That's why it was both hilarious and awesome to see the rapper return the favor by giving Bilas a shout-out in a new song.

The track in question is actually a newly released remix to E-40's "Function." In his verse, Jeezy says "we goin' to work like Jay Bilas," a reference to the ESPN analyst's typical weekday morning tweet which includes a verse to Jeezy song followed by the phrase, "I gotta go to work."

Bilas clearly got a chuckle out of hearing his name in the song based on his tweets about it Friday morning.

Wrote Bilas, "Jeezy drops a "gotta go to work like Jay Bilas" line in the E40 Function remix, 'cuz, this is what he sees in me...." What followed the ellipsis? A picture of the word "SWAG" in giant block letters, of course.

Bilas shared the story of how he became a Jeezy fan in an interview with XXL magazine in December. It started during a 2011 College GameDay broadcast when Michigan State forward Draymond Green told host Rece Davis he listens to Jeezy on his headphones before games.

"Hubert Davis and I started joking," Bilas told XXL. "Hubert asked if it was on my iPod and I said, 'Damn straight, it's the first thing.' I knew who Jeezy was but I wasn't an avid listener. But I started listening and I liked it.

"I ended up getting a question on Twitter and someone asked me about my favorite rappers and I said Sugarhill Gang and Young Jeezy. I started listening to Sugarhill Gang when I was in high school. Then and now I knew all the words. It was a serious answer. And then someone said no way does Bilas know Young Jeezy. And I started quoting Thug Motivation [101] and it's been fun. I enjoy the back and forth. It's been neat banter on Twitter."

Bilas now has the ultimate comeback for anyone who still says he isn't a true Jeezy fan: His name appears in a song. Not many others can say that.

(Thanks, CollegeBasketballTalk)

When his father informed him after a workout Monday that he'd made the Dominican national team, which will compete for the country's first-ever Olympic berth this summer, Towns initially didn't recognize the gravity of what he'd accomplished.

"It was so funny when I told him," his father, Karl Towns Sr., said. "He said, 'Oh, that's nice, but daddy, I'm so hungry you wouldn't believe it.' He'd just got done working out and he was tired, so I told him at the wrong point."

Only after a flood of calls from reporters and congratulatory texts and tweets from friends did the 16-year-old Towns finally understand the opportunity he now has. Towns, whose mother is Dominican, will play alongside the likes of NBA veterans Al Horford, Francisco Garcia and Charlie Villanueva in pool play of the Olympic qualifying tournament July 2-8 in Caracas, Venezuela.

[Mike Krzyzewski coaching U.S. Olympic hoops team despite downside]

The addition of Towns to the Dominican team will undoubtedly raise questions since Kentucky's John Calipari will be his coach this summer. As a result, Kentucky will have an advantage over the dozens of high-profile schools recruiting Towns since Calipari will coach the Class of 2015 standout directly this summer during training in Lexington and during the qualifying tournament.

Karl Towns Sr. acknowledged it certainly gives Kentucky a leg up in the recruitment of his son, but he insisted the younger Towns earned his place on the Dominican national team on merit rather than because of Calipari's interest in recruiting him.

In four games as a member of the Dominican U-17 team last summer, Towns averaged 15.8 points and 8.5 rebounds against players who were two years older than he was. His size, shot-blocking and ability to draw opposing big men to the perimeter with his outside shot make him a potential asset to the Dominican team off the bench.

"I want people to know he made it for his ability, not because of who the coach is," Karl Towns Sr. said. "He'll be with his Dominican family this summer. If he goes to Kentucky, that will be his other family. But right now the key is to get the Dominican team into the Olympics. That's the only key right now.

"There's too much at stake for them to do him a favor. They have to qualify. They need the best players they can carry to make this work."

Regardless of whether Towns makes much impact on the court this summer, the chance to play against the likes of Horford and Villanueva in practice can only help him. They'll surely push him around and humble him a bit, but he'll also get a firsthand glimpse of their size, strength and work ethic.

"He's going to be battling with guys who are men, so when he gets done with this, he's going to know what it takes to be an NBA player," the elder Towns said. "When he gets back, Karl's going to double his work ethic. I think right now this is the greatest thing that could have happened to him."

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Just because Indiana opted not to play Kentucky at off-campus venues for the foreseeable future doesn't mean the Wildcats can't find other high-profile opponents willing to schedule a game at a neutral site.

John Calipari announced a handful of big-event games for upcoming seasons Wednesday including a multi-year series with Duke, a resumption of the North Carolina rivalry and a matchup in Cowboys Stadium against Baylor.

"When we schedule, I want to create experiences, not just games," Calipari wrote on his website. "The thing about Kentucky basketball is it's passed down from father to son. I want to schedule events that grandfathers and grandsons will be talking about 25 years from now. That's part of what Kentucky basketball is about; part of what has made this place so unique."

There's still no excuse for Kentucky and Indiana not reaching a compromise to preserve one of college basketball's most significant regional rivalries, but nobody can accuse the Wildcats of ducking top competition.

Following a one-year hiatus next season in the series with North Carolina, Kentucky will once again play the Tar Heels and Louisville either at home or on the road in alternating years. The next two seasons, the Wildcats will also participate in the Champions Classic, next season against Duke in Atlanta and the following season against Michigan State in Chicago.

The potential series against Duke is welcome news considering the two schools have built a rivalry based on their five NCAA tournament matchups yet have only faced one another sporadically in the regular season.

Calipari wrote that he and Mike Krzyzewski are still ironing out the details, but the series would be played at neutral sites on the same weekend every year. Considering Duke's history of playing annually in the New York area, expect the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn or Madison Square Garden to be in the rotation.

The final game Calipari mentioned is a two-year series with Baylor, whom Kentucky defeated in the Elite Eight this past March. The 2013-14 game would be a first-of-its-kind doubleheader with the Kentucky and Baylor women's teams facing one another in the early game at Cowboys Stadium in front of a crowd that Calipari believes could break college basketball's attendance record.

"It is important that we play in at least one if not two football stadiums every year to prepare our players for NCAA Tournament venues," Calipari said. "Not every program can play a regular-season game in a stadium like we can.

"I'm convinced we would have won the title two seasons ago if we would have played in a dome during the regular season. Our guys weren't prepared for it. I like the fact that both the Duke game at the Georgia Dome in 2012 and the Baylor game at Cowboys Stadium in 2013 are the Final Four sites for those years."

The trend toward neutral-site nonconference games in college basketball is nothing new, but it's not as healthy for the sport as on-campus showdowns in front of rabid student sections. Furthermore, it didn't seem to hurt Kentucky last season that it lost a true road game in December at Indiana or that it didn't play in a football stadium until the Final Four at the Superdome.

Nonetheless, it's Calipari's job to do what's best for his program not the sport — and he has earned the benefit of the doubt from his fan base with back-to-back Final Four berths and a national championship.

"There may be years that we add teams to the schedule based on our league and our team, but generally speaking, this is what we'll do," Calipari wrote. "We will play a national nonconference home game and a national nonconference road game to prepare us for the 18 SEC games, as well as three to four Kentucky experiences at neutral sites, including one or two at football stadiums that will prepare us for the NCAA Tournament and our fans will have access to."

Two of the players who came off worst in last February's Sports Illustrated exposé about disciplinary issues in the UCLA basketball program are seeking to repair their reputations in entirely different ways.

Reeves Nelson is suing the magazine. Drew Gordon is embracing the chance to let NBA teams see he has matured.

According to TMZ, Nelson hired entertainment lawyer Keith A. Fink and will file a $10 million lawsuit against Sports Illustrated and writer George Dohrmann. The suit claims the magazine "recklessly and negligently failed to investigate" claims in the story that Nelson started fights, intentionally injured teammates and urinated on a pile of teammate Tyler Honeycutt's clothes on his bed.

Nelson, a 6-foot-9 forward from Modesto, was expected to be UCLA's best player last season after averaging 13.9 points and 9.1 rebounds as a sophomore and making the All-Pac-10 team. Instead, he was suspended multiple times for conduct detrimental to the team before being dismissed after only six games, contributing to the Bruins missing the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years.

The lawsuit is Nelson's latest attempt to combat the damage the SI story did to his already battered image. He previously gave his side of the story in an emotional TV interview. And in a Feb. 29 letter to SI also forwarded to members of the media, Nelson's lawyer refuted many of the claims levied against him.

Gordon's response to the SI article, by contrast, has been far more understated. The New Mexico big man told the San Jose Mercury News he looks forward to the opportunity to meet with NBA teams personally and prove he's no longer the hot-headed, uncoachable personality he was portrayed to be during his year plus at UCLA.

"We were freshmen, and we weren't getting much playing time," Gordon told the Mercury News. "So we did take advantage of the college life and make some ill-advised decisions. But when I read that article, there was so much negativity there. It was hurtful."

Unlike Nelson, whose hopes of being drafted in June were all but torpedoed by the way his UCLA career ended, Gordon has the advantage of three trouble-free years at New Mexico to demonstrate his character. Questions about his character, erratic jump shot and lack of a back-to-the-basket game will still pop up in the next month, but he will very likely at least get selected in the second round or invited to a training camp.

Nonetheless, the timing of his departure from his previous job probably could have been better.

Frazier, the starting point guard for s.Oliver Baskets of the German Bundesliga, flew back to the United States on Wednesday on the eve of the second game of his team's semifinal matchup against Ratiopharm Ulm in the league playoffs. S.Oliver Baskets lost the first game of the series on Sunday 77-65 despite 14 points and five rebounds from Frazier.

"We are disappointed that Chester Frazier has decided to leave the s.Oliver Baskets at this crucial stage of the season," managing director Jochen Bähr said in a statement later translated into English. "At the time of his commitment, it was not clear that we would get this far in the playoffs. We had agreed with Chester that he will remain at least until the end of the semifinal series against Ulm. Why he has decided to go back now already to the U.S., he has not informed us."

Frazier averaged 7.7 points and 2.1 assists in 24.4 minutes per game this season for s.Oliver Baskets and played the same rugged defense he was known for throughout his college career at Illinois. It's unclear why he'd leave the team now rather than wait until the end of the playoffs, but DraftExpress.com's Jonathan Givony reported Tuesday that new Kansas State coach Bruce Weber encouraged him to stay.

Frazier initially put his coaching aspirations on hold for the chance to play professionally in Germany, leaving a video coordinator position under Weber at Illinois in November to sign with s.Oliver Baskets. It was tough for him to leave Illinois and to say goodbye to his fiance for a few months, but he told RidiculousUpside.com in March that he missed playing too much not to give it a shot.

"I missed playing basketball," Frazier said. "I missed the fight. The closest I could get to 5-on-5 was playing against 40-year old guys and playing noon ball. And I could feel it too -- I got out of shape and gained about 20 pounds."

At the time of that interview, Frazier said he always intended to get back into coaching once his playing days were over. Clearly that came at least a few days sooner than most would have imagined.

(Thanks, DraftExpress)

If Big East coaches and administrators manage to persuade league officials to allow all 18 teams to participate in the conference tournament in 2014, then here's my suggestion for what to call the play-in round.

Cruel and unusual punishment.

What else would you call an evening of basketball featuring four miserable teams with no postseason hopes playing in an arena so empty instructions from the bench are audible in the nose-bleed seats?

Nobody needs that scenario, and yet it's one of the options Big East officials will weigh this week at their annual meeting as they decide how to reformat the conference tournament once five new teams join the league in 2013. Expansion and the impending defections of Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia already will water down the nation's premier conference tournament, but the early rounds could become an even bigger snooze if the league adds an extra day to remain all-inclusive.

Imagine a Monday night doubleheader at Madison Square Garden featuring 15th-seeded DePaul versus 18th-seeded Central Florida and No. 16 South Florida facing No. 17 SMU. Anyone scrambling to buy tickets to those matchups? The league might not fill 2,500 seats if it let fans in free and handed out 99-cent hotdogs and beers.

The motivation of the coaches and athletic directors to add an additional round to the tournament is mostly selfish. They believe an all-inclusive tournament doesn't give impatient administrators an extra excuse to clean house, but the costs of that decision would outweigh the benefits.

In Little League or youth soccer, every kid gets a participation trophy so they feel included at the end of the season. Let's not try to pretend big-time college basketball should be governed by the same set of principles.

For at least the next two seasons, the site of the game will be off campus at the U.S. Bank Arena in downtown Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Tuesday. Both sides will reevaluate the behavior of the players and fans after that two-year trial period and decide whether the series should continue.

The future of the Crosstown Shootout had been in doubt since last year's Dec. 10 matchup when players from both sides embarrassed themselves with their actions on the floor and their comments afterward.

Four players from both sides were suspended including Cincinnati's Yancy Gates, who missed six games as a result of his right cross that bloodied an unsuspecting Kenny Frease. Xavier guards Mark Lyons and Tu Holloway both received two-game suspensions in part for failing to express remorse in their postgame news conferences.

It's good news both for the city of Cincinnati and college basketball as a whole that school officials didn't overreact and cancel the series because of one hot-headed incident. The brawl was a black mark for both programs, but an isolated incident shouldn't terminate one of the most cherished non-conference rivalries in the sport.

While moving the game to a neutral site will drain some of the atmosphere from the matchup and make it more difficult for students to attend, it's an acceptable temporary compromise under the circumstances.

Putting the game at a neutral site may not greatly reduce the likelihood of fan violence or a fight among players, but it allows school administrators to save face by giving the appearance they took some kind of action. They no doubt did not want to keep the rivalry as is out of fear of backlash if another incident marred next season's game.

Hopefully in two years, the wounds from the brawl will have healed sufficiently that the game can return to alternating between the two on-campus sites as it had done since 1989. A neutral site isn't the ideal solution, but it beats not playing the game at all.

Bob Thomason, who has led Pacific to four NCAA tournament appearances and six Big West championships in his 24-year coaching tenure, announced Monday he will retire after the 2012-13 season. That season will be the Tigers' last in the Big West before they move to the West Coast Conference.

"With us going to the WCC, I just think it's the right time to let a new coach lead the team," Thomason said Monday night. "I'll have 25 years of coaching here. I've really enjoyed every moment. I love the university. I have a team next season I think can compete for the Big West. We have nine guys back the following year, so I'll leave the new coach a team. I just think it's the right time."

