EKU basketball’s strong showing, Rick Pitino’s attire and more random notes
Random notes:
▪ A.W. Hamilton is building something good at Eastern Kentucky. The Colonels were impressive in taking 4-0 Xavier to overtime before losing 99-96 in Cincinnati on Monday night. Now 2-1 on the season, the Colonels are at South Carolina-Upstate on Wednesday before returning to Richmond for their home opener next Monday against Morehead State.
▪ Seems every college basketball coach has gone for the casual look during this crazy, early-season period. Except one. That would be Rick Pitino, who was sporting a tie for his debut as Iona’s head coach Monday night at Seton Hall. Up 37-35 at the half, Iona lost 86-64.
▪ I don’t begrudge any college athlete who opts out of playing during a global pandemic, but Kelvin Joseph might be a special case. The now former UK defensive back opted out Monday and will declare for the NFL Draft.
Joseph is obviously talented, but his immaturity showed during the season in the way of yellow flags. He’ll need to fix that in a hurry to have a chance at making the next level.
▪ You may have noticed UK head coach Mark Stoops, offensive coordinator Eddie Gran and tight ends coach Vince Marrow having what Stoops later described as an “intense” discussion during a timeout before UK’s only touchdown at Florida.
I’d describe it as routine. Anyone who has spent time on a sideline during a college football game — or sat next to the coaches’ box upstairs — has seen and heard similar interactions between coaches. It’s an emotional game. Nothing more, nothing less.
▪ Same for Florida Coach Dan Mullen’s upbraid of defensive coordinator Todd Grantham that the television cameras caught Saturday. My friends in Louisville say that was mild compared to the way Bobby Petrino and Grantham used to go at it when Grantham was the Cardinals’ DC.
▪ Not saying Will Muschamp did a great job at South Carolina, and Derek Mason is 0-8 this season at Vanderbilt, but my contention is no coach should lose his job during this total aberration of a college football season.
▪ Two days after beating Kentucky in Rupp Arena, Richmond paused basketball activities after a positive COVID-19 test. Two days after losing to Louisville at the KFC Yum Center, Prairie View A&M left the Louisville bubble after positive COVID-19 tests. Welcome to college basketball 2020.
▪ Speaking of Richmond, it was just two years ago that Spiders’ boosters paid for a billboard message demanding that Coach Chris Mooney be fired.
▪ Loved what Virginia Tech Coach Mike Young said after his Hokies upset No. 3 Villanova over the weekend. The game was arranged at 1 a.m. on Friday after the schools had opponents cancel because of COVID at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut.
“What if my kids wake up on Friday morning and social media or whatever those guys are looking at all the time says Virginia Tech had an opportunity to play Villanova and Mike Young said no,” Young said. “That’s not going to go over well with my team, nor should it.”
▪ My guess is we’ll see plenty more bowl cancellations in the coming days. The Pinstripe Bowl and Sun Bowl are the latest to pull the plug on staging a postseason game this season.
▪ Thought it was hilarious that after watching Alabama beat Auburn from home because of a positive COVID-19 test, Bama Coach Nick Saban did his postgame Zoom conference wearing a coat and tie.
▪ News that Bob Stoops has come out of his college football coaching retirement to help Oklahoma while the Sooners deal with COVID-19 issues — hey, Bob, brother Mark might need some help, too — is a good opportunity for this anecdote, courtesy of Brooke Pryor.
When Stoops and wife Carol attended their first Oklahoma game after the coach’s retirement, the couple got stuck in pregame traffic. A frustrated Bob Stoops turned to his wife and said, “Where are all these people coming from?”
“Bobby,” Carol Stoops said, “these are all the people that for years would come to your games. This is how it is. I’m going to tell you what I learned the hard way early on: you just might as well wait.”
