What’s Trending is a column examining the week that was in college basketball social media. Matthew Eisenberg (@matteise) is your weekly host.

I did not expect to highlight a Campbell box score when the week began, but then the Camels went out and did this…

pic.twitter.com/slqBwqsj57

— Ken Pomeroy (@kenpomeroy) January 24, 2018

The Butler program experienced tremendous heartache when Andrew Smith passed away a couple years ago. His legacy, however, lives on, and Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com wrote a brilliant piece on Project 44, change borne out of the tragedy of Smith’s passing.

A story of a man named Andrew, his friend Chase, and a 2-year-old boy named Deegan who was saved by both of them. This is Project 44. https://t.co/ucpsc7HA1F

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) January 23, 2018

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What’s Trending is a column examining the week that was in college basketball social media. Matthew Eisenberg (@matteise) is your weekly host.

This week’s Whats Trending starts with a look back to last Sunday. After Arizona State beat Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse, Arizona State assistant athletic director (and friend of RTC) Doug Tammaro realizes that his wallet is about to be $500 lighter…

That moment when you might have had too much wine in Italy in August and you tell your Sun Devil daughter if we beat Kansas you will give her $500 to spend at mall (and forgot she had it on video). pic.twitter.com/Aw9HlGnPu8

— Doug Tammaro (@DougTammaro) December 11, 2017

Is it a block? Is it a charge? With two seconds left on the clock, a whistle helps save the day for Wisconsin against Western Kentucky.

Great players make great plays. Smart players make smart plays.@braddavi34 takes a charge & hits a late free throw for the @BadgerMBB victory!! #Badgers pic.twitter.com/l7rtQCXGCl

— FOX Sports Wisconsin (@fswisconsin) December 14, 2017

Bill Raftery was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame this week. Few people add as much to the color commentary of a game as Raf.

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Here we go… headfirst into another season heralded by our 2015-16 edition of Thirty Reasons We Love College Basketball, our annual compendium of YouTube clips from the previous season completely guaranteed to make you wish games were starting tonight rather than 30 days from now. Over the next month you’ll get one reason per day until we reach the new season on Friday, November 13. We’ve captured what we believe were the 30 most compelling moments from last season, some of which will bring back goosebumps and others of which will leave you shaking your head in astonishment. You can find all of this year’s released posts here.

#26 – Where Onions at the Final Four Happens.

We also encourage you to re-visit the entire archive of this feature from the 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 preseasons.

1. With Greg Anthony currently dealing with legal issues from his arrest for allegedly soliciting a prostitute, CBS has decided to go with Bill Raftery and Grant Hill along with Jim Nantz and Tracy Wolfson to call the Final Four. While Raftery is well-established as a broadcasting icon, Hill is relatively new to the field although he has some studio experience and is well-spoken. Overall it seems like a safe line-up that is unlikely to say anything controversial and although they don’t have much any experience working as a group we doubt there will be any major issues.
2. Josh Speidel, a Vermont commit, is listed as being in “critical but stable condition” at an Indiana hospital after being involved in a car accident on Sunday night. Speidel, a 6’7″ senior who is one of the top prospects in the state (25.6 points and 9.3 rebounds per game this season), surprised many observers by committing to Vermont after having received interest from several Big Ten schools. None of the other four individuals involved in the two-car crash were seriously injured. For their part the Catamounts have posted a get well video on YouTube showing their support for Speidel. There is also a GoFundMe campaign #JoshStrong to help assist his family with the medical costs related to the accident.
3. Oregon might have its share of off-the-court problems, but they don’t seem to have any problem recruiting as they received a commitment from Tyler Dorsey, a four-star guard, on Monday giving them three four-star commitments for the class of 2015 to go along with Kendall Small and Trevor Manuel. Dorsey, a 6’4″ combo guard from California, had originally committed to Arizona, but backed out of that commitment as the Wildcats appeared to head in a different direction with their recruiting. With Joseph Young’s departure after this season, Dorsey could have a spot waiting for him in the Oregon lineup.
4. One of our earliest posts on this site was one criticizing Grant Wahl’s Magic Eight, which attempted to narrow down the list of potential national champions. Wahl has since moved onto soccer, which still has less scoring that college basketball despite what some writers would have you believe, and Luke Winn has inherited the task of coming up with a Magic Eight. We can’t quite remember Wahl’s track record, but Winn is quick to point out that his own picks have been far from perfect as he failed to include Connecticut in his list. This year’s list, which requires him to leave out two of the top eight teams in the country and include a team outside of the top 15, doesn’t include any particularly shocking teams (even if we can’t see Wichita State winning) and he doesn’t exclude any big names that people realistically see winning (sorry, Gonzaga), but Winn does point out some of most significant strengths and weaknesses of each team so it is worth a read particularly if you are still trying to catch up after football ended.
5. Lost in all of the talk about President Obama’s budget is a measure that could have a significant impact on college athletics by proposing to end tax deductions for donations made to college athletics for seat-related contributions. For those of you who are unaware of the practice, when college teams sell season tickets a substantial portion is listed as a donation making it tax-deductible. By taking this away, they would in effect be raising the effective price of those tickets. We are not sure what the elasticity is for these type of tickets, but we have to assume they would have a bigger impact on programs that rely on these donations for such a significant portion of their revenues. And the government’s figure of $2.5 billion in increased revenues from taxes over the next decade from this change is a decent if not perfectly correlated indicator of the magnitude of the effect this could have on some athletic programs.

