1. We’ll have a more detailed analysis of this later today, but the 2011-12 Wooden Award list was released on Monday, and there were more than a few interesting  trends with this preseason’s offering.  Keeping in mind that freshmen and transfers are not eligible for the opening list, the 50 players broke out in the following ways.  The Big East has ten players on the list; there were nine from the Big Ten; the SEC merited seven.  The Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC represented with only four players each, and all four of the ACCers came from the nation’s consensus #1 team, North Carolina.  That left 12 players from the non-power conferences, with the Atlantic 10, Conference USA, and Big West each earning two spots.  There are 26 seniors on the list, nine juniors and 16 sophomores, while positions were split between 23 guards, 23 forwards and only four centers.  Stay tuned later today as we’ll present a more thoughtful analysis of the preseason Wooden Award selections.
2. The Big 12 Monday appeared to take a significant step toward self-preservation for at least the next several years by announcing that its conference board of directors unanimously approved a measure that will equally share all Tier I and Tier II broadcasting revenue from its football and basketball telecasts.  It would not include Tier III broadcasts such as those planned for Texas’ Longhorn Network, which of course is largely the reason the conference ended up in this situation in the first place.  League interim commissioner Chuck Neinas was careful to say that such an arrangement was by no means a done deal, and that each school would still have to go through its own internal processes to approve such an agreement.  Missouri, still said to be interested in leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, will have its Board of Curators meeting tomorrow where this will certainly be on the agenda.  Assuming Mizzou does not receive its coveted invitation from the SEC, you would have to presume that this revenue sharing agreement will shore up the conference for at least a… season or two.  That is, until Texas figures out some way to leverage the LHN into even greater riches, at which time the conference will once again threaten to implode from within.
3. We mentioned in this space yesterday that the Big East came out of its Sunday meetings in Washington, DC, with a greater resolve to keep its remaining core together and to do whatever it takes (“by any means necessary?”) to find solid replacements for the soon-departed Syracuse and Pittsburgh.  Mike DeCourcy makes the case suggesting that, despite what appears to be a race to the bottom of a new conference for those moving around, the best athletic deal for those existing members is to stand pat.  His key point — that the Big East represents the easiest route to a BCS bowl and multiple NCAA Tournament trips — is a salient one, but we’re not sure that citing Boston College and Miami (FL)’s departures as ‘disasters’ captures the overarching reasons for their subsequent failings.  Miami football, for example, has certainly fallen considerably from its national relevance while a member of the Big East — but did that drop-off have more to do with coaching (Larry Coker to Randy Shannon) or conference affiliation?  With Hurricane basketball, is the U’s mediocrity as an ACC member more attributable to its conference affiliation or Frank Haith (who began there in 2004 simultaneous with Miami’s jump)?  We think it’s rather tough to make that case, especially when there are so many other confounding factors at play in situations like these.
4. Class of 2012 power forward and overall top five prospect Mitch McGary has reportedly narrowed his college choices to Duke, North Carolina and Michigan.  The 6’10” star originally from the northern Indiana town of Chesterton, announced on his personal blog (via ESPN) that he has taken three visits to those schools and he has no plans to go anywhere else.  If you read the tea leaves, he’s considered a Michigan lean among folks who follow this stuff for a living, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise us to see him in either shade of blue down on Tobacco Road either.  For what it’s worth, #1 Shabazz Muhammad and #3 McGary represent the remaining two uncommitted jewels of this year’s class, according to Rivals’ rankings.
5. Quick, what’s the capital city of Kentucky — Lexington or Louisville?  Or so goes the joke among those who live there, because, as far as we know, the actual seat of government in the Bluegrass State hasn’t yet moved from its central Kentucky town of Frankfort.  UK head coach John Calipari may be in need of a geography lesson himself, as the quotable top Cat took a tongue-in-cheek shot at his biggest state rival in an interview on KSTV recently.  In answering a question as to what makes his program special, he made a comparison to other states that have multiple powerhouse basketball programs: “There’s no other state, none, that’s as connected to their basketball program as this one. Because those other states have other programs. Michigan has Michigan State, California has UCLA, North Carolina has Duke. It’s Kentucky throughout this whole state, and that’s what makes us unique.”  Queue Rick Pitino’s acerbic passive-aggressive response in 3… 2… 1…

