1. ESPN.com released its list of the top 10 coaching jobs in college basketball yesterday. This article was a capstone piece to a week’s worth of solid analysis evaluating the best-to-worst coaching jobs in each of the six power conferences, and the overall best/worst mid-major positions as well. Just over a year ago we did a similar analysis here at RTC, ranking the top 20 coaching jobs at the time, using the general criteria of attractiveness of the position to potential suitors. This is a bit of a flash point to many fans of top programs who generally go through life with the attitude of ‘what’s not to like?’ without considering that choosing among the elite schools is a bit like dating Miss America candidates. To paraphrase a line from Garrison Keillor, everyone is above average — the differences are really at the margins. With that said, we believe that ESPN is seriously underrating Duke in terms of its job attractiveness. We understand the point about Coach K as the heart and soul of the program, but that doesn’t make the job any less enticing. What K has built there over three decades is a brand synonymous with elite college basketball — this indisputable fact alone makes the job better than the sixth best in the country. At worst, Duke should be listed as third behind Kentucky and North Carolina; but behind Indiana? Now, that’s just silly.
2. Earlier this week we learned that Mark Madsen is headed back to the college basketball world to join Johnny Dawkins’ staff as a new assistant coach at Stanford. Mad Dog led the Cardinal to its last Final Four in 1998, and won two NBA titles as a benchwarmer with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2001 and 2002. The Dagger‘s Jeff Eisenberg caught up with Madsen on Wednesday and published this entertaining interview that discusses such disparate topics as his world championship dance moves, recruiting, and the Zen Master, Phil Jackson.
3. Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes was one of the best surprises of the 2011-12 conference season, quite literally walking from high school on to the Volunteers’ roster at midseason and immediately becoming the team’s best player in a matter of weeks. This week, he and 22 of his fellow 18-and-under friends are competing for 12 spots on the Team USA Under-18 national team, and his experience of playing in a major collegiate environment for half a season gives him a distinct advantage over the others (all of whom are either still in high school or just graduating). Mike DeCourcy writes that the powerful young player is clearly a “star in the making” for Tennessee, and the additional experience he gains this summer will no doubt give him even more of a leg up on the rest of his contemporaries who have never seen the speed of high D-I basketball.
4. Luke Winn had better step away from the excel spreadsheets for a while to get ready for the London Olympics next month, because when he starts writing columns about the Herfindahl Index (HHI) to explain trends in college basketball, we know that he’s gone certifiable. It’s certainly not that it doesn’t make any sense — it certainly does — it’s just that we’re worried about the guy. Regardless of his mental health, the HHI is a business analytical tool that typically measures market share concentration, but Winn uses it in his latest column to study offensive balance among national championship teams over the last 16 seasons. Perhaps the most interesting finding from his analysis was that the two Kentucky champions covered in this period (1998 and 2012) also happened to be the most balanced teams of the era — a quirky truth separated by 14 years, a couple of coaches, and quite a bit of talent and experience. Interesting post.
5. Is NCAA head honcho Mark Emmert on the way out? Sports by Brooks reported on Thursday that it had information on good authority that Emmert was in discussions with LSU (where he served as their chancellor a decade ago) to become a combined president/chancellor with considerable power and prestige under the new position. Emmert, through a spokesman, called the report “complete nonsense,” but it brings up an interesting thought that the pull to become a president of a major state university could be considered a step up from the presidency of the NCAA. We have to admit some ignorance on this point, but LSU isn’t Michigan, and we would think that as president of an organization with a billion dollar budget the likes of the NCAA would be a better gig than whatever Baton Rouge might offer, but maybe we’re just admittedly out of touch on this point. It’ll be interesting to see regardless of whether there’s any fire with this smoke.

The 2012 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 work backwards, starting with players who are projected near the end of the first round before getting 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: Fab Melo

School: Syracuse

Height/Weight: 7’0” / 255 lbs.

