Jim Calhoun responds; does he have a right to push for an AD change?

The latest headlines coming out of UConn aren't good for anyone involved.

For starters, there's AD Jeff Hathaway, who is on the verge of losing his job. Whether or not that is the result of a Jim Calhoun wanting Hathaway gone is up for you to decide, but before you do be sure to read this scathing column from Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant. In it, Jacobs more or less says that Calhoun is evil, that he is pushing Hathaway out the door because of a clause in his contract that cost him $175,000 due to poor APR numbers and the lack of a new basketball practice facility.

The biggest issue, however, was one simple statement that Hathaway gave the NCAA. Hathaway told investigators that he had never seen Calhoun as involved with a recruit as he was with Nate Miles, the kid whose recruitment cost two members of Calhoun's staff their jobs and resulted in Calhoun getting hit with a failure to monitor charge. According to Jacobs, Calhoun believes he is innocent of the accusations and still holds a grudge against Hathaway for, well, snitching.

Dana O'Neil, who is in Orlando for the AAU National Championships, asked Calhoun point-blank about the recent headlines:

But Calhoun insists that anyone who believes he is pulling Herbst’s puppet strings, hoping to get Hathaway ousted, is reading things all wrong.

"I do. I 100 percent do think that's unfair," the coach said before heading into the Milk House to watch recruits in Orlando. "I have nothing against anybody. Jeff and I, our relationship hasn't always been all that it should have been. When he came back [in 2003], he seemed to have changed somewhat and they say when you move over six inches to the head coach's chair, things change. But I don't want to see anybody lose a job."

Bullsh*t.

Jim Calhoun saying that he doesn't hold grudges is like Kim Kardashian saying she doesn't like athletes or Lindsay Lohan saying she doesn't like cocaine.

Calhoun is pissed because last season was marked with NCAA sanctions and controversy and columns like this. He's pissed because he was hit with a failure to monitor charge and will be suspended for three games come Big East play in 2011-2012. He's pissed because his most memorable season -- one where Kemba Walker threw a crop of freshmen on his shoulders and carried them from the bottom half of the Big East to a Big East Tournament and an NCAA Tournament title -- will forever be tarnished by those sanctions and those columns.

For UConn fans, regardless of how you feel about Jeff Hathaway as an AD -- and believe me, there are plenty that wanted him gone prior to Calhoun's push -- if you don't think that Calhoun has influenced this changing of the guard, you're naive.

But here's something to think about: does Calhoun deserve the right to request a change in AD's?

I think its fair to say that the athletic department is where it is today because of Calhoun. He built the men's basketball program from almost nothing into a three-time national champion and one of the most powerful programs in the country. The success of the basketball program facilitated the move of UConn football to the Big East, where it made a BCS bowl last season. I think its fair to say that Calhoun is the reason that UConn is on the same level, athletically, as schools like Pitt and Syracuse as opposed to UMass or Rhode Island.

Should that give him the right to decide who his boss is?
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Josh Smith still battling weight problems

Coming into this off-season, there were three talented-but-oversized big men whose weight was being closely monitored.

The first is Jared Sullinger, who not only told people that he was shedding the pounds, he took a picture to prove it. There was some discussion that losing the weight would be bad for Sullinger and the Buckeyes, which was silly. He's not losing any strength or size. He's getting rid of the baby fat, which will only help his endurance, explosiveness, and quickness. Be afraid, Big Ten. Be very afraid.

The second big man whose weight has made headlines this offseason is Renardo Sidney. The oft-troubled Mississippi State Bulldog spent a large part of May and June working out with John Lucas in Houston. He shed 23 pounds, although he had also ballooned up to 320 lbs prior to changing venue. But Sidney also made the decision to continue working out with Lucas instead of joining Mississippi State on a trip to Europe, which leads one to believe that this weight loss is happening with the goal of succeeding in the NBA, not winning the SEC West.

The third player on that list?


UCLA's Josh Smith.

And let's just say the summer isn't going quite as well for Smith as head coach Ben Howland would like. Smith -- who was listed at 6'10" and 305 lbs, which may have been generous considering how snug his jersey was as a freshman -- has apparently put on 10 pounds since the end of the season, which is more-than-likely the exact opposite of what Howland was hoping for.

Now to be fair, those added lbs are probably weight that he will lose once the season begins; with the amount of work that a basketball team puts in during the first weeks of practice, just about everyone loses some weight, including the guys that are already in great shape. But the fact that Smith hasn't been able to get his act together to lose weight on his own is quite disconcerting.

You see, for a guy his size, Smith is incredibly talented. He's a load to handle on the block, getting to the offensive backboards at will and being almost impossible to prevent from getting position in the post. He also had great hands, a soft touch, and a solid-yet-developing back-to-the-basket game. He's got almost everything you look for from an NBA center.

Except for his belly.

What does it say about his work ethic that he has been unable to get into shape? What does it say about his desire to become a better basketball player? Making light of a kid that is battling weight issues is not ok. But Smith is an athlete, and has the potential and the physical gifts to be a very profitable one. He stands to make a great deal of money in the NBA if he puts in the effort to eat better, work out more, and lose that extra weight.

If he can't be bothered to get into the gym, just how promising is his career?