That Thomason is ready to turn over the keys to the program to another coach is a good for both sides because the timing truly couldn't be better.

Pacific contended for the Big West crown consistently for more than a decade in the 1990s and 2000s, but the program slipped toward the middle of the league in recent years. The Tigers suffered through a 19-loss season a year ago after the top 10 scorers from the previous team departed, sparking criticism about Thomason's commitment to recruiting and ability to retain players.

Thomason's contract was up at the end of next season, but he insists that did not impact his decision to retire. He did acknowledge, however, that he made the announcement now rather than after next season to ensure his status did not become a distraction.

"I didn't want people asking, 'Is coach going to be back next year? Are they renewing his contract?' Thomason said. "That had nothing to do with anything. It's not like I told (athletic director Ted Leland) I wanted a couple more years. I didn't want that. I wanted to let people know, let the players know and then let's go play basketball."

What's most exciting for Thomason is he thinks Pacific can contend in its final year in a league that figures to be weaker at the top with Long Beach State and Santa Barbara losing their best players to graduation. Pacific's roster returns virtually intact and it adds some newcomers who can provide much-needed depth, a combination Thomason believes gives the Tigers a chance to win the league.

Regardless of how Pacific fares in Thomason's final year, his legacy is intact. He'll long be revered in Stockton for his principled, old-school approach to coaching, his 96 percent graduation rate, his contributions in the community and of course the success his program had throughout most of his tenure.

In 2004 and 2005, Pacific won a total of 52 games including a pair of opening-round NCAA tournament games, becoming the first Big West team since 1993 to notch victories in March Madness in back-to-back years. Thomason won Big West coach of the year honors five times in his career and produced No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Michael Olowokandi.

"I competed hard, I coached hard and for the most part we got the most out of players," Thomason said. "I'm really proud of winning 16 games in a row three times and 22 games in a row once. I'm really proud of winning NCAA tournament games in back-to-back years. You just don't see that happening in the Big West very often anymore."

The toughest part of retiring for Thomason? Figuring out what he's going to do with all the newfound free time.

"I played organized basketball or coached it since the fourth grade, so that's 55 years I've been doing this," Thomason said with a chuckle. "People ask me how am I going to do it? I guess we'll see."

In the market for a new home? Unafraid of some chilly winters? Interested in owning a one-of-a-kind piece of basketball history?

Well, this may be the house for you.

The Georgian-style three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Almonte, Ontario, where James Naismith grew up is on the market for $1,195,000 Canadian ($1,170,000 USD). Built in 1850 but renovated to meet modern standards, the stone house sits on 45 acres of sprawling farmland replete with three barns.

Naismith left Canada to enroll in YMCA training school in Springfield, Mass., one year before he invented basketball in December 1891, but the farm house in Almonte is where he cultivated his interest in teaching physical education.

According to his biography on the Naismith Museum's website, Naismith excelled in all forms of physical activity as a kid, from chores to sports. He spent long hours every week chopping trees, sawing logs and driving horses on the farm at the request of his uncle. Then when the work was done, he spent the summer swimming, the fall hunting squirrel or partridge and his winter tobogganing and playing ice hockey.

One of Naismith's favorite childhood sports was known as "Duck on a Rock,"  a medieval game which combined tag and throwing. The high-arcing method of throwing a baseball-sized stone to dislodge the rock atop the base rock influenced Naismith years later when he incorporated that same idea into basketball.

If the seven-figure price tag of Naismith's childhood home seems expensive, consider what the two-page document on which he wrote the original 13 rules of basketball sold for in December 2010. A Kansas alum paid $4.3 million in an auction to ensure that document finds a permanent home on the Kansas campus. 

Logan Aronhalt, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard who averaged 13.8 points and 4.3 rebounds for Albany last season, will enroll at Maryland for his final year of eligibility. The fifth-year senior will be able to play right away rather than sitting out a year because he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in human biology in December.

Seeing Aronhalt resurface at Maryland surprised a current head coach in the America East because the veteran guard lacks the athleticism he possessed early in his career. Chronic knee pain plagued Aronhalt all of last season, limiting him to a total of 26 minutes in Albany's final seven games.

"He has good mid-range game, he can shoot it out to three and he's physical, but I just worry whether athletically he can compete at the highest level because of the injuries he has had," the coach said. "They've kind of taken away his athleticism. Maybe he can use angles and use his body to get to the rim, but it's not going to be above-the-rim type stuff. It's going to be old-school using his craftiness to finish at the rim.

"Now I think, the intangible stuff, he brings to the table. He provides leadership. He's going to be a kid who works hard day-in, day-out. He's a good student. He's a winner. That's probably his biggest asset."

The addition of Aronhalt makes sense for Maryland even if he's not at full strength because the Terps backcourt is riddled with question marks.

Pe'Shon Howard, Maryland's projected starter at point guard, missed the first six weeks of last season with a broken foot, then returned for a month before tearing the ACL in his right knee in early February. He and potential breakout star Nick Faust will likely be part of the starting five, leaving one wing spot open for Aronhalt,  incoming freshmen guard Sam Cassell or promising 6-foot-8 Jake Layman if Maryland chooses to go with a bigger lineup.

Maryland fans should be somewhat familiar with what Aronhalt can do because he scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds in a loss to the Terps last December. He's a capable ball handler, a threat from behind the arc and a stabilizing presence for a team that will rely mostly on freshmen and sophomores in year two of coach Mark Turgeon's rebuilding process.

For Maryland to finish in the top half of the ACC and contend for an NCAA tournament bid, Faust needs to emerge as a go-to perimeter scorer and other members of the backcourt have to contribute as well.

Before the addition of Aronhalt, that meant relying on true freshmen to make an immediate impact. Now Maryland has a veteran insurance policy who can fill that role.

In the three days since VCU announced it was joining the Atlantic 10 next season, Shaka Smart has reached out to each of the Rams' in-state CAA foes in hopes of continuing the rivalries as part of the non-league slate.

So far the results have been mixed.

Smart said Friday he's "98 or 99 percent sure" the Rams will begin a series with former CAA rival Old Dominion next season in Norfolk. He has met more resistance in talks with George Mason, James Madison and William & Mary, partially because their schedules for next season are mostly done and partially because they're unsure if they want to continue playing VCU.

"This is a bold move that we at VCU have made," Smart said. "I think there's certainly some people that don't like the move we made, but I think the people down at Old Dominion understand the importance of the rivalry we have with them. I'm almost positive we're going to be able to continue that and play this year. They said it would have to be at their place, so we're going to accommodate that."

If George Mason or the other Virginia CAA schools decide to turn down VCU's offer, it certainly wouldn't be the first time conference realignment jeopardized a regional rivalry.

Kansas has refused to schedule Missouri for the foreseeable future now that the Tigers are SEC-bound. The future of the West Virginia-Pittsburgh rivalry is also in doubt. And Baylor women's coach Kim Mulkey made it abundantly clear she won't schedule Texas A&M once the Aggies leave for the SEC by hearkening back to the divorce she previously endured.

"My feeling is this," she said. "If a man wants to divorce me and says our relationship has no value to him, and then he asks me if he can sleep with me, the answer is: No!"

Smart is hoping his former in-state rivals are more receptive than that.

"Some of the other schools aren't quite sure whether they want to play us, and that's understandable," Smart said. "People are a lot further along with their schedules than we are because they didn't just change leagues. Longterm, my perception is we will be able to keep some or all of our rivalries going with CAA teams in the state of Virginia, and that's certainly my hope."

Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the longtime NBA forward who turned pro in 1996 after one season at California, never gave up on his education. The 35-year-old took classes sporadically throughout his 13-year NBA career and more regularly since he retired, earning a degree in sociology from Cal on Monday with a 3.8 GPA no less.

"I started, so I wanted to at some point finish," Abdur-Rahim told Cal's official athletics site. "I was here a while ago, I had a good freshman year and I left early, but I always had a goal of wanting to come back and finish earning my degree. I just wanted to set an example for my children, younger brothers and sisters and any other younger athletes that left school early."

North Carolina's Vince Carter and Georgetown's Jeff Green are among the underpublicized group of other NBA players who have earned their diplomas despite leaving college early, but few have done it under the circumstances Abdur-Rahim did.

Not many players would be dedicated enough to take the equivalent of three full years of classes after being selected No. 3 overall in the 1996 NBA draft and making millions of dollars a year for more than a decade. And not many players would make the commute between Sacramento and Berkeley for classes the past couple years while also serving as the assistant general manager for the Kings.

It's fitting that Abdur-Rahim would be the one to buck that trend because he never wanted to leave Cal in the first place. Even after scoring 21 points per game as a freshman and being named Pac-10 Player of the Year, Abdur-Rahim changed his mind several times before entering the draft, ultimately turning pro because it was the financially responsible decision.

"If it was just for myself, I'd rather be at Cal," Abdur-Rahim told the San Francisco Chronicle in May 1996. "But my mother has sacrificed all her life for me. My father has sacrificed all his life for me. It's because of my interest in helping my family's financial interests.''

In 2001, Abdur-Rahim founded the Future Foundation, which supports disadvantaged youth in the former All-Star's home state of Georgia in order to increase their options for post-secondary education. Now he'll be able to tell the kids he works with that they should follow in his footsteps and get their college degree.

"Cal is one of the great institutions in the world," Abdur-Rahim said. "To be able to say I went through the process of being educated here is awesome."

In Steve Orsini's tenure as SMU athletic director, he revitalized the football program by hiring June Jones, he orchestrated the school's move to the Big East and he landed Larry Brown after an admittedly meandering, overambitious basketball coaching search.

Surely that success earned him a contract extension, right? Uh, apparently not.

In a move that apparently surprised even those within the athletic department, SMU announced Thursday afternoon that it has fired Orsini with three years left on his contract. The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday evening that a growing clash between Orsini and school president R. Gerald Turner led to the termination.

"After several discussions over the last few weeks it became apparent to me that it was necessary to make this change," Turner said in a statement released by the school. "While we both are committed to the support of our student-athletes and coaches, a unified effort is required for future progress."

The most bizarre aspect of Orsini's firing is the timing of it.

If Turner had lost faith in Orsini's ability to lead SMU's athletic department, why let him lead the school's search for a new basketball coach that culminated in the hiring of Brown less than a month ago? Orsini did bungle the search by going after unattainable candidates like Marquette's Buzz Williams and Harvard's Tommy Amaker, yet he also salvaged things by making a splashy, albeit controversial hire.

Ultimately, it appears the falling out between Turner and Orsini must have escalated in the past few weeks. We may never know what happened between the two administrators, but chances are it wasn't an amicable parting.

With an All-American candidate and five other rotation players back from a team that won 31 games last season and fell just a few buckets shy of the Sweet 16, Murray State enters next year with high expectations once again.

That's great news for the Racers in every respect except one: Scheduling.

Opposing coaches are wary of agreeing to home-and-home series with Murray State since the Racers are good enough to beat anyone next season yet don't carry the prestige of a high-major or more established mid-major. As a result, Murray State coach Steve Prohm has been unable to fill two vacant home dates because potential opponents either aren't willing to come to Murray or aren't good enough to help the Racers' quest to contend for an at-large bid again.

"It's just tough," Prohm said. "We've still got to get two more home games because so far we're on the road for a tournament and four other games. We haven't gotten anything confirmed yet, but hopefully we can get a couple good programs in here that can help us in the long run."

Since Murray State plays in a league that was 21st in RPI last season even with the Racers' unprecedented success, Prohm knows the only way his team can build a resume worthy of an at-large bid is to notch marquee wins out of conference. Therefore he's trying to put together a schedule that strikes a perfect balance between giving the Racers ample chances to pick up big wins but not over-challenging them.

On Wednesday, Prohm accepted an invitation to the Charleston Classic, a solid eight-team tournament in mid-November featuring Baylor, Colorado, St. John's, Auburn, Dayton, Boston College and Charleston. Murray State previously agreed to a home game against Western Kentucky and road games at Dayton, Lipscomb, Evansville and Arkansas State. 

The ideal scenario for Murray State would be to bolster that slate with several strong home-and-home series, but Prohm acknowledges that getting a Kentucky or Louisville to come to Murray is unrealistic. Instead he has tried to follow the same formula Xavier and Butler have in building their programs by targeting 10 or 15 mid-major programs from top 12 RPI leagues like the Missouri Valley, CAA and Atlantic 10.

"Our mindset is trying to get some of the top mid-major teams and we're close on some things," Prohm said. "I don't think we're ever going to get a high-major program to start a series at our place, but that's fine. Hopefully we can get some good mid-majors and continue to bring excitement to our school."

It would be a shame if Murray State can't find some worthy opponents because the Racers have a roster that should be showcased.

Second-team All-American Isaiah Canaan bypassed the NBA draft to return for his senior season and try to build on a junior campaign in which he averaged 19 points and shot 45.6 percent from behind the arc. The talented point guard will anchor a starting lineup that also should include forward Ed Daniel and guard Zay Jackson.

A year ago, Murray State defeated Memphis, Southern Mississippi and Dayton out of conference and won its first 23 games en route to a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament. Another undefeated start next winter is probably unrealistic, but Prohm wants to make sure his team has a chance to get back to March Madness.

"We would like to be able to play in a tournament like the Charleston tournament every year and have good series with good mid-major programs," Prohm said. "Then we'll have to play a buy game or two at some point, so we'll have to play some high-majors. But we want to get our team better and continue to get our program in the national spotlight."

The Monarchs will announce Thursday afternoon that they're leaving for Conference USA in 2013, a decision that will soon leave the CAA without two of its three premier programs over the last decade. Adding to the anguish, the league will have just seven teams eligible to compete in its conference tournament next year unless it breaks with policy and allows Old Dominion to participate.

What the loss of Old Dominion and VCU means for the CAA is it will be difficult for the league to land multiple NCAA tournament bids for the foreseeable future. Unless an upper echelon CAA program like George Mason or Drexel radically upgrades its non-conference schedule and thrives against those top teams, the weakened league slate will make at-large bids an extreme long shot.

The CAA has said it will look into expansion to replace the ODU, VCU and Georgia State, but replacing programs of that caliber will not be easy. The best-case scenario might be adding Charleston and Davidson, two tradition-rich Southern Conference programs who in time might be able to contend in the CAA and help the league grow again.

