Tuesday Morning Dump

- If you are interested in the business side of college hoops, give a read to this article from the Sports Business Journal discussing the NCAA's contract with CBS for the rights to the NCAA Tournament. The most notable point in this article is the mention that the NCAA is discussing the possibility of expanding the NCAA Tournament to 96 teams.

Disaster.

Obviously, this is all about money. Adding an extra week to the tournament would increase the amount of rights fees the NCAA could charge, and when you consider that 90% of the NCAA's yearly revenue comes from its tournament deal, this could provide a significant increase in the amount of money being brought it.

Clearly, this expansion would benefit coaches from middling power conference teams that can't win enough to get their teams into the dance when 34 at-large bids are available. Best case scenario, it gives these coaches a stay of execution.

But would this expansion really pique the interest of casual college hoops fans? Would people still be willing to take off work to watch teams that, frankly, are not very good play in the postseason? Wouldn't this essentially make the first week of the dance the NIT?

Most importantly, how many people are going to fill out a two page office pool?

The first weekend of the NCAA Tournament is one of the greatest spectacles in sports. Why mess with perfection?


- Duke freshman Andre Dawkins has left the team to be with his family in Virginia after his sister was killed in a car crash in West Virginia. Apparently, she was a passenger in the car with her mom on the way to see Duke play St. John's on Saturday.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Dawkins and his family tonight. Hopefully, he can get back on the court soon. Sports are a great coping mechanism for tragedy.


- Fordham's Jio Fontan has finally been granted his release from the school. If you remember, this was a big deal over the summer, as Fontan wanted to transfer from Fordham, but the administration refused to grant him his release even after it allowed other players to leave the school.

Why?

It probably had something to do with Fordham's three wins last season, and the fact that Fontan led the team in scoring at 15 ppg as a freshman.

But last week, Fordham fired head coach Derek Whittenberg, and Fontan was finally granted his release. According to Adam Zagoria, Fontan has already received calls from USC, Miami FL, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Indiana, and is expecting a call from Arizona. The terms of the release state that he cannot go to another A-10 school or to a school in the tri-state area.


- Interesting stuff from Jeff Goodman: John Wall's numbers through seven games are better across the board than Derrik Rose's numbers through seven games.


- A bit old, but still an excellent read on Len Chenfield, a junior point guard form Poly Prep in Brooklyn.