Did DJ Newbill do Southern Miss dirty?

From the outside, you'd think that the Southern Mississippi fan base and administration would be mad at DJ Newbill.

Newbill had a terrific freshman campaign, averaging 9.2 ppg and 6.2 rpg for the Golden Eagles as a 6'4", 205 lb guard. Newbill, who was without a scholarship as late as mid-July in 2010, started all 32 games and played over 30 mpg. Not bad for a late-addition to your program.

But Newbill will not be finishing his career at Southern Mississippi. He announced earlier this week that he would be transferring to Penn State and new head coach Pat Chambers to finish out his career, sitting out the 2011-2012 season per transfer rules.

"D.J. will make an immediate impact on our program with his toughness, basketball IQ and work ethic," Chambers said in a statement. "It's great to get a Philadelphia kid that is passionate about Penn State basketball and wants to be here. We are very confident he will show that a Philadelphia player can have great success and an outstanding career at Penn State."


Like I said, its easy for USM to be mad at Newbill. Here's a kid that was given a chance by Larry Eustachy that jumped ship to a bigger program after one successful season and just 32 games with the Golden Eagles. From the surface, it looks like Newbill is ungrateful, that he's just another spoiled, selfish athlete out to get his.

Saying that ignores the reason that Newbill was forced to go to Southern Miss in the first place.

Back in March of 2010, Newbill -- a Philly native -- signed with Marquette. He called it his dream school. But three months later, when a former top 100 recruit and Wisconsin native named Jamil Wilson decided he wanted to return home to finished out his collegiate career, Buzz Williams needed a scholarship. Newbill, who had signed a Letter of Intent, was the one on the chopping block. Marquette used some cover story about Newbill's academics and cut ties.

Now, as I explained in detail in this post from a year ago, I don't necessarily have a problem with Newbill being cut. It happens. What I do have a problem with is the LOI system that locks a player into a school but allows the school to drop the player when someone better comes along.

Newbill got screwed by the system.

For a Philly native that had chosen to go to college in the state of Wisconsin, I think its safe to say that attending college in Hattiesburg, MS, was not exactly his first choice. But at the time, he didn't exactly have many options. Eustachy offered him a lifeline, if you will; an opportunity to continue his education while playing a high-level of collegiate basketball.

Newbill took advantage of that opportunity, but with a chance to return to his native Pennsylvania, play for a guy that cut his teeth in Philly in Chambers, and get the exposure that the Big Ten brings, it only makes sense Newbill made the jump.

Did Southern Miss get screwed? Probably. Did they get taken advantage of? I'm sure some can make that argument, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree.

But can you really be mad at Newbill? If it wasn't for the hypocrisy of the LOI program, he never would have been in that position.
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Wednesday Morning Dump

On Tuesday, the college basketball world was shook by the news that legendary Tennessee women's coach Pat Summit was diagnosed with early onset of Alzheimer's Disease (Ed. Note: This horrible disease has been a part of my life since I was a child. Alzheimer's has taken two people very close to my heart. As terrible as this news may be, lets be thankful that Coach Summit has been diagnosed now, instead of finding out too late.) Mike DeCourcy details Pat Summit's plan for success

- But that wasn't the only news out of Knoxville on Tuesday. former-Volunteers head coach Bruce Pearl has been hit with the dreaded "Show-Cause" penalty. His assistant coaches received 1-year "Show Cause" bans as well

- Georgetown finished their trip to China on a high note defeating Taiwan 83-64. No team in the country had an experience quite like Georgetown. The Hoyas return to the USA with a record of 3-1-1, with the one loss coming via TKO in the 4th Quarter of "The Great Brawl in China 1" (#toosoon?)

- What's this? Billy Gillespie is already causing pandemonium at Texas Tech? I bet nobody saw that coming.....

- School is almost back in session and within the next week freshman will start arriving on campus. Unfortunately for West Virginia, Jabarie Hinds is still waiting to enroll

- A great-read from John Templon on how JuCo transfers provide an immediate impact for mid-major program

- If you missed any of Rush The Court's Summer conference updates, you can find all of them here

- According to Josaon King, Arnett Moultrie may be the missing piece for Mississippi State

- A solid list of potential breakout stars in the 2011-2012 Big Ten Conference


- As if Miami couldn't afford and more bad news, word on the street is that senior forward Julian Gamble will miss the entire season because of an torn ACL

- Here's a preliminary look at Wisconsin's full schedule for 2011-2012

- Mount St. Mary's makes some personnel changes

- I've always been a closet LBSU fan, and now I know why

- An early look at Indiana's front-court for 2011-2012

- Manhattan's non-conference schedule has been set

- Oh, so now UConn will ramp up it's compliance

- Do you know who DJ Cooper is? I'm a Hoya fan, so I certainly do (And no, he's not a member of the Bayia Rockets)

- Gary Williams wont be coaching this year, but that doesn't mean he wont be raking in the cash

- I'll be honest. I'm not exactly sure what Villanova By The Numbers is talking about, but it sure looks interesting. So you might as well take 5-10min and read it

- If "The Morning Dump" and "B.I.A.H POSTERIZED" merged in to one, it might look sorta like this

- Harrison Barnes tried to fake an injury and/or receive extra credit for his theater 101 summer course


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Billy Gillispie is on the brink of blowing his last chance

Billy Gillispie is a train wreck, and I take absolutely no pleasure in saying that.

Whether it is forcing Josh Harrellson to spend halftime of a game against Vanderbilt sitting in a bathroom stall, mocking Derrick Jasper for being out with microfracture surgery to the point that Jasper feels he has to transfer, his multiple run-ins with sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards (which may have stemmed from Gillispie being rejected by Edwards in a bar), or his well-documented drinking (and driving) problem, there is nothing about this guy that makes him seem like an appealing person to be around.

But he can coach.


