The new APR rule is a fact. 930 Or Bust is happening. So let’s talk about it.
On the ESPN blog last week, Diamond Leung, a gentleman we’re happy to file under Official Friend Of RTC, posted an article in which he listed the 12 teams that would not have been eligible to compete if the new APR standard had been applied to the 2011 NCAA Tournament. #1-seed Ohio State? Watching from home. Kawhi Leonard and San Diego State? Sorry, they’d have been studying for finals and not playing basketball. Leung also noted how eventual champion Connecticut would not be invited to the 2012 edition to defend its title since, according to the latest numbers, over the 2006-07 to 2009-10 academic periods the Huskies managed an APR of just 893. They could go undefeated throughout the entire 2011-12 season and it wouldn’t matter. In that scenario they’d win as many NCAA Tournament games as Centenary.
Bill Carmody and Northwestern (18-13) May Have Been Dancing Last Year, Had the New APR Rule Been In Play
Mr. Leung’s article got us thinking: if there would have been 12 fewer teams in the Dance last March, who would have replaced them? Among the unlucky 12, seven were automatic qualifiers through conference tournament titles and five were at-large entries. A quick examination of who would have replaced the disqualified teams shows how putting a binary, all-or-nothing, you’re-in-or-you’re out emphasis on a specific number would have affected the Tournament; as you’ll see, the reverberations go deeper than just the aforementioned 12 teams.
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
General News
USA 112, South Korea 68: “Continuing their domination of Group D play, Team USA secured their third consecutive +30 point win over a Group D opponent Monday as they defeated South Korea 112-68 in the University of Shenzhen’s Main Gym.” (Villanova by the Numbers)
USA 102, Hungary 53: “The USA men’s team upped their World University Games record to 2-0 with a dominant performance over Team Hungary Sunday in the University of Shenzhen’s Main Gym.” (Villanova by the Numbers)
Cal Men’s Basketball Escapes Upsala Basket, 76-74: “A win is a win, right? In an ugly, uneven game, the Cal Bears outlasted Upsala Basket by a slim, two-point margin. Allen Crabbe, Richard Solomon, and Brandon Smith lead the way. To be fair, senior standouts Jorge Gutierrez(ankle) and Harper Kamp (knees) did not play. Both Justin Cobbs and Robert Thurman had rough games, particularly on the defensive end.” (California Golden Blogs)
Fab Melo Helps Brazil Start World University Games 2-0: “Fab Melo and the Brazilian National Team are off to a great start in the 2011 World University Games.” (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
Bruce Pearl Would Like To Sell You His Home: “With his future still up in the air until the NCAA decides just how much his stupidity should be punished, former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl is divorcing himself from the mansion he purchased a few years ago. The 10,000 square foot home sits on a golf course and can be yours for a cool $2.69 million.” (Kentucky Sports Radio)
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
General News
USA 108, Mexico 67: “The USA men’s team opened their play in Group D with a solid 41 point win over Team Mexico.” (Villanova by the Numbers and The Daily Gopher)
USA 102, Hungary 53: “After opening the World University Games with a win over Mexico, Team USA moved on in pool play to face Hungary and the result wasn’t much different as the Red, White and Blue coasted to a 102-53 win.” (Kentucky Sports Radio)
Villanova Upended by Netherlands: “At 2:00 pm the Nova Nation again turned to twitter to follow the action in Almere, Netherlands as Villanova faced off against the Netherlands National Team. Like Friday, the fans hung on to every tweet but listened glumly as Villanova fell to the Dutch, 75-63.” (Villanova by the Numbers and VU Hoops with video)
Villanova loses to Georgia 54-87: “Ice cold shooting was the theme for the Wildcats over the last two games. Villanova shot just 26.6% from the floor in today’s 54-87 loss to the senior national team of Georgia” (VU Hoops)
Second half of Boost Mobile Elite 24 roster announced: “In an attempt to add to the nonexistent drama surrounding the selection of high school basketball all-star teams, ESPN Rise has released the names of the final 12 selections for the Boost Mobile Elite 24, which will take place August 26-27 in the city that fake gave us Hulk Hogan, Venice Beach, CA.” (Kentucky Sports Radio)
Cal Men’s Basketball Defeats Solna Vikings 89-71: “Cal lead this one right from the tip and cruised out to an early 24-13 lead with seven different Bears showing up on the scoreboard. By half, they had built the lead up to 48-30. Allen Crabbe lead the way with 25 points, and new point guard Justin Cobbs had a strong debut with 12 points and 6 assists. Robert Thurman also had a strong game off the bench with 14 points and 8 boards.” (California Golden Blogs)
Recruiting
Alex Poythress visits Kentucky: News about his visit to Lexington. (Kentucky Sports Radio: Part 1 and Part 2)
