Christopher Johnson is an RTC columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.

On the first day of college basketball’s spring signing period, the two highest-ranked recruits in the Class of 2012 went public with their decisions. First, Bishop Gorman product Shabazz Muhammad confirmed most every pre-commitment prediction by pledging to Ben Howland at UCLA. Then Nerlens Noel, a 6’ 10’’ shot-blocking force from the Tilton School (NH), kept his top three suitors (Kentucky, Syracuse and Georgetown) on their toes by tweeting one day earlier that he was “Gon shock the World!!” before ultimately – and not at all unpredictably – announcing his intention to join the Wildcats. Noel and Muhammad marked two momentous pickups for each program, a pair of one-and-done talents who over the next 365 days could dominate Division I competition, garner huge amounts of national attention, and rise to rarefied status within their respective fan bases before joining the professional ranks as lottery picks in the NBA Draft. That’s the narrative most everyone expects, and rightly so: From Anthony Davis to Kevin Love to Derrick Rose, truly elite high school prospects use the college game as a one-year springboard for their professional futures. Only it now seems Muhammad and Noel’s paths to NBA stardom may not proceed quite as smoothly.

Questions remain over Noel’s eligibility as Kentucky prepares to begin its Title defense effort (Photo credit: Getty Images).

In the months since making their commitments, both players’ recruitments have come under NCAA scrutiny. CBSSports.com reported in February that the NCAA had begun looking into Muhammad’s recruitment, with a specific emphasis on his relationship with financial advisers Ken Kavanagh and Benjamin Lincoln. The issue was put to rest – at least temporarily – before word leaked last week that Muhammad had not yet been cleared by the NCAA to travel with UCLA on its summer exhibition tour to China. The eligibility spotlight shifted its focus yesterday to Noel, when SI.com’s Pete Thamel brought to light recent developments on the NCAA’s ongoing probe over Noel’s recruitment. According to Thamel, NCAA enforcement officials, including UK chief compliance officer Sandy Bell, traveled to Tilton in early August to ask questions that “focused on the cast of characters that surrounded Noel’s recruitment and how Noel paid for his unofficial visits.” A former NCAA investigator indicated that Noel’s case appears to be more than a simple background check, citing the presence of Bell and two NCAA enforcement officials as signs pointing to further investigation. Neither player has been implicated in any wrongdoing, so UCLA and UK fans can hold their breath – for now. The ongoing queries have yet to produce any truly damaging implications, but the continual speculation dampens the excitement level for two teams with designs on deep NCAA Tournament runs in the upcoming season. For two players expected to have prominent roles within their teams’ offensive and defensive game plans, the ongoing uncertainty – even at this early stage – counts as a legitimate concern. Noel is faced with the unfortunate challenge of replacing one of college hoops’ most dominant defensive players of recent memory, Anthony Davis, while Muhammad is expected to ignite Ben Howland’s trudgy half-court system with perimeter scoring punch and dribble penetration. Even for players as talented as Muhammad and Noel, the high school-to-college leap requires an adjustment period, and any missed practice time could stall their development.

