John Calipari and his Kentucky Wildcats ended its traditional rivalry with Indiana this offseason because of squabbles over where the game would be played in future years. But as a whole, the SEC should strive to play at home if it is seeking victories. That is the goal, after all? While Kentucky’s stated goal is to prepare itself for the NCAA Tournament while playing in large neutral site arenas to simulate the experience of the Big Dance, the Wildcats and the rest of the SEC did very well in the comforts of home during the 2011-12 season. The NCAA released 2011-12 men’s basketball attendance numbers a couple of weeks ago, and the SEC was amongst the leaders. All twelve SEC teams finished in the  top 100 of men’s Division I attendance. Below is how each SEC team ranked in terms of overall attendance:

But as we all know, size matters, and some venues are larger than others. I broke each attendance figure down into the percentage of capacity filled over the course of the season:

Some notes thus far:

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1. With the ongoing changes to the landscape of college athletics it is often difficult to remember who is headed where and which conferences have ended up as the winners and losers in realignment. As usual, Luke Winn has proposed a solution by looking at how each conference’s overall strength has changed with the moves using data from KenPom. We can already see a certain segment of our readers beginning to twitch with that last sentence. As you would expect the biggest loser out of the major conferences is the Big East. Of course, there will be certain segments (probably the same ones that were already twitching) that will continue to believe that the overall strength of the conferences will not change even with all the movement.
2. Speaking of the Big East, do you remember that conference tournament that was held at Madison Square Garden and was one of the highlights of March? Yeah, not so much any more. Despite getting significantly weaker, there are some individuals in the Big East who are looking to expand its conference tournament to 18 teams. Outside of the logistical nightmare of trying to hold the Big East Tournament over six days in Madison Square Garden there is the even bigger nightmare of watching what could be the early-round play-in games for a significantly weakened conference. As it is some of the early-round games are sparsely attended by fans of schools who know their teams are mediocre at best. Can you imagine what it would look like with the worst Big East teams in those same spots? Yeah, we don’t want to either.
3. After a disastrous past few season Binghamton will be looking to head in a different direction as they are set to name Rider coach Tommy Dempsey as their next head coach. Dempsey, who grew up near Binghmaton, compiled a 119-105 record in seven seasons at Rider, which would be a big step up from the 23-70 that Mark Macon posted in three seasons at Binghamton including 2-29 last season. It is worth noting that despite his respectable overall record Dempsey has never taken Rider to the NCAA Tournament and last season his team had its fewest wins (13) since he took over since he took over as interim coach.
4. After last season’s Crosstown Shootout brawl, which we detailed from the scene, pundits from across the country weighed in on how the administrations from the two schools should handle the rivalry going forward. Yesterday, they revealed one part of their reaction–moving the game to a neutral site–and judging from the response we have heard the public does not appear to be buying into the move. Personally, we don’t understand this move. Outside of the symbolism of playing on a neutral court it seems like a pointless action since the same players will be on the court regardless of where they are and the same fans will be in the stands. If people want to act like idiots, they will do so regardless of which arena they are playing in.
5. We may not be fans of the decision to make the Crosstown Shootout a neutral site rivalry, but we are fans of the Crossroads Classic, which is held in the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Classic, which was started last year to pair the premier programs in the state of Indiana–Butler, Indiana, Notre Dame, and Purdue–against each other, has been extended for at least two more years. As we have stated before we are big fans of these type of match-ups and advocated for more in our Big Four State Tournament series last year. For some states like North Carolina where the premier programs are all located in the same conference it is not a major issues, but there are plenty of other states, which we identified where it would be a big boost to all the teams involved and more importantly would generate more interest in college basketball.

