Thursday Morning Dump

- Former-Michigan big-man Robert "Tractor" Traylor was found dead at his oceanfront home in Puerto Rico. The 34-year old Traylor died of an apparent heart attack

- What's this? An off-season edition of Luke Winn's Power Rankings. No better way to stat your Thursday than this

- Sure the season doesn't start for another five months, but that's not reason enough to deter Jeff Goodman from putting together his top-25

- Ever since Gary Williams resigned as head coach at Maryland there has been a growing debate about where Maryland ranks amongst the best coaching gigs in the country. Many people think it's a top-10 job. According to Lost Letterman's Top-25, it's No. 13

- Chris Dobbertean updates us on the state of the 2011-2012 pre-season tournament schedule

- Did you know that the NCAA shelled out more than $17mil in order to protect the term "March Madness"? (Don't believe me? just ask @JeffBorzello or visit March Madness All Season Busting the Bracket)

- yesterday Tubby Smith announced to the public that he had been battling prostate cancer for the past year, but had treatment done recently and is now feeling "great"

- Speaking of cancer treatment, St. John's head coach Steve Lavin is still weighing his options what course of treatment he will pursue for his prostate cancer. The 46-year old head coach was diagnosed with the disease last fall, but did not disclose it to the public until last April

- Which of the early entrants has the best chance to be the next Landry Fields

- The ACC isn't the only conference that has had a busy off-season of coaching changes, transferring and early entries. The Big XII has undergone quite the makeover in the off-season. Yahoo Sports elaborates on the Big XII turnover

- Brian Carwell, San Diego State's senior big-man is petitioning the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility. The 6-foot-11 300-pounder was seriously injured in a car accident back in 2007 when he was a member of the Illinois program

- Maryland-commit Sterling Gibbs, the brother of Pitt's Ashton, has asked for his release from the program\

- Mark Turgeon wore sweats and a t-shirt to his interview with Maryland (He must have visited College Park, MD before). Yesterday, Maryland introduced Turgeon to the press as the new head coach of the Terrapins. Testudo Times provides some reactions from the press conference. One of the main reasons Turgeon decided to accept the job was because of the lure of coaching at a true "basketball school". Turgeon has never been a big-name coach. Did the fans at a football-heavy Big XII school really appreciate the work Turgeon did?

- Matt Norlander details how Andrew Toole, the head coach at Robert Morris, is laying down the law after just one season at the helm

- Mike Miller notes that the influx of new coaches to the ACC will shift the conference's style of play towards the Big-Ten's style of deliberate offense

- Murray State head coach Billy Kennedy has been given a one-year extension from the university

- Rumors are starting to swirl that ESPN's Fran Fraschilla could be considered a candidate for the Texas A&M vacancy. Memphis' Jeff Pastner turned down the Aggies on Tuesday, and yesterday Marquette's Buzz Williams did the same. Jeff Eisenberg tries to figure out who will end up as the Aggies next head coach

- Despite building a reputation for coming up short in the NCAA Tournament, Texas' head coach Rick Barnes has been given a $200,000 raise

- Jamie Dixon's coaching tree continues to branch out. Former-assistant Part Skerry is the latest in the long line of Pitt staffers to get a head coaching gig

- Speaking of Towson, the university just celebrated the groundbreaking of their new $68Mil basketball arena

- LSU is going to erect a statue in honor of Shaquille "The Big too-many-nicknames" O'Neil. But word has it that O'Neil doesn't really want a statue of himself built. Instead he is willing to donate money to the University to build a statue of former women's star Seimone Augustus (What's with everybody wanting to build statues all of a sudden? The market for bronze must be way down)

- Clone Chronicles provides an astute analysis of Iowa State's off-the-court issues

- The upcoming "Aircraft Carrier game" between UNC and Michigan State will be played on Veteran's Day and will be aired on ESPN

- The Kentucky Wildcats basketball team accumulated a 3.14 GPA over the course of this season. If you remember correctly, the team had a sub-par 2.2 GPA last season

- Draft Express provides the list of participants at the upcoming NBA draft combine

- Mid-Major Madness previews the Xavier Musketeers 2011-2012 season

- Did you know that even though Enes Kanter was ruled ineligible by the NCAA, Kentucky would have been penalized if Kanter did not meet his academic requirements (Somebody tell me how that makes sense at all?)

- Big Lead posts their first edition of the 2011 mock draft

Yup, that's Kyrie Irving standing next to Pat Riley at last night's Heat/Celtics game