Our intern comes through with a great set of links again today.

• With Pat Knight suspended for one game, Ray Glier at NBC says blame coaches for the sport’s poor behavior.
• With Arkansas Little-Rock right in the thick of the Sun Belt Conference Title race at 20-7 (13-3), Coach Steve Shields has kicked his leading scorer off the team.
• Michigan coach John Beilein defends his decision to bench star Manny Harris for OT in the crippling loss to Iowa.
• Better late than never. . . Joe Sheehan at BP with his BracketBusters wrap-up.
• Dennis Dodd thinks Kansas is just that good, but he acknowledges that Blake Griffin averages double the nine-point difference in the game.
• Searching For Billy Edelin thinks that Georgetown is cooked. So does the Dagger.
• Former Ohio State point guard Jamar Butler likes the wacky weed
• Former SI writer Steve Rushin comes out of nowhere to write a brief essay about Marquette basketball
• The Bracket Board takes a look at the stretch run to win conference tournaments
• Apparently Kyle Whelliston loves Gordon Hayward just as much as we do. He also takes the time to break down the mid-major game of the night.
• AP thinks that the Buckeyes miss their early entrees to the draft last year…So maybe that’s why BJ Mullens doesn’t play
• Forget the tournament, Mike Brey just wants “to make it interesting”…Umm Mike, thats nice and all, but I am not sure Fighting Irish fans or boosters agree with you.
• Andy Glockner at SI becomes the latest to analyze the bubble watch.

We’ll be bringing you these Fast Breaks more frequently thanks our new intern who will be sending me the best of the web, which I will then filter and send out to you, our loyal readers.

• Seth Davis doesn’t think the NCAA tournament should expand.
• A bunch of bloggers trying valiantly, but failing to match the standard set by RTC’s own Zach Hayes. Searching For Billy Edelin has their own prediction for the field of 65. So do Shawn Siegel.
• RTC friend Jeff Goodman has made an all-freshman team that is pretty solid. I like the fact that he included Gordon Hayward (Butler) on there with all the BCS guys.
• Will Smith is a either a fan of Brian Collins or he is a devoted follower of Rush the Court. I’m going with the latter.
• Outside the Lines with a report on “package deals” in college basketball.
• Jameson Fleming drops some Zone Defense knowledge on you.
• Mark Schlabach makes the questionable argument that Elliot Williams is the answer at the point for Duke. So Jeff Teague having his way with you is a credential for good point guard play…but I guess its not that bad an argument.

Lot of good links today with many of them follow-ups of stories we have reported on in the past.

• Apparently the Miami coaches were onto something when they suspended Eddie Rios indefinitely earlier this month because he was arrested yesterday afternoon on charges of burglary and grant theft.
• I’m sure you remember Aubrey Coleman‘s “curbing” of Chase Budinger‘s face from this weekend and his subsequent 1-game suspension. Well, things have gotten messy as apparently Coleman and Houston’s athletic department have been getting threatening e-mails filled with racial slurs and the FBI has been called in. Side note: I like how Houston coach Tom Penders is blaming ESPN for its editing of the video claiming that it is the cause of the backlash against Coleman.
• Tubby Smith is not leaving Minnesota (at least not for Alabama). Anthony Grant can continue to sit next to his phone.
• Interesting article by Luke Winn about Wake Forest’s James Johnson‘s fighting background. All I know is that if there is a “Malice at the Palace” moment with Wake this year, I’m taking the Demon Deacons in that one.
• Speaking of Wake, Dino Gaudio appears to be a big fan of the Pomeroy Ratings and other voodoo mathematics.
• Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette surveyed 50 media members for their picks for the National Player of the Year at this point in the season. Like Michael, I haven’t seen much stuff done on this yet. Look for a running column similar to this out of Rush the Court in the near future.
• Kelvin Sampson is still complaining about the NCAA’s penalty even though he is in the NBA now. Let it go, Kelvin. Let it go. . .
• A fairly long piece talking about the effect of moving the 3-point line back a foot. Summary: It has decreased the number of 3-point shots only marginally (18.42 per game from 19.07 last year) and decreased 3-point percentage slightly (34.32% from 35.23% last year).
• Vegas Watch with an interesting piece on the impact of seeding in the NCAA tournament.
• Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt offers his thoughts on the prep-to-pro issue. While I agree with him on some stuff I am not sure how you could legally differentiate a Lebron James from a Kwame Brown or worse yet a kid who entered the draft, but was not selected.
• Seth Davis plays “Jigsaw Man” looking at a dozen top 25 teams, identifying their weakness, and picking out a player who does not play on that team that could eliminate the weakness. Interestingly theoretical exercise, but I’m not that sure what to do with it. Example: NJIT. Weakness = Talent/Inability to win (more than 1 game in a row). Missing piece: UNC’s or UConn’s players.
• Speaking of SI writers, where is Grant Wahl’s annual “Magic 8”? I hope rtmsf’s “deconstruction” of last year’s Magic 8 (and subsequent e-mail conversation about the Magic 8, life, and haircare products) did not convince Wahl to give up on writing about college basketball.
• File this one under “Jokes that I would really like to make, but can’t. . .” Jin Soo Kim, the first Korean to earn a D1 basketball scholarship, has been ruled academically ineligible at Maryland.
• Patrick Stevens of The Washington Times with an interesting list of the D1 coaches with the longest tenure. Perhaps it should not be that surprising that only 3 of the coaches in the top 10 come from major programs with all the trouble Gary Williams has been having.

