1. The ending of the St. John’s–Rutgers game has created quite a bit of controversy and within an hour the Big East had already issued a statement that the officials made a mistake on the last play when Justin Brownlee stepped out of bounds with 1.7 seconds left. As Stewart Mandel points out that was just one of several missed calls that went St. John’s way. Even though though the Rutgers coaching staff appeared to be taking the high road after the game we would expect quite a bit of discussion between the school and the Big East over the next week about the officiating during the game.
2. When the NCAA announced its punishment for UConn last month Jim Calhoun was initially quite vocal about his displeasure with the decision although he later took a step back and agreed that ultimately he was responsible for the actions of his program. Despite that admission there were a handful of media members who wondered whether Calhoun would appeal his 3-game Big East suspension. Yesterday, Calhoun finally announced that he would accept the suspension and would not be appealing. Frankly it was probably the best move for Calhoun and UConn as many have stated that it was a relatively light punishment (ignoring the potential effect on his legacy) and an appeal would only distract the team as they head into the NCAA Tournament with what should be a fairly high seed.
3. Coming into this season most people expected the college career of Perry Jones to be relatively short. It turns out that it might be a few weeks shorter than expected as Jones was suspended prior to the team’s game against Oklahoma for taking “impermissible benefits” related to loans his mother was given while Jones was still in high school. Baylor has stated that they plan to appeal the NCAA’s ruling, but even if they get him back it will most likely be for a NIT game as they lost by 17 to the Sooners yesterday and have lost 5 of their last 6 games to close the regular season. Although Jones was a solid contributor the team’s season will likely be considered a failure as Scott Drew was unable to lead the Bears back to the NCAA Tournament after losing to eventual champion Duke last year in the Elite 8 and returning the majority of the starting line-up including LaceDarius Dunn.
4. Mississippi State has been very protective of Renardo Sidney since his infamous brawl in the stands in Maui in December, but he finally opened up in an interview with a local newspaper where he expressed some regret for his behavior and admitted that he needed to get in better shape stating that in high school his playing weight was nearly 60 pounds lighter than where he presently is. While we have heard countless analysts talk about how bad his attitude is we have yet to hear a single one question his ability. If (and it is a big if) Sidney gets his head on straight there is no doubt that he could be a huge force for the Bulldogs and would almost certainly be a top 5 or 10 pick if he were able to put together a solid season next year and stayed out of trouble.
5. We are nearing the end of the regular season which means one thing–award lists. Ok, it means a lot of things (most of them more important than award lists). CNNSI announced their awards yesterday and we are having a hard time arguing with any of their selections. We are sure that some people will argue that a few of the guys in the honorable mention section should be a little higher, but we’re having a hard time seeing any huge omissions.

nvr1983 (1398 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 5:30 am by nvr1983 and is filed under morning 5, Regular Features. Tagged: baylor, connecticut, duke, jim calhoun, justin brownlee, lacedarius dunn, mississippi state, perry jones, renardo sidney, rutgers, scott drew, st johns, uconn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.