1. Happy New Year, everyone! Everyone here at Rush the Court hopes you had a safe and fun evening last night which will be followed by the best 2010 you can hope for.  We feel blessed here with the growth in readers, notoriety and access that RTC continues to have, and we’re certain that this will be our best year yet.
2. A late Xmas present for Jay Wright and his Villanova Wildcats today, as freshman center Mouphtaou Yarou will be back to play after being diagnosed with hepatitis B earlier this year.  It will undoubtedly take Yarou a while to get his sea legs back, but even if he can provide 15-20 minutes/game in hustle, rebounding and defense, that would be a tremendous benefit to VU throughout Big East play.
3. Here’s a nice piece from George Dorhmann on USC’s Mike Gerrity, who is without a doubt making the single biggest impact as a transfer player this season anywhere.  USC was barely a D1 program when he was on the bench.
4. We’d agree with Goodman’s sentiment that UConn is overrated this year, but part of the problem is that there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of difference between teams in the #10-#30 range.  Interesting about Calhoun’s recruiting, though.
5. Kevin Laue, the Manhattan College player with only one arm who was featured here as well as many other places in the past year, got the first point of his collegiate career Wednesday night in a game versus Vanderbilt.  He played a season-high seventeen minutes and hit one of four free throws while also totaling eight rebounds!  A great story just keeps getting better.

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.

1. Marquette lost freshman forward Jeronne Maymon today when coach Buzz Williams announced that he was transferring from the school after just nine games, leaving the Golden Eagles with a mere nine scholarship players.  Or are they?  According to Maymon’s father, it was news to him and his son is “loving every minute of being” at Marquette.   Stay tuned on this one.
2. South Carolina head coach Darrin Horn received a two-year extension and a hefty raise of $300k yesterday in a showing by the school that they’re serious in trying to keep the talented young coach around for a while.
3. Food for thought:  Seth Davis reminds us that Kansas guard Xavier Henry is pretty solid in his own right, while the rest of us have become a sticky hot wet mess over Kentucky’s John Wall.
4. If you didn’t read John Stevens’ report from the Crosstown Shootout on Sunday night, grab yourself a cup of joe, relax, and let yourself be taken away to a college basketball nirvana.
5. Roy’s ejectee Brian King was interviewed by Dane Huffman at WRAL Sports yesterday, and he unequivocally states that he was not intoxicated and that he did nothing to warrant the ire that the UNC coach projected at him after he heckled Deon Thompson.  We gave our opinion on this yesterday, and yeah, this pretty much confirms what we thought.  Roy’s knowing smirk at the end of his press conference interview is telling — he’s the teflon don and he knows it.

Heading into an interesting Saturday of games, we’ve got a few dollops of knowledge that will help you navigate things.  Keep in mind we’ll be doing our first weekend Boom Goes the Dynamite this afternoon, in addition to RTC Lives for Butler vs. Ohio State and the Wooden Classic this afternoon…

1. UNC’s Marcus Ginyard will be held out of today’s game against Presbyterian with pain in his foot.  A UNC doctor was quick to say that this pain was unrelated to last year’s stress fracture that Ginyard suffered, but it is in the same foot.  This is a ‘precautionary’ measure to keep Ginyard from fracturing the foot.  UNC undoubtedly won’t need the defensive dynamo today, but against #2 Texas next Saturday?  Yeah, probably want him in the lineup then.
2. Some Comings and Goings.  Wake Forest junior guard Konner Tucker is leaving the school after seven games (he was  JuCo transfer), and St. Mary’s fifth-year senior guard Wayne Hunter is out for the rest of the season after tearing his ACL in a game this week against Utah State.  In terms of relative importance, the Hunter loss is much more significant, as he was averaging 12/3 for the season and was one of the best perimeter defenders for the Gaels.  Tucker was only averaging 2.2 PPG in just over five minutes per contest.
3. LeBron a fan of John Wall?  Who isn’t?
4. Unless Notre Dame is interested, and they’re not, the only way this makes sense is if the Big Ten can poach another major conference football power.  Missouri?  Kentucky?  West Virginia?  Pittsburgh?  Louisville?  It’s fun to speculate about this, but from a hoops perspective we’d hate to see the Big East change at the top (you can send the bottom quarter to the A10 or America East for all we care).
5. Want to get ready for today’s games — Seth Davis, Gary Parrish and Jeff Goodman give us a pretty good rundown of what to watch this weekend.

