Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk will wait on the NBA Draft and return for the 2016-17 season #kubball #RockChalk pic.twitter.com/dVvl7uK6Ue
— Kansas Basketball (@KUHoops) April 12, 2016
Coach and I been talking and I decided that I'm not gonna test and I'm excited to spend my junior year as a Jayhawk. Rock Chalk.
— Sviat Mykhailiuk (@Sviat_10) April 12, 2016
The 6-foot-8 Mykhailiuk, with Self’s permission, is planning on working out with one of Ukraine’s national teams this summer. Svi doesn’t know yet which team it would be or which international tourney he’d compete in for Ukraine.
“He said, ‘I am going to play for my national team this summer. I want to go there and really be aggressive and be a lead guy as opposed to a guy just playing minutes off the bench. I want to come back and want to be ready to hit the ground running in the fall,’’’ Self said.
…That leaves three available scholarships, four if Bragg decides to turn pro.
“I don’t know,” Self said, asked how many more he’d like to sign. “A lot depends on Carlton’s situation. We could maybe take one more and see what happens with transfers. I’m really liking the way our roster is taking shape,” Self added.
Bragg hinted strongly on Twitter on Tuesday night his decision was coming soon.
“You will know tomorrow,” Bragg tweeted to a fan who asked the Cleveland native if he was “coming back or not?”
It led to speculation Bragg could make his intentions known at tonight’s KU basketball banquet, which is sold out. That Twitter interaction between Bragg and the fan, by the way, had been deleted by late Tuesday night.
Diallo not on campus: KU banquet goers should not expect to see freshman Diallo tonight. He’s been out of state working out for the draft and not expected to be in attendance for the event.
“We don’t anticipate Cheick being back (for soph season). (It’s) not official yet, but we anticipate Cheick staying in the draft,” Self said. Diallo, who is considered a possible late first-round pick, is currently listed as the sixth pick in the second round by draftexpress.com.
LJW
Self said Mykhailiuk’s announcement affects KU’s recruiting, as instead of trying to scramble to find a perimeter scorer, the staff now has more security with a known player.
“It certainly takes some pressure off knowing that we couldn’t have recruited a better kid to come in our program right now than what we would with Svi being in our program,” Self said. “I’m excited about it. I really am. But I’m really more excited about it for him than for us, because I think he knows that he hasn’t been able to display his talent level consistently, and there’s been reasons for that, and we’ve also had some good players that were a little bit older and mature and things like that.
“I really feel like that he believes in his heart that next year will be the opportunity that will allow him to do that.”
Self said he talked openly with Mykhailuk about the potential positives and negatives of going pro. Though players are allowed to declare for the draft without an agent with no penalty, Self’s advice was to not do that simply to test the market; instead, he told him to declare only if he had real intentions of leaving if he received good reports from NBA personnel.
“The bottom line is, he feels like that regardless of how well he can do right now at this moment, it’s not where he’ll be at this time next year. And I agree,” Self said. “Svi should be a freshman right now. He’d be a young freshman, but he’d be a freshman. If you look at Svi as a freshman going into his sophomore year, who wouldn’t be excited about him? So I think he understands that.”
KC Star
Coming off the bench, Mykhailiuk and Brannen Greene often replaced junior guard Wayne Selden in the lineup. With both Greene and Selden declaring for the NBA draft and hiring agents, Mykhailiuk could be in line for an uptick in minutes, even with the Monday commitment of Jackson.
Mykhailiuk’s decision leaves freshman forward Carlton Bragg as the only pending player yet to announce his intentions. Fellow freshman forward Cheick Diallo has declared for the draft but has yet to hire representation. He can return to school at any point before the May 15 deadline, assuming he does not hire an agent.
TCJ
Set your DVR. Friday, 4/15, ESPN2 8 pm Eastern Jordan Brand Classic
http://jordanbrandclassic.com
On Nov. 15 at Madison Square Garden, Duke, which figures to be the preseason No. 1 team in most polls, will face Kansas, while Kentucky meets Michigan State.
