Evan Jacoby is a regular contributor for RTC. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter.

The rumors had spread rampant over the weekend, and while an official contract has yet to be signed, it appears that Kansas State head coach Frank Martin is bolting from Manhattan, Kansas, to take the job at South Carolina. Several outlets have reported the story, including the Kansas City Star, which reports that an announcement is scheduled for Tuesday at a press conference. Assuming that contract details are all that remain from making this official, we can go ahead and assume that Martin will be the new coach in Columbia beginning next season. Surprised by this move? We don’t blame you; the move is not a natural progression up in the coaching hierarchy.

Frank Martin is Reportedly Saying 'Peace' to Kansas State En Route to South Carolina (AP Photo)

South Carolina is a struggling basketball program that’s made just one NCAA Tournament since 1998. The Gamecocks have not won a game in the Big Dance in over 35 years and are coming off a 10-21 season that placed them dead last in the SEC. South Carolina is certainly considered a football school, and the appeal of being in the SEC comes primarily into play because of the football ties. So why would Martin leave Kansas State, a school with a rising basketball tradition that’s won at least one NCAA Tournament game in four of the past five seasons, for ‘the other USC?’

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About a year ago, Jared Sullinger shocked the press room by announcing that the would be back for another season despite being projected as a top 10 choice in the NBA Draft. Coming off a brutal loss to Kentucky in the Sweet Sixteen, he seemed very confident about his reasons to return to Columbus, one of them being unfinished business because he wanted to lead Ohio State back to the Final Four. Several comparisons have been made between the recruiting class with Greg Oden to the one with Jared Sullinger. Both classes were highly touted and Oden along with Mike Conley led the Buckeyes to the National Championship game where they lost to Florida. Last year’s recruiting class — Sullinger, Lenzelle Smith Jr., Aaron Craft and Deshaun Thomas — has lived up to the hype as they led Ohio State back to the Final Four Saturday by beating Syracuse 77-70. Let’s examine four key factors that led to the victory over the weekend.

Aaron Craft and The Buckeyes executed an excellent game plan to beat 'Cuse. (nwitimes.com)

1. The Buckeyes did not settle for three-point shots. Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone forces the opposing teams to settle for long-range shots during the game. Syracuse frustrates opponents to an extent where they believe that the only way to break it is to chuck up 25-footers. Three-point shooting is one key to break the zone but only with quality looks and when the looks are not there, teams need to attack the paint to force the zone to fall apart. On Thursday night, Wisconsin shot 14-27 against ‘Cuse but they forgot about other ways to score, one of them being to attack the basket. Ohio State’s wings did an excellent job of cutting their way into the paint against the Orange, resulting in 42 free throw attempts. William Buford and Deshaun Thomas could have settled for flat-footed threes but rather they stayed active and remained close to the hoop with their shot selection. Both of them combined for 1-7 from the long-range but 8-10 from the charity line. Overall, the Buckeyes shot only 4-13 (30.8%) from deep but their limited three-point attempts allowed them to exploit the zone via the post, not from 25 feet away from the hoop. Read the rest of this entry »

