Morning After Talk

Congratulations to the Lady Vols and Pat "Wooden" Summitt for their seventh NCAA championship. And just as the women's game continues to grow, the draft/professional issue will also come up. While Candance Parker is not eligible for the WNBA draft, she could go pro in Europe. Russia is the hottest market at the moment and C. Parker could get anywhere from $600K to $1 million for one year. This may not be as unlikely as it sounds, because her brother (Anthony Parker) played for quite a few years in the Euroleague and it certainly didn't hurt his game (he is now playing in the NBA)... However, in her postgame interview with Mike Jones she said "why wouldn't I want to return for another year?". This in contrast to Greg Oden's answer to a similar question which was "next question please".

Coaching Carousel Instant Update! Dana Altman pulls a Gregg Marshall and decides that he doesn't want to leave Creighton after all! So he is back to Creighton and Arkansas and their retiring AD has to call Frodo and start all over again!

Thanks to A Sea of Blue for the link! A Sea of Blue covers all things Kentucky and it's a great resource to bookmark for college hoops fans.

TV listings for the Roundball Classic (CSTV), the Nike Hoop Summit (FSN, Fox College Sports), state championships (Fox College Sports), and repeats of the McDonalds All-American game (ESPN) can be found at Recruiting Wars

Don't miss John Calipari tomorrow (Wednesday) on Jim Rome is Burning on ESPN at 130pmPT/430pmET. Calipari has never met a camera he didn't like.

Congratulations to Coach Gail Goestenkors for accepting the Texas job, and escaping the foul-smelling smug-cloud of Coach K that hovers around Cameron Opendoor Stadium.

Colorado State's seven-footer Jason Smith has declared for the NBA draft but won't sign with an agent.

Bracketology 2007-2008

Joe Lunardi's first bracketology segment on the 2007-2008 season (with the assumption that most likely lottery picks would declare for the NBA draft) has some supriring projections: The #1 seeds: Kansas (overall #1), North Carolina, Memphis, and ...Louisville (drinking Pitino cool aid?). UCLA is projected a #2, Ohio State and Georgetown #4, and Florida a #9 seed. He projects even fewer mid-major bids, 7 Big East and ACC bids, 6 for the Pac-10. His sleepers are Indiana (#3 seed), NC State (#7 seed) and Davidson (#10 seed and winning at least one game).


Kentucky Coaching Idol 2007

Billy Donovan appeared on Cold Pizza and continued to push aside any Kentucky talk. He also has a busy schedule in the next few days, including a week-long vacation after Friday

Pat Forde thinks Rick Barnes could be Plan B

A very basic GoDaddy website has been created to Keep Billy Donovan at Florida...

Did Billy Donovan's pre-game speech that aired nationally on CBS have a secret message in it?. He talked about the season as a horserace, and we all know which state is famous for horses and horse-racing. What it simply a figure of speech and a pure coincidence? Was it a subconcious reaction to him thinking about Kentucky all the time? Or was he sending a secret message? :-)


Quick Hitters

Katz thinks all four Florida juniors will probably go... Skip Bayless has a gut feeling Greg Oden will return next year... Skip Bayless also got some PR when Corey Brewer said they were motivated by him saying they are not one of the Top 5 teams... At least 425 MLB players are making over $1 million per year. M stands for Millionaire said the Cold Pizza crew... Don't forget tonight on ESPN, and ESPN2, in an ESPN full circle event, the women's NCAA final between defensive experts Rutgers and the Tennessee Pat Summit Express. Interesting how a certain insurance agency has pulled their Coach Loser K ads and replaced them with the Pat Summit ads! Prediction: Candance Parker is the difference maker and the Lady Vols paint the trophy orange!... Some rumors had Lon Kruger going to Michigan and Steve Lavin or Ernie Kent going to Iowa. Obviously not very right... Another rumor has/had Dookie Tommy Amaker upgrading [academically] to Harvard. Perhaps he wants to turn Ha'v'a'd into the the Duke of the Ivy League?... Chris Lowery's upgraded contract at SIU is 7 years and $750k/year. The Valley of Darkness is going to the bank!... Quoteable Pete Gillan: On Noah: "he's so emotional he cries when supermarkets open".


NBA Draft & College Players by Mark Kreidler on Cold Pizza

Oden: likely #1

Joakim Noah: stock fallen, still lottery but #10 or below

Al Horford: most NBA-ready among Florida players. Top 6 lottery pick

Mike Conley: best available PG in the draft

Corey Brewer: rising stock, top 10 lottery

Arizona message board coaching rumor: Kevin O'Neill to join the staff and Lute's long-time deputy to move to an admin position. The reason being defense and toughness. I guess after the success of Larry Shyatt at Florida, more teams will try that approach. another message board discussing this as well. Kevin O'Neill's profile at NBA.com. Story also mentioned in the Arizona Daily Star... Update: This doesn't surprise me as much as I should. When I was watching Lute's Coaches Show on CSTV where he was talking with "Roz" (long-time deputy/assistant) that conversation seemed a bit strange and off. So this talk about Kevin O'Neil coming in doesn't seem as shocking.

The biggest questions right now: 1) next Kentucky coach 2) What will the Floridians do (players/coach)?

Let's not forget, before we crown Billy Donovan as the king of coaches, that just a few years ago he was struggling and he was "convinced" to hire Larry Shyatt as his top assistant because the defense was lacking. So while Billy Donovan deserves a lot of the credit, Shyatt deserves a large chunk as well because he installed defense/toughness.

Bruce Pearl wants Donovan to go to Kentucky for selfish reasons: He wouldn't have to worry about Florida without Donovan, just Kentucky. It was a compliment for Kentucky and Donovan, but not for the Florida AD who would hire the next coach :-)

Vitale has volunteered to take the Florida job for $1 a year if Billy Donovan goes to Kentucky!

The NBA Draft Early Entry Deadline is April 29. It's a bit surpring that only two players have formally announced so far (well three since free agent Randolph Morris just left for the Isiah Knicks). Perhaps they are all waiting to see what Durant, Oden, the Floridians and the Carolinians do?

Today's Outside the Lines at 1230pmPT/330pmET will look at African-American Female head coaches in Women's basketball in the centerpiece titled "Minority Report".