A pair of Nevada basketball items

Jim Krajewski of the Reno Gazette-Journal offers video of Coach David Carter talking about the Pack and the fast approaching season.

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Chris Murray polled the Wolf Pack squad on six 'Best Of' categories regarding their teammates and here are the results.

Tuesday and the WAC (so far)

Daniel Lyght reports on Senque Carey's departure from Fresno State basketball here.

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Here's a feature on Seton Hall including information (early in the article) on former New Mexico Stater Herb Pope and his recovery from his late April collapse and hospitalization.

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2011 recruit Igor Hadziomerovic has posted another Boise State-related tweet:

"Just finished playing open gym at Boise. Had a good run and the guys on the team are real good dudes! Shower and dinner time! Peeaaaccee!"

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A onetime (maybe current?) Utah State recruit of interest, Nick Paulos, receives a standout mention in this NERR report on the New Hampton Prep (New Hampshire) basketball squad:

"...Paulus, a 6’7” forward from Utah, has been one of the team’s most impressive players this fall.  Not only does he have an effortless shooting stroke with deep range, but he handles and passes the ball with equal efficiency..." 

Wow! Senque Carey resigns

To mix sports metaphors, this one came out of left field. To read the palm prints on the basketball, Fresno State must be done or at least fairly wrapped up with its November recruiting. Let's see who replaces Carey and then who takes the opening that creates. We have a request: mike the WAC basketball coaching offices tomorrow so we can hear the chatter.

Stephen Trembley
Fresno State Athletics
Assistant Director, Communications

Carey Resigns as Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach

FRESNO, Calif. -- Senque Carey has resigned as one of Fresno State’s assistant men’s basketball coaches and will pursue his coaching career in the San Francisco Bay Area, Fresno State head men’s basketball coach Steve Cleveland said Monday night.

Carey has taken a position at the Riekes Center for Human Enhancement in Menlo Park and will also serve as a coach in some capacity at Menlo-Atherton High School.

QUOTES

Steve Cleveland, Fresno State Head Men’s Basketball Coach
“I have respect for Senque's decision to step away from collegiate athletics at this time in his life.  We will all miss Q, but he has made it very clear that his family is his highest priority.  Senque has been an outstanding recruiter and player development coach during the past five years at Fresno State.  I will always appreciate his commitment to the program and university.”

Senque Carey, Former Fresno State Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach

“The opportunity to coach locally will allow me more time to meet the needs of my family.  I am also going to have the opportunity to be the director of a strength, conditioning and development center for high school, college, and pro athletes.  I have great love and respect for Coach Cleve and all that he has done for me and my family.”

Utah State is 25

No, that is not the temperature range currently in Logan nor the average age of Coach Stew's players.

The Hoops report, Ryan Feldman specifically, has the Aggies checking in at #25 nationally, in the countdown from 65. A projected starting lineup is also posted.

Go here.

Igor tweets, we report

Here's the latest tweet from Boise State recruiting target Igor Hadziomerovic:

"Boise State baby ! Liking it so far bout to go get some breakfast soon!"

Any five-star hotels in Boise? A Niketown? What's the top breakfast place up there?

UH fans, your still in it

We thought Los Angeles area frontcourter Damiene Cain was showing major love for a couple of other schools, leaving Hawaii all dressed up with nowhere to go.

PTW were wrong.

From Eric Sondheimer in today's Los Angeles Tmes, Boston College is wanting to add a fourth southlander to its 2011 recruiting haul in Cain. Colorado also remains the mix but UH does too as Cain has visits set for the latter two.

Now if only Gib Arnold already had an Abel on his roster. Actually scratch that -- the pairing didn't work out so well the first time.

Of interest to Boise basketball fans

Here's the latest from 6-foot-4 backcourter Igor Hadziomerovic, having just finished tripping to Portland and earlier this week to Seton Hall:

"Boise Here we goooo!!!"

Sunday's WAC-itude

 With a tip o' the hat to Sam Wasson at the Bleed Crimson site, here's a Q-and-A with MWC Commish Craig Thompson.

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Courtney Alexander, Mr. Basketball in Fresno during 1999-2000 (1998-1999 wasn't exactly bad either), returned to the San Joaquin and detailed his plans for helping youngsters. Here is the site of the organization he is promoting.

Alexander had a run-in with the law while a freshman at Virginia and also was involved in the term paper scandal at FSU (although Alexander says his term paper was typed by someone else who was compensated solely for the keyboarding and not the research and writing).

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Melvin Grussing has gone to a new blog site for his Antelope Valley College (CA) fan site-- go here. We like the new layout. Bookmark it because most, if not all, of the WAC teams are looking at AVC players,

Cassidy Creech and UTSA

This is from an email sent to us by Cassidy Creech:

So I´m very intrigued by the potential additions to the WAC across the board. I have heard some cautious skepticism regarding UTSA football... mainly because it isn't competing now. First off, their first recruiting class is officially redshirting now and are actually practicing and training now (per several media sources: news releases, etc.). While their initial plan has been to join the Southland Conference  (FCS...with Texas State, for example), where there other sports are competing, but that fell through. They then decided to go independent and attempt to join an FBS conference around the 2014 season. There's a lot to say about that plan, but what interests me the most about this is that when they decided to go independent, they immediately started filling a schedule for extended years. This schedule (1) could bring more opportunities to other WAC teams...at least exposure, and (2) will help plenty with strength of schedule (in football...and maybe, if we play our cards right, basketball too). It mostly shows the willingness of bigger schools to schedule multiple home-and-homes with UTSA, an unproven program, most likely because of its location, the Alamodome, and maybe even the expectations surrounding Larry Coker as head coach.

