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USC Fires Helton

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LOS ANGELES – (Staff and wire service reports) – University of Southern California coach Clay Helton was fired on Monday. The dismissal came two days after then-No. 14 Trojans were upset, 42-28, by rival Stanford. Assistant Donte Williams will serve as interim head coach as the search for a new head coach begins this week.

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“This afternoon I informed Clay Helton of my decision to make a change in the leadership of our football program,” athletic director Mike Bohn said in a statement. “Clay is one of the finest human beings I have met in this industry, and he has been a tremendous role model and mentor to our young men.”

Helton went 46-24 at USC, including seasons of 10-3 in 2016 and 11-3 in 2017. However, the Trojans are just 19-14 since the end of the 2017 season and Saturday’s loss signaled to Bohn, who became athletic director 22 months ago, that action was needed.

“As I committed to upon my arrival at USC, during the past two off-seasons we provided every resource necessary for our football program to compete for championships,” Bohn said. “The added resources significantly increased expectations for our team’s performance, and it is already evident that, despite the enhancements, those expectations would not be met without a change in leadership.”

Former USC stars Keyshawn Johnson, Matt Leinart and a host of alumni were among those expressing disappointment in the overall program after the loss to Stanford. Bohn asserted he will seek a coach who can turn the program back to a national championship contender. The Trojans have won 11 national titles with the most recent being in 2004.

“Over the next few months, we will conduct a national search for our new head coach,” Bohn said. “We will actively and patiently pursue a coach who will deliver on the championship aspirations and expectations we all share for our football program.”

Williams, who was a defensive backfield coach, is in his second season on the USC staff. He does not have head coaching experience and will debut this Saturday (Sept 18) at Washington State.

“Donte is an experienced and well-respected coach who is renowned for his ability to develop relationships with student-athletes and I appreciate his willingness to take on this challenge,” Bohn said. “With 10 games left, we still have control of our own destiny in the Pac-12 conference.”

Ackerman Inducted into Hall of Fame

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UNCASVILLE – (Staff report with Official Big East News Release) – Former NBA executive and first President of the WNBA, former USA Basketball president and current Big East Conference Commissioner Val Ackerman will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of its 2021 class this weekend in Springfield, Massachusetts. She will be inducted as a Contributor. Ackerman previously received the Hall of Fame’s John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

The Class of 2021 enshrinement ceremony will be held on Saturday, September 11.

Villanova head coach Jay Wright is also a member of the 2021 Hall of Fame class. Other inductees of the 2021 class are: Rick Adelman, Chris Bosh, Yolanda Griffith, Lauren Jackson, Paul Pierce, Bill Russell, Ben Wallace, Chris Webber, Howard Garfinkel, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Clarence “Fats” Jenkins, Toni Kukoc, Bob Dandridge and Pearl Moore.

“I’m extremely honored by this recognition and will be forever grateful to David Stern and Russ Granik for opening doors for me and allowing me to be part of so many exciting moments in basketball history,” said Ackerman. “It’s been a tremendous privilege to lead the BIG EAST and build on its proud heritage these past eight years, and to be part of the class that includes Jay Wright makes this moment very hard to top.”

Ackerman was named the fifth Commissioner of the BIG EAST on June 26, 2013. She was the founding President of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and is a past President of USA Basketball, which oversees the U.S. men’s and women’s Olympic basketball program. Ackerman also served for two terms as the U.S. representative to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). She has had a long and accomplished career in the sports industry and the distinction of serving in leadership positions in both men’s and women’s basketball at the collegiate, professional, national team and international levels.

Ackerman was named the first President of the WNBA in 1996 and oversaw the league’s day-to-day operations for its first eight seasons. During her tenure, the league expanded from 8 to 16 teams, drew broad national sponsor and network support, established women’s team sports attendance records and maintained successful player labor relations. Ackerman was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and received the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Billie Jean King Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

Ackerman served on the USA Basketball Board of Directors for 23 years, including as President for the 2005-08 term, which culminated with gold medals for the men’s and women’s teams at the Beijing Games. She served as a primary NBA liaison to USA Basketball in the early years of the “Dream Team” era and was the driving force behind the 10-month tour of the USA Basketball women’s national team that preceded the 1996 Olympics and set the stage for the launch of the WNBA. She received USA Basketball’s Ed Steitz Award for contributions to international basketball in 2008.

