Coaching Carousal: Part 2011-04: Effects, Hits, Misses & Numbers

Effects -- Butterfly, Ripple or Domino?
When Villanova's Assistant Coach Chris Walker accepted a similar position on Billy Gillispie's Texas Tech staff back in April (announced formally only last week) Villanova Coach Jay Wright seized the opportunity to reorganize his staff. Though the process took just under two months and affected three coaches and two positions, Coach Wright's first step, completed in just over two weeks brought Navy Head Coach Billy Lange back to the Mainline as an Associate Head Coach. Lange, in his second stint on Coach Wright's staff, has taken an increasingly well-traveled road of head coach in a non-BCS program to assistant in a BCS program, the second to do so this off season alone. Lange's exit triggered a three job shift among D1 head coaching positions Villanova (Assoc. HC) <-- (Lange) Navy (HC) <-- (DeChellis) Penn State (HC) <-- (Chambers)Boston University (HC) <-- ?. The shift was unusual for the timing, coming so late in the cycle, but even more so for the number of head coaching positions opened, initiated by a head coach-to-assistant shift. Last season the Patriot League was ranked 24th of 32 D1 conferences by by Ken Pomeroy, the level where one would expect a coach to be named from a pool of assistant/associate coaches, rather than BCS-level head coaches. The circumstances of DeChellis' situation in Happy Valley played a large role in his decision to take a pay cut and change jobs. Clearly this was not the Butterfly Effect at work. Juwan Staten was slated to transfer from Dayton to Penn State prior to DeChellis' move, but instead signed with West Virginia, is an example of the Butterfly Effect (especially if he hits a shot that eliminates Villanova from the 2013 BET for example). The quick movement diagram (above) illustrates the moves as a chain reaction that typifies the Domino Effect, but given the number of coaches associated with the Philadelphia coaching fraternity, I would also suggest there was a Ripple Effect involved. Would Pat Chambers considered a BCS-level job this late in the cycle had it been located in Washington state? Would Penn State have looked at Chambers if Happy Valley were located in upper Minnesota? The influence exerted by the six D1 coaches coaches at Philadelphia schools (Drexel, La Salle, Penn, Saint Joseph's, Temple and Villanova) extends beyond the Delaware Valley and the state of Pennsylvania (to Madison, Wisconsin actually).

Hits & Misses?
The ACC saw an unusually high (four) number of vacancies this off season, 50% of the attrition can be attributed to terminations at Georgia Tech (Paul Hewitt) and North Carolina State (Sidney Lowe). Both coaches were on the hot seat going into the 2011 season. Interestingly, feedback about Paul Hewitt's and Sidney Lowe's replacements (Brian Gregory and Mark Gottfried repsectively) is (charitably at best) mixed. By general knowledge, Georgia Tech, with a large buyout on Hewitt's contract and huge capital expenses (facilities related) looming, may have been reluctant to go after a namebrand coach. North Carolina State AD Debbie Yow apparently believed a whispering campaign limited her pool of available replacements after she fired five year veteran Sidney Lowe, making Mark Gottfried, himself fired (in mid-season no less) from his last job (Alabama), the most attractive of the available candidates. She seemed to conveniently forget that the Wolfpack faithful practically ran off Lowe's predessessor Herb Sendak, and after a very public search marked by an embarrassing series of courtships and rejections, then AD Lee Fowler settled on Sidney Lowe, an NCSU graduate who was unable to translate consistently good recruiting into an NCAA bid in any of his five seasons at State. Sendak, with less attractive recruits, managed an NCAA bid in each of his last five seasons in Raleigh. Do the numbers support or contradict media perceptions that Gregory and Gottfried were basically misses? I dusted off Dan Hanner's Average Efficiency Margin method to compare the ex-coach and his successor...