Let’s not be fooled by the Matt Gatens Show we all witnessed  at the end of the season. (Though, give credit where credit is due — he was fantastic.) This is a talented young club that is on the rise and has the potential to give some conference teams fits in the near future, given their fast-paced style of basketball in the rough-and-tumble Big Ten. But as good as this team was on the offensive end (third in the conference) it was even more dismal on the defensive end (last place). That discrepancy must improve for Iowa to have a shot at becoming a contender in the conference. Let’s take a look back at the year that was:

Matt Gatens was one of the Big Ten's best players down the stretch. (Andy Lyons, Getty Images)

• In a nutshell: Fran McCaffery‘s run-and-gun style of offense is really starting to take shape in Iowa City, where the Hawkeyes averaged 73 PPG, third only behind Ohio State and Indiana. It helped that the Hawkeyes led the conference in steals, but the wins didn’t add up in spite of the offense due to the dismal defense (allowing 72.5 PPG). Gatens, who worked his way onto the All-Big Ten Third Team thanks to his team-best 15.7 PPG and late-season spurt, did all he could. He got some help from promising sophomores Melsahn Basabe and Roy Devyn Marble, who are sure to be key pieces in the future.
• Overachievement: The Big Ten had absolutely no shortage of impact freshmen (see Trey Burke, Cody Zeller, Branden Dawson, et al) but Aaron White was a somewhat unexpected yet consistent force for Iowa. He averaged 10.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game as a newcomer and, in a few more years, could definitely show Big Ten Player of the Year-type talent. He was rated by Rivals as just a three-star recruit out of high school, but showed his big-game mettle by scoring 47 points in Iowa’s two NIT games. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2012 NBA Draft is scheduled for Thursday, June 28, in New York City. As we have done for the last several years, RTC’s team of writers (including Andrew Murawa, Kevin Doyle, Evan Jacoby, Matt Patton, and Danny Spewak) will provide comprehensive breakdowns of each of the 35 collegians most likely to hear his name called by David Stern in the first round on draft night. We’ll work backwards, starting with players who are projected near the end of the first round before getting into the lottery as June progresses. As an added bonus, we’ll also bring you a scouting take from NBADraft.net’s Aran Smith at the bottom of each player evaluation.

Note: Click here for all published 2012 NBA Draft profiles.

Player Name: Kevin Jones

School: West Virginia

Height/Weight: 6’8” / 250 lbs.

NBA Position: Power Forward / Small Forward

Projected Draft Range: End First Round / Early Second Round

Kevin Jones is a Fiery Competitor That Had a Great Career at West Virginia (Getty Images/J. McIsaac)

Overview: Kevin Jones enjoyed a decorated four-year career at West Virginia that included a run to the Final Four as a sophomore and ended with a phenomenal senior season in terms of productivity. This past year, Jones led the Big East in scoring (19.9 PPG) and rebounding (10.9 RPG) while shooting over 50% from the field and committing just 1.3 turnovers per game. He was one of the most productive forwards in the country and helped his draft stock tremendously. Jones remains a bit of a ‘tweener’ without a set position and is limited athletically in terms of explosiveness, but he has a strong upper body and an impressive wingspan (7’4”) that allows him to get easy buckets in the paint. Combine that with a relentless motor for loose balls and you’ve got a player willing to do all the dirty work on offense. He’s also expanded his range all the way to the three-point line and has gained confidence in the outside shot. Jones still has much work to do defensively, where he averaged just 1.0 blocks and 0.7 steals in 38 minutes per game, but his length and work ethic should allow him to hold his own at the next level on that end. Jones is the typical senior with limited ‘upside’ that will get him overlooked by some teams, but his tremendous productivity last season certainly opened eyes to his potential to be a contributor in the NBA.