Keeping Old Dominion would have made it far easier for the league to absorb the loss of VCU, but the Monarchs' football-driven dalliance with Conference USA apparently was too great an opportunity to pass up.

While Old Dominion's three-year-old football program has emerged quickly as a national contender at the FCS level, the Monarchs had no guarantee another FBS conference would make them an offer in five years if they chose to bypass this one. As a result, school officials eventually accepted it after a prolonged evaluation period, gambling that they can upgrade their infrastructure and facilities to prepare for the move sooner than expected.

"While the university was not actively seeking a change, recent events necessitated an earlier consideration of our future, and in particular, for our football program," Old Dominion president John R. Broderick said in the release. "C-USA's invitation provided the right opportunity at the right time to reclassify our football program and broaden the national footprint of our athletic program."

Old Dominion basketball won't have any problem competing right away in a watered-down Conference-USA, which is deeper than the league the Monarchs are leaving but not any stronger at the top.

With Memphis, Houston, SMU and Central Florida all bound for the Big East, Conference USA had to scramble to replace those teams. Adding FIU, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Charlotte and Texas-San Antonio creates a bloated jumbo-sized league that is still likely to struggle to produce more than one or two NCAA tournament bids more often than not.

Still, Old Dominion found a satisfactory home for basketball while its burgeoning football program attempts to make the transition to the sport's top level. That's a victory for the Monarchs and massive loss for the CAA.

Anyone who walked by the fountain in Lexington's Triangle Park outside Rupp Arena on Wednesday afternoon probably assumed the University of Kentucky was the victim of an elaborate rivalry prank.

Believe it or not, however, the fountain's blood-red water isn't the brainchild of a clever Louisville or Indiana fan. Instead, it's merely a promotion gone wrong.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Downtown Lexington Corporation tried to temporarily dye the water pink to promote the airing of the '80s classic Pretty in Pink on Friday evening in the park. The event is the first in the Fountain Films on Friday series during which free movies will be shown once a week in the park this summer.

The sight of so much red water outside the home of Kentucky basketball has elicited very different responses from Kentucky and Louisville fans.

"Why is the water in the fountain at Triangle park red?" wrote a Kentucky fan on Twitter. "If they wanted to color it, shouldn't it be BLUE!?!?!"

Countered Mike Rutherford of the Louisville fan site Card Chronicle: "I'm not saying God did this, but I'm also not saying God didn't do this."

(Thanks, @BDawsonRivals)

When the Missouri Valley Conference agreed to an annual league-wide challenge with the Mountain West four years ago, its hope was the event would ease some of the struggles its top teams have scheduling marquee non-conference games.

Unfortunately, this year's event does little to accomplish that goal.

Preseason Valley favorite Creighton draws Mountain West also-ran Boise State despite returning All-American Doug McDermott and nine of its top 10 players from last year's 28-win team. Fellow Valley contenders Wichita State and Illinois State also received unappealing matchups at Air Force and home against Wyoming respectively.

Why would the Valley waste an opportunity to showcase its top teams rather than pit them against the likes of NCAA tournament contenders UNLV, San Diego State, New Mexico or Colorado State? Well, it wasn't entirely by choice. Instead it's partially a result of the rigidity of the four-year agreement the league entered with the Mountain West.

Since no Valley team can play the same Mountain West opponent twice in a four-year cycle and every team needs two games at home and on the road, the options for what matchups the leagues could create this season were limited.

Creighton has previously met San Diego State and New Mexico and required a home game this year, taking UNLV and Colorado State out of the running. Wichita State already met San Diego State and UNLV and needed a road game, meaning that New Mexico wasn't an option.

Still, the current pairings do have some missteps. Why not send Wichita State to a Colorado State team that brings back the core of last year's NCAA tournament team? And Illinois State may not be the draw Wichita State or Creighton is, but the Redbirds probably would have made a better opponent for New Mexico than Indiana State.

What's more, if ever there would have been a year for some flexibility and creativity from the two leagues, this might have been it.

Creighton reportedly is struggling to find quality power-conference teams willing to enter a home-and-home agreement as a result of the Bluejays' formidable roster and home court advantage. Why not send preseason top 20 San Diego State to Omaha instead of to Missouri State? Would anyone really be bothered by seeing a rematch of last year's superb back-and-forth matchup in San Diego?

Missouri Valley associate commissioner Mike Kern said the challenge with the Mountain West will not continue once the original four-year contract expires after next season. Instead the Valley is exploring other potential scheduling arrangements with other leagues or select teams in other leagues.

Whatever arrangement the Valley enters next, it would be great if it was more flexible than the current one with the Mountain West. The event only meets its potential when the leagues have the capability of creating the best matchups every year.

That's why it's unfortunate to see the senior-to-be jeopardizing the good will he built up in Laramie last season because of recent off-the-court issues.

Wyoming coach Larry Shyatt suspended Washington indefinitely April 4 for unspecified team rules violations. Then Tuesday, Washington was sentenced for battery and criminal entry as a result of an April 15 incident in which he allegedly entered a house party without invitation and punched a guest with a closed fist.

An incident like this one isn't all that unusual in college, but Washington's judgment was especially poor considering it happened less than two weeks after his suspension. It's unclear at this point what punishment Washington will face from the Wyoming staff since coach Larry Shyatt has only said he's aware of the situation and monitoring it closely.

Complicating Shyatt's decision is the importance of Washington to a Wyoming team that won 21 games last season against a modest schedule but loses three of its top five scorers to graduation. Washington led Wyoming in scoring and rebounding as a junior, averaging 12.9 points and 6.9 rebounds, shooting 56 percent from the floor and displaying the same fiery competitiveness he did at USC without any of the issues that came with it.

At USC, Washington was best known for the punch to the groin he delivered to Oklahoma star Blake Griffin during his freshman season. Washington also began his sophomore year academically ineligible for the fall semester and later clashed with new coach Kevin O'Neill so many times that he was dismissed from the team at the end of the season.

It seemed like Washington was making the most of his second chance last season. Now he'll have to hope he's lucky enough to get a third one.

The Blue Devils landed power forward Amile Jefferson, the lone unsigned consensus top 40 recruit in the class of 2012.

Jefferson, a 6-foot-7 McDonald's All-American from Philadelphia, chose Duke over ACC rival NC State, Kentucky, Villanova and Ohio State. Duke made him a priority after the early signing period and put on a full-court press after fellow elite power forward Tony Parker chose UCLA over the Blue Devils.

[Pat Forde: Leading U.S. Olympic team a thankless job for Coach K]

What Jefferson provides Duke next season is a perfect frontcourt complement off the bench to starters Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly. Whereas Plumlee is a traditional back-to-the-basket big man and Kelly is a spot-up shooter, Jefferson brings athleticism, length and an ability to score off the dribble that is largely missing from Duke's roster.

The addition of Jefferson to a recruiting class that previously included only guard Rasheed Sulaimon is both a talent and morale boost for Duke. On the heels of an already disappointing first-round exit against Lehigh, the Blue Devils lost Austin Rivers to the NBA draft, learned Andre Dawkins may redshirt the season and failed to land Parker, Shabazz Muhammad and transfer Jordan Clarkson, among others.

[Mike Huguenin: Elite eight ACC newcomers for 2012-13 season]

While North Carolina or NC State is probably still the favorite in what may be a down season in the ACC, Jefferson's presence figures to ensure the Blue Devils remain a contender at the very least.

They lack athleticism or lateral quickness in the backcourt again this year, but they do have a bevy of shooters who cannot be left alone, especially if Dawkins is available. And the frontcourt is deep and talented between Plumlee, Kelly, Jefferson and even redshirt freshmen Alex Murphy and Marshall Plumlee.

Jefferson needs to put on weight to reach his full potential, but he'll still have the chance to make an immediate impact. He's a likely rotation player next season and a potential centerpiece thereafter.

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For anyone either unable or unwilling to endure the 20 minutes of administrative blather that accompanied VCU's announcement it's headed to the Atlantic 10, here's the gist of school president Michael Rao's justification for the decision.

He believes VCU has outgrown the CAA. He thinks VCU is prepared for a major step up in competition. And he expects the money generated by longterm success in the Atlantic 10 to outweigh the short-term costs of making the switch.

Ultimately that's the gamble the Rams are taking by making the leap next fall to the league generally considered to be the nation's best outside the power six.

Yes, they're forfeiting about $5 million in revenue from their 2011 Final Four appearance.  Yes, they must pay $250,000 exit fee to the CAA and a $700,000 entrance fee to the A-10. Yes, they're driving up annual travel costs about $150,000 by trading a regional league for one with farther-flung programs. But those expenditures eventually will be worthwhile as long as the Atlantic 10's soon-to-be-negotiated TV deal is lucrative and VCU thrives in its new league the way Rao believes it can.

"Sometimes you have to focus on what's in the longterm best interest of your university," Rao said. "One of the things you have to consider is ... how much faith do you have in your ability to win? My faith is very, very high. I believe we will win, and therefore we will be able to do well. The expected returns are far greater than the short-term losses."

VCU will begin competing in the Atlantic 10 in the 2012-13 school year, a decision made out of concern that the CAA would render the Rams ineligible to participate in conference tournaments during their lame-duck season.

What the Atlantic 10 provides VCU basketball that the CAA can't is a league formidable enough to annually earn three or four NCAA tournament bids per year. The CAA has been on an upswing since George Mason's 2006 Final Four run, yet it's only received four at-large bids since 2000 and its league champ, Drexel, missed the NCAA tournament last season despite a gaudy 16-2 conference record.

VCU will have to out-duel the likes of Xavier, Dayton, Saint Louis and Butler to contend for league titles and NCAA tournament berths, but there's no evidence to suggest the Rams aren't capable of that.

Under coaches Jeff Capel and Anthony Grant, VCU made three appearances in the NCAA tournament in six years, notching an opening-round victory over Duke in 2007. The Rams have parlayed increased financial commitment and improved recruiting into even greater strides under current coach Shaka Smart, making the Final Four in 2011 and the round of 32 last season and cracking some early preseason top 25s for next year.

The move to the Atlantic 10 may mark the end of VCU's longstanding rivalries with Old Dominion and George Mason, but a potential two matchups a year with city rival Richmond should help soften the blow. Furthermore, Smart said in a statement that VCU plans "to maintain our key rivalries with CAA teams, now and in the future," suggesting the Rams will at least attempt to schedule the Patriots and Monarchs in annual non-league games.

"We are extremely excited by the opportunity to join the Atlantic 10 Conference," Smart said. "It is a phenomenal league, made up of programs with both rich traditions and recent track records of success."

Maybe the biggest risk in VCU's decision to leave the CAA is the league could be vulnerable to being raided. If the basketball schools in the Big East ever broke off and formed their own league, Xavier, Dayton and perhaps other Atlantic 10 schools would be obvious candidates to receive invitations from that league.

Still, in this age of conference realignment, few decisions are 100 percent safe.

VCU's move to the A-10 doesn't come without risks. But they were risks the Rams had to take.

In fact, it was a distant second.

As Momeni walked across the stage after receiving her diploma, Louisville senior guard Kyle Kuric ran up to the podium under the guise that he wanted to snap some photos of his longtime girlfriend's big moment. Instead, Kuric grabbed the microphone and launched into a concise speech, telling the audience, "Sorry to interrupt, but me and her have been dating for about 2 1/2 years. I love her more than anything and I definitely want to be with her for the rest of my life."

With that Kuric, dropped to one knee, unveiled a ring and asked a wobbly-legged Momeni if she'd marry him. She said yes and they shared an embrace, much to the delight of the roaring crowd at the ceremony.

"Well, my entire family was going to be in town and obviously her entire family was going to be in town for this so, we wanted it to be a big family thing," Kuric told WHTV in Louisville. "She had no idea so that just added to it."

Kuric admitted he was extremely nervous sitting through the graduation ceremony and walking up to the stage. Even for a guy who coolly sank some key jumpers in the Final Four last month in front of 70,000 fans, a marriage proposal in front of an audience of only a few hundred is still a stressful, anxious experience.

Said Williams: "If we want to give somebody some publicity, put it on there on TV only and don't put the kids in danger of slipping and sliding."

Said Izzo: "I'll wear logos to support the people who sponsor us. They can paint me. But we have to get rid of the logos for the safety of the players."

It took longer than it should have, but it appears common sense may finally prevail. The men's and women's basketball rules committees announced Monday they've recommended requiring courts be of a consistent surface, meaning temporary decals would be outlawed by next season if the Playing Rules Oversight Panel approves the rule change next month.

"The safety of our student-athletes has to come before anything else," said St. Peter's coach John Dunne, the chair of the men's basketball rules committee. "We're seeing players slip on the non-consistent parts of the floor too many times."

"Sometimes it takes a high-profile event to make a rules change. But we don't want to sit back and wait for injuries to happen and then pass the rule."

Credit the rules committee for being proactive because for a while it seemed it would take a torn ACL or a severely sprained ankle to force a rule change. Coaches have complained about the decals for years after watching players lose their footing trying to make a cut on a surface with minimal traction.

The best part is there should be an easy solution that keeps both safety-conscious coaches and publicity-hungry advertisers happy.

TV networks now have the technology to superimpose images on a court that aren't actually visible in the arena. Why not do that with the logo of a sponsor for a preseason tournament? It achieves the same purpose without putting players at risk.

ESPN announced the schedule for next season's Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Monday. Here's a look at each of the games ranked from 1 to 12.

1. North Carolina at Indiana (Nov. 27): The crown jewel of next year's slate pits a pair of blue bloods who haven't faced each-other since 2005. It's a shame it comes one year late for Tyler and Cody Zeller to face one-another, but this will still be a chance to gauge how viable a title contender North Carolina will be despite the loss of four likely first-round draft picks.

2. NC State at Michigan (Nov. 27): What better opportunity for these two preseason top 10 teams to establish themselves as legitimate Final Four contenders than to play each other in November? Michigan blends a vaunted freshman class with returning stars Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. NC State returns the core of a surprise Sweet 16 team and adds top recruits Rodney Purvis, T.J. Warren and Tyler Lewis.

