- Seth Davis dug a little deeper into the newest report over the weekend that Saint Joseph’s could not talk about Todd O’Brien until he waived his student-privacy rights and found that despite the school’s initial report it appears that they would not discuss the case even if O’Brien did waive his privacy rights, which is interesting because they seemed to indicate they would when we talked to them over the weekend. Several media members have talked with O’Brien asking if he would be willing to call the school’s bluff and waive his rights. Although O’Brien says he wants to waive his privacy rights he also is hiding behind the legal system in a way as he states that he will not waive his right due to his lawyer advising him not to do so. Like Seth we are willing to acknowledge that while it is probably sound legal advice in general, it is an awful public relations strategy. Todd can hide behind legal advice, but with his decision not to mention the computer theft issue in his original column there will continue to be at least a small portion of the public that will hesitate to support O’Brien in his quest for a graduate student transfer waiver without the full story being out there.
- Mississippi lost its leading scorer yesterday when it dismissed Dundrecous Nelson following his arrest at 1:24 AM on Wedneday after he was caught smoking marijuana. Nelson, who was averaging 11.6 points per game despite coming off the bench for the past 10 games, was expected to play an even bigger role on a team that lost much of its scoring from last season. Little-used reserve guard Jamal Jones was also arrested and kicked off the team. According to team sources, both players also reportedly failed multiple drug tests. The Rebels will need to find another offensive weapon quickly as they start SEC play on Saturday.
- Arizona State suffered a big blow before their game at USC last night when they announced that three players (starters Keala King and Kyle Cain and backup guard Chris Colvin) had been suspended for “unacceptable conduct”. We have not heard any more information on what these players did (or if their “unacceptable conduct” was related) or how long the suspensions will be. What we do know at this point is that the suspensions left the 4-9 Sun Devils with just six scholarship players for their trip to Los Angeles this weekend with last night’s game at USC followed by a game at UCLA tomorrow. We suspect that these three will be back soon (maybe even on Sunday), but despite their win over a USC team that is an even bigger mess with the Sun Devils falling apart around him you have to wonder how much longer Herb Sendek will continue to be the coach there.
- John Calipari spoke out yesterday against a legislative proposal that would require Kentucky to play Louisville every year in men’s basketball and football. Prior to speaking at a lunch, Calipari said, “”I would hope they (lawmakers) don’t think I need help scheduling. I hope they have more important things to do.” When questioned about it later the bill’s sponsor claimed that the proposal was just to generate interest for in the bill’s primary purpose of improving education in the state. Apparently, he felt that he needed to use college sports to get the state to care about education. While we find it amusing (and somewhat disheartening) that he had to resort to the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry to get attention some of the figures listed in the article about graduation rates within the state’s university system are shocking.
- In the latest installment of their weekly power rankings Luke Winn takes a look at foul rates for some top interior players as well as a variety of stats including the always controversial Kentucky defensive stats while Mark Titus offers his various musings about college basketball. Winn provides his usual insightful statistical analysis with great visuals to help those whose eyes tend to glaze when presented with a bunch of numbers. On the other hand, Titus appears to be trying his hand at being a serious journalist as you will notice there are not quite as many anecdotes and he repeatedly mentions watching a game multiple times, but we are just having a hard time adjusting to the new Club Trillion as a serious basketball journalist especially when he makes comments like Perry Jones being the best player in the Big 12 while completely ignoring Thomas Robinson.