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

Sports fans worldwide recognize The Michigan ‘Fab Five’ team from 1992 and 1993 as one of the most talented and fascinating teams in college hoops history, but 20 years later, the Ann Arbor university wants no part of the infamy. The Fab Five comprised a starting lineup of all freshmen (before it was in vogue) and became famous in equal parts for its revolutionary style, brashness and incomprehensible talent.  Those two, along with four other Wolverines teams in the 90s, were erased from the NCAA history books thanks to admissions of players accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from recruiting booster Ed Martin. In addition, Michigan received a 10-year penalty from the NCAA requiring disassociation from the guilty players and teams, leading to the removal of the ’92 and ’93 Final Four banners from the Crisler Center. That ban will end in 2013, but the news from over the weekend is that the university doesn’t plan on doing anything about it. Despite an upswell of support, there are currently no plans to re-hang the Final Four banners or recognize anything from the Fab Five era, a decision that’s clearly irked the former players but one that makes a lot of sense from a publicity standpoint. The stance taken by UM upholds the school’s integrity, and it knows that all sports fans will regardless still remember the Fab Five.

The Fab Five Will be Remembered Forever, Even if Michigan's Crisler Center Says Otherwise (Detroit Free Press photo)

No vacation of wins, removal of banners, or lack of contact with former players is going to cause college basketball fans to forget about the Fab Five era. Even Wolverine recruits who were not yet born when Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, and company changed the college game in the fall of 1991 are aware of the Fab Five and its legacy. This is something that UM administrators fully understand and can take advantage of when handling the issue of historical recognition. Continuing to withhold association with the Fab Five teams on campus in Ann Arbor sends a strong message, and yet it will never erase the great memories from those teams in the eyes of fans worldwide. “What happened was not good, and I don’t think they’ll ever go back up. I don’t,” said Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman in reference to the vacated banners. And why should she feel any differently?

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1. Yesterday, long-time Pacific coach Bob Thomason announced that he would retire following the upcoming season. Those on the East Coast may not be familiar with Thomason’s work, but he has compiled a remarkable record during his time at Pacific. During his quarter century at the school Thomason led the school to four NCAA Tournament appearances while picking up 414 wins, a record for the Big West Conference. His career probably peaked with opening round wins in the 2004 and 2005 NCAA Tournament against Providence and Pittsburgh, respectively. We doubt that this will get much coverage during the season outside of possibly a brief mention on SportsCenter after his last game, but if you are watching Big West basketball next season take a moment to check out Thomason and his Pacific team.
2. Those who are weary of the dominance of a certain Worldwide Leader in college basketball will be pleased to hear that some of the regular season games previously televised on ESPN’s family of networks will now be on CBS Sports starting this coming season. After reaching an agreement with ESPN, CBS Sports will have the right to broadcast games from the ACC, Big 12, and Pac-12 with a total of 20 games growing to 26 games during the following seasons as well as the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship and the Missouri Valley Championship Game for the duration of the agreement (the duration of the agreement was not disclosed). Although ESPN still is the leader in college basketball coverage with its near monopoly on regular season coverage, CBS Sports in conjunction with Turner Sports is making a strong push in adding to its exclusive coverage of the NCAA Tournament. With these moves it will be interesting to see if CBS Sports is able to poach some of ESPN’s top analysts with the promise of more high-profile games.
3. Georgetown picked up a big commitment yesterday when junior small forward Stephen Domingo committed to play for the school in the 2013-14 season. Domingo, a top-30 recruit in the class of 2013 and an all-state player in California, chose Georgetown over a long list of schools that included offers from Arizona, UCLA, Stanford, Harvard, and Louisville. In the end, Domingo decided that the Hoya system provided him with the best opportunity to showcase his versatility and “develop into an outstanding basketball player and an outstanding young man”. Hoya fans are probably celebrating the addition now, but we should point out that there is a lot of time left before Domingo or any other player in his class can sign and a lot can change during that time so we wouldn’t go Sharpie on this one just yet.
4. The sudden departure of Terrell Stoglin left Maryland with a big hole in its backcourt heading into the upcoming season, but they may have found a reasonable replacement in the form of Albany tranfer Logan Aronhalt, who averaged 13.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game last season. Aronhalt, who will be able to play immediately for the Terrapins after graduating with a degree in December, will have to answer questions about his athleticism after multiple knee injuries and chronic pain caused him to see limited playing time at the end of Albany’s season (26 minutes in its final seven games). However, he can provide them with veteran leadership and savvy as they try to navigate a difficult stretch to begin the season on a roster laden with younger players and an injured starting point guard (Pe’Shon Howard). At the very least, he should be able to provide the younger players with a role model and ease their transition into the college game.
5. Syracuse fans waiting to get a look at their next coach (whenever Jim Boeheim decides to retire) will get a chance when Mike Hopkins acts as a co-coach of the USA Basketball Select Team that will play the US Olympic Team in its training camp. Hopkins along with former Toronto Raptors coach Jay Triano will coach a team that includes Kyrie Irving, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and several other well-known younger players against whatever team the US assembles for its defense of the Olympic gold medal in London. While Hopkins will not get to coach any of the players he recruited or coached at Syracuse, he will have a very interested onlooker from the other sideline in Senior National Team assistant coach Jim Boeheim.