1. We have been focusing quite a bit on the academic scandals at North Carolina and Syracuse quite a bit recently, but the one that is reported to to have occurred at Southern Mississippi might lead to more immediate repercussions. According to Jason King, current Tennessee coach Donnie Tyndall is alleged to have used a scheme where “Prop 48” recruits were reimbursed for tuition, living expenses, and other fees prior to qualifying for scholarships. At issue is the way these recruits were reimbursed. As Gary Parrish points out it would be relatively easy for a program to pull something similar off, but it would require more subtlety. While potential NCAA sanctions against Southern Mississippi are obviously a concern, we are almost more interested in what will happen at Tennessee where they hired Tyndall in the wake of Cuonzo Martin’s departure and are still in the shadow of Bruce Pearl’s NCAA violations. We wouldn’t put it on the level of Rutgers’ inability to vet candidates, but it might not be that far off.
2. If you are a regular reader of the Morning Five, you are already somewhat familiar with our opinion of the graduate transfer waiver. The rule essentially allows a player who completes an undergraduate degree with eligibility remaining to transfer to another institution without having to sit out a year as long as they are enrolling in a graduate degree program that is not available at their previous school. The NCAA decided to look into how often those individuals actually complete the degree and the numbers are not pretty. Of the graduate student transfers they were able to track between 2011 and 2012, only 32% of men’s basketball players graduated from those programs and 59% withdrew as soon as their eligibility expired. We would be interested in seeing more details on this, but these statistics add ammunition to those who question the true intent behind many of these graduate student transfers. This is not to say that the waiver should be eliminated, but that schools and coaches who claim to oppose it should probably take a better look at the apparent intents of these transfers if they want to keep talking about being educational institutions.
3. Many consider Ivy League sports archaic, but few would consider their rules as being detrimental to education. That is except in the case of Columbia forward Alex Rosenberg, who will miss the upcoming season after suffering a Jones fracture in his right foot and withdrew from school this year due to an Ivy League rule that makes it essentially impossible to get a medical redshirt. On some level we understand the theory that the student-athlete should be there for school first and staying a fifth year just to play basketball seems to be a fairly trivial thing, but in a situation like this it is actually hindering his educational experience. On the bright side, it will mean that Columbia should get Rosenberg, who was a first-team All-Ivy selection last season while averaging 16 points per game on 43 percent from 3-point range, for the full 2015-16 season rather than just part of this season at most. Given the way that the Ivy League awards its automatic bid–regular season champ–this solution might work out for the best for Columbia.
4. We can always count on the NCAA to make rulings much more complex than they need to be. Yesterday, Wisconsin put out a press release saying that forward Duje Dukan had regained a year of eligibility and would be able to play this season. As Eric Clark points out, the issue is more complex than that as Dukan was denied a medical redshirt for mononucleosis during the 2012-13 season, but played in a secret scrimmage and an exhibition game that year before shutting down for the season. Although the NCAA is giving Dukan his season back they are saying that he will have to sit out for two games this season (basically two games for every game he played that year with the secret scrimmage apparently not counting toward that total). In the end, Dukan missing games against Northern Kentucky and Chattanooga will not matter in the overall picture for Wisconsin’s season, but it does serve to highlight the absurdity of some of the NCAA’s rules.
5. With the way that everything in sports are being commercialized, we do find it a little interesting that Bill Raftery is just getting around to filing a trademark for some of his (not quite yet) trademark phrases. Raftery is applying for trademarks for the phrases “Onions” and “With a kiss” when used during a sports broadcast or on athletic apparel. Given how well Raftery is associated with those phrases it certainly makes sense for him to cash in and collect a little money for himself and his family going forward. We are a little surprised he didn’t apply for a trademark for “Send it in, Jerome”, but we guess there are not that many situations where you could use that.

