- Less than a month after getting kicked off the Georgia Tech team, Glen Rice Jr. has found himself in trouble again, but this time it is with the law. As the article notes, Rice’s involvement in the matter appears to be limited to being in the vehicle with others who were committing more serious crimes (like driving under the influence and discharging a firearm under the influence), but his decision to get involved in a situation like that should raise concern for the Georgia Tech staff, who probably would want to bring back their leading scorer and rebounder.
- Over the next few months you are going to be reading countless articles encouraging talented underclassmen to stay an extra year (or two or three) and in the case of Draymond Green it has made a huge difference. As Roger Groves of Forbes notes, Green’s decision to stay in school has proven to be the right one for him and one that Groves believes should be followed by more young players. While we appreciate Groves’ sentiment and Green’s growth, it is worth noting that Green was not even close to a legitimate pro prospect early in his career at East Lansing while many of the players he references in the article are. It is a lot easier to stay in school when you don’t have people waving million-dollar contracts in front of you.
- If you are a fan of advanced metrics (and we know some people are not like the author of the article we link to next), Columbus may be the place to be on opening weekend. Several teams at that site appear to be severely underseeded if you believe in the rankings of Ken Pomeroy, which is something that Pomeroy expounds upon in a post on his blog using a log5 analysis (warning for the Luddites, your head may explode when you see that). If you are looking for a more manageable analysis using advanced metrics then Luke Winn should be your go to source (as always).
- We already discussed this briefly yesterday, but if you missed Mike Decourcy’s interview with John Calipari it is certainly worth a read. Outside of his rather direct shot at the NCAA, Calipari is refreshingly open about the perception of his program and how he runs his program. For those of us who have had a chance to talk to him before most of this stuff is not new, but for those people who reflexively recoil at the mention of his name based on two of his Final Four appearances being vacated it might shine a light on why recruits, players, and Kentucky fans have fallen for him outside of the impressive record.
- South Carolina may not be dancing, but their fans have reason to celebrate with the announcement that their two-sport star Bruce Ellington plans to become “just” a basketball star after deciding to stop playing football. Ellington, who made the SEC All-Freshman team in football after gaining 707 all-purpose yards, actually saw a decline in his output last season on the court going from 12.8 points per game down to 10.6 points per game although his efficiency numbers were up across the board. With his renewed focus on basketball, don’t be surprised if Ellington comes back next November as a significantly improved player.