Transfer Update: Georgetown

With Vernon Macklin transferring to Florida (I can’t believe he’s leaving because of competition with Greg Monroe, as some seem to intimate), and Jeremiah Rivers also transferring, Georgetown is beginning to look like a young team. From the Hoya:

With the graduation of four seniors, the Hoyas are left with just four players who played significant minutes last season — junior guard Jessie Sapp, sophomore forward DaJuan Summers and freshmen guards Austin Freeman and Chris Wright….

Rivers scored a career-high nine points in a December game against Fairfield, and he added four rebounds and five assists. He dished out a career-high seven assists in the first round of the NCAA tournament his freshman year against Belmont.

In addition to the four returning regulars, Georgetown will bring in four highly-touted recruits. Three big men, highlighted by 6-foot-10 Greg Monroe, will be joined by 6-foot-2 guard Jason Clark, who rivals.com lists as the 12th best shooting guard in his class.

And the Washington Post:

Rivers is the fifth player to leave Georgetown since October 2006. All five players — Josh Thornton, Marc Egerson, Tay Spann, Macklin and Rivers — were part of Thompson’s first two recruiting classes at Georgetown. Only Sapp and Summers remain with the team.

I can’t come up with a reason why the men’s college basketball scene has been so volatile in the past few years; I don’t remember this many transfers in the 90’s, and coaches still got fired, players still were dissatisfied with their playing time.

Does the volatility have anything to do with the one and done players in school? Guys like Greg Monroe - and yes, he’d be a little less of a straight-to-NBA lock as Derrick Rose and OJ Mayo would have been - will demand playing time from the coaches because of their talent. And future one (or two) years-and-done players will see where they will get the best exposure/ playing time mix for scouts to project them to the next level.

That doesn’t at all speak to the transfers among the middle and lower level schools; are there problems with athletes staying eligible? Are they committing to schools to early? Or are the players acting like amateur free agents, looking for better or more secure places to maximize their ballin’ years?

Whatever it is, there seems to be something going on.

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Keno Davis to Providence?

Both the Black Padres blog and CBS Sportsline’s Gary Parris are reporting that the much celebrated Keno Davis, 38 and off of a successful season getting Drake to the NCAA Tournament as a 5 seed, might be the next coach at Providence. Just in time to spend a week trying to pull recruits out of the ether. Don’t know why he was the 4th or 5th choice there.

Update on Tyshawn Taylor

Quick update about one of the recruits Tom Cream had coming to Marquette before he decided to leave for Indiana.

New Jersey’s Tyshawn Taylor is a quick, talented guard… the kind teams like St. John’s covet. He is (was?) also a Marquette recruit. Northstar Basketball blog caught up with Taylor:

I just spoke to Taylor about the breaking news regarding the Marquette program, and about what his future will be. “It was a shock to me, . . . I’m kind of shocked. . . . I didn’t really know [that this was going to happen],” said Taylor of Crean’s departure from the university for IU. I inquired as to whether or not Taylor would seek a release from his Letter of Intent to the school, to which he replied “I don’t know, . . . I’m not sure. . . . I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it. . . . I’m going to talk to my coaches about it. . . . I have no idea, . . . I want to see what coach they bring in. . . . If a coach comes in and changes the style [of play, that would not be something I'd like]. . . . I want to go to Marquette. . . . I love Tom Crean.”

I followed that up by asking him if he’d consider following Crean to Indiana, and he said, “I don’t know, . . . I just want to see what he’s thinking.” Tyshawn told me that he “hasn’t talked to [Crean] yet.” I questioned Taylor about what schools he would look at if he was let out of his LOI, and he answered saying “I don’t know. . . . I don’t know what schools are really interested.” He informed me that prior to choosing Marquette, his other finalists were “Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, . . . North Carolina and Kansas,” and that “those were the five schools [he] planned on visiting,” though he only got to check out “Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech,” along with Marquette.

More of North Star Basketball’s conversation with Tyshawn Talyor at their website.

Update:

Tyshawn Taylor is looking to get out of his letter of intent (LOI). The new coach will be able to re-recruit him, but Coach Bob Hurley wants him to have options; Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech both are interested (again). Of note is how Hurley mentions how Rutgers and Seton Hall are not in the mix (and can’t be, because of rules restricting a player to signing an LOI with only one school), but doesn’t mention St. John’s. The Red Storm are minor.


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Tom Crean to Indiana.

The Marquette fans are sad, understand, and are listing coaching candidates as we speak.

I still can’t believe this is an April Fools joke. Well, some pros and cons:

PROS:

Indiana is a big name. Recruits on the big name. Is broadcast like a big name.

Fertile recruiting ground like none other.

Long tradition and deeeep pocketed boosters.

Weaker conference (y’all know the Big East is a gauntlet)

Has a shot ot Terrell Holloway and Tyreke Evans, former Indiana commits.

CONS:

Marquette is the place where Crean made his name, and he is the man; At Indiana, he will receive scrutiny like nowhere else.

No returning starters.

Slight threat of NCAA sanctions thank to Kelvin Sampson.

If his team slips, there is no run of impressive sounding Big East wins to fall back on: compare this second tier string of victories -”Ohio State! Illinois! Purdue!”to

“Syracuse! Pittsburgh! Notre Dame!”

That’s a real late start on recruiting, though.

The school’s basketball program is still under the long shadow of Bobby Knight.

Meanwhile, I am sure Sean Miller and Brad Brownell’s phones are a-ringing right about… four hours ago. And Keno Davis’ too. More to come in future posts.

Tom Crean’s coaching career notes here and here.

St John’s 07-08 Year In Review Part O-Prequel

This year, the dwindling numbers of people who watched St. John’s games were:

- long time die hards
- recruits looking at the former Redmen
- players’ relatives
- watching the other team look incredible in winning.

