MONDAY

Kansas

Rustin C. Dodd (@rustindodd)
5/5/12 3:52 PM
Was just passed along word that Tyshawn Taylor, Conner Teahan and Jordan Juenemann will play in a KU Barnstorming event at Miege on May 11. (Dodd later tweeted Taylor may attend and not play)


Chalmers plays an important role for the Heat, and Wade said he and James are just trying to bring out the best in their teammate.

“I look at him sometimes, and I give him a hug,” Wade said. “We give it to him. And it’s only because we know how important he is to this team; we know how good he can be.”

Chalmers was at his best Thursday. Despite James’ badgering — or perhaps because of the badgering — Chalmers found his groove in the fourth quarter and made 3 of 4 shots from three-point range to help put the game away. The Heat, up 3-0 on New York in their best-of-7, first-round series, defeated the Knicks 87-70 in Game 3. Miami can sweep the series with a victory Sunday.

Chalmers finished with 19 points in Game 3, going 5 of 8 from three-point range and extending his double-figure scoring streak in the series. He has averaged 14.3 points this postseason after falling into a shooting slump during the second half of the regular season.

James might have been hard on Chalmers during the game, but afterward he congratulated Chalmers in the locker room on his big fourth quarter.

“[James] looks at me like a little brother, so some of the times he talks to me people might take it as offensive or disrespectful, but we have that type of understanding,” Chalmers said. “If he says something to me or I say something to him, he takes it as much from me as I take it from him.”

Wait, James takes criticism from Chalmers?

“I don’t listen to him,” James said, laughing. “I do tell him he’s right sometimes, but that’s just for his confidence.”

In reality, Chalmers doesn’t need any confidence boosters from James. Chalmers’ confidence level, known well throughout the Heat’s locker room, is actually part of the reason his teammates give him such a hard time. He can take it.

“That’s the one thing we all know about him,” Wade said. “At the end of the day, no matter what, we know that he’s tough. We know he’s a big-game-type player, and he’s going to be there when we need him; but it’s the little things in between we’re trying to work on.”
Miami Herald


Former Kansas University and current NBA basketball player Marcus Morris has entered into a diversion agreement with prosecutors related to a February incident at a Lawrence nightclub.

…Lawrence City Prosecutor Jerry Little said Friday that Morris had filed a diversion agreement and waived his right to a trial. Morris agreed to pay a diversion fee of $300 and $60 in court costs. He also agreed to have no contact with the victim and to not return to The Cave. Little said the diversion term runs for 12 months, meaning the case eventually will be dismissed if Morris fulfills those terms and stays out of further legal trouble during that time.
LJW


Katie O’Connor is returning to the Kansas University women’s basketball coaching staff.

O’Connor, who served 10 years under head coach Bonnie Henrickson, most recently at KU from 2005-11, spent last season as an assistant at Virginia.

She’ll replace Tory Verdi, who left KU to become head coach at Eastern Michigan.

“We are very excited to welcome Katie back to the Kansas family,” Henrickson said. “She is a passionate coach whose experience and knowledge will be beneficial for our program. Obviously, her familiarity with the Big 12 Conference and Kansas will also be huge assets.”

While O’Connor was at Virginia, the Cavaliers went 25-11 in 2011-12 and advanced to the WNIT quarterfinals for the second-straight season. O’Connor worked with the team’s post players, a role she previously held at Kansas and will take over once again upon her return.
LJW

Big 12/College News

The NCAA's increase in initial academic eligibility standards will take affect for the high school class that enters college in 2016.

An 18-member Division I Board of Directors, composed of university presidents, voted in an increase last October to start in 2015, but decided last week that by delaying the timeline by one year, it would allow for high schools and its students to become more familiar with the new initial eligibility standards.

…The current initial eligibility standards require entering freshmen to graduate high school with 16 core courses passed and have a minimum 2.0 GPA to be matched with an ACT or SAT score on a sliding scale.

In 2016, the NCAA will require the same 16 core courses, but stipulate that 10 of them be completed by the start of the student's senior year of high school and that all 16 are finished in four years. Also, the minimum GPA will be raised to 2.3.

A student-athletes who doesn't meet the new standard will spend his or her initial year of college as an academic redshirt, eligible to receive a scholarship and practice with the team but not participate in games. A student- athlete who is eligible after the first year will be left with four years to play four seasons.
Link


New Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby was prepared for the avalanche of questions he received Friday morning at the Big 12 office.

He had already asked all of them himself.

During Friday's introduction, he addressed the conference's stability, expansion possibilities and overall status. But before agreeing to become the new Big 12 leader, Bowlsby, 60, conducted his own interviews.

"I came in with some reservations, and those reservations were quickly put to rest," said Bowlsby, the former Stanford athletic director who visited all 10 Big 12 campuses before accepting the job.

"We had some very frank conversations about what the challenges were with the league and what the opportunities are with the league. I came away feeling very good about it."

First off, Bowlsby needed to know the commitment level of the Big 12's institutions.

