Thursday Morning Dump

- Must read of the day: Gary Parrish on agents in college basketball. Seriously, read this.

- Must read of the day part deux: Michael Gilchrist and the inspiration he gets from his deceased father.

- Isiah Thomas has decided not to take the consulting job with the New York Knicks ... officially. He decided not to take the position because it was against NBA by-laws. (Although, apparently the NCAA was completely fine with this. Go figure.) He will, however, continue to provide insight to the Knicks, he just won't be cashing a check for it. Adam Zagoria absolutely hits it on the head here.

- Yesterday, Jeff Goodman reported that Taylor King was considering trying to resurrect his basketball career. Today, he announced that King would be heading to USC. The 6'8" lefty will have to sit out a season before returning in 2011-2012 with one year of eligibility left. The comment that caught everyone's attention, however, was this:

"The education is off the charts at SC," King said. "No offense to Duke or Villanova, but they don't compare."

Now, USC is not a bad school. In fact, it is a very, very good school. But Duke and Villanova are two of the very best schools in the country. Its like comparing the Baylor basketball program to that of Kansas and Kentucky. That said, King is entering USC's Film School, which is much better than anything Duke of 'Nova can offer.

- If you are someone that prays, then pray for the folks out in Ames. The Midwest rains have hit Iowa quite hard for the last 72 hours, and the result has been some severe flooding. It was bad enough that the football team skipped practice to place sandbags around their facility. Take a look at these videos:





Scary.

- Good read from Jeff Goodman on Kalin Lucas, who was all but out the door for the NBA before he popped his achilles.

- The Dagger talks with Eric Mussellman and Rivals' Eric Bossi about six guys that impressed at Adidas Nations Camp.

- Jay Wright answers some questions about Corey Fisher's 100 point game.

- The MAC extends their contract to play their conference tournament at Quicken Loans Arena.