The Mystery Of Findlay Prep

About a week ago, ESPN hosted a tournament where the Top 8 high school teams from across the country competed in a 3 day event to see who was the "National Champion." I was completely unaware of this due to my 55 hour work week during the games but received word from a friend that Findlay Prep School upset Oak Hill Academy to take home the top honors and the title of "NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!" This lead to a research session between my friend and myself for information on this mysterious school in Henderson, Nevada. Our findings are as follows...

-Findlay Prep was founded 3 years ago as a college preparation high school. This year was its first as a regular high school, which means that no one on the team is eligible for a 5th year of basketball.

-The first thing that struck me as I opened up the school's website was its complete devotion to the basketball team. There is a brief "Mission Statement" about the school in the bottom right hand side of the website. Other than that, the school seemed to revolve completely around its basketball team. Don't get me wrong, everyone and their mother is aware of the fact that Oak Hill is first and foremost a basketball school, but at least their site pretends to have some sort of academic intent and create the "student-athlete ideal." I even had to click on 3 links before getting to their basketball team's website. Findlay on the other hand, has no mention of classes, curriculum, field trips, student organizations etc.

-Coming from a purely basketball standpoint, I was surprised that Findlay's team consisted of only 8 players. Strange as that may sound, looking at the team's stats for the year showed that 1 of their players only played 5 total games. Albeit he averaged 11 ppg during his brief stint, but most of Findlay's season was played with only 7 basketball players. Listening carefully to the ESPN recap of the game, you'll notice that the announcer says that all 8 players are Division 1 recruits. Not a bad set of individuals to have on "campus."

-The school's website raised quite a few questions, so I continued my research on Youtube where I found an 8 minute documentary on this team's season. My favorite part of this episode was at the 1:30 mark, where the campus map shows signs for the school's Gym, Fields, Athletic Office, Campus Center, and Cafe. No directions to classrooms of any sort, or anything academically related. It's food, fields, and basketball courts my friends. The coach is interviewed during this piece and did shed some light on possible scholastic endevours that these 8 individuals take part in. Apparently, Findlay is loosly associated with The Henderson International School, a private school that costs approximately $17,000 a year to attend. The coach (who ironically looks like a pre-pubescent John Calapari, only increasing his "shadiness factor") mentioned that the players are "integrated" into the Henderson School for classes. I checked out the school's financial aid page and it stated that "funds for financial aid are very limited." Translated: "The only students that recieve financial aid at Henderson are 8 students...chosen at random." The documentary also mentions a couple other fun facts, including the extreme difficulty of practice. Yes that makes sense, considering the coach can't even run a full 5 on 5 scrimmage! The documentary states that it is Episode 1, but we couldn't find an Episode 2, only a preview of it.

-More searching in the archives of Youtube unearthed this gem. It takes the viewer into the living situation of the 8 members of the basketball team. They all eat, sleep and live under the same roof with the Assistant Coach playing the role of father/mother. Not sure, but that sounds like some sort of NCAA rules violation. Especially after hearing that all 8 of these players were "hand picked from all over the world."

-Fun little video Findlay made a couple of years eariler based on my favorite Nike Basketball campaign. Notice that the team is only slightly bigger in size, and that all the players are sporting a variety of accents from all over the globe.

So what does all of this say about the supposed "monumental upset" of Oak Hill Academy? It wasn't an upset at all! These guys were bred to be star prep basketball players and in no way could you call this game a "David vs. Golaith" matchup. Please take into account that I did not write this piece out of any sort of jealousy or to start any sort of contravorsy. I don't think that Findlay is some sort of morally corrupt school that breeds future D1 recruits who bring down the "student athlete" montra. Hell, I would have loved to have gone to this school had I not been lacking in additional height and basketball talent. It just seems that something slightly shady might be going on in the outskirts of Las Vegas. To be honest, my friend Brekke and I spent most of our time laughing over AOL Messenger at all of the sites visited and videos watched. It was a fun way for me to spend my morning avoiding my Civil War Independent Study class. Special thanks to Brekke by the way, couldn't have done this without you mentioning Oak Hill's loss.

Weekend in Review + Weekend in Preview

-Not much beats the first couple days of March Madness in your typical college basketball season. I guess this year veered away from the normal buzzer beating upsets that we are used to on Weekend 1. Can't complain, there were a few upsets here and there, but nothing truly inspirational such as the U of Florida wins of old, or the Valpo experience of B. Drew. Seeing Wake Forest lose was a slight turn on, but it lacked character and ESPNClassicability. No mention of brackets as far as "MY BRACKET SUCKS," or things of that nature, as the novelty has truly worn off for me. It's for the love of the game folks.

-Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill are on my watch list for their game against Louisville. They will truly have to take over if Arizona hopes for a win against the ridiculously deep Patino squad. Chase continues to climb the draft board daily? Afraid he may be another Joe Alexander? Not I said the fly. His utterly unflappable midrange game will translate well in the league and he will learn quickly that a little effort will be required to create space for an open shot, something missing from the college game. No worries though, "Athlete Budinger" has not been released. October 2009.

-2 seeds losing to 3 seeds is not considered an upset in my book. So will any of the 1 seeds be upset this weekend? In an ideal west coast world (a world we should strive harder to create in the midwest) Gonzaga and Arizona would pull off the shockers. Sadly, my beliefs are that Connecticut and Pitt. will be the 1 seeds catching the Final 4 omission. Good luck to all.....and BIG NEWS coming in a day or two. 

Obama's Flaw

-I don't know if you guys got to check out Obama's bracket on ESPN, but there is only one west coast team coming out of the first round! What a biased dude.

-This article by Dan Wetzel hits home. I picked USC to win it all last year too, and was met with OJ Mayo not doing shit against K-State, Bill Walker looking like MJ, and Beasley eating it up. Why didn't that team with Taj, OJ, and Davon not do it way bigger?

THE MADNESS BEGINS TOMORROW!!!!!

Big East Butt-Licking

The word around the block this week has been surrounding the superiority of the Big East Conference this year. Some analysts have even gone as far as to say that this is the greatest conference at any point during the era of a 64 team bracket. Under no circumstances can I agree with these statements and a majority of that has to do with the amount of NBA talent created by teams in particular conference. Other than Thabeet and Flynn, the Big East is hardly a place frequented by NBA scouts on their travels around the country. A few good potential role players lie in the midst (Wes Matthews and Terrence Williams) but the true talent lies in a somewhat weak freshman class spread evenly throughout the country. Quite often, the Pac-10 is able to pile up on "1 and done" talent, but this year proved to be somewhat disappointing. And with the continual coaching problems at Arizona, it doesn't look good in future years for McDonald's talent out west. Back to the Big East, we see that coaches have worked on recruiting middle class talent that won't bolt for the NBA after freshman seasons. While these experienced players provide a solid foundation for tournament success, we don't see the type of supreme talent found during the era of Patrick Ewing or Zo Mourning staying for at least 3 seasons. Personally, I find the "1 and done" teams much more entertaining in that we are able to watch the best basketball talent offered in our country. More athletes, better shooters, NBA bodies etc... I'll even follow players to Europe if I have to (Brandon Jennings) see NBA quality material. Until they are able to garnish teams with the nation's top high schoolers, this Big East butt-licking needs to stop folks. On a somewhat unrelated note, look out for Memphis next year. The inevitable loss of Tyreke Evans to the league will be cured by 4 incoming freshman. Three of them are ranked in the Top 10 and McDonald's All-Americans and the other is ranked in the Top 25. Possible Fab Four?


*****************************Poot's World Bracket Challenge****************************

^^^^^^^THIS ONES FOR YOU MICHAEL!^^^^^^^^

And for both of you....Remember Smilez and Southstar? Well you sure as hell should, and you NEED to listen to this.

Erection Sunday

Welcome Trojans, to the big dance. It's time for Demar Derozen to showcase his freakish athleticism and pole vault his way up to the Top 5 in this June's draft again. Here's to hoping the selection committee realizes that St. Mary's didn't have their best player for the past 6 weeks and still rolled out an overall 25-6 record. And of course let's not forget there were still some pretty phenomenal NBA games on the schedule to go along with the matriculation into March Madness.

-Duke seems to have locked down a 2 seed with this advancement deep into the ACC tourney. As usual, I like them to make it to the Sweet 16 and promptly lose in a moderate upset. Really haven't spent much time watching this team, but they seem to have the tendencies of a team too reliant on their 3 point shooting to make it far in March.

