- It did not take Loyola Marymount long to move on from the Max Good era. Just one day after firing Good (we are not even sure if they waited 24 hours) they hired Mike Dunlap to be their next coach. Dunlap is a Loyola Marymount graduate so it seems like a good fit. Dunlap has “NBA” coaching experience as he was the head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats during the 2012-13 season, but probably is best known to college basketball fans as the interim coach at St. John’s during the 2011-12 season while Steve Lavin was recovering from his prostate cancer treatment.
- We wonder how long it will take Auburn to find a replacement for Tony Barbee after they fired him yesterday. Barbee was informed of the decision after his team lost its opening game in the SEC Tournament so he could tell his players in the locker room since it would probably be the last time they would meet with the student being on Spring Break. Barbee finished with a 48-75 record, which by itself was probably worthy of being fired, but the poor attendance at the games only compounded it. We will be interested to see who the school targets because even though the SEC is technically a major conference we would not consider the position that desirable although we could see a coach using it as a stepping stone.
- Much of the focus on the injury front this week will be directed at Joel Embiid’s back, but that will not be the most significant injury on Selection Sunday. Instead, BYU sophomore starting guard Kyle Collinsworth‘s knee might be the most scrutinized injury in the Selection Committee room. Collinsworth, who is average 14 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game, injured his right knee during the second half of BYU’s loss to Gonzaga on Tuesday night. Yesterday he underwent an MRI that revealed an ACL tear and he will miss the remainder of the season. With the Cougars firmly on the bubble in many brackets before Collinsworth’s injury, the MRI results likely mean that BYU is heading to the NIT.
- Speaking of the NCAA Tournament, the bracket, and the safeguards now in place to prevent the bracket from being leaked, Jeff Eisenberg has an excellent look into how the NCAA keeps the bracket a secret. For those of you not familiar with the story behind this, in 2010 an anonymous poster on a Maryland message board posted many of the details on that year’s bracket almost an hour before they were publicly revealed. With the networks spending nearly $1 billion a year we understand their desire to maintain secrecy, but some of the details about how the NCAA tries to keep the bracket a secret until it is publicly released seem ridiculous.
- When we saw the new adidas uniforms we were surprised by how different the Baylor uniforms were and wondered whether they would be able to play in them. It turns out that the NCAA feels the same way and says that Baylor cannot wear their new uniforms. It appears that the thing that made the NCAA refuse to accept these uniforms was the phrase “Sic ‘Em” since it is not part of the school’s name or mascot. It is interesting that this is what made the NCAA put its foot down after it allowed several schools to wear ridiculous uniforms.