(This isn't the first time we've questioned Smith's maturity in this space. He had issues during the season as well.)
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Wednesday Morning Dump

- Jeff Eisenberg provides a must-read Q&A session with ex-Robinson High coach Scott Wagers, who was the high school coach of former-Kentucky Desmond Allison. The former-Wildcat was murdered on Monday in Columbus, Ohio

- Great-stuff from Andy Katz about Skip Prosser, who passed away four years ago yesterday

- Yeah, I didn't agree with the Top-100 either

- Meet Zeke Horton, a 2013 recruit with a knack for marketing and promotions

- UCLA's Josh Smith puts the "big" in "big-man". The sophomore power forward was listed at 6-foot-10, 305lbs last season, and according to Gary Parrish, Smith has had some trouble shedding the weight

- Former-Butler star Ronald Nored dreams of being able to return to his Alma Mater to coach along side Brad Stevens

- Butler University generated nearly $500mil from it's back-to-back National Championship appearances. There is nothing mid-major about $500mil


- Doug Gottlieb gives us his top 12 returning seniors in college hoops (Insiders Only)

- Last week, we mentioned that New Mexico head coach Steve Alford had placed a ban on players using Twitter. But could his program's lack of tweetage effect recruiting?

- I know this is a day late, but it's well worth the read. Burnt Orange Nation debates which is more important: Talent or experience

- Jason King tells us that defense will be the key for Oklahoma in Lon Kruger's first season in charge of the Sooners

- An interesting tidbit on how former-UNLV foe Jimmer Fredette might actually be helping the Runnin' Rebs

- Stanford forward Andy Brown has torn his ACL three times in the past 18 months

-It's quite possible that Terrence Jones won't be the best sophomore named Terrence in the country

- Is this the year Kansas finally fades in the Big-XII? Bill Self thinks it is possible, but believes in his squad

- Former-DePaul center Kene Obi will use his final year of eligibility at Oklahoma Baptist

- The Arena Pulse previews the top-5 freshman centers

- Matt Norlander details the necessary evils of the Las Vegas recruiting circus

- Justin Young explains how the signing of Dominic Artis to UCLA effects other top programs

- "The Aircraft Carrier Game" between UNC and MSU will be broadcast in 3-D

- A Rush The Court summer update on the Sun Belt Conference

- Speaking of Michigan State and the military, senior forward Delvon Roe will appear in the upcoming Vietnam War-era film "AWOL"

- Shabazz Muhammad, the top recruit in 2012, sprained his ankle at the Super 64 recruiting tournament


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More names and more players linked to David Salinas

(UPDATE:Pablo Torre's profile of Salinas for Sport's Illustrated can be found here. It doesn't provide much new information in the scandal, but its a terrific read.)

The saga of Houston Select founder and investment advisor David Salinas has taken another turn.

SI.com's Pablo Torre has done some more terrific investigative work and lengthened the list of people known to have money invested with Salinas. There are some new names on the list -- which can be found in its entirety here -- which includes former Baylor forward Ekpe Udoh ($350,000), former Select and Kansas State player Cartier Martin ($374,000), former Oklahoma State and Rice forward Jason Skaer ($129,000), Illinois State head coach Tim Jankovich ($184,000), current Evansville and former Kansas State assistant coach James Eglas ($24,000), and current Creighton and former SMU assistant coach Steve Lutz ($9,000).

I think its safe to assume that there are still more names with ties to college basketball that will come out eventually. Along those same lines, its probably pretty safe to assume that there were many more people outside of the world of college hoops that had money invested with Salinas.

But in no way, shape, or form does that prove that Salinas wasn't offering up the players from his AAU program in exchange for investment. It also doesn't change the theory that some -- or all -- of these coaches were investing money with Salinas in order to gain access to those players.

Remember, the Houston Chronicle quoted an anonymous coach that said Salinas was offering access to his players in exchange for an investment. Dan Wolken of The Daily got Tom Penders, formerly the head coach of Houston among other programs, on record as saying that Salinas "made a strong, strong implication" that investing with him would help him recruit kids in the Houston Select program. And finally, Jawann McClellan, who played for the Houston Select and then at Arizona for Salinas investor Lute Olson, was quoted by AZCentral.com as saying he's "pretty sure" coaches invested Salinas in order to gain favor with him from a recruiting perspective.

No one is arguing that Salinas wasn't an financial advisor. No one is saying that he didn't have clients outside of college coaches.

But whether or not he had other investors is irrelevant, because the fact of the matter is that there are now 14 confirmed players that were part of the Houston Select program that have played for a coach in college that invested with Salinas.


Did the coaches that invested with Salinas do so in an attempt to gain a recruiting advantage?

It sure looks that way, doesn't it?

(Major h/t to Will Green of The Slipper Still Fits for the chart)
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Jimmer Fredette's success is paying dividends for UNLV?

Of all the coaching changes that have happened since the 2011 Coaching Carousel kicked off back in February, perhaps the most interesting was UNLV's new hire.

Then-BYU assistant Dave Rice was brought back to the Sin City to take over for the departed-Lon Kruger. Rice has all kinds of ties to Vegas -- he was a member of the Runnin' Rebels of the early '90's that dominated college hoops, teammates with the likes of Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, and Greg Anthony. His brother, Grant Rice, is the head coach of Las Vegas powerhouse Bishop Gorman high school, who counts 2012 studs Shabazz Muhammad (the No. 1 player in our Consensus Recruiting Rankings) and Ben Carter.

