1. You thought you could escape conference realignment. You thought it was over — that the rumors, speculation and wild theories were a thing of the past. And then we heard last week that Florida State may actually be considering a move to the Big 12 Conference. Yes, that Florida State, located in, um, Florida. Just for the sake of perspective, consider this: A car ride from Tallahassee to Ames would take 20 hours and nine minutes. This is far from a done deal, however. The Associated Press published an email by the university’s president earlier this week warning about unequal revenue sharing in the Big 12 and other potential drawbacks of a move. And some outsiders are also convinced FSU will stay put.
2. With West Virginia joining the league next year, Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg made an interesting point in an interview with the Quad City Times this week. We’ve focused a lot on the odd geographic fit for WVU, but what about the impact it may have on East Coast recruiting? As Hoiberg puts it: ““Playing West Virginia every year brings us closer to the players who call the East home. It’s an area we already work, but it will give us additional exposure with players on the East Coast. That can only be a benefit.” The impact is impossible to quantify, but Hoiberg may be on to something here.
3. Missouri may have left the Big 12, but the Border War rages on — only this time, in the political arena. Two legislators in the Missouri General Assembly are trying to stop Kansas from selling personalized Jayhawk license plates in the state of Missouri. The current legislative session ends Friday at 6 PM, so legislators won’t tackle this issue until the fall. But less than a week after passing a contentious budget for a state in major financial trouble, it seems a little silly for lawmakers to worry so much about this.
4. Bruce Weber‘s staff at Kansas State is starting to take shape. He has now hired Brad Korn as the new director of basketball operations. It may not seem like an important hire, but Korn brings a familiar face to his program after playing for Weber at Southern Illinois. He also served as an assistant under Chris Lowery there for several years. Lowery, of course, is now a fellow assistant under Weber at KSU.
5. Has Scott Drew found a late gem on the recruiting trail? He recently announced the signing of Taurean Waller-Prince, a 6’7” forward who came out of nowhere as a senior in high school. He’ll join the team immediately, bringing what Drew calls a “late-blooming talent” to Waco next season. It’ll be tough to find minutes for him, especially with fellow star freshmen Ricardo Gathers and Isaiah Austin likewise in the fold, but maybe that simply means Drew can bring him along in a low-pressure environment.

dnspewak (343 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2012 at 11:45 am by dnspewak and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: big 12, brad korn, bruce weber, florida state, fred hoiberg, iowa state, kansas, missouri, scott drew, taurean waller-prince, west virginia. 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.