Per ESPN, a former Army officer is planning to separate from another, much less formal, branch of U.S. service. Mike Krzyzewski told ESPN’s Andy Katz that next year’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be his last as head coach of Team USA men’s basketball. The team is 75-1 under his guidance, including unbeaten runs to Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012, as well as a win in 2014’s FIBA World Cup. Prior to that last trophy, Krzyzewski brought his team to his alma mater, the U.S. Military Academy, for a daylong tour capped off by a nationally televised split-squad scrimmage. He…
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Five news bits for academy sports boosters, including a few updates to your fan calendar: 1. Army-PSU to “the U”: Army West Point’s Oct. 3 visit to Happy Valley to battle Penn State now has a time (noon Eastern) and a TV home (ESPNU). It already had a packed house: Penn State announced a sellout for Beaver Stadium, including more than 6,500 seats donated to service members, on Sept. 9. Army has lost its first three games by a combined 10 points and will visit Eastern Michigan this Saturday (6 p.m. Eastern, ESPN3) before heading to Happy Valley. Penn State sits at 2-1…
Duke head coach and U.S. Military Academy graduate Mike Krzyzewski makes no secret that his time as a cadet and as a 20-something head coach of the Army basketball team molded him into a college basketball icon who has amassed more than 1,000 career wins. He even brought Team USA to West Point last year in the hopes that some of the academy’s lore would rub off. But the early days of Coach K regularly take a back seat to his impressive accomplishments a few hundred miles south, where his Blue Devils will again enter the NCAA tournament later this week with…
Following a record-setting career at the Naval Academy, David Robinson went on to earn two NBA championships, one NBA MVP, 10 all-star selections three Olympic medals (two gold, one bronze) and a bust in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He’s now added a Heisman. Not bad for a guy who never played college football. Staubach and Bellino fans, settle down — Robinson was named this year’s recipient of the Heisman Humanitarian award, given by the Heisman Trophy Trust to ” recognize and honor selfless athletes who continually give back to the community and seek to improve the lives of others,”…
Seven quick hits for an unusually busy Monday in military-themed sports. Non-football links after the jump. 1. Draft history with Air Force twist. A must-read feature by our good friends at USA Today on Charley Trippi, the oldest living top NFL draft pick. The Chicago (later St. Louis, later Phoenix, later Arizona, still Super Bowl-championship-less) Cardinals drafted Trippi, star Georgia running back, in 1945, while he was serving with the Third Air Force at the tail end of World War II. Trippi, now 91, returned to college after the war and led Georgia to an undefeated 1946 season, finishing second…
The men’s college basketball season ends tonight. The two-year experiment of playing college basketball on warships may have ended over the weekend. A report published Saturday by The Florida Times-Union outlines how a mixture of unexpected insurance costs, the downsizing of the proposed host ship from a carrier to an amphib and the on-court condensation that canceled the game at halftime contributed to a $736,000 loss for the city of Jacksonville in staging the Navy/Marine Corps Classic at Naval Station Mayport, an game that was supposed to benefit military charities. In the report, Alan Verlander, Jacksonville’s executive director of sports…
Ten quick hits to recap a busy weekend aboard two decommissioned aircraft carriers and a damp gator. 1. The games that finished: To minimal fanfare and with a relatively dry court, Notre Dame’s women’s team defeated the Ohio State women 57-51 on the decommissioned aircraft carrier Yorktown in Charleston, S.C., on Friday afternoon to begin what was supposed to be a four-game weekend shipboard slate. On Sunday in San Diego, the Syracuse men easily dispatched San Diego State 62-49 aboard the decommissioned carrier Yorktown. Between those games, things got interesting. 2. The first washout: The Ohio State and Marquette men…
Five quick hits as a military-themed college basketball weekend closes in. 1. More uniforms: We’ve got shots of Georgetown (facing Florida on the amphibious assault ship Bataan on Friday), Ohio State (facing Marquette on the decommissioned aircraft carrier Yorktown on Friday) and Connecticut (facing Michigan State at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Friday) gear at right. All eight schools playing men’s basketball on carriers and on European bases this week are Nike-sponsored, so keep an eye out here for future uniform releases. We had Michigan State gear and a link to an early Florida camo-uni prototype with our now-outdated game…
Are you a fan of early-season college basketball? Of camouflage-themed uniform designs? Of playing basketball on multiple warships, active and decommissioned? Or playing overseas, at odd times, to placate television audiences? If so, this is your lucky week. On Friday, five college hoops games with a military feel will be played in less than eight hours — four games on ships, one game on a base in Germany. Here’s a breakdown of who’s playing who where this Friday: (UPDATE: West Coast game moved to Sunday because of weather concerns) Armed Forces Classic Presented by: Sears Who: No. 14 Michigan State…
NBC Sports Network: Your home for basketball on ships. The Navy/Marine Corps Classic, which will feature the Georgetown and Florida men’s basketball teams playing Nov. 9 on the deck of the amphibious assault ship Bataan at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., will air on NBCSN at 9 p.m., GatorSports.com and other Florida-centric websites reported Tuesday. That’ll put the game on the same network as the Carrier Classic doubleheader being held that same day on the decommissioned aircraft carrier Yorktown at Charleston, S.C. In fact, if the network keeps to its Carrier Classic schedule, it’ll be a tripleheader of shipboard action –…