The NBA Draft is scheduled for Thursday, June 28, in New York City. As we have done for the last several years, RTC’s team of writers (including Andrew Murawa, Kevin Doyle, Evan Jacoby, Matt Patton, and Danny Spewak) will provide comprehensive breakdowns of each of the 35 collegians most likely to hear his name called by David Stern in the first round on draft night. We’ll generally work backwards, so for the next week or two we’ll present you with players who are projected near the end of the first round, and we’ll work our way up into the lottery as June progresses. As an added bonus, we’ll also bring you a scouting take from NBADraft.net’s Aran Smith at the bottom of each player evaluation.

Note: Click here for all published 2012 NBA Draft profiles.

Player Name: Darius Miller

School: Kentucky

Height/Weight: 6’8”/235 lbs.

NBA Position: Small Forward

Projected Draft Range: Second Round

The "Senior Citizen" of the Wildcats Was an Integral Part of the Championship

Overview: Miller is one of those increasingly rare breeds: an NBA Draft prospect who has just finished up his senior season in college. In his four years in Lexington, Miller never approached the level of a go-to player (the 18.8% of possessions he used in his senior season was the highest of his career), but that may be one of his biggest strengths. Playing alongside NBA-level talent for four straight seasons, his proven unselfishness is one of his most positive attributes. He understood well what role head coach John Calipari wanted him to play and did his best to excel within that framework — he defended on the perimeter, knocked down open shots and took care of business. And, perhaps more than anything else, he won. In four years, his teams went 124-28 (with half of those losses coming as a freshman under Billy Gillispie), went to two Final Fours and won a national title. While he’s certainly not the first guy you think of when you remember the 2012 UK national championship team, his ability to embrace his role not only was a key component of his team’s success, but it will suit him well as he makes the transition to the NBA. His future at the professional level may look much like his recent past, as he will likely never be better than the fourth or fifth option on the floor at any given time, but if he can knock down open looks and hold his own on defense, he’s got a chance to stick.

