This is it for WAC Tuesday

Blue Zertuche/Texas Hoops (a Rivals sub is required) has a full-length feature up on Kyndahl Hill, a 6-foot-7 prep forward who will visit Utah State this month. Hill's high school coach sees him as a 3 in college.

ESPN utilizes Dayton Morinaga's Warrior Insider content

Diamond Leung writes about Hawaii hoops and Dayton Morinaga's Warrior Insider site.

Monday morning's WAC-aroo

Reed Coldiron at OStateIllustrated offers a Fresno-area prep center Robert Upshaw update -- here are two paragraphs:

"...Upshaw indicated that he has in-home visits lined up with each of the nine schools that he is still considering which alphabetically are Arizona, Fresno State, Georgetown, Kansas State, Louisville, Maryland, Oklahoma State, UNLV, and USC...

..."My decision is going to be in the late spring of next year in the late signing period just to wait to see everything through and make sure I feel all my options out and make sure I have everything I need to go on to the division one level," he said...

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Brad Winton is retweeting D'Vonne Pickett Jr:

" Illinois, Seattle U and Idaho in Our Gym Tonight"

Out of the Seattle area, Pickett is a point at Central Arizona College and he visited Moscow on 8/31.

Here's a YouTube video interview.

Here's a Winton description of Pickett.

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Jeff Goodman talked with Oregon Coach Dana Altman after the Ducks returned from Italy. Here's a comment on former Louisiana Tech star Olu Ashaolu:  

"Altman said that one-year transfer Olu Ashaolu is as adept a 6-foot-6 rebounder as he's been around, but that the ex-Louisiana Tech forward will need to be patient and work on developing his perimeter game.

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2011 southern California frontcourter Damiene Cain, who had interest from Hawaii and others but signed with Colorado, has decided not to play college basketball. The article doesn't mention if he will remain in Boulder or not.

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Not WAC-related but here is Matt Norlander and then Jeff Jacobs on the Andre Drummond/Connecticut maneuvering. It's nothing new but the NCAA comes out tarnished once again, refusing to even speak on the record.

Greg Crawford and Craw's Corner

Greg Crawford operates Craw's Corner, a site (primarily) dedicated to roundball subjects. He and I are compadres and I find he adds a very unique and oftentimes historical take on hoops matters which is informative for all but especially those under the impression that basketball began with Kobe or LeBron.

Here's a handful of Greg's columns. I've taken the liberty of supplying my headings but each has its own official headline:

Seattle University Globetrotter-ized basketball

In the spirit of "Seinfeld" No Second Overtime For You
 
Foul Throws and a companion piece Putting It On The Line

Does anyone remember Phil Woolpert? We should

In a similar vein, do you know Danny Miles?

Get the revival tent up to Corvallis

There was a Gus Johnson Skywalker before Gus Johnson Announcer

Do we call it the WCC or Gonzaga's Domain?

Enjoy.

Sunday's universe of WAC basketball

Dayton Morinaga offers print, video and a photo of UH's open gym play.

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PTW doesn't know if he was of interest to USU (it doesn't seem like it) but 6-foot-6 Beehive State wing Deng Deng has given a verbal to Coach Dan Monson and Long Beach State.

From the Compton Magic Twitter site: "Atrain Magic guard Deng Deng commits to Long Beach State...Let's go Magic"

Other reported offers (impossible to tell if current or outdated): Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon State, Santa Barbara.

Here's a YouTube video showcasing him.

Here's a February, 2011 article on some controversy involving the young man.

Deng is currently sidelined from prep basketball due to a school transfer.

Saturday's WAC hoops report

6-foot-3 Florida backcourter Alex Hamilton is visiting Louisiana Tech this weekend.

Here's a touching video on the young man and his late father.

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Seldomseensmith has posted on the USUFans Stew's Spectrum MB that Utah State has offered an in-state 6-foot-9 soph, a teammate of two Aggie commits.

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Bob (Mslacat) Robinson has updates on Montana and Montana State recruiting targets that includes players of interest to WAC teams:

*Sekou Wiggs - Idaho 

* Ty Egbert - Idaho, Nevada

* Lucas O'Brien - Fresno State

A tip o' the hat for this to Jon/Big Sky Basketball.

Another Texas HS frontcourter to check out Utah State.

Texas Hoops has tweeted that Lone State State prep Kyndahl Hill will trip to Logan on 9/23. He's a 6-foot-7, 200-pound forward.

He's also a football player but has chosen to go the roundball route.

Here's a little more.

Friday's WAC basketball compendium

Chris Murray offers up -- to mix sports metaphors -- a doubleheader: someone new has arrived in Reno, someone old is still involved with hoops.

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Gary Wilkinson, coming off an Australian National Basketball League championship, says that a repeat will be tougher and details the keys in doing so.

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Brian McInnis is back blogging and has some important news about the UH schedule.

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From the New England Recruiting Report folks:

"Today marks the beginning of the NCAA contact period, meaning division I college coaches are permitted to conduct “in-person, off-campus evaluations and contacts.” 