3. Ohio State at Duke (Nov. 28): The last time Ohio State met Duke, the Buckeyes stormed to an 11-0 lead and never wavered, winning 85-63 in Columbus last November. It probably won't be as lopsided this year with the Buckeyes traveling to Durham and losing Jared Sullinger to the NBA and William Buford to graduation.

4. Minnesota at Florida State (Nov. 27): With Trevor Mbakwe back for a sixth year and Rodney Williams, Austin Hollins and Julian Welch all returning as well, Minnesota may be primed to return to the NCAA tournament next March. Winning at Florida State would be an early confidence booster, but it won't be easy because the Seminoles' always-stingy interior defense will be tough to crack.

5. Michigan State at Miami (Nov. 28): Miami narrowly missed the NCAA tournament last March because it lacked enough quality wins. With guard Durand Scott and big men Reggie Johnson and Kenny Kadji all back for their senior years, the 'Canes will have an opportunity to land a big early win against a Michigan State team headlined by guard Keith Appling and big man Derrick Nix.

6. Virginia at Wisconsin (Nov. 28): What this one will surely lack in points it will make up for with an intriguing storyline. Tony Bennett, who played at Wisconsin Green Bay and began his coaching career under his father at Wisconsin, will return to the Kohl Center sidelines as head coach of Virginia.

7. Iowa at Virginia Tech (Nov. 27): Only twice has Virginia Tech managed to win a game in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge: In 2006 and 2009, both against Iowa. The Hokies will get a chance to pull off a hat trick, but it won't be easy because the Hawkeyes return five of their top six scorers from last year's NIT team.

8. Purdue at Clemson (Nov. 28): Clemson lost its top scorers from a team that already wasn't very good at putting the ball in the basket and Milton Jennings is the only returner with any size. If Purdue was going to draw a road game this season, the Boilermakers should feel fortunate they got a winnable one.

9. Maryland at Northwestern (Nov. 27): Northwestern is probably a year removed from its best chance to make its first-ever NCAA tournament. Maryland is probably a year away from returning to national relevance. As a result, this matchup doesn't really move the needle, though it does represent an early chance to see if Terrapins sophomore Nick Faust can emerge as his team's go-to perimeter threat.

10. Georgia Tech at Illinois (Nov. 28): There are years when a matchup between the Yellowjackets and Illini would have been a must-see game. Next year? Probably not. Both Georgia Tech and Illinois are rebuilding.

11. Nebraska at Wake Forest (Nov. 27): Since last year's snoozefest between the Cornhuskers and Demon Deacons was such a thriller, the good folks at ESPN decided to give us a rematch. Perhaps Wake Forest takes some baby steps forward this season and maybe Tim Miles can one day succeed at Nebraska, but this game won't prove much either way.

12. Boston College at Penn State (Nov. 28): Here's the most damning indictment of the worst game on the Big Ten-ACC slate: It's less watchable than Nebraska-Wake Forest. Anyone who makes it through more than five minutes of this one either needs a social life or a medal of valor.

When ex-Kentucky forward Terrence Jones' mom returned home to Portland on Sunday night after spending the day with her son in Los Angeles, she found a final Mother's Day surprise waiting for her.

Parked in front of Linda Mashia-Jones' house was a new Cadillac SRX Crossover with a giant red bow on it.

Jones tweeted a photo of the car while his mom was still en route to Portland, joking with his followers that none of them should call or text her to ruin the surprise. Apparently Mashia-Jones was quite pleased with her gift because her son later tweeted a photo of her smiling next to the car.

"Loved hearing how happy she was," Jones wrote. "Can't wait to watch the video."

Cynics have already questioned where Jones got the money to purchase a car valued at between $36,000 and $55,000, but there's a relatively obvious explanation. Jones reportedly signed with Arn Tellem of the Wasserman Media Group last week. And agents typically give future lottery picks a hefty advance that the players then pay back once they sign their rookie contracts after the draft.

Regardless, for once, let's just celebrate a generous act rather than scrutinizing it. Many players say they're going to use their first paycheck to buy something nice for a family member who raised them. Jones actually followed through with it.

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Brian McLucas, a bouncer at PLAY nightclub in Cincinnati, filed a police report Sunday claiming several Bearcats punched and kicked him when he tried to remove them from a VIP table the previous night. McLucas told Fox19 in Cincinnati that he asked the players to leave because they were drinking liquor that didn't belong to them from another party's table, but they refused to cooperate.

"I said you guys need to calm down," McLucas told Fox19. "And whenever I did that I looked to the right of me and right as I looked to the right of me I seen the dude take three quick steps and punch me in the eye."

The incident at the night club comes a mere five months after Cincinnati took part in one of the worst brawls in recent college basketball history in the final seconds of a loss to rival Xavier last season. Four players from each team were suspended including Cincinnati's Yancy Gates, whose right hand to the face of an unsuspecting Kenny Frease bloodied the Xavier center.

It's important to note we've only heard one side of the story from Saturday night's incident and we don't know which Cincinnati players (if any) were involved, yet this isn't the sort of publicity the team needs if it turns out to be true.

Coach Mick Cronin and his players helped heal the wound from the brawl last winter with their exemplary behavior and on-court success. Backlash from an incident like this can only undermine some of that progress.

Cincinnati athletic director Whit Babcock released a statement late Monday morning urging fans not to rush to judgment yet promising to hold players accountable if necessary.

"It is a privilege to play for and represent UC. It is not a right," Babcock said. "We have made great strides in our program and this type situation is not what UC athletics is about or will be about. As of now, to my understanding, there are no charges filed, only accusations. We will next comment after we have had time to gather facts and our process moves along or is completed."

"Congrats to AB on joining the Rebel Family!!" UNLV's Anthony Marshall tweeted. "I'm excited. So many weapons around me for next year ... It's bout to get ugly!!!!"

Six exclamation points weren't overkill in this case because the addition of the class of 2012's top unsigned recruit raises the Rebels' stock considerably entering next season.

Bennett can overpower smaller defenders in the paint with his strength and explosiveness. He can drain an open 3-pointer if left open on the perimeter. And his rebounding prowess will help UNLV address its deficiencies on the glass.

Add Bennett to the influx of talent joining a UNLV team that won 26 games last season, and it's easy to see why preseason expectations for the Rebels may be higher than any year since the Jerry Tarkanian era. UNLV's blend of talent, depth and experience merits a spot in the preseason top 15 — maybe higher — and its frontcourt may be as deep and versatile as any in the nation.

Junior-to-be Mike Moser will have an opportunity to play more minutes at small forward next year after averaging 14.0 points and 10.5 rebounds last season as a power forward. Bennett will probably fill the hole at power forward, though he too can play both forward positions. And Pittsburgh transfer Khem Birch will likely usurp Carlos Lopez as the starting center once he becomes eligible in mid-December, giving the Rebels an intimidating shot blocker and another formidable rebounder.

There are more questions about UNLV's backcourt, but it's hardly a weakness.

Anthony Marshall is a slasher and a gifted finisher at the rim who must improve his outside shot and show he can run the offense at point guard for the first time. USC transfer Bryce Jones is the early favorite to replace Marshall at shooting guard after often looking like the Rebels' best guard while playing for the scout team last year. And defensive stopper Justin Hawkins and sweet-shooting incoming freshman Kaitin Reinhardt each will be part of the rotation and have a chance to crack the starting lineup.

That's as talented a roster as UNLV has fielded in about two decades, yet it's a testament to the strength of the upper half of the Mountain West that the Rebels are hardly a clear-cut favorite. San Diego State belongs in the discussion as well thanks to the return of the four guards who led them to the NCAA tournament last season and the arrival of a handful of transfers and recruits to fortify the frontcourt.

Even beyond the Rebels and Aztecs, there are other contenders. New Mexico has its own potent backcourt in Kendall Williams, Tony Snell, Demetrius Walker and Hugh Greenwood, though the loss of Drew Gordon leaves a hole in the paint. And new Colorado  State coach Larry Eustachy inherits the core of last year's guard-oriented NCAA tournament team.

Still, UNLV will have as much or more talent than any of those teams, especially now that the Rebels have Bennett in the fold.

Second-year coach Dave Rice sold Bennett on the chance to thrive in a free-flowing, up-tempo system. It also didn't hurt that close friend and fellow Canadian Birch transferred to the Rebels last December and immediately began urging Bennett to join him.

While UNLV enjoyed consistent success under former coach Lon Kruger, the Rebels rarely won recruiting battles with the likes of Kentucky, Florida, Washington and Oregon for top players like Bennett.

That they're doing it under Rice suggests the program may be on the ascent once again.

How does this impact Old Dominion and VCU?

The trio of CAA powers have each been looking into leaving the league, with the Monarchs pondering an offer from Conference USA and the Rams and Patriots considering a move to the Atlantic 10. George Mason's return to the CAA would seem to make it more palatable for both VCU and ODU to follow suit, but the allure of the Atlantic 10 for the Rams still may be too tempting an opportunity to pass up.

If VCU takes soon-to-depart Charlotte's place in the Atlantic 10 to get the conference to 14 members, it's a step up in class and competition similar to the one Butler made by leaving the Horizon League.

[Roundtable: Decision by George Mason, Ivy League draw mixed reviews]

Whereas the Atlantic 10 has annually earned three or four NCAA tournament bids, the CAA has received only four at-large bids since 2000. The CAA is definitely on the upswing as a result of increased league-wide financial commitment to basketball, yet its 2012 champ Drexel missed the NCAA tournament despite a 16-2 conference record.

A potential move to the Atlantic 10 for VCU is not without drawbacks, however. There's the threat of the Big East basketball schools starting their own league and luring Xavier and Dayton to join them. There's the $5 million payout VCU would be giving up over the next five years by leaving the CAA before reaping the full windfall of its 2011 Final Four appearance. And there's the fact the Rams would be effectively extinguishing longstanding rivalries with ODU and George Mason to make this move.

What George Mason's announcement does for VCU is make it less risky to stay in the CAA if school officials decide the Atlantic 10 is too big a gamble. Now the Rams have the option to stay in their familiar league and help it continue to grow without the fear that they'll be the only one of the three league powers to do so. 

Old Dominion's decision is more complex than VCU's due to the football aspect involved.

On the one hand, the invitation from Conference USA represents an opportunity for the Monarchs to move their new but thriving football program to the sport's top division. On the other hand, the CAA with VCU and George Mason is a stronger, more centralized and more appealing basketball league than Conference USA with Memphis, Houston and UCF all departing.

Ultimately, the opportunities in the Atlantic 10 and Conference USA remain have plenty of advantages and drawbacks for VCU and ODU. George Mason's renewed committed to the CAA only makes it easier for the Rams and Monarchs to stay put too, but it remains to be seen if that's the path either takes.

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Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Boston College alum, told the Associated Press on Thursday that he'd like to see the Huskies and Eagles begin playing one-another in football and basketball again. What's more, Malloy has gone so far as to express that sentiment to Boston College president William Leahy.

"The reality is that time has the ability to heal all wounds, and hopefully we move forward," Malloy told the Associated Press. "Economically, it makes great sense. The schools are 80 miles apart. Instead of a plane trip, it's a bus ride. We should be doing more of that, not less."

It may take an intervention from a powerful third party like Malloy to resuscitate relations between Boston College and UConn because plenty of bitterness exists on both sides.

Angered that the Eagles weren't upfront about their intentions to leave the Big East, UConn coach Jim Calhoun told the Hartford Courant in 2003 he would not renew the rivalry, a vow he has upheld since the two schools played their last Big East game in 2005. "We won't play BC after they leave here," Calhoun said at the time. "I have no desire to play Boston College. Not for the fact that they are leaving but how they did it. I will not play Boston College as long as I'm here."

Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo added to the burgeoning hostilities between the two schools last year when he admitted to the Boston Globe that he'd blocked UConn's attempted move to the ACC. "We didn't want them in," DeFilippo told the Globe. "It was a matter of turf. We wanted to be the New England team."

That the pettiness on both sides has created this rift between New England's two most prominent athletic programs is yet another example of conference realignment robbing fans of longtime rivalries. UConn had dominated the basketball series during Calhoun's tenure and Boston College had won 10 of the 12 football matchups, yet the proximity and pedigree of the two schools created plenty of interest.

What could help improve the relationship between Boston College and UConn now are the new faces at both schools. Calhoun and DeFilippo remain in their positions, but UConn has a new athletic director, Warde Manuel, who has a preexisting friendship with DeFilippo and an interest in playing the Eagles again.

If it seems far-fetched that a state governor could be capable of restoring this rivalry, consider the history of the Kentucky-Louisville series. After Kentucky and Louisville met in the Elite Eight in March 1983, state governor John Y. Brown pressured the presidents at both schools to agree to an annual game since the two in-state rivals went an unfathomable 61 years without facing one-another in the regular season.

Maybe something similar can happen to restore the UConn-Boston College series. And hopefully it won't take 61 years to make it happen.

It should come as no surprise which teams were among the national leaders in attendance for the 2011-12 college basketball season.

For the seventh straight season and 16th time in 17 years, Kentucky led the nation in average home attendance at 23,721 fans per game. Syracuse and Louisville were second and third, just as they were the past two years.

Overall attendance for all three NCAA divisions in 2011-12 ranked fifth all-time, less than two percent shy of the record set in 2008. Here's a look at some other attendance figures that stood out from the NCAA's attendance report:

• Highest per game attendance: 1. Kentucky (23,721), 2. Syracuse (23,618), 3. Louisville (21,503)

• Lowest per game attendance: 1. Chicago State (429), 2. NJIT (461) 3. Colgate (545)

• Highest per-game attendance among non-BCS-conference schools: 1. Creighton (16,665), 2. Memphis (16,234), 3. BYU (15,224)

• Lowest per-game attendance among BCS-conference schools: 1. South Florida (3,849), 2. Miami (3,936), 3. USC (3,970)

• Highest per-game attendance among non-Division I schools: 1. Northern State (3,382), 2. Hope (3,259), 3. Midwestern State (3,094)

• Largest average attendance increase from last year: 1. Creighton (+3,157), 2. Mississippi State (+2,309), 3. Temple (+2,239)

• Best average attendance per conference: 1. Big Ten (12,868), 2. Southeastern (11,513), 3. Big 12 (11,057)

• Best average attendance per non-BCS conference: 1. Mountain West (7,800), 2. Missouri Valley (7,064), 3. Atlantic 10 (5,556)

The unanimous support of the Ivy League's eight men's basketball coaches apparently wasn't enough to persuade the league's athletic directors to adopt a proposal to hold an annual conference tournament.