1. And then there was only one. The Final Four is set and only one Big East team — Louisville — will be heading to New Orleans this season. The Cardinals got there thanks to a late furious rally that allowed them to eke out a victory over Florida despite being outplayed by the Gators for most of the game. The victory sets up an intrastate showdown with Kentucky and the Bluegrass State is already starting to reach critical mass with anticipation. Predictably, the Louisville Courier-Journal will be milking this match-up all week long. If you have a hankering from some occasionally unhinged trolling, head over to the paper’s interactive feature called “The Argument,” which basically allows readers to state their case in favor of their team. I have spent 30 minutes on it this morning, and I am already hooked. It should be required reading this week for anyone looking for insight into how intense this game will be for the good folks in Kentucky.
2. The conference had a chance to put two teams in the Final Four this weekend, but regular season champion and top-seeded Syracuse couldn’t hang on against an Ohio State team that is playing as well as anyone in the country not named Kentucky. ‘Cuse fans want to blame the referees and their seemingly one-sided foul calls, but the absence of Fab Melo may have cost them this game. The Orange were never a great rebounding team in the first place, but they were badly beaten on the boards against a bigger Buckeyes’ squad and it is hard to win when you give a talented team 13 offensive rebounds. As if the news wasn’t bad enough for ‘Cuse fans, a source told Adam Zagoria after the game that super sophomore Dion Waiters has definitely played his last collegiate game. It looks like next season might be a rebuilding one in upstate New York.
3. In news that should surprise absolutely nobody, Connecticut center and captain Alex Oriakhi is transferring out of the program following a disappointing junior season. The jist seems to be that Oriakhi will be eligible to play immediately because of UConn’s likely postseason ban next season, which should make Oriakhi one of the more sought-after transfers in the country. After a great sophomore campaign, Oriakhi fell out of Jim Calhoun’s favor this season and didn’t exactly respond well to the small demotion. It will be very interesting to see if a change of scenery will recharge his batteries and make him a force to be reckoned with, or if his best days are truly behind him.
4. File this under “things that absolutely should not happen under any circumstances,” but future Big East program SMUis trying to poach a future conference rival’s coach in Marquette boss Buzz Williams. Knowing they shouldn’t stand a chance, the reports are that SMU is prepared to lavish Williams — a Texas native — with a huge contract to go with their new practice facility and arena renovations. All the money in Texas still shouldn’t be enough to pry Williams loose from the Golden Eagles. Marquette has become one of the premier programs in the country first under Tom Crean and now Williams, and while they will lose a lot of good players this season, they will always be a competitive team, something that cannot be said about the Mustangs. It probably won’t and shouldn’t happen, but let’s talk about it anyway, because if it does happen, it is gigantic news.
5. We will use our final note here to make an impassioned plea to members of the media and most importantly, Rick Pitino. We agree, mercurial sophomore Russ Smith does some ridiculous things on the basketball court, both good and bad, but let’s retire the “Russ-diculous” before it really gets off the ground. First of all, it is not even a particularly clever play on a word. Secondly, I know Pitino himself is responsible for the nickname, but collectively we can come up with something more creative than that. College basketball is a sport riddled with amazing nicknames, and there is no way a player as maddening and spectacular as Smith deserves such a crummy one. Of course I am not saying I have any alternatives in mind (I am incredibly not creative), but I am imploring those with a few better ideas to start putting them out there so I don’t have to read that terrible pun anymore.

The NCAA Tournament is here and there’s more news, commentary and analysis than any of us can possibly keep up with. To make things a little easier, we’ll bring you a list of daily links gathered about teams in each of the four regions all the way through the Final Four.

Midwest Region

• Where does Bill Self belong in the hierarchy of active college coaches? ESPN.com’s Jason King believes Self belongs at the very top.
• The triangle and two defense that Kansas utilized towards the end of the game against North Carolina on Sunday left Roy Williams and the Tar Heels very confused. This defensive tactic demonstrated that fact that Williams was decidedly outcoached by Bill Self.
• Kansas senior guard Tyshawn Taylor has had a pretty well-known love/hate relationship with Kansas fans. Taylor does not understand how fans cannot love him because he says, “I’m a lovable guy, man.”
• North Carolina sophomore forward Harrison Barnes likely played the final game of his collegiate career Sunday. After a disappointing performance, Barnes went mostly quiet with many questions remaining.

West Region 

• Florida‘s late game collapse versus Louisville on Saturday was quite similar to the Gators’ collapse against Butler in last season’s Elite Eight.
• Louisville guard Russ Smith is well known for his erratic play on the court, but his play Saturday versus Florida was very steady.
• Peyton Siva battled foul trouble all game long in the Cardinals’ victory over Florida; however, Louisville was still able to cut down the nets and celebrate a trip to the Final Four.
• Louisville head coach Rick Pitino believes that the Kentucky/Louisville matchup in the Final Four will be “awesome.”

And then there were four. After 28 days of eliminations, the Circle of March is now in its 18th iteration, and there will be only two more versions until one team is left standing. Over 315 schools have been eliminated from national title contention, and the four that remain are some of the bluest of bloods in college basketball history. Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio State, and Louisville will play on the sport’s grandest stage in New Orleans next weekend in what is certain to be one of the most highly anticipated Final Fours in history. Is it Saturday evening yet?