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1. In one of the shortest collegiate careers that we’ve quite frankly ever seen, Kansas freshman Milton Doyle has already decided that he’s had enough in Lawrence. That’s right, Doyle, still some seven-plus weeks away from his first Midnight Madness, is transferring from KU due to — can you believe this? — a lack of playing time. Sure, Bill Self was diplomatic when he announced Doyle’s departure on Monday — he said, “[Doyle] thought it was better for him to go to a place where he had a better opportunity to impact a program early in his career” — but the 6’4″ guard played sparingly during the Jayhawks’ recent trip to Europe, and it was clear that he was going to spend much of his first season at KU sitting behind experienced players such as Elijah Johnson, Travis Releford and Naadir Thorpe in the rotation. Why this should be a problem for a player who was headed to FIU last spring before head coach Isiah Thomas was fired, we don’t know, but it’s painfully stark further evidence of the pervasive attitude of instant gratification that this generation of prep basketball players seems to carry as a birthright.
2. From a freshman player who should have considered himself lucky to have an opportunity to wear a Kansas uniform to a pair of future freshmen who will no doubt very much enjoy their six months of the college experience in 2013-14, two of the top five players in the Class of 2013 — Aaron and Andrew Harrison — have announced through Nick Jones at the Kentucky Kernel that they will announce their joint college choice on October 29. The date represents the day after the pair’s 18th birthday and presumably gives them plenty of time to take some visits in September and October among their five finalist schools — Baylor, Kentucky, Maryland, SMU, and Villanova. According to Adam Zagoria, the first three on that list are the schools contacting the twins most frequently (maybe they’re just picking up the phone for those caller IDs?).
3. Mike DeCourcy checked in with Ben Howland just shy of UCLA’s Wednesday trip to China, and if summertime coachspeak is your thing, this detailed article will give you a very good sense as to how good the head coach thinks his team will be next season. It’s well worth the read for the information that you will glean on how Larry Drew II is handling point guard duties; whether Kyle Anderson can man the position if Drew falls through; the development of the Wear twins; the so-called best shooter at UCLA since Michael Roll; and, Shabazz Muhammad’s limitless motor. But the real jewel of the article is when Howland gives a frank assessment of the weight and conditioning status of center Joshua Smith — put simply, after nearly an entire offseason to get in shape, Smith is, according to his head coach, “the same.”
4. The Lapchick Character Award’s 2012 recipients were announced on Monday with two of the most influential college basketball coaches in history honored along with one of the most revered in the women’s game (Cathy Rush) as well as the high school game (Morgan Wootten). CM Newton and Pete Newell both left their marks on college hoops in different ways, but few have questioned their character along with their contributions. California’s Newell was the one coach whom John Wooden had to get past to ultimately become John Wooden, and the legendary “big man” coach who retired at the absurd age of 44 is one of only three men to coach a team to an NIT title, an NCAA championship and an Olympic gold medal. Newton never cut the nets down as the head coach at Alabama or Vanderbilt, but his teams were always very good and he was instrumental in breaking the color barrier in SEC basketball both in terms of players (recruiting Wendell Hudson, the first African-American scholarship athlete at Alabama) and coaches (hiring Tubby Smith while acting as the athletic director at Kentucky). Both are deserving recipients, and they, along with Rush and Wootten, will be honored on November 15 in New York City during the 2kSports Classic.
5. The UNC academic scandal took an ironic twist on Monday as transcript-outing victim Julius Peppers announced that he is donating $250,000 to North Carolina’s Light on the Hill Society Scholarship Fund in support of African-American students. Even when considering that this is his second contribution to the fund — he also donated $500,000 in 2009 — the timing here is certainly rich. When you consider that Peppers has earned tens of millions of dollars in his highly successful NFL career as a direct result of what may have been academic shenanigans to keep him eligible, his charity certainly seems like a wonderful return on the school’s investment. Furthermore, not even one week after the school made an egregious privacy error in throwing his academic chops to the wolves, Peppers still came through with the money. We’d probably suggest to the Martin Commission, given Peppers’ ongoing and convincing loyalty to the Tar Heel program, that they need not bother knocking on his door for additional dirt. You know, more than what his transcript already suggests.