While at the helm of the BIG EAST, Ackerman has presided over the rebirth of the conference following its return in 2013 to its original basketball-centric configuration. She led the move of the conference office to its current location in New York City and has managed the BIG EAST’s fruitful partnerships with Fox Sports and Madison Square Garden, which has hosted the conference’s men’s basketball tournament since 1983. Ackerman led the negotiations that resulted in the return to the BIG EAST in 2020 of the University of Connecticut, one of the conference’s charter members. The BIG EAST has maintained its national successes in men’s basketball since reconfiguration, highlighted by multiple NCAA tournament bids and Villanova’s national titles in 2016 and 2018.

Prior to assuming her role with the BIG EAST, Ackerman a widely acclaimed, comprehensive white paper detailing growth strategies for women’s college basketball.

Ackerman attended Hopewell Valley Central High School in Pennington, New Jersey, where she remains the school’s all-time leading basketball scorer. She was among the first female athletics scholarship recipients at the University of Virginia, from which she graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in political and social thought. She was a four-year starter, three-time captain and two-time Academic All-American on the Cavaliers’ women’s basketball team. She was also the program’s first 1,000-point scorer and was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 50th Anniversary Team in 2002. Ackerman received her law degree from UCLA in 1985.

Alabama Crimson Tide Ranked No. 1

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NEW YORK – (Wire Service and Staff Report) – Defending national champion Alabama will open the 2021 season in the same position it ended last year – at No. 1.

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The Crimson Tide are the favorites to repeat, receiving 47 first-place votes in the Associated Press preseason college football poll. Oklahoma is No. 2 with six votes and Clemson is third, also with six first-places votes. No. 4 Ohio State (one vote) and Georgia (three) round out the top five.

Alabama opens the season Sept. 4 against No. 14 Miami in Atlanta as the Tide seek a seventh national championship under coach Nick Saban. Clemson and Georgia will meet that day, as well, in Charlotte, N.C.

Texas A&M, Iowa State, Cincinnati, Notre Dame and North Carolina round out the top 10. The Cyclones match their highest national ranking ever. The Aggies and Fighting Irish finished No. 4-5 in the final poll of 2020.

The poll features five teams each from the Southeastern Conference, Big Ten and Pac-12, three from the Atlantic Coast Conference and three from the Big 12.

The Sun Belt Conference has two teams in the AP Top 25: No. 22 Coastal Carolina and No. 23 Louisiana.

The rest of the list:
11. Oregon
12. Wisconsin
13. Florida
14. Miami
15. Southern Cal
16. LSU
17. Indiana
18. Iowa
19. Penn State
20. Washington
21. Texas
22. Coastal Carolina
23. Louisiana
24. Utah
25. Arizona St.

While We’re Young (Ideas) – July 4th

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WE’RE SICK OF NAME, IMAGE, LIKENESS AND IT HASN’T EVEN STARTED

By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – With all due respect to Hamilton – The Musical, let’s hope they don’t throw away their shot.

They fought for it.

They wrote about it.

They talked about it.

They protested over it.

They sued for the rights to it.

Yes, they were young, scrappy and hungry and on Thursday the NCAA finally caved and folded the deck on the issue of “Name, Image and Likeness” (NIL) as their hand was forced by the clock striking midnight leading into July 1st.

The NCAA directives, this week, came after the Supreme Court of the United States had ruled (9-0) Monday in favor of student athletes and as at least 10 States had adopted laws or were ready to enforce executive orders (of State Governors or Governments) to allow student-athletes the right to “make money” from their Name, Image or Likeness (NIL).

