1. Some weekend comings and goings…  the latest big name to declare for the NBA Draft is Georgetown’s Greg Monroe, who has indicated that he will sign with an agent and will not return to college.  Monroe is projected as a high lottery pick in June.  Arkansas guard Courtney Fortson has also declared, but he will not sign with an agent.  The diminutive point is not projected to go in either round, so this is probably just a fact-finding expedition for Fortson at this point.  In coaching news, UNC-Wilmington hired former App State coach Buzz Peterson, who left his second go-round in Boone after just one season.  This will be Peterson’s sixth head coaching gig in the last ten years (App State (twice), Tulsa, Tennessee, Coastal Carolina and UNC-Wilmington).  With a great recruiting class coming in and a program on the rise, Missouri’s Mike Anderson formally refuted interest in the Oregon job after listening to their offer over the weekend.  This Oregon thing is getting a little ridiculous.  Give Eric Reveno or Randy Bennett a call and be done with it already.
2. It seems as if the Big Ten is about to expand and it could happen very soon, ushering in a new round of conference switcheroos.  Frankly, we’re a little tired of all of this conference realignment in the name of the almighty benjamin, but the reality is that nobody cares what we think and what we end up with in a few years after all the dust settles may look very different from what we currently enjoy.
3. Did you recall that Arizona was actually still waiting to hear from the NCAA as to its self-imposed sanctions regarding the Lute Olson recruiting camps?  Yeah, we didn’t either.  Nevertheless, the school went in front of the NCAA Infractions Committee on Saturday and argued its case.  They expect to hear in 8-10 weeks whether the sanctions they imposed on themselves were enough (loss of a scholarship in 2011-12 and limited recruiting).
4. Siena starting guard Ronald Moore was arrested near campus early Sunday morning on suspicion of DWI.  As a senior, Moore’s eligibility has expired but you still hate to see a young man putting his life and career in jeopardy in that regard.
5. Superstar point guard prospect Josh Selby committed to Kansas on Sunday, ending his long recruitment with a situation that will allow him to walk into Sherron Collins’ starting position next season.  Selby expects to be a 1-and-done player for Bill Self, and with his #4 Rivals.com ranking in tow, he has a good shot at fulfilling that dream.

Anti-Dookies rejoiced today as a long-hoped-for NCAA intervention dropped on the Duke program when the NCAA, in an emergency injunction, declared star forward Kyle Singler ineligible to play in the Final Four this weekend.  As a result of illegal benefits he took while playing in a summer league in the Research Triangle Park area last year, his collegiate career is now over.  We’re still piecing together the details, but reports from both parties (the NCAA and Duke) seem conclusive in the fact that Singler will not play.  Here’s the statement from Duke’s media relations representative:

Obviously, we’re very disappointed as to the allegations that the NCAA has made and the timing of this decision.  After a several-day internal investigation, however, we have decided to comply and not to appeal this decision as the student-athlete in question has indeed jeopardized his amateur eligibility by playing in the Bojangles RTP Pro-Am last summer and accepting unauthorized gifts while there.  Our understanding is that if we do not play him in the Final Four games, we will be in full compliance and will not be held accountable by the NCAA for playing him in previous games this season. 

Losing Singler is a Huge Blow to the Devils

This is obviously a huge blow to Duke’s chances to win the national championship this weekend, but how interesting is it that the NCAA has decided to not hold Duke accountable for the 38 other games Singler has already appeared in this year if they simply hold him out this weekend?  Would Memphis have gotten the same treatment with Derrick Rose on the eve of the Final Four in 2008?  Is the NCAA setting yet another precedent in how they handle ineligible players — i.e., if you discover it in time, we’ll cut you a deal on the games he’s already appeared in?   

Additionally, RTC has done some further investigation and discovered that the RTP Pro-Am is an annual event where many of the former and current players from the area convene for several weeks in July to work on their games in a structured environment — Jerry Stackhouse, Chris Paul and Grant Hill are but a few of the marquee names that appeared last summer.  Like any event of this nature, there are also bags of swag available to the players who agree to play, and the 2009 booty included coupons for free food to Bojangles (a local fast-food chain), new iPhones/iPods and various Nike-sponsored bags, shoes, hats and t-shirts (the shoe giant is one of the primary sponsors of the event).  The NCAA  has been clear in the past that such events are off limits to NCAA athletes such as Singler, but supposedly an enterprising UNC fan took cell phone photos of Singler playing in the games and holding a bag of the above gift items afterward.  Quite literally, holding the bag. 