We have a pretty nice set of links for you today.

• Thayer Evans and Pete Thamel of the New York Times with a great piece about the influence of Skip Prosser on the current Wake Forest team. Many people don’t realize that Prosser was actually the architect of this team as he recruited all of the current players. However, a great deal of credit has to go to Dino Gaudio for keeping the team together after Prosser’s death in 2007. I’m guessing this will become a bigger story if Wake Forest can stay near the top of the polls late into the season.
• We have touched on the APR issue before, but now it looks like the NCAA is looking at extending APR ratings to include coaches. I am not sure if this is necessary since coaches rarely switch schools over short periods of time and I have a feeling the methodology will be questioned on how a student-athlete’s academic performance at a school will affect a coach’s APR after the coach has left that school.
• Arkansas freshman forward Brandon Moore has been suspended indefinitely on DUI charges. I’m not naive enough to believe that underage college students won’t drink, but getting a DUI while being underage. . .
• Another story out of the SEC as Alabama’s Ronald Steele has decided to forgo the remainder of his senior season citing ongoing injury issues. It is a sad end to what was a promising career. I still remember some of the hype coming out of the South about this explosive guard. We wish Ronald the best and hope he at least got a good education at Alabama.
• Pete Thamel with an interesting piece on Arinze Onuaku, who will likely be the key to Syracuse’s chances of making a run deep into the tournament in March.
• An interesting account of Bill Self‘s recent interaction with John Wall, the #1 recruit in the nation. I’m amazed that Self could be this reckless, but to be honest this seems like a rather minor infraction compared to other stuff that goes on.
• Seth Davis with his take on NCAA’s policy regarding the length of time a player has to enter the NBA Draft and come back to college.
• A depressing article about former West Virginia star Kevin Pittsnoggle. I’m sure there are several NBA teams who could use a big man who can shoot.
• Vegas Watch with a mid-season look at the best odds for his top 10 title contenders and the odds he would take them at. Although it is not as exact (calculating the likelihood they would win each round based on their expected seed) as some of his other work, it is still an interesting read.

A new set of Fast Breaks to get your “work” week off to a good start. . .