1. How many Gasols does it take to win a championship? That might be the question asked by basketball-loving Angelenos who are not only Laker but also UCLA fans now that Adria Gasol, the 18-year old younger brother of NBA stars Pau (Lakers) and Marc (Grizzlies) is walking on to the Bruins’ roster. According to all reports, expectations for the 6’10” player should be tempered, as he is far behind his two older brothers in terms of on-court skills at the same age. Still, the bloodlines are there and Marc in particular took some time to develop into an effective player, so Ben Howland stands to lose nothing by giving the young center a chance to learn the game with minimal pressure on him. He certainly wouldn’t be the first big man prospect who has trouble with the fundamental basics of the game at his age.
2. Indiana athletic director Fred Glass made some interesting comments over the weekend in a piece from the the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel that compared the problems of cheating that go on in college football versus college basketball. His perception is that because of AAU/summer league basketball, cheating is more of a problem in hoops (“It’s terrible, man. I mean, it’s gross.”), and he would go considerably further than the NCAA has in getting control over it. To wit: “I would encourage the NCAA to hire a bunch of former FBI guys that know how to follow the money. […] I think you need to hire guys that know how to find bad guys and that know their way around tracking money. That’s what I’d do. If we’re serious about cleaning that up, we need to have some people who have a real ability to track money and require people to give them the information they need to do that.” This kind of strong language from someone in a position of power at one of the nation’s pre-eminent basketball schools is what we like to see — otherwise, the pressure will never reach the tipping point needed to make significant changes.
3. Central Florida may have been facing a lost season in its final tour in Conference USA with a postseason ban hanging over the program’s head, but with the weekend news that its best player, Keith Clanton, has decided to return for his senior year, next year may not be so bad after all. As a result of the NCAA sanctions, Clanton and his senior teammates CJ Reed, Josh Crittle and Marcus Jordan were allowed an opportunity to transfer elsewhere to play immediately, but so far only Reed, heading to Georgia Southern to play for his father Clifford, is jumping ship. According to CBSSports.com, Jordan is set to return to UCF too, although he appears to only be taking classes and is not expected to suit up for the Knights again.
4. Over the weekend, former UNC two-sport star Julius Peppers confirmed that a leaked transcript purported to be his on a North Carolina portal last weekend was in fact his own, and that all of his grades were earned, “whether good or bad.” In light of his admission, the Raleigh News & Observer outlined its ongoing two-year saga in requesting aggregated and de-identified transcript data from the university — needless to say, the newspaper feels as if it’s been stonewalled, and according to legal professors familiar with the student privacy laws the school is hiding behind, UNC is purposefully misinterpreting the law to protect its own interests. Will the Martin Commission, put in place by UNC chancellor Holden Thorp last week, have the power to get to the bottom of this growing scandal? Or as one commenter notes below the piece, have all the bodies already been buried?
5. We’ll have more on this in a piece later today, but the New York Times over the weekend published a tremendous article on the whereabouts of former high school star Jonathan Hargett, a Richmond, Virginia, uber-athlete who was compared favorably in the early 2000s with Allen Iverson for his size, crossover dribble, and unbelievable hops (reportedly at 44 inches). Hargett had offers from everywhere, but he told the Times’ Pete Thamel that he chose to attend West Virginia (then coached by Gale Catlett) based on a promise of an assistant coaching position for his older brother and a guaranteed annual “salary” of $20,000 per year. He only survived one season at the school before leaving and becoming involved with drug trafficking on the streets — he is now in prison in Chesapeake, Virginia, and eligible for parole in January 2013. These sorts of cautionary tales about legends who never made it seem to pop up all too often, but if we have to believe that the SIDs in Morgantown are burning the midnight oil with statements and talking points for Monday.

One thing we’ve been doing all summer long at the end of our week-long look at each program is to try to pinpoint exactly where a program is compared with their potential and compared with their expectations. This is not a grade on their recent past or prediction about their immediate future, but a big-picture gauge of the program. For UCLA, the state of the program is… muddied.

Expectations at UCLA for the basketball program are always sky high. This is a program that doesn’t worry about hanging up banners for conference titles or even Final Four appearances – in Westwood, it is national championship or bust. Compared to that standard, it’s also awfully hard to succeed. It has now been nearly two decades since the Bruins’ last national title and it is two decades back from there to their next most recent. Still the most fans can realistically expect from any program, from Durham to Lexington to Lawrence, is to regularly be in contention for championships. And, in the middle of the last decade, UCLA was doing a fine job there. They advanced to three straight Final Fours and were regularly sending players off as high picks in the NBA Draft, a good step on the way towards inviting more future NBA players to your campus.