Last November, there were more than 60 NBA personnel on hand in Chicago for this event, and you can bet that number will be matched or exceeded this year.
Duke's recruiting class includes Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum, Frank Jackson, Javin DeLaurier and Jack White.
Kentucky's incoming group includes De'Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Bam Adebayo, Wenyen Gabriel and Sacha Killeya-Jones.
Both schools remain in the mix for 6-foot-10 Marques Bolden, who could announce at anytime.
Despite missing out on Jackson, Sparty's class includes Miles Bridges, Cassius Winston, Josh Langford and Nick Ward.
And Kansas' 2016 crew now includes Jackson, Udoka Azubuike and Mitch Lightfoot.
To put in perspective what that group means, 11 of the 21 players named to Friday's Jordan Brand Classic will play in the Champions classic: four Kentucky guys (Fox, Monk, Gabriel, Killeya-Jones), three Duke recruits (Giles, Tatum, Jackson), two Michigan State signees (Bridges, Winston), one Kansas guy (Azubuike) plus Bolden.
Looking ahead to the 2017 NBA Draft, the projected top-3 picks on DraftExpress.com -- Tatum, Giles and Jackson -- will all be at the Champions Classic. So will the projected No. 8 (Adebayo), 14 (Fox), 15 (Bolden) and 17 (Monk) picks.
Jarrett Allen, the No. 8 projected pick, is also still considering Texas, Houston, Kansas, Kentucky, Notre Dame and North Carolina, so he could wind up at the Garden, too.
Zags Blog
Welcome to the family bro □□□@j_josh11 #KUCMB
— LaGerald Vick (@Vicklovekicks) April 12, 2016
Comparing Elite Guards from the Class of 2016 Efficiency during AAU play last summer pic.twitter.com/S9zyycYUCS
— Group Stats (@GroupStats) April 12, 2016
Some of the statistical categories where Josh Jackson was able to separate himself from other 2016 guards pic.twitter.com/VkP4ErUN8J
— Group Stats (@GroupStats) April 12, 2016
Technique work with a CleanProgression @dtaegraham DL • CleanPull • EmersonPull • HighPull • FrontSquat • FullClean pic.twitter.com/vuEEpJrqBk
— Andrea Hudy (@A_Hudy) April 12, 2016
“Pay Heed. The game you love began here. Respect those who came before you. Make their legacy your own. Because destiny favors the dedicated. And rings don’t replace work. In this game you don’t get what you want. You get what you earn. We are Kansas. Together we rise. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!”
BIG 12/COLLEGE NEWS
What: 64th Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, a showcase for top college seniors
When: Today through Saturday
Where: Churchland High
Tickets: $10 for each two-game night session; afternoon sessions are free.
TV: For the first time, all games will be broadcast; they’ll be online at ESPN3.com
Top prospects: Six players are ranked among draftexpress.com’s top 100 draft prospects, led by Texas center Prince Ibeh at 52 and Florida forward Dorian Finney-Smith at 53.
Worth watching: Stephen F. Austin’s Thomas Walkup became the bearded face of March Madness, leading the Lumberjacks to an NCAA tournament win over West Virginia and a near-upset of Notre Dame. Wyoming’s Josh Adams was the nation’s No. 3 scorer (24.7 ppg.) and Stefan Moody of Ole Miss was No. 5 (23.6).
The schedule:
Today – Mike Duman vs. Sales Systems, 7 p.m.; Roger Browns vs. Cherry Bekaert
Thursday – Tonight’s losing teams, 3:15 p.m.; K&D Rounds vs. Portsmouth Partnership, 7 p.m.; Portsmouth Sports Club vs. Norfolk Sports Club, 9 p.m.
Friday – Games at 3:15 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; teams TBA
Saturday – Consolation games at noon, 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.; championship game at 8 p.m.
portsmouthinvitational.com
Complete Player List
It’s a big win for the NCAA, obviously. More than a billion dollars per year for three weeks of college basketball is a lot.
It’s a big win for the NCAA’s membership, because that’s where 90 percent of the money winds up being distributed.