Coach K faces a monumental task in preparing his team for their semifinal tilt against West Virginia in just over 48 hours without their versatile forward, but he’s performed miracles before on this stage, so we wouldn’t put it past him to find a way to overcome this major hurdle.  The AP has been the only media outlet to get through to him for an interview, and his quote on the matter was succinct but telling about his general feelings on the matter: “Happy April 1, everyone.” 

Perhaps hoping to avoid controversy by releasing the verdict amidst the afterwash of one of the greatest opening weekends in NCAA Tournament history, the NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee this morning finally settled the Derrick Rose issue once and for all: Memphis will be held liable for the presumed culpability of Derrick Rose with respect to his college admissions exam score, and the Tigers must vacate all 38 of their wins from the 2007-08 season.  There is no higher authority to which the university can appeal, so this decision is final.  Here’s the relevant text from the NCAA release:

In its appeal, the university made two arguments as grounds for reversal of the financial penalty: (1) there was insufficient evidence to find that the university or the student-athlete knew, or had reason to know, that he would become ineligible; and (2) even if the evidence was sufficient to make such a finding, the Committee on Infractions erred by not specifically concluding that the university or the student-athlete knew, or had reason to know, that he would become ineligible.  The Infractions Appeals Committee, however, disagreed and upheld the financial penalty. In its report, the Infractions Appeals Committee stated that a letter from the testing agency to the student-athlete “not only made the student-athlete aware that his eligibility was in serious jeopardy, but that he would be declared ineligible if he did not respond to the letter.”

Rose One Week After Notification From ETS About His Test Score

Memphis AD RC Johnson responded with the comment that he is disappointed with the findings, but generally took the high road and pointed toward a bright future for Tiger athletics. 

The NCAA is essentially standing behind their ostrich argument here.  They’re holding Rose responsible for failing to respond to letters of inquiry about his test score, and they’re holding the school responsible for failure to properly investigate the situation surrounding Rose’s test scores before he played.  Even though the NCAA Clearinghouse signed off on Rose to participate in athletics in 2007-08, they obviously believe that Memphis didn’t do enough to vet the situation through their own investigation.  But since the NCAA cannot prove that fact, they’re using Rose’s willful ignorance of letters in March and April 2008 from ETS (which Memphis does not receive) to show Rose’s bad faith while folding Memphis’ culpability into it through a failure to act. 

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The NCAA released its verdict on the Renardo Sidney situation at Mississippi State this afternoon, and as expected, Sidney will not be playing at all during the 2009-10 season.  The question will be whether he will play in a college uniform next year, as the NCAA’s penalties against the 6’10 post player leave open that possibility.  From the NCAA press memo:

Mississippi State University basketball student-athlete Renardo Sidney must sit out the remainder of the current season and 30 percent of the 2010-11 season, according to a decision announced Friday by the NCAA academic and membership affairs staff.  In addition, Sidney must repay $11,800 in benefits received from preferential treatment. The sanction for 2010-11 is estimated to be nine games.

Considering the allegations against the Sidney family — that they were essentially living rent-free for a couple of years in high-end properties in Los Angeles — this seems like a relative slap on the wrist.  What it really means, though, is that the NCAA couldn’t prove any (or much) 0f it.  What they could prove, however, was that Sidney and his father lied about a recruiting trip that they took to LA in 2006 to visit schools.  Their answers of “I don’t know” didn’t pass muster with the factfinders, and therefore the “unethical conduct” charge that the NCAA threw at him stuck.  The penalty for that transgression has mostly been repaid: Sidney must sit out a full season at Mississippi State.  MSU’s final home game is tomorrow, and the Bulldogs will have at most a  handful of games ahead in the postseason.  Put simply, this year is already shot for Sidney, so the timing of the penalty coming now doesn’t really feel like that much of a loss.

