Congrats to Coach Howard for joining the party. Guess we are all ready to go for next season now.. #10straight
@LandenLucas33
SMU assistant basketball coach Jerrance Howard is Bill Self’s choice to replace Joe Dooley as full-time assistant on Self’s Kansas University basketball staff.
Howard, 33, who played for Self at Illinois from 2000-2003, is expected to be named in a news release sometime today, once all the university paperwork is complete.
“We have talked seriously the last few days, but nothing officially has been done. If everything comes true, it’s what I’ll do,” Self said Wednesday, referring to hiring Howard.
…KU soon may be officially in the market for a director of basketball operations. Doc Sadler, according to various published reports, is a leading candidate to become a full-time assistant on Fred Hoiberg’s Iowa State staff and soon could be named to that post.
Self said he has not begun looking for a replacement.
“Doc is with his family on vacation. He is currently visiting with some people about some different opportunities. I’m sure he’ll have a decision real soon on what he’s going to do,” Self said.
Self said recently he believes Sadler would want either a head coaching or full-time assistant’s job next season, meaning he likely would not be back at KU.
…Self said seven members of his eight-man recruiting class would be starting summer school at KU next week. Andrew Wiggins will visit with Self in Canada this weekend about his summer schedule.
“We think Andrew will come at some point in time (to school this summer). We don’t think it’ll be now. We’re going to put the calendar down and look at everything,” Self said. “We’re going to visit with he and his family to generically talk about laying out the summer and what plans are and that kind of stuff.”
LJW
Howard, 33, is nationally regarded as one of the top young assistants, particularly when it comes to recruiting. He was instrumental in helping SMU land four-star shooting guard Keith Frazier, the first McDonald's All American in school history. He also helped the Mustangs sign coveted center Yanick Moreira, the country's top-ranked junior college post player.
Howard replaces longtime Kansas assistant Joe Dooley, who left last month to become the head coach at Florida Gulf Coast. Dooley had been with Self since he arrived in Lawrence back in 2003.
It may seem surprising that Self filled the vacancy by plucking one of the top assistants from Brown's staff. Self views Brown as a mentor and close friend, and Brown has always been among Self's top supporters.
Self, though, was determined to make the best possible hire to replace Dooley, who was one of KU's top recruiters. He specifically wanted someone who could fare well in the state of Texas.
Howard certainly fits the mold, and it doesn't hurt that he's close friends with Brooklyn Nets star and former college teammate Deron Williams, a Texas native.
Howard also gained vital experience recruiting talent-rich Chicago during his time at Illinois.
ESPN King
Howard spent the past year at SMU, where he helped the Mustangs land their first McDonald’s All-American in Dallas shooting guard Keith Frazier. But Brown, who counts Self among his close friends, said he didn’t hire Howard solely for his recruiting abilities.
“He's a head coach now in my mind,” Brown told ESPN.com in 2012. “He has everything you want in a head coach. He had a tremendous background with coach Weber, Bill Self, Billy Gillispie. He loves basketball. He loves coaching.
“If you look at everywhere I've been, everyone has become a head coach. I look at Jerrance the same way. If someone had a coaching opening, I would recommend him in a minute. He has the whole package.”
TCJ
5/29/13, 4:23 PM
I have a feeling Bill Self's going to hit the Powerball number soon. Stay tuned!
@franfraschilla
Less than two months after being hired to replace Andy Enfield, the New Jersey native with the slicked-back hair is fitting in quite nicely in Fort Myers, where the only thing he loves more than the beautiful surroundings is his new job.
Dooley couldn't have inherited a better scenario.
…Dooley's name surfaced as a potential candidate at other schools nearly every offseason. But each time he chose to remain in Lawrence.
"After our fourth year at Kansas, I had a couple of opportunities," Dooley said. "My wife said, 'You've talked all this time about wanting to coach in the Final Four and winning a national championship. You're so close.' She made a great point.
"Then all of a sudden we won it all in Year 5 and had to retool it in Year 6 after losing eight guys. I just got immersed in it. I just put my head down and kept working until the right opportunity came along."