1. There were definite ups and downs to be found during the marathon that was the first day of Big East play on Tuesday. While those within the conference will admit that the play on the court didn’t often set the basketball world on fire, there is still belief in the future of the league as a basketball power. Commissioner Val Ackerman cites past experience when discussing this topic: “When I was with WNBA, I remember saying it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. The same should be said about the Big East. There’s a long history here, but with a new conference, what we do in the first year or two isn’t necessarily going to be indicative.” While Big East fans hope that the league makes a splash here in year one, the 10 programs aren’t going anywhere, and there is plenty of time for this new-look conference to get its legs under it.
2. Creighton wasn’t great offensively in its first ever Big East game, but the Bluejays’ defense was able to stifle a struggling Marquette offense, leading to a 67-49 win on New Year’s Eve. Creighton only shot 40 percent from the floor, but they were able to known down 13 threes and kept up with a bigger Golden Eagles’ squad in the paint, where they were only outscored by four. While this win was huge for Creighton — its first-ever in a power basketball conference — the performance is perhaps more telling about Marquette, whose well-publicized offensive struggles seem to be getting worse, not better. The Eagles were the preseason favorite to win the league, but without improvement soon, Marquette will struggle to punch a ticket to the Dance come March.
3. Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery are going to become very familiar voices for Big East fans (if they weren’t already), especially those who watched the entirety of Tuesday’s basketball marathon.  The team called noon’s Xavier–St. John’s game in Cincinnati and then hightailed it to Indianapolis for Butler–Villanova at 7:30. The IndyStar spent time with Fox Sports 1’s top team on the bus between games, allowing the two to reminisce about some of their favorite Big East and NCAA Tournament memories. Spoiler alert: Butler fans are going to appreciate this far more than… say… Syracuse, Kansas State, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, Florida, or Wisconsin fans.
4. In anticipation of Tuesday’s Creighton/Marquette clash, Andy from Anonymous Eagle and Jacob Padilla from The Creightonian got together for an enlightening Q&A discussion. Among the topics covered: Bluejay fans’ excitement for this season and the Big East conference; the importance of the McDermotts to the Creighton program; Marquette’s early season struggles; and the best places to get a beer and a bite to eat in Omaha. Even though it predates the game won by Creighton, both pieces are still fun reads. Check out Jacob’s answers here and Andy’s here.
5. To round out a very ‘Creighton vs. Marquette’ heavy M5 this morning, we have footage from a raucous CenturyLink Arena crowd.  On one play, the sold out crowd belted out Neil Diamond’s stadium staple “Sweet Caroline” after the arena speakers had already cut off the song, and it seemed to throw off the Golden Eagles, who promptly turned over the ball. You can judge for yourself, but NBC Sports‘ Rob Dauster seems to think the crowd played a part in the play.

