Monday Night Hoops

They are not Kings or Queens, but they have achieved royalty status among their fanbase. But one day they will retire, and a successor will need to be named. Syracuse just did that by naming long-time assistant Mike Hopkins as Boeheim's successor-designate... Who are the other coaches? They are the head coaches at UConn, Arizona and Duke according to Andy Katz... The Arizona AD says the job would be "wide open" and the hiring of Kevin O'Neill was just that, he was not hired as a successor... At Duke, Johnny Dawkins is seen as the front-runner by observers, but nothing is official... The situation at UConn is also wide open, with about half a dozen assistants-turned-head-coaches.

Goodman's blog has some interesting posts. First the unofficial list of the players participating in the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando Florida. The list also includes the physical-only players and the ones who declined, who think they are in the lottery or think they can only drop in status if they participate in the games... In another post he talks about Kevin Durant, and Georgetown hiring two new assistant coaches

More from Goodman, and good news for New Orleans fans, guard Bo McCalebb is withdrawing from the NBA draft and returning to the Sun Belt conference.

A Sea of Blue has a commentary on the decision by Kentucky to buyout the return game to UMass for 2007-2008... As you may recall, when Billy Gillispie took over Texas A&M, he played one of the most cupcake schedules ever during the first couple of years. While I am a strong opponent of cupcake scheduling (Hello Boeheim-Hopkins-Fine), the Texas A&M situation was one that cupcakes were prescribed for year #1. The team was 0-16 in conference the year before. He had to establish a culture of winning... This is different at Kentucky, where the team has been winning 20+ games per season and hasn't missed the NCAA tourney in a while. Gillispie's year #1 at Texas A&M, and year #2. In 04-05 the top OOC opponents were Houston and Penn State, while in 05-06 it was Auburn, Pacific... In year #3 the schedule was upgraded to include UCLA, LSU, and Winthrop, in addition to the teams from previous years... ESPN story