1. Midnight Madness is less than six weeks away. As most of the coaches prepare for the upcoming season, the players are trying to get back into game shape. ESPN caught up with Michigan State’s Tom Izzo recently to get an update on some of his players, specifically Derrick Nix and Branden Dawson. Dawson, who tore his ACL last March, has been practicing “at about 95 percent” according to Izzo but he believes that it will take some time for him to get his conditioning back. Michigan State’s non-conference schedule is as usual not very forgiving, highlighted by key match-ups against Kansas and Connecticut. A healthier Dawson especially on the defensive end would add tremendous value to the Spartans during the Big Ten season if he can use the preseason to get used to the tempo of the game. Izzo also spoke highly of freshman Gary Harris, a 6’4″ guard who is a five-star prospect, specifically pointing out his defensive abilities. As Dawson continues to improve, Harris may be earn some playing time especially if he can step into the role of a defensive stopper for Izzo.  
2. Speaking of off-season training regiments, Bo Ryan‘s program includes “The Hill,” which has been part Badger basketball tradition for a few years in Madison. Every fall, the Wisconsin roster trains on the hill in Platteville, Wisconsin, where Ryan began his coaching career way back in 1984. The coaching staff believes that the hill training not only adds physical conditioning but also serves as a great team-building activity and improves the overall mental toughness as the rigors of class and practice take over during the fall. Ryan has been known for “eccentric training” techniques over the years, which have clearly paid off as Badger basketball has established itself as a perennial top team in the Big Ten and produced eight consecutive NCAA appearances. Freshman phenom Sam Dekker got his first taste of the hill recently and had a few comments about the training program. Dekker, a 6’7″ wing and former top 25 recruit, has high expectations due to his athleticism and shooting range as the Badger fans hope for another NCAA appearance and a strong finish in conference play.
3. Northwestern’s Bill Carmody added more size to his roster as 6’10” forward Aaron Liberman will join the Wildcats for the upcoming season. Liberman averaged 17.4 PPG, 12.3 RPG and 8.7 BPG during his senior season in 2010-11. He has been studying in Israel and should be able to earn playing time fairly quickly as the Wildcats have a need for skilled size in the paint. Northwestern ranked 11th in the conference in terms of offensive rebounding percentage (25.6%) and got hammered on the defensive boards consistently by the likes of Jared Sullinger and Cody Zeller last season. The departure of senior forward Luka Mirkovic (3.8 RPG) gives an opportunity for freshmen such as Liberman and Chier Ajou (7’2″ center) to step up and control the paint, at least on the defensive end. Jared Swopshire, the 6’8″ forward who transferred from Louisville ought to help out with the rebounding as well as he averaged 6.8 RPG during the 2009-10 season before a spate of injuries. 
4. Transitioning from freshmen to established Big Ten veterans, Ohio State’s Deshaun Thomas has been named to the preseason All-America list by Blue Ribbon for the upcoming season. Thomas will lead the Buckeyes after taking a backseat to Jared Sullinger during the last two seasons. He saw a huge improvement from his freshman to sophomore season as his scoring increased from 7.5 PPG to 15.9 PPG and hopes to take his game to the elite level during his junior year. Buckeye fans do not expect him to skip a beat offensively but hope that he improves his shot selection (only 34% 3FG) and become a leader on the court along with fellow junior Aaron Craft. Thomas is accompanied by Indiana forward Cody Zeller on the preseason All-America list from the Big Ten. 
5. The preseason NIT Tip-Off schedule has been announced and Michigan will be representing the Big Ten as one of the top seeds in November. John Beilein’s squad will be accompanied by Virginia, Kansas State and Pittsburgh as the other potential favorites to win the annual event. As always, the preliminary rounds will be held on campus and the semifinals along with the championship game will be held in Madison Square Garden on November 23. With three key returning players for the Wolverines – Trey Burke (14.8 PPG), Tim Hardaway, Jr. (14.6 PPG), and Jordan Morgan (5.6 RPG), Michigan appears to be the favorite to win the Tip-Off this year. Pittsburgh hopes to rebound from a rough season per their normal standards but the Woverines’ versatility combined with incoming freshmen Mitch McGary and Glen Robinson III should be too much to overcome as Beilein hopes to make the Final Four with his talented squad next season. 