NBA Position: Center

Projected Draft Range: Late First Round

After Being in Coach Boeheim's Doghouse For One Season, Fab Melo Improved Dramatically as a Sophomore (AP Photo)

Overview: After playing less than 10 minutes per game as a freshman and looking like a complete stiff, Fab Melo showed drastic improvements in his second season at Syracuse. He was one of the most indispensable parts of a 34-3 team, witnessed by the fact that the Orange lost two of their three games when Melo was not with the team. He is incredibly mobile for a seven-footer and possesses a 7’3” wingspan, making him an elite shot-blocker who dominated the paint in Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone. He averaged 2.9 blocks as a sophomore in just over 25 minutes per game, good for the best block percentage in the Big East. With improved mobility and conditioning, the big man became more of a factor offensively (7.8 PPG) on mainly lob passes and putbacks. Melo is still incredibly raw on offense in terms of one-on-one post moves, but his exponential improvement over the past year is a good sign that he can still add to his game. His impact on the game goes beyond the box score, as he alters opposing shots and game plans with his imposing defensive presence, and he also helps open up driving lanes for teammates by eating up space on the offensive end. Melo was academically ineligible twice during the 2011-12 season, including during the most crucial time of the season (the NCAA Tournament). There are still some concerns about his attitude, temperament, and ability to stay focused on basketball. But when he is locked in, Melo is a legitimate defensive force that still has much room for improvement.

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1. Coaches who are fired from their plum head coaching positions have to end up somewhere, and two former power conference guys who were not quite able to get it done at that level have resurfaced this week at a pair of unusual destinations. First, former rising star Todd Lickliter, the NABC Coach of the Year at Butler in 2007 but a miserable failure subsequently at Iowa with an overall record of 38-57, was formally hired on Wednesday as the new head coach at NAIA school Marian University, located in the same part of Indianapolis as the program he helped put on the college basketball map a decade ago. Lickliter spent last season as an assistant at Miami (OH), but will look to re-legitimize himself in the NAIA before no doubt angling for future D-I head coaching positions.
2. The other unusual coaching hire this week was former Colorado and Northern Illinois head coach Ricardo Patton taking a high school gig as the top man at Central High School in Memphis, Tennessee. Patton spent last season as an assistant at Maryland-Eastern Shore, but he has ties to the Memphis area and was interestingly enough a candidate for the Memphis (University of) head coaching position there 15 years ago. The Memphis area churns out top-notch recruits annually so the cynical side of us wonders if Patton is looking for some kind of package deal in the next few years with some future star player he latches on to at Central HS.
3. An article posited in a recent volume of The Chronicle of Higher Education suggests that conference realignment – at least from the years of 2004-11 – could actually have a significant and measurable impact on the academic standing of the school in addition to the undisputed benefits to the athletic side of things. Really? The authors state that subsequent to realignment colleges became generally more selective, their admissions yield rates were higher, and their incoming college admissions scores were greater. All of those things, if controlled for in the study, make sense, but are we really supposed to believe that Missouri’s move to the SEC or Houston’s to the Big East will make those institutions better academic schools? We’ll wait on the follow-up studies before buying into this one.
4. Did the ACC recently shoot itself in the foot – either willfully or wantonly – when it decided to include its third-tier media rights in its latest television package with ESPN for an estimated $238 million per year? Forbes’ Chris Smith argues that the league made a grievous error in failing to exclude those properties because it essentially amounts to the conference leaving money on the table and exposes it to future poaching by other leagues (ahem, Big 12) with richer deals. As he puts it, “the ACC is giving away more and getting back less.” Of course, Smith’s analysis fails to take into account the obvious academic benefits, such as BC’s 37% increase in applications after joining the ACC, right?
5. Wisconsin’s Jared Uthoff made a lot of headlines in April for his personal battle with Bo Ryan and Wisconsin over his transfer papers. Well, the redshirt freshman decided that the battle was for naught as he will move on to Iowa as his next destination and will have to sit out a year regardless of any restrictions imposed upon him by that school in Madison. No disrespect to Ryan and the Badgers intended, but Uthoff’s transfer is something that we encourage among more than everyone involved in college basketball. Let’s hope that he finds the success he hopes for at his next destination.

