'S Friday Flashback: John Wooden Basketball Encounter

March Madness is in full swing, I am sitting here watching Minnesota play Michigan State and I about to turn it over and watch my Kentucky Wildcats play LSU.  Yesterday while teaching 7th grade social studies I made a deal with the students that if they could stay quite for 5 minutes then I would turn the radio on.  Of course this was just an easy way to get them quite and to listen to Kentucky play Ole Miss on the radio.

If you love basketball like I do then you know that March is a word soaked in memories both enjoyable and gut wrenching.  As a fan of Converse this time of year has been bitter sweet for a while.  It was only last year that Converse finally returned to the NCAA after a 8 year absence from the stage in which it used to dominate.  Of the 347 division 1 NCAA basketball teams there are only a handful that wear anything besides Nike or Adidas.  Let me say this another way, 98% percent of the 347 D1 teams wear Nike or Adidas.  Marquette wears Converse, Boston College wears Reebok, and I think there are 3 or 4 schools that wear New Balance. Needless to say, there is room for Converse to grow beyond Marquette and I truly hope that they will.  All of this to say that there is hope, they've done it before and they can do it again. 


So what does John Wooden have to do with any of this.  Everyone associates UCLA with Adidas and rightly so, but that was not always the case.  In fact John Wooden used to be a Converse guy.  For proof check out this fantastic t-shirt below.      

I must say that the John Wooden Basketball Encounter is one of the coolest names for a camp I've ever heard.  Converse fans don't give up hope, cheer on Marquette and enjoy March.  Thanks for checking out the blog!  

The Converse Blog: Kentucky All Stars in What If Pack Wade 3.0

Over the weekend the Kentucky - Indiana All Stars took the floor for the second game of their two game series. I was unable to see any pictures from the first game but I did see some video. It was clear to me that the Indiana All Stars were wearing New Balance Zips from a few years ago. However, I couldn't tell for sure what the Kentucky All Stars were wearing.

As it turns out they were wearing the Converse Wade 3.0, and not a normal colorway either. In fact they are from the What If Pack, which isn't even being sold here in America. The pack also includes the Converse 0100 and the Converse Revolution.


Kentucky's Monique Reid, center, drives to the basket as Indiana's Deja Maddox, right, blocks her way during first-half action of the Kentucky Indiana All Star Classic at The Gardens, Sunday June 15, 2008, in Louisville, Ky. Timothy Easley / AP

Kentucky's Janae Howard shot over Indiana's Felisha Johnson in Louisville Gardens on Sunday. Howard, a Louisville signee, had 15 points and the Kentucky All-Stars led by as many as 44 points in the second half. Photo by Matt Barton

So it goes: Kentucky Miss Basketball Tia Gibbs (left) gets past Indiana All-Star Maggie Boyer during Kentucky's dominating win Sunday. - Timothy Easley / Associated Press



Indiana's Tyler Zeller and Kentucky's Darius Miller, the states' Mr. Basketballs, went for a rebound. Photo by Matt Barton


If you click on any of these links you'll see that the Kentucky All Stars won both games last night for the first time since 1991. It's pretty cool that they got these exclusive kicks for the game and the red really pops out on them.

Anyway, I thought I'd show some love for my state today. Thanks for checking out the blog and don't forget to vote the NBA draft is coming very soon.