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: Tyshawn Taylor

School: Kansas

Height/Weight: 6’3”, 185 pounds

NBA Position: Point guard

Projected Draft Range: Late First Round/Early Second Round

Tyshawn Taylor Enjoyed a Redemptive Senior Season at KU

Overview: After three years of inconsistent play, off-the-court issues, and a general lack of maturity, Tyshawn Taylor finally grew up as a senior. Racking up All-America and All-Big 12 accolades in the process, Taylor emerged as the unquestioned veteran leader of Kansas last season and helped a team with little depth reach the Final Four in New Orleans. Prior to his senior season, though, Taylor defined the word “enigma” in college basketball. Nobody ever doubted his physical talent or his playmaking abilities, but his attitude seemed questionable. He made headlines as a sophomore for his role in a fight with the football team, and Bill Self suspended him as a junior for unspecified violations of team rules. But Taylor left all of that negative press behind him as a senior. By the time the Jayhawks faced off with Kentucky in the title game, Taylor had cemented himself as one of the top point guards in college basketball. Fans could laugh at his alarming turnover rate all they wanted, but there was no denying this guy had a gift for taking games over and finding ways to get Thomas Robinson and the rest of the crew involved. Taylor left Lawrence with four outright Big 12 titles, three trips to the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend, and a Final Four appearance. Not bad for a guy who once dislocated his thumb punching players on the football team.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. ESPN released its most recent class recruiting rankings yesterday. The top three is about what you would except for the fact that it is shocking to see Kentucky and John Calipari ranked anything, but #1 in any recruiting rankings. If Big Blue Nation is looking for an explanation for this blasphemy, the guys at ESPN have offered up an explanation for you. Other than that nothing really jumps out at us other than Duke coming in at #11 with just two commits in this year’s recruiting class.
2. In the latest chapter of the ongoing conference realignment drama, Old Dominion announced that it was leaving the Colonial Athletic Association for Conference USA starting with the 2013-14 season. The article on the school’s site briefly mentions it, but the real issue here is football as the school was looking to make a move to the Division I level and moving to Conference USA was the easiest way. For the CAA this is a huge blow coming on the heels of Virginia Commonwealth‘s defection and they may be forced to poach some teams from another conference to remain viable. However, as is often the case in these situations, the conference also has a way to get back at the school with some punitive measures and can ban Old Dominion from participating in future CAA championship events (like the conference basketball tournament).
3. When Delvon Roe announced before the start of last season that he was retiring due to degenerative knee pain to pursue a career in acting we suspected that he would find a measure of success in that new field, but we did not expect it to come so quickly and to such a high degree. Roe’s feature film debut in “Love and Honor” was shown at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday. Now we are not exactly film connoisseurs, but getting your movie shown at Cannes even if it is not as the leading actor in the film seems like a pretty big role. At least that’s the way it seemed in Entourage.
4. In one of the more bizarre administrative moves we have seen in a while Southern Methodist fired Steve Orcini as its athletic director just weeks after made one of the biggest coaching moves of the offseason by hiring Larry Brown to be its next head coach. The decision was reportedly based on continuing disagreements between Orcini and the school’s president. We are not sure what finally led to the decision being made, but it is not a good sign for Brown or the basketball program even though we doubt it was related to Brown or his hiring. If the program is not stable enough to keep its athletic director through a transition period like this, you have to figure there are some issues within the athletic department and the university itself. Of course, there is also the issue of the three years remaining on Orsini’s contract so the school has some things it needs to work out before it gets to dealing with its 71 year-old coach.
5. If you thought that the media circus surrounding the attempts of several schools the block transfers of players to others schools would lead to a change in the transfer rules, you may be disappointed. While almost all of the individuals associated with the NCAA and schools that were willing to go on record seem to support the idea of letting student-athletes move more freely it seems like making that a reality will be difficult for a number of reasons. Our feeling are basically mirrored by this comments in this article and although it is unfortunate we do not expect to see any movement on this topic in the next few years.

