1. Wilmington Star News: NC State became the second of the Triangle teams to call a players-only meeting lately (and based on Duke’s performance against Miami, its players won’t be far behind). Lorenzo Brown pretty bluntly outlined the reason behind the meeting: “”There’s been a lot of nonsense going on between us, but we’re all grown men […] We sat down and talked it out, so we’re perfectly fine now.” My guess is that some of that nonsense has to do with people failing to play defense. Some more probably comes from TJ Warren retweeting Thomas DeThaey ripping Mark Gottfried. With a more polished North Carolina looming on Saturday, the Wolfpack need to get their minds right, and fast.
2. USA Today: Dickie V. has a well-earned reputation for loving Duke. But I wasn’t shocked at all when Vitale was ripping the Blue Devils’ performance against Miami. First, Duke deserved the tongue-lashing. If there’s one thing Dickie V. (and most other commentators) have to say about Duke under Mike Krzyzewski, it’s that the Blue Devils outwork opponents. That didn’t happen in Coral Gables Wednesday night. Although I’m not sure I should waste too much effort responding to an author who thought it was newsworthy to post North Carolina fans chanting “go to hell Duke” during their win over Georgia Tech. Duke, North Carolina and NC State chant about their rivals in every game — this is nothing new.
3. Washington Post: Right now Maryland is still evolving offensively. It’s a little surprising to see a coach of Mark Turgeon’s stature struggling so much to find the right offensive roles for his players, but he’s trying everything at this point. This idea seems like a good one: Dez Wells will handle the ball more. He’s a very different player (who plays very different defense), but Maryland might be well-served treating Wells a little like Duke treated Austin Rivers last season. The only thing Maryland has to watch out for is focusing on getting Alex Len the ball.
4. AP (via Sports Illustrated): Another wrinkle in the NCAA-Miami saga is starting to unfold. Nevin Shapiro’s lawyer, Maria Elena Perez, is going to tell her side of the story. In a short statement, Perez called herself “a victim of their [the NCAA’s] enforcement staff’s misconduct,” passively adding, “The dubious party is not me. What I have done is 150 percent above the board.” Her statements come after Mark Emmert’s nebulous comments appeared to imply she took money to question people under oath. If you haven’t already, you’ll definitely want to grab some popcorn over the coming weeks as this story develops.
5. Charlotte Observer: Luke DeCock nails the result of an ACC full of parity. Home court advantage is massive this year, as home teams are 22-10 in league play thus far this season. The Florida duo alone have five road wins between them. Duke and North Carolina? There’s only one road win to be found. The only teams to truly trust on the road at this point are Miami and Florida State. Duke may grow into one of those teams once Ryan Kelly is back (and it has played the top two teams in the league), but it’s not there yet. But apart from the top few teams, road wins are going to be a rarity.

Who’s Got Next? is a weekly column by Chad Lykins, the RTC recruiting guru. Once a week he will bring you an overview of what’s going on in the complex world of recruiting, from who is signing where among the seniors to discussing the recruitments of the top uncommitted players in the country. We also encourage you to check out his contributions dedicated solely to Duke Basketball at Duke Hoop Blog. You can also follow Chad at his Twitter account @CLykinsBlog for up-to-date breaking news from the high school and college hoops scene. If you have any suggestions as to areas we are missing or different things you would like to see, please let us know at rushthecourt@yahoo.com.

Note: ESPN Recruiting used for all player ranking

The North Carolina Tar Heels are currently in the middle of a very up-and-down season, with five losses and uncharacteristic play through the team’s first 17 games. However, while the Tar Heels continue to search for success on the basketball court, they remain a perennial powerhouse on the recruiting trail. On Monday, five-star junior point guard Joel Berry pledged his verbal commitment to North Carolina, as he will join a long line of highly-ranked floor generals under head coach Roy Williams to don Carolina blue. Berry chose the Tar Heels over offers from Florida, Florida State, Kansas, Maryland, North Carolina State, Ohio State, and others.