The league announced Thursday that its athletic directors have shot down the proposal for a four-team tournament after discussing it this week at their annual spring meetings. That means the Ivy League will remain the only Division I conference that awards its automatic NCAA tournament berth to the regular season champion rather than the winner of a postseason tournament.

"After careful consideration of these proposals, the athletics directors decided that our current method of determining the Ivy League champion and our automatic bid recipient to the NCAA Championship is the best model moving forward," Ivy League executive director Robin Smith said in a statement.

The idea of holding a postseason tournament in a conference that traditionally produces only one NCAA tournament team has plenty of detractors. The single-elimination format increases the odds the regular-season champion won't represent the league in the NCAA tournament, potentially decreasing the chances the league will enjoy success in March.

That argument especially rings true in the Ivy League, one of the few that decides its regular season champion via a double round-robin scheduling format. The winner of the Ivy League is always a deserving champion because all eight teams in the league play their peers the same number of times, both at home and on the road.

What led the league's coaches to band together and push for a postseason tournament is the benefits such an event can provide. A tournament generates national exposure for the conference, gives fans a season-ending event to look forward to and provides losing teams a goal to keep playing for even after their conference title hopes evaporate.

Yale coach James Jones, the longest-tenured coach in the league, said last month the lack of a postseason tournament hampers recruiting since the Ivy League cannot give student-athletes an opportunity to compete in something other conferences can. He cited the one-game playoff between Princeton and Harvard to decide the 2011 regular season champion as an example of the attention a postseason tournament could produce.

"I've been around this league so long now that I know the Ivy League does things a different way than a lot of other places," Jones said. "I truly get it. I understand we're different than other people. Sometimes I take pride in being different, but in this case I think we're missing the boat."

At that time, Jones was cautiously optimistic the proposal for a conference tournament had more momentum than past attempts. Turns out it didn't have enough to win over the league's athletic directors, let alone the school presidents — and that may not be such a bad thing.

The Ivy League often receives criticism for being resistant to change, but this is one example where sticking with tradition is probably the best approach.

First, promising freshman Dorian Finney-Smith revealed Tuesday he intends to transfer. Then the Richmond Times Dispatch reported Thursday that incoming recruit Montrezl Harrell will ask for a release from his letter of intent.

As a result of their departures, Virginia Tech won't have the centerpieces of either of its last two recruiting classes next year, a damaging blow for a Hokies team hoping to bounce back quickly from a difficult 15-16 season. Athletic director Jim Weaver hired former Greenberg assistant James Johnson in hopes his familiarity with the roster would help stave off defections, but that strategy has proven ineffective so far.

Harrell, a consensus top 100 prospect, is a 6-foot-7 forward whose strength, athleticism and energy makes up for his lack of refined skills at this point. With Victor Davila having graduated and Finney-Smith transferring, Harrell had an opportunity to make an instant impact at Virginia Tech if he stayed.

Instead Virginia Tech appears headed for another rebuilding season and Harrell suddenly becomes one of the most coveted recruits in the nation. Kentucky, NC State, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Providence were among the schools reportedly interested in Harrell even before he'd decided for sure that he was leaving Virginia Tech.

Any of the schools could use a springy power forward who can block shots and excels in transition. Wherever Harrell winds up, he'll be missed at Virginia Tech.

Six weeks after the first reports that VCU and George Mason were considering leaving the Colonial Athletic Association for the Atlantic 10, the two mid-major powers still appear to be weighing the pros and cons of such a move.

It's unclear what George Mason's and VCU's timetable is for making a decision, but here's a list of five questions administrators from both schools are likely considering during the process.

• Will the Atlantic 10 stay intact? Although the strength at the top of the Atlantic 10 makes it an upgrade over the CAA, the concern for George Mason and VCU is the league could be vulnerable to being raided as a result of the instability in the Big East. If the basketball schools in the Big East ever broke off and formed their own league, Xavier, Dayton and perhaps other Atlantic 10 schools would be obvious candidates to receive invitations from that league. Skim the cream off the top of the Atlantic 10, and the league suddenly doesn't look that much more appealing than the CAA.

• Is the increased competition a pro or con? The obvious advantage to Atlantic 10 over the CAA is the likelihood it annually earns three or four NCAA tournament bids. The CAA has generated momentum as a result of increased league-wide commitment to basketball in the wake of George Mason's 2006 Final Four run, yet it still has only produced four at-large bids since 2000, three of which came from Mason or VCU. League champ Drexel went 16-2 in the CAA yet was left out of the field of 68, whereas the Atlantic 10 produced four NCAA tournament teams last season alone. The only caveat is a top-three finish in the Atlantic 10 will not be easy. Say the upper-echelon of a new-look Atlantic 10 becomes Xavier, Dayton, Butler, Saint Louis, Richmond, George Mason and VCU. Even if the league annually produces four NCAA tournament teams, that means three from that group won't make it.

• Are the rivalries gained better than the ones lost? A move to the Atlantic 10 for George Mason and VCU would likely mark the end of both their longstanding rivalries with in-state foes James Madison and Old Dominion. Perhaps those games could still exist annually in non-league play, but hurt feelings from conference realignment have scuttled other rivalries in the past. On the other hand, both VCU and George Mason would gain natural geographic rivals in the Atlantic 10 in addition to one-another. VCU and city rival Richmond could potentially play twice a year instead of just once if the Atlantic 10 were to go to a two-division format. And Orange-line rival George Washington would be a natural annual opponent for George Mason.

• Which TV deal is more appealing? It would be easier to compare the pros and cons here if we knew the breakdown of how much each CAA and Atlantic 10 school was getting, but the revenue isn't the only factor here. The Atlantic 10 re-upped with ESPN last year, signing a two-year deal guaranteeing teams from the league will make at least 32 appearances on ESPN's family of networks each season. The CAA, on the other hand, broke away from ESPN in favor of the NBC Sports Network, gambling that being the top dog on a fledgling network would be more beneficial than being one of the numerous leagues on the World Wide Leader's airways. Again the money — and specifically the potential earnings from a new A-10 TV deal — is the most important factor here, but the difference in exposure from ESPN or NBC Sports Network is a factor too.

• What will Old Dominion do? Old Dominion's football-driven dalliance with Conference USA increases the pressure on George Mason and VCU to bolt because there's no question losing the Monarchs would significantly weaken the CAA. Without Old Dominion, it becomes all the more difficult for CAA teams to earn an at-large bid because the conference would lose one of its traditional powers. If Old Dominion is open to delaying its football sub-division dreams and VCU and George Mason were to stay, the potential for growth in the CAA remains intriguing. Maybe the league replaces Georgia State with Davidson and/or College of Charleston and continues to benefit from the increased spending of its upper and middle tier. Would that league be as strong as the current Atlantic 10 in five years? Probably not, but the gap would be closing.

It's none other than Jarrod Uthoff, the redshirt freshman whose departure from Wisconsin made national headlines last month when coach Bo Ryan initially refused to release him to 26 schools before eventually relenting under intense media pressure.

Uthoff plans to visit Marquette this week and Florida later this month before revealing his decision, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported. Iowa State and Creighton are also in the running to land Uthoff, as is Iowa even though the Hawkeyes do not have permission to contact the 6-8 freshman because Ryan only released him to schools outside the Big Ten.

At no point in his conversation with the Gazette did Uthoff tip his hand which school is his favorite at this point, but there's no doubt Marquette would be the most intriguing choice. If Uthoff transfers to Marquette, he'd be guaranteed to face the Badgers at least three times, adding more heat to an already sizzling rivalry.

Vander Blue, a onetime Wisconsin commit who eventually reneged in favor of Marquette, endured a smattering of boos during pregame introductions and whenever he touched the ball in his team's win at the Kohl Center last December. The reaction for Uthoff could be even more intense if he ever returned to the Kohl Center in a Marquette jersey.

Whichever school gets Uthoff will be getting a forward Wisconsin expected to be a key piece of its future. Had Uthoff remained with the Badgers, he likely would have come off the bench next season and competed for a starting role in two years once Jared Berggren and Mike Bruesewitz graduate.

Uthoff said he left Wisconsin because he didn't feel the Badgers' offense was as good a fit for him as he expected. We'll find out soon which program he believes is a better match.

Comedian and late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel tweeted Bennett Tuesday at the request of fellow UNLV fans, telling the nation's top unsigned recruit, "UNLV needs you Anthony!"  Bennett is deciding between the Rebels and Oregon after trimming Florida, Kentucky and Washington from his list in the past week.

Kimmel, who briefly attended UNLV before transferring to Arizona State, apparently still supports the Rebels. At the very least, he delivered the traditional "lights, please" pregame introduction before a game at the Thomas & Mack Center this past season.

Under the strictest interpretation of NCAA rules, Kimmel's tweet constitutes a very minor violation because "boosters" aren't allowed to help recruit prospective student-athletes in any way. Nonetheless, hundreds, if not thousands, of similar messages from fans to recruits go unpunished each day because the NCAA has no means of policing Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media.

It's highly unlikely Kimmel's tweet will have any impact on Bennett's decision, of course, but it looks like the 6-foot-7 forward may be UNLV-bound regardless. A source told SNY.tv's Adam Zagoria Bennett is leaning "90 percent" toward selecting the Rebels over Oregon.

Landing Bennett would be a huge coup for a UNLV program likely to begin next season in the preseason top 25 with or without him. The Rebels would boast one of the nation's most talented frontcourts next season, with Bennett, Mike Moser and Carlos Lopez available right away and talented Pittsburgh transfer Khem Birch eligible by mid-December.

How worried should Kentucky be?

On the one hand, NCAA investigators typically only look into the background of prospects whose recruitment is fraught with red flags. On the other hand, the NCAA's track record of uncovering evidence damning enough to threaten an elite player's eligibility is certainly less than impressive.

The New York Times reported late Wednesday night that two members of the NCAA's enforcement staff visited Massachusetts to speak with coaches, school administrators and advisers to Noel. Among the topics covered were Noel's relationship with ex-Providence assistant Chris Driscoll and former Everett High School substitute teacher Errol Randolph, both of whom have served as advisers to the 6-foot-11 center.

A previous New York Times investigative piece detailed how Driscoll was banned from Tilton Prep School's campus after coaches alleged he was attempting to steer Noel to certain schools and did not have the player's best interest at heart. Randolph, until recently, had a link on his LinkedIn page to the web site of a prominent sports agency.

While those are certainly sufficient red flags to warrant an NCAA inquiry, there's also little reason to believe investigators will find sufficient evidence to jeopardize Noel's eligibility at Kentucky. The lengthy New York Times investigation revealed plenty of fringe figures attempting to latch onto Noel but no concrete evidence either he or an adviser had taken money to steer him to a particular school.

Maybe NCAA investigators will uncover a paper trail or other information they deem to be punishable, but past history suggests that's unlikely. And if that's the case, this investigation will be long forgotten by the time Noel dons a blue jersey at Rupp Arena for the first time next winter.

Top recruit Montrezl Harrell remains undecided about whether to enroll at Virginia Tech as planned next year or ask for his release. And now comes reports from the Daily Press and the Virginian Pilot that talented freshman forward Dorian Finney-Smith intends to transfer to another school.

Finney-Smith, the most coveted recruit to sign with Virginia Tech during Seth Greenberg's tenure, endured a challenging freshman season in which he struggled to score consistently enough. He averaged only 6.3 points per game, shot a team-low 36.6 percent and missed 25 straight shots during one three-week stretch in ACC play.

The Daily Press report indicates the two-time Virginia state player of the year had been mulling a transfer for months, but the recent coaching turnover could not have helped. Not only was Greenberg fired last month, the assistant primarily responsible for recruiting Finney-Smith, John Richardson, returned to Blaine Taylor's staff at Old Dominion.

If indeed Finney-Smith does leave Virginia Tech, it's a significant blow to the Hokies' hopes of making the NCAA tournament next season. The 6-foot-8 forward may not have met expecations offensively last season, but his athleticism and length made him a factor on the glass and defensively and gave him a high ceiling longterm.

It's unclear where Finney-Smith might be interested in transferring if he does leave, but Old Dominion would seem to be an obvious candidate. In addition to Richardson being back there, Finney-Smith's brother Ben Finney also had a successful career playing for the Monarchs.

Apparently tired of selling newspapers to the legions of Kentucky fans in their market, the Lexington Herald-Leader published an incendiary cartoon in Tuesday's edition blasting coach John Calipari.

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Joel Pett drew "Coach Cal's Trophy Shelf" with a dollar sign-laden 2012 national championship trophy and empty spaces for his vacated Final Four appearances at UMass and Memphis. Pett also references the recent flap over Calipari insisting on not playing Indiana at campus sites anymore by including a "Lose at IU, take my ball and go home award."

The cartoon not surprisingly has drawn the ire of many Kentucky fans, some of whom are even calling for a boycott of both the paper and the companies who advertise in it. Wrote one Kentucky Sports Radio commenter: "I don't have a HL subscription, but I'm going to call and cancel anyways."

Whether the Herald-Leader made the proper decision publishing Pett's cartoon or not depends on whether it's viewed from a business or journalistic perspective.

There's no doubt the Herald-Leader alienated a percentage of its readership, a very risky move considering the sobering state of the newspaper industry these days. Outrage from Kentucky fans was inevitable because of the timing of the cartoon and the gratuitous shots it takes at a coach who just delivered the Wildcats' eighth national title last month.

At the same time, the Herald-Leader deserves credit for not censoring a cartoonist in his 28th year at the paper just because the opinion he expressed in his work will be unpopular. A columnist or cartoonist should be able to express political opinions without fear they'll be censored by a right- or left-wing leaning editor or publisher. The principle here is the same even though the subject matter is far more frivolous. 

Ultimately this is an issue summed up best by Evelyn Beatrice Hall's famous quote on freedom of speech in her biography of Voltaire: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Alas, just like the Herald-Leader has every right to print the cartoon, Kentucky fans have every right to disagree with it. And that's why the phones in Herald-Leader Customer Care Center even now are probably ringing off the hook.