Here we go… headfirst into another season heralded by our 2013-14 edition of Thirty Reasons We Love College Basketball, our annual compendium of YouTube clips from the previous season completely guaranteed to make you wish games were starting tonight. For the next three weeks, you’ll get two hits of excitement each weekday. We’ve captured what we believe were the most compelling moments from last season, some of which will bring back goosebumps and others of which will leave you shaking your head in astonishment. To see the entire released series so far, click here.

#11 – Where 27 Portions of Onions! Happens.

We also encourage you to re-visit the entire archive of this feature from the 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, and 2012-13 preseasons.

1. Renowned college basketball stats guru Ken Pomeroy released his preseason rankings for the upcoming season. The Big East comes in as the second best conference in the nation, behind the Big Ten. This is surprising after Louisville, Syracuse, and several other quality teams left, as well as seeing ESPN writer Dan Hanner have the Big East in the middle of the pack of the power seven conferences. Pomeroy has Creighton leading the league, ranked 13th, with Georgetown right behind them at 14. Marquette and Villanova follow at 24 and 26. Pomeroy’s rankings look fairly different than Hanner’s, which has Marquette as the top team in the league and ranks the bottom seven teams lower giving the Big East a much lower rating. Pomeroy admits that his predictions have the “simplest algorithm possible without being a complete joke.” This is not the best way to predict how well a team will play during the season, but it is fun to see what a respected statistician says about the upcoming season. The high ranking for the Big East should give fans optimism and reason to believe the Big East will compete to be one of the top conferences in the nation.
2. CBS Sports writer Jeff Borzello wrote an interesting piece about the team outside his top 25 that he thinks has the most potential and St. John’s was his clear cut choice. With so much talent, it is easy to see why. The Red Storm return all five starters as well as Jamal Branch and God’s Gift Achiuwa, who will have major roles. He points out that the biggest addition is freshman Rysheed Jordan. Steve Lavin said “He has tremendous poise and makes good judgments on the court. He plays with a hard edge, which is an indication of his competitiveness and that’s why he has had success since a young age on the court.” Jordan was named Big East Preseason Rookie of the Year and his addition raises the potential even higher. Last year’s team also had talent, but a lot of inexperience. This year players like D’Angelo Harrison and JaKarr Sampson will have to take a big step forward in becoming more complete and smarter basketball players. Lavin will also have to impress this year after having a reputation for being a great recruiter, but not being able to win with top talent. All the pieces are in place for this to be a big season in Queens.
3. Last night, Butler scrimmaged against Nova Southeastern and won handily 101-64. Obviously it was an easy game for them, but it is still nice to see it wasn’t close, as opposed to DePaul‘s scrimmage against Lewis University, which saw the Blue Demons trail at halftime before using an early run in the second half to win by five. Zak Keefer of the Indianapolis Star took a look at Butler freshman Rene Castro. Castro is a point guard who looks like he could end up being a key contributor this season and possible starter by the end of the season, as Keefer predicts. Castro has a good bit of improving to do especially on the defensive side of the ball and needs to adjust to the college game, but he has impressed and is working hard on his outside shot. First-year coach Brandon Miller could use Castro’s physical abilities to bring another aspect to the team. If Castro is the real deal, he could make sophomore Kellen Dunham’s life much easier by using his quickness to get into the lane and kick it out to him for three’s. Castro has big goals, saying “Our goal is to make the NCAA Tournament and fight for a championship.”
4. The Big East is benefiting from the thrilling World Series on Fox, as Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal points out. Fox is airing several commercials publicizing the upcoming season on Fox Sports 1 and is reaching millions as game 4 on Sunday night outdrew the NFL. The commercials are pushing it’s opening night games of Providence-Boston College and Lafayette-Villanova. Fox Sports also announced its lineup of announcers for the upcoming season. Besides the already announced star combo of Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery, Justin Kutcher, Dick Stockton, Thom Brennaman, Brian Anderson, Eric Collins and Kevin Kugler will have play-by-play duties and Kevin O’Neill, Gary Williams, Donny Marshall as well as several other former players and coaches will serve as analysts. FS1 has some big names announcing games with Stockton and Brennaman being well-known announcers who have plenty of experience. O’Neill and Williams should be interesting to have in the booth as they will be making their debuts, but have had great success coaching and will have interesting analysis.
5. The Big East announced that it has hired Tom Jernstedt as senior adviser. He will be tasked with helping commissioner Val Ackerman on officiating, scheduling, postseason play and an entire strategic plan. Jernstedt worked for the NCAA for almost 40 years and Ackerman says that “few have as keen a grasp as he does of the intricacies of the NCAA and the college basketball world.” ESPN’s Dana O’Neill makes the point that the hiring is very important as it gives the Big East credibility from the start. His past experience will be key in getting the Big East through the tough early stages of establishing itself as a power conference. Their is a lot of work to be done and Ackerman will benefit from having someone who knows the ins and outs of the NCAA and the college basketball world.