It’s a big win for Turner Sports and CBS, they tell us, because there only are so many elite events out there to be secured by major media companies as the distribution of entertainment continues to evolve.
The greatest victory, however, is ours, from the announcement Tuesday that Turner and CBS had extended their agreement with the NCAA for multi-media and marketing rights to the NCAA men’s basketball championship for another $8.8 billion over eight years, a term that runs until 2032.
Because those of us who love college basketball and the NCAA Tournament can expect to see the competitive structure remain intact for another couple decades. The NCAA Tournament, president Mark Emmert said, can be expected to remain a 68-team competition.
(And, as an added bonus, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus and Turner Sports president David Levy both indicated they would fix the abomination of the 77-minute bracket reveal on future selection shows).
Sporting News
One of the storylines of this year’s tournament was a decline in ratings. The Villanova-North Carolina championship game drew 17.8 million viewers, down 37% from Duke-Wisconsin (28.3 million viewers) in 2015 on CBS and the fourth-lowest viewership ever. Sports Business Daily reported 13.9 million viewers watched the final on TBS, while TNT drew 3.1 million viewers for the North Carolina Team Stream and truTV drew 772,000 viewers for the Villanova Team Stream. Viewing on mobile devices was up 17% for the tournament, according to the networks.
“This event really centers around matchups, storylines and the competiveness of the games and I think you saw in the first couple of rounds some major upsets, bracketbusters,” Levy said. “Then you saw teams did not make the Elite Eight or Final Four like Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Louisville—just to name a few big brands that did not make the finals. Overall, the tournament was down. I think this was an anomaly year. If you looked at the quarter-hour ratings of the national championship game, you saw it build and you saw social talking about it. There was a huge buzz with 10 minutes left and those last two shots were amazing. Would we have liked to have better ratings this year? Absolutely. But from a financial basis, all of our advertisers were made whole from the tournament and this was the largest financial year we had.”
SI
Big East commissioner Val Ackerman made headlines recently when she told Sports Illustrated the NCAA is contemplating letting student-athletes receive endorsement deals.
"[It's] actually under consideration, I believe, by the NCAA,” Ackerman said.
Interesting, right?
But here's the reality: I checked with the NCAA and was told student-athlete endorsements is not actually on an upcoming governance agenda, at this time. But it's worth noting that conferences can, over the next few months, submit legislation for consideration for the next cycle. So if Ackerman wants the issue of student-athlete endorsements to be under consideration, well, she is somebody who can theoretically make it happen.
And you know what?
I hope she does.
And then I hope others take a hard look at it.
Because it really is a sensible solution to a big problem.
CBS Parrish
ICYMI: The numbers are in, and college sports still has a diversity issue when it comes to hiring. https://t.co/hWynwtp3hq
— College AD (@collegead) April 12, 2016
"If I were going to quit," the Hall of Fame coach said, "I sure as the dickens wouldn't have seen four (recruits) in an 18-hour period last Thursday and Friday."
Williams held a season-ending news conference Tuesday, a little more than a week after the Tar Heels lost to Villanova on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in the title game. He said the goal was to "bring closure" to an emotional season with a veteran group that started the year as a preseason No. 1, eventually developed the toughness and fight he wanted, then fell one shot short of meeting its biggest goal.
"I don't think you ever get over it," Williams said. "I really don't."
Williams, 65, heard plenty of questions during the Final Four in Houston — and chatter during the regular season, too — about when he might retire. He had dismissed those questions as well as ones about his health, which increased in frequency after a rare public bout in February with the vertigo he has battled for more than two decades dating to his time at Kansas.
On Tuesday, Williams again said he's sticking around at his alma mater, saying he hoped to coach "until I can't."
"I don't know what else I can say," Williams said. "I mean, that (Villanova) game will have nothing do to with what Roy Williams does with the rest of his life.”
AP
Bobby Lutz has a new role at N.C. State, and Mark Gottfried’s coaching staff continues to get a makeover.