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Anthony Davis got a glimpse of that Monday night when he too signed an unusual piece of memorabilia.

Yahoo! Sports Minute has the footage of baby Aiden, the infant son of a Louisville couple who posed for a photo almost identical to a poster Kentucky printed of Davis early in his freshman season. Both hearken back to the classic Michael Jordan WINGS poster every Chicago-area kid had on his wall in the early 1990s.

Davis clearly got a chuckle out of autographing the poster based on his tweet.

"My lil man Aiden in Lville is already a promotional genius!" Davis wrote. "Look for him to be takin over #BBN in the near future!"

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Evan Smith became uneasy when his younger brother called to say their dad never picked him up from school. He became even more worried when someone from Fox Studios notified the family Gavin hadn't shown up for work. And his panic level continued to rise that night the longer Gavin didn't answer his phone.

Six days have now passed since Evan's father went missing, but the USC forward refuses to give up hope that his dad will turn up safe. Gavin Smith, 57, was last seen Tuesday night driving a black 2000 Mercedes 420 in his neighborhood about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

"This is like a bad movie," Evan Smith said Monday. "It's surreal. Nobody ever would think it would be my dad who would go missing. But my family is staying strong, staying together. We're just trying to weather the storm and find my dad."

Authorities so far haven't discovered any leads in Gavin Smith's disappearance, so family members are doing whatever they can to help. They've hired private detectives, tracked Gavin's credit card usage, put up fliers with his face throughout Los Angeles and even taken to social media in an effort to get the word out.

This past weekend, Evan began tweeting friends, reporters and even USC quarterback Matt Barkley in hopes of publicizing the story of his dad's disappearance so more people would be on the lookout. The grass roots effort seems to be working considering local and national outlets have picked up the story and Evan conducted interviews with "E! News" and "Good Morning America" on Monday.

"We're just trying to get as many people as possible to be looking for my dad out there," Evan Smith said. "It's very discouraging that it's coming up on a week. We're just putting our faith in God that he'll be delivered to us safely."

It's especially difficult for Evan to have his father go missing because the two of them were so close.

Gavin, a 6-foot-6 forward on John Wooden's final championship team at UCLA in 1975, encouraged both his sons to play basketball. Younger son Austin helped lead Calabasas High School to its first-ever sectional title in March, while Evan appeared in four games at USC last season.

"He is the biggest influence in my life," Evan said. "He taught me how to play. I emulate my father. He's my hero. He's a great guy."

Evan Smith knows the odds of finding his father diminish with every passing day, so he's thankful for the attention the case has received.

"As long as people are talking about it and looking, that's all my family and I can ask for," he said. "My father has a family that is looking for him and that he needs to return to. We'll never stop looking for him until we find him."

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Gavin Smith can call detectives at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department at (323) 890-5500.

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The sophomore guard checked out Missouri this past weekend and accepted a scholarship offer on Monday afternoon, his father Mike Clarkson confirmed. The younger Clarkson had also received interest from UCLA, Illinois, Duke Arizona, among others.

What persuaded Clarkson to cancel his travel plans was the connection he established with Missouri's players and coaches and the appeal of the Tigers' up-tempo system. Point guard Phil Pressey, a fellow Texas native and longtime friend of Clarkson's, raved about his experience playing under Missouri coach Frank Haith and urged the 6-foot-4 wing to consider joining him.

"Jordan had a lot of talks with Phil about Missouri's style of play," Mike Clarkson said. "Jordan is more effective in the open court when you're running. He can play any style of basketball, but that's more conducive to what he likes to do, getting up and down and using his speed and agility. I think he looked at that really closely and that swayed him to pick Missouri."

The addition of Clarkson further cements Haith's reputation for being able to attract top transfers to Missouri. Among the other notable transfers Haith has landed in the past 12 months include UConn center Alex Oriakhi, Oregon wing Jabari Brown, Pepperdine guard Keion Bell and Auburn swingman Earnest Ross.

Clarkson, who averaged 16.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists as a sophomore at Tulsa, will not be eligible to play at Missouri until the 2013-14 season. He'll be part of a potentially potent Tigers backcourt in the 2013-14 season that could include Brown, Ross, Pressey and true freshman Travis Jorgenson if nobody leaves early next spring. 

Tulsa originally only released Clarkson to Colorado, TCU and Vanderbilt when he informed the school he intended to transfer last month, but the Golden Hurricane eventually caved to media pressure and loosened the restrictions. One of the only schools Tulsa refused to budge on was Texas, which Mike Clarkson admitted would have been one of his son's top choices had it been an option.

The Clarksons are pleased with Jordan's choice, but they remain steadfastly in favor of altering the rule that allows coaches or administrators to place restrictions on which schools a transfer can contact. Mike Clarkson said the family will publicize the issue further later this month on a future segment of ESPN's "Outside the Lines."

"We don't want this to continue to affect young athletes," the elder Clarkson said. "It's terrible the way the system is set up and hopefully something will be done about it this summer. Maybe the NCAA can come up with a better system because in my opinion it's unethical the way they're doing it."

As a result, Trent Lockett's announcement Saturday that he'll attend Marquette for his senior season didn't receive nearly the attention it should have.

Lockett, a 6-foot-4 guard who will be eligible immediately at Marquette, averaged more than 13 points per game and shot 50 percent or better from the field each of the past two seasons for the slow-paced Sun Devils. What's more, Lockett was an asset in other facets of the game last season as a result of his length and athleticism, grabbing 5.8 rebounds per game and posting 1.5 steals per game despite Arizona State's reliance on zone defense.

What Lockett did best at Arizona State was attacking the rim off the dribble. He attempted only 51 3-pointers as a junior, but he showed a knack for finishing at the rim, getting to the free throw line or sinking a mid-range jump shot.

It would benefit Marquette if Lockett can consistently knock down a 3-pointer next year, but his presence might make the Golden Eagles a top 25 team once again even if he isn't a threat from behind the arc.

Lockett should help Marquette weather the loss of all-league seniors Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder both offensively and defensively. He'll likely start at wing alongside point guard Junior Cadougan, enabling Buzz Williams to bring either Todd Mayo or Vander Blue off the bench.

The decision Lockett made to leave Arizona State was in part due to his mom's diagnosis with cancer in March. The Minnesota native previously intended to stay in Tempe despite the losing and the many defections, but he decided he needed to transfer somewhere closer to home, ultimately choosing Marquette over Iowa State.

Marquette may not have enough scoring without Crowder and Johnson-Odom to contend with the likes of Louisville and Syracuse at the top of the Big East. Still, with Lockett joining an already formidable backcourt, the Golden Eagles once again will not be a team that can be overlooked.

Turns out that couldn't have been more wrong.

Bennett, the top unsigned recruit in the class of 2012, revealed this weekend he has eliminated both Florida and Kentucky from his list. Instead the 6-foot-7 Findlay Prep star will choose between UNLV and Oregon, two schools whose prospects for next season could improve dramatically with him in the fold.

UNLV would appear to be the slim favorite if only because of Bennett's relationship with the coaching staff and with fellow Canada native Khem Birch, the Pittsburgh transfer who has actively tried to persuade Bennett to join him with the Rebels.

The trio of Bennett, Birch and Mike Moser would give UNLV a frontcourt of three potential future pros, all of whom complement one-another well. Throw in the return of slasher Anthony Marshall and defensive stopper Justin Hawkins in the backcourt as well as the arrival of USC transfer Bryce Jones and sweet-shooting incoming freshman Katin Reinhardt, and the Rebels could be a preseason top 15 team.

The appeal of Oregon would be that immediate playing time is more readily available than any other school that was on Bennett's list. With Olu Ashuaolu and Jeremy Jacob leaving, the Ducks would love to plug Bennett in between small forward E.J. Singler and center Tony Woods to form a formidable trio of their own.

There are reportedly concerns about Bennett's academic eligibility next season, but it's still difficult to believe either Florida or Kentucky wouldn't have taken him if given the chance.

Kentucky will now likely turn its attention to trying to pry unsigned forward Amile Jefferson away from NC State and Duke in its quest to add depth to next year's talented yet paper-thin roster. Florida has Patric Young, Eric Murphy and Will Yeguete in its frontcourt for next season, but the strong possibility of at least two of those three leaving after next season has Billy Donovan scrambling to find more interior depth.

Bennett could have been the impact big man Florida needed, but instead he's staying out West. For either Oregon or UNLV, that could be a huge boost.

UMass took a big step toward that goal Friday when it landed a commitment from one of the nation's best available transfers.

Derrick Gordon, a 6-foot-2 combo guard who averaged 11.8 points and 6.7 rebounds at Western Kentucky last season, announced via Twitter that he'll enroll at UMass in the fall. Gordon chose the Minutemen over A-10 rivals Rhode Island and Saint Joseph's and will have three years of eligibility remaining after he sits out the 2012-13 season.

"This was a long and hard decision for me...but now it's over," Gordon tweeted. "It's official I will be going to UMass!!!!....#UMassNation"

For a UMass team that won reached the NIT semifinals last year and returns its five leading scorers, the addition of Gordon only adds to the enthusiasm about the future of the program. UMass' best player, Chaz Williams, will be a senior when Gordon becomes eligible in 2013, giving the Minutemen potentially one of the nation's best backcourts that season.

The excitement about Gordon stems from his success as a freshman at Western Kentucky. He helped lead the Hilltoppers on an improbable run to the NCAA tournament, erupting for 25 points and 15 rebounds in the Sun Belt tournament against Arkansas Little-Rock and scoring 12 against Kentucky in opening round of March Madness.

The 6-foot-4 guard was messing around on the football field at the Big House on Wednesday afternoon and drilled a 56-yard field goal from the edge of the block "M" at midfield. A friend videotaped Novak's kick to prove he did it.

Novak modestly noted on Twitter that there's a huge difference between hitting that kick alone on a practice field versus with a defense barreling at you during a game, but that's still a pretty impressive feat.

The longest kick made in Division I college football last season was a 58-yarder by East Carolina's Michael Barbour on Nov. 26. What's more, Hayden Epstein is the only Michigan kicker ever to boot a field goal longer than 56 yards in a game.

The most amazing thing about Novak's apparent kicking prowess is that he never played organized football in high school. It was basketball and baseball that Novak had to choose between after excelling in both sports as a youth.

In theory, Novak could use a fifth year of eligibility to play football for a year the way ex-Duke guard Greg Paulus did at Syracuse. It's a long shot, of course, but the above video is a heck of an audition tape.

(Thanks, @GoodmanCBS)

That it's SMU who has reportedly added the Arizona transfer, however, makes it far more difficult to criticize.

SMU hasn't been to the NCAA tournament since 1993, didn't finish above .500 in Conference USA in any of former coach Matt Doherty's six seasons and has produced only one NBA draft pick since Jon Koncak in 1985. Even under new coach Larry Brown and his highly compensated staff, it's going to be difficult for the Mustangs to attract enough high-caliber players to compete in the Big East unless they're willing to take risks others won't.

And make no mistake, Turner is as big a boom-or-bust gamble as any available transfer this spring.

Hailed as the next great point guard in the Arizona lineage after he chose the Wildcats over Kansas, UCLA and Louisville among others, Turner struggled on the court and off during a disappointing freshman season. The five-star recruit lost his starting job early in the season, sat out a Dec. 6 game for disciplinary reasons and later was suspended for the rest of the season on the eve of the Pac-12 tournament.

It appeared to be Turner's nadir when Sean Miller asked him to leave the program for good last month, but he somehow managed to make things much worse. Campus police arrested Turner on suspicion of extreme DUI last week after he was stopped for driving through a red light and recorded blood-alcohol levels of 0.15 and 0.16 through a breath test.

Few lesser-talented players would even receive a second chance at the Division I level after such a trouble-filled freshman year, so Turner should feel extremely fortunate SMU is willing to grant him one. What's more, the 6-foot-3 guard will be playing for a man who has shown the ability to get the most out of athletes who are difficult to coach.

How well-suited Brown is to college recruiting at age 71 remains to be seen, but he has coached guys like Allen Iverson, Rasheed Wallace and Stephon Marbury at the height of each of their careers. Helping Turner stay out of trouble and tap into the flashes of potential he showed during conference play last season should be easy compared to doing the same for guys like Iverson.

One of the lingering questions about Turner is exactly how good he is. He averaged a modest 6.8 points and 2.4 assists per game at Arizona, hardly dominant numbers for a kid who arrived with the hype he had.

Perhaps a year off and a change of scenery will help. Perhaps he'll squander this chance just like he did his first one. Either way, one thing is for sure: SMU fans who want the Mustangs to field a successful basketball program in the Big East cannot blame the school for taking this risk.

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Still, it's safe to assume no player has ever revealed his decision quite the way Coastal Carolina transfer Sam McLaurin did.

At 2:29 a.m. ET Thursday morning, apparently after some moment of late-night clarity, McLaurin sent a crass yet hilarious six-word tweet that will surely be on the front of a bootleg T-shirt sold in Champaign next winter. The final three letters of the four-letter curse word are blacked out in case any innocent eyes are reading this.

McLaurin, who averaged 9.7 points and 7.6 rebounds as a junior last season, will be eligible immediately at Illinois next season since he is graduating from Coastal Carolina this spring. The 6-foot-8 big man should have an opportunity to crack first-year coach John Groce's rotation as an undersized low-post presence who shoots a high percentage and seldom strays far from the basket.

The language of McLaurin's tweet caused enough of a stir that he felt the need to apologize for it later Thursday.

"Hey everyone sorry about my language last night," McLaurin tweeted. "I was just extremely excited to be part of #illinination."

(Thanks, Shannon Ryan)

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Alas, with shortsighted decisions like the one administrators at Kentucky and Indiana made this week, can you blame many fans for choosing to ignore the majority of the regular season?

Indiana announced Thursday that it will not renew its series with Kentucky next season due to the Wildcats' insistence the games be moved to neutral sites rather than rotating between the two campuses. That means the series will take its first hiatus since 1969 in a year when the Wildcats are coming off their eighth national championship, the Hoosiers are likely to be next year's preseason No. 1 team and interest in both programs is at its zenith.