Here's the schedule Cassidy sent along (a number of present WAC teams should be envious):

2011

Sept. 3   Northeastern (Okla.) State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 10 McMurry San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 17 at Southern Utah Cedar City, Utah
Sept. 24 Bacone College San Antonio, Texas
Oct.  1  at Sam Houston State Huntsville, Texas
Oct.  8 South Alabama San Antonio, Texas
Oct. 15 at UC Davis Davis, Calif.
Oct. 22 at Northwestern State Natchitoches, La.
Oct. 29 Georgia State San Antonio, Texas
Nov. 12 at McNeese State Lake Charles, La.
Nov. 19 Minot State San Antonio, Texas

2012

Sept.  1  at South Alabama Mobile, Ala.
Sept.  8 Sam Houston State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 22 Northwestern Oklahoma State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 29 at Georgia State Atlanta, Ga.
Oct.  13 at Stephen F. Austin Nacogdoches, Texas
Oct.  20 Southern Utah San Antonio, Texas
Oct.  27 UC Davis San Antonio, Texas
Nov. 10 McNeese State San Antonio, Texas

2013

Sept. 7 Oklahoma State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 14  at Arizona Tucson, Ariz.
Sept. 28 Houston San Antonio, Texas
Nov. 2 at Virginia Charlottesville, Va.

2014

Aug. 30  at Houston Houston, Texas
Sept.  6 Arizona San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 13 at Oklahoma State Stillwater, Okla.
Sept. 27 at Kansas State Manhattan, Kan.
Nov.  8 Virginia San Antonio, Texas

2015

Sept.  5 at Arizona Tucson, Ariz.
Sept. 12 Kansas State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 19 at Oklahoma State Stillwater, Okla.
Sept. 26  at Louisiana Tech Ruston, La.
Oct.  3 Colorado State San Antonio, Texas

2016

Sept. 17 Arizona State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 24 Louisiana Tech San Antonio, Texas
Oct.   1 at Colorado State Fort Collins, Colo.

2017

Sept.  9 at Baylor Waco, Texas
Sept. 30 at Colorado State Fort Collins, Colo.

2018

Sept. 1 at Arizona State Tempe, Ariz.
Sept. 8 Baylor San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 15 at Kansas State Manhattan, Kan.
Sept. 29 Colorado State San Antonio, Texas

2019

Sept. 7 at Baylor Waco, Texas

Montana AD Jim O'Day talks expansion

This is an October 1 reprint from The Missoulian featuring an email sent out by Jim O'Day the Montana AD:

 This is the full text of the Jim O'Day's e-mail

I understand your concerns – you are not alone. This is, perhaps, the most critical decision to ever face the intercollegiate athletic program at The University of Montana.

With state funding flat and student athletic fees holding tight, and with expenses growing year-by-year at a steady pace (at least $250,000 per year alone in just scholarship costs and related room/board costs for out student-athletes), we find ourselves at a cross roads.

With revenues presently capped at about $13 million per year, we are having to find ways to cut expenses… and one option may have to be scholarships to out-of-state student athletes if we cannot find new revenue sources.

We realize this could hurt our competitiveness as we cannot just take out of certain non-revenue generating sports because of Title IX issues.

In addition, our insurance continues to rise, as does rent and travel. We can assume our expenses will jump at least $500,000 annually… and really no new revenue to meet these increases. We have continued to cut our expenses about $250,000 or more per year for the past three years…. But now we are down to the bare bone. Any further cuts will affect programs. You can see that already – our entire budget for recruiting for all 14 sports is $178,000; at Montana State it’s $408,000 per the recently released NCAA audit numbers...

Go here for the remainder. 

Brian Murphy with more on WAC expansion plans

Brian Murphy
Idaho Statesman
10-01-10

Earlier this week, WAC commissioner Karl Benson outlined the league's expansion plans. The WAC heard from five schools — Texas State, UT-San Antonio, Montana, Seattle and Denver — about possible conference expansion. Benson said the league plans to do campus visits and extend invitations within 30 to 60 days. He also said those are the only five schools being considered at this time...

Go here for the remainder.

LT's J. L. Lewis gets featured

The Weekly Citizen offers a short piece on New Orleans transfer and now Louisiana Tech Bulldog J.L. Lewis, a 6-foot-8 frontcourter -- go here.

A Greg Graham note

Saw this note and noticed the inclusion of former Boise head coach Greg Graham:

"The University of Montana Grizzly and Lady Griz Basketball teams are proud to announce the guest coaches for the Grizzly Coaching Clinic 2010, a day with the Grizzlies.

Griz Men's Coach Wayne Tinkle and Lady Griz Coach Robin Selvig will lead the clinic and participating coaches will be invited to attend Griz and Lady Griz practices.

Former Boise State men's basketball coach Greg Graham will join Tinkle and Selvig at the event along with Spokane Falls Community College men's coach Clint Hull and Eric Hays, former Hellgate High School boys' basketball coach. The event will take place on November 6th and registration is still open..."

Is he or isn't he?

Is freshman backcourter Gary Winston at Idaho or elsewhere?

The Scout Go Vandals site -- basketball message board -- has a 'conversation' posted which seems to indicate that Winston is back in Washington. If true, here's hoping he gets back to Moscow.

Igor Hadziomerovic luxuriating in Portland

The visit to Seton Hall is over and now Igor Hadziomerovic is in Oregon, checking out the Rose City:

"Patty_Mills Im in ur town checkin out Univ Portland tommorow and Sunday" 

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"Just chilling in P-town atm in this 5 star hotel ! loving it baby!"

We're guessing Boise is next.

This May 31 item seems out of date due to a change of mind(s).