Villanova’s Taylor King has now quit on his second program, deciding in the past few days to transfer out of Villanova. Well, not really. According to the release, King has decided to “voluntarily withdraw from the men’s basketball team,” but he plans on sticking around the school to complete his degree requirements. Is this for real? Despite what Gary Parrish writes about King’s oversized expectations, he was solid for at least half the season on the Main Line last year (7/5 in 19 MPG) and we find it hard to believe that he’s given up on basketball completely. The guy could probably be a star in the WCC or a similar league.
Luke Winn examines how the new coach at Wake Forest, Jeff Bzdelik is adjusting to his new job. Bzdelik claims that he will adapt to his personnel and keep the Deacs as an uptempo team that pushes the ball, but every coach says that in the summertime. The story about how the Wake coaching staff kept their top twenty recruiting class intact is pretty cool, though.
Fred Barakat, a longtime ACC official and executive as well as former Fairfield coach, died on Monday at the age of 71. He is widely regarded as one of the key players in the extraordinary growth of ACC basketball as a brand in the 80s and 90s. RIP, Fred.
Class of 2011 super-recruit James McAdoo was considering bailing on his senior year of high school to matriculate in Chapel Hill a year earlier than expected, but ZagsBlog reported yesterday that he would instead remain in Hampton Roads next year. You only get to be a kid once, so we fully support this decision.
This interview of Jay Bilas, Gary Williams, Jay Wright and Jim Boeheim at the CvC Golf Invitational shows that coaches are definitely concerned about realignment. Bilas, as usual, has the best take: the NCAA needs to get in front of this realignment business or risk getting left completely behind in a few years when the super-conferences decide that the entity is no longer necessary.
