1. As we have mentioned before, we are going to start seeing more and more coaching spots open up in the next few weeks.  The biggest one thus far has been UNC-Wilmington firing Buzz Peterson. Peterson, who we will always remember from his role in Michael Jordan’s “Come Fly With Me” video (he was Jordan’s college roommate), only lasted four seasons going 42-80, but has a career record of 267-227 even though he never made it to the NCAA Tournament. In a Facebook post, Peterson thanked the fans for their support while noting the restrictions he had to deal with as the result of the school’s prior APR scores. Another relatively big opening came when Bowling Green fired Louis Orr after seven seasons. Orr, who is best known as a coach from his time at Seton Hall where he guided the team to two NCAA Tournament appearances, was 101-121 at Bowling Green. Even though his team finished tied for the MAAC regular season title in 2009 he was never able to get them to the NCAA Tournament and only led them to the NIT once. The final big opening yesterday came from Loyola Marymount where they fired Max Good. Despite being 72, Good, who went 77-117 at Loyola Marymount and is 319-340 overall, says that he still wants to coach. We suspect that there will be quite a few (relatively) big names interested in all three positions.
2. None of those jobs would necessarily be considered premier jobs except when you consider the other spots that opened up yesterday. South Dakota fired interim coach Joey James yesterday after he went 12-18 in his one season as the team’s coach. James replaced Dave Boots, who won over 500 games at the school, after Boots retired abruptly in early September for reasons that remain unclear. The school has already announced that they have hired Fogler Consulting, a search firm founded by Eddie Fogler, to conduct a coaching search. Despite what the school says we suspect that the coaching search will be a little more difficult that the school claims it will be. The other job that opened up yesterday was at Tennessee State where they fired Travis Williams. Williams only lasted one season longer than James as he followed up a respectable 18-15 record in his first season with an abysmal 5-25 record this season. We wouldn’t consider Tennessee State a high-pressure job, but that is not the type of trend that lets you keep your job.
3. If you are looking for potential replacements at these two schools or the likely dozens of others that will open up in the next month, Brian Hamilton has some candidates from the assistant coaching ranks. Many of these are names that you are familiar with and we have no doubt that they could get head coaching jobs if they wanted today particularly at the latter two schools that we mentioned, but will probably hold out for a top-tier job. Honestly, we wish that schools would be more willing to take a chance on individuals like these instead of simply hiring the safe retreads who failed at their previous job (or jobs).
4. Sometimes organizations release information that we simply don’t understand. The NCAA’s statement that they would be monitoring Joel Embiid‘s recovery to help determine Kansas’ seeding is one such instance. Outside of it sounding a little too Big Brother-ish we have some questions about how they actually intend to do this. According to the NCAA, they plan to be communicating with Kansas regarding what Embiid’s status for the NCAA Tournament is and how his recovery is going. This seems nice in theory, but that assumes that Kansas will be completely upfront with the NCAA and that Kansas even knows what is going on in terms of Embiid’s back
5. Wichita State has been getting a lot of media attention lately, but the one thing that seems to have been missing is a good feature story from a national writer. Luke Winn has just that as he followed the Shockers for four days culminating in their Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title. As Winn points out early in the piece, it is ridiculous to compare this team to the 1990-91 UNLV team outside of their unblemished records heading into the NCAA Tournament, but that does not make them any less compelling. They may lack the big name stars that other teams in their position have possessed in the past, but that does not make them any less intriguing.

David Changas is the RTC correspondent for the OVC.  You can follow him on Twitter @dchangas.

Top Storylines

• Can Murray State Repeat Its Success?  Last year, the Racers took the college basketball world by storm by being the nation’s last remaining undefeated team after starting 23-0. They lose several key contributors, but another run to a second-round NCAA Tournament win is realistic, and coach Steve Prohm proved he can coach in his first season at the helm. Should Murray State win the league’s automatic bid, it likely will not come with a lofty five-seed as it did last year, but any team with potential All-American Isaiah Canaan leading it in March will be dangerous.

Isaiah Canaan Is The Early Favorite For OVC Player Of The Year And Has A Shot At Even Higher Accolades. (Getty Images)

• Belmont Arrives:  In an effort to raise its overall profile, Belmont left the Atlantic Sun and certainly will add cachet to a league coming off its best year in recent memory. The Bruins have been a dominant force in the A-Sun for the past dozen years, earning the conference’s automatic bid in five of the last seven. Their addition to an already formidable league raises its profile that much more, and though Murray State is the league favorite, Belmont will draw attention to the OVC in this and years to come.
• Who is Robert Covington? With all of the hoopla surrounding Canaan and Murray State, plus the arrival of Belmont, the player who isn’t the subject of enough discussion is Tennessee State big man Robert Covington. The 6’9″ senior finished third in the league in scoring and second in rebounding last year, and is projected by some to be a second-round pick in the 2013 NBA Draft.  He scores, rebounds, and shoots the three proficiently, and has an NBA physique.  A player of the year caliber season should be expected from Covington, and the presence of NBA scouts will be commonplace at Tiger games.

Predicted Order of Finish

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