	Average Adj.
Coach/Team/Yr	Offense	Defense	Diff.
P. Hewitt, Ga Tech/2004-2011	109.1	91.4	+17.7
B. Gregory, Dayton/2004-2011	104.7	94.7	+10.0

Those seeking an explanation for Tech's selection of Gregory -- beyond expense -- cannot look to an efficiency margin better than Hewitt's. Though Dayton's ex-coach boasts a positive double digit margin through his last seven seasons, it is well off (see above) Paul Hewitt's efficiency margin (in fact Hewitt's efficiency margin was better -- by 8.4 points per 100 possessions -- than Jim Larranaga, the GMU Coach whose move to Miami created the opening at George Mason). Fans at both Georgia Tech and Dayton shared a similar view of their respective former coaches -- good recruiters who seemed to do less with more. Hopefully each will find greater acceptance (and success) at their next stop.

Though Coach Gottfried had a ten year run in Tuscaloosa, Ken Pomeroy provides data for only six of those years (2003-08). I decided to compare the last five years of Lowe's and Gottfried's tenure at their respective schools. Though Lowe never made the NCAA tournament, Gottfried did in three of his last five years at Alabama (2003 -- Elite Eight, 2004 -- Round of 32, 2005 -- first round)...

	Average Adj.
Coach/Team/Yr	Offense	Defense	Diff.
S. Lowe, NCSU/2007-11	109.7	98.1	+11.7
M. Gottfried, Alabama/2004-08	115.5	96.0	+19.5

Gottfried might be the D1 coaching equivalent of Wally Pipp. The Crimson Tide of 2007 and 2008 had slumped from the high-water mark of 2003, the circumstances of Gottfried's "resignation" and the enthrusiasm surrounding Anthony Grant's early success have certainly combined to allow the Crimson Tide faithful to quickly forget about Gottfried's accomplishments. Being the third of three schools in the Research Triangle will be a challenge, but the circumstances at North Carolina State (public institution, football-centric) are similar to those at Alabama. Gottfried should do well there.

Radford Selects Jones, Boston University is on the Clock...
Despite speculation that focused on several former head coaches, the search to replace Brad Greenburg at Radford University settled quickly on the usual suspects -- assistant coaches from higher-level conferences within the region. 27 days into the search, Athletic Director Robert Lineburg introduced Mike Jones, an assistant coach at Virginia Commonwealth University out of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) as Radford's sixth Division 1 men's basketball coach.

Despite assertions that Boston University's search for Chamber's replacement would only take days, the process is now two weeks old with interim head coach Brian Daly (Assistant Coach under Chambers), announced June 3, holding down the fort. The post-Chambers press announcement candidate pool was an eclectic mix of ex-head coaches (Al Skinner), high-ranking assistant/associate head coaches (Mike Jarvis II & Orlando Vandross -- both of whom deny being contacted for interviews -- along with media favorite Richard Pitino, son of Louisville head coach and former Terrier head coach, Rick Pitino) and local sports names (Walter McCarty, former Celtic & Louisville assistant coach & former BU player Scott Spinelli) among others. When BU Athletic Director Mike Lynch fired 15 year veteran Dennis Wolff in March of 2009 he hired a search firm and took just under a month (26 days) to select and deliver Pat Chambers. Lynch did not initiate the process this time, did not hire a search firm and named Daly very quickly when Chambers left. Given how late in the cycle the opening was created, I would not be surprised if Daly leads the Terriers through the next season with the interim label attached to his title. Nor would I be surprised if Lynch tabs a head coach in the next week or so. I would be surprised, given Boston University's competitive standing in the American East Conference, if Lynch names a replacement after the start of the July recruiting period.

By the Numbers...
A single vacancy has been created since the last Coaching Carousal post, a bit unusual for me to post so quickly. The Villanova connection was too tempting to pass on however. The ebb and flow to this point...

		Vacancies
Period	Date	No.	Pct.
Regular Season*	02/26/11	2	3.6%
Conf. Tourn.**	03/14/11	18	32.7%
NCAA Tourn.	04/07/11	23	41.8%
Spring Sign	05/18/11	9	16.4%
Post Spr. Sign	Today...	3	5.5%
n = 55

* Regular season ending was arbitrary; I used the start of the earliest conference tournaments to mark the transition from regular season to post season play.
** Selection Sunday, March 14 this year, marks the end of conference tournaments & the beginning of post season program evaluations.