Joel Berry becomes the first commitment for North Carolina from the class of 2014

“I feel honored and blessed to officially be apart of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels tradition and excellence,” Berry tweeted. The #12 overall ranked junior and #3 ranked point guard in the class of 2014, Berry becomes the first player from that class to commit to North Carolina. Taking advantage of a new NCAA rule that allows juniors to take official visits following January 1 of that year, the 6’0″ standout visited Chapel Hill first for the Tar Heels’ ACC clash against the Maryland Terrapins this past weekend.

Berry will bring to North Carolina a lethal dosage of scoring and speed, two aspects of the game that the Tar Heels are traditionally known for. With great quickness and athleticism, he is capable of breaking down his defender and getting into the lane  under control and scoring around the rim using his outstanding leaping ability. Berry is also a threat from the outside and mid-range, as he can light up a scoreboard quickly. He is an exceptional ball-handler and sees the floor very well in an up-tempo environment.

Read the rest of this entry »

There were no big upsets in the ACC this weekend, but there were some big-time performances that are worth mentioning. The rest of college basketball offered some thrilling upsets and close finishes, but the Atlantic Coast Conference offered some sublime moments of its own in individual achievement and failure.

TJ Warren Blew Up Against Clemson Sunday

1. T.J. Warren Is A Scoring Machine. Sure, Warren went 0-for-6 against Maryland, contributing exactly zero points in the close loss, but make no mistake, that game wasn’t typical. In the game against Clemson, the North Carolina State forward scored 21 points. Yes, he wasn’t technically the game’s high scorer thanks to Devin Booker’s 27-point gem, but Warren’s performance was more impressive. Warren’s 21 points came in a mere 25 minutes that featured the freshman shooting 9-of-11 from the field, hitting a three, and grabbing six rebounds to help his team. Warren’s offensive production borders on the freakish. Coming off the bench, Warren is averaging an offensive efficiency rating of 129.2, which is the 20th best mark in all of Division I basketball. Of course, because of Scott Wood’s sweet shooting, Warren isn’t even the deadliest offensive weapon on his own team, but he is certainly a force to be reckoned with.
2. Assertive Reggie Bullock Is Terrifying. The only player in the conference with an offensive efficiency greater than Wood and Warren is North Carolina’s Reggie Bullock. Bullock has posted an offensive efficiency of 131.5, driven by incredible three-point shooting (47.7% on 88 attempts this season), low turnovers and strong offensive rebounding for his position. Bullock, also arguably the team’s best defensive player, unleashed his offensive fury on Saturday against Maryland, amassing 21 points in the first half alone and leading North Carolina to an early lead against the Terrapins. Bullock has struggled to assert this season, often vanishing from the team’s offense and deferring to others to the point of fault. On Saturday, Bullock demonstrated how his newfound aggresiveness could help the team: His shooting opened up space for James Michael McAdoo to operate and he drew extra defensive attention that made it easier for Dexter Strickland and Marcus Paige to handle the ball and make plays. This North Carolina team is still deeply flawed, but when Reggie Bullock takes the lead, the team is significantly better. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Syracuse Post-Gazette: This is the second part of a cool series. Basically the Syracuse Post-Gazette is previewing ACC road sites through the eyes of Wake Forest freshman Tyler Cavanaugh, who was a Syracuse high school star. His two words to describe Clemson: “orange” and “old.” That probably doesn’t do Littlejohn Coliseum enough justice for getting loud (which it is even when it’s below capacity), but Cavanaugh also mentions lesser-known tidbits like the visitors’ locker room is on the third floor. It’s funny, though, that despite his Syracuse upbringing he didn’t fire any shots at the town.
2. Washington Post: Maryland is lucky it didn’t lose to North Carolina by 30 points over the weekend. The Terrapins played abysmally in the first half, turning the ball over a remarkable 14 times. The game came on the heels of a season-saving home win against NC State, but unfortunately, that win may say as much about NC State and the ACC as it does Maryland. Mark Turgeon’s team looks like a tough defensive group that gives a strong effort (they did fight back to only lose by 10 at the buzzer), but will really struggle to find much offensive rhythm away from home. That simply won’t cut it on Selection Sunday.
3. Charlottesville Daily Progress: Speaking of teams with wildly varying performances, Virginia crushed Florida State at home this weekend. The win makes sense in terms of the Cavaliers’ ACC play at home, but does little to separate them from the middle of the pack in the ACC. Right now Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and even NC State look like teams you don’t want to face on their respective home courts, but look totally different on the road. The key for a team to join Miami and Duke at the top of the standings will be that it needs to establish some consistency on the road.
4. Burlington Times News: Reggie Bullock and James Michael McAdoo showed up in a big way against Maryland. Bullock finally looked like he realized he was the best player on the Tar Heels, nearly matching his career high in the first half. McAdoo picked up the pace in the second half, keeping Maryland at arm’s length while UNC held onto its lead. This was also North Carolina’s first win when its offense didn’t step up to the plate (outside of a dominant first couple of minutes). Unlike most Roy Williams teams, this one has to learn how to win ugly and on the defensive end instead of just running opponents to death.
5. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: New Georgia Tech athletic director Mike Bobinski has got plans for the Yellow Jackets. Ken Suguira laid out Bobinski’s plan in nine simple points. The most interesting ones were his stress on selling tickets and his history of increasing gifts. The first may seem obvious at first, but if you have watched a Georgia Tech basketball game the last couple of years (and even when Paul Hewitt fielded competitive teams), there’s a lot of room for improvement there. The two should run hand-in-hand, and Bobinski’s history in finance and development should serve him well. Not to use a horrible pun, but if he can bring the buzz back to Georgia Tech athletics, there’s an incredibly fertile basketball recruiting background in his backyard for the program to become very good very quickly.

