Per Mario Gomez at the Bark Board, Fresno State big Brandon Webster has left the team and seems headed to an NAIA school. Go here for the article and a Scout sub is required.
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Thanks to Sportsbow at the Hawaii Scout site message board for this find:
RFM Christian Academy point Mike Lyons has given a verbal commitment to Hawaii. It's a school in Melbourne, Florida. According to the numbers at Maxpreps.com, Lyons is averaging 19.7 points, 7.7 assists, 7.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game. From YouTube comes this.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
A couple more items
The Sunday stories on Saturday night's games
Nick Jezierny leads with his game report on New Mexico State's triumph over and at Boise State. The Broncos lost a hard-earned lead achieved with just under two minutes to go.
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Louisiana Tech continued the plunder of the Gem State with a victory over host Idaho. Travis Mason-Bushman has the details, including a post-game video interview with Coach Don Verlin.
It appears the free-throw shooting gods and goddesses were not rooting for the Broncos and Vandals last night.
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Daniel Lyght has the coverage of Fresno State's topping of Hawaii and also notes the departure of Brandon Webster. 15 first half turnovers did the Rainbows in as did the George effect: Paul George just missed a double-double with 21 points, nine rebounds, six assists and four steals.
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Nevada has no trouble with San Jose State, leading from the get-go and broadening the point differential throughout the match. Chris Murray was there and offers this story. He also has these game notes.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Saturday night scores so far
It was not a good night for the state of Idaho:
New Mexico State liked roadin' tonight, winning 88-85 against Boise State. Jonathan Gibson led the Aggies with 26 points, including four of NMSU's 13 treys. Jahmar Young added 19 points. Robert Arnold led BSU with 28 points. The Broncos had a four point lead with just under two minutes to play but couldn't score again and couldn't get the stops necessary to prevent the Aggies from overtaking them.
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Louisiana Tech topped Idaho 77-71 behind Kyle Gibson's 28 points. DeAndre brown added 19 and Olu Ashaolu just missed a double-double with 12 points and nine boards.The Dogs shot 57% on the night. Mac Hopson scored 24 for the Vandals.
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Host Nevada is romping over San Jose State, having led 47-29 at the half. It's currently 73-56 at the 10 minute mark.
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Fresno State led visiting Hawaii 47-29 after 20 minutes. It's now 62-45 with nine minutes remaining.
A Kenneth Cooper update
Here's an update on former Louisiana Tech center Kenneth Cooper:
Kenneth Cooper likes what he hears at UABGo here for the remainder.
Steve Irvine
The Birmingham News
January 09, 2010
The chant begins at Bartow Arena about the time Kenneth Cooper grabs the basketball and it magnifies when the burly UAB center turns the possession into a basket.
At first it sounds like the crowd is booing. But it’s actually chanting “Coooooop.”
Cooper, a 6-foot-10, 255-pound inside force, is used to hearing the chant. He just wasn’t sure he would hear it this quickly in Birmingham...
A bit more on Carrick Felix
Jordan Coleman with a standout game
Hawaii signee Jordan Coleman just enjoyed a monster game. The 6-foot-4 backcourter/wing is featured in this writeup by Jack Pollon:
It was supposed to be a clash of two heavyweights in a key Marmonte League game boys basketball game between Calabasas and Thousand Oaks on Friday night.
It was supposed to be a tight, hard fought close game. Calabasas put to rest any ideas of that with a dominating 90-77 victory that was not quite as close as the score would indicate.
Jordan Coleman scored 38 points, had four dunks and made 10 of 13 free throws in a spectacular performance to lead Calabasas.
Coleman certainly elevated himself as one of the regions best athletes and players. “I just knew it was going to be a big game in here,” Coleman said. “I wanted to prove I am one of the best players out there and we have one of the best teams.”
Coleman did his part with 23 first half points displaying a wide variety of skills going to the basket, running in transition and shooting from long range...
Links to the Saturday WAC games
What has gotten into Paul Campbell of late? The 6-foot-10 senior, not known for his offensive proclivity, has been on a scoring binge. Dayton Morinaga has a feature here.
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Travis Mason Bushman is leaving home to go home. Find out what that means here as he gets up close and personal.
