1. In case you haven’t heard, the Big 12 is now a ten-team conference and Texas will earn more money than God for the woodshedding that it pulled on the rest of its conference peers on Monday.  Seriously, we’re a fan of keeping this conference together, but we don’t want to hear any whining from the Missouris and Kansas States of the world when they see the dollar differential that they’re receiving versus the Horns AND THEIR OWN PRIVATE TV NETWORK on an annual basis.  Our man on the matter Andrew Murawa once again puts it all into perspective for us in a coherent, logical fashion.
2. No news is good news for Michigan State on the Tom Izzo front, as he had nothing to say when questioned by a camper about his plans at his summer basketball camp on Monday.  If the report that Izzo and LeBron James have yet to speak is true, though, this might seem to indicate that James is noncommittal about his plans for next season and clarity on that front is unlikely to factor into Izzo’s final decision.
3. Speaking of Izzo, assuming he ultimately leaves Michigan State for the Cavs, how much revenue could that end up costing the university on an annual basis?  This article takes a shot at trying to piece that together.
4. We missed this news late last week as a result of the USC sanctions and the conference realignment madness, but it’s worth noting that Portland State was banned from 2011 postseason play because of a very poor APR (Academic Progress Rate) score.  Its 865 score from the academic years 2005-09 is far below the national average of 940 — is it coincidental that the Vikings’ two best seasons (Big Sky champs) were in 2007-08 and 2008-09?
5. Luke Winn visited CP3’s summer camp that features many top college stars, including UNC’s Harrison Barnes, Duke’s Seth Curry and Washington Isaiah Thomas.  The story about how Thomas and the other UW players were completely fooled by former recruit Terrence Jones’ decision to go to Kentucky over Washington at the last minute was very interesting — Thomas suggested that the Wildcats better watch out in November in Maui if the two teams face each other.

1. Luke Winn calls it the Year of the Scramble with respect to prospective NBA Draft entries having to make their decisions so quickly this year (two weeks after declaration), and he talks to six players who all thought they didn’t have enough time.  We haven’t done an exhaustive search, but we’ve yet to see anyone taking the stance that the  new deadline is a good thing.  Maybe this spring’s groundswell of negativity will inspire the NCAA to address this foolish rule as soon as possible.
2. Texas players Varez Ward and Shawn Williams have received medical hardship awards, which will mean that the few games each played last season will not count against them.  Ward, who you may recall injured his right quad during warmups in the CBE Classic, will return as a redshirt sophomore, while Williams will be a redshirt freshman.
3. How powerful is Roy Williams as a national recruiter?  We’ll find out very soon, as UNC is getting in very late with two big men who are still available after coaching changes — 6’11 Kevin Noreen and 6’7 Marcus Thornton — to replace the recently-departed Wear twins.  Noreen is a Minneapolis native who originally signed with Boston College and is trying to get out of his commitment now that Al Skinner is no longer in Chestnut Hill, while Thornton was released from his LOI after Oliver Purnell left Clemson earlier this spring.
4. TrueHoop reports that several NBA general managers believe that Lebron James is headed to become the next great Chicago Bull, but the question around these parts is whether that would inspire a certain itinerant college coach to join him for the chance of a lifetime?  John Calipari’s AD of course believes that his guy will be back in Lexington next year, but you have to believe that if the best player in the world wants Calipari to coach him, he’ll get his wish.
5. We mentioned the other day that former Baylor head coach Dave Bliss had been hired at a Texas high school despite the long trail of skeletons behind him, so it’s only fair that we now give him a chance to defend himself and his new life.  Thanks to SRI for reaching out to him to an interview.

1. The buzz yesterday was in regard to a report from 810 WHB in Kansas City that the Big Ten has made offers to four schools to join its conference, including Big 12 members Missouri and Nebraska as well as independent Notre Dame and the Big East’s Rutgers.  We’ll have more up on this later today, but so far, mum is the word at the four schools with denials from all interested parties.  Which means there’s probably something to this report.  We’ll know when we know.
2. Four St. Bonaventure players were fined $250 each for their roles in a March on-campus fight that resulted in two men getting stabbed.  They each pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charges, which are civil violations in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
3. Creighton guard P’Allen Stinnett, who has not played since January, has been booted from the team by new head coach Greg McDermott.
4. Reading the tea leaves on Brandon Knight’s ‘commitment’ to Kentucky paints an interesting what-if scenario that has John Calipari leaving UK later this summer to coach Lebron James wherever he ends up.
5. You saw our revised Top 25 yesterday taking into account the early entries returning to school; here’s Luke Winn’s Power Sixteen.