It wasn’t a particularly pretty year from the jump, but the 7 man freshman class (and redshirt freshman Rob Thomas) was expected to give some hope for the future. They were athletic! They were local! They were the hard work of recruiting and recruiting the right way come home to roost!

They spent much of the year getting their heads handed to them in demoralizing losses. Coach Roberts was on the hot seat coming into the season, but the administration saw something they liked, and as of this writing plans to give the coach an extension so he can see his rebuilding project through. Broken or not, it remains to be seen if Coach Roberts can shore up the team’s deficiencies enough to put up the kind of record that will keep him employed at St. John’s. And it remains to be seen whether his upcoming extension comes with the stipulation that he hire an x and o coach, especially offensively.

There were injuries, and freshmen to work in, true. But other teams have worked in frosh and avoided having 10 10-point or more blowouts. With two of those being 20 point blowouts. With 5 games where the team couldn’t crack 50 points.

U Conn also worked in 6 or so frosh. But they had sophomores like Jeff Adrien and AJ Price to lead the way; they were more talented and taller; and by Ken Pomeroy’s stats, were both unlucky to the tune of about 3.6 wins and were an elite defensive team. They were horrific shooters, and have passed on the being decent scorers.

These are not things the Johnnie freshmen can hang their hat on. St. John’s offense was, charitably, putrid. The defense was less than it was in previous years, and I will point that out quickly in the next post.

This is the first in a series of posts about the 2007-08 St. John’s Red Storm men’s basketball squad. I’ll go through each player’s overall and conference stats and talk about some things they need to improve. I am sure the staff and better basketball minds can think of other steps they can take to improve this team to watchability. There won’t be any straight projections, but there will be conjecture.

Have issues or comments? Drop them in the comment section, I’d love to hear them.

Caracter Leaving for the Pros

New Jersey’s Derrick Caracter– he of the weight issues, suspensions, curfew breaking the same day as he promised to not break said curfew, and conveniently early reinstatement– is not coming back to Louisville next year.

Louisville sophomore Derrick Caracter’s college career in nearing its disappointing conclusion.

The once-heralded prep star said he has made up his mind and will forgo his final two seasons at Louisville and turn pro after the season.

“I’m definitely not coming back,” Caracter said.

Big East Teams’ NCAA Matchups

From the NBE Basketball blog.

The first round matchups for Big East teams playing on Thursday - Pittsburgh, Marquette, West Virginia, and Marquette.

The first round matchups for Big East teams playing on Friday - Georgetown, Villanova, Connecticut, and Louisville.

Coaching Carousel: Tim Welsh Fired

Tim Welsh has run out of time.

Providence College Athletic Director Bob Driscoll announced today (March 15) that men’s basketball Head Coach Tim Welsh will not return to coach the Friars in 2008-09. Driscoll met with Welsh today to discuss the situation.

“I appreciate all the hard work and dedication that Tim has put into this program over the last 10 years,” Driscoll said. “He represented the College with dignity and class. However, I felt that it was in the best interest of the program and Providence College to make a change in leadership.”

More from the Black Padres blog.

Candidates may include George Mason’s Jim Larranga (good choice!), Brown University coach Craig Robinson, Kent State coach Jim Christian (a University of Rhode Island grad, also a good choice), Keno Davs from Drake (who will be a hot commodity this offseason), and University of Texas assistant Ken McDonald, a Providence native and graduate. Find quick notes on each candidate at McKeon + the Mongoose.

Temple Owls Win Atlantic 10

Props to the Temple Owls. Left for dead in the early part of the season, and still in a rebuilding process after longtime coach John Chaney’s retirement, they put up some good wins against Xavier, U Mass, and St. Joseph’s in the regular season to garner second place in an Atlantic 10 (+4) that spent February beating itself out of NCAA Tournament bids.

And last night, they won the championship over the St. Joseph’s Hawks for their first NCAA Tournament berth in 6 years. Illadelph is proud of its basketball teams; both teams should hear heir names tonight during the selection show, and that’s two more teams from Philly than are going to the tourney from the New York City area. I am sure the announcers will make mention of this banner day and mix in references to Temple Owls’ star Dionte Christmas.

Yahoo recap
Rivals.com game analysis
Phillyburbs.com: A-10 title might be Dunphy’s finest hour:

Dunphy won 10 Ivy League championships and reached nine NCAA tournaments during his 17 seasons at Penn, yet in going from 12-18 last season to 21-12, this Temple turnaround might be his finest coaching hour.

“He went to a program and started a program,” St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli said. “That’s not knocking John Chaney. John Chaney’s entity at Temple ended, and then Fran Dunphy came in, and he changed the mindset. John Chaney’s program is in the Hall of Fame with John Chaney. This is a new setting, and what Fran Dunphy has done over two years is extraordinary.”

In a way, last night’s win was the Owls’ season distilled down to 40 minutes — a rough start, a lightbulb flickering on, a fine finish.

And postgame video from Philly.com.

Big East Tournament Final

Pittsburgh 68, Marquette 61: Pitt rode a hot start and some opportune shooting (and the magic of Sam Young) to a defeat of Marquette.

Georgetown 72, West Virginia 55: Joe Alexander was slowed down and West Virginia falls.

Marquette and West Virginia wait for their NCAA seeding tomorrow.

Tonight, 9 pm, Pittsburgh tries to take down Georgetown for the conference championship. The Panthers beat Georgetown in January by beating them on the boards and going to the free throw line. I’d expect to see a bit of Patrick Ewing Jr and Jeremiah Rivers trying to break up the penetration from Levance Fields and the activity of Sam Young… I think Georgetown cuts down the nets at the Garden tonight.