The school announced Tuesday that Lutz has been reassigned as a “special assistant to deputy athletic director for external operations.”
His new administrative duties with the basketball program will include assistance with the personal and academic development, housing arrangements, planning and logistics associated with the team’s foreign tour and other special projects.
Lutz, 58, spent the past five seasons at N.C. State, where he helped the Wolfpack make the NCAA tournament four times. Lutz is regarded as one of the best X-and-O coaches in college basketball.
…CBS Sports reported Tuesday that N.C. State is in pursuit of Florida Gulf Coast head coach Joe Dooley to take Lutz’s spot.
Dooley, 50, led the Eagles to the NCAA tournament this year, and his team won a “First Four” game before losing to North Carolina at PNC Arena in the first round. He has a 65-38 record in three seasons at FGCU.
Dooley, a longtime assistant at Kansas for Bill Self, was the head coach at East Carolina for four seasons from 1995 until 1999.
News Observer
The NCAA's investigation into the University of Louisville's men's basketball program is "pretty much over," head coach Rick Pitino said Tuesday on Bob Valvano's afternoon show on ESPN 680.
"I think it's behind us," Pitino said.
Pitino would not reveal if he has been interviewed yet by the NCAA's enforcement staff, saying the NCAA prefers that its members do not speak publicly about ongoing inquiries. ESPN reported in March that Pitino would speak with NCAA investigators sometime in April, though Pitino and U of L spokesman Kenny Klein each said at the time of that report that it was news to them.
Several former U of L recruits have reportedly been interviewed by the NCAA, along with Katina Powell, the author of the book that prompted the NCAA's investigation into U of L. Powell claims former U of L staffer Andre McGee paid her and other escorts to have sex with and dance for players and recruits from 2010-14.
LCJ
NBA Draft/Early Entry Guidelines for 2016
Find out the tournament history for specific seeds, teams, coaches or conferences.
NCAA Tournament Brackets and History interactive tool
CBS Interactive Tool: Pick two teams to compare record, RPI and SOS details head to head. By default, the top two teams in RPI are shown.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology/team-comparison
NCAA stats
Big 12 Composite Schedule & Results
RECRUITING
In a game featuring the top Canadian high school basketball talent, the biggest draw wasn't Canadian, didn't play, and would have you believe he's not in high school either.
Thon Maker of Athlete Institute Prep is the 7-foot-1 centre of attention from Orangeville, Ont., via Perth via Sudan who is defying convention and defining a potential new preps-to-pros loophole. After recently declaring for the NBA Draft, Maker withdrew from the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, and skipped the BioSteel All-Canadian game in Toronto on Monday night. He is awaiting a ruling from the NBA on his eligibility for the draft.
"I think from now on with him declaring and working with the NBA on his status, he considers himself to be training as a pro," said Jesse Tipping, who operates the Athlete Institute that Maker trained at in Orangeville, an hour's drive northwest of Toronto.
NBA Draft regulations stipulate a player must be at least 19 years of age and one year removed from high school to be eligible.
Trying to prove he's not a high-schooler then turning around and participating in high school showcases won't boost his case with the NBA. OFSAA, the governing body of high school sports in Ontario, does not recognize Athlete Institute Prep or Orangeville Prep as high school teams. The athletes take classes at nearby Orangeville District Secondary.
Maker's position is that he already graduated from high school the end of last year and even though he took some courses, this fifth "prep" year didn't count as high school. That didn't stop him from being named the 2016 High School Player of the Year presented by BioSteel at halftime.
Yahoo Sports
Terrance Ferguson, a 6-6 senior shooting guard from Dallas, who is ranked No. 12 nationally by Rivals.com, will announce his college choice today, ESPN reports. Arizona is considered the favorite with KU, Baylor, Maryland, North Carolina and N.C. State also on his list.
Ferguson committed to Alabama in the fall but reopened his commitment and has since visited Arizona. He last week said he wanted to visit North Carolina but has changed his mind and instead will announce today.
LJW
Recruiting Calendar (updated for 2016)
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