Despite A Pair Of Down Years In The Past Three Seasons, UCLA Remains A Very Attractive Destination

Since then, though, there have been struggles on the court, presented in gory detail here and elsewhere. Two missed NCAA Tournaments in three years speaks for itself. But, the Bruins continue to bring in elite talent. Counting the 2012 recruiting class along with the ill-fated 2008 class, twice UCLA has scored the nation’s top batch of freshmen. And despite the down years, UCLA continues to send players to the NBA. In the four years since they last made the Final Four, they’ve had four players drafted and this past summer there were two players on the U.S. Olympic team. Throw in the fact that their basketball facilities are in the middle of an ongoing and much-needed renovation and upgrade, and there are plenty of reasons for future highly-regarded recruits to strongly consider Westwood as a possible destination for their college basketball career. You know, aside from the weather, nightlife, women, and, um, education, available in the process. In short, UCLA is and very likely will remain an attractive destination for elite basketball players in the future.

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After a week with UCLA, we’ve gone over the roster, the coach, and the schedule, and clearly there is plenty for Bruin fans and basketball fans in general to be excited about with this team next year. But just how good will this team be, and how will they get to their eventual destination? Let me drop a spoiler alert in here right now, because we’re about to fill you in on just how this Bruin season is going to go down. Cue the crystal ball.

UCLA’s Leading Scorer – Shabazz Muhammad. The trusty ol’ crystal ball says here that Muhammad’s eligibility issues get cleared up prior to the season with no more than a game or two worth of a suspension. And once he does pull on the blue and gold, he immediately becomes not only the best Bruin at putting the ball through the net, but one of the better scorers in the nation. Muhammad’s ability to dominate in transition, especially in concert with playmakers like Kyle Anderson and Larry Drew II, prompts Ben Howland to free up the offense a bit. But even in the halfcourt, Muhammad pairs his slashing ability with an ever-improving jump shot to give opposing defenses nightmares. He won’t break the 20-point-per-game barrier, but he’ll post the highest scoring average of any Bruin in the Howland era, knocking Kevin Love’s 17.5 PPG off the pedestal.

Between Kyle Anderson and Shabazz Muhammad, The New Look Bruins Could Be Primed For Success (Albert Dickson, Sporting News)

UCLA’s MVP – Kyle Anderson. In the interest of writing a name here other than Muhammad’s, we’ll give the nod to Anderson. He’s a winner with a preternatural understanding of the game and, as good as Muhammad is on his own, Slow-Mo’s ability to get open looks for his teammates will make Muhammad that much more effective. Throw in his ability to get his own shots when necessary and Anderson will not only regularly wind up with  the ball in his hands down the stretch, he’ll make this entire team better.

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Each week this summer, we’re trying to ask the single biggest question about the program we’re profiling. And, as has become routine, we’ve got Adam Butler of Pachoops.com along to help us answer those questions. Without further ado, here’s the burning question facing the UCLA program this summer.

After rebuilding UCLA from the depths of the final season of the Steve Lavin era, head coach Ben Howland went 123-26 over the course of four seasons with three straight Final Four appearances mixed in there. But, over the last three years, UCLA has compiled a 56-43 record and twice missed the NCAA Tournament, results that are simply unacceptable to UCLA alumni. Which set of results are more indicative of Howland’s ability as a head coach and what does he need to do not only this season, but over the next few seasons, to regain the trust of Bruin fans?

Ben Howland’s Teams Have Been Both Sky High and Down In The Dumps At UCLA; 2012-13 Will Be An Important Tipping Point (Jamie Squire, Getty Images)

Adam Butler: With something to prove, Howland rolled into three straight Final Fours and was absolutely on fire. Then he hit cruise control, misevaluating talent and neglecting to build to his program. So which of these two samples indicates Howland’s abilities as a coach? I fortunately think it’s the former during which he built the program back into a national force. But the latter is still on his record and so I think it begs another question: Is Howland a torch bearer? When he was rebuilding the Bruins he was still chasing Arizona (among others) as the conference elite. But as things fell apart in Tucson and the conference was up for grabs – ripe for the blueblood Bruins to regain West Coast supremacy – things again turned sour. I think it’s easy to play catch-up. Waiting in the wake of the more powerful runners before bolting ahead, using conserved energy to take what appears to be a hard earned lead. But as the race drags on, true colors will show. Sean Miller has come in and made a quick splash, Tad Boyle and Dana Altman won’t soon let you tell them their programs are walkovers, LoRo’s going to have draft picks, Johnny Dawkins has stockpiled some talent in Palo Alto, and KO’s ragtag and nursed-back-to-health group certainly doesn’t like UCLA. I believe Howland now sees the tide changing and is shifting back into gear, hiring Korey McCray and quickly acquiring the nation’s top recruiting class. So is he catching up again or will he lead the Pac? Either way, he’s proven he can win and that earns him some significant clout. But this is UCLA and UCLA doesn’t chase. They lead. He’s got them poised to do that once again, but he may very well be on a short leash getting shorter as the NCAA investigates Shabazz Muhammad – a burning question for another time.

