pitino had admitted to sex with Sypher and paying for an abortion (I mean “health insurance”), Forde was nowhere to be found. He didnt write the article on the story (Katz did), provided no written commentary or mention of Pitino/Sypher and only publically commented once…on ESPN’s First Take where his overall point was that “we need to remember it isnt Rick, but Sypher that is on trial.”
JOHN CALIPARI—and the CaliCats.
coverage of John Calipari.
From the first day that Calipari was hired, Forde has questioned the hire in his ESPx writings and NUMEROUS ESPN television bookings (which mysteriously dried up in the Pitino week). He wondered why UK would take a chance on a coach who had an “NCAA record” and scolded the UK administration, suggesting Travis Ford would have been a better hire. Then the Memphis story breaks yesterday and Forde is up at the crack of dawn, tweeting out the details of the saga (I dont remember reading one Pitino tweet from Pat) and linking all critical articles of Calipari. He finished the day by going on television and suggesting that World Wide Wes had something to do with Derrick Rose’s story and tweeting a link to the Memphis columnist’s article in which he says Calipari had to know Rose was cheating, with Forde adding that the columnist pointed out the “key point” of the NCAA report.
So how do we reconcile these two different reporting styles. Some will say simplistically that it shows Pat hates UK and loves UL. That I would suggest is incorrect. Forde, like most sportswriters, has been doing this so long that his fandom has gone away and he holds no ill will to UK in particular. It does however show that Pat lets personal relationships/feelings get in the way of his reporting. How can Forde with a straight face go on television and say that the Pitino story is about Sypher and that “Rick isnt on trial.” Hey Pat, NO ONE CARES ABOUT SYPHER. She isnt a public figure and isnt the most famous employee of a major public University. Rick may not literally be in a government trial but he did admit to:
1. Cheating on his wife
2. In a public restaurant
3. With a woman he just met
4. With his entire staff there
5. Paying for an abortion/health insurance afterwards
6. Other affairs.
7. Pitinto is a table lover. Yes, more than one table.
Now tell me Pat, is that not reason enough to question Rick Pitino? Did you not agree with Iowa State’s ouster of Larry Eustachy for something that in many ways was much less egregious? Do you really believe this was only “one incident, six years ago” as Rick says or do you believe that it is highly unlikely that the only mistake Rick has ever made happened to be the time he got caught? Pat knows the answer to all those questions, but in the end Rick is his friend/business partner. So he cant make the connections that need to be made. There is nothing wrong with personal loyalty…but if personal loyalty prevents you from being objective, then do what Terry Meiners did with me on the radio and say, “I just cant talk about that because I am too close to the people involved.” Do NOT go on television and act like a reporter….because in that situation, you arent.
Again, contrast that with John Calipari. In a situation in which neither the NCAA, Memphis or even the SAT testing service has said with certainty that (a) cheating occurred or (more importantly) (b) Calipari knew, you have already made up your mind. Unlike in the Pitino situation, in which you have a coach who has ADMITTED to part of the allegations, here you are ready to convict, based solely on conjecture. Even though, as Mike Decoursey pointed out yesterday, the SAT testing service did not find that Rose cheated (it simply found that he didnt cooperate with the investigation), you as part of the Pat Forde Testing Service, have already made your conclusion. Why do that now with Calipari? Is it because (as Andy Katz suggests) “anyone who blames Memphis or Calipari doesnt understand college basketball?”
Or is it because you simply dont like Calipari and your objectivity goes away when he is the subject? Or the things are SIMPLY TRUE.
Pat Forde made the point (multiple times) on television that Rick Pitino wasnt on trial, but Karen Sypher was the real issue. Well according to the NCAA, Calipari isnt on trial either, the Rose situation is the real issue. While in both cases I think that is simplistic (the real issue is what people care about, Pitino and Cal), in one case you bought that explantion and in one you didnt.
The reason is simple. When it comes to reporting in Kentucky, you let your personal feelings shape how you do your job, supposedly the biggest no-no in the journalism profession.
If you cant report objectively on Rick Pitino, then you shouldnt say anything about him and come out publically acknowledging that fact. Journalistic integrity requires that. Similarly, if you are going to insinuate that Calipari knew Rose cheated on his SAT (an insinuation I have only seen you and angry Memphis writers make), then journalistic integrity requires you to show some amount of proof. If not, you are a commentator, not a reporter…a line that you blur depending on what media outlet (Sportscenter/First Take/.Com) that you happen to be on.
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JessieWildcat / August 22, 2009
sorry,
Taken from KSr.
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Avaricious / August 22, 2009
Who was the guy taping the game working for?
I would think people would be interested in seeing highlights, at the very least.
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