Daily News at InsideHoops.com

InsideHoops.com has daily news coverage of college basketball in their traditional style. http://www.insidehoops.com/ncaa/. Today's stories include Damien Harris transfering out of Bruce Pearl's Purple Madness, Pitt hopes for recruiting breakthroughs with new hire which could escalate into a war between Dixon and Huggins over Michael Beasly and Herb Pope, while Vandy will visit Puerto Rico, and Eddie Sutton's name has resurfaced as potential HC candidate! More details at http://www.insidehoops.com/ncaa/

The Daily Grind: Tuesday

Jeff Goodman of FoxSports reports two new developments in the Louisville program: Brian Johnson is transferring out and considering GW or FSU, while Chad Milard has chosen Creighton. Millard also considered Vandy (something about Princeton offense and big men who like to shoot from the perimeter (aka small-forward-wannabes :)) and Northeastern. The MVC teams are receiving dividends from their 05-06 NCAA campaign :)

Meanwhile the coaching carousel may take an August spin, with troubled Nebraska coach Barry Collier ejecting to take over the AD job at Butler. Perhaps he will use the Isiah Thomas method there to become their new basketball head coach next year: Get the basketball coach fired and then take over :-) Who will replace Collier? Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com mentions the names of Mark Fox, Christian (of Kent State), McClain (Wyoming), Majerus (!) - an interesting pairing, Dana Altman and a number of assistant coaches. Randy Ayers was also mentioned in another report.

McNeese State fired its coach as well but I doubt that is going to cause a major spin of the coaching carousel :)

Meanwhile the post-season NIT is going back to 32 teams (currently at 40 teams). 32 teams creates a nicely balanced schedule. 40 teams required an opening around which made the brackets rather ugly ;-) Despite the reduction, the regular season conference champions receive an automatic NIT bid if they don't get an NCAA bid. Seven of those were handed out in 2006 post-season NIT.

Fast-forward to the beginning of this season and the Guardians Classic will be no more. It will be renamed. The new name chose is FUNNY and SILLY! The College Basketball Experience. Will Jimmy Hendrix and the Experience perform? :-) The format remains the same, four regional sites Nov 12-15 with the final four Nov 20-21 in Kansas City with coverage on the ESPN family of networks.

And a fresh game on TV! The Texas high school coaches basketball all-star game was played on Monday night and it is being rebroadcast on various regional FSN and Fox CollegeSports stations. It features players who will play in the 2006-07 NCAA basketball season, highlighted by the battle of the big big big men, Josh Lomers of Baylor vs Dexter Pitman of Texas. 600+lbs!

144 days 144 previews at CHN is ON!

The good people at CHN (collegehoopsnet.com) have been working hard already at their famous "144 days" season previews. Believe it or not they are already at number 102. They posted 40+ previews already. The 2006-07 basketball season is getting closer :-)

http://www.collegehoopsnet.com/preview/index.htm

144 days, 144 previews!

Also don't miss their 2006-07 Preseason Top 40 posted right after the NBA Draft. I'll let you guess who they predict as their preseason #1 :-)

2006-07 and beyond Transfers List

Mr Goodman of FoxSports has a big table tracking down all the transfers eligible for the 2006-07 season and beyond. http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/5491136

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ESPNU Summer Sessions 2006

The good people at ESPN have already started doing their homework on the 2006-07 season. Their summer session is already in week 3, covering the ACC, Pac-10 Big 12, and MWC already (among others), with the Big East, Big Eleven and SEC coming soon. Enjoy the summer preview: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2516801

NCAA to Chuck Davis: Request denied

Unfortunately for Chuck Davis and Alabama fans, the NCAA denied Chuck Davis's request for an additional season because of his injuries last season.

The trend seems to be for the NCAA to grant a 6th year to bench players or players in small schools, but when it comes to All-Conference caliber talent the NCAA seems to be less generous. Perhaps they are worried this will give Alabama an unfair competitive advantage by using a 6th year all-conference caliber player...

NBA Summer Leagues: B-Roy Le Roi!

A number of talented college basketball players are making the transition to the pros with the NBA Summer Leagues. NBATV is planning to broadcast a total of 34 games in July (Vegas and Utah summer leagues).

Brandon Roy, under-appreciated by the east coast media during his college career, has been impressive, with whispers about him being the next D-Wade :)

As far as I know Ammo's team is not participating in the televised summer leagues, so no Ammo on NBATV in July - as far as I know.

5th year free agents?

An under-the-table rule by the NCAA is creating FREE AGENTS. Yes, free agents!

YocoHoops.com has a writeup on this, as well as Gregg Doyel at CBS sportsline.

