Morning Five: 12.04.13 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on December 4th, 2013

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  1. Over the years we have heard many preflight announcements asking for passengers to give up their flights when the airlines have overbooked the flights, but we have never heard of an entire plane getting bumped for a different set of passengers. Apparently that is what happened in Gainesville on Sunday as Delta decided to give the Florida basketball team use of a plane scheduled for a commercial flight after the team’s charter flight had to be taken in for repairs. The commercial passengers were told that their aircraft needed maintenance, but noticed the basketball team getting on their plane (sort of hard to miss in a three-gate airport). Those on the commercial flight had to be rebooked on other flights with some not leaving until the following day and one individual even missed a passenger. Delta has offered a vague explanation saying that they tried to make everybody leave as close to on schedule as possible, but since the Gators did not play until the following night it seems like the company could have used a little better foresight in deciding who to bump.
  2. We won’t call it karma because it appears that the Florida staff had no idea that Delta was bumping regular customers so they could get to Connecticut a day early, but the team’s injury woes are continuing to pile up. The latest to join the walking wounded is senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin, who injured late in their loss at Connecticut, will be out indefinitely with a high-ankle sprain. As we mentioned yesterday when discussing Eli Carter’s redshirt, this leaves the Gators without a point guard. The Gators may have a bit of good news on the horizon as Andy Katz reports that Chris Walker could be eligible by as early as December 10 and could play as early as December 17 against Memphis if he gets cleared by the NCAA. This won’t do anything for the Gators’ backcourt issues, but would make them much more formidable if they ever get healthy.
  3. We just finished Feast Week, but it is never too early to begin planning for next year. Although reports about the 2014 Battle 4 Atlantis field have been floating around for a while, the official field was released yesterday. Normally we would feature the headliners, but the field (Florida, North Carolina, UCLA, Georgetown, Wisconsin, Butler, Oklahoma, and UAB) is so deep that three-fourths of the field could be considered headliners in most tournaments. At this point we would the Battle 4 Atlantis, which is only three years old, the premier in-season tournament over Maui and with its proximity to the East Coast we assume it will only maintain that dominance for the foreseeable future.
  4. We have heard a lot about the deals between shoe companies and universities, but it is not that often that we see the details behind them. So when we were interested to see the details of Nike’s “$18.5 million deal” with Ohio State. The numbers appear to be in line with what we have seen cited for other big-name programs. As you can see from the figure there is a lot more involved in the deal than just a simple cash transaction as Nike will be paying a licensing fee (12.5% with a minimum of $200,000 per year then escalating to $300,000 per year), providing equipment and apparel (over $2 million per year), direct compensation (over $1 million per year), and consultation fees ($50,000 per year). We don’t know where exactly that money will go particularly the direct compensation, but assume it would be split fairly generously between the football and basketball coaches with the administrators getting a sizable chunk and the rest getting the leftovers.
  5. Devonta Pollard, a former five-star recruit who left Alabama after he was arrested in connection with a kidnapping, had his plea for deferred prosecution in connection with the case approved by judge yesterday meaning that if he will not be prosecuted if he stays out of trouble for the next two years. Pollard, who claims he had no idea about the kidnapping before it took place, testified against his mother, who is still awaiting formal sentencing, in court as part of the deal. Pollard is currently enrolled at East Mississippi Community College and has three years of eligibility left so with this cloud somewhat lifted it will be interesting to see if a major college takes a chance on him even if his production–3.9 points and 3.1 rebounds per game–as a freshman last season was uninspiring.

