Last week, we discussed the story of DeAndre Daniels, the man of many recruiting classes. Daniels once belonged to the 2010 recruiting class, but family troubles stunted much of his high school career, and he decided to appeal and reclassify his recruitment as 2011, giving him an extra year to figure out his eventual college destination. According to ESPNU, Daniels is the No. 28 player in the class of 2011 . The 6-foot-8 small forward committed to Texas, and that was that. But last week, it appeared Daniels was reconsidering his college situation altogether. He decommitted from the Longhorns and reopened his recruitment, with one surprising caveat: A potential reclassification to the 2010 year that would have allowed him to start playing basketball as soon as this fall. Naturally, that got plenty of schools — with Kentucky the reported leader among them — excited. Turns out, that excitement was for naught. According to Jerry Tipton at the Lexington Herald-Leader , Daniels is in fact going to wait until the 2011 year to begin his college career. He will attend prep school to get “physically and mentally” ready for college, according to Tipton. Daniels’ trainer, Alex Parker, says Daniels had a 3.2 GPA in high school but was limited to “one solid year” of varsity hoops thanks to the aforementioned family issues. And there you have it. Daniels’ situation was one of those late-summer interest spikes that happen for two reasons. One, there’s nothing else going on. And two, everyone is always intrigued by the notion of a player bringing his game to college a year early. Unfortunately — or, perhaps for him, fortunately — Daniels is going to wait to introduce his.
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After wavering, DeAndre Daniels goes prep
Filed under Basketball by on Aug 24th, 2010. Comment. 
If there’s an exodus of five more Big 12 schools, the five remaining would be wise to remain together, according to a conference commissioner with experience dealing with expansion. The reason is simple: The five remaining schools — Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Baylor and Iowa State — would be due a huge payday and ultimately could salvage automatic berths to the NCAA tournament and possibly the BCS through expansion themselves. The commissioner, who didn’t want to be identified because he’s involved in the ongoing realignment of college athletics, said it would be critical for the leftover schools to maintain the Big 12 as an entity or corporation. “The assets, the amount of money that they would be due by exit fees back to the corporation would be huge,’’ said the commissioner. “Rather than dissolve the Big 12, they are better off as a Big 12 entity then moving to the Mountain West.’’ Colorado was the first to bolt the Big 12 last week, becoming the Pac-10’s 11th member. Nebraska followed later in the week to become the Big Ten’s 12th member. Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M are all mulling a potential offer to join the Pac-10 to form the Pac-16. A&M is also contemplating applying to become the SEC’s 13th member. But all of them aren’t ruling out staying in the Big 12 with the aforementioned five schools for a 10-team league. According to industry and network sources, that 10-team league would have more television value then a Pac-11 or Pac-12 (with Utah as the 12th). Regardless, the commissioner said the most likely remaining Big 12 schools could be due millions from each departing member, depending on how the legal side of each school works out the exit fees. The fee percentages change if the school gives a two-year notice or a one-year notice. Nebraska and Colorado are expected to join their new conferences for the fall of 2011. NCAA tournament appearance shares are paid going forward but stay with the conference if there is a change of membership. Schools don’t depart with that money, as was the case when three Big East schools left for the ACC several years ago. Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Iowa State and Baylor have so far appear to be ready to stay together. But that’s still a fluid situation and each member institution will still look for its best alternative if the other five depart — especially Kansas, which would be the most marketable to a power conference. A Kansas official told ESPN.com it has no plans on going to the Mountain West Conference and men’s basketball coach Bill Self has gone on record that the Jayhawks will be in a BCS conference. Meanwhile, the commissioner said that new Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott is taking a gamble if he doesn’t come back with Texas in an expansion model. If Scott is rebuffed by the Longhorns and thus by the rest of the Big 12 South schools and is forced to then just take Utah for the 12th member, it would be a major disappointment. Industry sources say that a Pac-12 that just adds Colorado and Utah doesn’t increase the value that much for the league in a traditional model of seeking a new television deal. The best-case scenario for the Pac-10 is to come home with Texas, a Pac-16 and a new television network that would rival the Big Ten Network. By the way, all 31 conference commissioners — including Scott, the Big Ten’s Jim Delany and the Big 12’s Dan Beebe — are scheduled to be in Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Monday night for the start of the Collegiate Commissioners Association’s annual meetings. The three-day meetings are sure to be interesting if the conference expansion moves are made mid-week in the middle of the meetings.