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1. Over the past few weeks we had mentioned players transferring to new schools, but thanks to the NCAA requiring most players to sit out a year before being eligible to play most of those individuals will not be able to don their new uniforms any time soon. If you are looking for the new transfers who will be in uniform next season, Andy Glockner takes a look at the ten biggest impact transfers for next season. Most of these names will be familiar to college basketball fans, but we suspect that many of you may have forgotten about one or two of the m during their season waiting to be eligible.
2. Details on the night club fight involving a Cincinnati basketball player (or more than one) are sparse right now, but we have our first punishment as the school dismissed Octavius Ellis from its basketball team. Fortunately for Ellis that appears to be the extent of his punishment as the school also stated that no formal charges will be filed. It appears the school dodged a bullet on this one as any arrests would have been a big blow for a program that has dealt with behavioral issues well before the events of this past season’s Crosstown Shootout. In the end, they will lose Ellis, a solid, but undistinguished high school recruit and his on-court production was marginal at best (25 minutes all year after injuring his hand). Given the fact that his biggest moment as a Bearcat was his involvement in the Crosstown Shootout brawl resulting in a six-game suspension we do not think they will miss him too much.
3. We are not exactly sure why a report from last year is getting noticed now, but on Saturday The New York Times ran a piece on the 2010 College Racial and Gender Report Card and it appears to have generated some discussion despite the original analysis being published on March 3, 2011. The basic parts of the report (college basketball has more minorities working as head coaches than other sports, but having a declining percentage) are not particularly noteworthy especially since we already know about them. The part that may be more interesting is the numbers of African-American coaches in the SEC (7) versus the rest of the BCS conferences combined (11). It is possible that this is just a transient phase, but given the stereotypes applied to that part of the country by other regions it is cause for some interesting quotes by well-known individuals.
4. Looking forward to seeing what mid-major powers Creighton and Murray State can do next season against the BCS powers? You may be out of luck as the two schools are having difficulty finding opponents willing to play them during the upcoming season. For teams from major conferences there is relatively little benefit in playing these schools as they can already rack up quality wins against teams within their own conference and without the potential “embarrassment” of losing to a mid-major even if it is one of the better teams in the country. Throw in the nightmare of having to contend with a preseason All-American and you have a match-up that almost no opponent wants.
5. Many of our readers will have no idea who Bob Boozer was (no, he was not the father of former Duke star Carlos), but historians of the game will remember the former Kansas State star who was the #1 pick of the 1959 NBA Draft, a two-time 1st team All-American, and a member of the famous 1960 US Olympic team. Boozer passed away on Saturday following a brain aneurysm. Although his season-high points per game average of 25.2 points per game was topped by Michael Beasley in Beasley’s only season there you could make a very strong case for Boozer as the greatest Kansas State player of all-time. Not only did he achieve the individual accomplishments we listed above, but he also led the team to the 1958 Final Four and in 1959 led them to the #1 ranking in the final regular season poll before losing in the Elite Eight to Cincinnati and some guy named Oscar Robertson. It may be of interesting to fans that Boozer’s coach at the time was Tex Winter, who refined his Triple-Post Offense (later known as the Triangle Offense) at Kansas State before eventually passing it on to Phil Jackson who utilized it with a pair of accomplished guards–Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