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Morning Five: 12.03.13 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on December 3rd, 2013

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  1. Drexel appeared to be on the verge of putting together an excellent season as they started 4-2 with their only losses being close games against Arizona (four-point margin) and UCLA (five-point margin), but their hopes for being a March sleeper took a huge hit yesterday when they announced that Damion Lee, their leading scorer last season at 17.1 points per game, was out for the season after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Lee sustained the injury in the second half of the team’s loss to Arizona, a game in which the Dragons held a 19-point lead at one time. This is the second straight season that Drexel has lost a significant player to a season-ending injury as last year they lost Chris Fouch to a season-ending knee injury as well (Fouch is playing as a sixth-year senior now).
  2. It appears that Drexel was not the only team to lose a significant player to a knee injury over Thanksgiving break as Houston announced that sophomore guard Danuel House would be out indefinitely after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. Unlike Lee, House is expected to return this season although the school did not set a timetable for his return. The injury is still a big blow as House was averaging 15.6 points and 5.7 rebounds per game this season albeit while shooting an atrocious 37.9% from the field. Fortunately for the Cougars, they do have a relatively light stretch before their schedule gets noticeably tougher starting on New Year’s Eve when they face Connecticut.
  3. Despite their tough loss at Connecticut last night Florida appears to have the pieces to make be a legitimate Final Four threat if they can get everybody healthy and on the court at the same time. It is beginning to look more and more like that will not be the case. While they are still waiting to hear back about some major eligibility and injury issues, it appears that they will redshirt Rutgers transfer Eli Carter who is still recovering from a broken leg. Although the injury occurred in February, Carter, who was averaging 14.9 points per game at Rutgers before the injury, has played sparingly for the Gators this season as he has only played 53 minutes this season. The loss might be considered a big blow for the Gators who are now looking for a point guard after Scottie Wilbekin went down with a knee injury late in the loss last night, but the decision to redshirt Carter should not come as a surprise to those who have followed his recovery.
  4. We finally have a break in the North Carolina academic fraud scandal and someone has been charged with a felony for his actions. No, it is not an administrator. Instead, it is Julius Nyang’Oro, the former chairman of the much-maligned Department of African and Afro-American Studies at North Carolina. Yesterday, a grand jury indicted Nyang’Oro on a single felony count of obtaining property under false pretenses for accepting $12,000 for a course that had no classes. According to the university, the were able to recoup the money in his final paycheck. If convicted, Nyang’Oro faces up to 30 months in prison [Ed. Note: The AP story says 10 months.] so perhaps the most interesting aspect of the case will be if he tries to work out a deal with the prosecution to testify against the school and/or administrators being complicit in the fraud as a means to avoid jail time.
  5. Usually when Gary Parrish publishes a Poll Attack it typically features a writer we have either never heard of or are simply unfamiliar with. This week is a little different as he uses the space to inform us that an individual we are very familiar with, former Maryland coach Gary Williams, has an AP vote. We had heard about Williams’ new job working with Comcast Sports Network, but we had no idea that he had received a vote basically at the same time he started his new job. Unfortunately, Williams appears to have missed the results of Xavier’s games and Memphis’ victory over Oklahoma State, but like Parrish we will give Williams a break since he is new to this.

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Morning Five: 12.02.13 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on December 2nd, 2013