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Commish: Big 12 should exist regardless
Filed under Basketball by on Jun 14th, 2010. Comment.
The Morning After is our semi-daily recap post. Try not make it awkward. No. 6 Purdue 76, No. 10 Michigan State 64 : Well, now we’ve got a Big Ten race. As recently as eight days ago, it seemed an undefeated Michigan State team was primed to run away with the Big Ten. No more. Kalin Lucas sprained his ankle. The Spartans were blown out in Madison and then edged at Illinois. And Tuesday night, with a clearly laboring Lucas in the lineup, the Spartans couldn’t stop a balanced, thorough, complete Purdue team. That leaves us with a logjam at the top of the Big Ten, one that should provide plenty of entertainment as the season winds down, and one that ought to leave Tom Izzo and company less than thrilled. Then again, it was probably only a matter of time before Michigan State came down to Earth a bit, right? That’s not even the best way to phrase it, I guess, because a loss to Purdue doesn’t constitute some sort of statistical correction. The Boilermakers are just good . Robbie Hummel can score and direct from distance. E’Twaun Moore has what Steve Lavin might call a “complete toolbox, the hammer, the screwdriver, the bandsaw.” (I just made that phrase up, but it sounds like something Lavin would say, only less awesome.) Chris Kramer is one of the best perimeter defenders in the country. And, perhaps most importantly, JaJuan Johnson is becoming a dominant force in the paint. Johnson has been good in the past, but he hasn’t always gotten the touches his high level of efficiency should demand. He hasn’t needed to; Hummel and Moore and even Kramer can handle the scoring load just fine, thanks. But Johnson is a uniquely effective weapon for the Boilers. He can score in the paint, stretch defenses with outside jumpers and, on the defensive end, disrupt any interior shots with his freakishly long arms. (I hope that’s not mean to say. Those arms are freakish.) Purdue has its own flaws. It’s not a perfect team. But the Boilermakers are solidly balanced enough to play with anyone anywhere. Oh, and Michigan State fans? Don’t freak out. Your team is banged up and in the middle of the toughest part of their Big Ten season. There are worse places to be than 9-3. You’ll be all right. Probably. Illinois 63, No. 13 Wisconsin 56 : Don’t look now, but Illinois is 9-3 in the Big Ten. And don’t look now, but the way Illinois has put themselves in the thick of the Big Ten race after a shaky start is worthy of serious respect. Beating a Kalin Lucas-less Michigan State team at home is one thing. Going to Wisconsin and handing the Badgers their sixth loss (and their first-ever to an unranked team) at the Kohl Center under Bo Ryan is entirely another. Demetri McCamey deserves much of the credit — McCamey scored 27 points on an efficient 11-for-17 shooting Tuesday night, adding seven assists (though he did have five turnovers, which I suppose we can let slide). Forward Mike Tisdale was likewise efficient, scoring 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting. The Illini have plenty of flaws, and there’s no question they caught Wisconsin on a particularly bad shooting night — the Illini aren’t a great defensive team this year, at least not yet — but when Illinois is shooting this well, it’s hard to blame their opponents for their success.
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The Morning After: Big Ten in flux
Filed under Basketball by on Feb 10th, 2010. Comment.
