Mark Emmert doesn't officially become the NCAA's new president until Nov. 1, but he's not waiting to give an opinion on various matters.

Like the NBA's one-and-done rule.

"I have not obviously talked with the heads of any of the professional sports," he told USA Today. "But the impact of their policies and rules on intercollegiate sports is significant, and I intend to build relationships with those people to see how we can work together to mutual advantage if we can do that. The one-and-done rule would just be another example of things we could work on.

"We have to make sure we're proactive in building those relationships, and I'd expect to continue to do that with [NBA Commissioner David] Stern and others."

He says the rule "certainly creates a challenge" when it comes to fostering an environment for student-athletes, but knows he can't directly challenge the NBA. It's their rule after all.

Oddly enough, Mike DeCourcy thought Emmert did challenge Stern and issued a wagging finger Emmert's way. It's strange, given that Emmert would be trying to revamp one of the college game's biggest flaws. Why not go Blue Sky at the start? You can always compromise.

DeCourcy argues Emmert should've been more pragmatic:

Obviously it would be best for all involved if the age minimum were raised to 20 years. That's what Stern wants, and Emmert should have endorsed that position.

I'm sure hoopheads could live with that outcome, but I like Emmert's goal. Nothing wrong with stating what you'd like best.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

Skip Peterson / AP Should teams like Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Winthrop be the ones who continue playing opening-round games?

The 68-team field for the men's NCAA tournament has the go-ahead, but there are still a few questions remaining.

Logistics, for one. Dayton has hosted the play-in game since 2001, but moving the three additional games to their various regions probably makes more sense. Those sites are covered here.

More contentious is who those eight teams will be.

The play-in game always featured two low-major teams that won their conference's automatic bid, but were seen as the two weakest teams in the field. The winner became fodder for a No. 1 seed two days later.

Yet immediately after the 68-team field leaked on April 22, there were pundits and fans calling for the four opening-round games to feature teams that received at-large bids.

On the surface, that sounds appealing. Instead of tuning out a game between Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Winthrop, fans could see the likes of Virginia Tech and Florida or UTEP and Minnesota. The winners of those games could then play the 5 seeds in a 12-5 matchup.

Then again, is that fair? Both Chris Littman and John Gasaway argue that the opening-round games should continue to feature the eight weakest teams, a.k.a., the worst of the low-major teams involved. I'll let John explain:

We know in advance that eight teams in that bracket will have to win seven games to be crowned as national champions. It's harder to win seven games than it is to win six. Placing seven opponents in front of a team puts them at a disadvantage relative to the rest of the field. The question is who should face that disadvantage?

You may ask: What's the difference? Bubble teams won't last long enough to worry about the "unfairness" of asking them to win seven games. I know it seems like bubble teams always lose early in the tournament, but in truth that's not necessarily the case. George Mason, of course, made the Final Four as an at-large 11-seed in 2006. So too did LSU in 1986. Not to mention teams like Wisconsin and North Carolina in 2000, both of whom came close to not making the tournament at all yet made it to the Final Four that year. Yes, these example are few and far between, but they do exist.

Conversely 16-seeds are now 0-104 in the NCAA tournament since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Placing an extra opponent in the path of such teams is rough justice, to be sure, but the operative word here is "justice," especially if the field is seeded correctly.

I admit: Part of me would love to see opening-round games involving major-conference teams. But the tournament's not just about first-round upsets. It's about crowning the best team in the nation.

And if that's the case, it should be about the eventual winner, not creating first-round drama.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

Tim Welsh's first month at Hofstra didn't end so well.

Hours after learning through media reports that Welsh was charged with driving while intoxicated, the school suspended their new coach without pay "effective immediately."

Welsh, whose hiring was made official on March 31, was driving his Lexus in Levittown, N.Y., around 1 a.m. when an officer noticed he was stopped at a green light, asleep at the wheel.