Billy Clyde rebuilt two programs in Texas. He turned UTEP from a 6-24 team to a 24-win NCAA Tournament team in the span of one season. That got him to Texas A&M, where he laid the groundwork for the Aggie's current success despite taking over a team that went 0-16 in the Big 12 the year before he got there.

That ability to coach -- and ability to turn around dormant programs in Texas -- is the reason the guy who epically flamed-out at Kentucky was able to land the head coaching gig at Texas Tech. From a basketball perspective, the fit doesn't get much more perfect than that. But, as I wrote back in December (*pats self on back*) when the first rumblings of Tech's interest in Gillispie came to like, "if you hire Gillispie, you're not just hiring the basketball coach. You're hiring Billy Gillispie the person as well. Do so at your own risk."

According to Sports by Brooks, the Gillispie era at Tech is off to a horrendous start. Longtime basketball secretary Leslie Hartline has quit; Gillispie's already on his third person in that position in four months. So did trainer Jon Murray, who held that position for 13 years. Most notably, however, was a situation involving assistant coach Chris Beard. Beard, who was re-hired as an assistant after losing the position when Pat Knight lost his job, quit recently after "heated altercations with the irascible and intractable Gillispie, the final of which was physically broken up by Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt."

Keep in mind, all three of those people survived Bob Knight's tenure in Lubbock.

Also keep in mind we've ignored the fact that he was bilked out of millions in two different Ponzi schemes.

When does Gillispie reach the point of no return?

What coach is going to want to work for him? What kid is going to want to play for him? How long until he makes headlines for a drinking-related offense? Is his drinking -- Brooks not-so-subtlely hints that he hasn't gotten control of it -- the cause of the tension he's created?

Hocutt had to have known something like this was coming. He knew that hiring Gillispie was a huge risk, but he hired him because there was a chance -- and still is -- it can pay huge dividends. Like I said, Gillispie can flat out coach, but he's broken as a person. Whether that means he's an alcoholic or just simply a miserable guy, I don't know.

What I do know is that he needs to make a change, and make a change quickly.

Because if he flames out at Tech, who is going to give him another chance?
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If only Bruce Pearl had been honest

Bruce Pearl is going to get a three-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA.

That's according to ESPN.com's Andy Katz (it should become official this afternoon), who also said that his assistants -- Tony Jones, Steve Forbes and Jason Shay -- will receive one year show-cause penalties. (A show-cause penalty means that any NCAA program that wants to hire one of those coaches must present a case to the Committee on Infractions as to why, and is liable receive additional punishments from the NCAA for making the hire.) In addition, Chris Low was cited in Katz's article as reporting that the NCAA will not levy any further penalties against the Tennessee program than what they already self-imposed -- two years probation and a handful of slap-on-the-wrist recruiting restrictions.

None of that is really much of a surprise.


We all knew that Bruce Pearl was likely going to receive a show-cause penalty and that his assistants were probably headed down that road as well. We all knew that Pearl's career as a college coach would, at worst, be over and, at best, be a shell of what it once was -- a high-major coach slowly turning around a dormant program.

So what does all this mean?

Don't lie to the NCAA.

Seriously.

Just don't do it.

When they come a-knockin', just be honest.

Because the actual violation that Bruce Pearl got busted for was not all that serious. He had illegal contact with a couple of recruits, inviting them to his house for a barbecue when they weren't allowed to be at his house, barbecue or not. What got him in trouble was lying to the NCAA about recognizing where a picture from that barbecue was taken. I know, I know, its a bit more complicated than that -- not only to he get his coaching staff to cover for him, he tried to convince the recruit's parents to do the same, hence the "misleading an investigation" charge -- but the bottom-line is that the cover-up is what killed Pearl's career. Not the violation.

He went from a beloved head coaching making seven figures to an NCAA pariah. Its fairly likely he'll never return to the college coaching ranks. He'll probably never again reach the level he did at Tennessee.

Todd Bozeman was a star-in-the-making as the head coach of Cal back in the 90's, but he received an eight-year show-cause penalty for paying Jelani Gardner's family upwards of $30,000. Bozeman is back in coaching, but despite having built Morgan State into a low-major powerhouse -- bringing them to two NCAA Tournaments in his five years at the helm -- his name is never brought up when a better coaching position comes open.

Pearl isn't exactly going to be living on the streets. Presumably, he hasn't blown all the money he's made in his career. And he has a standing, $500,000 offer from the Texas Legends of the D-League. The guy can coach, and there's no reason he can't follow Kelvin Sampson's footsteps from show-cause penalty to the NBA.

Things could be much, much worse for Pearl. The NCAA scrap heap is nothing when compared to the battle his former counterpart Pat Summitt is currently facing.

But if he had just come clean to the NCAA's investigator's, Pearl would still be Knoxville's hoops king.
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The key for Brian Gregory: continue to recruit his home turf

Brian Gregory found himself in a bit of a hole when he took over the Georgia Tech program for the fired Paul Hewitt.

The Yellow Jackets haven't had a winning record in ACC play since 2004. They've snuck into three NCAA Tournaments in that span, grabbing one of the last available at-large bids each season. They've had a moderate amount of success as well, winning a game in two of those three trips, but based on the amount of talent Hewitt was able to bring into the program, Georgia Tech was almost always considered a disappointment since they made the 2004 Final Four.

So not only does Gregory walk into a situation where he needs to rebuild a program, he has to do it at a place where underachieving is the norm. Winning is a learned skill, and sometimes changing the attitude surrounding a program -- going from a team that expects to lose to a team that finds a way to win -- is the biggest challenge. Just ask anyone that rooted for the Boston Red Sox prior to 2004.

But he has to start somewhere, and with the amount of talent coming out of Georgia and the Atlanta area, the key for Gregory winning in ACC play was to win early and often on the recruiting.