Turnover peaked during the NCAA tournament, typical given that most vacancies are initiated by the employer and conference tournaments and the NCAAs (and NIT, CBI, CIT, etc) mark the end of the season for viturally all of the Division 1 programs. 55 vacancies mark 2011 as the third busiest since 2002. Projecting a few more openings is not unreasonable, though the vacancy will be created by exigent circumstances (coaches behaving badly for example), with the AD either conducting a very quick (days, not weeks) search or tabbing an interim. 57? 58? Stay tuned.

2010 Legends Classic -- Six Takaways

Thoughts on the drive home
After blogging the Legends Classic Friday and Saturday for Rush the Court, I crossed over the Atlantic City causeway, merged onto the Garden State Parkway North earlier today and let my mind wander as the South Jersey landscape unfolded...

1. Tim Floyd is complicated -- He landed on my radar during his stint at Iowa State, though he held two D1 head coaching jobs before taking up the first chair in Ames. His drawl shows more west Texas and even big sky than Louisiana, as does his dressing pattern (mostly to brown-tones and flannels). And completely out of step with an image I had of the guy who mixed it up with the OJ Mayo crowd. The Legends folks had a hard time staying on their post game press schedule after the first semi-final game Friday. UTEP had lost a six point half-time lead to Georgia Tech, dropping the decision by 10 points, and twice they advised the press that UTEP was still in a "post game debriefing". The players and coach who appeared for questions were very subdued and used phrases like "poor judgment" and "leadership" throughout their opening statement and Q&A session. Floyd spoke softly, thoughtfully and modestly, that southern/western accent layered over his sentences like sugar frosting on a Hostess Cupcake and emphasized in subtle ways by his choice of phrases and word sequences. Was he as overwhelmed by the circumstances as his players appeared to be? Is this what happened at Southern California -- Country boy thrown under the bus by the sharpies, too modest and selfeffacing to stand up to them? The starting five the next day told a very different story. The coach benched his best candidate for All-CUSA Team and replaced him with a junior who average 4.3 points per game, and at the same time benched his (star) freshman center in favor of a senior who weighed 70 pounds more and averaged 11.0 minutes per game. And it worked. After beating John Beilein's Michigan team by 10 points in the Third Place game, Coach Floyd and his two "benched" starters appeared (on time) for the post game presser, exhibiting very different body language and attitudes about their performances. Randy Culpepper managed to play 30 minutes -- "I'll do what it takes for this team to win. Whatever the coach feels is best. It's not who starts, it's who finishes..." -- and showed the kind of athletic play and shot making that are often associated with players whose time is spent at schools with bigger budgets and better media exposure. The senior guard still took 16 field goal attempts, but he converted three more of them the second day and upped his first day point production (13) by 11 more (24). If he plays as smart for the rest of the season, he will be on more than one All-Conference Team. The freshman scored four more points and grabbed one more rebound than his previous outing.

2. John Beilein is going to have a very long year -- though next season may be more fun. When I saw the probable starters for the second semi-final game Friday I assumed it was a typo. Michigan had three freshmen (two "true" and one "redshirt") starters for their game against Syracuse. The John Beilein I remember from West Virginia (and Richmond) rarely had three freshmen as active players on his squad, much less in his starting five, because he routinely red shirts his freshmen players, having them simply practice with the squad for a year before stepping onto the court to execute his playbook against real competition. There were of course, exceptions like the just graduated Da'Sean Butler from West Virginia, who saw significant playing time, and even a few starts, as a true freshman. But that was how everyone knew Butler would be a special college player. He had to be, Beilein started him as a freshman. Since Canisius Beilein-coached teams have followed on of two possible arcs of development, the Canisius Model in which the team reaches it's highest point of development in the coach's second year, and the Richmond Model in which the team generally improves with each passing season (there are exceptions, but not many). Right now Michigan apprears to be in the Canisius Model, having made the NCAAs in Beilein's second season, and taken a step-back last season (Beilein's third. Three freshmen starters is almost a concession that the season will go for play development and not for conference wins or post season consideration. Too bad, because these Wolverines are talented, but maybe not as wise as other, earlier Beilein-coached teams about breaking down opposing defenses.