Will We Ever Actually See Sidney in This Uniform?

The second piece of the punishment handed down — a nine game suspendion next season and $11,800 in repaid benefits (based on extra Reebok gear, unsanctioned workouts and a family credit line) — seems light as well.  The nine games, sure.  But only $12k in bennies?  Either the NCAA needs to hire better private investigators or the Sidney family (and their attorney Donald Jackson) are experts in deception and obfuscation.   One would think that a family on the take for a shoe company as powerful as Reebok and a player broker as influential as Sonny Vaccaro would hit that amount in a good weekend.  After all, the risk/reward on a player like Sidney is calculated in multiples of seven figures, not five. 

Speaking of which, the spectre now hanging over the Bulldog program is what will Sidney decide to do now?  Their attorney says that they already plan on appealing, but that’s unlikely to get them anywhere better than they are now.  This summer Sidney will be draft-eligible as a player one year removed from high school, but the year away from the game has not helped his NBA draft stock.  At one time considered the top player in the Class of 2009 (ahead of John Wall, Derrick Favors and DeMarcus Cousins), he is now listed in the mid- to late-second round on two top NBA Draft sites.  Some of that drop is attributable to his play during his senior year where many scouts felt he was unfocused and coasting, but undoubtedly many are now wondering how the one-year layoff from competitive basketball has affected a player already prone to loafing. 

The NBA will certainly find space on a roster for a 6’10, 270-lb beast with a soft touch around the rim, even if on a flier.  But staying at Mississippi State another year is another interesting option.  Current MSU patrolman and college basketball’s all-time leading shot blocker, Jarvis Varnado, will finish his career this spring along with starting guard Barry Stewart, but the Bulldogs should return the core of a relatively young bubble team this season.  Should Sidney choose to return, he could slide right into Varnado’s warm post spot with the hope that the roster continues to develop (including 7’1 project John Riek). 

1. The twitterati was abuzz yesterday with the discovery of UNC forward Ed Davis’ name and photo as a client on a sports agent’s website.  The site is down now, but  Sports Agent Blog captured a screenshot and PTA Sports Management has given a statement to reporters that suggests there may have been some contact with the player at some point in time, but that this whole thing was a “mistake.”   Color us extremely cynical, but we think we all know what happened here.  And when we find out next month that Davis is submitting his name to the NBA Draft, it’ll make sense.  But one quick retort before it even gets started…  if Davis signs with another agent, it doesn’t at all prove that there were no illegal contacts here.  All it proves is that Davis has enough sense to fire an agent who could be so ridiculously stupid as to put his name and face on their website before he’s formally made the decision.
2. UCLA’s James Keefe will have shoulder surgery and will miss the rest of the season, effectively rendering the senior’s career over.  He only averaged 2/2 throughout the course of his career, but Howland was enamored with his defense and toughness, so he played in 111 games in his Bruin tenure.
3. Seth Davis gives us his weekly mailbag, and he devotes more than a third of it to questions about the ACC.  We have to agree that one thing that really ticks us off about modern-day conferences is the loss of round-robin schedules, but that’s unfortunately true for every major conference except the Pac-10 (oops, we said major conferences, didn’t we) these days.
4. Answer: USC’s hearing in front of the NCAA Infractions Committee that took place yesterday.  Question: things that are more pleasant than what Tiger Woods will do in front of the world later this morning.
5. Gregg Marshall of Wichita State can get a little testy at times, and this video where he attacks local reporter Bob Lutz for putting “negativity” in the minds of some Shocker fans is a joy to watch.  The video is below, and you can read Lutz’s original article here and his retort here.  Justified?