With the amount of talent currently in the Vegas area in the class of 2012, Rice's pitch for his first recruiting class is fairly easy -- come play ball in your backyard in front of your friends and family as we bring UNLV back into the national spotlight.

But that's not it.


You see, Rice was the offensive mastermind for the Cougars the past few seasons. He was the guy that decided on their offensive schemes, which means that he was the coach in charge of turning Jimmer Fredette from an under-recruited kid from upstate New York into an all-american as a junior and a national sensation as a senior; a kid that averaged 28.9 ppg and was given free reign to shoot whenever -- and from wherever -- he desired.

And as Ryan Greene (who penned a terrific piece for the Las Vegas Sun about a day in the life of recruiting with Rice) details, The Jimmer's success is helping Rice on the recruiting trail:

Now, as a first-time head coach, he's determined to bring that uptempo style with him to the desert. And once he identifies the players he believes fit it best, Jimmer Fredette's success story is one that he can pitch that will grab the attention of the high school players he's currently recruiting. It's a relevant trick he'll likely be able to pull out of his bag for many years to come.

"Jimmer deserves the bulk of the credit for what he became, but the reality is he had a lot of help from our staff," he said. "And so I think the thing that really speaks volumes is that he came to us as a good player, but did not come to us as a finished product. So, I think the fact that I can actually speak with credibility in terms of our role in helping him develop and the freedom we gave him and what that did for him.

[...]

"He compared me to Jimmer Fredette a lot," Katin Reinhardt said. "How he let him play is how he'll let me play. That freedom, being able to do that stuff, that's what I look at. Look where Jimmer got. He went to the NBA as a lottery pick. So if you could get that kind of coach to be behind you 100 percent, that's everything you could ask for."

That is a terrific chip for Rice to hold as a recruiter.

He took a kid that was essentially passed over as a high-major prospect coming out of high school and turned him into the national player of the year as a senior and a lottery pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. There isn't a single player that will be recruited by UNLV that isn't dreaming of one day becoming a star on the college level and playing in the NBA.

If Rice is able to turn a kid that was an afterthought in high school to an NBA player as a senior, what will he be able to do with a player that every school in the country wants? Continue reading...

Tuesday Morning Dump

As the summer recruiting tour comes to a close, you will start see The Morning Dump return to it's robust ways. This will mean more links, more news, more insight, more recaps, a deeper pool of resources and information, and much much less Rob Dauster. He will go back to what he does best - blogging about stuff that other bloggers blog about. So tell your friends, and tell your friends to tell their friends: The Dump is coming back....with vengeance.

Not now, but soon.

- Top 2012 prospect Shabazz Muhammad is being courted by the top programs in the country. Unfortunately, his mom's alma mater, Long Baach State, isn't pursuing the services of the 6-foot-6 small forward

- Jason King details how Texas A&M plans on handling the growing spotlight

- UCLA nabbed another top recruit, as Dominic Artis announced his decision to become a Bruin. Eamonn Brennan reminds us that UCLA has done enough this of-fseason to reaffirm their status on the recruiting trails. Gary Parrish caught up with UCLA head coach Ben Howland in Vegas, and shares his opinions on the recruiting process

- Rush The Court wants to know exactly why Renardo Sydney isn't going to Europe with his team


- Details of Bruce Pearls now-imfamous "bump" have been revealed

- Word on the street is that former-Missouri guard Ricky Kreklow has decided to attend California

- It's quite possible that Florida will have one of the deepest backcourts in the country next year due to the addition of Rutgers-transfer Mike Rosario

- In case you all forgot, their is still a controversy brewing between North Dakota and the NCAA

- New Mexico won't schedule UTEP because of a verbal altercation before a NIT game last season

- Former-Kentucky Wildcat player Desmond Allison was shot and killed on Monday afternoon in Columbus, Ohio

- Former-BYU guard Jackson Emery is going to get his hands dirty in the real world




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Tony Woods should get a second chance, Oregon is in a position to give it

Disgraced Wake Forest center Tony Woods has finally decided where he will continue his collegiate career, opting to transfer to Oregon where he will be eligible immediately with two years of eligibility remaining.

Its a risky move for Oregon coach Dana Altman.

Woods is a super talent, a former five-star recruit who, at 6'11" and 250 lb, should help fill the void left by Joevan Coetran's graduation. But Woods is also three years removed from that five-star ranking. And in those three years, he amassed career high averages of just 4.6 ppg and 3.2 rpg while at Wake Forest.

But he didn't play basketball last year. He left the school after being found guilty of just one charge in a domestic violence incident -- in front of his one year old kid -- that left his girlfriend with a fractured spine.

Its a worthwhile risk for Altman, however.


For starters, read this profile of Woods by Yahoo!'s Jason King. In it, both Courtney Barbour (Woods' girlfriend) and her mother defend him, as does his former coach Dino Gaudio. They say that what was reported in the media was exaggerated, that it was much worse than what truly occurred. If the victim and her mother are both willing to go on record defending Woods, saying that the incident was a momentary lapse of judgement that was blown out of proportion, maybe it actually was.