3. Memphis may have the players, but UTEP's coach will make CUSA a race -- See #1 above. UTEP has a very competitive roster, and if that squad buys what this coach sells, they should give Memphis all they can handle in conference play. The Miners will have to play road games in Hattisburg (Southern Mississippi), Birmingham (UAB) and Houston (Houston), but the Miners will host Memphis.

4. Tech might find a higher ceiling after Lawal and Favors -- Hewitt passed on the St. John's job last April (to the surprise of many in the New York media) and decided to stay in Atlanta. The reasons may well be named Brian Oliver and Glen Rice Jr. With Favors, Lawal and a lousy break with the conference schedule, Tech could do no better than 7-9 in the ACC last season, but Oliver and Rice should replace the points and keep turnovers down. With a more favorable conference schedule (and a few breaks...), the Jackets may be able to up that to win enough conference games to return to the NCAAs in 2011. Tech beat a good UTEP team and pressured an NCAA-quality Syracuse squad through most of their second game. Brian Oliver shredded the Syracuse 2-3 zone with a 6-11 three point performance. For the weekend games, Oliver converted 18-38 (9-19, 9-19) and 2-2 for an eFG% of 59.2%. He had five turnovers total between the two games. Rice was not as consistent as Oliver, but with Udofia and Shumpert, neither of whom as to be prolific night-in and night-out, the Jackets may, for any given game, ger enough point production to win their share of games.

5. The race for Big East Freshman of the Year is wide open -- Preseason choice, Fab Melo started both games and logged 14 minutes. He scored 0 points on 0-1 and 0-2 shooting. He will be better by season's end, but he will not be "All" Team material for another season, possibly two. Dion Waiters might keep it in the Syracuse family this year, the freshman played for 31 minutes in the two games, shooting 6-12 (1-5, 5-7) and 2-3 to score 15 points. Of course Jeremy Lamb (UConn), Vander Blue (Marquette), JJ Moore (Pitt -- not sure Talib Zanna, a red shirt freshman qualifies...) and Dwayne Polee (St. John's) might have something to say before the season is over. In 2007 Paul Harris was the preseason favorite by a large margin, but the #2/#3 found himself on the bench for large stretches by the end of the season, and Scottie Reynolds of Villanova emerged from a crowded field to take the honor. Would not surprise me if the winner is someone not named earlier (though at this point I think it is between Blue and Waiters).

6. Thanksgiving tournaments are not well attended -- something Ray Floriani noted in a conversation this afternoon. I think Thanksgiving is a family holiday (heaviest travel days of the year), and that takes a toll on attendance. I asked one of the folks from the Michigan Daily why the Wolverines had no cheering squad (UTEP was the only school that seems to have sent a squad), and they replied that the squad went home for the holiday. The games drew between 5,000-6,000 each night, where seating capacity in the Hall is about 13,000-15,000. The crowd looked thin in the upper ring, but was very loud and partisan for the Syracuse game each night, as Orange fans far over-matched fans from their two opponents (Michigan and Georgia Tech). Though the Tech fans, out numbered, did compete on sound level.

The Gazelle Group organized the event and did a great job of making material and the teams available to the press.

