- Last night at Madison Square Garden, Baylor became what no Big 12 team has ever been before: NIT champions. Once again, Cory Jefferson had a great performance (23 points) to go along with seven rebounds. Isaiah Austin was all over the court: nailing shots (6-of-7), rebounding (nine) and altering attempts (five blocks). If Austin and Jefferson decide to come back next year, they are easily the best frontcourt duo in the conference. Pierre Jackson ended his career with, what else, a double-double (17 points, 10 assists). Though the game was a blowout, it should be noted that Iowa had its one and only lead at 2-0 with 18:39 left in the first h alf. It lasted 31 seconds.
- Iowa State director of basketball operations Jeff Rutter has decided to leave Ames to take an assistant coaching job with Drake University. Rutter has been around the Cyclones program for the past seven seasons, coming over with Greg McDermott from Northern Iowa in 2006. He served as an assistant coach up until Fred Hoiberg’s arrival in 2010 and then became ISU’s director of basketball ops. Drake tabbed Gonzaga assistant Ray Giacoletti to be its next coach last Thursday and offered Rutter a job just seven days later. I guess you can’t blame Rutter. Coaches gotta scratch that itch.
- Get a load of this: In a preseason conference tournament with Texas as a participant, it is Wichita State that is the headliner. The 2013 edition of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic should be an interesting one to watch with Brigham Young and DePaul joining the Shockers and Longhorns on November 25 and 26 in the City of Fountains. UT will be a different looking team by then with Sheldon McClellan transferring, and we know the Shockers won’t resemble this year without Malcolm Armstead and Carl Hall. But gee, Wichita State’s the headliner in all of this. What a crazy, beautiful world we live in.
- Michael Orris didn’t play very much. Yes, he was a freshman on a veteran-laden team but his numbers were microscopic. He played in 15 of the team’s 35 games (about 3.3 minutes per game) and scored just four points for the entire season. On Monday, Orris announced his intention to transfer from Kansas State. He was previously committed to Illinois but after Bruce Weber’s firing, he decided to follow the coach to Manhattan. According to The Times of Northwest Indiana, Orris was originally committed to go to Creighton but said in a text message, “I don’t know where I am going at this present time.” Maybe we’ll see him making an impact somewhere, say in March 2015?
- Bill Self, along with fellow national championship winning coaches Bobby Bowden, Jim Calhoun and John Calipari, will headline a star-studded cast of coaches and TV personalities at the eighth annual Dick Vitale Gala benefiting the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. This year of course marks the 30th anniversary of his NC State team pulling off the major upset in the national championship against Houston and “Phi Slama Jama.” It also marks the 20-year anniversary of his inspirational speech that brought down the house at the ESPY Awards.