🏀 KuBuckets Archive

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2015-01-15/kentucky-bahamas-trip-cost-expenses-uk-bbn ↗

link here... ↗

@Crimsonorblue22

Amazing. As long as booster are paying for the other teams, not much the NCAA can do about it since the other teams are not under the jurisdiction of the NCAA. I bet there is some mighty creative accounting there. The kicker is playing overseas and not home; KU pays most non-con teams that come and play at AFH. Ohio State paid over $1M to Navy to come and play one football game at OSU. It is a big business and now, some small schools play their entire non-con on the road and earn enough money to support the entire athletic program by becoming punch bags for the bigger programs; sad but true.

Wow that just seems like an insane amount of money to have other schools come play there and did Cal really need a suite that cost 1550 per night? But I guess if you got it flaunt it right? I wonder if Drake was one of the boosters that helped pay that. Must be nice to have that kind of cash flow, it does look like it paid dividends for them.

@HawkInMizery

It paid big time. UK played 6 games in the Bahamas 2 pre-season exhibition games and two official games before KU; that is 10 games to get their act together. Ku on the other hand had 2 pre-season exhibition games and 1 official game (UCSB) for a great total of 3 games before playing UK. No wonder UK was ready and KU was not.

Next season, KU gets to practice in the summer and play international competition at the World University Games...I wish we could play them at the beginning of the season like this year...oh well...

@Crimsonorblue22

What this really is about is the fact that Kentucky got something like 3 extra weeks of practice this year to play in that tournament. So... is it any wonder they were a lot more polished than us when we played?

@JayHawkFanToo said:

I wish we could play them at the beginning of the season like this year...oh well...

Maybe we'll get to play them again at the end of this season...

@bskeet

Maybe we will. However, you can go on those pre-season junket only every so many years, so UK will home bound next season and the experience level will be quite different where KU will have ton and UK very little...the reverse of this season.

@drgnslayr I knew they got the extra practices, I didn't know they paid for the other teams. I can't imagine KU doing that, or do they?

@Crimsonorblue22

I would like to think KU would not do this. KU and its fans take pride on being the cradle of basketball and hold the program to a high standard, and if KU ever did this, particularly on the down low, the fans would be up in arms. At UK, on the other hand, a program with some of the most egregious violations in college sports, they just hold their noses and look the other way.

Having said that, if it will make money and annoy the fans, Zenger probably would do it.

@JayHawkFanToo see your buddy in the pic?

!image.jpg ↗

Looks like they can girl. There's a very thin, fine line between being shrewd & dishonest for sure.

@Crimsonorblue22 said:

@JayHawkFanToo see your buddy in the pic?

I spy him.

@Crimsonorblue22

Like Pitino said, "If the NCAA doesn't see anything wrong with it then I sure don't."

@Crimsonorblue22

Great new game: "Where's Zenger?"

Market it and make enough to end the blackouts.

@jaybate-1.0 what's he thinking?

@Crimsonorblue22

Something like: this is more aggressive contact than our football team had all season? :-)

@jaybate-1.0 I think he's afraid!!

@Crimsonorblue22

...of course, why should he worry about black outs...he has effin' court side seats!!!

@Crimsonorblue22 Have been out of the loop for awhile, but as pertaining to the Bahamas or Puerto Rico, a few years back (at least 10) $1500 nightly would pay for ocean front condo/cottage on excellent coral reef beach front with dedicated maid/butler/chef service in, for example, St Thomas or St Kitts, USVI or BVI. Paradise Island is nice, but the ocean there is nothing close to the quality of the leeward islands. Even the leeward side f Puerto Rico has plush $2000 a night accommodations. Sounds like Cal was well pampered & who knows, may have taken the whole family & kids on the junket. For that price if he didn't, they over paid IMO. I've paid that & more for a week inclusive for 4 people, w/dive packages & multiple day cruises on catamarans with open bar & unlimited dining. One night for that money is waaaaaay over the top & is for high rollers for sure...or maybe just someone's AD with more money than brains. Could SZ apply to that premise?

@JayHawkFanToo he doesn't even look like he's having near as much fun as we would sitting in those seats! Funny!!

@Crimsonorblue22

He is probably unhappy because the game is not blacked out and he will not get his customary consulting fee from Time Warner...just kidding about the last part...NOT!!!

@globaljaybird no!! Sounds like a lot of fun, especially now.

@Crimsonorblue22 I never did dive enough to get certified but both my sons are & one is 1st level dive master. Both have been diving for about 20 years now. It's a very costly hobby but it's neatern' hell. And Jan & Feb are the best time to go in the lee wards as the waters have calmed after hurricane season. There is a term used to describe the reduced visibility from storm season called "The Sahara Dust." Visibility may be 50 to 100 ft in the Summer & Fall but pretty much doubles in late Winter. That's why cruises are always cheaper in the summer.....Hurricane season !!

@JayHawkFanToo I hear you, I wish we would have had a pre-season opportunity like they did this year instead of next year. I also wish the champions Classic was later in the non-con after we were a little more polished. I don't know that we would have won but I'd be willing to bet it wouldn't have been a blowout like that.

@JayHawkFanToo: I'm guessing UK fans don't hold their noses and look the other way; they just celebrate the over-the-top-UK way.

@EdwordL

Ah...yes. The fine art of couch burning...

I don't think paying to play stronger opponents is wrong. That's essentially what happened here. They could have played teams that were basically the equivalent to a solid US high school team, or bring in opponents that could give them a good run.

Honestly, I would suspect that any college team would do the same. They go on these trips to get their team game experience. You can't get that against over matched opponents because for your top freshmen, that's what they saw in uigh school.