Puerto Rico Tip Off -- What We Learned

PR Packing List...Sneakers? Check. Unis? Check. Basketballs? Check. Defense? Check. Offense? Offense?
I managed to catch the final of the Puerto Rico Tip Off on Sunday, the third time this season I have been able to catch a Villanova game. The competition, Mississippi, a more talented and athletic squad than the first two I saw (FDU and Penn), gave the Wildcats a more competitive game. I wanted to see the 'Cats play without Mouphtaou in the paint. I had broken down the box scores from the first two rounds and, absent Yarou, the numbers were not what I expected. The Villanova team that went to Philadelphia International was an offensive juggernaut, able to score outside and inside with ease. The defense was terrific, coming along well, but the squad's calling card was an offensive assault that threatened to score from (literally) anywhere on the court. The staff has an array of scorers who can pass it inside to the low post where any one of three players can finish, quick guards who can scrape by a high post screen and take it down the lane themselves, or a couple of artillery spotters whose range runs from the locker room door in. If Scottie's motor was still warming up, there were nine other players in the rotation who seemed not at all shy about taking the shot, and more often than not, able to finish the play.

According to KenPom & Oliver...
I compiled a "four factors" look at the field, as they performed in Puerto Rico. The data is sorted by won-loss record and then by efficiency difference (Defensive Rating subtracted from Offensive Rating).

		Offense					Defense					Eff.
	Pace	Rtg.	eFG%	TO%	OR%	FTR	Rtg.	eFG%	TO%	OR%	FTR	Diff.
Villanova	75.7	96.5	43.2	23.1	39.8	54.7	88.5	45.1	24.0	24.3	48.8	8.0
Geo Tech	69.7	102.1	53.6	26.4	43.4	53.1	91.7	44.2	21.6	29.3	31.6	10.4
Mississippi	78.7	103.6	54.2	23.9	32.8	39.9	95.2	44.7	22.9	39.4	40.9	8.4
Kansas St.	71.7	110.0	51.0	19.9	40.4	72.0	107.5	53.1	21.4	31.0	52.7	2.5
Geo Mason	70.7	93.8	44.3	21.2	29.3	48.1	96.6	44.3	23.5	41.5	66.1	-2.8
Dayton	70.3	96.0	50.7	25.7	31.3	37.1	100.5	49.6	26.2	43.6	59.4	-4.5
Boston U.	72.7	95.1	39.7	19.1	29.4	58.2	106.5	52.3	18.3	31.1	55.9	-11.4
Indiana	75.3	90.2	43.1	21.5	31.9	42.5	100.8	46.5	22.9	38.2	50.2	-10.6
Average	73.1	98.4	47.5	22.6	34.8	50.7	98.4	47.5	22.6	34.8	50.7
Std Dev	3.0	6.0	5.2	2.5	5.2	10.6	6.2	3.4	2.1	6.4	10.0

For those curious about the stats used, check Ken Pomeroy's explanation. Since no team played even ½ of the field, and given early hour of the season, I am reluctant to use the weekend results to draw broad conclusions about what will happen in March (or February, or January, or...), but as a closed system & a twelve game sample played over a long weekend, I did find a few of the numbers and outcomes interesting.

Appearances Can Be Deceiving
Looking over the brackets when they were first announced, I thought Villanova's seed and draw looked a lot like the fuzzy end of a lollipop. George Mason is from the CAA, but the Patriots seemed to be a more difficult first round draw than Boston University, or even Indiana. Facing either Georgia Tech or Dayton in the 2nd round (win or lose) seemed to offer no reward for an upset in the other pairing. The opposite bracket teams however ended up with a better cumulative record (5-4 vs 4-5), Villanova's sweep, and Indiana's skid aside. The brackets split their 3rd round, crossover games(Villanova & Georgia Tech won, Dayton & Mason lost). Through the first two games of the season and a somewhat similar set of circumstances in 2008 (back court then instead of front court), it seemed Villanova had a scoring machine with certain defensive question marks. For those watching the games and breaking down the box scores though, the conclusion for this weekend is quite the opposite. Villanova took this tournament on the back of it's defense.

