A point receiving WAC attention

A southern California junior college point guard is currently the subject of major recruiting attention. 6-foot-1 Ken Brown of Cerritos College is the player and he was recently named a First Team All-Stater in California.

Western Kentucky, Houston and now Indiana are in the mix. USC, Iowa and Hawaii (offer) were but that was before head coach and assistant coach departures. Fresno State has recently shown interest.

Mike Pegram has all the details here (a Rivals sub is required).

Here is Brown's bio at the Cerritos athletics site.

Here's a blog entry from a Western Kentucky basketball fan site )PTW isn't so sure about his signing with WKU, especially now that Indiana is on the scene).

We offer a special thanks to Cerritos College for the Brown photo.

Paul George: to be or not to be a Bulldog?

It isn't decided until his name remains on the early draftee list after the NBA deadline but Paul Paul George sure is having some fun right now.

On his Twitter acount -- King24George -- a pair of entries state:

"Testing the waters my tweets but I'm leanin towards leavin to the draft."

and

"Q: You staying for another year of college? A: Um it depends I'm gonna test the waters and go."

Interesting. Is he a first-rounder at this point? Most likely not but all it takes is one team to see something. Plus, even second-rounders can get guaranteed money although that bargain is very tough to finagle. What will be critical is how his studies play out in the remainder of the academic year -- does he keep up or turn his focus to skill and body development?

Utah State and LA TECH to tangle

Utah State did away with Boise State 84-60, Louisiana Tech just handled Fresno State 74-66 and each will meet up tomorrow.

It was 35-30 in favor of the Aggies at the half. For the game, USU out-rebounded the Broncos 47-27. Both squads attempted 61 shots but Stew Morrill's bunch made nine more.

A less-than-healthy Kyle Gibson managed just seven points in 33 minutes and committed six turnovers but Tech's Jamel Guyton exploded for a team-leading 31 points in the victory for the southern Bulldogs. Guyton grabbed 11 boards -- also tops on the team -- for a tourney double-double.

Fresno State was minus Mychal Ladd and went 4-18 from three-point range while gathering 11 less free throw attempts than LT. Paul George put up a double-double of 22 points and 11 rebounds for Steve Cleveland's squad.

Timing is everything

A big thumbs up to Fresno State Coach Steve Cleveland for not putting up with any wayward actions -- despite the fact that this will hurt the Bulldogs' chances. Matt James has the scoop:

Ladd news is bad news
Matt James
resno Bee
March 11, 2010

RENO -- Fresno State athletic director is about to hold a press conference announcing the fact that Mike Ladd has been sent home from the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. I'm guessing he isn't going to say why...

Go here for the remainder.

How does a player let down his teammates at this critical time?

A Draft Express update on Paul George

The best NBA draft site around is Draft Express. Nothing else is as comprehensive or worldwide in scope, plus the player evaluations are done after lengthy viewing of each talent. The following is the latest on Fresno State's Paul George:

Paul George 6-7, Sophomore, Small Forward, Fresno State
16.6 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.2 steals, 3.1 turnovers, 43 FG%, 36 3P%, 91 FT%

Scott Nadler, Assistant Director of Scouting
Draft Express
March 10, 2010

Fresno State’s Paul George has steadily been climbing NBA draft boards since he broke out onto the national scene as a freshman last season. We were high on him a year ago and he’s certainly made improvements to his game – living up to the preseason hype that surrounded him in the beginning of the year. His versatility, athleticism and scoring ability are all part of the package of this highly talented small forward, and in a draft class limited with skilled wing players; George could be one of the best options at that position come June.

George has made huge strides from last season to this season, which is extremely encouraging considering the fact that he’s the go-to-guy on a struggling Bulldogs team and the focal point of every opposing defense. Despite all the attention, he’s averaging an impressive 20.3 points per 40 pace adjusted – getting the bulk of his points in transition and in spot up situations.

With a long and wiry frame, George runs the floor well and is good for a highlight reel dunk or strong finish at least once a game – which is one of his biggest improvements from last season. In ’08-’09, George converted a measly 39.3% of his shots around the basket. This year however, he’s finishing at a much higher rate, shooting a fantastic 55.8% at the rim, which dispels some of the questions regarding his lack of toughness...

Go here for the remainder.

It's Gameday

Chris Murray has a preview of the Nevada - Idaho matchup here.

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Sam Wasson offers multiple features. Here is a preview featuring a Marvin Menzies video interview. Sam also breaks down each tournament game today and that can be found here.

Jason Groves interviews departing Aggie senior Jonathan Gibson here.