YocoHoops.com highlights the story of Kevin Kruger, leaving ASU to play for daddy dearest at UNLV. And he will be eligible to play in 2006-07. No sitting out a year! The Arizona Republic has more details on the Kruger story. Remember, Kruger (the dad) was a close friend of Evans (former ASU coach), which one of the reasons why his son went to ASU. At the time Kruger (the dad) was an NBA coach. Now Kruger (the dad) is an NCAA coach, and Evans (the friend) is no longer at ASU. So Kruger (the son) wants to play for Kruger (the dad).

What exactly is a 5th year free agent? Here are the requirements:

You earn your undergraduate degree in four years

You have one year of eligibility remaining (eg medical redshirt, developmental redshirt, etc)

You qualify and enroll at a graduate program of another institution

and voila! You are ready to play! No sitting out. Transfer rules do not apply! You play your last year right away!

The name of this is Proposal 2005-54 and it went into effect April 27, 2006. As Gregg Doyel points out this is as bad as the uber-silly 8-5 rule who was struct down a couple of years ago when it comes to college basketball (and football).

The reasoning behind it makes sense for most NCAA sports except for the two "quasi-pro" sports: NCAA Football and NCAA Men's basketball. This is where things will get muddied as coaches will flock to all eligible "Free agents". It may happen in other sports, but in those situations, the student-athletes will make their decisions based on academics, not sports. But not in football and basketball, because a transfer to a bigger school means more exposure, which could lead to NFL and NBA contracts! Can't blame the student-athletes :-)

But remember, the requirement is that they complete their undergraduate degree in four years. A lot of student athletes don't even complete their undergraduate degree in five years. So not every redshirt will be eligible to become a "free agent". They have to graduate in four years to be eligible!. A positive side-effect would be additional motivation for student-athletes to graduate. A negative side-effect of the positive side-effect would be academic fraud in order to graduate in four years. Something about clouds and silver linings :-)



In conclusion it is a fair rule for most sports, but it will be abused in basketball and football. It once again points to the elephant in the room: Football and basketball are not the same as the other NCAA sports.

Coming soon: 2006-2007 Previews!

We are now at the halfway point, between the NCAA Final in early April and the beginning of the new season in early November.

But it's never too early to start looking into the 2006-2007 season.

Coming soon: I will start previews conference by conference. Initially the previews will cover who is coming in and who is going out from last season's roster. The first conference will be the Pac-10. As time goes by I may be adding some more. I won't promise too much as I may not get it done :-)

Relive some all-time great games this week

CSTV's Retrovision is showcasing some of the classic games of the last few years. The next game will be an early 80s game between Maryland and Notre Dame. Just yesterday they showed the 1996 cat-fight between Huggins and Lute Olsen (Cincinatti -vs- Arizona, in Phoenix)

As always, check local listings for more details and air dates :-)

The wait is over, the NBA Draft 2006 is complete!

The Portland Jailblazers have a new name: They are now known as the Portland TradeBlazers!

Unless there are salary cap or contractual issues that I am not aware of, a couple of the Portland Tradeblazers trades did not make sense as they could get those two players without trading!

The Dookies hype works again. JJ "Dui" Redick at #11 and the Landlord at #5. Dick Vitale deserve a 15% commission out of every Dookie contract.

Does the NBA need a 3rd round? There are certainly enough recognizable players to fill-up the 3rd round, although at that point, it's probably more beneficial for the players not selected in the draft to be free agents rather than in a hypothetical 3rd round.

Almost six UConn players were selected in the draft. Unfortunately for Rashad Anderson it was only five.

Marcus "Laptop" Williams's drop was a blessing in disguise: He will be learning under Jason Kidd!

Yes, everyone was shocked with Renaldo Balkman, but that guy has a lot of energy. Yes, the Knicks could have easily had him at #29, or the 2nd round or even as an undrafted free agent. Perhaps Dolan/Isiah wanted the people to complain about something other than Larry Brown.

College stars that were undrafted, but it doesn't necessarily mean they won't make it to the NBA: Pittsnogle, Gansey, Darius Washigton (ouch!), Dials, Brunner, Garrison, Eric Williams, JP Batista (!), Killingsworth, T. Francis, Fey, Taj Gray, Haryacz, Justin "shotblocking" Williams (Wyoming), Kickert, M.Slaughter, Amundson, Maraker, Pops mensah B (ouch!), Buckman, Allan Ray (!), T. Dean, Gardner, Justin Gray, Bennerman, Grier, Chris Rodgers, T. Everett, JJ Barrea, Dw. Mitchell, Stinson (ouch!), G-Mac (ouch!), Quinn, D.Horton, Dockery (not a shock really), Carl Krauser (!), CJ Watson, Horner, Nik Caner Medley, Steven Smith, Bowman, Vukusic (Northwestern), Cory Besler, and many more. There's certainly enough recognizable names to fill up a 3rd round :-)