Virtually all four areas of Villanova's defense showed up last weekend. The Wildcats put up some very good shot defense numbers (eFG% under defense above) -- 3rd among the 8 teams and below the average for the tournament. Villanova forced turnovers (ranked 2nd in the field) while controlling the defensive boards. Their defensive rebounding was best in the field, and well above the average of the field. They did a credible job keeping their opponenets off of the free throw line, posting below the average numbers for free throw attempts per field goal attempts even as they were ranked 3rd in the field in that category. If the Wildcats did not win their George Mason game until their last possession, the Patriots had their worst rebounding day -- on both ends of the floor -- in 2010. Dayton may have been down 2 with less than 2 minutes to go, but the Flyers posted their worst shot conversion efficiency numbers of the tournament. And their rebounding, at both ends of the floor, was the also a team worst for the tournament -- by a large (7 - 10 points) margin. For Mississippi the story was much the same. The Rebs posted their worst turnover, shot conversion and offensive rebounding percentages of the tournament, indeed of the season.

Observations & Gross Generalizations
1. Georgia Tech's numbers coming out of the tournament are impressive, until you realize they posted 2/3s of those totals against George Mason and Boston University. The gaudiest of their numbers came compliments of a 22 point blowout of a Boston University team that was severely shot-challenged in that game. The Terrier's eFG% was 39.5, even as their offensive rebounding rate (OR%) was 21.8%, a very low rate indeed. Against the only experienced front court team they faced in the tournament, the Jackets' offensive only yielded 0.87 points per possession, despite strong offensive rebounding.
2. For newly minted head coach Pat Chambers and his Boston University squad, the tournament, despite the 1-2 finish, had some positive points. The Terriers dropped their opener to Kansas State by a respectable 10 points and beat high-major Indiana before being blown out (85-67) by Georgia Tech in the 5th place game. The Terriers are one of 3 teams expected to fight it out for the American East Conference bid to the NCAAs, and this tournament experience can only help.
3. Dayton has a lot of work to do, despite the lofty preseason reviews. The Flyers were a top 30 offensive rebounding and a top 75 defensive rebounding team last season, but were ineffective on the defensive boards in all three Puerto Rico games, and limited offensively in 2 of their 3 games. Dayton's defensive efficiency declined game-by-game through each round of the tournament, a troubling sign for Coach Gregory.
4. Indiana has a long way to go, despite strides by Coach Tom Crean in the off season. Crean is Indiana's 3rd head coach since Bob Knight's departure in 2000, each coaching turnover brings turmoil and distractions to the legendary program. While the Hoosiers were competitive their 2nd and 3rd round losses to Boston University (by 4 points) and George Mason (by 3 points), their 1st round blowout at the hands of Mississippi (18 points) suggests Coach Crean may have to recruit yet another outstanding class before the Hoosiers will have enough talent to turn the corner. This is supposed to be an up season for the Big Ten, so improvements may be unrecognized when the team record remains unchanged or only modestly changed from 2009.
5. The pace for the Villanova-Mississippi, at 85 possessions, was ridiculously high, exhibition-season high. Villanova has been playing games in the low-mid 70s, while the Rebels have been mid 70s into the low 80s. The game then, was played at Mississippi's pace. The Wildcats posted their best defensive "four factors" numbers of the tournament in that last game, especially heartening given Yarou's non-participation and uncertain medical status going forward. Despite having an incomplete rotation, and dealing with last minutes personnel changes, the squad responded well through the three games.

Early August Odds and Ends Around the Big East

The Dog Days of summer are approaching, but the basketball news continues...

Puerto Rico Tip-Off tidbits
Villanova's potential 2nd round opponent Georgia Tech reported that freshman forward Kammeon Holsey tore his ACL on August 1 and will undergo surgery Wednesday. Holsey will red shirt for the 2009-10 season. Holsey, part of the consensus best recruiting class in the country going into 2009-10, is not the biggest name in the group (that honor goes to consensus #1 recruit Derrick Favors), but his loss will be a blow to the Jackets, who are expected to be competitive in the ACC this season.