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UCLA’s schedule was just about finalized last week when their regional matchups for the Legends Classic were announced (UC Irvine and James Madison). There are still times and television schedules that need to get cleared up, but for the most part we now know their opponents. Below, we’ll highlight a handful of games and stretches of the season that could determine the eventual fate of the 2012-13 Bruins.

Early-Season Tournament: The regional round games for the Legends Classic sure aren’t much on paper, but then again, in the last three seasons UCLA has lost in early non-conference play to Loyola Marymount and Middle Tennessee (2011), Montana (2010), and Cal State Fullerton and Portland (2009). In other words, while many will count UC Irvine and James Madison as wins for the Bruins, let’s actually see them get it done first. But, much more interesting are the Bruins’ games once they make the trip to Brooklyn for the Legends Classic. They’ll open the elimination portion of the tournament with a Georgetown team that features a group of talented youngsters before facing either Indiana or Georgia in the second game in as many days. Of course, everyone is eyeing that potential UCLA/Indiana matchup in the championship game, but most importantly, if everything comes together for the Bruins early, they could have two quality wins prior to Thanksgiving.

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Despite the struggles of last year for the Bruins, there was always a hopeful eye cast toward the future around the program as head coach Ben Howland had an incoming point guard transfer, commitments from a couple top-100 recruits (Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams) while remaining in hot pursuit of a couple more highly regarded players. When UCLA eventually landed the #2 recruit in the nation on signing day – Shabazz Muhammad – and bolstered its class later with a fourth top-100 recruit in Georgia big-man Tony Parker, the pieces were in place for Ben Howland to quickly put the failures of the 2011-12 season in the past. Below, we’ll take a look at the five newcomers to Howland’s program, in roughly the order in which they’ll impact the team this season.

Shabazz Muhammad May Be The Best UCLA Recruit Since Kevin Love, But Questions About His Eligibility Still Linger (Jonathan Daniel, Getty Images)

Shabazz Muhammad, Freshman, Small Forward, 6’6” 225 lbs, Bishop Gorman High School, Las Vegas, NV – The second-highest rated recruit in the 2012 class, Muhammad comes to Westwood after averaging 29.4 points and 10.1 rebounds per game as a senior at Bishop Gorman. He’s got an impressive list of accolades (McDonald’s All-American Game MVP, Naismith High School Player of the Year, Parade All-American, etc.), but more to the point, he’s got a game that is ready to make a major impact on the college landscape: great athleticism, constantly attacking, fearless finishing ability, solid jumper and a desire that carries over to his relentlessness on the defensive end. However, despite all that, questions still remain about his eligibility. Last spring when Muhammad’s recruitment was ongoing, the NCAA let everybody know that they were looking into the possibility that the elite wing prospect may have received improper benefits. Months later, that investigation is still happening (apparently at a snail’s pace) and it appears now that Muhammad will not be going along with UCLA on its exhibition trip to China at the end of this month. Muhammad remains hopeful that the situation will be resolved prior to the beginning of the season, but the situation is still unresolved. However, working on the assumption that eventually this business will get straightened out in time for Muhammad to play the majority of UCLA’s games, he’ll have an immediate impact for the Bruins. He’ll likely step right into the small forward spot from day one and become a go-to player for the team offensively. With his ability in the open court, his presence should encourage head coach Ben Howland to open up the offense a little more for transition opportunities, and his defensive commitment should jibe immediately with Howland’s priorities on that end of the floor.

