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

• Leslie McDonald Tears ACL in NC Pro-Am Game: UNC was dealt a major setback with McDonald’s injury, which could keep him out for the entire season. (Carolina March)
• Bullock Cleared To Play: Reggie Bullock returned to the court last week for the first time since early March. (Tar Heel Fan)
• Anthony Hubbard Leaving Iowa: The controversial recruit is leaving the Hawkeyes before ever stepping on the court for them. (Black Hearts Gold Pants)
• Arizona’s Jordin Mayes’ foot surgery is a bigger deal than you might think: An update on how Mayes is doing following his foot surgery. (Arizona Desert Swarm)
• So, Maryland Assistant Dalonte Hill is Making $300k: “That’s what the Baltimore Sun’s Jeff Barker is saying, via a source. Which, in case you were wondering, is actually a couple dollars more than the entire assistant staff made during the 09/10 season.” (Testudo Times)
• The Annual Syracuse Basketball Summer Slimdown Is On: An update on the Syracuse guards attempting to lose 10-15 pounds over the off-season. (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
• Kenner League Day 5 In Review: Tyler Adams Debuts, Otto Drains from Deep and Greg Monroe Returns: A recap of the action in the Georgetown-laden summer league. (Casual Hoya)

1. North Carolina’s Leslie McDonald tore his right ACL in a summer league game on Thursday night and there’s fear he might miss the entirety of the 2011-12 season. The rising junior was seventh in minutes for last season’s Tar Heels and fifth in scoring (7.0 PPG), but second in made threes (51) and three-point percentage (38.1%). Despite McDonald’s obvious increased confidence and improved play last year, minutes at the guard position would have been tough to come by in the upcoming, with Dexter Strickland, Reggie Bullock, and Kendall Marshall comprising a formidable corps and P.J. Hairston en route. It is, nevertheless, a significant hit to the Heels’ depth in terms of both outside shooting and experience, though we’re not sure how much it moves the needle back toward Kentucky in terms of the pre-season #1.
2. Anthony Hubbard spent four years in the hoosegow after a 2003 home robbery, then worked hard to get his life back on the right track by graduating from high school and then becoming a junior college basketball star in Maryland. With two seasons of eligibility left, he was slated to start at Iowa next year, but that’s not going to happen. Hubbard, a 6’5 guard, has decided he wants to try to find a school closer to his home in Virginia, so he’ll leave Iowa without having ever donned the Hawkeye uniform. Can’t blame either side, here. If Hubbard thinks this is the best thing for his life on and off the court, then he’s right to go before the relationship went any farther. Given the time, effort, and faith Fran McCaffrey and his staff put into bringing Hubbard to Iowa, though, you can’t blame Iowa AD Gary Barta for admitting his and his staff’s disappointment (as he does in the story) while still wishing Hubbard the best.
3. “Ladies and gentlemen, your Rutgers University Scarlet Knights!…aka Ned Stevens Gutter Cleaning!!” Please allow yourself time to check out how the (Newark) Star-Ledger’s Brendan Prunty (a favorite of ours, by the way) ties those two entities together, but suffice to say that some players on next season’s Rutgers squad are enjoying some very valuable time together playing in the Jersey Shore summer league. Hey, it might not be one of those team trips to Europe or China, but it’s still two extra months to work on team chemistry both as players and as gentlemen, and that never hurts.
4. People who like math major in mathematics. Students who play the cello can be cello majors. Should college athletes, then, be allowed to major in their sport if they want? Seems like that idea hasn’t ever really been taken seriously, but we hear someone make the case for it every so often; this time, Arizona State’s StatePress.com steps up and gives it a shot. In their proposed paradigm, obviously athletes would have to take basic requirements just like students with non-athletic majors, and the author notes how, even for those players who don’t end up playing professionally in their chosen sport, there may still be several career options for which such a major could prepare them. We add the following question: does the bachelor’s have to be the terminal degree? It would be pretty fantastic to be the first person with a “ChD” — a Doctorate of College Hoops.
5. The college basketball story of the summer may have (unfortunately, as it happens) arrived. On Sunday, 60-year old David Salinas was found dead in Houston, apparently of suicide. Salinas founded a summer basketball program for local kids when he wasn’t acting as an “investment adviser.” CBS’ Gary Parrish and Jeff Goodman have reported that the suicide appears to be a result of the feds’ investigation of Salinas’ allegedly fraudulent business practices. The college basketball angle is that many coaches — we’re talking some big names, as you’ll read in the linked article — entrusted quite a bit of their money to Salinas, and his summer program may have helped funnel some recruits to certain schools represented by those coaches. The link between the players and the money hasn’t been firmly established as of yet, but you know the NCAA is watching this very closely. So are we, and we’ll have more up here as events warrant.

