1. Five-star combo forward Aaron Gordon ended the suspense on Tuesday morning and announced he’d be signing with Arizona. Gordon chose the Wildcats because of an immediate chance to win a national championship, and for the fact that head coach Sean Miller has a reputation of developing rough-around-the-edges bigs into NBA-ready wings. Gordon has shown a high motor and basketball IQ while playing for Archbishop Mitty (CA), and his ability to dominate any position on the floor made him a huge get for Miller’s program. He joins small forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and shooting guard Elliott Pitts in the 2013 Wildcat recruiting class. To view what our very own Parker Baruh wrote on the addition of Gordon to an already stacked Arizona team, click here.
2. The Ed Rush story remained fluid on Tuesday, as Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott announced that Rush wouldn’t be fired for the comments he made to Pac-12 officials on the Thursday and Friday of the Pac-12 Tournament. Scott provides some context into which the comments were made in the article above, and while they certainly make things look better, Rush still has to go. Bottom line is, ethical lines were crossed, the integrity of the conference’s officials, the people that we count on to be fair, was compromised, and this will be in the back of everyone’s minds whenever a questionable call is made for years to come. Adam Butler breaks down what we probably all had going through our minds the past couple of days here.
3. Only in America would a college athletic director be upset over a hashtagged phrase that originates from a Tyga song. I seriously thought this was a joke when I started reading it, an April Fool’s prank that came a day late. But no, Florida Gulf Coast athletic director Ken Kavanagh was dead serious when he complained about USC using the phrase #DunkCityUSC, coined by the Trojans after hiring away FGCU coach Andy Enfield. Perhaps Kavanagh should focus more of his time on finding a new coach instead of getting in a ridiculous fight over a cute phrase. Just a thought.
4. Washington State announced on Tuesday that former head coach George Raveling would be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on November 24 later this year. One of the winningest coaches in Cougars history, Raveling took WSU to a pair of NCAA Tournaments and developed such greats as Craig Ehlo and James Donaldson in his 11 years on the Palouse. The current director of international basketball for Nike will be inducted in Kansas City along with six other coaches, teams, players, and contributors.
5. After an afternoon interview with commissioner Larry Scott, new UCLA head coach Steve Alford was introduced in Westwood at a press conference broadcast live on the Pac-12 Networks. It’s a new era for the Bruins, who hope that their 13th head coach will lead them to success seen in the early years of the Ben Howland era, and not in the controversial and frustrating last few. Alford was very humble throughout the conference, calling the job a great challenge while also being gracious of his time in Albuquerque.

11.11.07

Story of the Night. Our preseason F4 picks are UNC, UCLA, Indiana and Gonzaga, so it’s no surprise that we really like the Zags this season. Imagine our own surprise, however, when we learned just before tipoff of today’s #16 Gonzaga-Montana game that Josh Heytvelt will miss the next 4-6 weeks with a stress fracture in his foot. Given what we know about these sorts of things, we wonder just how effective he’ll be when he gets back. Obviously, without Heytvelt, the Zags have no chance to reach their first F4. Or do they? Heytvelt’s replacement, 6’10 freshman forward Austin Daye, put on a show in his first game, going for 20/10/2 blks on 8-13 shooting and 2-2 from long range. Daye’s performance along with Jeremy Pargo’s high-wire act (he totally went B-Diddy on one of his dunks) and 17/5/5 asts were more than enough as Gonzaga put down Montana without much of a problem. If Heytvelt can come back healthy in January, this team is going to be a major player next March. (Gonzaga 77, Montana 54). One other comment from this game’s coverage on FCS Pacific – commentator Craig Ehlo needs to go back to guarding MJ or something; dude is terrrrible.

Things We Saw. We got to see pieces of five other games today, and here were our impressions. #4 Kansas once again showed just how good they can be, while never actually showing us how good they are. We never had a moment where we thought they were playing all that well, and yet they still won by 23. There were four missed dunks by the Jayhawks during the game, tons of missed foul shots (16-31), and still… UMKC was never really a threat to win in Allen Fieldhouse. Mario Chalmers was the lone bright spot, going 8-13 (6-9 from three) for 23 pts, but Bill Self said they have to get better at many phases of the game if they expect to do anything significant this year (Kansas 85, UMKC 62). Another game we watched was #11 Oregon v. Pacific. Judging by tonight, if there was any doubt as to whether Tajuan Porter can take over for Aaron Brooks, let that notion be put to rest. Porter was scintillating with 28 pts on 10-15 shooting (5-8 from three) and acted as much a leader as we had previously seen from him. Malik Hairston added 20/6 and Maarty Leunen contributed 17/10 in a well-balanced attack against a Pacific team that hung in there. We’re expecting big things from the Ducks this year (Oregon 80, Pacific 64). The Pittsburgh-St. Louis game was a little boring, but it showed us (once again) just how good of a coach Rick Majerus is, as the Panthers didn’t put the game away until a minute to go. If SLU can play like this all season, they’ll be a factor in the A10 race (Pittsburgh 69, St. Louis 58). We didn’t catch as much of the #17 Stanford-UCSB game as we would have liked, but we noted that Stanford once again handled business without much sweat, as Anthony Goods (23/6) outplayed Gaucho star Alex Harris (18/2) in the battle of the guards (Stanford 67, UCSB 48).

Upset Alert. Two minor ones. Nevada will need to win these games if it expects to make it back to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight time (UCF 63, Nevada 60). And Cincinnati dropped its second home game in a week tonight – the Bearcats are a long way from “Big East competitive” at this point (Bowling Green 69, Cincinnati 67).

Line of the Night. Michael Beasley (Kansas St.). Again. Only 30/14 tonight in a 29-minute, 5-foul performance against Pittsburg St., a D2 team. It should be noted that K-State was down 40-38 at halftime to this team, though.

On Tap Today (all times EST). 43 games, including Indiana’s debut and a solid test for Duke at home (i.e., not NC Central).

• Indiana (-24) v. Chattanooga 7pm – Eric Gordon makes his long-awaited debut.
  
• Duke (-17) v. New Mexico St. (ESPN2) 7pm – if Duke is playing with a chip this year, they’ll win this by 30.
• Syracuse (-15.5) v. Siena (ESPNU) 7pm – looking forward to seeing freshmen Flynn and Greene(oh wait, we don’t get ESPNU).
• LSU (NL) v. SE Louisiana (ESPN FC) 8pm – Anthony Randolph, anyone?
• Missouri (-14.5) v. Central Michigan (ESPN FC) 3pm – year 2 of 40MoH begins.
• Oklahoma (NL) v. Alcorn St. (ESPN FC) 8pm – more Blake Griffin.
• Texas (NL) v. Texas-San Antonio (ESPN FC) 8pm – DJ Augustin is our favorite PG.
• Ohio St. (-15.5) v. Wisconsin-Green Bay (ESPN2) 9pm – first game since the Findlay debacle.
• Oregon (NL) v. W. Michigan (ESPN FC) 10:30pm – third game in three nights – any tired legs?
  
• UCLA (-28.5) v. Youngstown St. (ESPN2) 11pm – first chance to watch K-Love’s superb outlet passing – haven’t you heard?