1. We would be remiss if we did not start off by mentioning the absolutely ridiculous set of games that we got to see on Saturday. Sure, there were a few duds (Florida absolutely destroying Missouri), but for the most part they were all solid games with the day capped off (for all, but our west coast followers) by a great game with an unbelievable finish (Butler shocking Gonzaga with the buzzer-beater). Bennet Hayes already wrote an excellent recap of the action for us so we won’t get into get into that. We will just say that after a week filled by phony people and lies it was refreshing to just get back to sports and nothing more than that.
2. If you are looking for a rundown of the entire week and not just the weekend, Seth Davis apparently was so excited about Saturday’s action that he got out his weekly Fast Breaks out early enough to make it in our Morning Five (or maybe it was the lack of big games yesterday). As usual Seth does a great job touching on some of the players (Tekele Cotton) and teams (Colorado State) that many people might have missed with all the craziness of the weekend not to mention the non-sports sports stories of the preceding weeks so if you weren’t glued to the television and Internet all week and have a legion of Twitter followers giving you updates and have the phone numbers of every major coach in college basketball it is well worth your time.
3. The efficiency numbers for teams this year will have already changed (check for daily updates on KenPom), but Luke Winn published an interesting post on Friday taking a look at the efficiency numbers of Elite 8 teams from the past five seasons. In doing so he establishes some general rules for efficiency numbers that teams tend to achieve when they make deep runs. Obviously there will be some exceptions, but in general teams tend to achieve certain levels of efficiency both on the offensive side and defensive side of the ball. Looking at the examples that Winn gives tends to fit in with how we viewed many of this year’s title contenders, but it should also raise some concern for teams that are considered solid threats to make it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
4. After quite a bit of speculation the NCAA took the first step towards streamlining its rule book with the intent of making it “a more flexible manual based on common sense”. Most of the changes will be barely noticed by the average fan, but should limit the number of seemingly pointless investigations and violations that the NCAA is inundated with that probably have no real effect on the competitive balance of college athletics. Among the changes are reducing regulations on texting recruits, allowing an increase in the type of material a program can send a recruit, and allowing schools to pay for medical expenses.  As you can see from the above link there are many more changes and it will result in about 25 pages being removed from the NCAA’s rule book. The changes are set to go into effect on August 1.
5. We knew it was coming and on Friday Maryland’s Attorney General filed a motion attempting to move the the ACC’s lawsuit against Maryland from North Carolina to Maryland. The lawsuit is over the exit fee of $53 million that the school is supposed to pay the conference. The Attorney General is essentially claiming that the ACC (based in North Carolina) does not have jurisdiction over anything in the state of Maryland and that the ACC’s lawsuit is “an antitrust violation and an illegal penalty”. The ACC has responded by withholding Maryland’s share of ACC’s revenue payments as  “collateral”. We are not sure how successful conferences have been in collecting exit fees when schools/states actually go to court to challenge them, but it will be interesting to see what happens if they do so.

