1. It will probably get lost in the hysteria surround the ridiculous set of games yesterday, but we found the decision by Fresno State‘s Greg Smith to declare for the NBA Draft on the  opening day of the NCAA Tournament to be interesting. It looks like the uncertain status of current coach Steve Cleveland played a significant role in his decision, but we have no idea about why he declared today instead of waiting until the NCAA Tournament was over or at least in between game days. We have seen Smith’s name mentioned as a prospect, but we have yet to see a mock draft that actually has him getting drafted.
2. On a somewhat related front the NCAA announced that it had upheld its suspension of Perry Jones for five games for receiving impermissible benefits if he were to return next season. Whatever you think of the NCAA’s decision it is unlikely to carry much weight as we suspect that we have already seen the last of Jones in a Baylor uniform.
3. Most of the injury news surrounding the NCAA Tournament has been about Duke‘s Kyrie Irving (and rightly so), but one other injured player worth keeping an eye on is FSU‘s Chris Singleton. While Singleton lacks Irving’s offensive acumen he is still a potential lottery pick and is FSU’s anchor. He is still a game-time decision against Texas A&M, but if he returns he would instantly make the Seminoles a very dangerous team.
4. It looks like Texas Tech is very close to agreeing to a deal with Billy Gillispie. Although most fans remember him for him turbulent time at Kentucky it is worth noting that he was very successful at Texas A&M (which is why he got the Kentucky job in the first place). According to reports Gillispie could be offered the job as early as Monday. For his sake, if he accepts the job we highly recommend that he sign an actual contract this time.
5. We have plenty of NCAA Tournament coverage on the site today, but we wanted to pass along this video that we received from Denver showing the wild Morehead State celebration. It’s what March Madness is all about. . . unless you are a Louisville fan. . .

nvr1983 (1398 Posts)

This entry was posted on Friday, March 18th, 2011 at 5:15 am by nvr1983 and is filed under morning 5, Regular Features. Tagged: baylor, billy gillispie, chris singleton, duke, florida state, fresno state, fsu, greg smith, kentucky, kyrie irving, louisville, morehead state, perry jones, steve cleveland, texas a&m, texas tech. 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.