1. We suspected that Fab Melo would be leaving Syracuse as soon as it was announced that he was declared academically ineligible just before the NCAA Tournament, but yesterday it became official with the announcement that Melo had signed with an agent. Of course, the next question on the minds of Syracuse fans (especially Ryan Burr)  was how this would affect their recruitment of Nerlens Noel, who had narrowed his list down to Syracuse, Kentucky, and Georgetown. It turns out that Noel was at least interested in the news. We are not sure what this means for his decision other than the fact that the three fan bases will certainly overanalyze it. We are sort of surprised that Syracuse had not already sent him a message or other form of communication indicating that there was now a big hole in the middle for him to occupy next season.
2. After a one-year hiatus from the sidelines, Keno Davis will be back coaching as he was named the new head coach at Central Michigan. Davis, who went 46-50 overall and 18-36 in three seasons at Providence, inherits the program from Ernie Zeigler, who was fired last month. Not only will Davis have to turn around a struggling program. He will also have to do it without Trey Zeigler, Ernie’s son who was granted a release from the program after his father’s firing. It may take Davis a while to turn things around but hopefully the administration remembers that Davis was very successful in his one season at Drake going 28-5 in his one season at the school.
3. John Groce‘s task of turning around the Illinois program got a little harder yesterday when Meyers Leonard announced that he was entering the NBA Draft. The sophomore center is expected to be a borderline lottery pick so it seems like a reasonable choice for the talented big man instead of waiting to see how he fits into a new coach’s system. The Illini now find themselves with a big hole in the middle and that will likely delay any turnaround that Illini fans were hoping for in the next year or two.
4. It looks like the initial reports on Alex Oriakhi‘s “list” were erroneous as the Connecticut transfer is currently considering Duke, North Carolina, Missouri, Kentucky, and Xavier. The original reports that came out when Oriakhi was released that he would not consider Duke, which always seemed strange to us, but perhaps after reconsidering the situation and the potential departure of several key players for the Blue Devils it appears like Oriakhi is considering them again. As we have said despite only being available for one more year of eligibility Oriakhi should be one of the most coveted transfers on the market given his skill set, size, and championship experience.
5. Remember that big push for a stipend for players to help cover some of their cost of living expenses? The decision on the stipend is getting pushed back as the NCAA reevaluates it due to significant dissension among the member schools. The committee that is working on the policy will not be done with its work until August at which point the member schools can consider adopting it or rejecting it. Based on our understanding of how this rule was implemented the athletes who signed while this rule was in place are still eligible for the stipend, but the rest who waited are not until the committee puts it back in place.

nvr1983 (1398 Posts)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 at 5:00 am by nvr1983 and is filed under morning 5, Regular Features. Tagged: alex oriakhi, central michigan, connecticut, duke, fab melo, georgetown, illinois, keno davis, kentucky, meyers leonard, missouri, Nerlens Noel, north carolina, syracuse, uconn, unc, xavier. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.