Uh, brilliant decision, guys.

"While we understand that such neutral site games could be quite lucrative, we think the series should be continued as it is, home and home," Indiana athletic director Fred Glass said in a statement. "Playing on campus enables our students to attend these marquee games which we believe is a great component of the overall college experience. Playing in the historic venues that are Assembly Hall and Rupp Arena is also a tremendous experience for our student-athletes."

The race to spin this decision as the fault of one side or the other had already begun even before Indiana's announcement was released.

Those in red point out it's likely not a coincidence Kentucky no longer wants to play in Bloomington the year after the Hoosiers upset the Wildcats in front of a crowd so raucous a few fans in blue got swept up in the ensuing court-storming. With Indiana back among the elite again, it certainly wouldn't be as easy for Kentucky to continue its recent dominance in the series if it has to play in that hostile atmosphere once every two years.

Those in blue counter that Tom Crean certainly has plenty of incentive to push for home sites rather than neutral courts. Not only did Indiana win 18 of 19 games at Assembly Hall last season, including upsets against top-five Kentucky and Ohio State, the Hoosiers might feel like they're in a road environment even in Indianapolis due to how well Wildcats fans typically travel.

The reality, as with most impasses, is both sides are to blame. And their timing could not possibly be worse.

At a time when conference realignment is already robbing college basketball of some of its premier rivalries, it's a blow to the health of the sport when two of its top programs can't figure out a way to compromise. Kentucky and Indiana will thrive with or without this game, yet it's absolutely idiotic for them to throw away a showcase game revered by fans of both sides at a time when both programs are finally strong.

Play it on campus. Play it in Freedom Hall and Lucas Oil Stadium. Play it on an aircraft carrier. But just play.

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In reality, it doesn't sound like the decision had anything to do with Jefferson.

Harris' father told USA Today that his son is leaving NC State because the coaching staff didn't give him the playing time he earned in practice as a freshman, but the argument becomes far less cogent as it goes along.

"It's not about shying away from competition, my son has never done that," Torrell Harris told the paper. "He loves to compete. He played well in practice and wasn't rewarded. He was good enough to hold an All-American (Kansas' Thomas Robinson) scoreless for seven minutes in the Sweet 16, but when the team lost six games in a row, they never changed their rotation to play him. He wasn't recruited by Mike Gottfried, and he wanted to play his players."

There are as many errors in the final two sentences of the above quote as in an average Little League game, so let's correct a few of them here.

First, NC State's head coach is Mark Gottfried, not Mike. Second, Harris didn't hold Robinson scoreless for seven minutes. The Kansas star had a layup and a free throw and outscored Robinson 3-0 during that span. Third, NC State never lost six straight games. It had a four-game losing streak in February against North Carolina, Florida State, Duke and Clemson. 

Amazingly enough, however, it's Torrell Harris' final assertion that is most preposterous. He claims Gottfried only played guys he recruited even though the first-year coach only had two such players on the roster last season: reserve forward Thomas de Thaey and reserve guard Alex Johnson

What's more, de Thaey averaged one minute per game less than the seven minutes a night Tyler Harris logged.

The bottom line is it's understandable Harris is transferring considering NC State returns starting forwards C.J. Leslie and Richard Howell and may land the promising Jefferson to be the primary backup. NC State's depth at the position will be thin if it doesn't have Harris and Jefferson opts for Duke or Kentucky, but the freshman has every right to do what he thinks is best for him.

And what's best for Harris might be asking his dad to let him handle all media inquiries from here on out. Whereas Torrell's comments to USA Today were ill-advised, Tyler could not have been classier on Twitter in revealing he was leaving.

"Thank you for everything Wolfpack it's been great, I'm going to miss being here and being with my bros," he wrote. "Thank you to the people who support me with the decision."

Przemek Karnowski, a 7-foot Polish center unknown to all but the most diehard fans, said on Twitter on Wednesday morning that he will attend Gonzaga in the fall.

Karnowski's subdued announcement didn't draw the attention those of Nerlens Noel, Shabazz Muhammad or Tony Parker did last month, but the few who have seen him play insist he'll make a considerable impact as soon as next season at Gonzaga.

Jonathon Givony of DraftExpress tweeted that Karnowski is a "McDonald's All-American-type recruit" who is more ready to contribute immediately than elite future Pittsburgh big man Steven Adams. ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla called Karnowski a "huge get" for the Zags and compared him with Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol. And in an email to Yahoo! Sports, Christophe Ney of EuropeanProspects.com said Karnowski will fit in well with returning Gonzaga stars Kevin Pangos and Elias Harris.

"Karnowski is a technically skilled and physical left-handed big," Ney said. "A real low post player, using a lot of fakes and moves. Mainly using his left hand to start his moves, often with a dribble. Likes to hit the turnaround jump shot. Good passer, sometimes a bit too much. Not very athletic but improving in terms of explosiveness.

"He should become a great target for Pangos drives but also create spaces with his shooting capabilities around the key for Harris."

European players sometimes can be overhyped before they arrive in the U.S. because fewer scouts and analysts get to evaluate them, but there's reason to believe Karnowski may be an impact player for Gonzaga.

Karnowski, 19, averaged 13.2 points and 6.2 boards for Poland in nine games at the U-19 World Championships last summer in Latvia, scoring 29 against Croatia in the tournament's seventh-place game. The two schools he visited last week were Gonzaga and Cal, but the likes of Duke, Kansas, Marquette and others each made failed late pushes to land him this spring.

What helped Gonzaga get Karnowski is the presence of Zags assistant coach Tommy Lloyd, one of the best European recruiters in all of college basketball. Lloyd, who previously plucked Harris from Germany, learned about Karnowski years ago and built a rapport with him long before most other staffs even knew who he was.

Gonzaga's need for Karnowski is obvious with starting center Robert Sacre graduating this spring. Harris, Sam Dower and Kelly Olynyk give the Zags versatility and experience in the paint, but Karnowski's size and mammoth frame is something the Zags would not be able to duplicate.

Ney believes Karnowski will have little trouble adjusting to the college level after playing all of this past season in Poland's top league alongside players who are older and stronger than him.

"He has huge international experience already," Ney said. "This is a huge advantage that he has."

Ohio State stars William Buford and Jared Sullinger found throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a Triple-A Columbus Clippers game Tuesday night to be a bit more difficult than they expected.

Buford air-mailed his throw badly enough that the catcher had to get out of his crouch and reach up over his head to snag it. Clearly that made Sullinger paranoid of doing the same thing because the NBA-bound big man then bounced his attempt a few feet shy of home plate.

By no means were these anywhere close to the worst first pitch attempts we've witnessed from athletes — point guard John Wall and gymnast Shawn Johnson are top contenders for that title. Nonetheless, Buford and Sullinger were bad enough that they both ribbed each other about it afterward.

"He definitely out-threw me since it almost went into the stands," Sullinger joked in a TV interview with NBC4i.com. "I was trying to be polite. I didn't want (the catcher) to have to jump up and catch the ball like William made him to do." 

If anyone was still clinging to the charming yet antiquated notion of Butler as college basketball's little engine that could, Wednesday's announcement the Bulldogs are joining the Atlantic 10 should finally shatter that myth once and for all.

Ditching the backwaters of the Horizon League for a stronger, more high-profile league is a step up in class the program has been building toward since even before the first of its back-to-back national title game appearance in 2010 and 2011.

Yes, Butler will have to upgrade its facilities, increase its guarantee game budget and keep recruiting at a high level to annually contend in the Atlantic 10, but that evolution was already underway long before Wednesday's news conference.

Twenty-six percent of Butler's athletic budget was spent on men's basketball last season, a commitment comparable to the 31 percent Gonzaga currently allots. The school extended coveted coach Brad Stevens' contract through the 2021-22 season at a salary believed to be more than $1 million per year and is in the midst of giving historic Hinkle Fieldhouse a $25 million facelift.

On the recruiting front, Butler also has altered its approach since 2010. Stevens still puts a premium on finding high-character kids willing to adapt to his "Butler Way," yet the Bulldogs have also recruited more well-known talent that would have been outside their grasp before the notoriety the Final Four runs provided.

They were a finalist along with North Carolina and Indiana for Cody Zeller, one of the nation's top centers in the 2011 class. They landed Arkansas transfer Rotnei Clarke, a sharpshooter coveted by many elite programs. They signed top 100 prospect Kellen Dunham in the Class of 2012. And they secured a commitment from top 100 power forward Nolan Berry and have offers out to at least a trio of other even more highly ranked Class of 2013 recruits.

A new practice facility and more charter flights to games are conveniences that would certainly help Butler regularly compete for high-level prospects, but the move to the Atlantic 10 can only assist that. While travel costs will increase because of the distance between Butler and some of its new conference foes, greater TV exposure and ticket revenue from regular visits from the likes of Xavier, Dayton and Saint Louis will likely make up for that and more.

If Butler can withstand the increased competition, the advantages to the Atlantic 10 over the Horizon League are plentiful.

Whereas the Horizon League has seldom produced multiple NCAA tournament teams in its history, the Atlantic 10 has regularly put three or four teams into March Madness in recent years. That increased competition will allow Butler to pick and choose its spots in non-conference play rather than loading up its November and December schedule with every high-major it can find in an effort to give itself hope of an at-large bid.

Butler wasn't winning the Horizon League every year, so it's unrealistic to think the Bulldogs will finish in the top two of the Atlantic 10 each season either. But this was a logical next step for Butler in its evolution from underdog darling to national threat.

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Nonetheless, the Irish have every right to be disappointed by the NCAA's callous decision not to give the senior forward back the season denied to him by an untimely ACL tear last November.

Abromaitis is an ideal representative for what NCAA officials like to say college basketball should be about even if the first season he redshirted was due to the limited playing time available to him rather than injury.

He's a three-time Big East Scholar Athlete of the Year, a two-time academic All-American and an active participant in various forms of community service. Since he earned a degree in finance a year ahead of schedule in 2010 and became one of the youngest ever to earn his MBA at Notre Dame 11 months later, coach Mike Brey joked in January that he might have to enroll Abromaitis in law school if he returned next season.

The NCAA always likes to insist it judges every situation on a case-by-case basis, but if Abromaitis isn't the type of kid worthy of an exception, who is? How many other all-conference caliber players can balance academics, basketball and a social life in the manner that he did?

Abromaitis, of course, is too classy to complain. He admitted to the Chicago Tribune that it's "disappointing" but insisted he will not appeal the decision because he "decided one rejection would be enough."

"Obviously I wanted to be able to come back for another year and finish my Notre Dame career on a better note," Abromaitis told the Tribune. "But it's not entirely surprising. I kind of went into this thinking it was a long shot from the beginning. We put a pretty good case forward, but I kind of have to live with the decision. I definitely wish it would have gone differently, but it's not entirely shocking."

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Both Abromaitis and Notre Dame will be fine in spite of this decision. Abromaitis will hire an agent and pursue a pro career and the Irish could have all five starters back from last year's surprising NCAA tournament team if Scott Martin wins his petition for a sixth year in the next week or two.

Still, it's hard not to think how special the Irish could be next season if Abromaitis were on the roster. He's not going to get to finish his college career the way he wanted to, and he deserves better than that.

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The Broncos' current plan is to stash all non-football sports in the WAC, a conference on life support now that Utah State and San Jose State appear set to depart and Texas State, Texas-Arlington and Texas-San Antonio are unlikely to join. Those moves would leave the WAC with Idaho and New Mexico State as its only football-playing members, along with Boise State, Seattle and Denver in other sports.

The WAC can survive as a basketball-only conference by adding the likes of Utah Valley State and Cal State Bakersfield, but that option doesn't make the rapidly deteriorating league any more attractive for Boise State.

Whereas San Diego State hoops can thrive in the Big West because it has accomplished enough to play a Gonzaga-esque non-league schedule that can keep the program in at-large contention, that's not an option for Boise State right now. The Broncos have shown signs of promise under coach Leon Rice, but they're not an attractive opponent for high-profile teams since they've still have made only one March Madness appearance in 18 years and have never won an NCAA tournament game.

Some of the young talent Rice is collecting at Boise State suggests a renaissance for the basketball program may not be out of the realm of possibility if the school can find a quality home for the team. That would require the school to renege on its decision to send the football team to the Big East, perhaps a more viable scenario now that the Mountain West has equal access to the future four-team playoff as former BCS-affiliated leagues.

If Boise State still believes the Big East's TV contract is too rich to justify remaining in the Mountain West in all sports, then the basketball program's options are limited.

The Mountain West won't accept non-football members. The all-California Big West doesn't want to expand its geographic print that far. The WCC turned down Boise State as well, preferring to stick with only private schools. The only other possibility besides the WAC would be the Big Sky, which isn't any more likely to produce at-large teams in the near future.

The demise of the WAC has certainly complicated Boise State's situation a bit. Football is certainly still king at the school, but administrators will have to decide whether joining the Big East in one sport is worth jeopardizing any progress the Broncos have made in their others.

Kentucky is a month removed from its eighth national championship. Indiana is seven months away from beginning next season as perhaps the nation's top-ranked team. And the two rivals split a pair of fiercely contested games a year ago.

Yes, everything is in place for the two regional rivals to play one of the more anticipated regular season games of the season next year except for one problem: The coaches cannot come to an agreement on where to hold the game.

Kentucky coach John Calipari wants the games be played at a neutral site in either Louisville or Indianapolis as was custom between 1991 and 2005. Indiana coach Tom Crean prefers the matchup rotate between the two campus sites as it has since 2006.

[Related: John Calipari receives a one-of-a-kind cake]

Unless the two coaches can solve the impasse or a third party steps in and solves it for them, there's an increasing chance the Wildcats and Hoosiers won't play next season for the first time since 1968.

"The Kentucky game is still being talked about worked on, but it's not set in stone because, as many of you know, Kentucky doesn't want to play on our campus anymore and that's certainly not our first choice," Crean told the Associated Press on Friday. "Keeping it on campus is without a doubt our first choice and always has been since I've been here."

There's no denying the big event atmosphere a Kentucky-Indiana game would have if played at a neutral site in front of a half-red, half-blue crowd, but it's also hard to believe that's Calipari's only motivation in pushing for the end of true home games in the series.