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Nick Jezierny has a fascinating article today, interviewing the Broncos on who takes the last shot at game's end for Boise State in a tie contest.
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Nevada has won 14 of 15 against San Jose State -- so do the hosts continue such dominance tonight? Chris Murray writes about the direction the Wolf Pack is heading here.
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Daniel Lyght says Fresno State and Hawaii may go all Olivia Newton-John on each other. That must mean the referees will be forced to ask the players 'have you never been mellow?'
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Jason Groves reports on Wendell McKines' now disappeared blog entry about fan support. It seems the prime question that will emerge from the situation is how will the denizens of Las Cruces respond? It's too bad that the Aggies are roadtripping this weekend but, then again, maybe it's better because victories over Boise State and Idaho will really put the onus on the fans. Losses or even a split ameliorate the situation.
Friday, January 8, 2010
A few early WAC links
Sam Wasson has his weekly interview with Coach Marvin Menzies up here.
Coach Menzies talks about his bench in a Jason Groves article here.
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Chris Murray offers a feature on the leader of the Nevada's bench who we think really should be nicknamed Cosmo. No? Has that well been dipped into once too often?
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Will Roderick Flemings' "Rainbow Warriors 2010 edition" shoes make a difference for UH on the road against Fresno State? Dayton Morinaga has the news and notes on Coach Bob Nash's squad.
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Here is an interesting Fresno State recruiting story here.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Jaycee checks in, and a bit more
Jaycee Carroll has checked in with Shawn Harrison and has some interesting things to say:
Spanish greetings, looking at 2010Go here for the remainder.
Jaycee Carroll
Herald Journal
January 7, 2010
Happy New Year! I hope everybody had a fun and safe holiday season.
My name is Jaycee Carroll. I am a Utah State alum — class of 2008 — and former Aggie basketball player. I have been married to Baylee (Roche) Carroll for two-and-a-half years, and they have been great.
We had our first date five years ago on Dec. 31, 2004. It was a different kind of date mostly because of the group we were with. Tai Wesley and Matt Formisano were the other couple out with us on New Year’s eve...
One would think Tai Wesley and Matt Formisano could hold their own in a snowball fight but...
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Jon Newbold at the Cache Valley Daily also has a ton of updates on various USU players here.
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How would you grade Coach David Carter so far? Check out this Chris Murray post.
A new blog! A new blog! A new blog!
We are very pleased to announce that a new basketball blog is up and running, one covering college basketball west of the Great Divide.
It's appropriately called The Great Basketball Divide and operated by John Parenti, a longtime basketball maven and reporter, including writing for Kyle Whelliston's The Mid Majority site.
For some background, here is John's "Why I Write" entry.
Bookmark it. Support it. We western basketball fans/pixel-stained wretches must stick together.
Disposable chairs but that's not all
With a major tip o' the hat to Stuck In Seattle at the Silver and Blue message board Sports Forum, the question is did he or didn't he? He being former Jazz great Karl Malone, now the major domo behind the LA TECH basketball program.
Chairgate! Chair-troversy! A chair-raising experience!
Ethan Conley
The News Star
1/5/2010
RUSTON -- If you follow Louisiana Tech basketball, you've probably heard about "Chairgate" by now. Here's the general story, as told by people on both the Nevada and Tech sides with little variation:
Go here to find out how the mystery ends, or doesn't.
Will there be a bevy of kindergarten chairs for the Bulldogs to use when they come to Reno on March 6? Plus, just asking: what would Mark Fox's reaction have been after noticing the missing chairs?
By the way, Karl Malone also has a disposable son. Go here for those details.
*** UPDATE: Oh my, Bob Young of the Arizona Republic has the best line of all regarding KM, his floor and the disappearing chairs: "We're just surprised Malone was able to do it without assistance from John Stockton."
Touché.
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Per Chris Murray, Olek Czyz is down to Nevada and Arizona State. There is a far less chance of being 'recruited over' at Nevada than a PAC-10 program but who knows what are the factors that will be in play with this decision.
Here is a Q-and-A Chris Murray did with Coach David Carter.
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Tony Jones has a pair of updates on Jaycee Carroll here and here.