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

• Syracuse Basketball Exhibition Slate Includes Cal-State Los Angeles, College Of St. Rose: “The Orange will begin the 2011-2012 season with their usual two exhibition games in the Dome and they’ll playing two familiar exhibition foes, Cal-State Los Angeles and College of St. Rose. The Orange and the CSULA Golden Eagles will square off on Tuesday, November 1, and SU will host the CoSR Golden Knights on Tuesday, November 8.” (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)

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1. It’s one thing to win a national player of the year award, but it’s quite another to parlay (trifecta?) your fame into having a race horse named after you.  JimmerMania has now officially jumped the shark with the news out of Saratoga (NY) that a two-year old colt owned by Elliott Walden and WinStar Farms was named “Jimmer.”  What… no The?  The connection is that the wife of Glens Falls (NY) HS head coach, Tony Hammel, works on the barn staff at WinStar and suggested the name to the owners.  We may have to wait a while to see The Jimmer on the game’s greatest stage, but if you have some free time this summer, you can always take the New York State Thruway up a bit past Albany to see his equine namesake eating some oats, trotting around a track, and whatever else it is that these elegant animals do.  (h/t Larry Brown Sports)
2. An otherwise mundane story by Gary Parrish about Kentucky freshman Anthony Davis‘ presence in Lexington and the allegations surrounding his recruitment last summer that suggested the player’s family took $200,000 caused a bit of a firestorm Tuesday night on Twitter.  The article rehashed last August’s report from Chicago Sun-Times writer Michael O’Brien that Davis’ father negotiated a deal to send his son to UK, but Parrish was careful to articulate that there have been no further allegations to that effect and that the support for it was “thin.”  UK’s sports information director DeWayne Peevy later tweeted out about “one media seat that will be available at Rupp this year,” a clear shot across the bow of Parrish for daring to write about the Davis situation.  Quite a few in the twitterati (including ourselves, a group who have collectively had nothing but good experiences with the Kentucky administrator) were surprised about the reaction, and an hour later Peevy tweeted that he may feel differently tomorrow, but he is always going to “protect [his] kids.”  Protect them from what, exactly, we’re not certain.  Having now carefully read Parrish’s article several times, we fail to see much to get excited about, but we’ll presume that everyone will come to their clearer senses today and this thing will be soon forgotten.
3. Speaking of UK, A Sea of Blue did an interesting recent analysis of the value per win among the ten highest-paid coaches in college basketball over the last two seasons.  Forgiving the standard disclaimers that the sample size is very small and ASoB’s assumptions of valuation are mere estimates, the data shows that from 2009-11, at least, Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun and Ohio State’s Thad Matta provide the most bang for the buck.  Add Calhoun’s 2011 national title to the mix, and it’s quite clear that the irascible New Englander has been well worth the money, despite what Ken Krayeske has to say about it these days.  Interestingly, Louisville’s Rick Pitino finishes tenth on this list, making the second-most money (tied with John Calipari, but behind Mike Krzyzewski) but earning the fewest overall wins and zero NCAA wins in this two-year period.
4. The most hated man in basketball apparently has trouble even impressing collegiate stars these days.  Marquette’s rising senior guard Darius Johnson-Odom is coming off some time spent at the LeBron James’ Skills Academy this summer, and to hear him tell it, his team defeated the world’s greatest runner-up twice while he was there.  When queried as to playing with James, DJO said, “he’s a solid player” with a straight face before elaborating about the “King’s” passing skills.  Realizing that the game has changed an awful lot in the intervening years, we still have to wonder what might have happened if some young guy circa 1989 had beaten Michael Jordan’s team in pick-up ball.  And then said in an interview that he was “solid.”  Is there any question, really?
5. Ken Pomeroy is nothing if not creative.  In a blog post yesterday, he brought to light what he calls ScheduleMatic, a new algorithm that attempts to solve the problem of worthless early season mismatches by pitting two similarly-talented local teams in competitive games.  Call it KenPom Fantasy Camp, if you like, but what he suggests makes sense.  One of the particularly annoying problems we’ve derided for long on this site is that the college basketball season begins with a whimper.  For the past couple of years, a random early November Monday has served as “Opening Night,” and nobody outside of our insular community much cared.   As Pomeroy puts it, “with ScheduleMatic, 344 compelling games [each team plays a home and road game] are added to the first week of play, each with some doubt surrounding the outcome. Exciting finishes would be frequent and every team would have a significant test or two on which to be judged early.”  Even he recognizes that the NCAA and its participating schools would never go for something like this, but perhaps his creative thinking on the topic will help the suits in Indianapolis and Bristol continue to think through more interesting ways to start the regular season.  [note: both the Veterans Day aircraft carrier game and the 24 Hours of Hoops are examples of this kind of thinking; we just need more if it.]