1. Iowa State is set to hire former Cyclone star Fred Hoiberg as its new head coach after Greg McDermott took off earlier this week for greener pastures in Omaha.  “The Mayor” is a legend at ISU, but he’s never coached at any level of basketball before so this hire is raising some eyebrows.  The Big 12 is no place to learn on the fly, after all.  Gary Parrish thinks this move is either brilliant or imbecilic, but he makes a comparison to John McCain picking Sarah Palin as his veep and we know how well that gamble worked out.
2. In an effort to increase Pac-10 representation in future NCAA Tournaments, the University of Washington got its man into the catbird seat at the NCAA yesterday, as UW president Mark Emmert will take over for Jim Isch as the next president of the NCAA.  We were obviously joking about the above comment, but now, how does he feel about expansion?
3. We’re going to see a lot of these types of articles in the next two weeks discussing  those players who are in the NBA Draft pool who should return to school next season.  Here are a couple that are already out — Mike DeCourcy’s five players who should return (M. Delaney, M. Davis, J. Crawford, S. Samuels, G. Hayward) and Luke Winn’s ten teams awaiting decisions (with a healthy implication that most should return).
4. UNLV’s Matt Shaw, a key junior forward who started a handful of games for Lon Kruger’s NCAA Tournament team this year, has tested positive for a banned substance and has been suspended for the entirety of next year, his senior season.
5. Are there NCAA violations pending at UConn this spring?  According to this Wall Street Journal article, an NCAA source has stated that the university is facing a report on violations which is due to be released soon.  Furthermore, despite repeated admonitions to the contrary, head coach Jim Calhoun still doesn’t have a signed and sealed contract.  His current deal is set to expire at the end of June.

If you’re like us today, you’re probably feeling a little bit like you do when you realize that the blue lights in your rear view mirror weren’t intended for you even though you were about +15 over the speed limit.  As the friendly patrolman roars by on your left, that adrenaline-fueled fear of getting a ticket (or worse) melts into a somewhat euphoric state of well-being as you realize that you’ve dodged a terribly unpleasant situation.  We all spent the last two months lying hogtied on the tracks watching the 96-team locomotive steaming toward us, and the surprising (shocking?) news that the NCAA will instead move to only a 68-team scenario feels like Clint Eastwood or Rambo or freakin’ Michael Cera stepped in at the last moment to save the day.  Perspective is everything.

NCAA HQ Can Cancel That Security Detail Now

Yet imagine for a moment if we’d never heard about the 96-team debacle from the inner circles of the NCAA.  Without that particularly bilious perspective to abhor, excoriate, lambaste and dread for months leading up to today, the news that the NCAA was expanding to 68 teams would probably have been met with complete and utter derision across the board.  Four play-in games, pfshaw!  Yet when considered against the alternative, today’s news was met with guarded optimism and in some cases downright celebration.  Was this a brilliant strategem of managing expectations pulled off on us, the unsuspecting public, by the cunning NCAA (probably not), or simply a realization that the organization was treading ever so closely to killing off the goose that laid the golden egg (more likely)?  Either way, the decision is a reasonable and defensible one that we can all live with, so let’s get to the business of reviewing it now and analyzing it to death in coming weeks.

Here’s what some of the best in the business have to say…

Luke Winn, CNNSI – More importantly, it represents a major victory for college basketball. The NCAA did the right thing. While I’d prefer a pure, 64-team format without play-in games, 68 teams is immensely more palatable than 96. The sanctity of the NCAA tournament has been preserved for the time being, and that’s something to celebrate, even if Jim Isch, the NCAA’s interim president, admitted that 68 wasn’t guaranteed to be the format for the entire length of the new TV deal. […]  Public reaction had to have played at least some role in them settling on 68 rather than 96. The public’s response to the 96 idea was overwhelmingly negative, and I wonder if Isch, Shaheen, CBS and Turner didn’t want to be regarded as the villains who ruined college sports’ crown jewel.  […]  Eventually, we’ll get back to worrying about how Isch left the expansion door open by saying two words: “for now.” But for now, at least, we can rejoice. The NCAA tournament has been saved.