1. Jim Calhoun is no longer the head men’s basketball coach at Connecticut, and for most of us covering this sport, we really don’t know of a time when that wasn’t the case. Say what you like about him, but the 70-year old head coach is arguably the greatest program-builder of the modern era. Consider this factoid: When Calhoun took the helm at UConn in 1986, the program hadn’t won an NCAA Tournament game in a decade and only had achieved four victories in its history. Since then? Forty-eight NCAA victories, 10 Big East championships, and of course, those three national titles. Incredible. Let’s run down some of the best articles on the legacy of Calhoun: Seth Davis (“His pals joke that he’s not happy unless he’s miserable.”); Mike DeCourcy (“That is what Calhoun did better than anyone, ever: Coaching ‘em up.”); Dana O’Neil (“He was pointed without being vicious, upfront with his complaint, yet willing to concede that there were two sides to that particular story.”); Alexander Wolff (“Calhoun needed a cantilevered epaulet for the chip on his shoulder.”); Andy Katz (“He created a national power at a school that lacked tradition, facilities and a deep recruiting pool.”). There’s also this collection of some of his best quotes from The Connecticut Post.
2. Jim Calhoun helped make the Big East the basketball juggernaut that it became, but now upon the week of his retirement, he must feel rather bittersweet about yet another very good basketball program (Notre Dame) alighting for the greener pastures of the ACC. The media analysis is varied, but by and large, most people seem to think that this move was a win/win for both the school and the new conference. Head coach Mike Brey certainly must think so, given the reported quote to his AD regarding conference realignment: “Please don’t take me to the Big 12.” All chuckling aside, the ACC’s John Swofford can rest easy in the knowledge that he’s managed to protect both the league’s all-important basketball and academic branding while keeping the football schools in Florida and South Carolina equally engaged. If the ACC decides to grab another similarly situated basketball/Olympic sports school in the near future to get to 16, we proffered a few leading candidates on Thursday.
3. We mentioned earlier this week the Raleigh News & Observer‘s report that Tyler Hansbrough‘s mother, Tami, had come under fire along with her boyfriend Matt Kupec (the Chief of UNC fundraising until this week) over a number of personal trips funded with university dollars where the couple traveled around the country to watch her other son, Ben Hansbrough, play basketball for Notre Dame. She was originally placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, but late Wednesday Hansbrough tendered her resignation to the school, leaving little question as to her alleged culpability. The six trips to see the younger Hansbrough occurred during the 2010-11 season, but according to the N&O, the couple has taken as many as 25 trips together since May 2010 on the school’s dime. It’s unclear at this point whether any or all of those trips were legitimate, but this is yet another black stain on the UNC brand — it makes you wonder just what kind of internal controls they have in place in Chapel Hill, because it certainly doesn’t appear there are many.
4. Sean Miller is absolutely tearing it up on the recruiting trail down in the desert, as five-star prospect in the Class of 2013, Rondae Jefferson, has committed to the Wildcats. A 6’7″, 215-lb. small forward from Chester, Pennsylvania, Jefferson’s commitment proves that the UA brand name remains relevant nationally, as Miller is on track to bring in his third straight top 10 recruiting class with this pickup. ESPN.com‘s Paul Biancardi describes Jefferson as one of the hardest-working players in his class, and is somewhat reminiscent of Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in his relentless attacks on the rim. It’s been over a decade since another RJ patrolled the wing at the McKale Center, but without question Miller is looking to bring back those glory days with a continual influx of players like these. One other recruiting note: According to Rivals.com, eight of the top 10 players nationally in this class are still uncommitted.
5. Let’s close with an uplifter in a week that was less than so… remember the tearjerker of a story involving a Gettysburg College player named Cory Weissman who had suffered a terrible stroke but who received a chance to play and made a single free throw — the only point of his college career — on Senior Day last season? The story got a lot of coverage last spring, with ESPN, SI, NPR, and just about everyone else doing a feature profile on his remarkable story. Well, that story had some legs, as 1,000 to 1: The Cory Weissman Story will begin shooting on the Gettysburg campus a little later this fall. If you don’t recall his triumphant moment, you can check it out on Youtube here — just make sure you have a few Kleenex handy.