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  1. We hope all of you had a relaxing Thanksgiving break. We also hope you managed to catch some basketball as well as there were quite a few interesting results. For those of you who missed some or all of be action, here is a quick recap of the more significant results: Arizona proved it belongs in the discussion as a national title contender against a Duke team that is having more flaws exposed early in the season; Villanova moved into the top 25 by winning the Battle 4 Atlantis knocking off Kansas and Iowa in succession; Memphis exacted a measure of revenge by knocking off Oklahoma State after getting blown out in Stillwater a two weeks ago; Wichita State picked up a big non-conference road win at St. Louis that could be worth a line or two on Selection Sunday; and Roy Williams did a favor for former assistant Jerod Haase by bringing UNC to UAB and Hasse repaid him by upsetting the Tar Heels.
  2. We are still waiting on an explanation as to why Georgetown dismissed injured junior Greg Whittington from the team. Whittington, who averaged 12.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in 13 games last season before being ruled academically ineligible. He was expected to return to the Hoyas this season, but those plans were halted by a torn ACL in his left knee. Given Whittington’s prior academic issues it would not be shocking if that was the reason for his dismissal. Assuming this is not some significant legal issue we would expect Whittington to be among the most highly sought-after transfers this year.
  3. Last week we mentioned Cody Doolin‘s strange departure from San Francisco. It turns out the reason that he left was an altercation with a teammate. We have not heard many details on what happened, but since Doolin started all 103 of his career at San Francisco we assume it was either a longstanding issue or he felt that the team had turned against him. Either way it is a significant loss for the Dons, who are using Penn State transfer Matt Glover as a replacement for Doolin.
  4. It appears that Louisville is comfortable with Chane Behanan‘s explanation as to how his 2012 Final Four ring ended up on an online auction site. After an investigation the school announced that it had cleared Behanan of any wrongdoing in the case. According to Behanan and his family the ring had been left with Behanan’s grandmother who believed the ring was safe in a box in her bedroom. When the ring ended up on the auction site she went back to check on it and said it must have been stolen. While it is possible that Louisville has had very bad luck with suspicious incidents recently when they start adding up you begin to wonder.
  5. Last week, when Tom Izzo voiced his displeasure with the new rules and the way they were being enforced we stated our desire to wait to see the data before making any comment. We still think it is too early to make any definitive decision on it, but Ken Pomeroy has put some preliminary data together on scoring, free throws, turnovers, and pace. Some might argue that the differences back up what Izzo and others have said, but we would like to see if they are statistically significant and even if they are as long as the rules are being enforced consistently to create a better product we have no problem with the changes. Also as Pomeroy notes, the more interesting changes might be the ones that Izzo and others have not been harping on.

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Morning Five: 11.29.13 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on November 29th, 2013

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  1. When Andy Enfield made his statements criticizing Steve Alford and Tim Floyd we figured that he would hear about them. We just never figured it would be in a public place in front of journalists. As Seth Davis detailed, Floyd approached Enfield and began yelling at him in front of Enfield’s wife and a group of onlookers. Assistants for both schools had to step in to separate the two. It’s unfortunate that the two had to air out their differences so publicly, but Enfield had to expect some blowback after his arrogant comments.
  2. It appears that the Chane Behanan 2012 Final Four controversy has come to a rather abrupt end. Upon hearing about the auction Behanan’s mother called his grandmother, who he had given the ring to. She said that she had put it in a box in her bedroom, but when she checked she discovered that it was not there. When the family contacted Gray Flannel saying that the ring had been stolen the company promptly returned the ring to Behanan. While it is a plausible story it does seem strange that the company gave the ring to Behanan so quickly if they did any investigation at all into his claims.
  3. Floyd and Enfield may have embarrassed themselves with their actions, but they were not the only ones in the college basketball community to embarrass themselves. Craig Neal‘s wife, Jean, has been accused of attacking a school administrator and could be heading to court as a result of it. Former El Dorado High School assistant principal Susana Stanojevic has filed a lawsuit claiming that Janet Neal assaulted her after a high school basketball game in February in which Janet’s son played. Stanojevic is claiming that the school board knew that Janet had a history of such outbursts and did not protect Stanojevic from her. It is worth noting that this is not the first time that Stanojevic has filed a lawsuit against the school board.
  4. When Dalonte Hill was arrested for the third time for a DUI we figured it was only a matter of time before he stepped down (or was forced to do so). On Wednesday, after having taken a leave of absence from the team from quite some time, Hill finally officially resigned. Hill’s primary role was to help the team in recruiting in the D.C. metro area, which is something that he did to a degree, but not at the level that was needed to make the Terrapins competitive in the upper echelon of the ACC (and soon to be Big Ten). Although the news is certainly negative for Maryland as they attempt to increase their reach in recruiting, they did get one positive as they announced that Maryland legend Juan Dixon was joining the staff as a special assistant to Mark Turgeon.
  5. We have heard a lot of strange excuses for why a player is not eligible, but that of two Egyptian players–Aly Ahmed and Ahmed Hamdy–is a new one. They claim that they were misled by former Rice and FIU assistant Marco Morcos who told them to spend a second year in prep school prior to entering college despite NCAA rules arguing against that. For his part, Morcos denies any influence. Although the schools where the two players are waiting at now (Cal State Bakersfield for Ahmed and Houston for Hamdy) appear to be confident that the NCAA will change their mind based on the report that Morcos misled the two players we tend to agree with John Infante that the two are out of luck because they need to know the rules.

