2010/11 Observation Deck

[InspiredLebowski]

Knight apologized for the UK comments. In classic UK/IU for, IU screams "there's nothin to apologize for!" UK fans scream "that ain't no apology!"

Personally, I really do think he should do it on air, not in a press release.

[IlliniFan]

Jim Larranaga leaving Mason for Miami. Pretty surprising, I really thought he would finish his career here.

[StateProperty]

Ramone Moore entering draft, no agent

[QUOTE]Temple redshirt junior Ramone Moore will enter his name into the NBA draft on Saturday, according to two sources close to the situation.

The 6-foot-4 shooting guard is not expected to hire an agent.

[InspiredLebowski]

Remember those huge 7'4/300+ twin brothers from India? One of them committed to Xavier, Sim Bhullar.

[IlliniFan]

I'm probably the only one who cares, but former GT coach Paul Hewitt is getting hired by George Mason. Anyone familiar with how his teams play? Zone or man? What kind of offense?

[InspiredLebowski]

I don't know how seriously to take this, but a person I feel like has a good handle on the situation says starting in 2012 mens basketball scholarships may increase to 15 from 13 and that a vote will be taken this summer.

I know it'd clear up a ton of confusion here in Indiana.

[Goliath Uterus]

Increase from 15 to 13? you mean decrease?

[InspiredLebowski]

Increase from 15 to 13? you mean decrease?

No. Men get 13 schollies. The rumor is it going back to 15.

[KG215]

I'm probably the only one who cares, but former GT coach Paul Hewitt is getting hired by George Mason. Anyone familiar with how his teams play? Zone or man? What kind of offense?

It'll be interesting to see how he does at a school where he can't land high profile recruits. He was notorious for bringing in 4* and 5* recruits and underachieving with them. I always though this teams were very disorganized on offense and defense. Last year, for example, they had Favors who was a man among children, and GT's spacing was awful on offense so, even when Favors got the ball on the block, he didn't have much room to operate.

He does have a final Four on his resume but he also had a lot of teams with as much talent as Duke and UNC - in a given year - but he'd barely make the NCAAT or not make it at all. I'm not 100% sure but I think after he got GT to the NCAA championship game (where they lost) in '03-'04, he only made the NCAA tourney three times in the next seven seasons, and only got out of the first round once.

[KG215]

No. Men get 13 schollies. The rumor is it going back to 15.

That would be nice and it might explain something Roy Williams knows that we don't, yet. UNC is already pushing the scholarship limit but Williams just put Jackson Simmons on scholarship when he was originally brought in as a "preferred walk-on." UNC added Desmond Hubert to their class in April and, by giving Simmons a scholarship, UNC has five scholarship players in the 2011 class, which gives UNC exactly 13 scholarship players on roster for next season.

They'll lose Zeller (senior) and probably Henson and Barnes to the draft after next season, and there's a chance McAdoo is a one-and-done and Marshall blows up enough to enter the draft, so UNC could possibly lose five players after next year. They've already got two commits from from the 2012 class which would put them with 10-12 scholarship players for 2012-2013 but a lot of UNC people think we're looking at a 4 or 5 man class in 2012. We have to add at least two big men to the '12 class to replace Zeller, Henson, and possibly McAdoo.

Anyway, that was a lot of rambling to basically say Roy Williams (and other coaches) might know something we don't know.

[InspiredLebowski]

Anyway, that was a lot of rambling to basically say Roy Williams (and other coaches) might know something we don't know.

Right, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH, that this is just all 3rd account through the grapevine type stuff. But Indiana's already over by 2 for 2012, and Purdue's at 1 with the recent Ronnie Johnson committment and JUST offered AJ Hammons, which'd be two should he commit.

I understand scholarships are year to year and they get pulled often enough. I can't speak for any other program but Purdue since I follow it immensely closely, but this is VERY much out of character for Matt Painter. After all, the women still get 15 schollies, I don't understand why the men every decreased, believe it was in the late 80s/early 90s.

[KG215]

Right, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH, that this is just all 3rd account through the grapevine type stuff. But Indiana's already over by 2 for 2012, and Purdue's at 1 with the recent Ronnie Johnson committment and JUST offered AJ Hammons, which'd be two should he commit.

I understand scholarships are year to year and they get pulled often enough. I can't speak for any other program but Purdue since I follow it immensely closely, but this is VERY much out of character for Matt Painter. After all, the women still get 15 schollies, I don't understand why the men every decreased, believe it was in the late 80s/early 90s.

Since I've followed UNC, I can't recall Roy Williams ever putting himself in this kind of situation, which is why I think he might know about this. Like I said, he could be looking at only having room to add one or two more players to the 2012 class, when UNC (at the very least) needs two big men in that class. A lot of UNC fans were perplexed by Roy Williams giving Jackson Simmons a scholarship, but I suppose Simmons, who was coming in as a walk-on in the first place, could go back to being a walk-on in 2012-2013 and free-up a scholarship. Still, say if only Barnes, Henson and Zeller are gone after next year, that would put UNC at 12 scholarships for the 2012 class (if Simmons remains on schollie) but really need to add two big men to J.P. Tokoto and Marcus Paige. Roy is one of the best recruiters in the nation for a reason and part of that is because he doesn't tend to put himself in a bind when he has major needs to address.

I Googled it and got zero returns so it apparently hasn't even been leaked, yet.

[IlliniFan]

It'll be interesting to see how he does at a school where he can't land high profile recruits. He was notorious for bringing in 4* and 5* recruits and underachieving with them. I always though this teams were very disorganized on offense and defense. Last year, for example, they had Favors who was a man among children, and GT's spacing was awful on offense so, even when Favors got the ball on the block, he didn't have much room to operate.

He does have a final Four on his resume but he also had a lot of teams with as much talent as Duke and UNC - in a given year - but he'd barely make the NCAAT or not make it at all. I'm not 100% sure but I think after he got GT to the NCAA championship game (where they lost) in '03-'04, he only made the NCAA tourney three times in the next seven seasons, and only got out of the first round once.

Yeah I know he's a good recruiter, partly because he snagged Iman Shumpert when most Illinois fans thought we were probably getting him(one of Weber's worst recruiting misses, though I don't know all the details). I am weary about how much his teams achieved compared to the talent level he's had the past few years. We'll find out how he does I guess. He's getting a team that's returning everyone of significance except for one player, Cam Long. If he underachieves for the next couple of years with this group, he better be recruiting his ass off. Anything less than top 2 in the CAA won't cut it. Expectations are high right now.

[InspiredLebowski]

Got some potential rule changes, including an NBA style charge circle

[KG215]

The addition of a charge circle is going to cause a lot of potential in the way of funny threads/posts on IC (UNC message board). There's not much now, but a few posts over there made me laugh...

"But at Cameron, the circle will be 6 inches in diameter."

in response to that post...

"And it will be out of bounds."

Also...

"Ryan Kelly's playing time just suddenly decreased."

Anyway, I think the charge/block circle is long overdue. I also like the proposition of coaches having the ability to ask for official monitor review at any point in the game but there would have to be some restrictions put on it. I do not like the rule of only being allowed to call a time out in a dead ball period.