Essentially, that means coaches are permitted to attend school workouts and meet with prospects and their families for in-home visits..."

This is probably much ado about nothing

Hawaii recruit Gerry Blakes is at ABCD Prep in Dallas.

Here's a recent ABCD tweet:

"6'4 pg GERRY BLAKES from Morningside HS-Inglewood CA will be playing for ABCD PREP and plans to play for Hawaii who he signed his LOI with!"

But an earlier one reads:

"@TexasHoopsGASO ABCD PREP has landed 6'3 pg Gerry Blakes Mornimgside HS Inglewood CA. Blakes signed LOI with U Hawaii but is not a qualifier. He is back on the market"

PTW is going with the Blakes-still-heading-to-Hawaii post since that came directly from the ABCD folks.

Andre Drummond and Connecticut basketball

There is no doubt that Andre Drummond is a special talent. He also will more than likely be a one and done player. ESPN's Andy Katz writes more about how Connecticut maneuvered to get Drummond on scholarship, including this quote:

"...not a single coach I’ve talked to on this subject would have done anything different. That's not a defense of Connecticut or a justification of the "creative" juggling that goes on with rosters. It is, however, the current reality..."

Yes, college coaching is a brutal business, definitely a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately one. Lose more than you win and it's a time to move on situation. But how can loyalty be preached AND followed as a team tenet when your life (Michael Bradley's in this case) can be turned upside down from one day to the next?

Please tell me where I'm wrong about this matter.

Thursday's WAC basketball universe

Dayton Morinaga reports that Coach Gib Arnold is taking his players to the beach but it's not for what you think.

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The USU Stats site folks have the news that Pooh Williams will be playing next in the NBA Developmental league.

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The Fresno Bee's George Hostetter blogs about the Fresno State athletics budget, including these basketball-related excerpts:

"...The jawdropper, though, is the projected gate receipts at the Save Mart Center for the men's basketball team. In 2010-11, the men's hoop program was expected to bring in $1,450,363 at the gate for 19 homes games. That's $76,335 per game. In 2011-12, the program is expected to bring in $988,632 for 16 home games. That's $61,790 per game. In one year, Fresno State is projecting a 31.8% drop in overall men's basketball gate receipts and a per game drop in gate receipts of 19.1%.

I can't recall the last time gate receipts for men's basketball were under $1 million. As recently as 2007-08, the gate receipts were $2,129,937 (and this was actual money at the box office, not a budget projection).

Recession or not, I guarantee no one expected to spend more than $100 million for an on-campus arena only to have a full season's gate receipts for the men's basketball program total less than $1 million.

The men's basketball program has a new coach -- Rodney Terry. I hear nothing but good things about him. I hope the Red Wavers give him and his players a chance..."

Mountain West Conference affiliation will help in both recruiting and drawing more fans when the likes of San Diego State visit but it all still boils down to Al Davis' "Win, baby win."

 

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Will this come to fruition, at least to some degree, in the WAC? That is, signing some players for what they will do in academically lifting a basketball program and not necessarily for on-court contributions?

 

As the Rush The Court braintrust wrote a while back about the 2011 Big Dance under the present rules, certain big time teams would have been missing.

Wednesday's WAC-aroo

Dayton Morinaga fills us in on Vander Joaquim's re-appearance at Hawaii. Here's predicting the young man averages a double-double this season.

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Stanford fell 98-78 to Real Madrid as Jaycee Carroll's 32 points led the host team.

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Chris Murray writes about Nevada's different 2011-12 schedule as it starts out with, one exception, a stretch at home sweet home. Still, the Wolf Pack looks to have the toughest non-conference slate of all the WAC teams.

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6-foot-8 Texas prep froncourter Joel Bolomboy has gone with Weber State -- this over LA TECH and many others. He averaged 9.9 points and 8.5 rebounds last season.

What passes for Tuesday's WAC basketball report

It's mighty lean today folks but Fresno State fans will be interested in our lone link: per Scott Schroeder, Greg Smith has gone south of the border.

Not WAC-related but a good read on Gonzaga basketball

This is an insightful look at Gonzaga basketball --- all those great achievements generally earned by a band of overachievers versus the stumbling of late as the Zags reached -- and often missed -- for higher potential talents.

It's pretty much a given that Mark Few hasn't changed his coaching approach but possibly the departures of assistants Bill Grier and Leon Rice for San Diego and Boise State respectively has altered some personal dynamics on the team.

Recruiting players with bigger reps and conceivably larger achievement possibilities is certainly a major change for the perennial West Coast Conference contender/leader. It's adding massaged egos to the mix and such is tricky to manage when matters don't go as expected. Hence the departures.

But to be fair, evaluative mistakes were made by both the coaching staff and the prospects.

Does the NCAA have any remaining credibility?

Read this article -- doesn't it make you oh so glad that the NCAA operates in the real world. It's reminiscent of the old line "the NCAA got so mad at UCLA, it put Cal State Death Valley on probation."