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Morning Five: 11.27.13 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on November 27th, 2013

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  1. Over the years we have seen a lot of championship rings go on sale, but we cannot remember the last time we saw such an item from an active player on the auction block. So you can imagine our surprise when we saw an auction for a 2012 Final Four ring from Chane Behanan. Now on some level we can understand why Behanan would not have a specific attachment to a ring that might symbolize a loss to Kentucky when he has a championship ring from a year later, but we are almost certain this would be considered a violation if it is Behanan selling the ring based on what happened to the Ohio State football players and Oregon basketball players. We doubt that Behanan will admit to selling the ring so we are just wondering what excuse the Louisville administration will come with as to how this ended up on the auction block.
  2. There were a couple of interesting announcements yesterday. The one that will probably garner the most attention is Oklahoma State announcing that suspended guard Stevie Clark was not with the team “due to personal matters”. The school has not released any more information and the best insight into the matter that we have is that Clark’s mother agrees that he deserved to be disciplined. We have no idea as to when Clark will return to the Cowboys, but fortunately their schedule is so soft that they probably won’t need him for a while (they most likely will not play a ranked team until January 18). On the other end of the spectrum is San Francisco guard Cody Doolin who decided to leave the team “due to personal reasons”, which sounds similar, but suggests that the departure was of his own volition rather than being imposed upon him. Clark may be more well-known due to his team’s prominence, but the loss of Doolin, a senior point guard who was averaging 13 points and 7 assists per game this season will likely have a more detrimental effect on his team.
  3. Yesterday, Washington disclosed that Shawn Kemp Jr. had been diagnosed with Graves’ disease in September. We won’t get into the details of the disease (here’s a basic primer if you want information). We are also not sure what led the school to disclose the information since it is a fairly common diagnosis that is a benign condition if treated by competent medical professions, which Washington certainly has, and it has been nearly three months since he was diagnosed so we are not sure that it is particularly newsworthy outside of the fact that the school disclosed his medical condition without any apparent reason.
  4. We love the passion that college students bring to college games. It is one of the reasons we wish more early-season tournaments would play games at on-campus sites. Unfortunately sometimes those groups go overboard. One stark example of that comes from the Missouri student section where a group of students known as the Antlers were thrown out of their second game this season for yelling a variety of unimaginative, offensive things at opposing players. Our general tendency is to forgive people for doing stupid things, but based on what the group is saying with their Twitter account it is pretty clear that they don’t get it. At this rate we imagine that the group might eventually get banned from going to any sporting events at the school.
  5. We are still trying to figure out what Joe Nocera’s angle is at The New York Times where he appears to be spending quite a bit of time trying to be their NCAA attack dog (perhaps a book deal?). His latest article on “The North Carolina Five” focuses on the state of North Carolina attempting to prosecute individuals for essentially acting as agents to players who were still in school at North Carolina. To be honest we are not that familiar with Nocera’s writing from before his current crusade, but his logic seems pretty weak in this article. If we have any issue with the state of North Carolina taking on these cases it is that they should probably be focused on more important things (like fake academic departments at state institutions).