"I, like many people, had a vision of this conference being unstable," he said. "What I found instead was a group of executive officers that was very committed to each other."

…"I think that expansion will be an ongoing point of consideration for us," said Bowlsby, who has been an athletic director for the past 29 years.
Link


Bob Huggins stole the show.

On an evening filled with good speakers, Huggins was the star of Thursday's Mountaineer Caravan, which saw more than 300 West Virginia University fans pack their way into J.P. Henry's Restaurant for a chance to meet Huggins, football coach Dana Holgorsen, athletics director Oliver Luck, Mountaineer announcer Tony Caridi and other members of the WVU athletic family.

"You know what I'm getting tired of?,'' Huggins asked. "All these sports writers asking me how we're going to adjust to being in the Big 12. I'm wondering how the Big 12 is going to adjust to us. We've been pretty good the past few years."
News and Sentinel


Guard Javarez Willis will transfer from Texas Tech to Ohio University, he announced on Twitter on Friday afternoon.

The Avalanche-Journal confirmed that Willis is leaving the Tech program, where he played for two seasons.
AJ


While attending the Big 12’s annual coaching meetings, one of the main things on Weber’s mind was scheduling. He asked his peers about what has worked for them and then thought back to the schedules that benefited his teams at Illinois.

He liked the ACC-Big Ten challenge, which guaranteed a quality home game every other year. And he tried to put the Illini in an early-season tournament yearly.

Though he wishes the Big 12 still had a scheduling arrangement with the Pac-12, Weber said he will do his best to find an extra entertaining game on his own.

Weber said he might also be open to playing teams from the Missouri Valley Conference, including Wichita State.

“It’s a hard game, obviously,” Weber said. “When I was at Southern Illinois I wanted everyone to play us, but when you’re at Illinois or at K-State it’s a tough game to play. It’s something that we will consider as we get established with our schedules and the program.”

Two practices he will definitely continue are scheduling games close to the hometowns of his players and signing up for a nonconference tournament every year.

Weber said he has already had discussions with the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, which would give Angel Rodriguez the chance to play in his hometown, as well as the CBE Classic and the Las Vegas Invitational. Weber also thinks K-State stands a good chance of being invited to the Maui Invitational for the first time since 1998.

To reach Kellis Robinett, send email to krobinett@kcstar.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KellisRobinett.
KC Star


According to a report from ESPN, K-State had the most profitable athletic department in the country during the 2010-11 fiscal year, bringing in more than $23 million in net income.

K-State ranked ahead of Texas, LSU, Alabama, Florida and Michigan. Other Big 12 schools to report profits included Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M. According to the ESPN report, which looked at 99 public schools that play football on the BCS level, only 19 athletic departments showed profit that year.

The $23 million reported by K-State is the difference between what the athletic department gets in revenue from donations, ticket sales, TV contracts and money from the Big 12 Conference and what the school spends on recruiting, salaries and other expenses.

"We've been successful because we've increased our revenue and managed our expenses," Currie told ESPN.

And though K-State does have a surplus, the numbers in the ESPN report are actually a little skewed because of the way the university reports its donations, something that can vary from school to school. In K-State's case, especially right now, the university is involved in two major facility upgrades — the basketball training facility and the renovation to the football stadium.

In a letter to K-State fans on Friday, Currie explained the ESPN story a little further by using an example of a $100,000 donation.

"If a donor pledged $100,000 to be given over five years at $20,000 per year for the basketball training facility, the (Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures) rules require us to include the present value of the entire $100,000 as current-year revenue, even though we actually only receive $20,000 in that particular year," he wrote.

In K-State's case, the athletic department received $26.5 million in donations, but some of those pledges are to be paid out over multiple years, despite being listed as fully paid one-time only donations on the fiscal report, making it look as if K-State banked about $23 million for the year.

The actual operating cash surplus for the 2010-11 fiscal year was really $3.67 million.
Manhattan Mercury


Weber said he's hardly discouraged by his tenure at Illinois, where he led the Illini to a 37-2 record during his second season in 2004-05 and the Illini lost to North Carolina in the NCAA title game. Even though he was coaching players who were recruited by his predecessor, Bill Self, it was still a magnificent performance by Weber.

Things gradually began to decline after that. Illinois failed to advance past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament during Weber's next seven seasons, and three times it failed to even earn a berth.

Last season, Illinois won its first 10 nonconference games and defeated Ohio State and Michigan State in Big Ten play but lost 12 of its final 14 contests.

Weber said things began to snowball once his players received word that he would likely be fired.

"[Otherwise] we would've made the NCAA tournament," Weber said. "It was really hard on our kids. They really took it hard. They could sense what was going on. I mean, kids cried in my office, on the phone.

"We had been very competitive, but that caused us to lose some of that sense of togetherness, a sense of a future or whatever. That's what gets you over the hump in some of those games. We didn't have it."