This post is sponsored by Allstate. The opinions expressed herein are strictly those of Rush the Court.

RTC is pleased to announce that RTC will be teaming up with Allstate on the eve of the Final Four to host a Google+ Hangout with former NC State star Dereck Whittenburg. For those of you who weren’t alive in 1983 or were too young to remember the Wolfpack guard, it was his, ahem, pass to Lorenzo Charles that gave NC State its last national championship. March is mayhem every year, but the quality of last weekend’s regional games suggests that we’re in for a ridiculously fun Final Four weekend featuring four of the biggest names in the history of the sport.

Dereck Whittenburg is a Key Member of March Mayhem History

Whittenburg personal mayhem in the form of his assist to teammate Charles is why he is a member of Allstate’s Team Mayhem, which includes James Worthy, Miles Simon, Joey Rodriguez, and broadcasters Dick Vitale and Bill Raftery. We’re asking our readers to submit questions to Whittenburg through Twitter (@rushthecourt – use hashtag #askDereck), or through our comments section below. If your question is a good one, you’ll be invited to chat live via webcam with Dereck Friday evening in the Google+ Hangout. It’ll be a great time to talk hoops history and future, so make sure to send us your questions!

1. The Pac-12 in the NCAA Tournament may be a distant memory, but conference teams continue to play on in lesser postseason tournaments. Washington State kicks off a three-game series for the championship of the CBI tournament tonight against Pittsburgh, but will likely have to do so without its most valuable player, Brock Motum. Motum sprained an ankle early in the Cougars’ semifinal game against Oregon State last week, but his teammates were able to step up and cover for him. While he is questionable for tonight’s game, head coach Ken Bone claims that there is a stronger chance that he’ll be able to return for Wednesday night’s game in Pittsburgh.
2. Meanwhile, Washington heads back to Madison Square Garden for the third time this season as the Huskies face Minnesota in the NIT semifinals on Tuesday night. The first time UW played at MSG this season, freshman guard Tony Wroten put on a show for a national audience, scoring 24 points, including 14 in the final 10 minutes as he tried to will his team back into the game. Now, after a disappointing end to the Huskies’ NCAA Tournament chances when Wroten missed multiple free throws down the stretch of a Pac-12 tournament game, he is back to reprise his starring role in one of the nation’s best basketball arenas. And it is possible, given Wroten’s chances of becoming a high draft pick in June’s NBA Draft, that his time in the spotlight as a collegiate player will be book-ended by appearances in the World’s Most Famous Arena.
3. Stanford is the other Pac-12 team still alive, also in the NIT semifinals, facing Massachusetts on Tuesday night. This will also be the Cardinal’s third appearance this season at Madison Square Garden too, after they beat Oklahoma State and dropped a tight game to Syracuse at the Garden in the Preseason NIT during Thanksgiving weekend. But Stanford is also in the news lately because head coach Johnny Dawkins is reportedly a possible candidate for the head coaching job at Illinois. Dawkins denies the reports, but with Shaka Smart and Brad Stevens having already turned down the Illini, Dawkins is supposed to be considered along with Leonard Hamilton, Jeff Capel and Anthony Grant for the position.
4. Elsewhere around the Cardinal program, with associate head coach Dick Davey retiring at the end of the season, should Dawkins return (which, really, is to be expected, not only because Illinois can probably find someone better than him for their position, but also because he would probably rather be at Stanford that in Champaign), he’ll need to fill a spot on his staff. And, among the candidates for that seat is former Cardinal star Mark Madsen. Madsen has limited coaching experience, and Dawkins can certainly find somebody with a more solid resume, but the case can be made that snapping up Madsen now would be good for the Cardinal program in the future.
5. Lastly, we missed this back at the start of March, but California will be among the eight teams playing in the 2013 Maui Invitational. The Golden Bears will join Syracuse, Baylor, Gonzaga, Arkansas, Dayton, Minnesota and, host Chaminade in Maui in November 2013. It’s too early to prognosticate the strength of any of those teams, but Syracuse, Baylor and Gonzaga have been consistently solid in recent years, while the Bears could feature Allen Crabbe, Justin Cobbs and Richard Solomon as seniors, with David Kravish as a junior.