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Jimmy Watson features Kyle Gibson in a Les Stroud/Bear Grylls reference here. It's been a tough tenure for the LA TECH star but he's going out on a high, competing for the WAC championship and, no, he doesn't enjoy grubs and other creepy crawlies as snack food. Let's hope KG is back to full health and feeling no aftereffects from his ankle sprain.

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So you think you can dance? Paul George answers in the affirmative in Daniel Lyght's feature here.

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Nick Jezierny offers his game breakdown here. There's Billyball, small ball and also long ball -- Nick says here that Boise State is counting on the latter to take down USU.

Jared Eborn says tyhe Aggies are looking to roll a trey in the next few days here. Shawn Harrison offers that Utah State is all Buster Poindexter at the moment (hot hot hot) here. Tony Jones is here with his pre-game coverage.

Coaches don't usually do this...

Bully for Steve Cleveland for going on the record with this in the Daniel Lyght-penned article published earlier today in the Fresno Bee:

"Next year's really important to me...I believe we're a team that should be in the top three in the conference next year."

Wow. Rarely, if ever, does a coach put such a sword of Damocles into play so a PTW tip o' the hat to Cleveland. However, he has a very solid contractual future as the article delineates.

Also, here's a PTW tip o' the hat to Daniel Lyght for an impressive and informative feature.

Your Friday wrap of last night's games

Let's lead off with the game, make that the shootout, of the night -- one that ESPN2, in retrospect, should have televised. Fields usually get furrowed but it was the Aggies plowed under by Brandon Fields last evening in Reno.

Chris Murray is all over the Wolf Pack win over New Mexico State here. Chris offers a plethora of game notes here. Sam Wasson is here and Jason Groves here with their game reports.

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Showing some fire still remains, host Fresno State rallied from a second-half deficit to beat Louisiana Tech, a southern Bulldog squad minus Kyle Gibson due to an ankle ailment. Daniel Lyght has his game report here.

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Travis Mason-Bushman live-blogged Idaho's victory over visiting San Jose State. Here is his game report plus a post-game video interview with Kashif Watson (although there is no definitive word if Watson called his bank shot). Josh Wright provides his game report here.

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Host Boise State had an easy time with Hawaii -- here is Nick Jezierny's game report. The Honolulu Advertiser has Josh Rodriguez and his take here.

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It was a night where each home team won, some unusual firepower was on display at a couple of the venues, where Fresno State had something to prove and did so and with Boise State continuing on its resurgence of sorts.

Thursday's reports on Wednesday's game

Well, the northern Aggies did it, with mental toughness kicking in and making the difference at the end -- that, and a well-planted, undetectable left forearm.

Tony Jones leads us off with his game report here. Here are Jones' post-game remarks.

Shawn Harrison was also there and his game article is here.

Jared Eborn also made it to press row and here is his take.

Jason Groves offered this blog entry.

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Chris Murray covered Nevada's toppling of visiting Fresno State here. He also offers some video from the matchup.

Daniel Lyght's game report came be found here.

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Nick Jezierny has the scoop on Boise State's win over visiting Cal State Bakersfield here.

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Our education continues as we now know what a human victory cigar is thanks to Brian McInnis and his feature here.

Dayton Morinaga has a report here full of UH basketball news and notes .

The scores from tonight (Wednesday)

Utah State proved tougher at the end and took the measure of Louisiana Tech 67-61 in Logan.

Our stream of consciousness thoughts: After the first five or six minutes -- when will LA TECH get an open look with a shot? ... Then the game became weird as the Aggies began missing the shots they were making earlier ... The Bulldogs got a little warmer but not much and continued with Olympic-like degree-of-difficulty attempts ... Is Bill Sproat related to Jack Spratt or do they just have the same costumer? ... Uh-oh, it looks like part of the Spectrum is going to have to be named Pooh Corner as the junior from Washington is going Gumby on Tech ... towards the end, it was LA Tech making the mental errors that sealed the game for the Aggies ... Nate Bendall sure has a nifty and difficult-to-detect left forearm push ... finally, please, please, please, let's retire the shots of students "going wild" for the camera ...

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Nevada was just better than visiting Fresno State at 74-70. FSU led 43-37 at the half.

Luke Babbitt's 24 points (plus 12 boards) and Armon Johnson's 19 led Nevada. The Bulldogs' Paul George led the Dogs with 26 and teammates Sylvester Seay contributed 22. George and Seay also nabbed nine boards apiece.

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Host Boise State took care of Cal State Bakersfield 81-62 behind 57% overall shooting and a dozen treys.