A few weeks before his ouster, during an emotional postgame news conference, Weber expressed regret about some of the decisions he made during his final few seasons in Champaign. He echoed those sentiments this week when asked what he learned in the face of adversity.

"Remember who you are," Weber said. "Recruit the kids you think you can coach. We'd always had success. We'd always had toughness and togetherness. Don't you try to do something outside of your personality. If I would've changed something, that's what I would've done."
ESPN


Kentucky Coach John Calipari will receive a raise after guiding the Wildcats to the N.C.A.A. basketball title. The university said it awarded an 8.3 percent increase annually in his guaranteed compensation over the remaining seven years of his contract, now worth $36.5 million. Calipari will receive $5.2 million annually from endorsements, base salary and retention bonuses for each of the next six years. The deal increases to $5.3 million in 2018-19. He can also earn up to $850,000 a year in performance bonuses.
AP


CBS: Big East commissioner has resigned


2012-13 Early Season Events List

Recruiting

Jabari Parker has representing the United States in Lithuania on his radar this summer.

He’s also working his way through the college recruiting process.

But this weekend, the top-rated basketball player in the country for the class of 2013 has been focused on succeeding in Fort Wayne.

Parker and his Mac Irvin Fire teammates are competing in the Bill Hensley Memorial Run-N-Slam All-Star Classic. The event wraps up today.

…Rivals.com, which rates Parker No. 1, lists Michigan State, Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio State and Kentucky among the national powers recruiting him. Schools in his home state – Illinois, DePaul and Northwestern – are also on the long list.

“I’m working my way and getting a cut down,” Parker said of the college choices. “I’m trying to narrow it down pretty soon so I can start taking my visits.”

He also has his eyes on the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship, which is June 29 to July 8 in Lithuania.
…Parker displayed a nice shooting touch Saturday against I-90 Elite. Mac Irvin Fire also won a highly anticipated game with Spiece Indy Heat.

“I’m working on my body,” Parker said of his summer goals. “I can always tone up and lose some fat. And also work on being a decisive scorer (and) scoring on every part of the court.”
Journal Gazette


Rivals: Parker and Young shine at Run-n-Slam


Rivals: Run-n-Slam Recap


Rivals: Stars shine in 2012 Mary Kline Classic


Alex Kline could be described as an under-the-radar prospect who surpassed his competitors to receive a high-major offer. That, of course, is recruiting jargon, a language Kline expertly speaks.

Kline is the 17-year-old impresario behind TheRecruitScoop.com, which in three years of existence has established itself as a highly authoritative observer of the college basketball recruiting scene. His reliable reporting has earned him 21,000 followers on Twitter, and on Monday, his upstart site will enter a new phase. That is when Kline, still in high school, will officially become a partner with Rivals.com and Yahoo Sports and take himself and his site to a new level of exposure.

“Sophomore year, I was just getting this stuff started in high school and I thought it would just stay the way it is,” Kline said recently. “Now, I’m about to graduate in a month, and I’ve gotten myself a national job.”

Kline operates in an ambiguous middle ground of basketball recruiting — part friend, part reporter, part evaluator. By his own admission, he is not a journalist. He has no aspirations to be a coach, and is not professionally trained as an evaluator. He is simply someone who develops relationships and accumulates information, then dispenses the information to three parties: college coaches, high school players and the general public.

“There’s no official way of describing it,” Kline said. “There’s the promoter side of me, there’s the marketing side of me, the journalism side, the professional business side. There’s no real word in the dictionary.”
NYT


ESPN underclass All-American watch list


Guard Mark Lyons decided to reunite with coach Sean Miller, and the timing couldn't have been better for the Arizona Wildcats.

…"I knew I wanted to be at Arizona, but I had to make sure I gave it a fair shot," Lyons said. "That was the great thing about me coming out here. … It was a great, great place. They showed me everything and I know what I'm getting in the coaches and the program. I'm going to come there and just try to win."
Arizona Daily Star


Four members of Team Thad, a Memphis-based AAU team sponsored by Philadelphia 76ers forward Thaddeus Young, took a visit to the Columbia campus on Saturday and each of them left with a scholarship offer, according to The Kansas City Star.

Among the group was four-star recruits Leron Black and Anton Beard, who were accompanied by 5-9 point guard Chris Chiozza and 6-7 forward Marcanious Hymon.

“All of them got offered today by Missouri,” said Team Thad coach Norton Hurd, according to The Kansas City Star. “I was excited for them, just like they were. But right now, they expect the offers. They’ve put in the hard work. Everybody is calling for them left and right.”

Black and Beard have offers from schools like Georgetown, UConn, Georgia Tech, Arkansas, Memphis and Tennessee, Hurd told The Kansas City Star. While each of the players have received Division I attention on their own merit, some reporters wondered whether Missouri’s play for all four teammates was a bit of gamesmanship too lure Black and Beard.
Sporting News


Spring/Summer Event Schedule


adidas Grassroots schedule


Nike EYBL Schedule


Check here for the NCAA Recruiting Calendar


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