Seven Sweet Scoops  is the newest and hottest column by Chad Lykins, the RTC recruiting analyst. Every Friday he will discuss the seven top stories from the week in the wide world of recruiting, involving offers, which  prospect visited where, recent updates regarding school lists, and more chatter from the recruiting scene. You can also check out more of his work at RTC with his weekly column  “Who’s Got Next?”, as well as his work dedicated solely to Duke Basketball at  Duke Hoop Blog. You can also follow Chad at his Twitter account  @CLykinsBlog  for up-to-date breaking news from the high school and college hoops scene.

 Note:  ESPN Recruiting  used for all player rankings.

1. Tyus Jones Takes Unofficial To Kentucky. Last weekend the nation’s top junior, point guard Tyus Jones, took an unofficial visit to Kentucky for the Wildcats’ game against the Texas A&M Aggies. Despite watching Kentucky drop its fifth loss of the season, Jones still considers the Wildcats a top contender in his recruitment. Back in December, head coach John Calipari visited Jones twice in one week and has since developed a strong bond with the Apple Valley (Minnesota) product, who became the all-time leading scorer in school history on Tuesday. Including Kentucky, the 6’1″ point guard lists Baylor, Duke, Kansas, Michigan State, Minnesota, North Carolina and Ohio State among his possibilities. While Duke looms as the perceived leader, Kentucky is going to make this a race to the finish.

The nation’s No. 1 junior, Tyus Jones, took an unofficial visit to Kentucky last weekend

2. North Carolina Conducts In-Home Visit With Justin Jackson. One week after performing in front of the North Carolina coaching staff, small forward Justin Jackson received an in-home visit with head coach Roy Williams on Wednesday evening. Jackson, who includes the Tar Heels along with Arizona, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Virginia and Washington, has held an offer from North Carolina since the completion of the AAU season. Ever since then, Williams has been on a relentless pursuit in landing the 6’7″ small forward out of the Homeschool Christian Youth Association (Texas). While the Tar Heels aren’t pushing for a commitment yet, they are however looking to get Jackson back down to Chapel Hill for a visit during the regular season. “We talked a little about a visit, like coming down for a game,” Jackson said. “We’ll probably try to figure that out sometime, but right now I’m trying to focus on the season.” For now, this is North Carolina’s recruitment to lose. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Fox Sports Carolinas: After losing at Maryland, there was a surprising amount of this sort of chatter going on among fans in particular. “Does the Wolfpack’s loss invalidate win over Duke?” I think that’s a dumb question. The loss was on the road to a good team desperate for the win. Do NC State‘s players wish they had won? I’m sure. But that doesn’t make the loss any more damning. NC State is probably not the top five team some thought it was coming into the season. But it’s also not the team that struggled to beat Boston College. And nothing about that loss at Maryland took away from the previous win.
2. Washington Post: Speaking of that game, Mark Turgeon was livid with his team’s execution. “There wasn’t one timeout they did what I asked. Not one.” Given Maryland’s recent play on the offensive end, it’s hard to criticize the Terrapins’ coach. My guess is we will see Turgeon settle on a point guard when either Seth Allen or Pe’Shon Howard start running the plays he asks. In the long run it has to be the more offensive-minded Allen, but that may not be for a year or more (think Quinn Cook at Duke).
3. Tar Heel Blog: The arguments surrounding PJ Hairston starting over Dexter Strickland are pretty interesting. Most seem to think Roy Williams has settled on Hairston coming off the bench and providing a spark. This made a lot of sense when he was the guy who might hit four threes or miss a ton of shots, but this year he appears to have really improved his shot selection and in turn his consistency. But until Hairston’s defensive efficiency comes close to matching Strickland’s, don’t expect any major changes from Williams.
4. Soaring to Glory: Boston College needs to win close games if it wants fans to believe it has improved from last season. But the fact that so many more of the Eagles’ games are close this season is a big sign of improvement. This year the Eagles aren’t playing teams close for 30-35 minutes and then getting run off the floor at the end like last season. This year they are competing throughout the game, and also Dennis Clifford is still nowhere close to 100%. No one likes excuses, but it’s hard to win close games without one of your two best players.
5. CBSSports.com: Cool work here from Jeff Goodman and Jeff Borzello. The two talked with four coaches who played Duke about the best way to beat the Blue Devils. The answers are interesting. Every one of the coaches thought Mason Plumlee was the key player, since his offense in the middle opened things up for the shooters outside. Interestingly, they all cited different weaknesses related to defense. One said defensive rebounding; one said guarding ball screens, especially specific to Seth Curry; one said their limited bench; and one implied a shallow defense that you can get by if you can withstand the pressure. Overall, I would agree with all four in that order of importance.