The school will investigate. Some think he'll be fired, but I'm not so sure. The DUI could take months to resolve in court (if Welsh contests it), which would then stretch into the season. If Welsh gets into the season and has the Pride playing well, he could stick around.

But he sure made it hard on himself.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

The board said OK. Now the only remaining formality to NCAA tournament expansion is the men's basketball committee. That's in July.

Anyway, starting next season there will be 68 men's NCAA tournament teams and three more play-in games, though it sounds like organizers would prefer we call them "opening-round games." Sure the details on those "opening-round games" aren't set yet, but the NCAA's working on it. (Sticking with the quotes just for tonight. Not sure why.)

So let's do some reflecting. Or at least some reading. And even if you don't feel like reading, check out this NCAA tournament timeline on expansion through the years. Consider it a usual reference guide if you can't get Wikipedia to load.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

The final tally for early entrants to the NBA draft (officially): 80.

Guess that new NCAA rule that accelerates the timetable for underclassmen to make their decisions hasn't kicked in yet. Anyone on the fence does have roughly another week (May 8) to make up their mind, but having 80 submit their names should be enough to give coaches pause.

However, don't expect the rule to get changed yet. The impending NBA lockout is playing a large factor.

So what's it all mean?

Of the 80, at least 25 have already signed with an agent, and another 10-15 could very well stay in the draft. The biggest surprises, according to the Dagger's Jeff Eisenberg, include N.C. State's Tracy Smith, Utah's Carlon Brown, UMass' Anthony Gurley and San Jose State's C.J. Webster. Expect all of them to withdraw their names.

As for guys who should withdraw, Rob Dauster over at Ballin' Is a Habit says Dayton's Chris Wright, Purdue players E'Twaun Moore and JaJaun Johnson, Oakland's Keith Benson and West Virginia's Devin Ebanks should all withdraw.

As for more established players, Mike DeCourcy offers five guys who should withdraw their names in order to boost their draft status for 2011. They include Virginia tech's Malcolm Delaney, Illinois' Mike Davis, Xavier's Jordan Crawford, Butler's Gordon Hayward and Louisville's Samardo Samuels. I disagree on Hayward (hard to believe his stock could go any higher after his NCAA tournament) and Crawford (who's probably not NBA ready, but wants to be).

But the best link probably belongs to Luke Winn, who breaks down 10 teams that are eagerly awaiting decisions from their key players. Butler and Xavier top that list, followed by Purdue, Morehead State, Ole Miss, Texas, BYU, Seton Hall, Illinois and Virginia Tech.

(However, how any of these players are supposed to accurately weigh their options is a mystery. Most NBA teams aren't even holding workouts until May 9.)

At least the shorter window is good for one thing: Once it all shakes out by May 9, I'll have an updated Top 25 for the 2010-11 season and a new bracket projection from Dave Ommen.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

An odd thought:

ESPN losing out on the NCAA tournament TV deal means Dick Vitale, the college hoops analyst most associated with the game, will probably never call a Final Four game.

Love him or hate him, that just sounds … odd.

Dickie V is one of the faces of college hoops. He's done more than a thousand games for ESPN, littering them with insight and catchphrases, though it's been more of the latter in the last few years. But when it comes to the sport's final weekend, Vitale's always stuck in the ESPN studio, doing pre- and post-game analysis.

And now that Turner will be part of the NCAA tournament, Vitale has no interest in leaving simply to do a Final Four game (if Turner wants him). From the Topeka Capital-Journal:

"I have a long-term contract and love where I'm at with ESPN. I have to pinch myself getting to do all I do, and that's why I maintain a lot of enthusiasm and passion for what I'm doing," Vitale said.

"Our president at ESPN, George Bodenheimer, called and said, 'Sorry Dick, about not getting the tournament rights.' I told him, 'Don't worry about it. Just get it in 14 years. I'll be 90 and I'll come on ready to work.'

"Wouldn't that be great? Not doing games in the NCAA Tournament is not something that gets me down. I don't worry about things I can't control."