And he has been. It started earlier this summer when Gregory landed a commitment from Chris Bolden, a talented point guard out of powerhouse Norcross HS. It earlier in August when he earned a pledge from Bolden's AAU teammate Marcus Hunt, a top 100 wing with a number of high-major programs on his tail. Gregory was the first program to offer Hunt once he took over the job. According to Hunt, that meant a lot; the previous staff wasn't chasing him.

Next up for Gregory?

Robert Carter, a top 25 big man and Georgia native.

Landing Carter would be a bit of a coup, as he currently holds offers from Maryland and Florida and is being pursued by Kentucky. Even if Gregory is unable to land Carter, its important to note that he is in the mix. As Memphis and Indiana have done, the key to rebuilding a program in a basketball hotbed is to key homegrown talent at home.
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The hiring of Luke Walton is an example of why Josh Pastner will be successful

Josh Pastner is a smart guy.

Like really, really smart.

You see, after he failed to lure Tim Grgurich -- an NBA assistant coach -- to join his Memphis program, he found himself in a bit of a predicament. It was half past August, and Pastner hadn't completed his coaching staff. He went far enough to say that he was strongly considering heading into the season with just two assistants on his staff.

Just about everyone with an opinion -- and a venue to voice that opinion -- urged Pastner to hire someone. Anyone. We said that he should sign some shlep to go around the country sitting in high school gyms with a Memphis shirt on to "scout" the kids the Tigers were targeting. Gary Parrish went a step further by saying that Pastner should hire the father of one of those recruits onto his staff. Package deals are still alive and well so long as the new coach ends up as an official assistant coach.


Pastner did us all one better. He hired Luke Walton. As in the son of Bill, current Laker forward Luke Walton.

That's genius.

And that's why its tough to picture a future where Pastner isn't running one of the best programs in the country.

Purely as a basketball coach, John Calipari isn't great. He's very, very good, but he's not Dean Smith. Or Bobby Knight. Or John Wooden. He's not the kind of hoops tactician that can revolutionize how the game is played. Think about it like this: if your team is playing for the national title and you can pick any coach in the country to be on the sideline during that game, where do you pick Coach Cal? Off the top of my head, he's behind at least Tom Izzo, Mike Krzyzewski and Brad Stevens. Maybe Jim Calhoun and Jim Boeheim as well. Is he taken before the Roy Williams' and the Billy Donovan's off the world? Would you consider him a better coach than a Jamie Dixon or a Bo Ryan, the kind of coach that can win despite being as a talent disadvantage?

What makes Coach Cal so successful is his ability to recruit. And that ability to recruit at unheard of levels is a perfect storm of Coach Cal's moxie and salesmanship on the recruiting trail, the zealots that make up Big Blue Nation and pack every home game, and his NBA Draft track record.

More importantly, however, is that Coach Cal has embraced things that other coaches haven't. He's outspoken about the fact that he wants his players on a fast track to the NBA. He came up with the idea of holding a pro-day for the guys from his program that were considering entering the NBA Draft this past April. The two Kentucky Legends games that he scheduled last week were so popular that Kansas has decided to piggy-back off of that idea.

In other words, Coach Cal understands what kids want, and he is creative and innovative enough in his recruiting to build a unique pitch to the players he targets.

The apple didn't fall far from the tree for the guy that replaced Coach Cal at Memphis.

Pastner has built a coaching staff that would rival any in the country in terms of their NBA experience. Luke Walton has played alongside Kobe Bryant, has been coached by Phil Jackson, and has two rings and played in the NBA Finals four times. Walton, who will be able to break his contract with Memphis as soon as the lockout is over, is probably trying to prepare himself of a coaching career after his playing career ends (which could be sooner rather than later, as he has been banged up the last two seasons). Walton was also a member of Arizona back when Pastner was still a spritely young assistant coach in 2003.

But Walton isn't the only guy on the staff with NBA experience. Damon Stoudamire, who played in the league for 13 years, and Jack Murphy, who was an advanced scout with the Nuggets, round out his staff. At 37 years old, Stoudamire is the oldest member of the staff.

The kids that Memphis targets are, generally speaking, going to have the potential to be NBA players. They are going to be competing with the best programs in the country for kids like Will Barton, Adonis Thomas, Jarnell Stokes and Archie Goodwin. By putting together a young staff -- a staff with significant NBA experience and extensive first-hand knowledge of the pro game -- Pastner has built an innovative and fairly unique recruiting pitch.

Blue-chip high school players want to be turned from talented youths to successful pros.

Who better to do that than a 13-year NBA veteran point guard, a current NBA forward that has spent years learning from Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson, and a guy that was paid to evaluate NBA talent for a living.


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Tuesday Morning Dump

- Its had to disagree with Gary Parrish here, who says that Missouri made a mistake by playing the waiting game with Frank Haith.

- Long Beach State is not all that happy with the news of the scandal in Miami.

- Mid-major programs aren't the only teams that struggle to land non-conference opponents.

- Dick Vitale unveils his 2011-2012 All-Solid Gold Team

- DJ Newbill officially transfers into Penn State. He'll be eligible in 2012-2013, and he'll be a guy that Penn State fans will truly enjoy.

- From the look of this, it seems as though Andy Bottoms is having way too much fun with numbers

- Enes Kanter is the unluckiest guy in the world

- Scout released their top 25 in the class of 2014.

- I don't think fans will ever tire of this question. Well maybe Kentucky/Louisville fans do

- Ronald Nored is ready to lead Butler next season. I'd have to agree, but the success of the Bulldogs is going to hinge on how well Khyle Marshall and Andrew Smith develop.

- Gary Parrish updates us on Iowa's overseas trip

- Kim Karshian got married to Kris Humphries over the weekend.

- The Nova Blog tells us what the Wildcats will lose from Isaiah Armwood's decision to transfer

- Trevor Mbakwe had a great trip to the World University Games. He's a beast.

- Luke Walton got himself one helluva job during the lockout...DaJuan Blair? not so much

- Diamond Leung had a solid take on the Hoya's trip to China.