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

The college basketball viewing experience in enhanced by exciting play-by-play commentary. This is not a difficult concept to grasp: Watching games on TV is more fun when the people explaining the dynamics of those games, a) know what they’re talking about; b) don’t go off on too many Vitale-ian tangential rants; and c) employ proper diction and tone, using the inflection of their vocal cords, to accentuate the most thrilling moments. There are but a few commentators who have genuinely mastered their craft, and needless to say, Bill Raftery is one of them. This name should sound familiar; Raftery’s ties to Big East hoops run deep – he’s practically synonymous with ESPN’s “Big Monday” series. When the foundational core of the league’s membership broke off from its unglamorous Conference USA cohorts this season to form its own 10-team conference, taking the Big East league name out the door, it signed a new media rights deal with Fox and ended its long and fruitful connection with Big Monday. That left Raftery with a rather crucial decision to make: Stick with ESPN, where he became part of one of the sport’s best broadcast teams with Jay Bilas and Sean McDonough? Or follow his Big East roots to the upstart sports network Fox Sports 1 (set to debut on August 17)? Raftery wisely chose the latter, and college hoops fans will very much appreciate the implications of his decision.

Adding Raftery is a fantastic move for Fox Sports 1’s college basketball broadcast team (AP).

If Raftery is the most professional hoops announcer in the business, Gus Johnson is easily the most exciting. Johnson, one of Fox’s top play-by-play men across numerous sports (including college football and soccer), was already set to become a part of Fox Sports 1’s Big East coverage. Raftery joined Fox with the understanding he’d be allowed to continue calling Big East games. I’ve basically drawn the dots for you – now all you have to do is connect them. YES: Johnson and Raferty will be calling games together next season. Fox confirmed the dream pairing in a release last Thursday.

“Adding a renowned, popular veteran like Bill Raftery to a family of announcers at FOX Sports that already includes many of sports television’s biggest names is an incredible coup,” said FOX Sports Executive Vice President and Executive Producer John Entz. “More importantly, in teaming Bill with Gus, we have reunited the most energized, entertaining college basketball broadcast team ever, and we can’t wait for them to work their first game.”

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In a move that everyone seems to agree probably should have happened back in December, Rutgers finally fired basketball coach Mike Rice for everything from demeaning his players with gay slurs to winging basketballs at their heads. The school’s announcement bases the decision on recently revealed information, which is really just PR-speak for “that damning video we have already seen that has finally been broadcast to a national audience,” and after watching the video multiple times, it is hard to believe that the Rutgers athletic department had previously let Rice off with a short suspension and fine in December.

No One Will Be Sad To See Mike Rice Go

When the suspension was announced in December and athletic director Tim Pernetti explained that it was because of a pattern of abusive behavior from Rice, it shouldn’t have surprised many who have observed him patrolling the sidelines. The Pittsburgh native and former Robert Morris head coach quickly developed a reputation based on his fiery coaching style and general hotheadedness but those traits were usually cleverly disguised as “energy,” “passion,” and “competitiveness.” Just look at what some of the sport’s most recognizable names had to say about Rice after Rutgers hired him away from Robert Morris (Bill Raftery’s remarks about Rice understanding “what the kids need after the game and during the week” are especially unfortunate in light of recent events). There were definitely some raised eyebrows when the stories of Rice’s abusive behavior and basketball-throwing tendencies started to leak, but it wasn’t until people actually saw the video that the outrage became a dull roar.

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