Chris Johnson is an RTC columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.

If we’ve learned anything about the recent conference realignment craze, it’s that the two principles governing inter-league swapping – football, television rights deals and the thick crossover between them – have unintended and often detrimental consequences for the parties involved. Case in point: the Big East, unraveled at its foundational core by realignment forces, has seen itself morph from a tightly-knit group of basketball-oriented schools along the northeast corridor with legendary coaches and historic rivalries to a geographically disparate medley of culturally and academically incongruous programs, cobbled together in a last-ditch effort in the hopes of leveraging a lucrative media rights deal this fall. The deterioration has fueled the ACC – much like in the early 2000s, when it poached Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College from the Big East – into becoming one of Division I college athletics’ premier power brokers, along with the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12. More relevant to this space, the ACC, once all the moving pieces settle into their new league, is poised to field arguably the best compilation of hoops talent we’ve ever seen.

The ACC added a 15th basketball member in Notre Dame, but could No. 16 be on the way in the near future? (Photo credit: Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)

Commissioner John Swofford added another gem Wednesday in Notre Dame, who plans to join the ACC in all sports except football (the Irish will play five games annually against ACC gridiron competition, but maintain their independence). This addition brings the ACC to 15 teams, an unwieldy number that could have nightmarish scheduling implications. Swofford told ESPN.com that the league has no plans to add a 16^th member, citing the disruption of football division equality, among other factors. Since the league isn’t divided into divisions for basketball, there is no immediate impetus to add another team, but it stands to reason that the ACC will eventually look to move to an even number of hoops teams, and what better place to address the problem than the beleaguered, battered, on-life-support (ok, maybe it’s not that bad) Big East? What follows is a brief analysis of a few potential candidates for that 16^th spot, should it open up in the coming years, with an eye toward each team’s purported value from a hoops perspective.

*Unless Notre Dame decides to relinquish its football independence, it would seem unlikely that the ACC will take on another fully engaged football member so as to preserve its current seven-team divisional configuration. This analysis, therefore, is limited only to basketball-centric schools without major football programs.

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Seven Pac-12 schools took a foreign exhibition trip this summer. We recap them below with Drew taking UCLA, Utah, and Colorado, and Connor taking the rest.

Not Every Team Went Tropical, But All of Them Learned Something

Arizona

• Where: The Bahamas
• When: August 11-13
• What: The Wildcats swept their two games against Bahamian competition.
• Why: As Arizona transitions from an NIT one-and-done to having at least NCAA Third Round expectations, this trip was all about integrating instant-impact newcomers Kaleb Tarczewski, Grant Jerrett, Brandon Ashley, Gabe York, and Mark Lyons into the rotation. Setting lineups and seeing what groups of players meshed well together was much more important than the actual play against less than stellar competition.
• Who: Lyons and fellow senior Kevin Parrom were the stars of the trip, each averaging 18.5 PPG. The most anticipated freshman to don the cardinal red and navy blue in a while, Tarczewski, scored eight points in each game on the trip. Arizona absolutely destroyed their lowly competition, winning both games by a combined 112 points.

Colorado

• Where: France, Belgium and the Netherlands
• When: August 11-22
• What: The Buffaloes went 2-3 in five games against European professional teams.
• Why: With CU breaking in six scholarship freshmen, the trip gave head coach Tad Boyle a chance to build camaraderie between the talented new guys and their six returnees from last year’s Pac-12 championship team. The trip also gave the freshmen a chance to build an identity of their own, evidenced by the fact that Boyle sat out the core returnees from last year’s squad – Andre Roberson, Askia Booker, Spencer Dinwiddie and Sabatino Chen – in one of the games, allowing five of the freshmen to start the game together.
• Who: While Roberson was his usual magnificent self – he averaged 14.4 points and 13.8 rebounds – freshman Josh Scott eliminated any doubt that he could be an immediate impact player. Scott led the Buffs in scoring in four of the five games, coming up a point short of the leaders in the opening game; he averaged 17.4 point per game for the trip. His classmate Xavier Johnson also made a statement, averaging more than ten points to go with seven rebounds for the game.