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Morning Five: 11.26.13 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on November 26th, 2013

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  1. When we mentioned Junior Etou in this space earlier this season we were talking about his NCAA eligibility and figured after we would never mention him here again. It turns out we were wrong, but not for a reason that we could have ever predicted. Now it appears that Etou (or more specifically his high school) misrepresented his age and he was playing high school basketball as a 20-year-old. From the little that we have read about this case it does not appear to be as egregious as the infamous Jerry Joseph case, but it makes Bishop O’Connell High, a nationally respected high school program, look bad. It appears that this development is completely unrelated to the issues that led to his six-game suspension, but the start to Etou’s college career has been one of the more bizarre ones that we have seen.
  2. Towson’s turnaround under Pat Skerry has been nothing short of remarkable. After a 3-2 start that includes a win over Temple, the Tigers will have to overcome a bit of adversity after they suspended starting point guard Jerome Hairston indefinitely for “conduct detrimental to the team”. Hairston, a sophomore was a CAA All-Rookie selection last season, has seen his scoring drop from 9.9 points per game to 5.5 this season. While the loss of a starting point guard is never a good thing, the timing works out well for the Tigers as they have almost six weeks until they start conference play.
  3. While most people have been focusing on fouls and the new rules, one of the things that has caught our eye is the change in pace at Wisconsin. As Seth Davis notes the up-tempo attack is not new to Bo Ryan even if most people associate him with a slow, methodical style based on his time at Wisconsin. Ryan is probably right in that he builds his game plan around his personnel, but he also has some say in what time of player he recruits. We will be interested to see in the coming years if Ryan continues with this trend and personnel going forward or if he reverts to the style that has served his so well during his time in Madison.
  4. We are just getting started with the 2013 version of the Maui Invitational, but on the 30th anniversary of one of the best in-season tournaments around it is as good a time as any to look back at the history of the event. In a weird way, the defining moment of the event has been Chaminade knocking off #1 Virginia in 1982 in a game that was not part of the tournament, but served as the impetus for it. However, to limit the event’s history to a game that wasn’t even part of the event would be greatly underselling the magnitude of some of the early-season games played there. So we were happy to see that they seem to have put together an outstanding field for 2015, which will be headlined by Indiana, Kansas, and UCLA. Between those three schools, they have 18 championships, which tops any event that we are aware of including the so-called Championship Classic.
  5. There were so many things happening over the weekend that we neglected to mention that Sunday night was the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony for the class of 2013. Given the depth of accomplishments of those getting inducted we hesitate to call anybody the headliner, but if we had to select someone it would probably be Elvin Hayes. It seems like as time has gone on Hayes’ place in history has largely been diminished because he does not fit into any of the neat historical narratives even if he did knock off Lew Alcindor and UCLA in the “Game of the Century” back in 1968. We want to congratulate all nine individuals and the team (1963 Loyola-Chicago) that were inducted for their accomplishments.

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Morning Five: 11.25.13 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on November 25th, 2013