1. Kentucky missed out on a pair of the blue-chip forwards left in the recruiting period, Anthony Bennett and Amile Jefferson so now it appears that they will attempt to land Montrezl Harrell, who will be leaving Virginia Tech before even playing a game. Harrell committed to the Hokies before they let go of Seth Greenberg. Despite attempts by the school to change Harrell’s mind and keep him with the program, they eventually granted Harrell his release allowing him to explore his options.
2. Additionally on the Kentucky revolving-door roster situation, earlier in the week, the Wildcats landed one-year transfer Julius Mays from Wright State. May started his career at North Carolina State, where he averaged around five points per game over his two seasons. In one year at Wright State, he averaged 14.1 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. Mays will be able to play for the Wildcats next season as he is set to graduate from Wright State after the Spring semester and will enroll in a graduate program at Kentucky.
3. Kentucky maintained its place atop the college basketball attendance figures, leading the nation in average attendance for the seventh straight year (and 16th time in the previous 17 years). From the CBSSports.com article on the achievement, “Kentucky also set an single-season record for overall fans-per-game, as the team’s 22,148 number for its 40 games came out to a total of 885,953 fans. The previous record? Held by Syracuse, of course. The Orangemen saw 855,053 fans flock to their games back in 1989.”
4. Mike Anderson bolstered Arkansas’s non-conference slate as the Razorbacks will be part of the 2012 Las Vegas Invitational. The field includes Wisconsin, Arizona State, and Creighton. While Arizona State probably will still continue to struggle, the other two members of the field will be solid even if they are adjusting to the loss of some significant senior leadership in their backcourt.
5. With most of the uncommitted recruits making their decisions in the past week, some SEC schools still hold out hope they may land the top available prospect, Devonta Pollard from DeKalb, Mississippi. According to The Sporting News, three SEC schools remain in the mix as “he is believed to be down to Texas and Alabama but hasn’t ruled out Mississippi State, Missouri or Georgetown.”

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.

Player Name:  Scott Machado 

School:  Iona

Height/Weight: 6’1 “, 180 lbs. 

NBA Position: Point Guard 

Projected Draft Range: Early to Mid-Second Round

Machado Was One of the Best Mid-Major Players in America Last Season (AP)

Overview:  If Kevin Willard has one regret in leaving Iona to take the head coaching job at Seton Hall, it is that he only had the opportunity to coach Scott Machado for two years. While Willard set the foundation for success at Iona and for Machado, his successor Tim Cluess enabled him to run rampant in his up-tempo offensive system. Predicated on a heady point guard who sees the floor exceptionally well, Machado flourished. Everyone remembers the monumental collapse Iona suffered against BYU in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, but lest we forget the 15 points and 10 assists Machado also had against the Cougars. In his first true game on the national stage, Machado comported himself wonderfully. (Tim Cluess’ defensive coaching abilities? Not so much.) As a junior, Machado averaged 7.6 APG — nearly doubling his total from his sophomore season — and then as a senior he led the nation in assists with 10 per game. For his first three seasons, Machado was seen primarily as a solid distributor with inconsistent scoring ability. Although he averaged 12.5 and 13.2 PPG in his sophomore and junior years, respectively, his shooting percentages hovered right around 40% from the floor and 30% from beyond the arc. The strides Machado made with his shot during his senior year — 50% from the field, 40% from three, and 81% from the stripe — will no doubt pay dividends come draft day. More than anything, Machado is seemingly always in total control on offense and when handling the basketball. Poor decisions and ill-advised shots are rare occurrences, and when judging a point guard, these are two of the best attributes one can possess. Machado will carry on the tradition of strong point guards to come out of New York City — Queens, specifically — and the first to hail from Iona since Steve Burtt, Sr.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Who’s Got Next? is a weekly column by Josh Paunil, the RTC recruiting guru. We encourage you to check out his website dedicated solely to college basketball recruiting, National Recruiting Spotlight, for more detailed recruiting information. Once a week he will bring you an overview of what’s going on in the complex world of recruiting, from who is signing where among the seniors to who the hot prospects are at the lower levels of the sport. If you have any suggestions as to areas we are missing or different things you would like to see, please let us know at rushthecourt@yahoo.com.

