Tuesday Morning Dump

Your daily expansion update:

- Stewart Mandel takes you through 16 different expansion scenarios. Its becoming more and more clear that Notre Dame is the center figure in this discussion. If the Big Ten can convince the Irish to join their conference -- which is possible, because the Irish don't want to be left without a conference if armageddon happens, but they also don't want to be a part of a 16 team league -- expansion could end there, with the Big East adding a school like Memphis to replace the Irish. The Big Ten would be happy because they get to add Notre Dame -- and their following and NBC contract -- and, theoretically, wouldn't need Missouri or Nebraska.

- For some perspective on expansion, take a peek at this article from Andy Katz.

- Pete Thamel talked with Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbick, and he said that he had had no discussions with the Big Ten.

- Kansas is leaning on Nebraska, trying to convince them not to leave the Big XII. Baylor president Ken Starr is committed to "keeping the Big XII intact", while at the same time trying to negotiate his way into the Pac-10 if all hell breaks loose.

- We ranted about this last week.

- Jennifer Lloyd Engel of the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth wrote a tremendous column questioning why Nebraska and Missouri -- and not the bastions of the Big XII -- are the ones that hold the power.

- All that talk about Kansas and Kansas State being a package deal isn't necessarily true, per a member of the Kansas Board of Regents.


- Now some John Wooden talk: John Gasaway is always a must read, but these two posts (here and here) at Basketball Prospectus (Ed. Note: I refuse to refer to them as BP ever again.) are absolute must reads; Mike Freeman says John Wooden would not be able to handle today's athletes; Seth Davis went to Vip's, a restaurant that Wooden was a regular at, and spoke to some of the other guests. Another must read.

- Brandon Reed, who was the Sun Belt's freshman of the year at Arkansas State, has decided to transfer to Georgia Tech. Desmond Wade, a former point guard for Houston, is on his way to Fairfield, where Ed Cooley is putting together a helluva recruiting class. Remember, he also landed Boston College's Rakim Sanders. Watch out for the Stags in 2011-12.

- La Salle's John Giannini got a new contract

- Would there even be a single NBA player on this roster?

- Colorado hired Chauncey Billups' brother as director of basketball operations

And you thought fans were crazy in America?