1. It seems like every time we are almost about to forget about North Carolina‘s academic scandal another report comes out. The latest comes from a report commissioned by the school that alleges that the school’s academic counselors directed “student”-athletes to the sham courses. The courses, which have already been well-described in this space and many others like it, were designed to keep players eligible with a minimal amount of work. According to the report (all 136 pages of it), the classes were available to all students, but 48% of those enrolled were athletes in what has been described as an 18-year scheme that dates back to 1993. The school and the independent report appear to be shielding the coaches from this (you can figure out who the coach was back in 1993), but it seems like this would certainly fall under the “lack of institutional oversight” that the NCAA has used to nail schools to the wall in the past. It remains to be seen whether the NCAA will actually go after the school, but it would seem like they have plenty of ammunition to do so.
2. Social media is great for making viral, but it is not very effective in correcting errors that have gone viral. One prime example of that were reports that Texas had decided to give its student-athletes a $10,000 stipend to cover their cost of attendance and for using their likeness. That was based on many people misreading an article from The Dallas Morning News that referenced a conversation the school’s athletic director had speaking hypothetically about the possibility of it if the NCAA lost its appeal on the Ed O’Bannon case. Some publications were cognizant enough to temper their reports of it, but many essentially wrote that the school was already set to begin the payments. The school has subsequently clarified the reports to say that those were just hypothetical plans, but we wouldn’t be surprised if you woke up today believing that Texas was going to give its student-athletes a $10,000 stipend.
3. It doesn’t seem like that long ago when there were reports that opposing coaches were using Billy Kennedy’s reported early-stage Parkinson’s as a tool to convince recruits not to go to Texas A&M. Now it appears that he has put together what will likely be a top-five recruiting class for 2015. With Elijah Thomas‘ announcement that he was committing to play at Texas A&M, the Aggies now have three players in Rivals.com”s top 35 recruits (Thomas, D.J. Hogg, and Tyler Davis) with a fourth who is ranked #64 (Admon Gilder). It is a rather remarkable accomplishment when you consider that Kennedy is barely above .500 overall at Texas A&M (49-47) and an abysmal 19-35 in the conference play. Despite his poor on-court record at Texas A&M, Kennedy’s job is likely safe as long as this class still plans on matriculating.
4. There was quite a bit of news in the past few days on the injury front. Wyoming got a big piece back earlier this week when Larry Nance Jr was cleared to begin practicing again. Nance, who tore his ACL on February 18, led the Cowboys in scoring (15.4), rebounding (8.4), blocks (2.1), and steals (1.4) so his impact was obvious even before you consider that the team was 17-9 with him and 1-6 after his injury. Wyoming does return four starters so they should be competitive in the Mountain West if Nance can stay healthy. As for Nance, who was first-team All-Mountain West and All-Defensive team despite missing the last month of the season, it appears that the Mountain West media certainly believes he will come back at full strength as they named him the Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year. Memphis sophomore Austin Nichols suffered a shoulder sprain (confirmed by a MRI yesterday) that is expected to keep him out of practice for a week. Nichols, who averaged 9.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game last season while picking up American Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year honors, is expected to be 100% for the team’s season-opener against Wichita State. Houston guard L.J. Rose was not as fortunate as he will be out for two months as he continues to recover from surgery for a broken foot. Rose (8.9 points and 5.5 assists as a sophomore) broke his foot in the summer and underwent surgery in early July, but his recovery has not gone according to plan and instead of being ready to play at the start of the season he will likely miss the team’s first 11 non-conference games. The Cougars are expected to start junior college transfer Cavon Baker in Rose’s place until he returns. Meanwhile, Oregon continues to wait on the return of junior college transfer Michael Chandler from a nagging knee injury. Chandler, a top-50 recruit coming out of high school, has yet to be cleared to practice even after having an arthroscopic procedure on his knee back in July.
5. New York’s Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling to dismiss a lawsuit by Bobby Davis and Mike Lang against Jim Boeheim. Davis and Lang, two former Syracuse ball boys who accused former Syracuse assistant Bernie Fine of molestation, had sued Boeheim for slander after he accused them of being liars out for money (comments he subsequently backed off of) when their allegations against Fine were made public. The lower courts had ruled that Boeheim’s comments did not assertions of fact, but were instead a matter of opinion, which would not be subject to defamation laws. The Court of Appeals ruled that the lower courts erred in that assumption. It is unclear if and when the lawsuit will be brought back to court or if Boeheim and the school might try to settle out of court.

EXTRA: Make sure to check out rushthecourtTV on Youtube for video M5s as well as plenty of other coverage throughout the season.