…Now 47, Dooley said his experiences in Lawrence prepared him for what's ahead at FGCU.
"[Self] reinforced a lot of things I believed in," Dooley said. "What he does the best job of … he gets on guys, and gets on them hard, but then he can bring them right back [mentally].
"He wouldn't settle, and he wouldn't let players settle. He wouldn't give an inch about things that mattered. It made those guys want to get tougher and more competitive. He brought a confidence to those players without being arrogant."
…"A lot of the actions that they ran offensively were similar to what we did at Kansas," Dooley said. "Seriously, who threw the ball at the rim [for a lob] more than we did at KU?
"Their stats got better as their defense improved during the latter part of the season. A lot of their lobs were in transition. A lot of their highlights came because of steals and broken plays on the other end. They were very good off of ball screens. I think the style is very similar. We'll tweak some things, but there is no reason to make a major overhaul, either."
ESPN
The high-profile challenge games between the ACC and Big Ten and the SEC and Big 12, neutral-site single games and neutral-site tournaments are making it harder for elite programs to set up true home-and-home series. Take Indiana, for example: The Hoosiers will play Notre Dame in Indianapolis at the Crossroads Classic, go to Syracuse in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and play in the 2K Sports tournament with Connecticut, Boston College and Washington. That gives the Hoosiers four games away from Bloomington -- probably enough for a program that has to fund a number of sports. Kansas is one of the few top-10 programs that still plays true home-and-home series. KU had a series with Ohio State that wasn't tied to anything, and now has one with Georgetown. The Hoosiers have one game left to give, but likely will buy a home game instead of starting a new series on the road.
ESPN Katz
100 basketball strength coaches met at the Mendenhall Center on UNLV’s campus for a seminar geared to help everyone involved.
“A gathering of the minds,” said Jason Kabo, the UNLV men’s basketball team’s strength coach.
This is the sixth year for the event, headed by Utah strength coach Charles Stephenson, but the first time it’s been held at UNLV. Stephenson recently left North Carolina State for Utah, which led to him looking for a West Coast destination for the seminar. Enter Kabo, who was more than happy to host the event.
Not only did Kabo enjoy making sure the gathering went off without a hitch, he also sees the brand benefit of making UNLV a destination for some of basketball’s best in the business.
Some of the panel speakers included Kansas’ Andrea Hudy, Baylor’s Charlie Melton and VCU’s Daniel Roose, whose work to prepare players for the Rams’ “Havoc” full-court press is far from traditional. Kabo said Roose uses very few weight room workouts, instead having his players run drills like bear crawls across the court while pulling 45-pound plates.
Other speakers highlighted the benefits of TRX Suspension training or the different ways to use a Keiser machine.
The best drills, Kabo said, started with one coach explaining something, like how she warms players up before a game, and then people from the group offering up their own variations. Because while Kansas likely will have better athletes than Virginia, Hudy can still learn a new trick from the Cavaliers’ Mike Curtis, and vice versa.
“That’s the whole premise behind it,” Kabo said.
Las Vegas Sun
NBA.com VIDEO: Travis Releford
http://www.nba.com/nets/video/teams/nets/2013/05/26/526relefordMOV-2488517/index.html
Big 12/College News
5/29/13, 12:41 PM
Any study that would identify Texas as a top-10 basketball fan base might want to examine its methodology.
@austin_meek
I hope they got an F on this analytics drivel
Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn is resigning after eight years in charge of a Buffaloes program that struggled on the football field and soared in hoops.
In an email sent to his athletic staff and acquired by The Associated Press, Bohn wrote: "They want to go in a different direction and that is their prerogative. This is a very disappointing, troubling and shocking development as we have made so much progress together over the past 8 years."
His resignation is effective June 3. The university announced late Tuesday night that former CU women's basketball coach Ceal Barry will be the interim director of intercollegiate athletics upon Bohn's departure.
Bohn also wrote in his email to the staff: "I want to ensure you know, as my official separation agreement states, that I have not engaged in any impropriety, NCAA rule violations, university policy violation or any immoral, dishonest, or other sort of misconduct."
AP
A straight shooter. That is what you get when you talk to WVU men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins. You will not get a sanitized, politically correct answer that skirts around the question, you get the facts.