1. Bowling I and Theory of Softball??  Pete Thamel of the NYT as usual is all over the Binghamton report that came out yesterday exposing the unsavory lengths that their athletic department was willing to go in order to have an NCAA Tournament-caliber basketball program.  Meanwhile former head coach Kevin Broadus remains on PAID administrative leave at the university awaiting a decision on his future there.  How can he have any future whatsoever given these findings?
2. Quick, do you know how many teams currently have undefeated conference records?  If you said nine, then you either came here yesterday or you’re fibbing.  John Stevens wrote an article discussing each of those nine teams and the likelihood that they’ll get through conference play without a blemish.  Hint: the Princeton Tigers (4-0 in the Ivy League) will not.
3. The New York Daily News reported yesterday that Rick Pitino was interested in the Nets head coaching job, which would make sense considering that they’re likely to have John Wall (and possibly Lebron James?) coming to the tri-state area in the near future.  Pitino responded with a great quote — “there’s not an ounce of truth to [the report],” which, knowing Pitino, means that he was clawing at the possibility of leaving Louisville as soon as possible.  We’ve all been to this dance with Pitino before, but Gary Parrish put it in the starkest terms when he compared it to asking the pretty gal to a middle school dance.
4. UConn’s Jim Calhoun will be back on the bench Saturday when his Huskies play Cincinnati.  His team went 3-4 in his absence, with wins over St. John’s, DePaul, and somehow, Texas.  What shouldn’t be forgotten, though, is that his team was already 2-3 in the Big East prior to his departure, and in the last six games he coached (including a loss to Michigan), the Huskies’ efficiency margin was -3.3 points per 100 possessions.  How did replacement coach George Blaney do in his seven-game tenure?  The Huskies’ efficiency margin on his watch was -2.1 points per 100 possessions.  So before UConn fans start blaming Blaney for any of the team’s inadequacies this season (a la Pete Gaudet at Duke in 1994-95), they should be careful to examine the entire picture first.
5. We were anxiously awaiting someone to take up the mantle of supporting the idea of NCAA96, and leave it to Gregg Doyel to be the advocate.  Some of his points are solid — in particular, the nearsighted “tradition” argument.  But the one that really doesn’t make sense to us is the explanation he gives for keeping the “crappy teams” in.  He must not have read our seminal work on the matter, published last week.  See, the problem isn’t that “crappy teams” like Vermont, Bucknell and Davidson would get into the Big Dance; it’s that sub-.500 BCS conference teams like Miami (FL), Alabama, Oklahoma and Washington would get in.  And we don’t want them in — those teams are not good enough, no matter how you evaluate them.  If the NCAA96 implementation would reward strong regular season play for mid-majors whom would otherwise be shut out, we could get on board with it.  But you, us, Gregg and the dog all know that’s not why this will be happening — the majority of the additional 31 spots will go to BCS teams.  And that’s truly crap.

1. From the we’re completely shocked department, Oklahoma players Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald were suspended from the team prior to the Sooners’ game with Texas Tech last night.  Was there poetic justice?  Absolutely, as Oklahoma lost by a single point.  Do you think that just maybe those two players could have been worth a single bucket in tonight’s game?  Great decision, fellas.
2. If you guys haven’t been there already, you should try out a site called Lost Lettermen, which tracks old players of all sorts from over the years.  In recent weeks, they’ve tracked down former college stars John Gilchrist, Michael Doleac, Drew Neitzel, even Harold Freakin’ Miner.  Our favorite, though?  The whereabouts of the members of the 1985 national champion Villanova Wildcats.
3. With news today that he had secretly videotaped sixteen tv personalities and celebrities, the Erin Andrews stalker has now officially moved from a misguided idiot to a total creepster.  Twenty-seven months in prison seems like a gift.
4. Three words:  Felony.  Snowball.  Throwing.  JMU guard Ryan Knight (and accomplice Charles Gill) made Pledger and Fitzgerald (ab0ve) look like brainiacs with their decision to throw snowballs at a plow and inside an unmarked police vehicle last weekend.   The last part of that statement is what really interests us.  Who hasn’t thrown a wayward bomb or two at a passing car or plow in their lives?   But to start unloading on people getting out of the car that comes to aid the plow?  You gotta have a better escape plan, fellas!
5. Your must-read of the day is George Dorhmann’s piece on CNNSI that meticulously gets to the bottom of the self-imposed sanctions that Arizona put itself on late last week as a result of Lute Olson’s illegal letter to boosters in 2008.  The fact that there was so much gray-area rule-skirting going on at the Cactus Classic involving such prominent names as Josh Pastner, Mike Dunlap and Miles Simon (all tangentially related to this) suggests considerably more culpability than Arizona brass suggests with their ‘crazy old man’ theory.