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1. There were obviously two huge stories yesterday and we could lead with either one, but for us the imminent retirement of Jim Calhoun is the top story. Over the next few days you will see an endless stream of stories recounting Calhoun’s spectacular work turning a program that was essentially nothing into one of the top programs in the country. You will also see a number of anecdotes from media members about some of their memorable interactions with Calhoun. For now we will just focus on the near-term future for the Huskies, who will apparently name Kevin Ollie as their interim coach. Ollie certainly has his work cut out for him taking over a team that was expected to struggle next season even with a legend like Calhoun at the helm. We hope that the school grades Ollie on a curve here because otherwise his position will probably last only one season before the school looks elsewhere. If that does happen, it will certainly test the rankings we released last year for the most desirable coaching spots in the country. Will the brand appeal of Connecticut be enough to overcome the location and the current condition of the program for potential coaches?
2. We are guessing that most sites will go with Notre Dame moving to the ACC in all sports except for football with the expected moved happening in 2014 at the earliest. While this is certainly another significant loss for the Big East it doesn’t come close to the significance of losing Pittsburgh and Syracuse especially since the real prize of Notre Dame’s athletic program is its football program, which isn’t exactly a revelation to anybody. The ACC was able to get Notre Dame to play a certain number of football games (five) against other schools within the conference, but Notre Dame was still able to keep its ludicrous lucrative contract and BCS privileges. Having said that, the Irish do bring a solid if unspectacular basketball program to the conference that will add more depth and strengthen its claim as the best in the country again [Ed Note: Many ACC fans would have you believe that they always were the best conference in the country.] For us, the more interesting facet of the story is that Notre Dame becomes the 15th basketball team in the conference, which as you may notice is an odd number. The ACC has insisted that there are no plans to expand to 16 teams, but it seems more than a little naive to think they won’t be looking out for another school to add to reach an even number. More on this later today.
3. After a disappointing year in 2011-12 (and any Brad Stevens team that doesn’t make the Final Four is by definition, disappointing), Butler was looking to rebound with a strong 2012-13 season, but those hopes were dealt a significant blow when the school announced that Chrishawn Hopkins had been dismissed from the basketball team. Hopkins was one of four returning starters on a team that is also adding Arkansas sharpshooter Rotnei Clarke and was expected to be a tough out in next year’s NCAA Tournament. Fortunately for the Bulldogs they have some depth on the perimeter, but anytime you lead the #3 scorer from the previous year it has to hurt at some level. We are still not aware of which team rule Hopkins broke, but the fall term at Butler just started on August 22 so whatever he did was probably not related to grades.
4. Another player who will not be seen on campus any time soon is Maurice Jones, who announced yesterday that he was transferring from USC after having been ruled academically ineligible. Jones, who was supposed to be the leading returning scorer for the Trojans, will certainly draw some interest despite his 5’7″ frame, but it will most likely be in the form of mid-majors where a smaller guard could be even more successful. Assuming Jones is able to get his academics in order he could be an excellent addition for a top mid-major and can give his new school two more years of eligibility. A potential destination somewhere in Michigan would not be out of the question given that is where Jones hails from, but with his skill set he should be able to look broadly.
5. While the NCAA continues to fall behind on investigations into the wrongdoing of schools and their administrators it continues to excel at chasing after teenagers with questions regarding their eligibility. Two highly touted incoming freshmen — Sam Cassell, Jr., and Myles Davis — have been ruled ineligible by the NCAA as the result of classes they took at Notre Dame Prep, the same school that produced Michael Beasley, Lazar Hayward, and Ryan Gomes, among others. As Jeff Goodman points out, there are eight other individuals currently cleared by the NCAA to play who took those same classes. The entire situation appears to revolve around classes they took last academic year that at least Davis’ family claims were cleared by the NCAA until it was too late to change and maintain their eligibility. While this case will probably start out of the mainstream media for the most part it will be interesting to follow to see if the NCAA backs down or if the eligibility of the other students in those classes is questioned.