I'm a firm believer in second chances. Everyone makes mistakes. In no way am I condoning what happened between Woods and his girlfriend -- even his girlfriend's story is true -- but I also don't believe that a 20 year old should be judged based off of one emotional incident, particularly when it involves his mother, his girlfriend, and his child.

And while it may be a risk giving this kid another chance, its a risk that Altman is in a position to take.

The other schools that Woods was involved with were the likes of Louisville and Kentucky and Texas. Those are programs that are already established. The damage of bringing in a kid with Woods' reputation and the risk of having him involved in another incident outweighs the chance that a former five-star recruit can shed the label of career back-up.

Those three programs can, more or less, get the recruits that they target. And those recruits are probably going to be better than Woods.

Oregon, however, is not in a position to get any recruit that they want.

But they are in a position where adding a big body can make a significant difference on their season. The Ducks have a very good class of newcomers coming into the program, headlined by freshman Jabari Parker and senior-transfer Olu Ashaolu. They also have some talent returning -- headlined by EJ Singler, Johnathon Loyd, and Garrett Sim -- from a team that significantly outperformed expectations last season.

Woods fills a hole in the middle.

And if he can regain the form that made him a top 25 recruit, he'll be a superstar in the Pac-12.

And if not, it was a risk that Oregon is in a position to be able to take.
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Wanna know how Bruce Pearl lost his job?

Thanks to some terrific reporting from Andrew Gribble of Go Vols Xtra, you can now read through, step by step, the process with which the NCAA took down Bruce Pearl and his coaching staff at Tennessee.

First, there were the lies to the NCAA's enforcement staff. Reading through, Pearl not only lied to the NCAA but, after having the line of questioning stopped by his attorney, was given a second chance to clear the air. He maintained the lie and, as Gribble puts it, that was the beginning of the end of his tenure at Tennessee.

Also worth reading is the breakdown of the "bump", the "incidental" contact between Jordan Adams and Bruce Pearl at a practice at Oak Hill Academy. Adams initially said the conversation last upwards of three minutes, which is almost certainly an NCAA violation.

Recapping the articles anymore in this space wouldn't do justice to the work that Gribble put in. So click the links and read through. Its interesting to see how a major college coach gets taken down.
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Can UConn's program survive without Jim Calhoun?

You'd think that with the men's basketball team winning a national title, the women's basketball team making yet another Final Four, and the football team winning the Big East and earning a Fiesta Bowl bid that UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway would be in line for a well-earned raise.

You'd also be wrong.

According to the New London Day, school president Susan Herbst is in the process of negotiating a buyout to end the UConn tenure of Hathaway, who just so happens to be the 2012 NCAA Tournament chair. The report says that it may take a few weeks to complete the process, but that by September UConn will need a new athletic director.

Herbst responded to the report with a statement on Sunday that all-but confirmed the fact that Hathaway's job is in jeopardy.

"Athletics is a vital part of UConn and there are many ways to evaluate the success of a collegiate athletic department -- academic performance of student-athletes, NCAA compliance, fundraising and overall athletic success," Herbst said in the statement. "We will be excellent stewards of public and private funds in all areas of the University. As a result, I will be reviewing all divisions of the University over time, but with great urgency, to make sure that we are serving this state in the best possible way. Accountability and excellence are our themes, going forward."

"The Division of Athletics is one of those areas of the university in which we have already begun this evaluation process."

There are a couple of reasons why this overthrow is happening after such a successful year of the Husky AD. For starters, there is the issue of compliance. UConn's compliance staff had only two full-time staffers when the men's basketball program got into trouble over the recruitment of Nate Miles. Hathaway has also been slow to find funding for a new hoops practice facility. But the biggest issue is laid out in this terrific column from Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant, who says that Hathaway and Calhoun have a frigid relationship:

Basketball coach Jim Calhoun has made little secret of his distaste for Hathaway. Many sets of ears have heard about that distaste. That's one matter. This is another: Calhoun and his group of supporters, according to one highly placed source, have been angling for Hathaway's ouster. More than that, the source told The Courant that he had been approached to give support to that group.

[...]

Yet it comes down to this: If Hathaway is jettisoned, it will look to folks from coast to coast as if a coach who has just been penalized by the NCAA in the Nate Miles debacle won a power struggle against his athletic director. It will look to all as if a coach who just lost two scholarships and $187,500 out of his pocket for poor Academic Performance Rating schmoozed a new president into guillotining an AD who had put that APR language into his contract.

That doesn't exactly paint Calhoun -- whose has never had a great relationship with Jacobs, either -- in a great light, but it could help explain why the 69 year old head coach who has spent all of July on the recruiting trail has yet to publicly state that he will be returning to the bench next season.

You've heard all of that by now.

The bigger concern, from what I can tell, is that the UConn program is going to be in big trouble when Calhoun leaves.

This is the only program that has won three national titles since 1999, but they -- combined with the nation's most popular and powerful women's basketball program -- can't raise enough money to get a new practice facility? This is the same program that had their student section at the Final Four dwarfed by Butler's, a program that continually struggles to sell-out home games.