1. Want to know what’s wrong with UNC this year?  One ACC coach laid out all of the dirty laundry about Roy Williams’ team in an interview with the Washington Post.  Since the coach was speaking as someone who had faced Carolina once already this season, and the article came out Saturday morning, this means that it was one of the following four: Seth Greenberg (Virginia Tech), Paul Hewitt (Georgia Tech), Oliver Purnell (Clemson), Sidney Lowe (NC State) or Dino Gaudio (Wake Forest).  Lowe lost to the Heels in their only game and Gaudio still seems too new to make those kinds of statements about that program, even anonymously.  That leaves Greenberg, Hewitt and Purnell, and our money is on Greenberg.  For some reason it just sounds like him (and the WaPo probably has a closer relationship with him than the others).
2. Florida State announced on Sunday that they will be vacating wins from ten sports that involved 61 athletes accused of academic misconduct during the 2006-07 academic year.  Most of the news will focus on football coach Bobby Bowden losing 12 wins from his career total, but of interest to us is that the basketball program will lose all 22 of its wins from that year as well — one from the ACC Tourney, and two from the NIT.
3. Based on everything that Isiah Thomas says here about his lack of interest in the LA Clippers job, we fully expect him to see him stalking the sidelines (and the interns!) at the Staples Center next season.
4. NCAA 96: a voice of reason on expansion of the NCAA Tournament from an unlikely source, the Commissioner of the Big Ten, Jim Delaney.  The key takeaway from his discussion with TSN is ‘let’s learn more about this.’  Exactly.  The more time spent talking to stakeholders as well as THE FANS is simple but seemingly missing from this idea — it helps to remove avarice from the equation and gives reasoned consideration to the premise that just because an idea will be profitable makes it a good thing.
5. Pat Forde writes that if the COY award were handed out today, there would be no doubt who should win it — Jim Boeheim.  He won’t get any argument from us.  Syracuse received 83 votes in the preseason AP Poll (good for 31st) and 111 votes in the ESPN/Coaches Poll (25th).  The Orange are now 23-1, leading the Big East Conference, and could potentially be Boeheim’s best team ever.  That’s right.  Look through this list and find a better team.  It’s hard to do.

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. Some day-after analysis of South Carolina’s big upset over #1 Kentucky on Tuesday night…  a night that cost the Gamecocks $25k for the RTC (well worth it, if you ask us).  Jeff Goodman thinks the loss shows that the field is wide open this year, Pat Forde was really impressed by Devan Downey (like Calvin Murphy-impressed), and Gregg Doyel can’t get over the fact that Kentucky raised over a million bucks for Haiti.
2. Memphis will plead for leniency before the NCAA Infractions Appeal Committee in Indianapolis on Friday regarding the Derrick Rose scandal and those 38 vacated wins.  We’re not likely to know anything until four to six weeks after the hearing, however.
3. What was going on up in Seattle on Tuesday night with the ridiculous number of fouls in the Washington vs. Seattle game, which UW won 123-76?  Cameron Dollar’s Seattle Redhawks were hit with FORTY-FIVE personal fouls, and actually had to play the last 1:32 of the game with only four players on the floor.  Folks, they had more fouls than rebounds.  Soooo, let’s put this in perspective… the same team that defeated Oregon State by 51 just lost by 47 to Washington, and both Pac-10 teams are basically sharing space at the bottom of the conference standings.
4. Jim Boeheim: stand-up comedian.  Yeah, everything is funny when you’re 20-1 and ranked in the top five. 

5. As if there was ever any question about this, we noted something a little odd about a television glimpse of Dookie V’s grandson who was attending the  Duke-Florida State game at Cameron Indoor Stadium last night.  We’ve obscured the little guy’s face to protect the young/innocent, but given this outward display of partisanship by his family, how can Dick Vitale ever again say with a straight face that he’s capable of calling a Blue Devils game fairly?

Little Dookie V.