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  1. Florida still has a lot of question marks hanging over its head due to injury and eligibility concerns, but they finally have Scottie Wilbekin back after they announced that the senior point guard had been reinstated and will play tonight. Wilbekin, who averaged 9.1 points and 4.9 assists per game last season, had been suspended since June for an unspecified violation of team rules, but Florida was expected to have enough depth at the guard position to overcome his absence early in the year. While they have fared well the injuries have continued to mount (the latest being Kasey Hill’s high ankle sprain) so his return will certainly be welcome in Gainesville.
  2. We always feel uneasy when we read about a player dealing with cardiac issues as we have flashbacks to Hank Gathers. So when we heard that High Point senior Allan Chaney appeared to collapse during his team’s game yesterday we feared that we might be looking at a similar situation. However, based on the reports that we have heard it appears that his internal defibrillator fired inappropriately, which is not that uncommon of an occurrence with the device. Chaney is one of two Division I players who have the device ( Utah State’s Danny Berger is the other) and his cardiac history (viral myocarditis leading the Virginia Tech doctors to not clear him and his transfer to High Point) is well-chronicled. We just hope that this is a technical issue and not a cardiac one.
  3. If you thought that there was a possibility that Devonte Graham and Appalachian State might reconcile, you can scratch that idea. Graham made headlines earlier this year when the media became aware that Appalachian State was not letting him out of his letter of intent after he shot up the recruiting rankings. If they do not release him, Graham will either have to go to Appalachian State or sit out a year and have three years of eligibility remaining. As for the former, Graham’s coach says “there’s no shot in hell” that Graham goes to Appalachian State. So it appears that either Appalachian State will have to back down (from public criticism) or Graham will have to sit out a year. Based on what we have seen in the past few years in these type of situations it seems like the latter is a more likely scenario.
  4. We have read plenty of complaints from writers and fans about the new rules, but Tom Izzo is the first prominent coach that we are aware of to speak out so strongly against the rules. Izzo, speaking after his team’s win on Saturday, criticized the use of free throws as a means to increase scoring. Obviously it is too early to judge the impact of these rules fully so we will reserve judgement on them, but if enough coaches join Izzo in their criticism of the new rules it will be interesting to see if any modifications are made by the start of new season.
  5. It seems ridiculous to already be looking forward to 2016 early-season tournaments, but the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic has already secured a headliner for its event three years from now as it announced that Duke has agreed to participate. Although the event struggles to fill its 10,000-seat arena at Mohegan Sun the addition of Duke to the field should at least ensure that the seats are not completely empty for the entire event. With the event still three years away no other teams have committed to play there, but perhaps Duke’s early commitment will draw in a few more big-name teams to increase the profile of the event.

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Morning Five: 11.22.13 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on November 22nd, 2013

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  1. It did not take long for the latest John Calipari to the NBA rumors to start this season and this time they involve the New York Knicks. Of course, this rumor is based on one writer’s belief that Calipari’s CAA ties and the team’s early season struggles will lead the two together. He does provide quotes from anonymous NBA executives who offer vague comments that seem to reflect more about the current state of the Knicks rather than about the likelihood of Calipari actually leaving Lexington for New York City. Obviously the money would be great and at some level Calipari almost certainly wants to have chance to rewrite his record as a NBA coach, but we cannot imagine that the Knicks with their high-profile job with a demanding media, atrocious salary cap situation, and even worse draft situation would be the ideal landing spot for Calipari if he wants to succeed at the NBA level.
  2. It seems crazy that just a few years ago people were wondering if Mike Krzyzewski was starting to slip as he was coaching the US National Team and routinely missing out on big-name recruits. Less than a week after landing two top-five recruits in Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones, Krzyzewski secured the #1 recruiting class this year when Justice Winslow committed to play at Duke yesterday. The announcement was not unexpected as Duke was the clear favorite coming into the announcement. With Winslow the Blue Devils now have four five-star players (Okafor, Jones, Winslow, and Grayson Allen) who have already committed to play for them next year. We will leave the issues surrounding Krzyzewski’s moves to adjust to the one-and-done era for another post, but will just say that they are interesting.
  3. It has not taken long for Rutgers and Julie Hermann to get back in the news. The school, which defended its decision to keep Hermann even after allegations of past abuse came out before she took over as the school’s athletic director, will now have to look into allegations that Hermann’s discussions with the father of a football player who was reportedly abused never actually happened. The entire thing is so ridiculous that although the parents of the football player apparently believe it we have to think that the athletic department and possibly the school will have to do something about it. Firing her might seem harsh to some, but the school has already dealt with so much negative publicity with its previous abuse incident that when combined with the questions surrounding Hermann’s hiring and this latest incident it would not be outside the realm of possibility.
  4. As usual Luke Winn’s Power Rankings are filled with useful and interesting information even if he is holding off on bringing back the Aaron Craft and Russ Smith Turnometers (to his credit, he created a VCU Turnometer although he picked the wrong day to unveil it). The two statistics that jump out at us this week are the ridiculous percentage of minutes that Kentucky‘s freshmen are playing this season (75.3%), which far exceeds what the 1991-92 Michigan or 2006-07 Texas freshmen did, and Jabari Parker‘s ridiculous usage rate (34.1%), that exceeds even that of Michael Beasley (33.5%) and Kevin Durant (31.6%). We expect Parker’s number to come back down as he gets more used to his teammates and Duke’s players adapt to playing with him. We cannot say the same for Kentucky’s freshman as we would suspect that their minutes would actually go up as the season goes on particularly for the freshmen who will be role players as they take minutes from their more experienced teammates as the season progresses.
  5. Some of you may remember the horrifying case involving Devonta Pollard‘s mother, who kidnapped a six-year-old relative in a dispute over land and a storage shed. Yesterday, a jury took less than an hour to convict her on all three counts: conspiracy, kidnapping, and obstruction. Devonta assisted the prosecution in the case against his mother and claimed that he was unaware of the involvement of his mother and other relatives until after the kidnapping. Prosecutors are recommending deferred prosecution for Devonta for his role in the case. His mother is not as fortunate as she will be sentenced on February 18 and is looking at 20 years to life in prison.