Kyle Anderson, Freshman, Point Guard, 6’9” 235lbs, St. Anthony High School, Fairview, NJ – Anderson is not a player who is used to losing basketball games. His four-year record in high school was 119-6, with a perfect 65-0 mark in his final two years at St. Anthony. Much like Muhammad, Anderson received a boatload of honors from his high school career (McDonald’s All-American, Parade All-American, Newark Star-Ledger Player of the Year, finalist for Naismith High School Player of the Year), but unlike Muhammad, Anderson’s game is not necessarily based on mind-blowing athleticism. Instead, “Slow-Mo” plays the game at his own pace, but always seems to get where he wants to go on the floor. Throw in his unselfishness and great court vision and Anderson is a playmaker of the highest order. However, given his 6’9” frame, many question his true position on the court. Offensively, there is no doubt that he has many of the skills necessary to be classified as a true point. However, he may struggle a bit on the defensive end against smaller, quicker point guards. Nevertheless, don’t be fooled, the kid’s a point and the type of player that presents serious match-up problems. When Anderson is the primary facilitator on the floor, the Bruins will run as a seriously big team with several players who can either post up smaller opponents or step outside and knock down jumpers. Whatever questions exist about Anderson’s ability on the defensive end, his offensive ability should more than make up for it.

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Five significant Bruins return for Ben Howland this season, a quintet that will be called upon to quickly meld with four freshmen and a newly eligible transfer. Below we’ll break down those returnees in order of their per-game scoring averages last season.

Travis Wear, Junior, Forward (11.5 PPG, 5.9 RPG) – In his first season in Westwood, Travis, the younger of the two Wear twins by a minute, was the most efficient offensive player on the team. Combining excellent shooting percentages (53.3% from the field and a 57.9% true shooting rate) with terrific rebounding numbers (his 13.2% offensive rebound rate was in the top 70 in the nation last year), Travis proved himself to be an adept competitor in and around the lane. More capable of slashing to the basket and finishing off-balance opportunities than his brother, he also shone on the defensive end, finishing second to Anthony Stover with more than a block per game. After being away from on-court action for more than a year due to his transfer from North Carolina, Travis became more comfortable as the season went on, recording three double-doubles in his final eight games of the year. While his role will likely be similar in the 2012-13 season, expect him to step away from the hoop a bit more and rely on his good mid-range jumper, clearing up the lane not only for big man Joshua Smith, but also for freshman slashers Shabazz Muhammad and Kyle Anderson. One disturbing number from 2011-12 does need to change, however. In 786 minutes of court time, he tallied a grand total of 13 assists.

David Wear Took One For The Team In 2011-12 And Spent Some Time Playing Out Of Position At The Three (photo credit: Lawrence K. Ho, Los Angeles Times)

David Wear, Junior, Forward (10.2 PPG, 6.3 RPG) – UCLA opened last season with six different players who were primarily power forwards or centers fighting for minutes. With no other pure small forward on the squad, it was a foregone conclusion that one of those six bigs would have to spend some time out of position at the three. David was that guy, spending at least some time at the three despite his 6’10” frame and comfort around the basket. David still wound up as the team’s leading rebounder, snatching 6.3 rebounds per game, with more than 65% of those boards came on the defensive end. Offensively, he showed an ability to hit the three-point shot, shooting 46.7% from deep, albeit in less than one three-point attempt per game. In 2012-13, with the UCLA roster more balanced and with more talent at the three (Shabazz Muhammad is a lead-pipe cinch to get the majority of the minutes there, with Kyle Anderson and even Tyler Lamb and Jordan Adams potentially getting some time there), David will likely shift back solely to the four, although much like his brother, will be a bit more of a stretch four offensively.