The UConn program is Jim Calhoun. His brash demeanor, his surly attitude, and his irreverence for the NCAA Rulebook. There's no other way to put it. When he left Northeastern for Storrs in 1986, UConn was coming off of a 9-19 season and had made just one NCAA Tournament appearance since joining the Big East in 1979. Within four years, he had led UConn to a Big East regular season title, a Big East Tournament title, and a trip to the Elite Eight. In the 20 years since, UConn has become one of the country's premiere basketball programs, winning three national titles, making a fourth Final Four, competing year-in and year-out atop the Big East, and routinely sending players to the NBA.

If the money and the support isn't there to get a new practice facility after Calhoun's third national title -- and by far his most unexpected -- what is going to happen to the program when he's gone? Most believe that Kevin Ollie is currently being groomed as Calhoun's successor, but is that going to be enough?

Maybe Herbst knows this. And, maybe, that's why she's allowing Calhoun to force out his athletic director.
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Hoops Housekeeping: Jordan Taylor won't play for Team USA

Jordan Taylor isn't a flashy point guard. He's isn't a guy that's going to throw gorgeous no look passes or beat two defenders off the dribble and dunk in traffic.

That said, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone that truly understands college hoops and tempo-free stats that would disagree with me when I said that Jordan Taylor is the most valuable -- if not the best -- point guard in the game.

Taylor, however, won't be joining Team USA at the World University Games. The rising-Wisconsin senior will be undergoing minor ankle surgery this week, which means that he had to withdraw from the tryouts.


"It's the appropriate decision," Taylor said in a statement. "While it's hard to pass up an opportunity to play for your country, I had to do what's best for my team, the Wisconsin Badgers. That's the reality of it."

"I really wanted to play for USA Basketball; there's no greater honor than that. It's definitely a bummer. But I have to get ready for our season and by having the surgery now it will give me a chance to get completely healthy. We have a lot of goals for our team this year. [...] My teammates are here at Wisconsin – these are my teammates for the entirety – it's my family. I definitely owe it to them to be healthy going into my final year."

Taylor should be healthy by the time the season starts.


Maurice Harkless will be eligible for St. John's: Its official. Incoming freshman More Harkless will be allowed to play for Steve Lavin and the Johnnies this season.

"We are pleased that late Thursday, the NCAA informed us they have concluded their review of incoming men's basketball student-athlete Maurice Harkless," read a statement released by St. John's. "Harkless will now be a part of the incoming 2011 class that will begin school in the fall semester. We have been working in collaboration with the Big East conference and the NCAA's basketball focus group throughout the review process."

There was concern over his eligibility because Moe Hicks, who is currently an assistant with the program, was an administrator for the NY Gauchos, a team that Harkless played a couple of AAU tournaments with.


Jared Sullinger ... yoked up: Remember how Jared Sullinger was losing weight?


Good luck to the rest of the Big Ten. (photo via Mike DeCourcy)


John Hart out three months: Purdue reserve guard John Hart may be out as long as 16 weeks as he recovers from surgery to repair a stress fracture in his right foot. Hart averaged 3.8 ppg for the Boilermakers last season.


Drake loses their center to shoulder surgery: Seth VanDeest, a center for Drake that averaged 8.8 ppg and 4.3 rpg last season, could miss the start of next season. VanDeest tore the labrum in his right shoulder and underwent surgery last week. Its expected to take six months to recover. Drake plays Mississippi State on November 18th in the Paradise Jam.
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Monday Morning Dump

- I LOVED these stories from Dana O'Neil from coaches on the recruiting trail.

- I also really enjoyed this interview with Jeff Eisenberg and Ronald Nored. Nored seems like a great kid.

- Jeff Borzello put together a number of interesting stories after following Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins for a day at the Las Vegas tournaments.

- Mike DeCourcy wrote a column on both Shabazz Muhammad and Andre Drummond. He thinks that Drummond is a better prospect.

- The latest on the Salinas case: Coaches are trying to get their money back

- Tennessee gave itself two years of probation for the violations committed by Bruce Pearl and Lane Kiffin. Good take on Pearl here.

- I thought this was a good take on Tony Woods.

- Georgia picked up a commitment from Charles Mann, a talented point guard in the class of 2012. UCLA got a commitment from Dominic Artis on Sunday night.

- Gary Parrish's Five for the Weekend

- The Maryland Athletic Department is going broke?
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Rick Stansbury is hoping John Lucas gets through to Renardo Sidney

By now, you've probably heard the latest twist in the saga that is the career of Renardo Sidney.

The talented-but-mercurial Mississippi State junior will not be traveling with the Bulldogs on their trip to Europe in August. There are conflicting reports out there, but whether or not you believe that Rick Stansbury is keeping Sidney stateside or Sidney made the decision on is own is moot. The bottom line is that instead of taking a chemistry-building trip to Europe with his teammates Sidney is going to remain in Houston, working out with John Lucas.

Before I go any further, the statements.


"Renardo Sidney has returned to Houston, Texas, to continue working out with John Lucas,” Stansbury said in a statement. “He will not accompany the team to Europe next month, but he is expected back on campus for the start of the fall semester in mid-August."

"Everybody has their own opinion but I'm doing what I have to do," Sidney told The Clarion-Ledger. "There's nothing else going on. They can say what they want to say but, like I said, I know what I have to do basketball-wise. I wasn't ready to go and I felt like I really wasn't in shape. I wanted to come back down here and get some more work."

From an individual's perspective, its difficult to criticize Sidney for returning to Houston to workout with Lucas.