As we noted in Monday’s Morning Five post, the guys at Basketball Prospectus put together an interesting list evaluating the performance of last year’s top 100 freshmen. The piece compares their freshman year results (rated #1-#100) with how they were ranked in the preseason coming out of high school. Of course, this list is subjective but author Drew Cannon nails it using statistics to back up his rankings. The results are a mixed bag. While the #1 recruit (Anthony Davis) finished as the top freshman, and four of the top six recruits turned in top six freshman season performances, there was tremendous fluctuation with the other players. Four of the top 20 freshman performers jumped up at least 40 slots from where they were ranked coming out of high school. The most fascinating player in our view is Trey Burke, who entered college as the #84 player in his class and finished the season at #5 on Cannon’s list. How does such a player slip through the cracks, and what do these findings tell us about the value of recruiting rankings as they relate to immediate success?

Freshman Trey Burke Turned in a Special Season After Hardly Cracking the Top 100 of his Class (AP)

Obviously all years are markedly different, so there’s no definite conclusion to draw from just one year of data. But we took a look at the list and noted a trend. For the most part, there is not as much fluctuation at the top of these rankings as you might expect, and Burke remains a massive outlier. Consider that nine freshman players turned pro after last season, and all of them finished in the top 14 of this list. All nine of the pros were originally ranked in the top 17 last preseason, except for Moe Harkless (#39). That makes Burke such an odd case, as the #84 player from high school who finished fifth in Cannon’s performance rankings and nearly went pro after one year.

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The 2012 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 work backwards, starting with players who are projected near the end of the first round before getting 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: Terrence Ross

School: Washington

Height/Weight: 6’7”, 200 lbs.

NBA Position: Shooting Guard

Projected Draft Range: Mid-First Round

Terrence Ross Can Be Spectacular(Getty Images)

Overview: At times in Terrence Ross’ sophomore season in Seattle, he was not only the best player on the floor, but clearly the best player in the Pac-12 and on the short list of best shooting guards in the country. Unfortunately for the Huskies, while Ross was fairly consistent the whole season long (he scored in double figures in 32 of his team’s 35 games), there were times when Ross was all too willing to just coast along, disappearing in losses that likely doomed the Huskies to the NIT. For every game like his 26-point second half against Washington State, there was a head scratcher like his six-point performance on just four field goal attempts in a home loss to South Dakota State. Still, he clearly made significant strides in his second season with the Huskies. After struggling to get minutes at a crowded wing spot as a freshman, Ross was second on the team in minutes as a sophomore and his sparkling offensive efficiency numbers dipped only slightly in his increased role. His offensive game is built around a beautiful jump shot, but he’s got the defensive mettle to match his silky smooth offensive game. With good size at the wing, a good frame and the athleticism to guard the two or the three at the next level, Ross looks for all the world to be a guy with a long future in the NBA ahead of him.

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The Atlantic 10 has had perhaps the busiest offseason of any major basketball conference, highlighted by the exciting additions of Butler and VCU to the league starting immediately next season. The A-10 all of a sudden has 16 teams competing in 2012-13, causing a dilemma in seeking a balanced 16-game conference schedule. But as has been the case all offseason, the league did a terrific job at solving the problem quickly and effectively. On Tuesday the conference released its new league schedule for next season, one that includes all teams playing each other once, and each member taking on a rival opponent twice. Most notable about the set schedule is how difficult a draw was given to darling newcomer Butler. The Bulldogs are in for a much tougher slate than they faced the past several years en route to finishing third or better in the Horizon League for the past seven seasons.

Brad Stevens' Team Received No Favors from the Atlantic 10 (AP Photo/D. Phillip)

Brad Stevens’ team was already facing increased competition by upgrading from the Horizon to the Atlantic 10, but things are made that much harder by the draw they earned next year. To start, Butler’s chosen ‘rival’ is Saint Louis, a league favorite next season that returns four starters from a round-of-32 NCAA Tournament team. The Bulldogs also drew fellow newcomer VCU on the road where the Rams lost just once last season and return a number of key contributors. In addition, Butler plays on the road at Dayton, Massachusetts, and St. Joseph’s, the latter two of which are up-and-coming contenders for next season. The Flyers finished tied for fifth in the league last year and bring back some strong players, as well. Finally, although the Bulldogs drew Xavier at home, they still have to play the Musketeers a second time during the season as part of a previously scheduled ‘non-conference’ game – and it’s in Cincinnati.

