- News has leaked regarding the Jamar Samuels situation at Kansas State: He may have received $200 from an AAU coach to pay for food. On the surface, the NCAA’s decision to rule Samuels ineligible is fairly straightforward. He received impermissible benefits as an amateur, and thus he was not eligible to play against Syracuse. There’s a gray area here, though, and these are the kinds of stories that make Jay Bilas’ Twitter account blow up. Should we penalize a kid from a family with no money for getting access to some free food? Some might say the NCAA makes millions off of these players already and should cut a guy like Samuels some slack. Others may argue that giving Samuels special treatment ignores that hundreds of other Division I athletes that probably use school stipends to eat and don’t get $200 from former coaches. We’ll let you be the judge.
- Missouri lost. It’s over– a terrible way to end a dream season, but it’s over. So now what? There are a lot of questions for the Tigers to ponder as they move to the SEC and lose five seniors. Frank Haith should still have a promising roster with four transfers joining the team, but replacing Ricardo Ratliffe with newcomers in the frontcourt will be especially difficult and the impact of Marcus Denmon, Kim English, Steve Moore and Matt Pressey cannot be overstated. The return of Laurence Bowers will help, and point guard play will be a major strength with Michael Dixon and Phil Pressey. Recovering from this disappointing effort in the NCAA Tournament won’t be easy from a mental standpoint, however.
- With Missouri off to the SEC, we’re now learning that the Big 12 tried to put a stop to all of the realignment. Just a warning: there’s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo and secretive documents involved in this story. But if you’ve got some time, the drama involved in this process is top-notch stuff.
- It’s been a few days since Texas bowed out of the NCAA Tournament, but the way it lost resembled the rest of the Longhorns’ season. They fell behind early. They couldn’t score outside of J’Covan Brown. And even after a rally, they couldn’t finish the basketball game, collapsing late. It’s a tough way for Rick Barnes to go out this season, but with the bulk of this young roster presumably returning, he has to be excited to build off this NCAA appearance during the 2012-13 campaign.
- Brady Heslip was the unknown commodity for Baylor heading into the season: an obscure Boston College transfer overshadowed by the arrivals of Quincy Miller and the return of Perry Jones. After torching Colorado for nine threes — and not to mention a surprisingly solid season in the backcourt for Scott Drew — Heslip isn’t unknown anymore. Here’s the perspective from his old buddies in the Northeast, who surely miss watching him play now.