Lucas has a reputation for being a guy that helps get troubled talents back on the path to greatness. At this point in his career, Sidney is the epitome of a troubled talent. Between the season and a half he missed due to his acceptance of illegal benefits while in high school to the suspensions he received for fighting last season, from his continuing battle with weight issues and his lack of conditioning, Sidney has a long way to go to learn how to be a functioning member of a basketball team.

The program that Lucas runs is not easy, and the fact that Sidney wants to return should be a good sign for him as a person. He wants to be better. He wants to be able to capitalize on the gifts that he was blessed with.

Sidney, who worked out with Lucas in May and June before attending summer classes in July, is expected to return to the Starkville campus on August 14th. Stansbury "expects" him to be a member of the Bulldog team in the fall. If Sidney feels that it is in his personal best interest to avoid a trip overseas and to continue to learn from Lucas, than he shouldn't be criticized for it. He's trying to get better, and he's already shown some improvement. He lost 23 pounds in May and June.

The question I want answered is how long Stansbury is going to put up with Sidney.

While its commendable that Sidney is putting in the effort to get in shape and better his work habits, missing this trip makes it abundantly clear just how little he cares about the MSU basketball team. The Bulldog's success next season doesn't matter to him. He's not working out because he wants to win an SEC title, he's working out because he wants to be able to play in the NBA and make NBA money.

You see, for all his issues and off-the-court problems, Sidney is an untapped gold-mine of potential. If it ever clicked for him, Sidney would be a dominating force in the SEC. He has enough talent to be worthy of a lottery pick. That kid of player doesn't come along too often, especially when you coach at Mississippi State.

Maybe, for Stansbury, this trip back to Houston is a last ditch effort to turn Sidney around. Stansbury has invested so much time and so much energy into creating the perception that bringing Sidney into his program was a good idea that he can't turn-around. He's pot-committed. He needs this to work out well.

He needs Renardo Sidney to dominate.

He needs to be able to say to the fans and the boosters and the athletic department that it worked out; that he took a risk on a kid that no one else wanted and helped change that kid's life while landing himself a star player.

Stansbury needs this saga to have a storybook ending, and he's hoping that John Lucas will be the answer.
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POSTERIZED: Wanna know why Shabazz Muhammad is the No. 1 player in the country?

This is why:



Muhammad is currently out in Las Vegas with seemingly every other member of the AAU basketball world. He's played well enough this summer that he's become the top player in the country according to our Consensus Recruiting Rankings. Having said that, the folks at the Adidas 64 Tournament in Vegas were smart enough to put the four best big men in the tournament in the same super pool.

Andre Drummond won the first day, according to Jeff Goodman. This picture backs that theory up.


Yeah, that's Drummond, the No. 2 player in our rankings, posterizing Isaiah Austin, a Baylor commit and the No. 3 player in our rankings.

(h/t Justin Young for the picture)
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POSTERIZED: Tony Wroten Jr. delivers the goods

Much has been said about incoming Washington freshman Tony Wroten Jr. He may or may not have gotten a "C" in a fictitious Spanish class that he never attended nor knew about. When Wroten made his college announcement, a ceremony featuring a full marching band and decision hats, he donned a red and black flannel shirt and a red vest, possibly signaling his intentions to sign with Louisville. But Wroten spurned the Cardinals in favor of his home-state Huskies.

But despite his somewhat-narcissistic flare for the dramatic, the kid can ball.

Just check out the nasty posterization he served up on Monday at the Seattle Summer League:



That's Seattle forward Clarence Trent on the recieving end of Wroten's summer league poster-dunk. Trent played his freshman year at U-Dub before transfering out in 2010. I imagine he wishes he was still a Husky (Or at the least, Wroten's teammate on Monday).


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ESPN releases the Big 12's Big Monday schedules

Pick a favorite in the Big 12.

Do it.

I dare you.

Because regardless of who you pick, I guarantee I can offer an argument that will make you rethink that choice. Baylor? Sure, they are the most talented team in the conference, but they were also one of the most talented teams in the conference last season and finished 7-9 and out of the NCAA Tournament. Missouri? They're experienced, but they also have a new coaching staff and must learn to play a new system and a new style. Texas A&M? See Missouri. Kansas? They lost The Morrii and a number of key back court pieces. Kansas State? No Jacob Pullen. Texas? Their three best players went pro.

Having said that, the competitiveness and the balance in the Big 12 next season is why the league is going to be so much fun to watch and to follow. No one knows who is going to win. Hell, no one knows which games are going to be important late in the season. Throw in the fact that Nebraska and Colorado heading to the Big 10 and the Pac-12, respectively, not only trims the fat at the bottom of the conference but allows the league to use a double round-robin format; every team plays every other team in the league twice.

Now that I've managed to ramble on for two paragraphs about the Big 12, lets get to that Big Monday schedule:


Some notes:

- Kansas has the most appearances on Big Monday, playing in four of the seven weeks.

- Texas A&M and Texas both play three times on Big Monday, while Baylor and Missouri will have two appearances each.