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Morning Five: 11.21.13 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on November 21st, 2013

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  1. After Friday’s recruiting coup, Duke fans have to be feeling pretty good about next season even if some of the flaws of this year’s team are starting to become apparent. Today the hopes for next season could be ratcheted up another level as Justice Winslow, a five-star small forward, makes his college announcement and based on what many recruiting analysts are saying Duke is expected to be his choice although he is also considering Arizona, Florida, Stanford, UCLA, and Texas A&M. Winslow is reportedly being recruited by Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones, the two top-five recruits who committed to Duke last Friday and played with Winslow on the US National Team. If Winslow opts to head to Durham, the Blue Devils should have the #1 class wrapped up and most likely will be your preseason #1 next season.
  2. The fortunes of Duke Mondy and Dante Williams have taken quite a turn in the past week. During their trip to play at Cal last week the two players were accused of rape charges that were quickly dropped, but were suspended indefinitely from the team for their actions although they had already been cleared of the rape charges. Yesterday, Oakland announced that the two players were back on the team after a two-game suspension. We won’t get into the moral issues of the suspension and what they did since this is not really the place to discuss that, but we will note our amusement at the school’s internal review of the incident. What investigation could the school, which has no power out in California (the school is based in Michigan), have conducted in such a short period of time? We have no problem with them letting the two play again, but the idea of a legitimate internal review seems ridiculous.
  3. There is a tendency to overstate the historical importance of sports figures and we have seen it with plenty of individuals. One individual who we feel deserves all of the praise that he has received for his social work is North Carolina legend Dean Smith. Yesterday, Smith was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey were among the other individuals honored at the ceremony. The only other men’s basketball coach who has been bestowed the honor is John Wooden. The last few years have been difficulty for Smith and his family due to health-related issues so we hope that they were able to enjoy the day and the honor.
  4. On the other side of the spectrum for North Carolina is the ongoing case of P.J. Hairston. The North Carolina junior who was last seen recreating Grand Theft Auto in the Research Triangle has been left in eligibility limbo while the school looks into his case. Yesterday, after weeks of inactivity in the case (at least publicly), Haydn Patrick “Fats” Thomas, the man linked to the rental cars that Hairston was driving, pleaded guilty to charges of possession of a firearm by a felon, drug possession with intent to distribute, and possession of drug paraphernalia from a December 2012 arrest. Thomas will be sentenced to 36 months of supervised probation, receive a suspended sentence of 23 to 47 months in jail, and must complete 100 hours of community service in the next 12 months. This case appears to have nothing to do with Hairston, but the charges that Thomas pleaded guilty to will not help his cause with UNC administrators looking at his case although the team’s poor play so far this season might.
  5. We would have loved to have been in East Lansing to witness the scene at the local Taco Bells when Michigan State students showed up expecting free tacos, but were turned away as the school had decided not to continue its promotion with the company of giving away free tacos when the team scored 70 points or more. In a move that may have prevented chaos on the Michigan State campus Taco Bell has decided to reestablish the tradition although it will be company-sponsored and not school-sponsored. We suspect with the faster pace that the Spartans appear to be playing at this season Michigan State students will be claiming quite a few free tacos this winter.