After years of speculation it appears that Connecticut‘s legendary head coach Jim Calhoun will finally retire. A local NBC affiliate in Connecticut was the first to report the news that Calhoun’s retirement was “imminent”. Calhoun, who turned 70 in May, has made a name for himself building up a Connecticut program that was not even on the map when he took over in 1986 to one of the premier programs in the country during his 26 seasons there. Calhoun’s credentials at Connecticut are nothing short of spectacular: three NCAA titles, seven Big East Tournaments titles, and nine Big East regular season titles to go along with several NBA stars. While Calhoun won big on the court he also went through his own trials and tribulations off it often battling the media (“not a dime back”) and dealing with a variety of medical issues. [Ed Note: For what it’s worth, in our limited interactions with Calhoun he always was courteous with us.]

Calhoun Appears To Finally Be Saying Goodbye

With the upcoming season essentially being a lost one for a program of Connecticut’s caliber (banned from the NCAA Tournament due to their low APR score) speculation was rampant that Calhoun would call it a career, but he remained committed (or indecisive depending on your point of view) to the program. However, his latest setback, a fall off his bike leading to a prolonged rehabilitation program, may have finally led Calhoun to step down. Now the next question is who will replace Calhoun. The most obvious choice would be Kevin Ollie at least on an interim basis although George Blaney is the one who has always served as the fill-in for Calhoun during his multiple absences over the years. Whether Ollie is able to shed the interim label will likely depend on the performance of this year Connecticut team. If they fail to live up to even the admittedly lowered expectations we could have one of the more interesting coaching searches in years to fill a spot at a marquee program that had essentially been created by the man leaving it.

Chris Johnson is an RTC columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.

When word leaked nearly two weeks ago of a massive academic scandal at Harvard University, it was easy to overreact at the prospect of some of the nation’s brightest and most academically qualified students setting aside baseline expectations of academic honesty and integrity. After all, this is Harvard, long held as the putative gold standard of collegiate institutions, the dream school for practically every high school nerd with Ivy League aspirations. But when you dug into the details, which the New York Times provided one day after the allegations surfaced, none of it seemed particularly groundbreaking. Students enrolled in a 2012 spring Introduction to Congress class, which according to students had a reputation as one of the easiest classes at the school, colluded on take-home tests, questioned the fairness of graduate teaching assistants across sections and appealed to those assistants after reaching a consensus on unfamiliar exam terminology. There was a general understanding among enrollees that their actions were much less intentional than a product of a flawed conception of the school’s academic policies. All of which, at least as far as I could tell, undermined the severity of the transgressions. The only mildly surprising aspect of the story was the sheer number (125) of students implicated. It was a minor stain on Harvard’s sterling academic reputation, sure, but it certainly looked as if it would all dissipate in time.

The defining storyline of the 2012-13 for the Crimson will be the academic scandal that enveloped Curry and Casey (Photo credit: Getty Images).

The ongoing investigation has now crossed into the athletic realm, per Luke Winn of SI.Com, who reported early Tuesday morning that co-captains Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry, two cornerstones of the Crimson’s 2012-13 Ivy League title defense efforts, are in jeopardy of missing their senior seasons. Casey decided to withdraw before Tuesday’s fall enrollment deadline. While he is yet to receive punishment for his alleged involvement in the widespread academic fraud, Casey ran the risk of losing his final year of eligibility by attending classes this fall if school administrators render an unfavorable verdict. Curry hasn’t made a final decision as of this writing, but is expected to follow Casey and forgo the upcoming academic year. In surrendering their eligibility this season, both players are expected to return for the 2013-14 season. A third men’s basketball player, along with a score of football players, could also face renounced or curtailed academic schedules this year.