1. While Illinois continues to look further and further down on its list of candidates for the head coach vacancy, Nebraska has found its man: (now former) Colorado State coach Tim Miles. Omaha World-Herald columnist Tom Shatel already likes what he sees in Miles. As Shatel points out, this is a moment of optimism for Nebraska fans everywhere and Miles has already delivered his first victory — at his introductory press conference this weekend.
2. Now with more on the Illinois coaching search: The Fighting Illini and athletic director Mike Thomas — stop me if this sounds familiar — were turned down by another rising star that Thomas had hoped to see come to Champaign. This time it was Butler coach Brad Stevens. According to the Chicago Tribune, Stevens released a statement Sunday announcing he had declined Thomas’ offer and would be staying at Butler.
3. And so it’s on to the next one. With Stevens (and Shaka Smarta and, apparently, the list goes on) having passed on Thomas’ offer, the Tribune looks to the next possible candidate. Ohio’s John Groce is a hot name after leading the Bobcats to a Sweet Sixteen berth by beating South Florida and upsetting Michigan. Groce, whose contract runs through 2014-15, is in his first head coaching job. He spent four years on Thad Matta’s staff at Ohio State and has led the Bobcats to two first-round upsets of high seeds, but it still feels like Illinois is digging around the bottom of the barrel at this point.
4. Back to the school from Ohio that is still dancing — Ohio State, the lone Final Four representative from the Big Ten — what can we make of this rematch of the Buckeyes and national semifinal opponent Kansas? The Jayhawks knocked off No. 1 seed North Carolina on Sunday night, setting up an encore of the December 10 meeting, in which Kansas beat a Jared Sullinger-less Ohio State team. How much will the big man in the middle make a difference the second time around? Sully is averaging 18 PPG and 8.3 RPG over four NCAA Tournament games, but will have a tall task going up against Jeff Withey and Thomas Robinson.
5. Don’t forget — Minnesota is still playing, too. The Golden Gophers are getting set to take on Washington in the NIT semifinals on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden in New York. With the three straight victories — sans forward Trevor Mbakwe, who could come back from injury for another season if he so chooses — the Gophers are starting to generate some buzz again.  “I think there is a bit more buzz around this team because they’re still playing,” former Gopher and current FSN Sports commentator Kevin Lynch told the Star Tribune. “People want to know, ‘Did you watch the game last night?’ And ‘What do you think of Rodney Williams?’ Hey, let’s face it. I think it’s significant what they’re doing.”