• Congrats to Don Meyer for breaking Bobby Knight’s all-time NCAA win mark. I’m guessing this will get a 10 second mention on SportsCenter so we thought we would honor Meyer here.
• The New York Times with an analysis of the coaching tenure by conference. It is interesting how much longer the ACC coaches tenure has been. The ACC number is obviously boosted by Coach K’s 28+ year run at Duke. I’m not sure if the difference are significant. Does this mean that ACC programs are more successful or that the administrators there are more lenient? Either way I don’t think a conference’s average length of tenure should matter as much to a recruit as a specific school’s track record.
• Ohio State transfer Anthony Crater will be heading to Tampa to play at USF. A pretty big pick-up for a team that will likely finish DFL in the Big East.
• RTC touched on academics and basketball a few months back, but a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution piece (h/t to The Big Lead for finding this) goes well beyond that (imagine that full-time journalists. . .) analyzing SAT scores of football players (it is a Southern newspaper) compared to their “classmates”. Anybody who went to school with big-time athletics programs realizes what a joke the term “student-athlete” often is. We’re planning on digging into this issue (with a basketball focus obviously) a bit more in the near future. It also makes you wonder what kind of grade inflation is going on if someone with a reported 890 SAT (I don’t care if that was as a 9th grader) can pull a 3.81 GPA.
• A look at Belmont almost 10 months after they nearly knocked off Duke in the first round of the NCAA tournament. I doubt Vince Gill goes to many regular season games.
• A look at how Jamie Dixon is motivating Pittsburgh even after they rose to #1 in the polls. I guess I can see what he is saying since they are only the #3 team in Vegas.

This is the last installment of Fast Breaks for the calendar year, but it’s a loaded one with lots of news before the New Year’s ball drops.

• After being spoiled by ridiculously talented freshmen the past two years (Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, and Michael Beasley), it appears as if we have returned back to normal. While there are several talented diaper dandies out there, none of them has really caught our eye as the next big thing. Pete Thamel gives a short run-down of the candidates for freshman of the year at this point. I’d be interested to hear what you guys have to say about this year’s class because quite frankly I haven’t been that impressed.
• Syracuse has announced that Eric Devendorf will be reinstated and is expected to play this Tuesday against Seton Hall in their Big East opener. Devendorf has completed the necessary requirements (missing 2 games and performing 40 hours of community service) that the school’s University Appeals Board asked of him for hitting a female student in the face. I’m expecting this to have some sort of anti-Sterger effect on female applications to Syracuse.
• Jai Lucas appears to have found a new home in Austin, Texas with Rick Barnes and the Longhorns. Lucas decided to transfer out of Gainesville late this summer with most people speculating that it was based on a lack of expected PT in the upcoming season. I’m not exactly sure how going to a better program in Texas will lead to more minutes, but I guess Jai has his reasons.
• Speaking of the Gators. . .UF recruit Austin Rivers, son of Doc (the head coach of the world champion Boston Celtics), led his high school team to a win over nationally-ranked Marietta-Wheeler (GA). Rivers put up 46 points including 30 in the 1st half. We still don’t have word if Doc let him start the next game or made him play JV after his career night.
• In a surprising story, Anthony Crater, a highly rated PG coming out of high school last year, was granted a release from his scholarship by Thad Matta. I’d be interested in hearing some of the reasons behind this. It looks like Crater hasn’t been getting much time on the court this year, but it’s really early to be deciding to leave Ohio State just based on that. If any of the Buckeye fans (or haters) have the inside scoop, I would be interested to hear it.
• Seth Davis with a look back at the Super Saturday games and a few recommendations on how to make them even better. Seth might want to remember that the “antiseptic environments” he refers to from Super Saturday are probably better than where the Final 4 is played at every single year.
• Kansas will be adding another giant to their current crop with 7-foot tall Jeff Withey transferring from Arizona to Kansas. Withey’s decision appears to be related to Lute Olson’s retirement in October.
• The New York Times recently ran the inspiring story of Kevin Laue, who could probably beat any of our readers one-on-one despite the fact that he was born with one playing arm. It’s definitely worth a read and we wish Kevin the best of luck in his search for an offer from an Ivy League school.
• Think you have a rough week ahead of you? Try trading places with Rutgers coach Fred Hill who takes his Scarlet Knights up against #1 UNC, #2 UConn, and #3 Pittsburgh in the same week. On the bright side, only 2 of the 3 games are on the road so Hill at least gets a shot at Pittsburgh in New Jersey. I’m guessing their strength of schedule might go up a little bit this week.
• Kevin Armstrong with a look at the changes at Duke that have resulted from Nolan Smith replacing Greg Paulus as the team’s starting guard. While Paulus was often overmatched physically against bigger, stronger guards, I think he could make an excellent backup/change of pace for the Blue Devils in March as he rounds into shape.
• Rick Pitino wants you to know his team’s problems are all mental. He also wants you to know Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish will not be walking through that door.
• Apparently, Rick left a few of his books back in Rupp Arena because Billy Gillispie wants you to know that the Wildcats can get better. To be fair to Billy, the Wildcats have certainly been much better than what they were like at the beginning of the season, but I don’t think any of us have been wondering if the Wildcats have been playing great basketball recently.