Saturday's WAC news, links and notes

Stew Morrill is 499 (yes, it seems like he has been in Logan forever), make that is going for victory #500 and even the dimmest of wits should buy into the idea that his players are going to have a little extra incentive tonight versus Idaho. But don't dare raise that subject in Morrill's presence unless you wish to be the subject of the evil-ist of eyes and probably a few choice words. In a couldn't-plan-it-better coincidence, Morrill is coaching tonight against Don Verlin, his former protégé.

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The league-leading Lousiana Tech Bulldogs are scheduled to hula against Hawaii tonight and probably loaded for bear, or at least Rainbow Warrior. Which UH player faces the unenviable task of going up against Kyle Gibson? Or for that matter, Olu Ashaolu, Magnum Rolle, Jamel Guyton et al? Will foul trouble decide the game since neither team has great depth?

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Can a Paul George-less Fresno State match Nevada's scoring firepower? That breeze you are feeling is the WAC head coaches rushing to check their schedules in hopes of seeing the Bulldogs listed as an opponent in the next couple of weeks (George is presumed out for 2-3 weeks and probably won't be at full strength for some time).

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We had forgotten this angle: Wendell McKines is returning 'home' and will have a sizeable contingent of family and friends in the house tonight when visiting New Mexico State takes the court against San Jose State. The Aggies also boast a nine-game winning streak versus the Spartans. One key question: who matches up with McKines in the SJSU four-guard offense? Another: will Jahmar Young's "JY sense" make another appearance?

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Sam Wasson and Travis Mason Mason-Bushman do their usual best with the weekly "Checking In On The WAC" at Rush The Court.

What a night of hoops!

Gotta lead with Jimmy Watson's game report of the Bulldog blowout of the Aggies. We never expected to see the headline attached to his article.

Shawn Harrison (tip o' the hat to the Herald Journal management) has the Bulldogs blasting the Aggies here.

Tony Jones has a pair of blog entries on the contest here and here.

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Jason Groves doesn't have a lot of good to report here after watching the visiting Wolf Pack win in a game apparently not as close as the final score indicates. He has a blog entry on the game here.

Sam Wasson has his Nevada - New Mexico State game report here. Plus, here are photos from the game.

Chris Murray made the trip to Las Cruces (kudos to the RGJ management for making this happen) and here is what he witnessed. Here is his blog entry of game tidbits.

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This is interesting. San Jose State opens WAC play (winning against a tough Idaho squad) and the Mercury News (no longer calling itself the San Jose Mercury News) has an Associated Press report of the game. No, we will not link to it.

Santa Clara hosts Harvard -- a non conference matchup -- featuring the return to the Bay Area of Palo Alto High's Jeremy Lin who has been 'discovered' by the national media and a Mercury News reporter is assigned to cover that game. SC lost and is now 8-9. Go figure that editorial judgment.

Luckily, road warrior Travis Mason-Bushman is continuing to pile up the miles via planes, trains and automobiles (actually, we're not sure about the middle one) and offer this press row perspective on the game. It contains post-game video interviews with Coach Don Verlin and guard Steffan Johnson so do read and watch it. Let's sure hope that some smart sports editor latches on to T M-B once he graduates.

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Hawaii took down Boise State behind the sterling play of Roderick Flemings, Hiram Thompson and Paul Campbell. Dayton Morinaga has his game report here and Brian McInnis his here. The victory was accomplished minus the injured Dwain Williams.

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Marek Warszawski has a blog entry on Fresno State basketball that contains some strong opinions and is certainly worth a read.

Fresno State gets a verbal

Bay Area backcourter Tyler Johnson has given a verbal to sign with Coach Steve Cleveland and Fresno State. He is a 6-foot-2 lefty backcourter with a serious case of hops and some three-point shooting ability.

Here is an August 2009 ESPN evaluation of Johnson.

Here is a YouTube video on Johnson.

An early look at Fresno State

We don't know who he is but it's worth taking a look at 1insider's sense of Fresno State basketball.

So go to the Bark Board (the Scout Fresno State site) and click on Forums and then the Save Mart Center message board.

There's a thread right near the top where 1insider is the second poster -- have at it.

A Damon Powell sighting?

Don't necessarily make a deposit into your memory bank with this but a poster at the NorCalPreps message board has McClymonds High wing Damon Powell at Los Medanos College in Pittsburgh, CA. That's very close to home. If true, Powell will be playing for Coach Derek Domenichelli.

What's also interesting is Powell (apparently) choosing to go the junior college route rather than say a year at a prep school. Our understanding is that an individual who doesn't meet NCAA academic requirements and enrolls at a junior college must then earn an A.A. degree before being eligible at a D-1 institution.

This is versus going the route of a year at a prep school shoring up the academic side (and playing) which allows an individual to retain the possibility of earning a D-1 schollie after that post grad hiatus.

