- Illinois guard Alex Legion will leave his second team in three years as he has plans to transfer from Illinois during the semester break. The former Parade All-American clearly exhibits a disconnect between his actual talent level and his production, as the 6’5 junior guard with a career 32% shooting percentage and 3.8 PPG average just hasn’t been able to find a comfortable home in his college career. Mike DeCourcy points out that Legion’s second go-round on transferring mid-season has cost him up to as many as fifty games over the life of his career.
- Kalin Lucas: suspended by Tom Izzo. No legal or school issues involved, but it’s clear that Izzo is trying to send a message to his team’s captain (and his team) that they’re not performing up to expectations.
- Iowa’s Anthony Tucker has pleaded guilty to public intoxication. He’ll pay a little less than $200 in fines and is working toward reinstatement on his team given the requirements of the university’s student-athlete substance-abuse policy.
- Here’s Luke Winn’s early warning signs column on which teams are likely overrated and underrated via the nonconference schedule. It’s a great article and very enlightening, but the point about Kentucky is apparent — the young UK players aren’t taking lesser teams as seriously as they should (until last night, gulp). That could be very different by February, however.
- Gary Parrish delves more deeply into the interesting case known as USC basketball.