Mike DeCourcy, Sporting News – Turns out, they were listening. Nobody came out and said the public’s revulsion at the prospect of a 96-team field was a factor in settling on 68, but if you’d loved the idea like chocolate-chip cookies, we’d be talking about a far different NCAA Tournament next March.  It wasn’t at the start of negotiations that someone with CBS/Turner suggested a 68-team tournament would be workable with the dollar amounts being discussed. That came after the general public declared 96 teams to be a product no more appealing than the XFL.  […]  How should a 68-team tournament work?  That’s fairly obvious. Although it might be most fair to have the teams at the bottom of the field play for the right to be No. 16 seeds, it’s hard to imagine anyone at CBS or Turner Sports, the networks that just agreed to pay roughly $740 million annually to televise the tournament, being thrilled about showing four games that this year might have involved such matchups as Robert Morris-Winthrop or Morgan State-East Tennessee State.  The solution would be to have the last eightat-large teams play for the right to be seeded into the middle of the field—as No. 12s or No. 11s. This season, that might have meant Virginia Tech-Minnesota and Illinois-Florida.  People would watch those games. CBS and Turner saved us from the dread of a 96-team tournament. They deserve something for their money.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. The Michigan State blog that’s not a Michigan State blog, Sparty & Friends, reminds us that a mere ten years ago, a certain talented MSU point guard also went down with an ankle injury that forced his team to grow up without him.  Mateen Cleaves missed twelve games for the 1999-2000 Spartans, and when he came back, MSU won its second national title.  Kalin Lucas is more of a scorer while Cleaves was more of a distributor, but the comparison is interesting.  One necessary distinction, though, is that Lucas likely will not be out very long (1-3 games).
2. WVU’s president Jim Clements said that he was “appalled and embarrassed” by the fans’ behavior in their game against Pitt on Wednesday night, which included someone throwing a coin that hit a Pitt assistant coach just under his eye.  He promised better security, but there are limits to what can be policed in these situations.  Honestly, despite what Gary Parrish wrote yesterday, we’re not convinced that college basketball is on the brink of a major incident  between athletes and fans any more than we were ten or twenty years ago.  We have trouble believing that the student section fervor is any worse, and it may actually be better.  People have always thrown things, and fans have always been obnoxious.
3. Arizona reportedly will self-impose sanctions as a result of a violation during Lute Olson’s tenure in the summer of 2008.  The violation involved a letter on Olson’s letterhead sent to boosters asking for donations for an AAU basketball tournament called the Arizona Cactus Classic.  The proposed sanctions will not include a postseason ban, but it will include the loss of a scholarship and less recruiting trips.
4. Luke Winn’s Power Rankings this week find K-State moving into the top five despite the loss at home to Kansas last weekend, but he missed one thing in his lead about the horrific still photos.  While the two he chose were obviously very scary, they weren’t nearly as horrific as this one.  And we say that completely wishing it weren’t true.
5. Dan Levy at The Sporting Blog lays out his guidelines for when it is appropriate for fans to taunt their opponent in light of the unconscionable decision by the Colorado student body to use the “overrated” chant in a game they were clearly going to lose (see below).   Come to think of it, can we just retire the “overrated” chant altogether?  When you’re winning the game, you’re marginalizing your team’s big win by using that chant; and when you’re losing, well, you shouldn’t be chanting anything at all when you’re losing.

1. Despite a pretty miserable year at Oregon State, athletic department officials there are already worrying about the possibility of losing head coach Craig Robinson to his former stomping grounds of Chicago and DePaul University in the offseason.  Certainly reasonable, especially given that some ADs are often more excited about shiny objects rather than layers of substance (i.e., wins; cf. with Lane Kiffin).
2. Speaking of the Pac-10, apparently the Wall Street Journal has just caught on to the state of the league this season.  On tomorrow’s WSJ lede: Evan Turner Back From Injury!
3. Vegas Watch looks at the current KenPom top 20 and adjusts his ratings according to how Vegas sees those teams.  Key findings: Kansas and Duke are by far the two best teams in the country; and presumptive #1-in-waiting Kentucky is incredibly overrated!
4. Luke Winn delves a little deeper into Jim Calhoun’s decision yesterday to take a medical leave of absence from Connecticut.  He expects it to merely be a temporary respite that was caused by excessive stress.
5. From the Christian Drejer school of flaking out, Iowa State’s Lucca Staiger announced that he is leaving his team immediately to pursue professional opportunities in his home country of Germany.  This is a huge blow to Greg McDermott’s program, as Staiger was averaging 9.4 ppg and hitting nearly 43% of his shots from distance this season.