Call Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany a greedy businessman for caring more about the bottom line than tradition. Call him a savant for getting in front of the conference realignment fiasco by adding Nebraska before anyone had a chance to blink. However you feel, you can’t deny that the man knows how to run a conference. Forbes recently ranked the most valuable athletic conferences and the Big Ten came in at No. 1, ahead of the mighty SEC. While myself and probably many others were surprised to see the B1G on top, maybe we shouldn’t have been. The conference has a better balance of football and basketball powers than any other league. There are football blue bloods like Nebraska, Michigan and Ohio State, and perennial basketball powers like Indiana, Michigan State and Ohio State. Here is how the top six power conferences fared:

1. Big Ten: Total Income (bowl games + NCAA Tournament + television revenue): $310 Million
2. Pac-12: $303 Million
3. ACC: $293 Million
4. SEC: $270 Million
5. Big 12: $262 Million
6. Big East: $94 Million

What Does Jim Delany’s Latest Move Mean For The Big 12? (US Presswire)

It should be noted that the SEC’s television revenue is about to get a huge boost when it receives a new TV deal soon. It will likely jump the conferences above it on the list and vault the league to No. 1 shortly afterward. But this is a Big 12 microsite, so that’s a different conversation for a different day. The Big 12’s $200 million yearly television revenue lags behind the SEC, ACC, and Big Ten, but as the article points out, it isn’t as bleak of a forecast as it may seem. With only 10 members on board, each school receives $20 million per year and is still allowed to negotiate and keep its own tier three television rights, which usually includes certain non-conference football and basketball games as well as Olympic sports. The Longhorn Network, for example, gives Texas an extra $15 million per year. Fifth out of the six major conferences isn’t the best spot to be in, but it’s a far cry from a year ago when nobody knew if the conference would even be around today. Successfully adding TCU and West Virginia after the departures of Missouri and Texas A&M were key for the conference’s survival, and while time will tell if the two schools were the best available options, the phrase ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ rings in the background. With its television deal in place and schools making great money, the conference is not in as much in danger of being preyed upon as, for example, the ACC is right now. Maryland will bolt to the Big Ten soon while Florida State and Clemson have been rumored to be interested in the Big 12. It looks like the ACC will have 14 members next season if both schools remain in tow, though, as Pittsburgh and Syracuse will join the league.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not to take anyway from a Maryland team that fought hard for the last second win over North Carolina State, but the buzzer beater that induced a court rush is nothing for either side to get worked up about. Before the game, Maryland was a 1.5 point favorite in the gambling world so, if anything, the Terrapins kind of underperformed. If you can’t trust Vegas, can you at least trust Ken Pomeroy? College basketball’s favorite computer gave Maryland a slight edge, giving them a 54.1% win probability right before the tip. Sure, NC State is probably a better team than Maryland, and sure the Wolfpack had a big win against Duke (though this team’s propensity for a hangover game is well-documented), but Maryland was supposed to win this game (albeit narrowly).

Home court advantage matters and in college basketball it’s a huge deal. If Maryland had to go play NC State in Raleigh this season, the Wolfpack would be a clear favorite to win that game. In other words: nobody panic. This game gave us very little in the way of new information.  NC State is still a good team, and, this season, losing to Maryland at home isn’t a bad loss.  This game shouldn’t change the way the public thinks about Maryland, either, but it probably will.