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1. Are you looking to be coached by John Calipari, the man who helped develop #1 picks Derrick Rose, John Wall, and Anthony Davis? If you have $7,500, you may be in luck because that is the price that to attend Calipari’s fantasy basketball camp. Of course, if you have a Citi credit card, it is “only” $6,000 thanks to a $1,500 discount. The camp (or “Experience”) is held at Rupp Arena from September 13-16 and is limited to 80 individuals. There are also a couple of variations including one that gives you more access to Calipari and his staff as well as another option where you get to act as an assistant coach. As some people have noted, this is a relative bargain compared to the $10,000 it costs to attend a similar camp with Mike Krzyzewski.
2. There are always a lot of names thrown around when coaching jobs open up, but one name that we have never heard mentioned and is intriguing at least for the name recognition it would bring a program is Christian Laettner. The former Duke star, who last we heard was dealing with ongoing legal issues, worked last season as an assistant coach for an NBDL, but is looking to move to the NBA or potentially the right Division I program. With Laettner’s name and pedigree it would not be surprising to see him on a college sideline, but it is interesting that they did not include a single quote from a former player or coach talking about his ability to coach. This could just be an oversight by the writer or it could be something more.
3. Yesterday, we brought you Drew Cannon’s attempt to re-rank the top 100 recruits in the class of 2011. He followed that up by looking outside of the top 100 recruits to see which players made very big moves as freshmen last year. Most of you probably are not that familiar with some of the guys on this list as even though they outperformed what was expected of them coming into the season the expectations were pretty low so they may not have even registered on your radar. Like we said yesterday, have fun with these recruiting rankings, but remember that a lot can change in a year particularly with the change in environment as many of these guys move away from home for the first time.
4. If you are trying to transfer to a new school it is generally a good idea to avoid generating any controversy in order to avoid scaring off other teams. Apparently this was not a lesson that Donte Morales while he was at UNC-Wilmington. The rising junior, who is attempting to transfer, was arrested on felony drug charges yesterday morning. Morales averaged 7.2 points per game last year and can probably contribute somewhere, but charges like one for intent to sell marijuana will not have coaches beating down his door to get him to come to their campus. The details on the case are still sparse, but there is a decent chance that Morales may be sitting out at least part of his one year waiting period in prison.
5. Father-son combinations are not unusual in college basketball as you saw in the recent transfer case of Central Michigan, but they usually involve two highly accomplished individuals. The latest situation, which may occur at Kansas, appears to be a little more lopsided as Tyler Self, the son of head coach Bill Self, has decided to walk-on at Kansas to play for his father. Tyler, who averaged 3.9 points and 1.3 rebounds per game for his 7-14 high school team last season, recently told his parents of his plan and although the article does not come out and say it explicitly we would expect to see him on the roster next season unless Bill wants to sleep on the couch.

The 2012 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 work backwards, starting with players who are projected near the end of the first round before getting 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: Doron Lamb

School: Kentucky

Height/Weight: 6’4” / 210 lbs.

NBA Position: Guard

Projected Draft Range: Late First Round

Lamb Routinely Hit Big Threes Throughout His UK Career

Overview: Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Terrence Jones, Marquis Teague, and Darius Miller — it is easy to see why Lamb may be slightly overlooked entering the NBA Draft. Not overlooked by the experts and general managers, mind you, but a tad overlooked by the fans. Just how much individual attention can be given to a roster where at least five players project as first round selections? Doron Lamb proved to be Kentucky’s most reliable outside threat throughout last season averaging nearly 14 points and shooting a scorching 46.6% from beyond the arc. Despite having a good handle and being a smart decision-maker with the basketball, Lamb is a natural two guard at the next level, and would complement any established point guard very nicely. Surrounded by a roster full of future NBA players, Lamb was forced to simply become another piece in the offense rather than the focal point; at about 340 other schools in America, Lamb would have taken on the role of “go-to scorer.” As such, Lamb will have a more natural transition to the next level as he already is accustomed to playing within himself and the flow of the offense.