Lead Story: Amile Jefferson, Top Unsigned Prospect Left, Commits To Duke

Amile Jefferson Committed To Duke over Kentucky, Ohio State, N.C. State And Villanova. (ESPN)

Blue Devils Add A Second McDonald’s All-American. It has been a long time coming, but Class of 2012 power forward Amile Jefferson finally committed Tuesday when he chose Duke over Kentucky, Ohio State, NC State and Villanova. The Philadelphia native joins fellow McDonald’s All-American shooting guard Rasheed Sulaimon as the only two commits for Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski in the Class of 2012. The 6’9″, 197-pound big man has had a long, drawn-out recruitment and has had more timetables than Class of 2012 power forward Tony Parker had speakers at his hour-long commitment ceremony when he chose UCLA. However, you can’t completely blame the two-time Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year since Duke chased after him throughout his sophomore year then cooled down to recruit other big men and then decided on turning their attention back to Jefferson after missing out on higher-ranked targets during the early signing period. Now that he’s finally a Blue Devil, Jefferson is a huge get for two reasons. Not only is he a quality player who can give Duke solid minutes next year and then become a major contributor after that, but he was the best option to try to fill their need of a big man. Jefferson is a versatile forward who has a great combination of athleticism, length and quickness but he can also rebound well. He will definitely have to add strength once he gets to Durham but he’s a very good pick-up for Coach K this late in the process.

What They’re Saying

• Senior star Anthony Bennett on choosing UNLV: “I felt a great relationship with the coaches. I went to a lot of games at UNLV and it felt like a second home. The fans at UNLV came to a lot of my games. They’re very passionate about their Rebels and they’ve been very supportive to me.” Read the rest of this entry »

1. The schedule for the 2012 Big Ten/ACC Challenge has been released. Ohio State at Duke and North Carolina at Indiana seem to be the most intriguing match-ups during this annual tradition between the conferences. In an era of constant conference realignment, this challenge still garners national attention and is one of the best non-conference events of the entire college basketball season.
2. Michigan State’s Derrick Nix has been sentenced to community service for his recent charge of driving while impaired. Tom Izzo has reinstated him onto the team but will need Nix to be a mature leader next season after the departure of senior All-American Draymond Green. Nix and Adreian Payne have the post moves in the paint to complement the guard play of Keith Appling and Branden Dawson next season, which makes Michigan State once again one of the favorites to win the regular season.
3. Speaking of Tom Izzo, Michael Rosenberg believes that the Michigan State head coach could be a potential candidate to take over USA Basketball after Coach K steps down following the London Olympics. Izzo certainly has the basketball acumen and his leadership abilities are impeccable, which makes him an excellent candidate to take over the team. The Big Ten would have a great representative at the national stage if Izzo does succeed Coach K into the head coaching position.
4. It is never too late to go back to school, the saying goes. To that end, Hall Of Fame coach Don Nelson finished his degree at the University of Iowa after 50 years away from campus. He was eight credits shy of a degree, which he finished over the last few months now that he’s retired after winning 1,335 games in the NBA.  Nelson started his career at Iowa in 1959 and was selected to the All-American team twice before he left Iowa City and began a half-century career in the pro game.
5. Nebraska head coach Tim Miles signed a seven-year contract that will pay him $1.4 million annually and $2.15 million in the 2018-19 season. The contract is the longest and richest in the history of Nebraska basketball, and Miles has a tough task of meeting expectations of leading the Huskers to NCAA Tournament appearances over the next few seasons. Athletic Director Tom Osborne has made it clear that Nebraska is committed to building a good basketball program to complement its football history, and this contract certainly indicates that the program may be on the right track.

The 2013 NCAA Tournament will be a milestone, marking the 75^th all-time ‘Big Dance’ since Oregon won the first one in 1939. A lot has changed over the years, and it’s much harder to win the Tournament in its current 68-team format than it was for the Ducks in a total field of just eight schools then. In “a concerted effort to include cities with a rich history to help mark the milestone,” according to the new VP of NCAA Championships, Mark Lewis, the committee selected Washington, D.C. as the final host of the 2013 Regionals. The nation’s capital joins previously selected Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Arlington, Texas, as the four regional locations, with Atlanta hosting next year’s Final Four. The Verizon Center in DC has played host to several classic tournament games in recent history, and the NCAA hopes to recreate that magic next year.