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1. Raleigh News & Observer: More scandal on Tobacco Road. Amid investigation of an ugly academic scandal in Chapel Hill and the recent potential trouble in Durham, North Carolina’s chief fundraiser resigned for apparently taking personal trips on the Tar Heels’ dime. But the story gets much weirder: another fundraiser implicated is Tyler Hansbrough‘s mother, Tami. Apparently the star’s mother has been earning $95,000 a year as a “major gifts officer” for the past few years, and as such, Hansbrough reportedly used UNC money to fly to see Tyler’s younger brother Ben Hansbrough play at Notre Dame.
2. Bylaw Blog: Speaking of the Duke situation, the NCAA has one big problem in making a case. No one has to talk. Unless the lawsuit goes to court and becomes a matter of public record (and soon), the NCAA will need to convince the NYC jeweler or Lance Thomas to talk about the suspicious $67,000 loan for custom jewelry his senior season. The clock is ticking though, as the NCAA needs to serve Duke its notice of allegations before the four-year statute of limitations runs out. The bad news for the NCAA is that only gives the organization a little over a year to make its case. The worse news is that the jeweler already refused to talk to the NCAA (which would make sense if he specializes in athletic jewelry and hands out impermissible loans).
3. ESPN.com: Dexter Strickland is officially back. The defensive-minded combo guard has officially moved past his torn ACL injury, playing pickup with his teammates last Monday. Strickland still doesn’t sound 100% confident in the knee, which is to be expected, but North Carolina and Marcus Paige will really need his presence in the backcourt next season. And if Strickland can’t trust the knee, it will hurt his defense and transition play (his two biggest strengths by far).
4. CBSSports.com: Touted Xavier transfer Dez Wells is headed to Maryland after he was expelled after a sexual assault allegation in August. Wells should join the Terrapins with Michigan transfer Evan Smotrycz in 2013-14. If Mark Turgeon can pull a coup and steal the Harrison twins from Kentucky, Maryland might be the most talented team in the ACC. Turgeon may be gaining on John Calipari as the highly rated brothers are headed to College Park for Maryland’s midnight madness. Kudos, Coach Turgeon.
5. Orlando Sentinel: Michael Snaer‘s latest comments are firing up his teammates. Florida State is a tough team to judge, as the Seminoles lost six players from last season. However, their most important piece returned and Leonard Hamilton also brought in a very good class. Snaer says the team is much more polished skill-wise than last year’s veteran group.