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Wednesday, January 6, 2010
After this, we'll let it go
The charade involving Mike Garrett/Tim Floyd/O.J. Mayo and USC basketball isn't WAC-related so we need to let it go. We will still be watching to see what the sloth in quicksand, er, the NCAA, dishes out in term of penalties but we'll re-focus on WAC hoops right after the following George Dohrmann column:
George DohrmannGo here for the remainder.
Sports Illustrated
USC would like you to believe that when it self-imposed sanctions on its basketball program last Sunday, it dropped the hammer on its troubled hoops program.
A ban on postseason play this season, a loss of one scholarship this year and the next, restrictions on recruiting ... It was a litany of wrist slaps that the Trojans hope will be viewed as equitable punishment for the numerous NCAA violations committed during star guard O.J. Mayo's one year in Troy.
"When we've done something wrong," USC athletic director Mike Garrett said, "we have an obligation to do something about it and that is exactly what we are doing here."
What Garrett and the Trojans also did was take everyone, including the members of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions (COI), for fools...
Calling for nominations
So who are the leaders on each WAC team?
We keep reading more and more that this team 'lacks a leader' or that 'so-and-so needs to step up and lead' so we want your takes on who you see as the leader of your team and also what you expect a leader to do both on and off the court.
Our sense is it doesn't necessarily have to be a team's leading scorer, that it could be the one who makes his teammates better by example and demonstration. Plus, the one whose teammates look to for both verbal and non-verbal commanding, especially at tough points in a game and/or near the end of a contest?
The sentiment is out there that Utah State is missing Gary Wilkinson for more than his numbers. If so, what else did he bring to the court?
So who is your squad's influenc-er, so to speak?
A few Wednesday notes and links
It seems like a number of WAC teams -- at least very early on -- aren't getting much from the reserves (the cavalry is what we call them), plus a number of the teams haven't been playing the reserves all that much. Call this a case of the former creating the latter. Let's be patient and see how this plays out in the latter part of conference action. Chris Murray has some Nevada numbers and more here.
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Let's also see how Utah State responds when Hawaii comes to town next Monday Shawn Harrison has a report on the recent Aggie past and the present here.
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Chris Murray has a post on who is more important to the team: Armon Johnson or Luke Babbitt? That's a great question and one actually impossible to decide. We can't even determine the appropriate criteria in order to make such a decision.
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Not WAC-related but fascinating is Kyle Whelliston ruminating on the film "Rocky" and connecting it to hoops. By no means a 'great' film, we still loved "Rocky" because it was an underdog (yes, us) fighting (no pun intended) against the fixed system, giving his all and actually also landing the girl who 'gets' him. These memes spoke to the vast majority, allowing any flaws or faults in the film to be contentedly overlooked. But the series should have been limited to two movies at most, the opener and its sequel. After that, any identifiable 'underdoggedness' was lost because it became just a money-making product period.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
A small collection of notes and links
One thing we do feel badly about in the USC - O.J. Mayo - Tim Floyd Lie-apalooza is that the present Trojan basketball players bear the brunt of at least some of the penalties. Mayo is in the NBA and handsomely rewarded, just like in his so-called prep and college days. Ditto for Floyd.
AD Mike Garrett has the credibility of Baghdad Bob. Will the NCAA at least require that he banish himself to his see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil (as for the latter, it's unless I am desperate to save our most fair-haired son, our big bucks football program) island in Beverly Hills?
Will the NCAA do just such to itself for its obvious myopia? Are there any islands near Indianapolis? How about a sandbar in the Mississippi?
Mike DeCourcey has a nice summary here.
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Chris Murray looks at the pro potential throughout the WAC and more. Go here.
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6-foot-10 Andy Poling is leaving Gonzaga. Does Idaho and or Boise State have a shot or is he headed home to one of the Portlands? Poling played just 23 minutes in six games this season. He's only a (redshirt) freshman but it appears that means he will forfeit a year of D-1 eligibility since he cannot re-redshirt.
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Scout's Dave Telep has a brief post up today about Nevada recruiting target K.C. Ross-Miller unofficially hitting Oklahoma State and Baylor this week and Oklahoma next week. Again, our ample gut feeling is that the point doesn't end up too far from home -- a prediction not based on any specific knowledge.
Ross-Miller's wing teammate Titus Rubles still has Nevada and New Mexico State pitching some woo.
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