The Morning After is our semi-daily recap of the night’s best hoops action. Try not to make it awkward. No. 1 Kansas 80, No. 14 Texas 68 : The act of sitting down, chatting on the Internet, and watching college basketball is nothing to complain about, so I’ll do my best not to complain about Texas’ ugly performance against No. 1 Kansas last night. You probably watched the game, so you don’t need me to recap it; things were close until Kansas went on a devastating 22-0 first-half run, essentially sealing the game before Texas really had a chance to get going. The Longhorns never really climbed back into it, and Kansas cruised to an easy win in a game that was supposed to decide the Big 12 regular season. Instead, it solidified one fact: These Texas Longhorns are a major disappointment. How did Kansas do it? A closer look at the advanced stats shows a relatively evenly matched game . The biggest difference was offensive rebounding. Texas usually bests their opponents on the boards, which has allowed them to get away with their otherwise stagnant offense these past few weeks. But last night, Kansas ripped 50 percent of its misses, while Texas could only recover 35.9 of theirs. Both teams shot about the same, and Kansas forced a few more turnovers, but there was your difference: The Jayhawks extended their possessions frequently and didn’t allow Texas to do the same. The result was the ugly show you saw last night. The question now is: Where does Texas go from here? Rick Barnes is apparently as confused about the Longhorns’ rotation as the rest of us . He also seems convinced that the Longhorns were better earlier in the season because he played his veterans more minutes, which, OK, I guess, except why did he do that ? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to play your young players early, give them some big minutes in some easy blowouts, figure out what you have, and save your most crucial minutes for your veterans in the thick of the Big 12 season? Instead, the Longhorns are giving big minutes to guys like Jordan Hamilton , who has yet to figure out his role (and is convinced he needs to shoot every time down the floor), and the team is suffering for it. Now is not the time to tinker. If Barnes wants to salvage this thing, he should take a few notes from the coach that just beat them — figure out your best rotation, set it in motion, and stick with it. The Longhorns don’t have that cohesion. For the fifth time in three weeks, it showed. No. 5 Villanova 82, No. 4 West Virginia 75 : Everyone who saw this coming, raise your hand. All right, put your hands down. Because you’re all lying. Sure, some of you probably liked Villanova to come in a steal a really tough Big East road win at West Virginia. The Wildcats are very, very talented, and there’s a reason their first conference loss didn’t come until Saturday. But the Cats had to fend off a bad loss at Georgetown, travel to West Virginia in the midst of a brutal East Coast snowstorm, play one of the most athletic, efficient teams in the country, and do so in front of a crowd that on any given night may or may not throw loose change at your eyeballs. This was a daunting task. And Scottie Reynolds and Villanova delivered. Villanova did two things most teams usually can’t do against West Virginia. The Wildcats prevented offensive rebounds (or, at the very least, kept up with the Mountaineers on the offensive glass, negating WVU’s huge advantage there) and shot really, really well, finishing with a 61.8 percent eFG and scoring 1.17 points per trip. On a night when I assumed West Virginia’s size and athleticism would be too much for Nova — especially on WVU’s offensive end; who would guard the Mountaineers’ bigs? — the opposite was true. West Virginia couldn’t handle Nova’s quickness, and Jay Wright’s team finished when they had to. Everywhere else : Siena edged Fairfield to go to 14-0 in the MAAC … Butler beat up on Chicago rival Loyola for their 13th straight win , tying Murray State for the second-longest winning streak in the country (the aforementioned Siena has won 15 games in a row, and currently wears the belt) … Robert Morris gave Pitt a run in the first-half — our live chat commenters were all over that during WVU-Nova — but Pittsburgh opened a gap in the second half and cruised to a relatively easy win … and Murray State nearly suffered their first loss in the MEAC, finding themselves down five to Bethune-Cookman with 4:34 remaining in the second half before scoring five straight points and edging a 48-47 win on two late free throws .
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The Morning After: Texas-sized letdown
Filed under Basketball by on Feb 9th, 2010. Comment.
