After a long absence, Around the Rim is back. WBR’s first year has been busy, and we helped our friends at Rush the Court cover the MVC during the college basketball season. So we’ve been immersed in all-things Creighton hoops. But now that the offseason is here, we can turn our attention to the news, notes, and events happening around the college basketball landscape and how they affect Creighton and the Valley.
Some of these might be dated; they’ve likely been lost in the shuffle for awhile. Enjoy!
Twitter — Some interesting articles have come out about the people I have followed on Twitter over the past several months. The NCAA has some interesting rules on how coaches can use Twitter. What is of most interest is how it varies between the different divisions. As for the MVC, head coaches like Kevin McKenna and Cuonzo Martin are in the Tweeting world. Some Valley assistant coaches (like Chris Jans from Wichita State) and players (like Sam Maniscalco from Bradley) tweet, too. Very interesting stuff at times. I would be interested in how a Dana Altman Twitter account would read, wouldn’t you?
Guarantee games — Every season, Creighton brings schools in like Houston Baptist or Savannah State in what is termed a “guarantee game,” where the team coming in is in theory guaranteed to lose. In case you missed this during the regular season, the Mid-Major guru Kyle Whelliston had a good look into how guarantee games play out.
Tom Whitehead — Remember Tom Whitehead? He was a JUCO transfer that had a long journey to Division I basketball and was supposed to be playing for Creighton two seasons ago, but lost his scholarship before he even set foot on the court as a Bluejay. Anyway, he then decided to attend D-II Dixie State to finish his career. Last season he was a role player on team coming off the bench. This year he had a larger role as a starter. In fact, he helped lead his team to a share of their conference championship and into the NCAA Tournament before losing in the first round. Whitehead will still have a year left at Dixie State.
Pep Band — If you missed our feature last fall on the Creighton Pep Band maybe you can see the similarities and differences between them and Northeastern University. Whelliston again hits a home run with a very interesting view of things from our side of the court.
Mike Maker — Maker was an assistant coach at Creighton a few years ago and left to take over the reins of D-III powerhouse Williams College. Williams made the championship game and Maker was named the D-III coach of the year. Williams finished 30-2 on the season and just missed the championship. It was really too bad he didn’t stick around at Creighton.
Valley Expansion — With the talk lately of the Big 10 looking closely at expansion, changes could cause a ripple affect amongst conferences. Toward the end of the Valley season, there was talk about how St. Louis wanted to become part of the MVC. One take sees the ripple effect of that move if the MVC were to expand. The ironic thing is that this article was out before Butler made the amazing run this year in the NCAA and were sort of in the same conversation about whether the Bulldogs would consider a move out of the Horizon. After their NCAA run though, how does that look now? Probably not very likely.
Nebraska — We all love to poke fun at the Huskers just down the road from Creighton. So we will do it again. One writer sees the job as the head basketball coach a set-up for failure and that no matter what, Doc Sadler is setup to fail at Nebraska. I will say one thing: with football, volleyball, and now even women’s basketball ahead of men’s hoops in the pecking order at NU, Sadler is in what seems to be a slightly impossible position to succeed.
Fashionable Four — Finally, a bracket contest that matters!. Colleginsider.com hosted its own NCAA Tournament called the Fashionable Four, featuring a winner-take-all contest among college head coaches and assistants to judge the most “fashionable” in college basketball. Virginia Tech’s Seth Greenberg is writing blog entries as this tournament has gone on. You may be interested to know that Dana Altman entered as a #10 seed in the tournament and knocked off Mark Fox (Georgia) and Roy Williams (UNC) before getting booted by Buzz Peterson in the Sweet 16. The fact that Greenberg is still in it leads me to believe he will eventually win. This seems to possibly the only tournament he could win since he can’t seem to get the Hokies to the real NCAA Tournament.
Around the Valley
Southern Illinois — This is turning out to be an interesting offseason for the Salukis already. First, former guard Ryan Hare pleaded guilty to battery and received 18 months of probation and 75 hours of community service. It sounds like he is headed to Southeastern Community College in Iowa. Secondly, while SIU Arena and the football stadium gets a $41 million renovation, cutbacks and fee hikes are causing protests from SIU students as the university tries to figure out how to come up with the money to teach students. Finally, it appears that Kevin Dillard and Anthony Booker might be packing their bags and leaving Chris Lowery in the lurch.
Bradley — Apparently there were a lot of rumors flying around that Jim Les was fired as head coach, but turned out it was not true. It is always funny how rumors get started and go viral — even the notion that Dana Altman was a candidate for the Wake Forest head coach position. I said it last season, but definitely this year, Les has to be checking his seat because I am sure it is starting to get a little warm. And Les isn’t the only one feeling the pressure. Bradley students want a new mascot. How about bringing Jeremy Crouch back … he was in Peoria for long enough that he feels like a fixture of the Braves program.
Missouri State — The Bears have to give up a scholarship in basketball for the 2011-12 season due to low NCAA APR scores on graduation and performance in school by athletes. All four players from Cuonzo Martin’s first recruiting class in 2008-09 have since left Missouri State. That definitely doesn’t help their scores. But it should be an eye opener to others that the players you bring to your school should be ones you hope stick around.