George Mason Provided Fireworks in Washington, D.C. in 2006 (Washington Post)

“In the end, we think celebrating 75 years of one of the country’s favorite sporting events in our nation’s capital and a great basketball city is fitting,” said Lewis, whose committee’s decision came down to Syracuse, Brooklyn, Madison Square Garden (Manhattan), and the District of Columbia. It would have seemed fitting for MSG, the “World’s Most Famous Arena,” to have won on this criteria of rich history, but the arena faced scheduling conflicts with its priority tenants, the Knicks (NBA) and Rangers (NHL). The Verizon Center, while not nearly as historic a venue, is a more frequently-used arena for college games, serving as the primary home court for Georgetown and hosting a number of other games such as the BB&T Classic. The Hoyas will be the official host of this site and as such will be unable to play in that venue during next season’s Tourney.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Keep moving along. Nothing to see here. That was the stance of ACC commissioner John Swofford on Wednesday in reference to the earth-rumblings regarding Florida State’s rather public dalliance with the Big 12. Taking part in the ACC spring meetings in Amelia Island, Florida, this week, Swofford said that he had spoken with FSU president Eric Barron there and had enjoyed several “positive” conversations which clearly leads him to believe that the Tallahassee school is sticking around. Public statements from officials in positions of power are virtually meaningless these days — especially when it comes to this topic — but we really don’t see Florida State leaving the ACC for a few million dollars when they’d be ceding so much of their existing power to Texas as a result.
2. Better late than never, but the NCAA announced yesterday that Washington, DC, would become the site of the 2013 East Regional during next year’s NCAA Tournament. Usually the regionals are well settled at this point in time, but reports suggest that the NCAA ran into contractual issues trying to lock up Madison Square Garden (or another NYC-area site) for next year’s tournament. The Verizon Center in downtown DC has served as an NCAA Tournament site several times in the previous decade, and its convenient location built on top of a Metro station makes getting to and from the venue a snap. The other three regional sites in 2013, which have been settled for some time now, are the Staples Center in Los Angeles (West), Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas (South), and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis (Midwest). Where are you headed?
3. How much is an elite college basketball head coach worth? USA Today reported on Wednesday that Duke legend Mike Krzyzewski was paid $7.2 million by the university for his work in the calendar year 2010. According to their research, Coach K’s total compensation that year represents the second-highest total by a head coach (basketball or football) since the publication started tracking the figures in 2006 (Rick Pitino earned $8.9 million in 2010-11). K’s total in 2010, where he no doubt met a number of incentives for winning the national championship, blew his $2.0 million base salary up to nearly four times that amount. When you add in Krzyzewski’s corporate sponsorships to that total, you begin to see that the Duke head coach is competitive with some of the sport’s best-paid athletes in terms of compensation.
4. While on the subject of Krzyzewski, he announced earlier this week that this summer’s Olympic Games in London would be his last as the head coach of Team USA. There’s no question that Coach K has accomplished a couple of important things as the CEO of the men’s national team. First and foremost, he used his otherworldly player management and motivational skills to encourage (at the time) very young players like LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul to play together and win a gold medal as a selfless unit (both in the Beijing Olympics and the 2010 World Championships). This was no easy task, as the 2008 Redeem Team earned its name after the disastrous bronze medal performance in Athens from the 2004 team. The second thing he was able to do was to satisfy his appetite for coaching the very best players in the world, something that he had flirted with a couple of times previously. This allowed him to stay in his rightful place in college basketball at Duke where he belongs, rather than moving to the NBA for a certainly less-fulfilling experience. Gregg Doyel writes that Coach K was able to do something that not even NCAA/NBA champion Larry Brown could do — keep world-class professional athletes hungry and motivated — and he questions whether the next guy is likely to do the same in 2016.
5. Former Syracuse assistant coach Bernie Fine’s wife, Laurie Fine, announced at a press conference on Wednesday that she will sue ESPN for libel based on the organization’s reporting that (she claims) made her appear as a monster who allowed her husband to molest children. Fine said during the presser that her life has been “ruined” by these allegations to the point where she can no longer go out in public anywhere in central New York. ESPN came out with a response immediately afterward stating that they stand by their reporting. One of the interesting questions that will help define the course of this claim is whether Fine is considered a “public” personality as the wife of the former SU assistant coach. Public figures face a much more difficult threshold to prove libelous claims against them, whereas private figures stand a much better chance. We won’t speculate on how this case might turn out, but the validity of her entire claim may turn on that argument.