1. Knowing what we know about NC State, this idea to use a real wolf as the team mascot will not end well.  Then again, maybe the wolf can “escape” and devour Sidney Lowe during a rampage — that might make some of their fans happy.
2. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan pulled no punches in his address to the NCAA yesterday, stating that college basketball is tainted by ‘renegade’ coaches and that the one-and-done rule is essentially an academic sham.
3. The hits keep coming for DePaul.  Just days after firing their coach Jerry Wainwright, the Blue Demons lost their best player Mac Koshwal 2-4 weeks with a foot injury.
4. Luke Winn is back with his power rankings in the best read of the week, as usual.  It’s a little scary that we remember those LJ/Augmon t-shirts from the days when the high fade was still rockin like Marley Marl and De La Soul.
5. OJ Mayo continues to hide behind his agent when it comes to substantive answers while maintaining that he loves USC and would have never done anything inappropriate like, oh, maybe take money to attend the school.  Look, we know he’s not legally obligated to say a word, but just once we’d like to see an athlete come out in his prime and say, “yeah, I did all that stuff and more.  So what?”  Maybe by thumbing his nose at the NCAA, it’ll help embarrass the organization into re-assessing how they do business.

1. Chairgate 2010.  Did Karl Malone or did he not throw Nevada’s folding chairs into the dumpster after a recent game between Louisiana Tech and the Wolfpack (on ‘his’ court)?  We have no idea but the mere thought of it is awesome on about twenty-four different levels.  Please, please let The Mailman do an interview with someone over this soon.
2. Jim Calhoun is becoming a specific target after last year’s presser incident about his salary, as this exchange with a crank caller documented by Adam Zagoria on today’s Big East coaches conference call attests.
3. OJ Mayo’s agent wants everyone to know that he took no inducements to come to USC nor during his one year in Los Angeles and, um, it was all Rodney Guillory’s fault and it was OJ’s love of California that drew him to a football school with virtually no basketball history.  And please, no more questions.
4. One of our favorite ACC bloggers broke down the twelve teams of the ACC using “NBA Jam” and concluded that Georgia Tech’s trio of Gani Lawal, Derrick Favors and Mfon Udofia would be sicknasty.  He’s probably right because Paul Hewitt wouldn’t be around to coach them.
5. Luke Winn’s Power Rankings don’t see much movement, but is there a more interesting read on in the entire canon of college basketball coverage on a weekly basis than this feature?  Not for our money.

1. Illinois guard Alex Legion will leave his second team in three years as he has plans to transfer from Illinois during the semester break.  The former Parade All-American clearly exhibits a disconnect between his actual talent level and his production, as the 6’5 junior guard with a career 32% shooting percentage and 3.8 PPG average just hasn’t been able to find a comfortable home in his college career.  Mike DeCourcy points out that Legion’s second go-round on transferring mid-season has cost him up to as many as fifty games over the life of his career.
2. Kalin Lucas: suspended by Tom Izzo.  No legal or school issues involved, but it’s clear that Izzo is trying to send a message to his team’s captain (and his team) that they’re not performing up to expectations.
3. Iowa’s Anthony Tucker has pleaded guilty to public intoxication.  He’ll pay a little less than $200 in fines and is working toward reinstatement on his team given the requirements of the university’s student-athlete substance-abuse policy.
4. Here’s Luke Winn’s early warning signs column on which teams are likely overrated and underrated via the nonconference schedule.  It’s a great article and very enlightening, but the point about Kentucky is apparent — the young UK players aren’t taking lesser teams as seriously as they should (until last night, gulp).  That could be very different by February, however.
5. Gary Parrish delves more deeply into the interesting case known as USC basketball.