Stefan Jankovic: A New 2012 Target?: “It’s been a popular assumption that A.J. Hammons and Gary Harris are Matt Painter’s only outstanding targets for the class of 2012. But if 6’10 Stefan Jankovic’s final list is any indication, Matt Painter might be casting a wider net than we all expected. Purdue has made Jankovic’s final list along with Wake Forest, Georgetown, Florida State, and Missouri.” (Hammer & Rails)
Analysis
Conference Expansion and Basketball: “With all this talk of conference expansion, the focus is placed on how these new, potential schools will fit into the football landscape of the SEC. That makes sense because the majority of money generated from college athletics is done so through the football program. The biggest television deals, the biggest postseason payoffs and the largest single school revenues are made through football. However, we are proud members of a basketball school. UK does our football program is a big deal, but it has nowhere near the excitement surrounding it that the basketball program has and it probably never will. So how does SEC expansion affect basketball?” (Kentucky Sports Radio)
Mind the Gap: Louisville basketball: A look at who the Cardinals are returning this season. (Rumble in the Garden)
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
General News
Steve Adams Heading to America Soon: “Well, I won’t bury the lead in this. In a story that gushes over Steven Adams is this big, big nugget. ‘Adams is set to graduate High School in New Zealand at the end of this year and will then transfer to Notre Dame Prep for the 2011-12 season to gain some American high school experience. He becomes eligible to play for Pittsburgh in 2012-13.'” (Pitt Blather)
Mark Emmert Says “Thanks But No Thanks” To Pay For Play: The NCAA president opposes the proposed pay for play ideas. (Kentucky Sports Radio)
Villanova Loses to Senegal 69-64: “The Villanova Wildcats opened their summer playing tour in Europe with a loss to the #36 ranked (FIBA) Senegal National Team, 69-64 in a game played in suburban Paris.” (Villanova by the Numbers and VU Hoops)
Cal Men’s Basketball Scrimmage Highlights: Video clips and impressions from the scrimmage. (California Golden Blogs)
Cal Basketball Non-Conference Schedule Features UNLV, SDSU, Georgia: “Whether through luck or planning, Mike Montgomery’s Bears have faced an unusually tough non-conference schedule over the last two years. 2010-11 included eventual top seeds Kansas, Notre Dame and San Diego State. In 2009-10 Cal had Ohio St., Syracuse, Kansas and New Mexico. Both sets of tough schedules were mixed blessings – Cal generally had solid RPI and strength of schedule numbers, but they also suffered a number of early losses that seemed to damage Cal’s national reputation – for whatever that’s worth. For better or worse, that almost certainly won’t be the case next year.” (California Golden Blogs)
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
General News
The Death of Desmond Allison: The former Kentucky Wildcat, who was a high school star in Tampa before his two controversial seasons in Lexington, was shot yesterday in Columbus, Ohio. (Kentucky Sports Radio: News and Retrospective)
KFC Yum Center named one of world’s top arenas: “In its first year of existence, the KFC Yum Center (you forgot the exclamation point, bro) is already being honored as one of the world’s top arenas. Pollstar, a trade publication covering the worldwide concert industry, tabbed the Yum Center as the 24th-best arena in the world and 10th best in the United States in its 2011 mid-year rankings.” (Card Chronicle)
Ricky Kreklow reportedly chooses Cal: “For the past few weeks, rumors have been swirling that Missouri transfer Ricky Kreklow would be the newest addition to the Gonzaga Bulldogs. He visited campus a few weeks ago and most fans were simply waiting for confirmation he would join the team. Well, we can cancel all that. Kreklow has decided to transfer to Mike Montgomery and Cal.” (The Slipper Still Fits)
With the the NBA Draft concluded and the annual coaching and transfer carousels nearing their ends, RTC is rolling out a new series, RTC Summer Updates, to give you a crash course on each Division I conference during the summer months. The latest update comes courtesy of our Pac-12 correspondent, Andrew Murawa.
Reader’s Take #1
Summer Storylines
The More, The Merrier: The Pac-10 is dead. Long live the Pac-12. The conference welcomes in Colorado and Utah for their first season in the conference, the first expansion in the West Coast’s premier conference since Arizona and Arizona State were added 33 years ago. Along with the new teams comes a new schedule – gone is the full home-and-away round robin. While there won’t be divisions in basketball like there are in football, each team will play an 18-game schedule with home and away games against its traditional rival, with six other rotating home-and-away series and four additional single games against the remaining teams. For instance, Colorado and Utah will only play the Southern California schools and the Washington schools once each, while they will play the remainder of the conference twice. While neither of the new schools are expected to make a big splash immediately in the conference, their arrival, coupled with other changes around the conference, such as the huge new $3 billion TV deal with ESPN and Fox that begins in the fall of 2012, makes it an exciting time to be a Pac-12 fan.