1. Our long national nightmare may be nearing an end. No, the unemployment numbers still are bad (even with the fudging), but we may have seen the end of those atrocious and dangerous tournament sponsor stickers. After several near-misses and plenty of angry comments from players and coaches the NCAA has given a recommendation to the Playing Rules Oversight Committee that it should use a consistent surface (read: no stickers) for the sake of player safety. Coaches have offered several solutions including even wearing stickers of sponsors themselves to the point where they would look like a NASCAR vehicle, but frankly that’s just tacky. If you are a company and want exposure to a wide audience that is well-read, incredibly intelligent, and wealthy with plenty of disposable income you should e-mail us to advertise on our site.
2. Surprisingly that was not the only interest announcement from the NCAA yesterday as it also had a couple other topics it chose to highlight in its press release. Outside of the sponsor decals (addressed above) the most interesting proposal is one that could result in more technical fouls being called on head coaches and the bench for unsportsmanlike behavior. We are kind of surprised that they even had to mention comments related to “race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation directed at or referring to any game official or opposing player/bench personnel” as something that requires a technical since it already usually results in a media firestorm, but they are also calling for technical fouls to when the coach/bench questions calls excessively. Obviously how the officials interpret this rule could be very interesting as there are some very prominent coaches (like a guy with a “K” in his name) who tend to do this very frequently and could approach Dennis Rodman territory for technical fouls if the officials enforce this strictly.
3. The pickings for top-flight recruits is getting slim as most of the college basketball media was focused in on the announcement of Amile Jefferson, a highly rated power forward out of Philadelphia, that he would attend Duke passing on North Carolina State, Kentucky, and a couple of other schools. Although Jefferson is not expected to have a major impact right away his matriculation to Durham will boost a Blue Devil front line that was already respectable and even though his contribution might be marginal it could be enough to get the team another ACC title especially with how down the ACC is expected to be. Still Jefferson’s potential impact is more likely to be in the long-term with the eventual departure of Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly after the 2012-13 season.
4. It seems like we have been talking more about transfers in the past few weeks than we typically do at this time of year, but is that actually true or just our perception? Dan Hanner decided to take a look at the actual number of “transfers” this year compared to previous years. The answer that Hanner comes up with may surprise you and may in some ways be a reflection of the methodology used by others who claim individuals are transferring when in fact they just do not use up all of their available eligibility. Given how early it is in the transfer season it is possible that the total number of actual transfers will be significantly greater than it has in past years. The reality is probably something more like the transformation of media coverage of the sport has been greatly impacted by social media where individuals like yours truly can use that platform to espouse our views or get sucked into believing the views of others where a few major stories (like a player’s attempt to transfer being blocked) clouds our analysis of the big picture.
5. Wyoming forward Leonard Washington received a $530 fine, a 31-day suspended jail sentence. and one year of unsupervised probation after he pleaded guilty to charges of criminal entry and battery stemming from an incident on April 15. Washington, who was suspended indefinitely from the team on April 4 for unspecified reasons, admitted to entering a house without permission and punching an individual leading to his arrest. With this event occurring soon after he had been suspended indefinitely from the team we would be surprised if Washington were allowed to rejoin the Wyoming team even if he was their best player last season averaging 12.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 1.1 blocks on his way to Second Team All-Mountain West honors. Washington, who transferred to Wyoming from USC, will probably end up at another school, but with just one year of eligibility this is probably the last we have heard of Washington on a (relatively) big stage.