It’s been a while since we did this consistently, but now that we actually know which games will be played more than 24 hours in advance it’s time to get back into our routine of providing you with the best college basketball links we find each day. If you find something that you think would be of interest to other college basketball fans, leave a link in the comment section and we’ll include it in the next Fast Breaks. Some of these are a few days old, but we have some catching up to do. . .

• Dana O’Neil with a look at the gray areas in recruiting top prospects. It makes us long for the days when Pete Bell bought Neon Bodeaux with a Lexus that he didn’t even ask for.
• Seth Davis with his annual “Ten sophomores ready to break out” selections, which selects the sophomores that he expects to have big years after relatively quiet freshman years. This eliminates obvious selections like early national POY favorite and thespian Blake Griffin.
• Kevin Armstrong with his very early season freshmen All-American. Having seen Greg Monroe against Tennessee last week (there’s a post coming about that someday) I agree with Armstrong’s assessment of the Hoyas big man although I wish Monroe would become a bit more aggressive, but I guess seeing freshmen like Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley has spoiled me.
• Xavier will have to wait one more year before Jordan Crawford can suit up there after the NCAA rejected his petition to not miss a season following his transfer from Indiana. Score another one for Kelvin Sampson.
• ESPN with a look at the transition at Bucknell. Do they really have NCAA 2nd round banners?
• We wrote about the passing of Pete Newell a few weeks ago, but last night approximately 200 people gathered in Berkeley, CA to remember him.
• It looks like Tyler Hansbrough is healthy enough to save lives. Last night, Tyler responded to the “challenge” posed by RTC columnist John Stevens. The question now is will Psycho T keep on playing or continue to be day-to-day?

There are a few newsie items floating around out there today…

• It looks like Iowa will have to turn to someone else for offense as last year’s leading scorer Tony Freeman announced he is transferring to Southern Illinois. Apparently Iowa didn’t value his ability while SIU gave him the respect he wanted. It should be noted that Freeman averaged 13.8 PPG on 37.6% FG shooting and isn’t even ranked in Chad Ford’s Top 100 prospects or any other draft site’s projections.
• Jeff Goodman is reporting that the nation’s top recruit, Brandon Jennings, still hasn’t officially qualified for enrollment at Arizona.  Well, there’s always the D-League, eh, Brandon?
• IUPUI coach Ron Hunter gives us reason to believe in humanity again. 
• Andy Katz listed the results of his polling of various NBA scouts, GMs and other dignitaries, and since it’s Insider, we have no problem stealing it (see below).  There were 26 responses, and each response got one vote as to whether a player would be in the lottery.

Unanimous selections (6)

Jerryd Bayless, Fr., G, Arizona — 26
Michael Beasley, Fr., F, Kansas State — 26
Eric Gordon, Fr., G, Indiana — 26
Brook Lopez, Soph., C, Stanford — 26
Derrick Rose, Fr., G, Memphis — 26
O.J. Mayo, Fr., G, USC — 26

Near-consensus (4)

Danilo Gallinari, F, Italy — 25
Anthony Randolph, Fr., F, LSU — 24
Darrell Arthur*, Soph., F, Kansas — 22
Kevin Love*, Fr., C, UCLA — 22

Last four spots

Russell Westbrook*, Soph., G, UCLA — 21
D.J. Augustin, Soph., G, Texas — 18
DeAndre Jordan, Fr., C, Texas A&M — 17
JaVale McGee, Soph., C, Nevada — 13