At the recent WVU Coaches Caravan in Princeton Huggins was asked to talk about the school’s first season in the Big 12. He had a three word answer.
“Well, it sucked.”
Huggins continued, “We were awful. I think we learned a lot. We didn’t know as much, I don’t think, going in as maybe we thought we did. The style of play was different. Officiating was different. Travel, of course, was different. We’re going to have to do a lot better job with adapting to the way they want you to play in the Big 12.”
West Virginia’s first year in the Big 12 was a tough one as the Mountaineers played to a 6-12 conference record and 13-19 overall mark. Four players have left the Mountaineer program since season’s end and Huggins does not see that as an indication the program is in disarray.
“They probably weren’t as successful as they wanted to be and probably weren’t as successful as we wanted them to be and I think everybody has to be happy,” Huggins said. “I’m not one who thinks transferring is a terrible thing. I think if you can transfer to a level where you’re productive and where you’re happy, I think that’s a positive thing.”
Link
It didn't take Jason Collins for Jallen Messersmith to come out as gay.
Messersmith is a 6-foot-7 shot-blocking specialist from tiny Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan. He also is believed to be the first openly gay active player in U.S. men's college basketball.
Messersmith told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he revealed his sexual orientation to his coach last summer and his teammates before the season. He later told his story to Outsports.com, a website that covers gay issues in sports, and its story was posted Tuesday -- a month after Collins, a Washington Wizards reserve, came out in a Sports Illustrated article as the first openly gay active player in the NBA.
…The 20-year-old from Blue Springs, Mo., will be a junior for the Ravens next season. He appeared in 28 games this past season, starting the last eight, and averaged 4.9 points and 3.6 rebounds. He blocked 53 shots, and his average of 1.89 a game ranked third in NAIA Division I.
Messersmith said he comes from a basketball family. He also plays piano and likes to draw in addition to playing video games and listening to music. He's an accounting major who is involved in student government and serves as manager for the Benedictine women's lacrosse club team.
Messersmith said he's received more than 100 texts, emails and messages through social networks since Tuesday, one from as far away as South Africa. He said he couldn't imagine what the public's reaction would be if he played in a major-college basketball program.
"For sure it would be a bigger story, and this seems pretty big," he said.
Link
At a time when college athletics is overrun with rogue agents, unscrupulous coaches and handlers who exploit athletes for money, it's reassuring to know not every unrepentant rule-breaker goes unpunished.
Hearty congratulations to the NCAA for penalizing a student-athlete from a West Coast Conference school for the unspeakable crime of washing her car with the university's water and hose.
Portland basketball coach Eric Reveno tweeted about the violation Wednesday after he learned of it during conference meetings, punctuating his message with the hashtag #stopinsanity. A spokesman for the WCC did not know any further details, but a source familiar with the circumstances revealed what happened.
A WCC school self-reported an extra benefits violation to the NCAA when university officials caught one of their women's golfers washing her car on campus, according to the source. The NCAA ruled a secondary violation had occurred because the water and hose were not available to regular students and requested the golfer pay back $20, which was deemed to be the value of the water and use of the hose.
That school administrators actually reported the violation and NCAA officials followed through with a penalty is equal parts hilarious and exasperating. What's next? Charging athletes by the sip at drinking fountains? Or by the gallon after locker room showers?
Yahoo
2013-14 Early-season events schedule
Recruiting
In no particular order: My final 8
Arizona
Baylor
Duke
Illinois
Kentucky
Kansas
Michigan state
Ohio state
@jahprobound
Congrats to Howard Pulley's Tyus Jones (@Tyusjones06), your 2013 regular season leader in points, assists & steals #EYBLHallOfFame #RESPECT
@D1Circuit
Baylor is working on the Okafor/Winslow/Jones visit for Aug. 30 but it's "not 100%," source tells @SNYtv. @Tyusjones06 said he is going
@AdamZagoria
A top priority for many college programs, Winslow will consider 10 destinations: Arizona, Baylor, Duke, Florida, Houston, Kansas, North Carolina, Stanford, Texas A&M and UCLA. He insists he’s still considering all of them equally. Although other schools continue to reach out to him, he said he hopes to narrow his list at least down to seven before USA camp starts.