- Kansas will host "Legends of the Phog" game on September 24th

- Brian Gregory is cleaning up in the state of Georgia.

Oh god, please let the lockout end


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Memphis, Josh Pastner avoid a violation

Josh Pastner and the Memphis Tigers sidestepped a recruiting violation over the weekend.

You see, while a longshot, Memphis is still in the mix for the Class of 2012's No. 1 recruit Shabazz Muhammad. But according to an interview with the Duke website Devil's Illustrated from the summer of 2010, Memphis was "calling and calling and calling" Muhammad. Since it was before the start of Muhammad's senior season, Memphis should have only been allowed to call Muhammad or his family once a month. Kyle Veazey of the Commercial Appeal explains:

Muhammad's claim that the Tigers were "calling and calling and calling" prompted a question from the NCAA's Basketball Focus Group, an arm of the enforcement division formed in 2008 to gather information and explore potential violations in the sport.

[...]

The U of M's most significant response to the BFG came in an Oct. 28, 2010, letter. In it, the school acknowledged its staff had made multiple calls to Muhammad's father, Ron Holmes. But since Holmes is a high school and AAU coach, the U of M says, the calls were permitted under a pair of two-decade-old interpretations of NCAA rules that allow calls to coaches who are parents if the calls are about evaluations and not soliciting the son to sign with the school.

The U of M said its staff wasn't talking to Holmes about Muhammad but about other prospects or topics.

Once again, we are given a glimpse of the inanity of the contact rules in college basketball. Memphis is quite obviously -- or was, at the time -- pursuing Muhammad. But since his dad is a basketball coach in the high school ranks, the Tigers (as well as any other team smart enough to find that loophole) had a way around that one-call-per-month rule.

The fact that Pastner was able to find that loophole before anyone else is a major part of the reason that he has proven to be a quality recruiter throughout his career as a coach. But the fact that such loophole's exist is a major part of the problem when it comes to the NCAA's rulebook. That rulebook is 434 pages long. There are thousands more rule interpretations that can be found in the NCAA's LSDBi database. The complexity of the NCAA's by-laws breeds the quirky loopholes that coaches have been exploiting for so long.

The arguments for changing the way the NCAA currently regulates contacting potential student-athletes have been so exhaustively written about, it feels silly to rehash them. But I will. Everyone has caller ID and no one has a problem with allowing a call to go to voicemail if you don't want to talk to that person. Everyone has unlimited texting plans. With smartphones that have email, facebook and twitter, there is no practical difference between a text message (which are limited by the NCAA) and an email, facebook message or direct message on twitter (which are not).

And the kids that are being recruited -- the 16 and 17 year olds on the cutting edge of technology -- are going to be the best at using these social networking tools. They can ignore a phone call with the best of them.

Hopefully, the NCAA follows through on their proposed changes to the deregulation of recruits communicating with coaches. (UPDATE: As Dan Wolken pointed out to me on twitter, in investigating these phone calls, the NCAA proved they didn't even know their own rule.)


Memphis also had to answer questions about how they were able to get Muhammad and current Minnesota forward Trevor Mbakwe on campus for unofficial visits, but no violations were found in either of those instances.
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Monday Morning Dump

- With the 'Great Brawl of China" behind them, the Hoyas now take the show to Shanghai. The Hoyas defeated some team called "The Dinosaurs" in their first post-brawl game. Some great notes and opinions on the brawl (In the same week Miami goes down in flames, Georgetown get's into a fight...what is this? The 80's?)

- Some famous Georgetown alumni take to twitter to show their support for the team

- Your must-read of the day is a terrific list of the best debut seasons for head coaches at new schools

- Dickie-V hung up on Dan LeBatard, and for once it wasn't LeBatard's fault

- The NCAA is looking to make pivotal changes to their "Cream cheese and jam" amendment

- UConn Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway has decided to retire. The NCAA has responded to his "retirement". His departure may mean a new Selection Committee Chair member could be added.

- Team USA lost to Lithuania in the Quarterfinals of the World University Games and will not be able to win a medal


- Jeff Goodman provides some insight on what lies ahead for Billy Kennedy and the Texas A&M basketball program. More on Kennedy and his new basketball team

- There have been a handful of articles indicating that highly-touted recruit Mitch McGary may skip college and head straight to the NBA draft next season. But according to his high school coach, Mitch has not thought about entering the draft yet

- St. John's landed yet another recruit. 6-foot-4 shooting guard Darrick Wood verbally committed to the Johnnies over the weekend

- Dick "Hoops" Weiss recaps all the recent NCAA scandals involving big-time programs

- Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott may make some location changes to the Pac-12 basketball tournament

- I am pretty certain that Oregon head coach Dana Altman is going to love having Olu Ashaolu on his squad, even if he has to sit out a year. Jason King provides more detail on why Altman's Ducks are ready to fly (#InsertMightyDucksQuoteHere)

- Saitn Mary's inked head coach Randy Bennett to a new 10-year deal

- A good-read from the Columbia Tribune on the difficult decision that lies ahead for the Missouri athletic department

- IUPUI and Ball State do not play in the same conference, yet they will play each other twice in 2011-2012

- Bill Self is a fan of the off-season beard and Kansas football

- Who exactly is the best post player in the Big Sky Conference? Portland State's Chehales Tapscott is certainly in the conversation

- A solid Q&A session with Jacksonville great Artis Gilmore

- James Anderson, a top-10 point guard recruit in the Class of 2012, verbally committed to play for the Pitt Panthers

- Florida State picked up a recruit from the possibly the further possible point from FSU - Alsaska

- Chris Dobbertean provides updated information on the early season tournaments (BtB is becoming the place to go for all your early season tournament info)

- More "Top Terp Tournament" brackets. Greivis only a #3-seed? Tony Massenburg went to Maryland? I have so many questions

- The fantastic America East basketball blog, America Least, will be shutting down. Fortunately, a new A-East blog, Unranked AE will be debuting for SBNation in September


Well, looks like I have a new favorite pump-up video



(H/T George Mason Basketball)


Josh Harrellson is officially the King of Morning Dump videos. This must be at least the eigth time we dropped a video of him doing something outrageous in the past 12 months




Highlights from "Capital Punishment" the All-Star game of sumemr league hoops pitting the Drew League vs. the Goodman League


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Hoops Housekeeping: Fontan's acl, Armwood's transfer, Carlwell's eligibility denied

Kevin O'Neill's USC Trojans caught a terrible break on Thursday as the news became official that Jio Fontan, their leading returning scorer and distributor, will miss the season with a torn acl.