Pitt’s Jamie Dixon picked up some great news today when it was announced that Centenary’s Chase Adams, a 5’10 waterbug point guard originally from Baltimore, is transferring to play for the Panthers and he will be eligible immediately.  With Centenary’s recent decision to move down from D1 to D3, all of its players were given the option to transfer to another school without penalty.  Dixon must be ecstatic because his returning backcourt is relatively inexperienced (Ashton Gibbs was the presumed incumbent), but now he’ll be adding the 2009 Summit League DPOY, a player who was eighth nationally in steals per game (2.7).  This goes along with some nice numbers in scoring (14.6), rebounds (4.2) and assists (4.5) per game.  It sounds as if Adams will fit the Panther ethos of hard work and defense to a T…

Let’s get caught up after a glorious weekend…

• Elliot Williams to Memphis.  Nothing surprising here, as we reported last week that Elliot Williams was leaving Duke to move closer to home to attend to his mother’s illness.  The only school that made reasonable sense was his hometown University of Memphis, and Gary Parrish reported yesterday that Williams will indeed become a Tiger.  If Williams can get the NCAA to approve his hardship waiver so that he can play next season, he should walk right into a starting position at the PG spot for Josh Pastner’s squad.  While we’re on the subject of Memphis getting new players, former Kentucky player (well, he never actually played) Matt Pilgrim is probably transferring to Memphis with the assistance of new UK coach John Calipari.  Pilgrim, a transfer from Hampton who sat out last season at UK, wasn’t part of the new regime’s plans.  Since he didn’t want to leave Lexington but was no longer welcome, Coach Cal is trying to facilitate a seamless transfer for him.
• The NCAA Shell Game. Seth Davis wrote an article last week that illustrates just how one-sided the NCAA scholarship system can be.  When new coaches (e.g.,Isiah Thomas and John Calipari) get to their new schools, they often feel the need to run off players (such as Pilgrim, mentioned above) who don’t fit in their lofty plans for the program.  That’s all fine and well for replacing lesser players, but the whole house of cards gets exposed when a coach wants to keep a player who otherwise would like to transfer.  Meet Freddy Asprilla, a 6’10 Colombian center at FIU who had a great freshman year and wants to transfer to a major conference school, but whom isn’t being released by FIU simply because, well, they don’t have to.  There’s an adage about the deck getting stacked somewhere in here.
• FIU Cheerleading.  We know it’s purely coincidental that FIU is enabling cost-cutting measures by cutting its cheerleaders during the same year that they hired Isiah Thomas to coach their men’s basketball team (Thomas isn’t taking a base salary this year).  Still, the rich irony of FIU wholly dismantling the cheerleading team within months of Thomas’ arrival on campus isn’t lost on anyone.  Sometimes the unintended consequences are more compelling than the intended ones.
• NBA Draft Detritus.  Gary Parrish: the NBA will find you wherever you play.  Luke Winn: behind the scenes at MSG, and raising legitimate questions as to Ty Lawson and DeJuan Blair’s draft positions.  Jeff Goodman: Brandon Jennings made the right choice to go to Europe.  More Parrish: like RTC, he also thinks Demar DeRozan is going to be a stud.
• More Quick Hits.  Marquette’s Maurice Acker: done with basketball.  Renardo Sidney: stop delaying, NCAA.  Jeremy Tyler: headed to Israel?  Brian Ellerbe: new assistant at GW.  BYU’s Dave Rose: now cancer-free and returning to coach this fall.   William & Mary: considering an asparagus mascot.  Roy Williams: Aw Shucks… the RW Story, on sale in November.  Antonio Anderson: those Ws are ours!