Is There A Draft In Here?: Last summer, a big story around the conference was the dearth of Pac-10 players picked in the NBA Draft, as just two players from the conference were selected by NBA teams in 2010. After the 21 players that were picked in the conference between the 2008 and 2009 drafts, that was a precipitous fall. And, back before the season started, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of future high draft picks on the horizon. However, the conference had six players picked in the NBA draft, including three first-rounders and two lottery picks. Derrick Williams, the 2010-11 conference player of the year, led the way, getting snapped up by Minnesota with the #2 overall pick. Unfortunately for teams around the conference, 12 seasons of eligibility were left on the table between those six picks and the two early entries who went undrafted: Stanford’s Jeremy Green and Washington State’s DeAngelo Casto. And as a result, what had looked like a potential big-time bounce-back season for the conference now sees somewhat diminished expectations. Perhaps no team was hit harder by early defections than UCLA, who had Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee leave a total of three years of eligibility behind to go get second-round NBA draft picks (and the absence of guaranteed contracts that goes with them) at a time when the NBA labor situation is highly in doubt, but Washington State’s loss of Casto and lottery pick Klay Thompson also leaves the Cougars’ situation fuzzy at best.
Replacing Production: Between the early entries to the NBA Draft and departed seniors, the Pac-12 loses its top seven scorers from last season, and 11 of its top 20. Likewise, ten of the top 20 rebounders are gone. However, as always, a new batch of youngsters is ready to show up on campuses this fall and begin contributing immediately. While the Pac-10 inked only nine of the ESPNU top 100 recruits, seven of those players are exciting young guards, all ranked in the top 60 on that list. Arizona leads the way, signing point guard Josiah Turner (#14 overall, according to ESPNU) and Nick Johnson (#21), to go with a couple solid frontcourt signees (Angelo Chol and Sidiki Johnson, #60 and #91, respectively). But Washington (Tony Wroten, Jr., #16), Oregon (JabariBrown, #25), Arizona State (Jahii Carson, #49), UCLA (NormanPowell, #51) and Stanford (ChassonRandle, #59) all have their own big backcourt recruits ready to provide a burst of energy.
Derrick Williams' performances were one of the highlights of the 2010-11 season.
Throughout the summer RTC contributors Zach Hayes and Brian Otskey will discuss the hot topics — or whatever comes to mind — around each major conference in college basketball. This week, they tackle the expanded Pac-12. For the entire summer series focusing on each of the six power conferences, click here.
Zach: Let’s face it: it hasn’t been smooth sailing for the Pac-10 (now Pac-12) conference since the 2008-09 season when players like Darren Collison, James Harden, Jon Brockman, Chase Budinger and Taj Gibson starred, or even dating back to the year prior when a Kevin Love-led UCLA team edged the Lopez twins, upstart Washington State and O.J. Mayo’s USC Trojans for the title and a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Every conference, even powerhouse leagues like the Big East and ACC, will occasionally suffer through dry spells in talent in today’s early entry era, and this league just happened to hit a lull when notable blue-bloods UCLA and Arizona struggled simultaneously. This even led to discussions regarding whether the Pac-12 could realistically be a one or two bid representative. Sure, there was actually some quality basketball played out West, but fans of this conference secretly hoped for a renaissance sooner than later.
Most had their eye on the 2011-12 season for just that moment. The plan was for UCLA to be rebuilt and reloaded, Arizona competing nationally under Sean Miller, Washington’s Isaiah Thomas entering his senior season and proud programs like Stanford and Oregon back on track. Unfortunately, this road to success has hit some potholes. Malcolm Lee and Tyler Honeycutt both decided to remain second round picks rather than continue their UCLA careers. Derrick Williams blossomed from unheralded to underrated to #2 overall pick and understandably bolted from the desert. Klay Thompson saw his stock rise and departed Pullman. In a more controversial move, Stanford’s Jeremy Green did the same. The biggest hit was Isaiah Thomas leaving Washington and ultimately being selected #60 overall. The Pac-12 had a chance to make a significant move up the conference ladder in 2011-12. While improvement is still in the cards, I’m left wondering this summer what could have been.