1. Not only do rosters begin to solidify this time of year, but coaching staffs do as well. Washington State made a big change earlier in the week by demoting assistant coach Jeff Hironaka. As the article points out, Hironaka has seemed close to landing a head coaching job somewhere around the nation the past couple years. His ability to teach and develop players made him one of the top basketball IQ assistants in the conference, but weaknesses in recruiting led to his eventual demotion to the title of director of player development and special assistant to the head coach. With the move solely motivated by recruiting, head coach Ken Bone will look to add an assistant in the coming weeks that has recruiting contacts around the country. Hironaka can no longer recruit off-campus or give instruction during games, but his salary will remain the same.
2. Sticking on the Palouse, the Cougars learned on Thursday that center Richard Peters out of Westwind Prep International did not qualify academically to make it to Washington State, and will instead pursue a junior college. However, this did not come with much surprise to the Cougar coaching staff. In anticipation of Peters not qualifying, Bone signed a pair of transfer centers in Jordan Railey and James Hunter in recent weeks. In addition to Railey and Hunter, signees for next season include guard Demarquise Johnson and forwards Richard Longrus and Brett Boese.
3. Oregon State received great news earlier this week when it received an signed letter of intent from small forward Victor Robbins. Robbins was not pursued hard by the Beavers until after Jared Cunningham announced he would forgo his senior season, but the three-star out of Compton High saw a hole to fill and decided to spurn offers from Gonzaga, Washington, and Georgia. Robbins will be the first in line to fill the small forward/shooting guard role left by Cunningham, and his signing will free up shooting guard Roberto Nelson to work solely on his shot this summer.
4. Robbins and the rest of the Beavers will start the 2012-13 season a little early by taking a summer trip to Spain and France. The trip will take place August 18-28, but most importantly the Beavers will receive 10 additional practices before flying to Europe. Those will be huge as the Beavers add four new players to this year’s roster (small forwards Robbins, Langston Morris-Walker, Jarmal Reid, and center Maika Ostling), along with a pair of players (forward Daniel Gomis and guard Michael Moyer) who sat out the 2011-12 season. One player who won’t be making the trip is forward Rhys Murphy. Murphy requested and was granted a release from his scholarship, and while he intends to graduate from Oregon State, he is reportedly “exploring his options”. The move is an odd one as Murphy was in line to get solid minutes this season. Oregon State’s last foreign trip came prior to the 2007-08 season, when the Beavers traveled to Italy and posted a 2-2 record. Prior to the 2002-03 season, former head coach Jay John led Oregon State to a 4-1 record in Australia in his first year with team. This season, the Beavers plan to several games against “very good teams” according to head coach Craig Robinson. In addition to the basketball, Robinson says “We are hoping that we can get a nice sort of team-bonding experience out of it, as well as some cultural nuances that the guys can look back on as great memories.” The Beavers have been known to incorporate basketball road trips with cultural/educational experiences, as last season the Beavers visited New York City and Washington D.C. in the middle of an 11-day East Coast trip.
5. In other scheduling news, Arizona State will be playing real, official basketball games in the 2012 Las Vegas Invitational. The other seven teams in the field are Creighton, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Florida A&M, Cornell, Presbyterian, and Longwood. Before all eight teams head to Vegas, the four small/mid-major schools will play a pair of games at the four power conference teams. While in Vegas, the four lower schools will play a two-round tournament, as will the four power conference teams. The only known game for the Sun Devils so far is that Cornell will be traveling to Wells Fargo arena for one of the regional games. Cornell will also travel to Wisconsin.

Our apologies for plagiarizing borrowing the ideas of our colleagues over at the Pac-12 microsite, but we liked their post-mortem team breakdowns so much that we decided to replicate them with our conference. So over the course of the next two weeks, we will break down each team’s season, starting from the bottom of the conference standings. Next up is Pittsburgh.

What Went Wrong

For a team that began the season in most pundits’ Top 10, it wouldn’t be a stretch to call Pittsburgh’s season an unmitigated disaster, especially given the consistent high level of play we have grown accustomed to from Jamie Dixon’s teams. It started with a casual loss to Long Beach State at home in the third game of the season, and after a disappointing loss to Wagner a month later, the free fall began. Shortly after the loss to The Beach, star point guard and offensive catalyst Travon Woodall got hurt and missed the next two months of the season.

The Sudden Departure Of Prized Recruit Khem Birch Early In The Season Was Only The Beginning Of The Problems For Jamie Dixon's Club.

Two weeks later, prized freshman Khem Birch left the program just as he was showing signs of putting it together and blasted his teammates on the way out. Forced to play the point position with Woodall out, star guard Ashton Gibbs suffered through the worst shooting season of his career and neither Talib Zanna nor Dante Taylor developed into the consistent post threat Dixon had hoped for. The most obvious reason for their decline was the sudden absence of defensive intensity from the Panthers. They had never finished worse than 53rd nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency under Dixon. This season they finished 151st in the category. If you are looking for what went wrong, that is a good place to start.

What Went Right

To be fair, the team did go through a mini-resurgence down the stretch, but it was too little too late. The emergence of Woodall as a multi-faceted scorer and distributor was a blessing and he should be even better next year assuming he stays healthy. Senior workhorse Nasir Robinson was his ultra-efficient self, and increased playing time for sophomores Lamar Patterson and J.J. Moore helped them become effective role players who will be counted on to play an even bigger role next season. he number one bright spot for folks on the Main Line was the emergence of Pinkston in conference play. I guess if you want to count winning the College Basketball Invitational Championship as an honor, then you can add that to the list of what went right. To be clear, we don’t count that.

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