He suffered the injury on Tuesday in an exhibition game in Brazil. Fontan not only will miss the season, but he had his trip to Brazil cut short.

"When you lose your best player, who's also your best leader, who's also your glue guy, it changes your team, especially when you lost four other starters," O'Neill told the OC Register. "But the outlook for the season should be this: We're trying to win the Pac-12 title. We're trying to get in the NCAA Tournament."

"I can assure you this group of guys, after seeing them three games down here, they're going to play their hearts out every single game. We might not win every game, but no one's going to want to play us."

USC will be in full-on rebuilding mode next season. Without Fontan, the Trojans will have a completely different starting lineup than the one they used at the end of last season. Maurice Jones will be the only returning back court player that saw action in more than six games, but he was demoted to sixth-man for the last nine games as a freshman. As a sophomore, he will now be counted on as the Trojan's main source of offense.


Brian Carlwell's eligibility denied: The Aztec big man was denied an application for a sixth-year of eligibility by the NCAA on Thursday. He transferred SDSU from Illinois, red-shirting the 2008-2009 season.

"I was hurt when I found out I wasn't going to be able to come back," Carlwell said in a statement. "My time at San Diego State was amazing. I couldn't ask for a better three years of my life. I was a part of an amazing team. We made history at San Diego State and our legacy will forever live and that is something I am really proud of."

Carlwell averaged just 3.8 ppg and 2.7 rpg, but he was a valuable piece for the Aztecs due to the amount of talent they are losing along their frontline. Malcolm Thomas and Billy White graduated while Kawhi Leonard entered the NBA Draft. LSU transfer Garrett Green should help, but beyond that SDSU's front line is barren.

If Carlwell's name sounds familiar, it should. He was the passenger that was in the car when Jamar Smith drunkenly drove his car into a tree back in February of 2007.


Isaiah Armwood to transfer: After the junior forward was named captain and after returning from Villanova's team trip to Europe, Armwood sat down with Nova head coach Jay Wright and made the decision to part ways.

"He's the greatest kid in the world," Wright told Jeff Goodman. "He's our hardest-working guy, our captain. We started him every game on our trip. I love him to death."

"I just want to see him achieve his goals."

Armwood was expected to start, but with Mouphtau Yarou returning and Jayvaughn Pinkston and Markus Kennedy entering the program, the amount of minutes and effectiveness that Armwood was projected to have was limited.
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Friday Morning Dump

No surprise what the big news in the college basketball world is. In case you were on another planet yesterday, you knew about the BasketBrawl in Beijing between the Georgetown Hoyas and the Bayi Rockets. Oh, in case you wanted to know what former-Memphis star Chris Douglas-Roberts thought about the brawl, he let us know via Twitter

But that's not the only news that comes from the Far East:

- Team USA swept pool play in the World University Games being held in, where else? China

- According to ChinaDaily.com.cn this brawl never happened (I will avoid any off-color remarks regarding censorship and typical Chinese practices)

- Plus, Duke was in China as well, so you know it was a big deal. The real story form the Blue Devils trip has been the emergence of Ryan Kelly (Who may or my not have starred as "Sloth" in "The Goonies"). Oh, and Austin Rivers didn't do too bad in his Duke debut, either

- A great-read from Basketball Prospectus on the best and worst ACC recruiting classes since 2002

- It looks like USC will be without their best player for the entire 2011-2012 season. Senior point guard Jio Fontan tore his ACL in an exhibition game in Brazil and will have surgery on it this week

- Well will you look at that: Another possible rules change that will hurt the little guys

- Oregon's basketball facility received their first practical upgrade in school history: A half-court line

- San Diego State big-man (and Rampage Jackson look-a-like) Brian Carwell has been denied a sixth year of elligibillity by the NCAA

- Jeff Goodman explains why Missouri cannot afford to loose any momentum

- Doug Gottlieb tells us (Well, us Insiders Only) why the Cal Golden Bears are the favorites to win the Pac-12

- I certainly didn't plan on reading about the MAC Tournament during the off-season. Speaking of the MAC, Matt Norlander provides us with a lot of great off-season stuff about the Akron Zips

- The full slate of SEC conference games was announced yesterday

- Villanova forward Isaiah Armwood has decided to transfer. The 6-foot-8 junior also happens to be one of the Wildcat's captains for the upcoming season

- Former-Louisiana Tech coach Scottie Robertson lost his fight against cancer this week. Aside from being one of LaTech's "all-time greats", he was also the first head coach of the New Orleans Jazz

- Southern Mississippi-transfer DJ Newbill (a 2010-2011 member of B.I.A.H POSTERIZED) will be an instant impact at Penn State

- New Mexico fans are expecting big things from Australian import Hugh Greenwoord

- A round table discussion on the plethora of newcomers to the Xavier basketball squad

- I may be anti-Maryland, but this "Top Terp Tournament" is pretty cool.

- You should probably follow along with The Big Lead's Culture Tournament (Kate Upton and Michelle Beadle in bracket-form? Yes Please!)




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Why Georgetown's brawl with China could be a good thing

Believe it or not, I think that Georgetown's brawl with the Bayi Rockets on Thursday was a good thing.

