Relive the Madness Monday!

Mark your calendars (2007-2008) season: The inaugural Big East/SEC challenge will debut on December 5 and 6, 2007 on the ESPN family of networks. The format is four games on two sites. Only eight teams will participate every year (unlike the ACC/Big10 challenge where almost everyone participates). This may be the national TV debut of Bob Huggins as the West Virginia head coach. West Virginia will play Auburn on December 5, on ESPN2. The marquee matchup is LSU vs Villonova (@Wachovia). CSTV story

Hello NBA Draft 2007: Cal's injured bigman DeVon Hardin declares but won't sign with an agent (CSTV story)... Julian Wright of Kansas plans to hire an agent at the end of May... By the way, the NBA pre-draft camp will take place May 29 thru June 24, 2007 in Orlando Florida.

Time to borrow money from Mark Turgeon! His new Texas A&M contract (ESPN story) starts at $1.2m per year (just 50K less than what Gillispie was making before the contract re-negotiaton). The deal is five years long with three one-year rollovers (5+3=8).

Some revelations about the new Kansas State head coach Frank Martin: he was a bar-room bouncer in Miami. So if/when fights break out on the court, he'll know what to do :-) One interesting quote from the ESPN story above is Billy Walker saying essentially that he would stay only if Martin/Hill were hired.

The Bonnies have found a new coach, and he is Mark Schmidt, the head coach of Robert Morris. He was 82-90 in six years at RMU, so he will be well prepared for multiple losing seasons before turning it around.

The buzzzzz out of Kansas is that Julian Wright may declare for the NBA draft and even hire an agent. Scratch that! He will declare for the NBA draft according to Yahoo Sports. Can he develop a jumpshot before June? Some message boards mentioned Sherron Collins rumors (leaving, fatherhood, NBA, DePaul).

Coaching Carousel, Spring Edition has been updated with the latest happenings... Unless something dramatic happens, or the NBA "steals" a college coach, it looks like things have settled down for now. The biggest openings right now are: Wichita State, Hawaii, Air Force, Princeton (?), Louisiana Tech, St Bonaventure.

Seven of the best NCAA games will be repeating all day today on CSTV. Each game will repeat twice, in a marathon that ends on Tuesday morning. Hosted by CSTV's Greg Amsinger and analyst and former Nova/UMass coach Steve Lapas (Lappas?). Check yesterday's listing for the list of games.

An interesting segment with Stephen A Smith and Andy Katz discussing coaches defections and its impact on the players aired on Sunday morning's SportsCenter, but you can also watch it at ESPN.com (right side of the page, picture of Katz and Smith)

One of the stories in today's First Report on "Outside the Lines" will be the coaching/player situation at Kansas State after Huggins out-Huggins'ed himself by bolting for West Virginia. OTL page. Airs at 12pmPT/3pmET today.

Assistant Coach Carousel: An Idaho and a UCSB assistant have resigned and will move on to become assistants under Tim Miles (former North Dakota State coach) at Colorado State.