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)

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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)

1. In a somewhat shocking turn of events at the FIBA Under-19 World Championships in Latvia, Team USA lost 79-74 Friday to Russia in a quarterfinal game where the Yanks simply could not throw the ball in the ocean from outside the arc (0-9).  Nor, apparently, could they defend it, as Russia dropped 12 threes on its end, making it virtually impossible for a team lacking much of an inside presence to win the game.  The American team regrouped to throttle Poland on Saturday before finishing the tournament by beating Australia, 78-77, Sunday to take the fifth place trophy (USA’s worst showing since 2003, also a fifth place finish).  Connecticut’s Jeremy Lamb was the undisputed leader of this team, averaging 16/4 in taking 53 more shots than anyone else on the team, but the surprise of the squad may have been Creighton’s Doug McDermott, the 2010-11 MVC ROY but someone that most national fans haven’t yet heard of.  The rising sophomore went for averages of 11/6 in the tournament and proved the only player on the roster capable of reliably hitting threes (39.3%) — keep an eye out for this future March Madness hero in coming seasons.
2. So what happened to cause a disappointing fifth place finish (Team USA was expected to win gold or silver) in Latvia this year?  Luke Winn writes that the hordes of A-list stars who opted to stay stateside this summer — from UNC’s Harrison Barnes to Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger — had an obvious impact; but he also mentions some of the chatter from NBA GMs and scouts who openly suggested that some of the players didn’t take the competition seriously enough.  Whether this is yet another indictment of the infernal AAU system in America, or simply a matter of players foolishly failing to recognize that the rest of the world can play too, we’re not sure.  But the fact remains that USA Basketball is nowhere near as fearsome of an entity as it once was — especially at the younger levels.
3. We always talk about ranking the programs on the measure of how well they put players into the NBA, but that doesn’t always give us the entire picture.  For example, a school might have ten players in the League, but they may all ride the pine.  Another school might have half that many total players, but three or four of those could be All-Stars.  Dollars for Ballers took a stab at this problem by considering player salaries.  While @SportsGuy33 persuasively argues that NBA salaries are not always commensurate with talent and productivity (hello, Rashard Lewis!), it’s a better proxy than none at all.  So given this, would you believe that Michigan State’s five players — Jason Richardson, Zach Randolph, Morris Peterson, Shannon Brown, and Charlie Bell — had the highest salary average at $7.76M than any other school with at least three players?  Duke, with its 13 total pros, many of whom have been around for a while, collected nearly $90M in salaries last season.  Really, the only way to do this kind of analysis accurately is to tie programs to individual and team outcomes, but this is a decent start.
4. Some players get tattoos and carve messages into their hair to rep for their families; incoming Kentucky freshman Michael Gilchrist decided to change his name.  According to his tweet on Friday afternoon, one of the best freshmen in the country has officially changed his name to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.  He chose to add Kidd to his existing surname to honor his deceased uncle, Darrin Kidd, a mentor who suffered a fatal heart attack on the same day MKG signed his letter of intent last year; and, of course, his father, Michael Gilchrist, Sr., was shot and killed fifteen years ago.
5. On a sad note, former TCU head coach Neil Dougherty died last Tuesday during a jog in Indianapolis.  He wasn’t carrying identification and is not a local resident — he was in town as part of his current job with iHoops, an NBA/NCAA joint initiative — so after passing during the run, his body was kept as a “John Doe” until last Friday when his identity was revealed.  Dougherty was a long-time assistant throughout the 80s and 90s, most notably at his home-state school of Kansas under Roy Williams, and his age of only 50 years has many folks in Lawrence and Fort Worth shaking their heads.  He leaves a wife, Patti, and three children.  RIP, Coach Dougherty.