Before I go any further, watch the videos below -- the man, the myth, the legend @bubbaprog was able to sync up the two videos of the fight that have surfaced. There is no place for that in society, let alone in sports. This was an exhibition. The fact that it got as far as it did is an embarrassment to everyone involved. The Hoyas, the Bayi Rockets, the "security" at the game, the fans that threw bottles and the refs that allowed the game to get out of control. I understand that there are times where swinging your fists -- or the closest chair you can find -- is something that happens. I've been in that position. I've been in fights. Most of us have. But it should always be a last resort.

Keep that disclaimer in mind as you read on.



Even the most delusional, die-hard Georgetown fans will probably agree when I say that this team has been a disappointment the past three years. In 2008-2009, a young Georgetown team coming off of a Big East title climbed into the top ten in early January after beating then-No. 2 UConn on the road. They then proceeded to win just six more league games, finishing the season with a first-round loss in the NIT.

The following year, the Hoyas were ranked in the preseason top 25, but couldn't put together an ounce of consistency. They beat Duke, then lost to South Florida. They beat Villanova, then were upset by Rutgers. They made the final of the Big East Tournament, then lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to 14th seed Ohio. Not Ohio State, The Ohio University Bobcats.

The past season, Georgetown twice climbed into the top ten -- in December and midway through February. But after UConn snapped an eight-game Big East winning streak, Georgetown finished the year losing four of their last five in the regular season and got knocked out in the first round of both the Big East and NCAA Tournaments.

To be fair, that last season swoon was also the result of Chris Wright breaking his wrist. But regardless of cause, it was the third straight season in which Georgetown disappointed in February and March, the time of year that makes or breaks a season.

The reasons for those swoons differ and are unconfirmed. In 2008-2009, Wright and Jessie Sapp reportedly had a fight in the locker room at the halftime of the Duke game. Georgetown was 12-3 overall and 3-2 in the Big East at the time. They finished the season 16-15 and 7-11 in the Big East. In 2009-2010, Georgetown suffered from a chronic lack of consistency and, many believed, because of a lack of leadership and emotional fire from their best players. Last year, it was the lack of leadership and cohesiveness offensively after Wright was injured.

Whatever the case, we should all be able to agree that something was missing from those Georgetown teams. They never seemed to quite be on the same page when they needed to be. There would be flashes of potential, teasing Hoya fans with what was possible.

With a rotation that will include a number of freshmen and a changing of the guard in terms of who Georgetown's star will be, the Hoya's roster makeup will shift quite a bit next season. Not ideal for a team lacking cohesiveness.

But you know what is?


Getting into a full-fledged brawl and a borderline riot playing a road game in a foreign country. Having an entire team of college students hold their own in a fight against a group of grown men with military training. Seeing Georgetown's fans, alums, and former players rallying around their players from half a world away. That was a scary, scary situation for the Hoya team to be in. They're in a foreign country, in a foreign gym, playing a professional team in front of their incensed fans. Bottles and fists were flying. They had to not only rally around, but protect each other.

Literally. Protect. Jason Clark was thrown to the ground and had four Chinese players stomping him. Aaron Bowen spent six seconds on the ground under his own basket with two Chinese players throwing point-blank haymakers. And did I mention that these two teams are scheduled to play each other again on Sunday?

This will bring the Hoyas closer together. As teammates and as friends.

John Thompson III took his team on this trip to try and get a chance for some team bonding.

Well, he got it.
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Changes coming to Matt Court

Oregon's court didn't exactly draw rave reviews when it debuted back in January.

The brightness of the court is blinding on an HD TV. The glare from the ribbon board is not only visible, it changes colors. And the trees? Yeah.

But the biggest complaint had to do with the half court line -- you can't see it. The players, the refs, the fans in the arena and watching on TV. And it cost Creighton fans the CBI title (jump to the 1:10 mark):



Creighton's leading scorer Antoine Young committed a back court violation with 17.2 seconds left in a tie game. On the ensuing possession, Oregon's EJ Singler hit a shot with two seconds left to give Oregon the title. Needless to say, Creighton fans were not happy.

Well, according to Ron Bellamy of the Register-Guard, change is in the wind ... err, on the court:

The surface of Matt Knight Arena has been refinished, with a single three-point line, to reflect the fact that the women have moved back to the men's distance of 20 feet, 9 inches. And, lo and behold, there is now a mid-court line that can actually be seen, sort of. It's two shades of brown, to match the floor design, and stops at either end of the "O" in the middle of the floor, but it's actually one that's visible without standing directly on top of it. It should satisfy the critics of last season's near-invisible line that actually led to a key Creighton turnover in Oregon's win in the CBI.

Who would have thought that being able to see half court was important in basketball?

(h/t the latest Atlien to return home)
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VIDEO: The Georgetown brawl

This is unreal.



That was a full-fledged brawl. All-out. Chairs went flying. One Chinese player pinned a Georgetown player down and started wailing on him.

I don't necessarily condone fighting, but when it comes to protecting your teammates, you have to do what have to do. If I was a Georgetown player, I would have been in there as well, swinging from my shoes.

UPDATE: More video can be found here.

Many, many h/t's to the one and only @bubbaprog for making that video happen.
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Josh Pastner should fill his allotment of assistant's

This post can also be found at Beyond The Arc.

Josh Pastner would be foolish not to hire a third full-time assistant to his staff.

College basketball coaches are robots. Between the time they spend recruiting, watching film, designing practice schedules -- you know, doing the things that coaches do -- and making sure to spend time with their families, most of these guys are already running on a handful of hours of sleep a night during the season.

Pastner has a reputation for being a workaholic with an aversion to rest. If he decides to be the "head coach and assistant", as he told Jason Smith of the Commercial Appeal, it will be like setting the deck so the guy with the big stack of chips flops a full house.