A possible 3rd round opponent Mississippi announced the return (and complete recovery) of guards Chris Warren and Trevor Gaskins, along with guard-forward Eniel Polynice, all red shirt injuries from the 2009 season. Warren, Gaskins and Polynice are expected to be cleared to resume all basketball activities within the next 2 weeks. Zach Graham, limited by a partial tear of his patella tendon, underwent surgery at season's end, and has according to Coach Andy Kennedy, made considerable progress and should be cleared before the beginning of the season.

Change in the Big East Tournament Format?
Kevin McNamara over at the Providence Journal penned an article for the Sunday paper that the Big East was looking at a Tuesday round that would match the #1 - #4 seeds against the #13 - #16 seeds in Madison Square Garden. The winners would "lay over" until Thursday when they would play the winners from the Wednesday round (#5 - #8 seeds matched against the #9 - #12 seeds). In this proposed format, the #1 through #4 seeds would trade a two round bye for a Tournament Week mini-break. Losing two of the four top seeds in their first outing (the quarterfinal game on Thursday), while a third, Villanova, needed a last (literally) second shot to beat Marquette no doubt provoked some second thoughts. And ESPN passed on televising the first round game, which I am sure played a role too. Under the proposed format teams #1 through #8 would play in the first days, giving ESPN a number of (possibly) interesting match ups to televise. The conference's Presidents will decide sometime in September.

Pittsburgh Picks Up Another pg
The Panthers accepted Centenary College's point guard, 5-11 rising junior Chase Adams, as a transfer for the 2009-10 season earlier this week. Adams, slated to be a senior with a single season of eligibility remaining, will have his one season waiting period waived because Centenary voted to downgrade to DIII last month. Pittsburgh blogger Chris Dokish fills out the details (and thinking) on this late summer "roster move" as part of a longer (and more detailed) look at the state of the Pitt program, over at the New Big East Report.

Jeff Goodman penned a late summer look at the Marquette Golden Eagles as part of his summer series. The staff will rebuild with a mixed bag of JUCOs and high school recruits, several of whom are well regarded, but for the most part flying under the national media radar.

Also from the New Big East Report blogger Zach Smart offers a look at the St. John's Red Storm. The lead in to Smart's piece not surprisingly, is Coach Robert's status. Smart provides a run down on old and new faces. To date the bloggers over at the New Big East Report have rolled out only 5 "summer reports". Better get busy guys, you need to start the official previews (late) next month.

Christmas on the Mainline?
Sorry could not resist. Speculation (and excitement) over Top 10 recruit, Class of 2011 forward Rakeem Christmas is rising as the 6-9 220 pound forward announced his short list of 8 schools. Villanova, along with fellow Big East member Georgetown are still in the running for the Philadelphia high schoolers verbal. Also on the list are elite schools Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Baylor. Looks like the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC are represented.

Puerto Rico Tip-Off Revisited -- 1st Round Games Announced

The organizers for the O'Reilly Auto Parts officially announced the 1st round game opponents and times, even as they posted a more detailed bracket (suitable for download). From the draw, it looks as if I was right on 3 of the 4 top seeds (and the top 2). Villanova (#1 seed), Kansas State (#2 seed) and Georgia Tech (I had the jackets as a #3, the organizers made them #4) were the good calls. The organizers opted for an all power conference upper bracket, giving the nod to the Rebels (Indiana would have been a hard stretch...), dropping consensus Top 25 (and A10 favorite?) Dayton to the #5 seed. The seeds then look like this:

Team	Seed
Villanova	1
Kansas State	2
Mississippi	3
Georgia Tech	4
Dayton	5
Indiana	6
Boston U	7
George Mason	8

The Big East designated again as the tournament host, so the Wildcats need pack only their home unis for the trip.

Puzzling that George Mason was chosen to play Villanova in the first round. Maybe there is some truth to rumors that Boston U and Villanova are negotiating a home game (for the Wildcats) for this season. There are still 2 TBD opponents in the Wildcat's 2009-10 schedule.