The decisions tossed the collegiate sports world into a land of uncertainty with no clear guidance from the law or the NCAA.

First, the NCAA noted that schools in States that have passed laws related to NIL would be “responsible for determining whether” athletes’ NIL activities “are consistent with state law,” their statement said.

The statement also called for athletes (and schools) in States without an NIL law, athletes would be able to engage in NIL activities without violating NCAA rules that so far have heavily limited those activities. The areas to be fair game now include having endorsement deals, leveraging social media for pay, and making money from coaching or signing autographs and autographed memorabilia.

Sports marketers didn’t “exactly” jump into the fray, but one deal – struck by Fresno State women’s basketball players Haley and Hanna Cavinder, hoop-it-up twins who’ve built up an impressive, hard-earned following and rocked their social media channels and TikTok, in particular – received quite a bit of attention with a timely Boost Mobile endorsement to open an NCAA NIL Pandora’s box.

Twitter avatar for @CavinderHannaHanna Cavinder @CavinderHanna

ON A BILLBOARD IN TIME SQUARE 😭 WHAT IS LIFE… blessed❤️ Image

July 1st 2021

By September, another 15 States are expected to have NIL legislation in place and the remaining States will then be pressured to act as soon as possible. Somewhat like sports gambling, their is no Federal guideline and the entire category for sports marketers has fast become “the Wild, Wild West” of yesteryear, with administrators making up their rules on a case-by-case basis and totally on the fly.

“With the variety of State laws adopted across the country, we will continue to work with Congress to develop a solution that will provide clarity on a national level,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert in a statement. “The current environment – both legal and legislative – prevents us from providing a more permanent solution and the level of detail student-athletes deserve.”

Somewhat like the ambiguity caused by the lack of Federal guideline on the issue of legalized sports gambling, the colleges, their administrators, the student athletes, marketers and marketing agents have been left to figure out the non-existent rules as they go along. Certainly, the unscrupulous underworld of collegiate sports will rear it ugly head to bend the rules or blasts through them – one-by-one. Leniency in one State can provide an advantage to the recruiting practices of schools in that particular State over their neighboring and sometimes rival State.

It’s almost unfathomable that the legal system and the NCAA have allowed the issue to remain unresolved, as the 2015 O’Bannon case started the boulder rolling downhill. To refresh your memory, in 2016 the Supreme Court of the United States failed to take up an appeal to a 2015 Ninth Circuit Court ruling in favor of former UCLA men’s basketball player, Ed O’Bannon, now a retired NBA professional. In the ruling, the three-judge Ninth Circuit panel – consisting of Judges Sidney Thomas, Jay Bybee and Gordon Quist – found that certain NCAA amateurism rules violate federal antirust law.

Surely, there was time to put Federal guidelines in place. Now, the Feds have too much on their plate and the June 28th SCOTUS ruling – while just and correct – dumped a whole load of problems – TikTok – onto the laps of college sports administrators who all knew they were coming.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: USA Basketball is cranking up the engines and the men’s U-19 team, competing in the FIBA U-19 World Cup in Latvia started the summertime activities off in a big way. The USA team posted an 11-0 run to start their first game, and never looked back en route to their decisive, 83-54, victory over Turkey (0-1) Saturday in Riga. … After opening the game with that 11-0 run, the Americans closed the first 10 minutes with a 15-2 surge that covered the final 4:13 of the quarter. Jaden Ivey (Purdue/Mishawaka, Indiana) scored 10 of the USA’s last 15 points in the first period which led the USA securing a 20-point lead (29-9) going into the second quarter. … The USA U-19 squad will continue with preliminary round July 4, at 1:30 p.m. (EDT) versus Mali and will wrap-up the round robin play on Tuesday, July 6, at 1:30 p.m. EDT vs. Australia.