"I'm not going to hire someone just to hire someone," Pastner told Smith. "If we've got to go with a smaller staff, we'll deal with it. Everyone's got to pick up more responsibility and get the job done."

I'm sure that the Memphis staff can manage building game plans and running practices and winning games without an extra member on the staff. But what about recruiting? During the season the season, the Memphis coaching staff still has to get out on the road and watch the kids they are recruiting.

Why not use that third assistant's position to hire someone strictly for recruiting purposes? He doesn't have to speak in practice. He doesn't have to help break down film. All he really needs to do is take four or five Memphis shirts on the road with him and show up at some high school games during the season. Let the kids like Jarnell Stokes or Archie Goodwin -- you know, those really, really good high school seniors that are considering Memphis -- know just how interested you are.

Not having that third assistant on the road recruiting during July already put them at a disadvantage. Its like playing pick-up at the park -- if you show up with three of your friends, you aren't going to play 5-on-4. You'll pick up a fifth even if he does look like this.

Gary Parrish has a better idea. He says that Pastner should hire the father of one of the recruits they are chasing. As long as it is to one of the three official assistant positions, its legal to hire a father to sign his son.

Either way, Pastner would be silly not to take advantage of that third assistant's spot.
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Georgetown brawls in China

(See the video of it here.)

Duke's basketball team isn't the only one in China right now.

The Georgetown Hoyas are there as well. But where Duke's trip is being broadcast on ESPN U and announced by Doug Gottlieb, Georgetown's trip appears to be better suited to Pay-Per-View with Jerry Springer on the call:


It appears as if everyone with the Hoyas -- the coaches and the players -- made it out just fine, which is a good thing even if you are from Syracuse, NY.

Washington Post reporter Gene Wang is traveling with the team in China. We'll update this post as more information comes out.

UPDATE: Here is a detailed breakdown from a Georgetown message board. Keep in mind, this is a Georgetown message board, but the same story is generally being told on every Hoya fan site. (h/t Casual Hoya)

Check out these wild photos from the Washington Post. Unreal. This was actually a real-life, full-blown brawl.


UPDATE II: Georgetown sent out a release with a quote from JT III: "Tonight, two great teams played a very competitive game that unfortunately ended after heated exchanges with both teams. We sincerely regret that this situation occurred. We remain grateful for the opportunity our student-athletes are having to engage in a sport they love here in  China, while strengthening their understanding of a nation we respect and admire at Georgetown University." Continue reading...

Thursday Morning Dump

I'm back from vacation and eager to make up for the last six days of disgraceful morning dumpages compiled by @ballinisahabit. I have a hard time understanding how this site was popular before I came aboard

Oh that's right.

It wasn't.

So once again I'm here to save the day

We lead of today's dump with a non-hoops-related link: The 2011 Culture Tournament presented by The Big Lead. (Everything is better in bracket-form)

- Memphis coach Josh Pastner is still looking for a third assistant coach. but if he can't find one that meets the requirements, the young head coach is fine pulling double duty, or so he says. But Gary Parrish provides the best answer yet, and what he suggests would kill two birds with one stone

- Is your school a "football school" or a "basketball school"? We linked to this post last week, but Boston College Interruption and Bruins Nation are still trying to figure out where they stand

- Frank Haith has not been at Missouri very long. But in his short time there, he's caused plenty of controversy. First, he committed a minor NCAA violation by discussing a potential recruit, and now he's in the middle of this disgusting Miami scandal. The people in Missouri are concerned, as they should be.

- More on Haith: Will Haith get canned before the season even begins? there were a couple of clauses placed in his contract regarding potential violations

- Well, it doesn't look like I'll be using the alias "Teddy Dupay" anytime soon (Well, to be honest, I don't think I'd ever use that name. I'm more of a "Maurice Clarett" type of guy")

- Dana O'Neil on why this may or may not be the best time to doubt Kansas

- Jeff Goodman provides an off-season report on the Colonial Athletic Association

- Jio Fontan, the star point guard for Southern Cal, injured his knee during an exhibition game with the Trojans in Brazil. The status of his injury isn't known yet, but it doesn't look good for USC

- Central Florida received a letter of inquiry from the NCAA yesterday regarding their shenanigans with expert shenanigan-artist Ken Caldwell (I bet you didn't think i could use the word "shenanigans" twice in once sentence?)

- Only the NCAA would have bylaws and amendments about fruits and nuts

- So Northwestern's new purple court might not be as purple as we once thought

- A pretty interesting take on what is in store for amateur athletics in the wake of the Class-7 hurricane brewing in Coral gables

- Chris Smith, Kyle Kuric and Peyton Siva have been named captains of the 2011-2012 Louisville Cardinals squad

- West Virginia freshman Tommy McCune was busted for shoplifting back in June and is having his pre-trial hearing today. But since he is currently in Italy with the team, he will not be able to attend

- What's this? Bikini Basketball. is there a difference between this and lingerie basketball?

- Get your commemorative Miami scandal t-shirts now!

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What is to come of Frank Haith?

From a hoops perspective, the biggest issue that comes out of the explosive Yahoo! report on former Miami booster Nevan Shapiro -- beyond how Jim Larranaga probably feels about leaving George Mason -- is the job status of new Missouri head coach and former Miami head coach Frank Haith.

The accusations he is facing are bad. Really bad. Simply put, he was aware -- if not the facilitator -- of a $10,000 payment to the family of top 25 recruit DeQuan Jones back in the summer of 2008. Its a bit more complicated than that, yes, but you really don't need to know much more.


Now, the NCAA still needs to do their due diligence. They must investigate and corroborate the accusations laid out by Charles Robinson. But if those accusations turn out to be true, there is a good chance that Haith can be hit with a show-cause penalty, which essentially means that the NCAA must give the OK for a program to hire him.