- Rounding out the schedule is an appearance by Kansas State and one by Oklahoma State who, coincidentally, both host Kansas.
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Friday Morning Dump

- Your must-read-of-the-day comes courtesy of Andy Katz. He details new Monmouth coach King Rice and his path to redemption. Rice, a former-UNC Tar Heel and former Vandertbilt assistant struggled with alcoholism in the past, but is ready to help the next generation face the problem head on

- Drew Lipsky of Yahoo Sports lists the ten Big-10 players with the best chances of getting drafted next season

- NCAA President Mark Emmert believes that his organization may in fact need some sweeping changes

- ESPN released it's schedule for "Big Monday", and seven of the ten Big XII conference teams will participate at least once

- Jeff Goodman tries to explain that Florida State is no longer an ACC also-ran (Ehh, I'll still need more convincing)

- Luke Winn details Tony Mitchell's journey to North Texas and the comeback he has in store for opponents

- Just because Isaiah Thomas isn't a Washington Husky any more doesn't mean he isn't still outspoken

- The University of Houston did an internal review and found no compliance issues linked with the late David Salinas, the financial planner and Houston booster who is alledged to scammed millions of dollars from college head coaches. However, some of these coaches may meet to discuss the possibillity of pooling funds together

As always, there are more links after the jump

- A two part series on the top sleepers in the 2012 NBA draft class

- This season the Bradfley Braves will return home to play a home game on-campus for the first time in 30 years

- Jabari Parker might be having the best summer season of any recruit in the country. Jeff Borzello, everybody's favorite yuppie top-sider, explains why Parker could be the next Oscar Roberston

- Justin Young previews the USA basketball team for the World University Games

- Ian Powers of Swish Nation recaps the Peach Jam and lists the players that stood out

- Rush The Court wonders what it would be like if Duke had a television network similar to what Texas is trying to get away with

- What's this? Derrick Williams is having second thoughts about leaving Arizona?

- after six eyars of hard work, Mic Cronin has finally brought a level of consistancy to the Cincinnati program. The Bearcats showed last season that they are a viable contender in the Big East, and will continue to climb the ladder this season

- Kansas State administrators want their school's brand to be more identifiable. What is more identifiable than a purple-andf-black color scheme and arena frequently referred to "The Octagon of Doom"?

- The University of Maryland's athletic department has found itself in financial trouble. Despit recieving large donationgs from Under Armour, the University lost roughly $10-million in 2009-2010, despite spending nearly $83-million

- With the graduation of turbulent point guard Demetri McCamey, Bruce Weber is hoping his Illini have a serious attitude adjustment

- Morehead State has announced the addition of three JuCo transfers (And one of them kinda sorta looks like Kenny Faried!)

- Jon Teitel put together a great Q&A session with Kenneth Lyons, the greatest player in North Texas basketball history

- Villanova freshman Tyrone Johnson will not join the Wildcats on their trip to Europe because a foot injury he suffered last month

- Apparently, there were some reporters out there that didn't know MarShon Brooks spelled his name with a capital "S" (Not us, we've been in the loop the whole time)

- I saw this on Wednesday, but maybe you didn't: Louisville is backing out of the 2012 Maui Invitational

- The Baylor Bears will join West Virginia, Saint Mary's, Missouri State, Bethune-Cookman, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Kennesaw State and Tennessee Tech in the 2011 Las Vegas Classic

- A Rush The Court summer update on the ACC

- A nice litte pirmer on Ed Cooley's return to Providence

- Anything related to ultimate frisbee automatically gets moved to the bottom of the dump

- Roy Williams adopted a highway?








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Tristan Spurlock already making a difference at Central Florida

Central Florida may have had the best scout team in the country in 2010-2011.

With three high-major transfers -- Tristan Spurlock from Virginia, Jeff Jordan from Illinois, and Josh Crittle from Oregon -- sitting out a year as they waited to get eligible, the Golden Knights must have had some pretty intense and competitive practices.

Spurlock and company named themselves 'Team Buckets' because they "felt like they could score at any time." But that nickname morphed into something else when Josh Johns, a senior at UCF and a friend of Spurlock's, heard the name. From the Central Florida Future:

Team Buckets is now in the beginning stages as a non-profit organization aiming to work with youth in the community, with the goal of providing children a positive influence. The organization is themed around sports, with a large part of the foundation based around the usage of athletes as role models and people who the youth will listen to.

"We took that (the name) and we flipped it into an organization that we wanted to reach out to the community," Spurlock said.

Team Buckets has hosted two events, a basketball tournament in Pensacola and a BBQ in Orlando that was promoted and attended by Gilbert Arenas and Dwight Howard.

The goal of Team Buckets, as Spurlock says, is "to show [kids] that you can't just be an athlete and get by".

"You'll remember if Dwight Howard says, ‘Hey, stay in school,'" Johns said. "I know that things like that will make a lasting impression."

Spurlock gets it. He understands that he, as an athlete, plays a bigger role in the community than simply being able to put a ball in a basket. Its great to see a player give back, to try and make the city that he lives in a better place.

Athletes are idols. Kids dream of following in their footsteps, getting a scholarship and one day playing sports for money. Its a shame that more players don't take advantage of this opportunity to make a difference.
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Rick Pitino scouts his team on his blog

While his last blog post sparked the ire of media member and Big East fans, Rick Pitino's newest post will likely be received with much less criticism.