1. Another day, another scandal involving the, ahem, good name of college basketball. With all the allegations getting tossed around the sport in recent months, we’re starting to wonder if the best course of action is simply to burn the whole thing down and start completely over. After Tuesday’s disappointing news that even the nation’s top academic institution, Harvard, isn’t immune from student-athletes behaving badly, you’ll forgive us if we’re feeling a little more than down about our game. The skinny: SI.com’s Luke Winn has reported that senior co-captains Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry — two of the Crimson’s best three players — have been implicated in a cheating scandal along with over a 100 other students for acts in a class about Congress “ranging from inappropriate collaboration to outright plagiarism, on a take-home final exam.” With the fall semester enrollment deadline pending this week, Casey and Curry are expected to withdraw from school for the entire 2012-13 academic year in an effort to preserve their final year of eligibility after their cases have been adjudicated. And with those withdrawals goes much of the hope surrounding the Crimson basketball program next season — the Crimson had more than enough talent and experience to win the Ivy League again and make the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years. More to come on this later today…
2. How’s about some better news to focus on with your coffee this Wednesday morning? Mike DeCourcy has us covered with his column discussing six important factors that could shape the upcoming season. Most of his points revolve around the significant loss of elite talent from last season, but keep in mind that going into 2011-12 many people thought that the return of the likes of Harrison Barnes, Jared Sullinger and Perry Jones would dominate discussion throughout the year. Although each player’s team made it to at least the Elite Eight, such a notion turned out to not be true. The talk last year mostly revolved around Kentucky’s precocious freshmen, Syracuse’s deep and athletic juggernaut, the resurgence of Indiana, and both Bill Self and Frank Haith’s coaching mastery. DeCourcy’s comment that “we’ll find something to enjoy” is absolutely spot on — predicting what that will be is the hard part.
3. The NIT Season Tip-Off is one of the few remaining marquee preseason events that actually handles itself like a basketball tournament should, in that, it actually holds a tournament where winners advance and losers go home. And this is why it remains one of our favorites. The NCAA, who runs the event, announced yesterday that the top four seeds in this year’s Thanksgiving week event will be Michigan, Kansas State, Virginia, and Pittsburgh. Although John Beilein’s Wolverines will be the clear favorite in this event, there’s always some room for potential upsets — in a cursory review of the bracket, one intriguing subplot might be CJ McCollum’s Lehigh squad disposing of a revamped Pittsburgh team before heading to NYC to once again grab the national stage.
4. It wouldn’t be a Morning Five this month without some mention of Billy Gillispie, so here’s the latest on the wild saga involving the Texas Tech head coach. On Tuesday two new pieces of information were released. First, an ambulance was called to Gillispie’s house on Monday of this week after a 911 call was made from the residence, but local hospitals had no record of Gillispie getting admitted anywhere. Next, in a text message sent to the AP Tuesday night, Gillispie himself stated that he plans on a treatment plan for high blood pressure “amongst other things” at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In the meantime as he deals with his health issues, Texas Tech has named associate head coach Chris Walker as the man in charge of the day-to-day operations of the team and told Gillispie in no uncertain terms that he is not to engage with the program in any way until he’s ready to sit down with the administration and discuss his future.
5. If you’re a fan of the chaos theory of sports — that basically, the best possible scenario is the worst possible scenario — you’re going to love where the Lance Thomas case at Duke appears to be headed. According to the Raleigh News & Observer, not only is the New York City jeweler who extended Thomas nearly $70,000 in credit three years ago not talking to much of anyone, but in order for the NCAA to actually pursue what appears to be an obvious violation, they will have to do so by the end of 2013. So there are twin pressures building on the organization, but unless some degree of on-record information comes out through trial (highly unlikely), the NCAA will have to find a rat or some other documentation willing to assist them in this investigation. Chaos theorists loves this stuff, because it (mostly) leaves everyone outraged and upset.

Chris Johnson is an RTC columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.

It always seemed slightly awkward that the Final Four, college basketball’s marquee postseason event, is played out in 70,000-seat football arenas across the country, rather than buildings actually designed to house basketball events. Fans spend the season watching their teams compete in basketball arenas across the country, many of which offer unique, quaint environments that are as much a part of the program as the team itself. In world where ticket revenue maximization and logistical considerations are the driving forces behind stadium construction and renovation, it’s these college hoops atmospheres – Hinkle Fieldhouse, Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Palestra – that give the sport a certain level of authenticity. There’s something endearing about the program-specific uniqueness that envelops college arenas, something vaguely intangible the sport simply wouldn’t be the same without. It would only make sense to have college basketball’s national champion determined under the same setting – not only for familiarity reasons, but to preserve college basketball’s amateur feel at the highest levels of competition. At the very least, basketball arenas – if not college structures, then NBA stadiums – offer settings far more tolerable than the large and unseemly football dome monoliths that have been adopted for college basketball’s three most important games (two national semifinals, and the championship game).

Large Domes like Ford Field have exclusively hosted the Final Four since 1997. That’s likely to continue for the foreseeable future (Photo credit: David J. Phillip/AP Photo).

But its no secret why the NCAA has opted for these awkward hosting sites. For one, bigger stadiums means more seats, which means more ticket revenues. If fans are willing to fill a reasonable proportion of a football dome’s enormous seating capacity in spite of several unattractive features – poor viewing angles, increased ticket prices – then it’s hard to argue with keeping the games in these large structures. From a revenue perspective, it just makes sense. But there are a host of other concerns to consider: space for increasing media contingents, infrastructural necessities (restaurants, hotels, parking, etc.), the conventions and parties and fan events that accompany major sporting events like the Final Four. Large football domes, despite all their aesthetic shortcomings, are better-equipped to handle the event in this regard. In short, football arenas in large cities offer the optimal blend of seating accommodations and resourceful necessities for hosting a sporting spectacle as massive and as important as the Final Four.

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