Utah Hoops: GLOBAL SPORTS SHOWCASE

Nov 8, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Savannah State Tigers head coach Horace Broadnax gestures on the sideline against the Pittsburgh Panthers during the first half at the Petersen Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

THE GLOBAL SPORTS SHOWCASE… CATCH THE FEVER…

The Utah Utes Basketball out of conference schedule (AKA-THE WALKING DEAD) marches on this week with perhaps the worst thing on the schedule.  I mean Evergreen and St. Katherine’s are bad, but this tournament thing is probably more offensive.  Instead of playing someone or trying to get into one of the recognized tournaments like Maui or even Alaska, Utah is shelling out around $200,000 to bring in three guaranteed victories.

If that doesn’t bring pride nothing will.

(Two side notes, here is where someone tells me how much they enjoy these blow outs, which means you’re the kind of person who dominates your 6 year old in basketball and then talks trash to them.  And two, St. Katherine (in their first year of playing basketball) is in the same conference as something called Portland Bible College.  God, I wish we were playing Portland Bible College.)

But these are games and we are playing them so here are the teams we’re paying about $67,000 a piece to come to Salt Lake City.

First up are the Grand Canyon Antelope.  Grand Canyon is a for-profit Christian college in Phoenix, AZ, so think University of Phoenix with a bible.  They must have a butt load of cash because you can’t throw a dead cat without hitting a Grand Canyon advertisement on television in Arizona.  They also hired Thunder Dan Marjele to coach their basketball team.  What that means is, it would be more interesting to watch our coaches play 1 on 1 or H-O-R-S-E than this game will be.

Grand Canyon’s leading scorers are Demetrius Walker, a graduate transfer from New Mexico, and Killian Larson.  They also have a transfer from Weber on their team.  They are 1-2 with losses to LMU and San Diego and a win over Western New Mexico (cue Utah calling Western New Mexico for next years schedule).

The Pac-12 doesn’t think much of the for profit model and after this game all Pac-12 schools have agreed to not play them in athletics.

Next up are the Lamar Cardinals.  Lamar is located in Beaumont, TX, which I think is the fictional town from the film Footloose.  Their mascot is the Cardinal and they are 0-3 on the season losing to Butler, George Mason and Wazzu.  Their leading scorer is actually named Nimrod Hilliard.  Close in scoring but not in name is Donavan Ross.

And their coach is Bobby Knight’s son Pat Knight.

Finally we move on to Savannah St.  The Tigers are 2-3 on the year with their two wins coming over Tennessee-Temple and Florida National.  One of their losses was to North Florida.  Deven Williams, Jyles Smith and Joshua Montgomery all average around 10 PPG.  They are coached by former Georgetown Hoya Horace Broadnax.

So there you go Ute fans,  Get Crazy because it’s on like DONKEY KONG…

GLOBAL SPORTS SHOWCASE FEVER…. CATCH IT