College Basketball Season is Underway

Well it is for me at least, anyway. Teams were allowed to officially begin practicing two weeks ago and the school I root for (in all college sports) is the Maize and Blue, the Michigan Wolverines of the rough-and-tumble Big Ten Conference. Last year's NIT trip (yet another one) under then-coach Tommy Amaker capped off a season well short of expectations and as a result, Amaker got fired. Renowned offensive guru John Beilein was brought in from West Virginia to take over the still-prestigious program in Ann Arbor. Michigan opened its season tonight with a 78-40 exhibition win over Division II program Ferris State, with freshman guard Manny Harris leading the way with 15 points for the Wolverines. Michigan's first official game is next Friday night (Nov. 9) at home against the Radford Highlanders (where coincidentally, I played in two state semifinal games as a freshman and sophomore with my high school soccer team; Radford is the host of the Virginia High School League state playoffs for boys' and girls' soccer). The game will be televised by the Big Ten Network with tipoff set for 7:00 PM.

Since this blog is geared mainly towards English soccer, I'm going to keep the basketball talk light and leave the nitty-gritty stuff to the professionals and the folks that write about it on a full-time basis. What you'll get here is content about Michigan, the Big Ten, and some random thoughts of mine during the season and all the way through March. There some great, great sites listed under the Useful College Basketball Sites section on the left of the blog homepage and I strongly recommend to you that you check those out if you want the real detailed information about what's going on on the national scene. Here, I'll give you some bracketology and tournament talk as well as what I've already discussed earlier, but like I said, head over to those sites if you want more than just the basics. Believe me, if I had the time to maintain and update a serious, truly informative college basketball blog at the level at which I'm capable of doing so, I would do it, as it's my favorite sport in America, but I simply don't have the time. You can't match the passion and atmosphere found in a college arena, you can't match Dick Vitale or Bill Raftery and their enthusiasm for the game.

For right now though, I've decided to leave you with a few of the many, many early-season tournaments that are becoming the new craze these days. Michigan will be heading to Anchorage, Alaska to take part in the Great Alaska Shootout from November 21-24, where they'll join some quality opposition in Butler, Virginia Tech, Texas Tech, and Gonzaga, as well as the hosts Alaska-Anchorage, Western Kentucky, and Eastern Washington.

Here are some of the more notable tournaments/events this November:

2K Sports Classic (Nov. 5-16)
NIT Season Tip-Off (Nov. 12-23)
CBE Classic (Nov. 12-20)
Paradise Jam (Nov. 16-19)
Puerto Rico Shootout (Nov. 15-18)
Top of the World Classic (Nov. 15-18)
Maui Invitational (Nov. 19-21)
Great Alaska Shootout (Nov. 20-24)
Anaheim Classic (Nov. 22-25)
Old Spice Classic (Nov. 22-25)
Las Vegas Invitational (Nov. 17-24)
Big Ten/ACC Challenge (Nov. 26-28)

Premier League Captains

I'm a big fan of the NHL and hockey in general, specifically of the Broadway Blueshirts (New York Rangers, for those of you don't know much about the NHL). I was watching some games last night on my Center Ice package and got to thinking. Captaincy probably means the most in hockey than in any other sport (again, those of you who don't really know much about hockey, I'm here to tell you that it does, flat out). Each team has one captain, who wears the C on his jersey, and typically two alternate or assistant captains, each of whom wear an A. Tradition has made the captaincy, as I said before, incredibly prestigious and is a symbolic thing more than anything else, although if you follow the letter of the law, captains and alternates are the only ones permitted to talk to the officials about calls they've made and penalties and most of the time, that holds true in actual game situations as well.

In hockey, captains and alternates are typically the elder statesmen of their teams, often the players that have played for that team the longest or have been in the league the longest. There are, of course, exceptions to this; many teams over the years have had young players step up in a leadership role and earn a letter, in fact, Sidney Crosby is the Pittsburgh Penguins' captain at the tender age of 20, and players who are in their first or second year with a team also have been captains due to the leadership and experience they bring with them from another team or teams.