What’s this?  Two days in a row with FBs?  Indeed.  There’s a lot to get caught up on…

• Duke Downer.  The biggest news today was the news that Duke point guard Elliot Williams (he of the happy, happy feet) will be leaving the Duke program so that he can move closer to Memphis, his hometown.  Reportedly his mother is facing a life-threatening illness there and Williams wants to be nearby for support as she battles her disease.  He plans on petitioning the NCAA to waive the one-year transfer obligation so that he will be able to play immediately at his new school (presumably Memphis).  This is undoubtedly a major blow to Coach K’s backcourt in 2009-10, as he’ll now be left with only Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith to log minutes there.  Big things were expected of Williams based on his insertion into the starting lineup at midseason and his excellent all-around play down the stretch.  Duke fans are largely crushed by this news, given the unfortunate circumstances causing it as well as the huge, gaping hole in the backcourt it leaves (while, ironically, the perfect fix named Seth Curry can only wait and watch next season).  In other Duke news that came out today, Coach K is the highest paid Duke employee by far ($3.6M last year) – no surprise there.
• Like Father, Not Like Son.  A bit of a surprise today is that Jeffrey Jordan (you know, that Mike guy’s son) is ending his basketball career at Illinois to focus on his studies.  This comes on the heels of news from earlier this year that Jordan’s hard work and commitment to the program had resulted in a scholarship for the rest of his time at the school.  Guess he’d had enough.  Actually, we can totally understand this.  Jordan was undeniably under more pressure to perform than any walk-on turned scholarship player in the history of college basketball, and although it made for nice copy, it’s safe to say that Jordan probably didn’t love the sport anywhere near the same as his famous dad.  He probably reached a personal epiphany of some kind that included a heart-to-heart with pops, and once MJ gave him the blessing, he’s now free to pursue the activities he truly enjoys.  Good for him.  And good for him for working his tail off in his two years at Illinois to go from walk-on to scholarship to expected contributor, despite limited talent.
• Vegas, Baby.  The WAC has followed its mid-major brethren WCC and Mountain West Conferences by moving its postseason tournament to Las Vegas, where the Orleans Arena will host beginning in 2011.  This comes on the heels of a very successful WCC Tournament at the Orleans last year, where a sold-out, raucous arena was shown on national television for St. Mary’s vs. Gonzaga.  The MWC already holds its conference tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center down the street, and this move by the WAC means that Vegas will become the basketball destination for every legitimate conference (save the Pac-10) west of the Rockies every March.  Sounds like a really fun environment for fans of these leagues.
• No, No, No.  Everyone got this wrong.  Derrick Rose wasn’t flashing a gang sign in the below pic, he was practicing universal remote hand signals for the letter “B” on the SAT exam.

• Some Quick Hits.  Wayman Tisdale Center: good move by Oklahoma here.  Karen Sypher: that bitch set me up!  Stan Van Gundy: the NCAA’s 1-and-done rule is a sham.  DeMarre Carroll:  you hate to see something like this derail a kid’s first round aspirations.  EA Sports: Blake Griffin is in the game.   Doug Wojcik:  SIX.  MORE.  YEARS!!!  Drew Gordon:  UCLA’s rising sophomore will be ok after tearing his patellar tendon last week.   Oliver Purnell: two-year extension at Clemson.  Sean Miller:  his five-year contract at Arizona ($1.6M per) was approved.  Akron’s Keith Dambrot:  extended through 2016.