1. Washington Post: This isn’t directly linked to the ACC (if you’re looking for a more explicit, albeit indirect connection, be my guest), but I think John Feinstein hits the nail on the head regarding officiating. Officials are refereeing too many games. Period. I thought the officiating in Sunday’s Elite Eight games was no different: travels went uncalled and charges and blocks felt decided by reputation. Feinstein argues the NCAA should pay officials more and mandate fewer games. I whole-heartedly agree, though I think the hardest part is how to regulate the regular season pay of officials, especially those from smaller conferences. This is a problem, and I expect the NCAA to at least look into it over the offseason.
2. Tobacco Road Blues: Amidst many (including myself) calling for Mike Krzyzewski to win ACC Coach of the Year, at least one Duke fan thinks the polar opposite. The argument: (1) Coach K refused to change his defensive system despite knowing his team’s weaknesses (very similar to the criticism Roy Williams took during 2009-10 for not adapting following Ty Lawson’s departure); (2) he didn’t give Michael Gbinije enough run; and (3) Krzyzewksi didn’t give Quinn Cook enough run. I’m going to have a longer response to this later, but I can see the arguments.
3. Raleigh News & Observer: With reports piling up that Austin Rivers will be leaving Duke for the NBA draft, Rick Bonnell hypothesizes that Rivers may be better off in the NBA anyway. I’m not sure I agree that Rivers’ personality caused problems in Durham. It’s clear he clashed at times with Coach K, but nothing ever really boiled over. I also agree Rivers’ game is very suited for the NBA — especially if a team gets someone to reconstruct his jumper during the offseason.
4. Testudo Times: I think this is a pretty reasonable look at Alex Len and his future, though I think Dave Tucker is underselling Len’s shot-blocking ability and its importance going forward (he could be a John Henson type of player as he gets more acclimated and stronger). I also think it’s important to temper expectations about Len’s offensive production. Yes, bigs generally make a huge leap between their first two seasons, but Len never struck me as a dominant offensive player. He’s definitely a guy who can average 10 points per game (give or take a couple — many coming off rebounds), but he’s got to develop a reliable 15-footer before he’ll be a serious offensive threat.
5. Yahoo! Sports: North Carolina played 32 minutes of great basketball. Somehow the Tar Heels managed to run the offense smoothly without Kendall Marshall. Sure there were signs like blown fast breaks and intercepted passes, but for the most part the Tar Heel offense ran very well, that is, until Bill Self switched to a triangle and two defensive scheme. The hybrid defensive scheme simultaneously locked down Harrison Barnes and Reggie Bullock, while causing Tyler Zeller and John Henson to virtually disappear. A lot of people will rip Roy Williams for his team’s inability to deal with the switch. But this team doesn’t have elite shot creators (despite what Barnes’ projected skills were). They kill you in transition and with unparalleled passing from Marshall. Without him, it’s pretty surprising Williams had his team playing as well as they did. Still it was fascinating how effective the defensive switch was (only allowing three points in the last eight and a half minutes of play).

1. Duke could be in some trouble next year as Austin Rivers is deciding on whether or not to declare for the NBA Draft. On some level (a very selfish one), we would like to see Rivers stay in college to round out his game, which for all his talent and pedigree still has some holes in it. In the end, he is a definite lottery pick with good source of NBA intelligence on where he would get drafted (his father) so we can’t criticize his decision if he decides to leave. We will note that this could be the second year in a row that Mike Krzyzewski has had a star point guard go one-and-done, which is something a certain coach in the Final Four gets criticized for all the time.
2. Rivers grabbed most of the early entry headlines over the weekend, but Damian Lillard is certainly worth some attention as the Weber State point guard will attract a lot of attention from NBA teams in the  mid- to late first round as the junior appears to be on the verge of entering the NBA Draft. While he lacks the amazing scoring ability of Rivers, he does have a point guard skill that Rivers lacks–passing. If Lillard enters the Draft, there will surely be some team interested in picking up a quality guard even with the relatively high number of quality point guards already in the NBA.
3. After a relatively brief search, Nebraska named Tim Miles as its new head coach. Miles, who was most well-known among casual college basketball fans for tweeting at halftime of games while at Colorado State, signed a five-year deal with an option for a sixth year that starts at $1.4 million and goes up by $75,000 per year. Interestingly, one of the things that helped convinced Nebraska to hire Miles was that he choose to take less money for himself so he could have more to spend on assistants. Miles will need all the help he can get competing in the Big Ten with a team that will probably be worse next season than the one he left behind at Colorado State.
4. The writing was on the wall when three players announced that they were transferring and on Friday Duquesne fired Ron Everhart after six seasons. During his tenure, Everhart went 99-89 after inheriting a program that went 3-24 the year before, but in a letter to the school’s board members that was leaked the school cited concerns about hitting a plateau and how the transfers indicated the program was not moving in the right direction. Although Everhart has never made the NCAA Tournament in 18 seasons he does have a 273-261 career record so we would be surprised if he did not at least end up with a solid assistant coaching spot if not a head coaching position in the near future.
5. Shabazz Muhammad, one of the top two recruits in this year’s class, has set his decision date for his college choice on April 10. The date is significant for a couple of reasons. The main one is that Signing Day is the next day and it is also the day the using the new conventional method that early entry applicants for the NBA Draft will have to announce their status. While Muhammad would appear to be a prize recruit, there are still questions about his eligibility with regards to his interaction with two independent financial advisers, who assisted him with unofficial visits and supported his AAU team.