That's one of the things you gotta love about Dickie V. He's always enthusiastic and is grateful he's getting to do what he loves. Everyone should be so lucky.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

For those dealing with post-March Madness blues, here's a something to pick up your spirits: An ACC all-time team tournament.

The guys at SCACC hoops have done the seedings and set up the bracket. Is 1991-92 Duke better than 2001-02 Maryland? Would 1992-93 North Carolina take the '81-82 version?

Let the arguments commence.

They did have some guidelines, though. Using their game simulator, they set up seeding as follows:

• Teams that have won a National Championship were given priority seeding.
• The farther the team made it into the NCAA tournament, the higher the seed.
• in cases of two similar teams, my judgment was used to rank the teams.

A couple of restrictions were placed upon this...

• only teams from the 1975-76 season going forward are available (this is due to the lack of data needed for our game simulator)
• only teams that were part of the ACC are eligible
• in a few cases, I placed the top team from another school over another Duke/UNC team since those schools had more selections
• the 3 point shot is only available in simulations when both teams played by that rule during their season (specifically the 3 point shot was in play for the 1983 season and 1987 to present)

Not enough, or just sick of the ACC? OK then.

Use their game simulator to see how every team from the 2009-10 season would fare against one another … or any of those ACC teams. (But make sure you've got a few hours to burn…)

For instance, I started having the 1998-99 Duke team play every school. That group with Trajan Langdon, Elton Brand, etc, was one of the best team I've seen in the last 20 years. How did they fare?

Well, the Devils beat 09-10 versions of Kentucky, Syracuse and Duke. Yet somehow the the current Kansas team beat Duke.

So I simulated it again. Another Kansas win. I did it five times until Kansas ended up beating Duke by 40. (No kidding!) Figured that was a good place to stop … but pushed my luck.

Wanted to see how Northern Iowa fared against those old Devils.

The Panthers lost by 33.

Shoulda quit while I was ahead…

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

Forget Kansas' NCAA tournament loss this season. The spring's real shocker was this bracket from the "Best Dressed Coach in America."

Jay Wright ousted in Sensational 16? Never thought I'd see the day.

Campbell's Robbie Laing pulled off the upset, denying Villanova's dapper coach a chance at the Fashionable Four. Laing couldn't run the table, though. He lost to Drexel's Bruiser Flint.

It was the third such title for Flint, who beat out Pepperdine's Tom Asbury for a spot in the final.

If you're game, check out the running commentary by Virginia tech coach Seth Greenberg, who dishes on the coaches, their matchups and does double-duty for the assistant coach bracket.

Sorry, Jay. You'll get 'em next year.

(H/T: The Dagger)

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

The 2009 Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series wasn't much of a series.

The Big 12 took nine of the 12 games, including blowout victories by Texas, Missouri, Kansas State and Kansas. Add road victories by Nebraska, Baylor and Oklahoma State and it wasn't the Pac-10 finest hour.

Next season should be different.

The conferences announced the pairings for the 2010 series Wednesday, which will stretch from Nov. 27 to Dec. 21. The drawn-out format is one aspect that prevents the series from catching on, but that's another post. Anyway, here's the sked.

Saturday, November 27
USC at Nebraska
Thursday, December 2
Missouri at Oregon
UCLA at Kansas
Arizona State at Baylor
Friday, December 3
Kansas State at Washington State
Saturday, December 4
Oregon State at Colorado
California at Iowa State
Texas Tech at Washington
Sunday, December 5
Texas at USC
Oklahoma at Arizona
Saturday, December 11
Washington at Texas A&M
Tuesday, December 21
Stanford at Oklahoma State

It's not a series of stellar matchups – Texas at USC or UCLA at Kansas are probably the most fan-friendly – but don't let the lack of hype dissuade you from the games. Most of 'em should be close and reasonably entertaining.