It’s been a light few days, but we’re here to get you caught up on the few things surfacing…

• Florida’s Alex Tyus was transferring, now he’s not.  This confused us until we remembered that he learned from Donovan two-step from the master himself. 
• Bruce Pearl’s romantic overtures know no bounds… not even the head football coach’s wife (not that we blame him). 
• Oddly, USC is no longer recruiting big man Renardo Sidney (who moved to LA three yrs ago for marketing purposes).  Now he may be heading back home to Mississippi St?  Stay tuned on this one.
• Will Syracuse be the one-year football destination for Greg Paulus?
• The NBA’s early entry deadline was Sunday – here are a few of the last-minute entries:  Mississippi St.’s Jarvis Varnado (no agent), UConn’s Ater Majok (no agent), Tennessee’s Tyler Smith (no agent), USC’s Taj Gibson (no agent) and BYU’s Jonathan Tavernari (no agent). 
• Returning:  Iowa St.’s Craig Brackins (a major coup), Michigan’s Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims.
• Gary Parrish doesn’t believe that Davidson will recapture the Curry magic for quite some time. 
• It’s hard to believe this didn’t happen now that the FBI has brought charges against Karen Sypher for attempting to extort Rick Pitino for $10M, two cars, a paid-off house and college tuition.  Wow.  Regardless, we have to agree with Goodman when he says nothing good is ultimately coming from all of this.
• He was only “holding it” for someone named “Luck.”  Welcome to Nevada basketball in the post-Mark Fox era.
• Wichita St.’s Gregg Marshall got a one-year contract extension (to 2015) after an improved second year at the school.
• Good to see the NCAA gumshoes going after the big boys like Northeastern, who received two years probation on Friday.

Happy Income Redistribution Day, everyone!

• Who?  Depaul’s Dar Tucker (Mr. 0-18, with an agent) and Southern Miss’ Jeremy Wise (no agent) have decided to throw their hats in the early entry ring as well. 
• More Greg Paulus.  Thought we were rid of this guy.  So…  he’s not good enough to play for Duke at QB, but he might be at Michigan?  Wow, Rich Rodriguez has a lot further to go than we thought. 
• The Man Who Replaced Wooden.  Former UCLA and UAB coach Gene Bartow was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer, and will begin treatment immediately. 
• Dolla Dolla Bills.  Mizzou’s Mike Anderson parlayed 31 wins and an Elite 8 appearance into seven more years on his contract at a minimum of $1.35M per. 
• Isiah Will Work for Free (sorta).  FIU introduced Isiah Thomas as their new head coach today, and he will not take a salary of $200-300K this season (the Knicks are still paying him $12M for his final two years on his contract).  Jeff Goodman thinks there’s a reasonable chance it might work out for Isiah there, maybe he took some of those sleeping pills as well?  Mike Freeman has a slightly different take.
• Let’s Get Wattaded.  Georgetown guard Omar Wattad will transfer out of the program, destination unknown. 

Allen R of Houston Basketball Junkies is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

1. Memphis: 18-3 (7-0)
2. UCF: 15-6 (5-2)
3. Tulsa: 15-7 (5-2)
4. UTEP: 13-8 (4-3)
5. UAB: 14-8 (4-3)
6. Houston: 12-7 (3-3)
7. Southern Miss: 13-7 (3-3)
8. Tulane: 9-11 (3-4)
9. East Carolina: 10-10 (2-5)
10. Marshall: 9-12 (2-5) 
11. Rice: 7-14 (2-5)
12. SMU: 6-13 (1-6)

“It’s the same old song…”

That isn’t just a line from a classic ‘Motown’ song, but the story of Conference USA basketball summed up in five choice words.

Some things change, but as last week proved, there are some things that always remain the same for a while.

1.) Don’t Boo the Aubrey: In his first game coming off the one game suspension by Conference USA, Houston guard Aubrey Coleman responded to boos and jeers from the Memphis student section by scoring 35 points. The only problem was none of Coleman’s teammates showed up and they combined for a total of 33 points, as the Tigers beat the Cougars 83-68 at the Fed Ex Forum. It was quite evident last Saturday that even in a down year, Memphis has far more talent than even the upper-tier CUSA teams like Houston.

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