Though Winslow briefly touched on his options, he made it clear that he has a lot to take care of before committing.
“I gotta figure out what I want,” he said. “Every school’s been recruiting me real hard. I’m looking for good academics, somewhere that can contend for a national championship and develop me for the next level, and somewhere I’m comfortable.”
Winslow has also been part of the speculation surrounding the connected decisions of top 2014 point guard Tyus Jones and elite center Okafor, whose desire to play together has been well-publicized. Winslow said he has spoken with them about joining forces, as did Chicago’s monster of a big man, Cliff Alexander.
Still, all four of them have some thinking left to do. And though any potential team-up between them is an exciting prospect, Winslow made it clear that his own decision will come first.
“We all just gotta do what’s best for ourselves,” said Winslow. “And if that means going to school together, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Zags Blog
Here were the top 10 things I learned from the UA Invitational.
1. If you haven’t bought stock in Turner, it’s not too late
Here was my situation with fast-rising 2014 big man Myles Turner: You hear the buzz all spring long and know it won’t be until mid-May when you can see for yourself. You’re getting more impatient by the weekend and then you finally see your target and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Turner is in the midst of developing his basketball ego. He’s good, getting better and has the ceiling of a top-10 player in the Class of 2014. Defensively, you have to account for his ability to alter shots and block the rest. Inexplicably, his guards don’t let him eat often enough, but when he feeds off the scraps it’s a good look. This is a prospect who’s essentially running downhill and by mid-July, in my opinion, he’ll have one of the most impressive school lists you’ll see all summer.
ESPN Insider ($)
Arizona
Baylor
Duke
Illinois
Kentucky
Kansas
Michigan state
Ohio state
@jahprobound
Congrats to Howard Pulley's Tyus Jones (@Tyusjones06), your 2013 regular season leader in points, assists & steals #EYBLHallOfFame #RESPECT
@D1Circuit
Baylor is working on the Okafor/Winslow/Jones visit for Aug. 30 but it's "not 100%," source tells @SNYtv. @Tyusjones06 said he is going
@AdamZagoria
A top priority for many college programs, Winslow will consider 10 destinations: Arizona, Baylor, Duke, Florida, Houston, Kansas, North Carolina, Stanford, Texas A&M and UCLA. He insists he’s still considering all of them equally. Although other schools continue to reach out to him, he said he hopes to narrow his list at least down to seven before USA camp starts.
Though Winslow briefly touched on his options, he made it clear that he has a lot to take care of before committing.
“I gotta figure out what I want,” he said. “Every school’s been recruiting me real hard. I’m looking for good academics, somewhere that can contend for a national championship and develop me for the next level, and somewhere I’m comfortable.”
Winslow has also been part of the speculation surrounding the connected decisions of top 2014 point guard Tyus Jones and elite center Okafor, whose desire to play together has been well-publicized. Winslow said he has spoken with them about joining forces, as did Chicago’s monster of a big man, Cliff Alexander.
Still, all four of them have some thinking left to do. And though any potential team-up between them is an exciting prospect, Winslow made it clear that his own decision will come first.
“We all just gotta do what’s best for ourselves,” said Winslow. “And if that means going to school together, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Zags Blog
Here were the top 10 things I learned from the UA Invitational.
1. If you haven’t bought stock in Turner, it’s not too late
Here was my situation with fast-rising 2014 big man Myles Turner: You hear the buzz all spring long and know it won’t be until mid-May when you can see for yourself. You’re getting more impatient by the weekend and then you finally see your target and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Turner is in the midst of developing his basketball ego. He’s good, getting better and has the ceiling of a top-10 player in the Class of 2014. Defensively, you have to account for his ability to alter shots and block the rest. Inexplicably, his guards don’t let him eat often enough, but when he feeds off the scraps it’s a good look. This is a prospect who’s essentially running downhill and by mid-July, in my opinion, he’ll have one of the most impressive school lists you’ll see all summer.
ESPN Insider ($)
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