Is it a coincidence Kentucky no longer wants to go to Bloomington the year after Crean's Hoosiers upset the Wildcats in front of maybe the most raucous crowd in all of college basketball last season? With Indiana back among the elite again, it certainly won't be as easy for Kentucky to continue its recent dominance in the series if it has to play in that charged-up atmosphere once every two years.

On the other hand, Crean's motivation is likely no less selfish. Indiana won 18 of 19 games at Assembly Hall last season including upsets against top-five Kentucky and Ohio State, so having the series be home-and-home helps level the playing field with the Wildcats in case there are years when the Hoosiers are at a talent disadvantage again.

Which side blinks first may come down to who needs the other more, and unfortunately a case can be made that both programs can survive just fine without the game.

[Related: Kentucky's future is still bright despite loss of five starters]

Next season alone, Kentucky plays Duke and Maryland on neutral courts in addition to annual games against North Carolina and Louisville. Indiana gets Butler on a neutral court, likely UCLA and Georgetown in a preseason tournament, a marquee game in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge and potentially even a matchup with Kansas.

Regardless of the fact that neither program needs the other one, however, it would be an unbelievably shortsighted decision by either side not to find a way to make this series continue.

At a time when historic rivalries are dying in college basketball as a result of conference realignment, Indiana-Kentucky is a series that has a chance to flourish right now and help fill the void. Hopefully a petty disagreement won't stand in the way.

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All three were college basketball standouts who went on to change their athletic courses after graduating, earning livings on the gridiron.

Rob Jones has no interest in joining that list at the moment.

The former Saint Mary's forward, who averaged 15 points and 10.8 rebounds this past season in his second and final go-around with the Gaels, has turned down an invitation to try out at the Minnesota Vikings' upcoming rookie minicamp.

Over four collegiate seasons, first at San Diego, then at Saint Mary's, Jones made a name for himself as a versatile force in the frontcourt,  putting up big numbers despite being smaller than several of the trees he regularly banged against.

But even though a 6-foot-6, 240-pound frame might put him at a disadvantage as a power forward, it would give him a distinct edge as a tight end.

Still, Jones appears more interested in playing hoops professionally. He's likely not NBA-bound, but for a player with his résumé, he could make a nice living overseas for the next several years.

"I wanted to see where I can go with basketball first," Jones told CSNBayArea.com. "Two or three years from now, if I'm not where I want to be with basketball, I can still have that option.

"Football is intriguing, but it's really a decision I made five years ago."

Five years ago was the last time when Jones, 23, put on the pads.

As a senior at Archbishop Riordan High in San Francisco, he caught 33 passes for 499 yards and seven touchdowns. When he headed to USD to play hoops, he met the school's former football coach — and now San Francisco 49ers head coach — Jim Harbaugh. He even considered trying playing both before transferring, but both he and Harbaugh left before that ever came to fruition.

Jones is currently training in Houston in preparation for June's NBA draft, and he could be correct in that the same option could be on the table for him in a couple of years should hoops not work out.

After all, the power-forward-turned-tight-end trend isn't likely to die off anytime soon.

After Gonzalez and Gates paved the way over the last 15 years, Graham's emergence as a Pro Bowl tight end for the New Orleans Saints has been purely remarkable.

Graham averaged just 4.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game for the Hurricanes on the hardwood from 2005-06, but stayed on campus for a fifth year to try his hand at football. He caught just 17 passes in the 2009 season, but went for 213 yards and five scores, doing enough to intrigue many NFL scouts. He was taken in the third round of the 2010 NFL draft, and last season, in his first year as a full-time starter, caught 99 passes for 1,310 yards and 11 touchdowns. For a matter of just hours, before the mark was broken by New England's Rob Gronkowski, Graham was the NFL's single-season record-holder for receiving yards by a tight end.

What Gonzalez, Gates and Graham all had in common that translated so well onto the NFL field was not just a combination of size and athleticism, but all three had great hands and could time their jumps perfectly as rebounders. That made all three reliable threats — especially in the red zone — in the NFL. Jones led the West Coast Conference in rebounding as a senior, averaging 11.3 caroms per game in league play.

Graham certainly won't be the last to successfully make the transition. But, for at least the time being, Jones won't be the next.

Ryan Greene also covers UNLV and the Mountain West Conference for RunRebs.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanmgreene.

More sports news from the Yahoo! Sports Minute:

Before Brandi Romines could deliver the NCAA championship trophy replica cake she baked to Kentucky coach John Calipari on Monday morning, the Lexington resident had to endure one final nerve-shredding experience.

She had to get her creation to campus unscathed.

After laying the 22-inch high, 16-inch wide cake on a white sheet in the back of her SUV, Romines climbed in with it to hold it still for the entirety of the 20-minute drive. Her husband Shawn got behind the wheel, turned the air conditioning on full blast to prevent the cake from melting and drove so slowly and cautiously to campus other drivers were honking at him to urge him to go faster.

"My husband and I were both sweating bullets," Romines said. "It was nerve-wracking and exhilarating the whole way there."

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The anxiety-ridden journey proved worthwhile later Monday morning when Romines got to surprise Calipari with her cake in person. The Kentucky coach walked into a conference room for a meeting and asked why staffers were holding video cameras because he didn't initially realize that the replica cake on the table wasn't the actual trophy.

"Everybody laughed because he didn't notice at first," Romines said. "I said, 'Coach Cal, while everyone else was busy burning couches, I was dreaming of making a cake. I wanted to do this for you to tell you thanks because we're so thankful.' He said he couldn't believe it was a cake. He kept touching it. It was awesome."

It's no surprise Romines was so wary about damaging her cake considering how much time she spent making it.

[Related: Kentucky holds off Kansas to capture national title | Photos]

Romines, founder of Lexington-based Happy as a Lark Cake Creations, hatched the idea to make a cake in the shape of the trophy soon after Kentucky won its eighth national title earlier this month. Once she received permission from school officials to begin the project last Wednesday, she began gathering materials, printing pictures of the trophy and calling athletic department staffers to see if they could provide her with the exact dimensions.

Getting the cake to look as perfect as possible was so important to Romines that she spent 40 hours making it, working all through Sunday night to finish 5 a.m. Monday morning.

The oval base is made of cake. The structure is Rice Krispies Treats covered in modeling chocolate and fondant. The 11-by-5-inch glass section in the middle of the trophy is pure sugar melted with a blow torch. And all the lettering is hand-cut with a utility knife.

"It was a labor of love,"Romines said with a chuckle.

As a Kentucky alum and lifelong Wildcats basketball fan, Romines was honored to have the chance to meet Calipari in person. She initially assumed she'd merely hand the cake to an athletic department staffer to give to Calipari, so getting to talk with him and see his reaction to it was a great surprise.

"Just the thought that Coach Cal was going to see something I made and know that it came from me was so humbling," Romines said. "My hands were shaking as I was waiting for him. It probably took him 10 minutes to get to the conference room, and the longer it took him, the more nervous I got."

Yes, it was another nervous moment for Romines in a morning full of them. But for the chance to deliver a one-of-a-kind cake to her favorite coach, the stress was well worth it.

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James Johnson, Greenberg's top assistant, has accepted the job, multiple media outlets reported Monday.

It was Johnson's departure from Virginia Tech to Brad Brownell's staff at Clemson that helped trigger athletic director Jim Weaver's decision to get rid of Greenberg. Not only was Johnson one of three members of the Virginia Tech staff who left for other jobs this spring, he opted not to stay even after Weaver offered to match the raise Clemson was offering.

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What's most unusual about the hire is Weaver seemed adamant about wanting to make a clean break from Greenberg's regime. Johnson has a less abrasive personality than the energetic, high-strung Greenberg, but he was also a member of the Virginia Tech staff for the last five seasons.

"I want to change the leadership such that the person at the top of the program has the same kind of family environment our other programs have," Weaver said last week. "It became crystal clear to me last week we didn't have that."

The upside to the hire of Johnson is that it should diminish the potential of any major roster turnover.

Uncertainty regarding the coaching situation left Virginia Tech's current players and signed recruits unsure whether to ask for their release with only a week to go before spring semester final exams. Judging by forward Cadarian Raines' reaction Monday afternoon, the players are pleased that the new hire is someone with whom they're very familiar.

"Throwing a party tonight," Raines tweeted. "It's a great day to be a #hokie."

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Keeping the roster intact and adding Greenberg's final recruiting class should give Virginia Tech the opportunity to contend for an upper-division ACC finish and an NCAA tournament berth next season. The question in the long term about Johnson is whether he's prepared for the position despite a lack of head coaching experience.

What would probably benefit Johnson is to hire a veteran assistant with head coaching experience. Johnson is very familiar with the challenges of winning at Virginia Tech, but a trusted assistant who has been a head coach might ease the transition even more.

While many schools have fired their coach and hired an assistant on an interim basis, it's extremely rare for an athletic director to make the fired coach's top aide his permanent hire right away. Now it's up to Johnson to prove that Weaver's unusual decision was the correct one.

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Sophomore guard Terrell Stoglin, the ACC's leading scorer last year, has been suspended for the 2012-13 season due to a violation of the school's student-athlete code of conduct. Instead of serving that penalty at Maryland or transferring to another school, Stoglin will enter the NBA draft.

Maryland officials did not specify what rules Stoglin broke, but the severity of the penalty suggests he is a repeat offender. The school also suspended Mychal Parker for a year as a result of a rules violation, but the swingman already had announced he will transfer.

"Being a University of Maryland student-athlete carries a tremendous honor and responsibility," athletic director Kevin Anderson said in a statement. "As much as we appreciate the effort these two young men gave to the program this season, they were unable to live up to that responsibility. We're disappointed, but hope they use this as a learning experience."

Stoglin's decision to enter the draft is a risky one because he's projected as no more than a borderline second-round pick.

The 6-foot guard scored 21.6 points per game on a talent-starved Terps team last season, but he's undersized to play shooting guard in the NBA and he has yet to show the ability to distribute as a point guard. Furthermore, the red flags raised by this year-long penalty will also undermine his chances of a team offering him a contract.

For Maryland, the impact of Stoglin's hasty exit is a drastic reduction in expectations for next season. Whereas a top-four ACC finish and an NCAA tournament berth appeared to be realistic goals with Stoglin in the lineup, second-year coach Mark Turgeon may have to endure one more rebuilding year before that becomes possible.

Any chance Maryland has at the NCAA tournament will require a breakout season from sophomore-to-be Nick Faust, who showed promise late in his freshman year but now will have to be the Terps' go-to perimeter option. A six-man incoming freshman class highlighted by center Shaquille Cleare and wings Jake Layman and Sam Cassell Jr. will have to make an immediate impact as well.

The longterm health of Maryland's program remains promising with Turgeon recruiting at a higher level than Gary Williams did late in his tenure. Regardless, Maryland fans may have to be patient one more year before enjoying the fruits of that recruiting success.

Had Utah State been left behind among the dying embers of the WAC after Nevada, Fresno State and Hawaii all bolted, the school would have been one of the nation's biggest losers in realignment.

Instead the Aggies will now apparently have a more stable permanent home that will test its newfound football mettle and provide its basketball program the chance to achieve further national relevance.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah State will announce in the next week or two that it will accept a long-coveted invitation to join the Mountain West Conference. San Jose State will also reportedly trade the WAC for the Mountain West, giving the league 10 football members once again.

What the move means for Utah State basketball is an opportunity to compete in a league that should annually place multiple teams in the NCAA tournament.

Stew Morrill has found a way to frequently remain in the fringes of the at-large picture from the Big West and the WAC, but Utah State's margin for error was miniscule and its ceiling remained low. The Aggies have a 1-9 NCAA tournament record under Morrill and have seldom earned anything but double-digit seeds because a suspect strength of schedule outweighed gaudy regular season records.

That will change instantly in the Mountain West, which promises to still be a nationally relevant hoops conference despite the departure of BYU and Utah and the impending loss of emerging power San Diego State. UNLV and New Mexico have become annual NCAA tournament fixtures, Colorado State is poised to remain competitive under Larry Eustachy, Nevada has long been a solid program and rebuilding Fresno State is starting to stockpile talent.

Utah State can thrive among that group, especially if Morrill and his staff parlay the upgrade in leagues into a slight uptick in recruiting.

Morrill already had plenty to sell as a result of Utah State's winning pedigree and nationally renowned student section. Now he can also point to a league that top in-state athletes will be very familiar with since both Utah and BYU competed in it until 2011.

It'a no mystery just how badly Utah State wanted to escape the WAC, but athletic director Scott Barnes let his true feelings show at a press conference unveiling the Aggies' new logo on Saturday. As he referenced a picture of Utah State's new basketball court, he admitted only half-jokingly that he hoped to replace the WAC logos on both ends in the near future.

Nothing is guaranteed until pen hits paper in the topsy-turvy world of conference realignment, but it certainly looks like Barnes will get his wish sooner than later.

It came via text message Friday afternoon, and it highlighted the ugliest aspects of college sports.

You've got to hand it to Oriakhi's anonymous hater for covering all the bases in less than 30 words. Racial reference? Check. Curse words? Check. Death threat? Check. A spelling error most grade schoolers could avoid? Check.

[Related: College hoops transfers who should help their teams next season]

Most UConn fans are smart enough to know the difference between a traitor and a trader and to forgive Oriakhi for playing his senior year for a program eligible for the postseason, but sadly the clown who texted him is not alone. Oriakhi began receiving curse word-laden tweets the day he announced he planned to enroll at Missouri.

Some were from UConn fans decrying his lack of loyalty. Some were from fans of North Carolina, Kentucky and other schools he considered. The common thread was the foul language and mean-spirited insults from a bunch of internet tough guys who'd probably run screaming in the other direction if they ever encountered the 6-foot-9, 24o-pound Oriakhi in person. 

Oriakhi certainly isn't the only college athlete to be bombarded with vitriol after deciding to transfer to another school, but his experience highlights how hate mail has evolved in the social networking era.

[Related: College hoops transfers who will be missed by their teams]

No longer does an irate fan have to take the time to hunt down a player's mailing address or even take the time to scour the internet for an athlete's email. For better or worse, access to a public figure is just a Tweet, a Facebook message or occasionally even a text away.

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