HOOP, HOOP, HOO-RAY: The USA men’s senior national team will soon dress as Olympians but before they do, they’ll practice against a newly named USA Select team that includes some of the NBA’s brightest young stars. The Select roster will include:

  • Saddiq Bey (Detroit Pistons/Villanova)
  • Miles Bridges (Charlotte Hornets/Michigan State)
  • Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves/Georgia)
  • Darius Garland(Cleveland Cavaliers/Vanderbilt)
  • Tyrese Haliburton (Sacramento Kings/Iowa State)
  • Tyler Herro (Miami Heat/Kentucky)
  • John Jenkins (Bilbao Basket, Italy/Vanderbilt)
  • Keldon Johnson (San Antonio Spurs/Kentucky)
  • Josh Magette (Darüşşafaka Tekfen, Turkey/Alabama-Huntsville)
  • Dakota Mathias (Philadelphia 76ers/Purdue)
  • Immanuel Quickly (New York Knicks/Kentucky)
  • Naz Reid (Minnesota Timberwolves/LSU)
  • Cam Reynolds (Houston Rockets/Tulane)
  • Isaiah Stewart (Detroit Pistons/Washington)
  • Obi Toppin (New York Knicks/Dayton)
  • P.J. Washington (Charlotte Hornets/Kentucky)
  • Patrick Williams (Chicago Bulls/Florida State)

Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra will serve as head coach of the 2021 USA Select Team, The assistant coaches will be Gonzaga University head coach Mark Few, who served as an assistant coach with the 2019 USA Select Team and head coach of the 2015 U.S. Pan American Games Team and Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosley, who served as an assistant coach at the 2018 USA National Team minicamp.

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NBA Accepts 353 Early Entry Filings

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NEW YORK – The National Basketball Association recently announced that 353 players — 296 players from colleges and other educational institutions and 57 international players — have filed as early entry candidates for NBA Draft 2021 presented by State Farm.

Players who have applied for early entry have the right to withdraw their names from consideration for the Draft by notifying the NBA of their decision in writing no later than 5 p.m. ET on Monday, July 19. Under NCAA rules, in order to retain college basketball eligibility, college players who have entered NBA Draft 2021 must withdraw by Wednesday, July 7.

Basketball Hall Elects 16 New Members

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SPRINGFIELD – A day after its COVID-19 delayed 2020 induction ceremony, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced the 16 honorees for the Class of 2021 which will be enshrined on Saturday, September 11, 2021 in ceremonies at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun resort hotel and arena.

The 2021 honorees class includes nine voted in from the North American and Women’s committees, including the ninth-winningest coach in NBA history Rick Adelman, two-time NBA champion and 11-time NBA All-Star Chris Bosh, NBA Finals MVP with the Boston Celtics and 10-time NBA All-Star Paul Pierce, the first Black NBA head coach Bill Russell, four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and NBA Champion Ben Wallace, five-time NBA All-Star and NBA Rookie of the Year Chris Webber, two-time NCAA national champion Villanova Wildcats coach Jay Wright, seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Yolanda Griffith and seven-time WNBA All-Star and three-time WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson of Australia.

Distinguished committees focused on preserving all areas from the game also selected seven direct-elect enshrinees, including the first President of the WNBA and current BIG East Commissioner Val Ackerman, NBA coach Cotton Fitzsimmons and basketball guru Howard Garfinkel from the Contributor Committee, Clarence “Fats” Jenkins from the Early African American Pioneers Committee, Croatia’s Toni Kukoc from the International Committee, Bob Dandridge from the Veterans Committee and Pearl Moore from the Women’s Veterans Committee.

“For the first time in our history, we’ll enshrine two Classes in one calendar year,” said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Class of 2021 Enshrinement festivities will begin at Mohegan Sun on Friday, September 10 with the Enshrinement Tip-Off Celebration and Awards Gala. The Class of 2021 and returning Hall of Famers will then journey to Springfield, Mass. for the annual celebratory events taking place at the newly renovated Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and MassMutual Center on September 11

While We’re Young (Ideas) – Our Sunday Sports Notebook on the IVY League

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By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – The IVY League led the way back in March 2020. Hopefully, the Presidents of the IVY League schools knew something back then and know something once again. Something more than the rest of us because the IVY League is coming back for Fall Football.