Maryland Was Expected To Beat NC State

The criteria for the NCAA Selection Committee  have encouraged certain tendencies when thinking about teams and their résumés. We know that “quality wins” matter and beating a good NC State team counts towards earning an at-large bid to the Big Dance. While the home court nature of the win is supposed to be accounted for, typically, the committee seems to underrate or outright disregard the role that home court advantage plays in determining a winner. How do we know that NC State qualifies as a good team? Well, rankings in the weekly polls and RPI, of course!  The Wolfpack’s rank in the poll and strong RPI ranking mean that we can rely on the powers that be to overrate the importance of the win. For a Maryland team angling to play in the NCAA tournament, this win carries some nice implications.

The Terrapins fought hard for the win, and the excitement of the team and its fans is completely understandable, but there is a sizable gap in the actual magnitude of this win and the perceived magnitude of this win. Luckily for the Terps, this discrepancy favors Maryland.

1. It should not come as a surprise as we hinted at it weeks ago when Boise State pulled out of the Big East, but it appears  that San Diego State will be following their example and staying in the Mountain West Conference. When Boise State opted to stay in the Mountain West, it seemed inevitable that San Diego State would not move to the Big East as they would be the only team west of the Rocky Mountains making it unrealistic as an entity. The two sides are now working to dissolve their previous agreement, which apparently had a clause allowing the Aztecs to leave if they were the only team west of the Rockies in the conference. This will only serve to make the Mountain West an even stronger conference that could potentially become one of the best conferences in the nation on a regular basis. So after all the handwringing about these moves it appears that nothing will come of them and geography teachers will have an easier time explaining our country’s geography to elementary school children.
2. We are always curious about how Forbes comes up with their valuations for professional teams as they do not reveal the numbers they use to produce those valuations so we have to take their work on the most valuable conferences with a grain of salt, but it is an interesting read. The calculations here are a little bit easier to understand as they are a reflection of revenue rather than implicit value despite the title of the article. The two things that stand out for us are that the SEC comes in fourth and the huge gap in revenue between the BCS conferences and non-BCS conferences. The  first part will likely change with the ongoing renegotiation of television contracts, but we doubt that the second part will be changing any time soon.
3. Many people have questioned the true value of the scholarships that student-athletes are awarded, but they never question what is spent on athletics. And for good reason as a recent study by Delta Cost Project at American Institutes for Research indicates that universities spend on average ~$92,000 on athletics compared to ~$14,000 on academics. As the study indicates this is most pronounced in the SEC where schools spent an average of $163,931 for athletics and $13,390 for academics per student-athletes (remember this supposedly counts all athletes and we are sure that much more is spent on football and to a lesser degree basketball than in non-revenue generating sports). The study also points out that the schools are the ones subsidizing athletics not the other way around. Obviously there are some secondary effects that the school gets from athletic programs such as increased applications, donations, etc., but it should turn the argument about revenue generating sports on its head.
4. Speaking of ridiculous amounts of money spent on athletics, Rhode Island reached an agreement with its former coach Jim Baron that will pay him $1.1 million over the next four years after he was fired following a season in which he went 7-24. According to the report the school will be able to pay for it with funds generated by the athletic department, which has an annual budget of $8 million per year with only $3 million coming from the “self-generating” revenues that the school will use to pay Baron. The payment will likely affect the program’s ability to spend so perhaps Ram fans should be rooting for Baron’s new team–Canisius–to do well as the last two years of payments (worth a total of $518,000) could be reduced if Baron is paid an undisclosed amount by Canisius.
5. Kentucky fans took a great deal of joy in making fun of Louisville printing shirts celebrating their ascent to #1 in the polls (to be fair, Kentucky fans like to make fun of anything related to Louisville), but as The Wall Street Journal points out the feat is somewhat impressive when you consider that several prominent programs that have won a national title have never been #1 in the AP poll. The one that stands out to us is Maryland, but as the article points out they have been #2 in the AP poll on multiple occasions. It is also worth pointing out that three of these programs won titles before the AP poll was around. Having said all of that we still think printing the #1 shirts are ridiculous for a program of Louisville’s stature.