Also receiving multiple votes (11)

Nicolas Batum, F, France — 9
Joe Alexander*, Jr., F, West Virginia — 6
Chase Budinger*, Soph., F, Arizona — 5
Donte Greene*, Fr., F, Syracuse — 3
Kosta Koufos, Fr., F, Ohio State — 3
Robin Lopez, Soph., C, Stanford — 3
Chris Douglas-Roberts, Jr., G, Memphis — 2
Roy Hibbert, Sr., C, Georgetown — 2
J.J. Hickson*, Fr., F, NC State — 2
Brandon Rush, Jr., F, Kansas — 2
Marreese Speights*, So., F, Florida — 2

*Still hasn’t officially signed with an agent.

Hope everyone had a superb weekend…

• Former GW and St. John’s head coach Mike Jarvis is reportedly resurfacing at Florida Atlantic University, not to be confused with fellow resurfacer and former FAU coach Matt Doherty (toiling his wares at SMU (24-37) the last two seasons).  And yes, we know you were wondering, but “Coach Doh” is now “blogging,” as the kids are calling it.  His posts on “Pizza and Ball” and “C-Paul” and  simply brilliant – Agent Zero has nothing on Doh.   
• Kansas Associate AD Jim Marchiony says nothing to see here with respect to the Darrell Arthur grade-changing scandal in high school.  If Arthur were returning to KU next year, he may face some kind of suspension (assuming all of the allegations are true), but Kansas’ role in validating his HS transcript probably ended when it was accepted by the NCAA Clearinghouse. 
• Scout came out with its final Top 100 Seniors of 2008 – Arizona’s Brandon Jennings is their top choice.  #71 on that list, Emmanuel Negedu, wants out of his commitment to Arizona, citing coaching confusion as the reason for his change of heart.  Gary Parrish stays in the Pac-10 to rate UCLA as his top class of 2008 (5 players in the top 50).   
• We know that Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose will be 1-2 in next month’s draft, but who will be the #3 player selected?
• Are Coach K’s Olympic Team commitments taking a toll on Duke?
• Egads, so Billy Gillispie isn’t a drunk swimming in hotel pools with topless coeds after all?!?!
• Oh my, in the Reverand Wright vein of knowing who you associate with, please tell us that Barack Obama knows about these photos of one of his top aides, former Dookie (and TeaBagged) Reggie Love.

It was a semi-busy weekend as the last few players thinking about declaring for the NBA Draft waited until the Sunday night deadline to make their decisions public…

• The biggest news is that UCLA guard and all-american Darren Collison will remain in Westwood for his senior year.  It will be an interesting six weeks at UCLA as Ben Howland will await word on which of the remainder of his starters will come back (among Josh Shipp, Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute).  We predict Shipp and Mbah a Moute will return. 
• In a parallel situation across the country, UNC’s sixth man Danny Green became the third Tar Heel to declare his intentions to test the waters, joining teammates Tywon Lawson and Wayne Ellington.   In a related vein, STF posits that UNC ’09 will be must-watch tv next winter.  We would tend to agree, but only if we can make a deal with ESPN that Vitale/Patrick are nowhere near any of those games.  If not, all bets are off.      
• Other early entry news.  UConn’s Hasheem Thabeet is sticking around for his junior year, while USC freshman Davon Jefferson will sign with an agent and is leaving for good. 
• In case you were wondering, Big East POY and Pitt forward Sam Young will remain in school for his senior season.  Along these lines, Vegas Watch thinks that the Big East is in a position of strength (losing the least talent) going into next season.  Jeff Goodman backs that up by putting 8 teams in his post-early entry, pre-draft deadline Top 25. 
• Reviews are so far mixed on whether Stanford’s hire of Johnny Dawkins was a good one.  Here’s a good one a mediocre one, and a not-so-good one. 
• This is why using only stats to decide a champion is absurd.  No way in hell are 92 Duke and 96 Kentucky not 1-2 (either way).