“Given the current steady decline of Covid-19 infections in this country, and the broad availability and uptake of vaccinations, we are optimistic that our campuses will be back to something close to normal by this fall, including in-person learning with students in residence,” the Council of presidents said in their statement. “And this includes our expectation for the resumption of regular competitive schedules for Ivy League athletics across all sports beginning in fall 2021.

 

Here in the Greater Boston area, Harvard announced its plans in March to have invite all undergraduates back to campus to live and attend in-person classes for the 2021 fall semester. University President Lawrence S. Bacowalso wrote to affiliates this week that Harvard will require all undergraduates living on campus in the fall to get inoculated against the coronavirus.

While most major football conferences returned to some on-field activity last fall, the schools in the IVY League sat on the sidelines. As time passed, most Division I conferences permitted conference play for the Winter 2020-21 and Spring 2021 seasons. A handful of Ivy League schools permitted teams to hold local scrimmages this spring, but Ivy League teams were unable to compete against one another.

Specifics for various school graduations and other large gatherings are being scrutinized at campuses all across America, and pro sports are gradually increasing the percentage of capacity allowing fans to watch their favorite teams. The Ivy League decision, for some reason or another, forecasts better times ahead.

Here’s hoping Harvard visits Yale for “The Game,” this coming November and a significant crowd assembles at the 64,000+ capacity Yale Bowl. One thing is for sure, whatever the percentage of capacity is allowed to watch the football game inside, there will be an equal or larger number of alum assembled in the parking lots, tailgating away and reminiscing about “Glory Days” of the past.

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Boston College Signs with New Balance

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CHESTNUT HILL – (Source: Official Joint News Release) – Boston College athletics signed a 10-year agreement with Boston-based New Balance Athletics to become the Official Footwear and Apparel Provider for the Eagles. The deal will begin on June 1, 2021.

The largest financial footwear and apparel agreement in Boston College athletics history gives New Balance the right to provide uniforms, apparel, and footwear for 30 of BC’s 31 varsity sports. The partnership will also include the opportunity for Boston College student-athletes to be part of an annual internship program at New Balance.

“This partnership will be an absolute game-changer for Boston College athletics and our student-athletes,” said William V. Campbell Director of Athletics Pat Kraft. “This is not just a historic deal in terms of the financial value and amount of apparel for our department. The opportunities for our student-athletes to assist in product design and development of the footwear and apparel they will actually wear and compete in will be transformational.”

As New Balance looks to continue its growth with New Balance Basketball, a key element in this partnership focuses on the innovation and investment in the men’s and women’s basketball programs. New Balance will work closely with both programs to aid in design and product enhancements and is dedicated to their success both on and off the court.

“This progressive collaboration joins two world-class Boston-based teams with strong synergies at our core and enables a broad spectrum of initiatives that will drive innovation, performance and creativity,” says Ray Hilvert, Vice President of Global Team Sports at New Balance. “Boston College athletics is known for its historic commitment to excellence and we look forward to working with Pat Kraft, Father Leahy and the entire Boston College team to build a strong and dynamic relationship that benefits student-athletes and our shared communities.”

The partnership will grant several BC teams access to the new state-of-the-art TRACK@New Balance that is currently under construction. The new sports complex at Boston Landing will feature a 200-meter hydraulically banked track, seating for more than 5,000 spectators, and facilities for training, events, and recovery.

Officially licensed Boston College apparel will be available online this summer on BCEagles.com and New Balance.com in addition to both New Balance Boston retail locations and the Boston College Bookstore.

Boston College cited its longstanding appreciation for New Balance’s history and corporate mission as factors in its decision to seek the agreement. Since 1972, when the company was purchased by Jim Davis, New Balance has grown from six employees manufacturing 30 pairs of shoes per day in a single location to a global brand with more than 7,000 associates worldwide and global annual sales of $3.3 billion in 2020.