-Pacers continue to amaze me with their ineptness versus inept basketball teams. Tall, slow, good-shooting Euros continue to pose the most problem to their defense and I can't seem to figure out why. Lebron comes to town and is held in check (as much as you can with LBJ) but Mehmet Okur, Danillo Gellardo and at this very moment, A. Bargnani are cutting through this team with the effectiveness of Kobe Bryant. Does Jim O'Brien just tell his players to give up and let these guys beat them and stop all other scoring threats? Why do Jeff Foster and Troy Murphy possess the necessary skills to hold Yao Ming to 5-14 shooting but Okur drops 43? At this very moment, Indiana is down 19 to the Raptors. Danny Granger has returned but his +- is currently a -19.

-Just watched Mississippi St. beat Tennessee in the SEC Tournament finals. Another bubble goes POP! If the selection committee is thinking with their heads on straight, it'll be a Big 10 squad. How many years of the 2nd-7th ranked Big 10 teams exiting after the first weekend of March Madness will it take before they stop inviting them?

-Speaking of Big 10 basketball, Purdue is about to tip off against Ohio St. Any feelings on Robbie Hummel's potential as an NBA prospect. As much as I hate the conference's style of play, I could see this guy being an integral cog in a future playoff team. He rebounds and defends well along with his dead eye range. Can't argue with that Shane Battier, or James Posey.

-Only one complaint for the selection committee this year....St. Mary's in over Wisconsin. That's right, I'm backstabbing my own alma mater. By far, this had to have been the worst season for me to get season tickets to the Badgers, and I still regret the decision to this day. Incredibly boring team to watch play on both ends of the floor with the most stagnant offense created by man and a brutal "beat the living shit out of the other team" defense. The real cherry on the cake is their cakewalk of a schedule through the overrated Big 10 regular season and a less then impressive non-conference schedule. When they did schedule good teams, (UCONN and Texas) they were supremely outclassed. Arizona was allowed into the tournament on NBA talent alone in my opinion. If you seeded based on lottery selections in next year's draft, Arizona would have been a 1 seed. Can't deny talent.

-Poot's World Bracket Challenge...All are welcome to join.

On the Bubble

* The moment we've all been waiting for: Mark Cuban's All-Stars

* Didn't know if either of you got to catch the playoff '07 rematch earlier tonight, but the Warriors just lit the Mavs up as electrifyingly as when Baron did it 2 years ago. Look at the NBA.com video.

*Syracuse vs. Connecticut last night... I watched the 1st half and half time, went to a 3 hr basketball tourney and came back at the start of the 6th OT. It is the first time, as Jonny Flinn puts it, that a Big East Tourney game just really didn't matter , everyone was just over it.

*Poot: -- Nets Center Sean Williams plans to spend his summer working out with Amare Stoudemire and Chris Bosh. The ultra-talented second-year player spent eight games with Colorado's 14ers before being returning to the Nets. Teammates and coaches have noticed a difference in Williams since his return. Williams is more accepting of his role and has devoted himself to practice. Traveling in buses after being pampered by charter flights and $100 per diems tends to have that affect on young players. Williams possesses a boatload of potential. Let's hope his stint in the D-League was the wakeup call he needed. As far as role models for big men are concerned, I can't think of anyone better than Bosh.

*This is just too much

Brain Stir

-Hard to agree with a couple of choices on that mock draft you gave to us Alex. First off, can't stand Willie Warren going at number 14. The guy is entirely too raw and in my personal opinion, is not at all ready to step in as an NBA point guard. Ever. Same thing goes for Jrue Holiday, unless he is drafted as a shooting guard. Love the idea of the Warriors rolling out a Jennings-Ellis backcourt next year and for years to come. Yes they would be slightly undersized, but the thrilling pace at which they could play at with a Randolph/Biedrens frontline along with Maggete/Jackson/"insert one of the G.S. SF's here" is enough to make a person salivate. Seriously, the Warriors need to look in to locking up him or Rubio. Great things could happen. On that Bay Area note, listened to a KNBR talk show this afternoon with Ralph and Tom Tolbert. Tom was saying that the Warriors lack a STAR player. He went through all the top teams in the West and noted one or 2 players on each team that were better than any 1 Warrior player. Ralph argued that Monta is better than Roy, which was slightly "Chris Bridges" and I'd have to side with Tom's point. They need at least one star.

-People have been jumping all over this Rudy/Ariza play. I was more pissed off at the fact that Ariza showed no remorse. The play wasn't dirty, but it was damn reckless and stupid. 

-Man from the Eagles got fired last week for posting on his facebook that they were "retarded" for cutting Dawkins. While he might have a point, how stupid must this guy be?

-Had the complete and utter honor of watching this game live last night. Reminded my why I bought League Pass and why I still love watching basketball.