Miller spurned Maryland to remain in Tucson
The debate this offseason will be whether Arizona or UCLA should begin the year as the favorite to take home the conference crown. Arizona lost Williams and their enigmatic but ultra-talented point guard MoMo Jones to a transfer closer to home, but enter the crown jewel of Sean Miller’s top recruiting class since taking the gig in Josiah Turner. Turner is most comfortable in attack mode, penetrating the defense and utilizing his tremendous court vision to find open teammates. Miller is blessed with plenty of ammo both in the backcourt with Kyle Fogg, Kevin Parrom, Jordin Mayes, Brendon Lavender and four star freshman Nick Johnson joining Turner, as well as in the frontcourt with Solomon Hill and Jesse Perry back in the fold joining two more talented newcomers. The issue for Miller won’t be depth, but rather finding that one impact player that can score 17-18 PPG per night and take/make the big shots when the chips are down. Whether it’s Fogg, Parrom, Hill, Perry or another candidate, one of these former secondary cogs must make a significant leap forward or Arizona will be a collection of enviable talent, but one without the singular on-court leadership of Williams. If Arizona can’t do so, UCLA could very well bring the title back to Westwood because I firmly and confidently believe Josh Smith develops into one of the best big men in the college game next season.
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
General News
Former Kentucky Student Assistant To Play For Turkey National Squad: “Forever a former Wildcat in our hearts, Enes Kanter was listed among 18 players set to play for the Turkish National Team on their finalized roster. Kanter mentioned a handful of times that he would like to play for Turkey in the event of a lockout, so seeing this made official doesn’t come as much of a shock. Kanter will be joined by a few other NBA players including Hedo Turkoglu and a few other players you aren’t familiar with.” (Kentucky Sports Radio)
FIBA U19 World Championship — USA Defeats Australia For Fifth Place: Team US was unable to win gold, but knocked off the Aussie in the 5th place game. (Villanova by the Numbers)
Erik Murphy Receives Deferred Prosecution: “Remember the incident at a St. Augustine bar in April that produced arrests for Florida basketball players Erik Murphy and Cody Larson? Murphy’s taking deferred prosecution for his part, according to the Orlando Sentinel, an arrangement that should keep him from doing time and in the Florida program.” (Alligator Army)
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
General News
2011 recruits on campus; Norvel Pelle in summer classes to reach eligibility: “St. John’s banner class is coming to Queens, New York, home of Union Turnpike and a short F-train ride to the bright lights of Manhattan. There’s more excitement for this banner class to hit campus than any other recent season of St. John’s basketball. Most of the players are flying in from their home cities to begin the grind of the Big East… but will all of them suit up in the red and white this fall?” (Rumble in the Garden)
Kentucky To Wear LeBron James Brand Next Season: “According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Kentucky will be joining Miami University and Ohio State University as the three teams that will be wearing LeBron James branded Nike jerseys next season.” (Kentucky Sports Radio)
Kenner League in Review: Recapping the action from the summer league featuring several Georgetown players. (Casual Hoya: Day 3 and Day 4)
On Thursday, the University of Kentucky issued a statement claiming that it was in error in celebrating John Calipari’s 500th win on February 26 after beating Florida, and that in future media guides and any published material it would depict Calipari’s career win total with the vacated wins from his time at Memphis and Massachusetts subtracted.
Behold, the Statistic In Dispute, From Kentucky's 2010-11 Factbook
Here’s what happened. At the beginning of the 2010-11 season, Kentucky considered Calipari to have logged 480 wins (vacated wins not removed), while the NCAA officially listed him with 438 (42 wins removed). The NCAA evidently considered it to be a slap in the face when Kentucky had its small post-game display to mark what UK considered Cal’s 500th win on February 26, as well as the fact that its media guides and website ignored the NCAA’s removal of the wins from Calipari’s record. It asked UK to change it and alert the media that the celebration of Calipari’s 500th was erroneous. Kentucky’s compliance office responded to the NCAA, but they were unmoved and sent another missive, again pressing for the change. And the reason the NCAA knew about this and went down this road was…a tip from a fan of a rival program.
[Ed. Note: You can read the correspondence between the NCAA and Kentucky here. It’s pretty interesting. And we’re not sure how Lexington Herald-Leader sportswriter Jerry Tipton could ever comfortably show his face in Lexington again.]
This was the right move by Kentucky. It wouldn’t make any sense for the program to go out of its way to position itself on the NCAA’s bad side, and 42 wins is simply too small a prize to justify the continued poking of that bear. At some point John Calipari will move on and either coach somewhere else or retire. Kentucky won’t care how many wins John Calipari has then, but we guarantee the NCAA would remember it if Kentucky decided to openly defy them. As we all know, the NCAA is still judge, jury and executioner in this biz, and if anything should come up in the future, you’d rather they have a more favorable opinion of you. Kentucky noted the error, didn’t apologize — one really wasn’t warranted, though it sounds like that’s what the NCAA wanted — but promised to make the adjustment the NCAA asked for. And let’s be honest — if those are the rules everyone has to play by, then justice really was done here.