It's anyone's guess as to whether Powell returns to Fresno State two years hence since there are no legal ties binding Powell with Fresno State.

Domenichelli and Los Medanos have been very successful this decade. He has twice won Coach of the Year of the Bay Valley Conference (2005, 2009) and his LMC team has recorded six 20+-win seasons in the last seven years, including a 25-win season in 2008 and a 23-win season in 2009.

Ben Vozzola to San Diego

Scout's Greg Hicks is reporting that 2010 backcourter Ben Vozzola has given a verbal to Coach Bill Grier and San Diego of the West Coast Conference. Nevada and Fresno State were the WAC entities showing interest.

What was the amount of the Bigelow check?

Hey, inquiring minds want to know.

Now maybe we lauded all in the equation a little too soon. Who knows? Here's Matt James with a further followup on the Fresno State - Alfonso Bigelow check pass off.

The Bigelow check drop-off
Matt James
Fresno Bee
July 22, 2009

I am back from vacation* and can finally weigh in on the Alphonso Bigelow check delivery fiasco. Or maybe it wasn't a fiasco. Who knows. I wasn't there. I was involved, but I wasn't there. I will explain eventually. As is sometimes necessary, a quick review before we carry on ...

*Explanation: The blog's brother got married in a quick and tasteful ceremony in a country church near Turpin, Okla. I served as Best Man and can honestly say I didn't embarrass anyone with any lines from "The Wedding Singer" or "Wedding Crashers." It was tempting, though.

Mr. Bigelow pledged $10 million to the Fresno State athletics department. There was a big press conference. A DVD was shown, describing the specific plans that Bigelow's money will complete -- the field turf at Bulldog Stadium, the student-athlete village, the lacrosse field, and something else which is escaping me at the moment. The Fresno State athletic administration has many big plans. They did not, up until recently, have any cash to carry out the plans...

Go here for the remainder.

Guess who enjoyed a fine NBA season?

We're not sure why but it seems that former Fresno State star Dominic McGuire has received very little attention -- let alone adulation -- for having a productive sophomore season. Maybe this Michael Lee article will help.

Wizards' McGuire Building on Season
He Hopes Versatility Leads to Minutes
Michael Lee
Washington Post
July 13, 2009

Dominic McGuire entered summer league competition last year as an unlikely candidate to finish the season as a starter, let alone someone who would finish with the third-most starts behind Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler. Yet after embracing that opportunity during an unbearable season, McGuire probably will go back to a reserve role, with the Washington Wizards hiring a new coach, making offseason roster upgrades and other players returning to good health.

"I'm not even thinking about that hardly," McGuire said yesterday of returning to the bench after starting 57 games last season. "If I'm not starting, that doesn't bother me. My main thing is getting minutes."

McGuire plans on securing playing time under new Coach Flip Saunders by displaying the same versatility that made him a favorite of former coach Ed Tapscott.

"Everybody knows we have guys who have been all-stars in Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler, so there are not going to be too many major minutes," McGuire said. "But if you can play multiple positions, you'll be able to get a lot more minutes as a backup because you can move around."

Go here for the remainder.

The Paul George love train is picking up steam

The Bulldog Bounce blog had this about an interview with Fresno State's Paul George.

Paul George Interview
Paolo_Zamorano
NBADraft.net
7/09/2009

NBADraft.net: You had an excellent freshman season at Fresno State last year. What was the transition like from high school to college?

Paul George: You know, I think my transition was real comfortable for me. I think it was a little easier for me to come out of high school and go to a conference like the WAC as opposed to going to the Big East where I think my transition would have been a lot harder. I think it went well for me though, Fresno has been a good place for me.

NBADraft.net: Your dunk against St. Mary's last year opened a lot of eyes to your talent. Did you notice a lot more recognition after that game? Have you had a better dunk in a game?

Paul George: As far as best dunk, yeah I think there have been a couple other people that I've gotten worse then that. But nothing like that where we were playing such a big game. I mean, we were playing at St. Marys who were one of the top teams in the country, we were playing on ESPN, so the exposure was all there, everybody across the country was watching. I think that dunk really did help me as far as putting my name on the map, and really speeding up the process of me being a legit draft prospect. I think people started to take a lot more notice after that game... Go here or here for the remainder.

Chris Murray previews Fresno State

The second chapter in Chris Murray's summer edition of WAC basketball previewing has been published:

Summer basketball prospectus on Fresno State
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette Journal
7/8/2009

Last year’s record: 13-21 overall, 3-13 in the WAC (ninth place)

Returning starters: Three (Sylvester Seay, Paul George, Nedeljko Golubovic)

Key losses: Dwight O’Neil, Bryce Cartwright, Brian Seals

Go here for the remainder.