- In one of the more interesting subplots of the offseason, Tennessee has agreed to grant Kevin Ware, one of its recruits from the Bruce Pearl era, a release from his signed National Letter of Intent. Ware reportedly still lists Tennessee is his top choice, but he is no longer sure now that Cuonzo Martin is the coach. The Volunteers had faced some pretty heavy criticism for not granting Ware a release after Pearl was fired although Martin stated that he would do so after meeting face-to-face with the recruits. One other prominent recruit, Chris Jones, has yet to be released from his National Letter of Intent although based on Ware’s experience indicates that it may be coming in the near future.
- Call it the “Jimmer effect” if you want, but BYU coach Dave Rose is reportedly attracting offers from other schools including Oklahoma. It appears that Rose will turn down the offer, but it is interesting to see how athletic directors view coaches of successful teams when so much of their success has been tied to one player (at least by the media).
- Speaking of the Oklahoma job, the Sooners were also pursuing Illinois head coach Bruce Weber, but it appears that he has also withdrawn his name from consideration. While the Oklahoma job is probably more desirable than the Missouri job even if the Tigers are in better shape at the present time as a basketball program the Sooners would probably be best served to set their sights a little lower unless they are willing to hand out a very generous contract.
- Most UCLA fans are probably wondering if any of the players from this year’s team was planning on returning to campus next year given the recent announcements by Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee. It appears that at least one player–Joshua Smith—will be returning at least according to his father. The freshman appears to have the skills to potentially become a NBA player some day, but will need to get into better playing shape if he wants to succeed at the next level.
- However, another more prominent Pac-10 player–Isaiah Thomas–looks like he might be headed towards the NBA although he has not signed with an agent yet, but all indications point towards him staying in the NBA Draft. Some local columnists are less than thrilled with Thomas leaving Washington and are urging him to come back for another season citing concerns from NBA scouts that Thomas wasn’t ready to play at the next level yet.