1. The season is officially over so it’s time for players to start acting like knuckleheads again.  This weekend’s edition comes to you from Gainesville, Florida, where two Florida players — sophomore forward Erik Murphy and freshman forward Cody Larson — were arrested after allegedly trying to break into a parked car in St. Augustine late Saturday night.  Larson was already on a short leash with head coach Billy Donovan as a result of his involvement in a painkiller scheme during his senior year of high school, but Murphy, who averaged 4/2 last season, was expected to start for the Gators in 2011-12.  The most disturbing part of this story?  That the two players reportedly hovered near a bar’s cash drawer before bouncers ejected them, at which time they decided to break into the car — a frightening proposition in the “could have been worse” category.
2. The biggest coaching news over the weekend involved something that didn’t happen, specifically that former UCLA/Kansas/everybody in the NBA head coach Larry Brown was not selected as the next captain of the UNLV ship in Las Vegas.  Despite his public overtures for the position, UNLV decided to go with BYU assistant coach Dave Rice, a former Rebel assistant who also played on the two best teams in program history — the 1989-90 national champions and the 1990-91 Final Four team.  Rice was a somewhat controversial choice locally, as public support was largely behind Reggie Theus, one of the best players in program history and the former head man at New Mexico State; but he was largely responsible for BYU’s offensive attack that featured NPOY Jimmer Fredette the last several years, and he claims he wants to bring the “Runnin'” part back to the UNLV program (Lon Kruger’s teams were rather methodical).
3. In case you missed it, BYU’s Jimmer Fredette received the Wooden Award on Friday night in Los Angeles.  With his receipt of the most prestigious men’s award now in tow, Fredette ended up winning all six of the major NPOY awards this season.  This is the fourth time in the last five years that  unanimity across all awards has occurred, with only Evan Turner and John Wall last season splitting awards as the sole exception.
4. Adam Zagoria reported on Sunday that Manhattan College had hired Louisville assistant Steve Masiello as its next head coach.  The school had initially made an offer to LIU’s Jim Ferry, but they couldn’t figure out the financial terms, so the Jasper administration went with Masiello instead.  He’ll have a five-year deal and a leg up on New York-area recruiting given his origins from the area (Westchester County) and the extensive amount of players that Louisville has pulled out of the region the last few years — most notably Earl Clark and Samardo Samuels.  Speculation is that Pitino’s son, Richard Pitino, will return to Louisville from Florida to take Masiello’s place on the Cardinal staff.
5. This is a little dated, but for all of us who have a lady friend (or six) in our lives from November to April, it undoubtedly rings very true.  (h/t Peter Robert Casey for his tweet alerting us to this particular brilliance)

In a ceremony at the Los Angeles Athletic Club earlier tonight, Ohio State’s Evan Turner was presented with the 2010 John R. Wooden Award as the men’s college basketball player of the year.  With this one, he is 6-of-6 in player of the year awards, taking the Associated Press, Naismith, National Association of Basketball Coaches, Sporting News, and US Basketball Writers Association honors as well.

Turner, Syracuse’s Wesley Johnson and Kentucky’s John Wall were also in attendance at the ceremony, with the former two making an in-audience appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live last night.  Wall was also scheduled to appear on the show, but missed the taping due to an exam.

Who will be this year’s Wooden Award Winner?

This afternoon the 2007-08 Wooden Award candidates were released to the public. The top 50 vote-getters (who gets to vote for this anyway – is the Wizard of Westwood sitting in his apt filling out ballots?) are listed below (organized by conference, then by team):

Quick ruminations:

• Conference Rundown: Pac-10 (10), Big East (8), ACC (7), Big 12 (6), SEC (5), Big 10 (2), Mid-Majors + Low Majors (12).
• We like the love thrown to the non-BCS leagues – nearly a quarter of the selections are from eleven other leagues.
• It’s no surprise the Pac-10 is held in such high esteem this coming season, while the Big 10 isn’t – look at the difference in good players returning.
• For some reason, the Wooden doesn’t consider freshmen in its preseason picks, even though it does at the end of the year (Kevin Durant was the recipient last year). If it did, you’d figure the Pac-10 would look even better, with OJ Mayo and Kevin Love added to the mix.
• Other than freshmen, who are some notable omissions around the country? First thought was Josh Heytvelt (Gonzaga), but maybe that has something to do with his propensity to ingest hallucinogens – can’t see the WoW signing off on that selection. We might have chosen Darrell Arthur over Mario Chalmers at Kansas, but maybe the Jayhawk fans would disagree with us. Raymar Morgan (Michigan St.), anyone? Edgar Sosa (Louisville)? What about Alex Harris down at UCSB?
• Some guys we’d take off the list – Tyrese Rice at BC has shown he can shoot a lot and turn the ball over a lot – what else? Choosing DeMarcus Nelson smacks of making sure someone from Duke is on the list. We’re also not sure about the selection of Texas Tech’s Martin Zeno to the list. None of this really matters, though, as the list will eventually whittle itself down based on actual performance.
• Anybody else have any thoughts?