1. Conference media days are usually full of mundane questions and people trying to make big stories out of mostly irrelevant issues, but the Big 12 appears to be an exception to that this year as it announced that it has decided to explore expanding. That announcement has led to plenty of speculation as to what schools would be the best fit. With the conference expected to add either two or four schools in a bid to not only become bigger/expand its geographic footprint, but also possibly move towards having its own television network (see below), the most commonly mentioned options appear to be Boise State, Brigham Young, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Colorado State, Connecticut, Houston, Memphis, South Florida, and Tulane with BYU, Cincinnati, and Connecticut being the favorites to most observers.
2. One of those schools that did itself no favors with the timing of release of bad news is South Florida, which is being investigated by the NCAA for academic fraud. Very few details about the case have come out yet, but it already appears to have led assistant coach Oliver Antigua, brother of head coach Orlando Antigua, to resign within hours of the story breaking. Plenty of people online have been making jokes about how the program should be better if they are cheating, but the reality is that they should be better just based on the location of where they are. Tampa is by no means a high school basketball hotbed, but there are plenty of talented players in the area including many talented two-sports players who focus on football. Much like Central Florida, the program really should be better than what it is. We will have to wait and see what they are accused of and how hard the NCAA will come down on it before seeing what kind of obstacles they will have to overcome.
3. If you thought you didn’t get enough ACC basketball (ok, you already get enough Duke and North Carolina), you are in luck as the ACC Network is now expected to launch in 2019 as part of a report that also indicates that the league is extending its grant of rights through the 2035-36 season. The latter is interesting as it means the conference keeps all media revenue generated by the school even if it tries to leave the conference until that period. We aren’t sure how well that would hold up in court, but it would make poaching schools away more difficult if it could be enforced.
4. In probably the most predictable recruiting announcement ever, Michael Porter Jr has committed to play at Washington. For those of you who don’t follow recruiting, Porter, who was mentioned in last week’s Morning 5, seemed like he was guaranteed to play at Washington since he is the godson of Lorenzo Romar and the school has recently hired his father to be an assistant coach. These type of package deals are nothing new (we wrote about them back in 2008 and they were going on well before that), but they continue to leave a sour taste in some people’s mouths. We are not what exactly the NCAA can to prevent them since there are certainly family members of top recruits who would be reasonable coaching hires (like if Doc Rivers had been out of coaching when Austin was being recruited), but it seems like it will continue to be a contentious point going forward.
5. Unfortunately, we have to cover legal issues around college basketball players way too much and this week’s case is Xavier senior guard Myles Davis (10.8 points, 4.1 assists, and 3.6 rebounds per game last year), who had a protective order placed against him after his ex-girlfriend accused him of threatening her, breaking her cellphone, punching holes in a wall, and trying to break her windows. For the next three years, Davis, who denies the allegations, is barred from coming within 500 feet of the woman except on-campus where he has to stay at least ten feet away at all times. The school has not handed down any punishment for Davis yet although we doubt it will be anything substantial unless he has a history of these type of incidents.

Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.

There will be some measure of disbelief the first time you see it. Don’t hesitate to look, just know that when you start scratching your head, trying to think of an explanation, your eyes do not deceive you: the above link takes you directly to a list of Seton Hall’s 2014 recruiting class, which now counts three top-100 commitments, including Thursday’s huge addition: Lincoln High School (NY) shooting guard Isaiah Whitehead, a consensus five-star prospect ranked well within the top 40 of any recruiting database, ended his high profile recruitment Thursday when he committed to the Pirates. Whitehead, an explosive 6-foot-3 shooting guard with possible one-and-done designs, received offers from Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, UCLA, Syracuse, and other big-name high-major programs. Before Thursday’s decision, Whitehead was believed to have narrowed his lengthy list to two schools: St. Johns (who Whitehead visited Wednesday, and thus the school many expected Whitehead to choose) and Seton Hall. As word of the five-star guard’s announcement circulated, it was easy for one’s mind to wander: what led Whitehead to choose Seton Hall, a long-dormant program under Kevin Willard, over the Steve Lavin-led Red Storm? Was there something behind Whitehead’s decision not made apparent at his announcement? That seemed to be the implication from a New York Post report divulging the imminent hiring of Dwayne “Tiny” Morton, Whitehead’s middle school teacher and high school coach (and founder of Juice All-Stars, Whitehead’s AAU team), to Seton Hall’s staff. The sequence of events did not really leave much room for interpretation: Whitehead appeared to be a “package” deal.

If Seton Hall can’t compete with top programs for high-level recruits, bundling players assistants is a legal, yet questionable, workaround (Photo credit: Under Armour/Kelly Kline)

I’ll answer the question that surely popped into your brain sometime over the last five seconds: No, there is nothing illegal about Seton Hall’s reported decision to hire Morton. The NCAA instituted a rule last season prohibiting the hiring of third-parties connected to recruits to any position other than one of the three assistant spots allotted to each team. Morton is expected to become one of the Pirates’ three assistants, making his new position perfectly valid – in the eyes of the NCAA. How the rest of the college hoop world (fans, rival coaches, and players) feel about this is another story entirely. Before you make a conclusive judgment, there is a pattern of repeated behavior worth discussing that might influence your opinion. Whitehead may be the latest package deal in Seton Hall’s 2014 class, but he’s not the only one. It was just over a month ago that 2014 four-star forward Angel Delgado’s commitment to Seton Hall was followed weeks later by the Pirates’ hiring of Oliver Antigua, who knew Delgado through his assistant’s role on the national program of Delgado’s native Dominican Republic. Or go back five months earlier, when 2013 point guard Jaren Sina – who reneged on his verbal commitment to Northwestern after the Wildcats replaced former coach Bill Carmody with Chris Collins – opted to join Seton Hall right around the time Fred Hill, a former Northwestern assistant instrumental to the New Jersey-based Sina’s initial commitment to the Wildcats, was added to the Pirates’ staff. That makes Morton’s potential addition Seton Hall’s third prospect-tethered hire under Willard over the past six months.

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