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Morning Five: 11.20.13 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on November 20th, 2013

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  1. The start of this season has certainly been challenging for Billy Donovan who has been dealing with an ever-changing roster. The latest blow came on Monday night when freshman Kasey Hill injured his left ankle in their game against Southern. The Gators got a little bit of good news when x-rays on that ankle revealed that there were no fractures and Hill is expected to be out for one month with a sprained left ankle. The timing of Hill’s return as well as that of Scottie Wilbekin who still has not played this season as Florida has a brutal three-game stretch against Connecticut (December 2), Kansas (December 10), and Memphis (December 17), which would fall right around the time. Florida will have a tough time against those three teams regardless of whether Hill and/or Wilbekin return by that time, but if both of them are still out of action it seems likely that the Gators will lose all three.
  2. When Rick Pitino heard about Kevin Ware‘s speeding ticket while using a new car he expressed his lack of interest in the situation. It appears that the Louisville compliance department feels the same way as they have officially cleared him after their investigation. Although we certainly do not approve of driving 95 miles per hour in a 45-mile per hour work zone the bigger issue surrounding Ware was his use of a 2013 Dodge Challenger that was owned by a fellow Louisville student who reportedly let Ware borrow the car to visit a friend at Western Kentucky. We are sure that some people (read: Kentucky fans) will latch onto the fact that Ware’s friend–Matt Case–works for a company that paid ran autograph sessions for former Louisville player Gorgui Dieng. That involvement would seem to warrant further investigation, but apparently not for Louisville.
  3. Over the years many teams both at the the professional and collegiate level have used strange gimmicks to try to package their less desirable tickets in with their more high-profile games. Professional teams usually do this by making tickets to the high-profile only available to season ticket holders or through multi-game ticket packages featuring games that most fans would not otherwise be interested in. Colleges often do this, but cannot do it to their students. What they can do is force them to sit through less desirable events in order to get the tickets. And that is exactly what Colorado is doing to their students who want to be there when Kansas comes to town. In order to get the Kansas tickets, students will have to sit through the entire women’s game tonight against Iowa. Think you can just show up at the beginning, walk out, and still claim your ticket? Nice try, but the school is claiming it will take away the wristbands of those who leave the game early. While this gimmick might boost attendance we are not sure how much it will add to the atmosphere as most of those in attendance will just want the game to end.
  4. It has been quite a while since we mentioned conference realignment in the Morning 5, but we guess that all good things have to come to an end. Yesterday, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that a lawsuit asking Maryland to pay the ACC $52 million as its exit fee could go forward. The lawsuit, which was filed nearly one year ago, has been in legal limbo as the ACC has contended that the case can be tried in North Carolina where the ACC is based (in Greensboro) while Maryland has argued that North Carolina has no right to sue a Maryland state-based institution for the fee. For its part, the Maryland attorney general’s office says that it is “considering its options”. We are getting the feeling that this case will go on for quite some time before finally being decided.
  5. In the wake of the 2011 brawl between Cincinnati and Xavier there were calls to cancel the series. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and the schools agreed to play the games at an off-campus site for the next two seasons. Last year’s game went off without a hitch and with this year’s game less than a month away, the obvious question arises as what to do next. At this point, it seems to be up in the air whether the rivalry will be continued at an off-campus or on-campus site, but judging from the comments it seems almost certain that the rivalry will continue. While we can understand the desire to avoid another ugly incident like 2011, it should be clear to everybody involved that off-campus events lack the atmosphere and excitement of on-campus ones.

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