Headquartered in Boston, New Balance owns and operates four factories in New England and one in the United Kingdom, and New Balance Foundation– established by Jim and Anne Davis in 1981–has donated more than $110 million in total grants to non-profit organizations to develop high-impact, long-term, sustainable initiatives that enrich the lives of children, their families and their communities.

UMass Takes Its First Frozen Four Title

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PITTSBURGH – The University of Massachusetts soundly defeated St. Cloud State of Minnesota, 5-0, in Saturday night’s men’s ice hockey national championship. For the UMass Minutemen, it’s was their first Frozen Four title win in program history.

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The scoring started a little over seven minutes into the first period when Aaron Bohlinger found himself on a 2-on-0 and cashed in to make it 1-0 UMass. With 1:04 left in the first 20 minutes, Reed Lebster tapped one past St. Cloud G David Hrenak to give UMass a 2-0 lead entering the first intermission.

With St. Cloud State on the power play five minutes into the second frame, Phil Lagunov dangled around Nick Perbix to score a shorthanded goal. Matt Kessel added a power play goal in the back half of the second period to make it 4-0.

UMass’ Bobby Trivigno made it 5-0 when he sniped one past David Hrenak early in the third period.

UMass was on a mission to improve one slot heading into the 2021-21 season. The Minutemen finished as 2019 championship runner-ups (2020 playoff was cancelled). They closed out the 2020-21 regular season winning the program’s first-ever Hockey East title and advanced to the championship game after an overtime thriller in the Frozen Four semifinals against Minnesota Duluth,

UMass goaltender Filip Linberg made 25 saves to earn the shut-out.

 

 

USBWA Honor Iowa’s Luke Garza

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Garza Wins Oscar Robertson Award as NCAA Player of Year

INDIANAPOLIS – (Source Official USBWA press release) – Iowa center Luka Garza, a unanimous All-America selection and the nation’s leader in total points and field goals made, has been named the winner of the 2020-21 Oscar Robertson Trophy as the National Player of the Year in voting by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. The senior from Washington, D.C., was honored in a virtual presentation in conjunction with the men’s Final Four in Indianapolis.

The 6-11, 265-pounder is a two-time First Team USBWA All-American after leading the nation in total points (747), field goals made (281), 30-point games (8) and 20-point games (22). He is fifth nationally in free throw attempts (199), 10th in free throw makes (141) and tied for 11th in double-doubles (13). His 747 points extended the single-season school record he set last season.

Garza earned the Trophy over two other finalists, junior guard Ayo Dosunmu of Illinois and senior forward Corey Kispert of Gonzaga.

Iowa ranked consistently among the top 10 teams in the national polls throughout the 2020-21 season behind Garza, the District VI Player of the Year who repeated as the Big Ten’s Player of the Year, becoming only the third player in conference history to win the award in consecutive seasons. The Hawkeyes closed at 22-9, falling to Oregon 95-80 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament despite 36 points from Garza, who tied a 65-year-old school record for points in an NCAA Tournament game on 14-of-20 shooting from the field with three three-pointers.

Iowa’s career scoring leader and only its second USBWA All-American (Jarrod Uthof in 2015-16), Garza is the school’s first Oscar Robertson Trophy winner and the first from the Big Ten since Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky in the 2014-15 season. He is the eighth player and the ninth overall honoree from the Big Ten. Following a 15-year hiatus between 1995-2009, the Big Ten has now claimed four of the last 12 awards.

Garza was a unanimous All-American as determined by the four major awarding organizations: the USBWA, Associated Press, NABC and The Sporting News.

The Oscar Robertson Trophy is voted on by the entire membership of the association, which consists of more than 900 journalists. It is the nation’s oldest award. “The Big O” won the USBWA’s first two national player of the year awards in 1959 and 1960 and was the consensus national player of the year as a sophomore in 1958, the year before USBWA started giving its player of the year award. The USBWA renamed the award the Oscar Robertson Trophy in 1998.

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected an All-America team since the 1956-57 season.