USC-Nebraska is a defensive showdown. Kansas State at Washington State has upset potential. Texas Tech at Washington will be up-tempo. And Stanford-Oklahoma State was probably the best of the '09 games, and could be again this year.

But the fun one could be Missouri at Oregon. Mike Anderson said no to the Ducks job earlier this month and now gets to see Matthew Knight Arena in all its sparkling new glory.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

Every conference expansion conversation usually centers around football because the pigskin drives the revenue. As a result, there's not as much basketball speculation with expansion.

Until now.

The fine folks at Rush the Court broke down the expansion scenarios for the Big Ten, Big East, Pac-10, Big 12, SEC, ACC and what might happen to the A-10, Conference USA and Mountain West as a result. Specifically, the basketball scenarios.

Normally I'd excerpt several bits, but there's far too much that went into the post – including graphics on what expansion could look like – for anyone not to click on it. So go read it. Here's the link again.

And now, let's hope none of it happens.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then Matt Norlander just did the equivalent of a novel.

This fabulous photo montage of the 2009-10 college basketball season may be the best thing you'll see all week.

I'm trying to decide if Randy Culpepper going up for a dunk against Gordon Hayward is the best shot among the bunch, or if Greivis Vasquez's focus is more impressive. Though the photo of Marcus Morris disappearing into the press table is pretty cool.

Kudes to College Hoops Journal on this post.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

It's good to be Brandon Knight.

The nation's top recruit will play at Kentucky next season where he'll likely become the latest freshmen sensation under coach John Caliapri, following the previous examples of John Wall, Tyreke Evans and Derrick Rose.

Even better? Knight's parents, Tonya and Efrem, are on top of their game as well.

No, not because they pushed for him to attend Kentucky, but because they told him to pass on signing the national letter of intent. He only signed a financial aid offer from Kentucky. It's mostly a precautionary measure, and an incredibly smart one at that. From Jerry Tipton's story in the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Tonya Knight seemed taken aback when asked how the family learned of the option of a financial aid offer, which is less binding than a National Letter of Intent.

"Why wouldn't we be aware of it?" she said. ". . . My husband and I are very informed. We read everything.

"I don't understand how any parent would not be aware. As a parent, that's your job. …We always want to put him in a position to have options," she said.

You can read more about letters of intent here, but the gist is it requires the school to provide with a scholarship and prevents any other schools from recruiting the player. If the player asks out of the letter of intent, they must sit out a full season and lose a year of eligibility if the school grants the release.

Most players aren't in Knight's position, though. He's good enough that Kentucky isn't requiring the letter of intent (signing it is voluntary) to provide him with a scholarship. However, if you're not a five-star player, I'm not sure schools would acquiesce.

So how does it change? For that we turn to Josh Reed at Basketball Prospectus, who has a comprehensive look at the letter of intent and how it's been used by other players and schools. As for his solution, it's one that's been bandied about in hoops circles for a while now: tie the letters to coaches, not schools.

Allow NLI's to be voided if the coach is no longer at the school. The NCAA's intent--that NLI's focus on the recruit's education, rather than the coach or team--is idealistic but not very pragmatic. Given that head coaches rely on assistant coaches rather than heads of English departments to recruit players, I think it's safe to say that the players are by and large choosing schools based on how the basketball team is managed. Furthermore conference rules forbidding other teams from snagging newly-released players aren't doing much good. The most likely outcome is simply that these players are driven against their own preference to play in another conference.

Maybe this solution won't sit well with schools. If so, too bad. Yes, the athletes attend college, but elite basketball talents are no different than any other student – they're using college as a way to prepare for their future means of employment. In this case, basketball.

If a player thinks a coach is the best way to further one's basketball education, that player shouldn't be bound to stay at a place where his education might flounder. I transferred to a school where I thought I'd be better prepared for my career.

Why would athletes be any different?

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

Guess Greg McDermott never got comfortable in the Big 12.