With Louisville prepping to head on a team trip to the Bahamas, the Cardinals have been allowed to practice over the summer. To keep fans posted on how the work is going, Pitino posted a scouting report of every player. Jared Swopshire, Raheem Buckles, Luke Hancock, Kevin Ware, and Wayne Blackshear have yet to practice, but everyone else received a refreshing dose of honesty from Pitino.

I'm not going to go through every player, but here are some of my favorite lines:

• On Kyle Kuric and Peyton Siva: "The only thing absent for him in the three days was competition. Peyton and Kyle did not get anyone who could make it difficult for them to score. That will change in September."


• On Gorgui Dieng: "His incredible length will get him six or seven offensive rebounds in our segments, but he will go through an hour with just a few defensive boards."


• On Angel Nunez: "When we offered him a scholarship, it came with much trepidation. Was highly regarded in New York City as a sophomore, but then spiraled down the next two years. Why did I gamble on him? He reminds me so much of Francisco Garcia (Angel’s idol) and not because he is a fellow Dominican. Same body type, long and thin, outstanding shooter with excellent form, and same defensive type as Francisco -- which means he can’t defend Vinny Tatum, our esteemed equipment manager."


• On Russ Smith: "Ralph Willard has had long meetings with him. Stevie Mass also. Add me to the mix multiple times. Russ just does not want to be a point guard. There was a point in our scrimmage where he took six shots in 42 seconds."


• On Chane Behanan: "Ray Ganong , our strength coach who has performed his duties in football as well, states Chane measures the widest calf and thighs of any athlete he’s ever measured -- linemen included (calf is 19 3/8”, thigh is 27 ¾”)."

Louisville fans, you'll surely enjoy that post.
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Jimmer Range is deeper than we thought

"Jimmer Range" was a commonly used term during the 2010-2011 season.

Its because The Mormon Moneymaker hit shots from here. And here. And, well, just watch this.

Fredette decided to show off his range to a bunch of kids at his basketball camp, and in the process he made this look like a rhythm jumpshot:



I, regrettably, count myself among the people that got sick of the over-coverage of Jimmer Fredette's season. Once Sportscenter got ahold of him, getting "Jimmer'd" was no longer an inside joke for us college basketball junkies.

But looking back through those videos -- watching the highlights of the 39 points he dropped on UNLV and the 43 points he put on SDSU and the ridiculously deep threes he hit all year long -- brought me back to just how entertaining this kid was to watch. All season. Even after Scott Van Pelt (bless his heart, he's a college hoops diehard and by far my favorite ESPN personality) turned Jimmer from a niche-sport secret to a nationwide sensation.

I can't help but think that the Mormon jokes and Brett Favre-level media crush made us take a once-in-a-generation player for granted.
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Thursday Morning Dump

- A fantastic-must-read (both the blog post and the original article) on former-Indiana star A.J Moye

- Ed Isaacson breaks down the ten impact seniors for the upcoming season

- Dana O'Neil took a poll of 15 head coaches about the next generation of coaching. She also got some good answers regarding what to do in late-game situations and the smartest coach in the game today

- I missed this yesterday, but it's still worth your time: Jason King lists the top non-conference games of the upcoming season

- The field for the 2012 Preseason N.I.T Tip-Off has been set. Chris Dobbertean provides an in-depth look at the schedule. A possible-match up between area-rivals George Mason and Virginia Tech would be intriguing

- Bobby Bankcroft of the National Hoops Report lists his All-Peach Jam Team (A must-read for you recruiting junkies)

- Here's a very interesting possibly storyline to follow: Was former-convict Anthony Hubbard forced out of attending Iowa? It appears that Hubbard may have violated the "Zero tolerance policy" that was set by school administrators

- Chicago College Hoops took Rick Pitino's advice and came up with some ideas for new Big East basketball divisions

- Some negative video footage is motivating Peyton Siva to be the best

- Penn State's basketball history book is not very long, but Pat Chambers is hoping to write the defining chapter

- Will Michigan State do better without Durrell Summers and Kalin Lucas? Doesn't seem possible right?

- John Gasaway provides a solid rundown of the youngest coaches in D-I (Subscribers Only)

- Fran Fraschilla explains how coaches use the off-season to work on their late game management (Insiders Only)

- Here's a neat idea that could work not only for the CAA, but other mid-major conferences: A season-opening conference basketball-a-palooza

- We noted on Tuesday that New Mexico coach Steve Alford was banning his team from using twitter. Yesterday we learned that Alford will threaten to revoke scholarships if his players break his "no tweeting" policy

-It doesn't look like the media is going to get any closer to the NCAA selection process than it already is

- Former Syracuse basketball player Damone Brown plead guilty to concealing money for a gang (I was unaware that was possible and/or a crime)

- Austin Rivers isn't just ready for the new school year, he's ready for basketball season

- I think it's safe to say that Jabari Parker is winning the summer recruiting season

- Former-Virginia head coach Dave Leitao will be named the new head coach of the Maine Red Claws NBA D-League team (You may remember a couple months back that a rumor spread indicating that Bruce Pearl was a candidate for this job)

- Big Sky Basketball details how Northern Colorado will try and replace Devon Beitzel, the Conference PoY and most efficient player in the Big Sky

- Not even a lockout can contain MarShon Brooks. The former-Friar dropped 48-points in a summer league game (Corey Fisher isn't impressed)


Yup that's Kenny Faried planking on what appears to be a grocery cart

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