The problem is, as Gary Parrish points out, the NCAA is going to have their work cut out for them proving what Shapiro said. The deal was made in cash -- you can't trace cash -- that went from a booster to an assistant to a player's family. That money never touched Haith's hands and unless there is a smoking gun or Haith finds his conscience and admits it, how will the NCAA prove Haith's knowledge?

That doesn't mean that it will save Haith's job at Missouri, just like Tim Floyd wasn't able to save his job at USC after being accused of paying OJ Mayo's handler. But what it likely will mean is that Haith isn't hit with an NCAA violation, like Floyd, who is now coaching at UTEP.

"I am more than happy to cooperate with the national office on this issue and look forward to a quick resolution," Haith said in a statement released on Tuesday evening. "The NCAA has instructed me not to comment further at this time in order to protect the integrity of their review, so I appreciate your understanding in this matter. The reports questioning my personal interactions with Mr. Shapiro are not an accurate portrayal of my character."

Its interesting that Haith offers more than a "no comment" and avoids categorically denying the report.

Its unlikely that Missouri will fire Haith before the season starts. Hiring a second head coach in the span of five months would be a nightmare, especially when that coach would probably want to pick his own coaching staff. Would it be worth it to promote a staff member to the interim position? Probably not.

The other thing to think about is recruiting. Haith already has commitments from three players in the Class of 2012 and one player from the Class of 2013. Do those commitments hold if Haith's job is uncertain? What kind of recruiting class is he going to be able to pull out of 2012? Do they still have a shot at Rodney Purvis?

Its tough to see this getting better for Missouri before it gets worse.
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Wednesday Morning Dump

There were so many terrific reaction pieces to the Yahoo! story about the Miami football program, and while many of them are more football related, they touch on a lot of things that happen in college hoops as well:

- Matt Norlander of CBS Sports

- Jeff Eisenberg of The Dagger

- Matt Hayes from the Sporting News

- Clay Travis of Outkick the Coverage

- Adam Jacobi of CBS Sports

And now back to our regularly scheduled hoops programming:

- I doubt this story will get much play in Miami tomorrow

- Interesting column from Jeff Goodman on late commitments.

- Umm, yeah, this is awesome. Good work, Fasulo.

- Jeff Eisenberg caught up with the father of St. John's hoops commit Amir Garrett, who just signed a deal to play for the Reds farm system

- Jio Fontan of USC injured his knee in Brazil and will undergo an MRI. Its being called a sprain right now, but this is potentially very bad news for the Trojans.

- Good stuff from Heard This Blog on how Xavier has been able to successfully recruit

- Eamonn Brennan takes a look at how Utah is going to rebuild after losing eight players

- This story will make you sad

- Arzalan Kazemi is a name you should be familiar with if you are a hoops fan. Unfortunately, he will not be able to play with Iran's national team

- Its a bit depressing to think about the fact that this is actually news.

- Not sure I've ever seen this before -- Josh Pastner says he may just run with two full-time assistants this season.

- Raheem Buckles hopes to be cleared by the time the season starts

- Northwestern has picked the design for their new basketball court

- The schedule for the SEC's Tuesday night games has been released

- Duquesne lands a seven-footer

- St. Bonaventure loses a guard to a Butch pro team


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How Yahoo's story will affect hoops

Charles Robinson and Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports dropped a nuclear bomb on the University of Miami football program on Tuesday afternoon.

Its thoroughly and exhaustively reported, all stemming from the confessions of Nevan Shapiro, a former Miami booster currently incarcerated for his part in a Ponzi Scheme. (Those seem to be popping up everywhere these days, don't they?) With the exception of the Baylor basketball scandal involving Dave Bliss from 2003 and the SMU scandals that resulted in the football program receiving the death penalty in the late 1980's, this could very well be the biggest scandal in NCAA history.

The majority of Yahoo!'s report has to do with Miami's football program, but the basketball side is involved and could affect more than just the Hurricanes.

(The best part about Yahoo!'s story is that they broke down the violations committed by each person on their own separate page. Here are the four you want to pay attention to for hoops -- DeQuan Jones, Frank Haith, Jake Morton, and Jorge Fernandez.)

It starts with DeQuan Jones, who was a top 25 recruit nationally in 2008. Shapiro alleges that in the early summer of 2008, Jake Morton -- then a Miami assistant and now a member of the Western Kentucky coaching staff -- came to him saying that a member of Jones' family was demanding a $10,000 payment in order to ensure Jones would remained committed to the Hurricanes. Morton got the money from Shapiro and delivered it to the family without the knowledge of the player, according to Shapiro.

Frank Haith, then the head coach of the Hurricanes and now the first-year head coach at Missouri, was aware of the payment and later thanked Shapiro for putting up the money. That wasn't their only interaction, either. Shapiro took out Haith, Morton, and Jorge Fernandez -- then an assistant with Miami and now on the staff at Marshall -- on many occassions, sometimes to the same place as members of the Miami football team.

Fernandez was also involved in another potential violation. One of the nights that Fernandez was out with Shapiro he brought along Moe Hicks, the head coach of famed Rice High School in NYC and the program director for the NYC Gauchos, arguably the best AAU program out of NYC. Durand Scott, who is a rising junior on the Hurricanes, played for Hicks at Rice and was a member of the Gauchos program.

Hicks is now the Director of Basketball Operations at St. John's.

The Miami football program is in quite a bit of trouble, but the tentacles of the NCAA's investigation will also affect hoops in a major way. And not just at Miami. One player -- Jones -- is alleged to have been bought with the coaching staff's knowledge. Another player -- Scott -- played for an AAU and high school coach that was photographed being taken out, with Miami's coaching staff, and put on the tab of a Miami booster.

Miami and Missouri fans should be worried. There's a very good chance that Haith loses his job over this, and Jim Larranaga could not have been dealt a worse hand to try and rebuild Miami. Western Kentucky, Marshall and St. John's fans should track this investigation.

Who knows what else is going to turn up.
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