I've noticed that in the Premiership, however, captains aren't really the older players on their teams at all, and I'll show you my list of data below. It begs the question for me, what does a captain really mean, is whoever the captain deserving of that honor, or is he the captain because the player who logically should be it doesn't play every game, is a sub, etc.? I'm going to list the Premier League captains below, followed by their age, followed by who I believe would be captain if the NHL's general model of seniority combined with leadership ability was used, as well as who speaks English well, who is a good representative for the club in the community, and who best serves as a link between the manager and squad. Consider this, the average NHL captain is 31.7 years old, which is slightly skewed by the fact that Crosby is only 20. There are 30 NHL teams but three of those are currently playing without a captain for one reason or another, they are permitted to have three alternates on a game roster.

Premiership captains, (age)...who would be captain:

Arsenal: William Gallas (30)...Jens Lehmann
Aston Villa: Gareth Barry (26)...Barry
Birmingham City: Damien Johnson (28)...Johnson or Maik Taylor
Blackburn: Ryan Nelsen (30)...Tugay
Bolton: Kevin Nolan (25)...Gary Speed
Chelsea: John Terry (26)...Terry
Derby County: Matthew Oakley (30)...Oakley by default, no other real options
Everton: Phil Neville (30)...Neville
Fulham: Brian McBride (35)...McBride when healthy, Aaron Hughes now
Liverpool: Steven Gerrard (27)...Gerrard
Manchester City: Richard Dunne (28)...Micah Richards, the Premiership's Sid the Kid
Manchester United: Gary Neville (32)...Ryan Giggs
Middlesbrough: George Boateng (32)...Mark Schwarzer
Newcastle: Geremi (28)...Nicky Butt
Portsmouth: Sol Campbell (33)...Campbell or David James
Reading: Graeme Murty (32)...Murty
Sunderland: Dean Whitehead (25)...Dwight Yorke
Tottenham: Ledley King (27)...Robbie Keane no matter if King is healthy or not
West Ham: Lucas Neill (29)...Freddie Ljungberg
Wigan: Mario Melchiot (30)...Antoine Sibierski

I was interested to note that the average age for Premiership captains was 29.15, about three years younger than the average NHL captain. I know that soccer players don't play to the same ages as hockey players but still, some of these captains really surprised me (Geremi, Kevin Nolan, Dean Whitehead, Lucas Neill, and Ryan Nelsen). Obviously I'm not around these guys every day but from what I've seen and read about each of these players and looking at some of the other candidates on their teams, I don't understand the choice. All in all, I'd say most teams got it right with either their captain and vice-captain, but then again, who am I to say. Just one man's opinion here, folks.

New Podcast

In conjunction with BCJohn (who runs "The 3rd Half", a new blog listed under the Useful Soccer Sites section, and can be heard as a regular contributor on the Major Soccer League Talk podcast as well as the EPL Talk podcast), I'm excited to announce that I, along with my brother, will be once-a-week guests on the new Third Half Podcast, scheduled to debut within the very near future as a creation of BC himself.

This podcast will be done on a twice-a-week basis with another guest scheduled to cohost the other weekly show with BCJohn. Full details will be released by BC very soon as to where the podcast will be available for your listening pleasure and to the actual date of the show's debut.

According to BC, this new podcast "is going to be a no-nonsense look at the Barclays Premier League and beyond, a perfect compliment to the interviews done (elsewhere). So you ask yourself how this is going to be different than from other podcasts online? Simple, it's going to be the most honest, brunt analysis of the events at the weekend, cutting through the BS to get to the heart of the news. It will also look at the action in other leagues around Europe as well as Major League Soccer."

To say the least, I'm excited for the show to get started and I can't wait to start recording. I speak for my brother in saying we're honored that BC has asked us to cohost with him once a week and it's something we think will be enjoyable for all the listeners out there and for the readers of our blogs.

Once BC lets me know about the full details and show schedule, I'll be sure to post back here with everything regarding the new Third Half Podcast, where to find it, when to listen to it, and how to contact us. Until then, once again, I'm excited and can't wait for the show to begin.