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1. In what seems to be a summer rite of passage involving several of the top recruits entering college basketball, UCLA’s Shabazz Muhammad is the latest and greatest elite prospect whose eligibility the NCAA is investigating. According to the LA Times — and unlike the inquiry into NC State’s Rodney Purvis (the organization is reviewing the credibility of his high school) — the NCAA ” is reportedly investigating financial dealings between Muhammad’s family and friends,” specifically involving Muhammad’s former high school assistant coach, Geoff Lincoln, and his brother, Benjamin Lincoln. Of course, an investigation like this wouldn’t be any fun without an AAU connection, so the NCAA is obliging by also looking into the funding of Muhammad’s summer team by a New York financial planner named Ken Kavanagh. What does all this mean? Probably not much — the financial dealings likely involved trips that Muhammad made to visit North Carolina and Duke during his recruitment (worst case: he repays the cost of the trips), and good luck getting anything concrete out of the financial planner. Still, it means that UCLA has chosen to hold Muhammad out of its upcoming trip to China, costing the Bruins valuable preseason time to get to know each other and build team chemistry. At least one commentator believes that Ben Howland might be cursed.
2. From one piece of great news to another, the UNC academic scandal that not may or may not include former two-sport star Julius Peppers is getting uglier. And given what we’ve seen over and over and over again in this peculiar industry, it’s likely to get downright hideous. As an administrator you know that things are not going well when CBSSports.com’s Gregg Doyel focuses on your program, and his article on Tuesday blows up the entire athletic department with his description of UNC’s negligence as perhaps “the ugliest academic scandal in NCAA history,” and even suggests that the 200o Final Four banner should come down. Like Dana O’Neil before him, he also takes the NCAA to task for dragging its feet on a thorough investigation — perhaps they, like Doyel and most of the media, think that the revered Dean Smith is still running things in Chapel Hill? What we know is this: Public pressure is building on North Carolina to come clean with a comprehensive review of the entire department — basketball included — and as we’ve seen with the Peppers transcript (as bizarre a flub as we’ve ever seen), that means actually removing the veil of secrecy surrounding the program and allowing independent investigators to assess exactly what happened there. Louis Freeh is probably available.
3. One day after announcing its partnership with Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures to handle its upcoming television negotiations, the Big East announced the hiring of CBS Sports executive Mike Aresco as its new commissioner heading into those talks. Conference realignment across the board has fostered an alarmingly shortsighted arms race environment where every actor involved seems to believe that pursuit of the almighty dollar is without question the only thing that matters. The Big East, with its recent loss of West Virginia and the pending exits of Syracuse and Pittsburgh, hopes that by highlighting its numerous large markets and continent-wide footprint, it will enable the league to secure a massive television deal that will rival other major conferences and provide some much-needed stability. Perhaps it will work, but we have to believe that eventually someone is going to figure out that market penetration — how many people are actually watching the games? — is far more important than the total size of it. Right?
4. If you’re an unemployed head coach out there still fretting about the coaching carousel not holding a chair for you last spring, dust off that resume — Eastern Michigan’s position appears to be open as its head coach, Rob Murphy, is reportedly taking an assistant coaching job with the Orlando Magic. The 2012 MAC Coach of the Year led EMU to a 9-7 conference record in his only season, and with a couple of good transfers joining a strong returning core, bigger things were expected next season. No official sources have been cited, but Lehigh’s Brett Reed, Michigan State assistant Dane Fife, and former Utah head coach Jim Boylen were mentioned in the article as possible selections with Michigan ties.
5. Two players who were not expected to play college basketball in 2012-13 appear to be heading back to school after all. BYU sophomore guard Damarcus Harrison was expected to begin his two-year Mormon mission this fall, but instead he has decided to transfer closer to home at Clemson. The 6’5″ guard had a solid freshman campaign in Dave Rose’s lineup, averaging 3/1 in nine minutes per game, but he contributed 14 points and five boards in two NCAA Tournament games and showed considerable promise. American University picked up some great news when former all-Patriot League forward Stephen Lumpkins announced that he was returning to school for a senior season after spending last year playing minor league baseball in the Royals organization. In his sophomore and junior seasons, Lumpkins averaged 13/8 and shot a healthy percentage from the field — the talented big man will be able to slide into a starting lineup that returns three key contributors from a team that contended for the PL title last season.