Did you hear about the new coach at Creighton?
Just kidding. Anyone reading this site did, obviously. But there’s been other stuff going on in the world of Creighton (and college) hoops the past few weeks. Around the Rim brings you some interesting tidbits from the world of college basketball that you might have missed.
Creighton Items of Interest
Meet Coach McDermott and Other Creighton Coaches: This Friday night, Creighton is holding what they are calling “The Ultimate Tailgate” before the Bluejays take on Seattle at Rosenblatt Stadium. This is a chance to meet the different coaches from all Creighton sports, including new head basketball coach Greg McDermott. Free tickets are available, as is free food from Barley’s Tip Top, Union Pizzeria, and the Old Mattress Factory. Stop by between 5-7 p.m. and then take in a baseball game. RSVPs are requested.
Mac’s Militia: Speaking of the Ultimate Tailgate, White & Blue Review will be there. And we’ll be armed with a limited edition Mac’s Militia t-shirt. We all know that militia > army, and this is your chance to show your support for coach McDermott and the new era of Creighton Bluejays basketball. If you can’t pick one up at the Ultimate Tailgate event, you can always place an order online.
Kenny Lawson Returns: The senior-to-be flirted briefly with going pro. Actually, he said he just wanted to “test the waters” and have some professional personnel asses his game’s strengths and weaknesses. However, this year’s early entrants had pretty much one week or so to really get any workouts of any kind if they planned to return to school — in its infinite wisdom, the NCAA changed a rule that moved the date from mid-June to May 8. Lawson’s chances for meetings and workouts might have been hurt by the coaching change, but he definitely wasn’t the only one.
Dana Altman Greg McDermott Basketball Camp: Creighton’s annual summer hoops camps are still going on as planned. For the youngsters, the camp promises great instruction and the chance to meet players. For us adults, it offers an introductory glimpse of McDermott on the CU sidelines. Get all your info for camp here.
Tony Barone: Remember the days when Tony Barone stalked and sweated on the CU sidelines? That was before my time as a CU fan. But for those who hold fond memories of Barone and some of his Bluejays teams, his son Brian is now an assistant coach at Wisconsin-Green Bay. This article from the Green Bay Press Gazette includes some good information about the family’s history and miscellaneous anecdotes about Creighton.
Fish Turned Duck: As expected, Altman hired former CU assistant coach Brian Fish to his Oregon staff. Fish’s one-year deal will pay $200,000 and provide him a courtesy car or a $300 per month auto stipend — perfect for a recruiter! Plus, he’ll have reserved tickets for all Oregon athletic events.
Speaking of Oregon recruiting, Altman secured a commitment from Johnathan Loyd. DA tried to get him to Creighton, but apparently he signed with Oregon because he “didn’t want to play in that conference.” Nice.
Revving the Ferrarini: Ross Ferrarini spent last season as a Creighton hoops walk-on. He first splashed onto the scene with his own blog, complete with thoughts and stories from the basketball team. Now he recently took his interviewing skills on the road with an “exclusive” interview with a friend of his who runs her own sports blog. I guess he is trying to be the next Club Trillion. Everyone has to have their million dollar plan, I suppose.
Around the Valley
Northern Iowa: Following their successful run in the NCAA Tournament, the UNI Panthers now have some pseudo-household names. Ali Farokmanesh has been invited to play for the Iranian national team. Adam Koch is looking for his opportunity with different workouts even though he probably expects to play overseas.
Southern Illinois: If Chris Lowery isn’t feeling the heat going into next season, he probably should. After back-to-back disappointing seasons at SIU, the 2008 recruiting class hyped as the best in Saluki history now IS history thanks to the impending transfers of Anthony Booker and Kevin Dillard. The beat writers in Carbondale aren’t too excited about it, either.
Random News
NCAA Rule Changes: Each year the NCAA evaluates new rules to keep up with the changing face of the game. This year, there are three rule proposals that could have an effect on the game — flailing elbows, actually drawing the imaginary circle under the basket, and eliminating 3-point confusion by pushing back the women’s 3-point line to where the men have been shooting the past few seasons.
NCAA Play-In Games: People are still waiting to see how the expansion to 68 teams is going to play out. Do you just add 3 other games like the “Opening Round” game in Dayton where teams fight to be a 16-seed, or do you spark a little interest by taking the last 8 at-large teams in and let them battle it out? There is even talk that even though Dayton has hosted the opening round game since it started, that they won’t be hosting the new 4 opening round games. How do you think it should happen? There were at least two sites saying that Omaha should get at least one of the games. It is another opportunity to show off the Qwest Center.
JUCOs Don’t Graduate: A new report from the NCAA indicates JUCO players may be great additions to a team, but they don’t necessarily help academic progress results. The report finds that two-year JUCO players that transfer to a four-year institution are 15% less likely to graduate in six years than those that originally started at a four-year school. I don’t know any numbers of how well JUCO transfers have done at Creighton as far as actually graduating, but it is definitely interesting to see this information. The NCAA advertises that it has thousands of student athletes that go pro in something other than sports. But if these numbers remain low, how will the governing body handle the disparity?
Players Have No Power: Speaking of the NCAA… Although the NCAA continually markets its focus on the student-athlete, not just the athlete, there are a number of recent situations that have some people forming a different perception.
Read about Alabama’s Justin Knox having problems with his request to transfer to Alabama-Birmingham. He is being told he can’t transfer there because UAB is in the Alabama State school system, although others have done it without issue.
Coaches seem to be able to walk away whenever they want, but the players are sometimes stuck. At least UConn is doing something with Jim Calhoun’s new contract to require some academic accountability.
I guess you could always get rid of the whole National Letter of Intent. They don’t seem to have any usefulness these days anyway as players try to get around that system.
Immigration Laws: Arizona’s state immigration legislation has caused an uproar across the nation. From a collegiate (and, for the purposes of this site, college athletics) standpoint, the reaction is having an effect on the recruiting done by the state’s colleges and universities. Arizona is losing students in general because of the new law. Opposing coaches may use this law as a tactic to lure recruits to go to their school instead of one in Arizona. The threat that your family may be deported while you are going to school there has to be a bit intimidating, I would imagine.
Bill Self Boogie: Kansas Jayhawks head coach Bill Self was in town Monday night for Creighton’s annual Bluejay Bash event. The event is a fundraiser event that usually consists of a large golf outing with a dinner in the evening featuring the guest speaker. Mother Nature made sure no one played golf, but the dinner went on as planned. I’m sure Coach Self provided some great entertainment, but have you ever seen him boogie? Wow, that was some outfit.