Is this really the role of college athletics?

Rush The Court offers a look at what MIGHT be the future of NCAA basketball.

Will the end all pursuit of the maximization of college athletics dollars in football ultimately destroy the overall golden egg that is college hoops?

Some Adrian Oliver and Tai Wesley notes

Rush The Court is lauding two WAC basketballers today as part of its Impact Players series.

San Jose State's Adrian Oliver is one and RTC makes the call for WAC POY in the last line of Oliver's writeup.

Plus, Tai Wesley is feted in the Near Miss category.

Go here for the read of all the Northwest players selected plus those who have a chance to make the grade this season..

One of the aspects that we enjoy at the RTC site is the quality of the writing. We're envious -- Kyle Whelliston, who is thankfully back full force, just might be having company real soon.

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Dan Quirk at the Searching For Billy Edelin site also highlights Adrian Oliver and Tai Wesley -- go here.

Rush The Court strikes again

We don't do this often because the opportunity to do so doesn't frequently present itself -- Rush The Court (RTC) should have a national media platform. That is, if the ESPNs of the world wish to also educate readers.

RTC is back today featuring Dave Telep in a very informative interview. Read it and rejoice that your basketball view and knowledge have been expanded.

Go here.

Madison Avenue and mid-majors

We all have opinions about how our favorite basketball teams should be marketed -- some informed, some not so much. Here's Rush The Court, Andrew Murawa in particular, with another installment in the series, this one all about mid-major branding.

Question: when is a national sports site going to wake up and add Andrew Murawa to its staff?

Some more great reading

Andrew Murawa is back with another chapter in his incredible series at Rush The Court -- this one on scheduling.

It's quite the educational experience but we also love it because he features coaches and programs that so many of us can relate to -- the ones who don't get (over)featured on ESPN.

Thank you, Andrew and the RTC site for the illumination.

Kraig Williams will be live-blogging

Kraig Williams will be live-blogging a number of the WAC tourney games: Fresno -LA Tech plus the SJSU - NMSU matchups today and more than likely both games tomorrow as well as the championship game on Saturday. We'll keep you updated.

You'll find him at Rush The Court. Check out the RTC Live box in the upper left corner of the site.

A couple more items

The tag team of Sam Wasson and Travis Mason-Bushman have a WAC update at Rush The Court:

"After starting out conference play 0-2 the Utah State Aggies have stormed their way to the top of the conference. The Aggies are winners of ten straight and at 10-2, have a game and a half lead over second place New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech. The bottom of the league is starting to clear itself up as well as Idaho has gotten warm at the right time to move into seventh place. Boise State and Hawai’i are battling for the final conference tournament spot.

This weekend the WAC steps out of conference as they take on their BracketBusters foes highlighted by 20-6 Utah State hosting 20-6 Wichita State, 15-9 New Mexico State traveling to 16-8 Pacific, 20-5 Louisiana Tech traveling to 17-9 Northeastern and 15-9 Nevada traveling to 17-8 Missouri State. Additionally, Fresno State will face Big West leading UC-Santa Barbara. The rest of the WAC will face members from the middle of the standings in the Big West..."

Go here for the remainder.

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Jeff Goodman has a feature on Duke's recruitment of Carrick Felix, a freshman wing out of the College of Southern Idaho.

So why do we mention this?

Because New Mexico State and Idaho (as well as others) also appear in the article as suitors. We're sure Marvin Menzies and Don Verlin are holding their respective breath or building their recruiting classes around landing Felix (yeah, right) but it's good to take a shot every so often at a high level talent -- you never know and there's always the possibility of a bounceback.

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Live blogging tonight's USU - BYU game

Foe you Utah State basketball fans (you BYU ones too who are thick-skinned) who cannot make it to the matchup, Kraig Williams, one of the guys behind The Refraction, will be liveblogging the game tonight for the Rush The Court site. He promises to be 'nice' although you should remember that there is Mr. Rogers nice and then there is 'Refraction' nice.

Go here to catch the action. The game begins at 7:00 Mountain Time.

Rush The Court on the WAC

Sam Wasson and Travis Mason-Bushman are set to be your Rush The Court WAC basketball hosts for 2009-2010 and each has contributed to a conference preview. Sam goes with New Mexico State as the kingpin this coming season while Travis offers Idaho. Magnum Rolle gets some love despite his absence from the WAC head coaches first and second all-league squads.

Go here for their pre-season preview.