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Scheduling controversies have been prevalent in the news recently, most notably involving Kentucky, Indiana, and their inability to continue a classic rivalry. Supporters of both schools are upset about the (currently) canceled tradition, and rightfully so. So the fact that the SEC announced Monday that it plans to establish permanent basketball rivalries to play twice a year is a positive development in giving fans the matchups they really want to see. Even as the conference expands to 14 teams next season, top combatants (Kentucky-Florida, Auburn-Alabama to name a few) will still see each other two times every year. As part of an 18-game conference schedule, teams will also play four other opponents who will rotate in a three-year cycle twice per year, and play the eight remaining teams once per season. There are pros and cons to this new scheduling format, but the league deserves praise for its progressive decision to focus on key rivalries.

Even as the SEC Expands, Kentucky and Florida Will Still Play Twice a Year (USA TODAY photo)

The establishment of ‘permanent rivals’ is something the Big East failed to explore when it expanded to 16 teams a while ago, leaving its members to play three random teams twice per year as part of its 18-game schedule. As a result, old school rivalries like Georgetown-Syracuse have diminished. Instead of securing a home-and-home series against the Orange, the Hoyas had to travel to ‘Cuse last season and never got a rematch after suffering a painful overtime defeat. The SEC won’t have that problem going forward. Starting immediately in 2012-13, permanent rivals will see each other twice a year, guaranteed. The rivalry pairings are:

• Kentucky–Florida
• Tennessee–Vanderbilt
• Auburn–Alabama
• Mississippi State–Ole Miss
• South Carolina–Georgia
• LSU–Texas A&M
• Arkansas–Missouri

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1. With the 2011-12 season in the books and with nearly two months to reflect on the season, Drew Cannon of Basketball Prospectus takes a look back at the top 100 recruits (plus) from the class of 2012 and ranks them again based on how they played as freshmen. The rankings themselves are not that surprising since we are assuming you followed college basketball last season. Instead, the interesting angle is how these guys were rated coming out of high school. Now it is entirely possible that some of the over-/underachievers may go back to their previous position, but it is instructive to remember how quickly this can change if your team has an incoming McDonald’s All-American or some lightly regarded incoming freshman.
2. In a move that won’t necessarily swing the balance of power in next season’s national title discussion, but could influence the eventual national champion Louisville picked up a rather nice late addition in the form of former Virginia Tech commit Montrezl Harrell, who backed out of his commitment when Seth Greenberg was fired. Harrell, a 6’8″ four-star power forward, joins an already solid frontline and although we doubt that he will see many minutes overall he should provide an adequate big body next season if either of Louisville’s starters is in foul trouble or is dealing with injuries. His decision to head to Louisville should come as no surprise after Greenberg’s firing as Harrell was originally recruited to his private high school (Hargrave Military Academy) by one of Louisville’s current assistants.
3. The race for Rodney Hood appears to have been narrowed down to two suitors: Duke and Ohio State. The Mississippi State transfer, who averaged 10.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per game as a freshman last season, was one of the most highly coveted transfers available and appears to be taking his time making the decision as he intends to sit out the required one year transfer period. Adding a player of Hood’s size and ability would be a major addition for either program and there is the very real possibility that Hood might stick around that school for all three years that he has left. So while most fans will be focused in on the incoming freshman, Hood might be one of the bigger pawns to move in college basketball this offseason.
4. Most people would view the run Kansas had to become the national runner-up as impressive and something to cherish. Bill Self is not one of those people and he still has not watched a replay of his team’s loss on that Monday night in New Orleans. That is not to say that Self has not kept himself immersed in his work as he has had to redouble his efforts in the wake of a significant part of his staff departing to take new jobs as head coaches of their own programs. While some people may consider Self’s decision not to analyze that loss as somewhat strange it does not seem out of the ordinary to us as you do not win eight straight Big 12 regular season titles by looking at the past.
5. Got $5,000 to spare and looking to associate yourself with mediocrity? If you are then Colorado may have a basketball floor to sell you. The auction has not received a bid at the initial asking price of $5,000. This may seem strange to you given the cost of getting a new floor, which would be several multiples higher, but there is one major caveat: the floor, which was purchased in 1996, is being sold “AS/IS WHERE/IS”, meaning that you will have to transport it to wherever you would want to keep it. If you are wondering why the school does not just give it away to a local high school, it is because it is would be viewed as a violation of NCAA rules. Given all of the complicating factors the most likely home will probably be a local junior college or some Boulder resident with some extra cash and space for a basketball court.