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

• Tony Jones to be named head coach at Alcoa High School: “”Former Vol assistant and interim head coach Tony Jones will apparently be sticking around the Knoxville area: Alcoa High School will hire him as its next head basketball coach as early as tomorrow, according to sources within Alcoa City Schools.” (Rocky Top Talk)
• USA Squeezes by Lithuania, Takes Control of Group F: A recap and statistical analysis of Team USA’s close victory over the Lithuanians. (Villanova by the Numbers)
• USA Loses by Two to Croatia: Team USA was not as fortunate the next day against Croatia as they were unable to hit the necessary shots at the end up, but will advance to single-elimination play. (Villanova by the Numbers)

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

• Tony Delk officially named NMSU assistant: “New Mexico State University said that Tony Delk would be leaving Kentucky and joining Marvin Menzies’ staff as an assistant for the Aggies.” (Kentucky Sports Radio)
• Updated 2011-2012 basketball schedule: A look at what we have of Louisville’s schedule so far. (Card Chronicle)
• Doron Lamb makes Yahoo!’s All-Firecracker Team: The Kentucky sophomore is one of the players that is expected to have a break-out season next year. (Kentucky Sports Radio)

1. Miami center Reggie Johnson underwent surgery last Thursday to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee and is expected to be out 5-6 months. We haven’t heard any updates since Friday on how the surgery went so we are hoping that there were no complications in the acute recovery period. Although Johnson is expected to return for the start of ACC play the injury is a significant setback for the Hurricanes who will be without their top returning player (11.9 PPG, 9.6 RPG, and 1.3 BPG as a sophomore). Still with a veteran squad and a still weak ACC the Hurricanes could make a run at a NCAA Tournament bid if Johnson comes back healthy.
2. Yesterday, we talked about the new #1 recruit in the class of 2012, Shabazz Muhammad, according to Rivals, but their is another rising senior who is also making a bid for the #1 overall spot in next year’s graduating class, DaJuan Coleman. Right now Coleman is ranked as the 3rd or 4th best center in his class, but as this appears to be a particularly strong year for centers he is actually ranked as highly as 5th overall despite being just 3rd at his position according to one service (ESPN) while he comes in at 18th overall in another (Rivals). According to Coleman’s AAU coach, Kentucky and Syracuse appear to the current leaders for Coleman’s future services. Although Kentucky seems to be landing almost every top recruit these days Syracuse should be a strong contender since Coleman plays for a nearby high school that also produced current Syracuse point guard Brandon Triche.
3. Justin Clark announced that he would be leaving Illinois State after two disappointing seasons. Coming into his freshman season Clark was considered the top recruit in his class in the Missouri Valley Conference, but has struggled to find his shot at the college level hitting just 23.3% from 3-point range in his two seasons. Clark has not released any information about why or where he was transferring, but there will probably be plenty of mid-major schools willing to give him a chance given his pedigree.
4. Xavier added some much needed depth yesterday in the form of Vanderbilt transfer Andre Walker. Walker, who battled through injuries including a torn ACL as a sophomore while at Vanderbilt averaged 6.1 PPG, 5.4 RPG, and 2.5 APG as a junior before battling through another injury-riddled season as a senior, will be able to play for the Musketeers next season because he graduated from Vanderbilt in four years and will be enrolling in a degree program not offered at Vanderbilt. If Walker stays healthy he could be the missing piece for a talented, but shallow Musketeer team that could make some noise in the NCAA Tournament.
5. Billy Gillispie cannot seem to catch a break. The former Kentucky and new Texas Tech coach apparently was involved in a Ponzi scheme that managed to ensnare several prominent coaches including Jim Donnan, Barry Switzer, and Tommy Tuberville. The exact amount that Gillispie had invested (and lost) is unknown at this time, but it would appear that he is at least in better financial shape than the retired Donnan, who has filed for bankruptcy after other investors sued him because Donnan received some money back as an early investor from the $26-29 million that Greg and Linda Crabtree reportedly took from later investors. In any event, Gillispie should be able to recover especially since he actually signed a contract with the school he is coaching this time.