After four years at Iowa State, McDermott is leaving the school to accept the Creighton vacancy and return to the Missouri Valley, where he established Northern Iowa as one of the league's top teams.

He led the Panthers to three straight NCAA tournaments before heading to Ames in 2006, where he never got the Cyclones on par with the rest of the Big 12 contenders despite NBA-caliber talent like Craig Brackins and Marquis Gilstrap. He leaves Iowa State with a 59-68 record.

"The thing I'm most disappointed with is that we just haven't won as many games as I'd like," McDermott said. "That will always be in the back of my mind, that I left before the job was totally finished. But you don't have control of when opportunities present themselves, and this one certainty came out of left field."

That quote may lead one to believe that the Creighton job is better than a Big 12 job, which may not be far off, but isn't entirely the truth.

Creighton's the perfect place for McDermott, who might've been fired after another sub-par season with the Cyclones. Instead, he'll take his 10-year, $9 million contract and take the reins at one of best hoops schools in the Midwest. (Seriously. Creighton is a sweet hoops spot.) And it's also an ideal position for a guy who had his greatest success in the Missouri Valley.

Who's to say McDermott can't pick up where he left off at UNI?

As for Iowa State, it's not that the job stinks. You can build a winner in Ames, much like Tim Floyd and Larry Eustachy did. And the school will move quickly to find a suitable replacement. (Billy Gillispie's already expressed interest.)

But it'll probably be someone similar to McDermott because the school isn't a coaching destination. It's below Kansas, Missouri and Kansas State in the Big 12 north, and probably on par with Colorado (but only because CU has more job security; they let you coach forever in Boulder).

Still, the right guy could move in and make some noise in Ames. It's happened before.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

As the NCAA prepares its official announcement about tournament expansion – the board of directors is expected to approve the move from 65 teams to 68 on April 29 – there's a lingering question: What are the play-in games going to be like?

Will they feature teams that received at-large berths? Will one-bid automatic leagues be stuck in those early games? And where will they be played?

Alas, I don't know the answers. But Rob Dauster over at Ballin' Is a Habit has a good rundown for the final question.

The UD Arena has been the play-in game's home since 2001, and is contractually obligated to remain so until 2013. But that doesn't make it the default spot for all four games. After all, will fans bases from all eight teams be willing to travel to Dayton, Ohio? It seems unlikely, especially for any schools coming fro out west.

So what other options are there? Plenty. Rob did his homework on this one. His suggestions:  

In the Midwest Region, the Qwest Center (Omaha, Neb.), Hinkle Fieldhouse (Indianapolis), the BOK Center (Tulsa, Okla.) and Hilton Coliseum (Ames, Iowa) would be candidates. The West could play at the Thomas & Mack Center (Las Vegas), The Pit (Albuquerque, N.M.), Viejas Arena (San Diego) or Hec Edmunson (Seattle).

In the East, perhaps the Palestra (Philly), Dunkin' Donuts Center (Providence), the RAC (Piscataway, N.J.) or the Patriot Center (Fairfax, Va.). And the South could use the O'Connell Center (Gainesville, Fla.), Thomas Assembly Center (Ruston, La.), the Sun Dome (Tampa Bay) or Lawrence Joel Coliseum (Winston-Salem, N.C.).

Not a bad list – even for those fans whose schools aren't playing.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

As if spending the last four days immersed in the NFL draft wasn't enough of a reminder that football lords over basketball in the U.S., the ongoing Big Ten expansion provided another one.

OK, it was actually this article from Pete Thamel of the N.Y. Times, which covers how any Big Ten expansion will affect the Big East. And it wouldn't be pretty.

I'm not a East Coast resident or a huge Big East fan, but it would be depressing to see the conference rivalries broken up because of the almighty dollar that's driven by football. It's already disrupted much of the ACC's appeal – Miami, anyone? – and would do the same thing to the Big East.

"Boston College is in the A.C.C., and no one cares about it there," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim told Thamel. "They have hung on in football, but Miami and Florida State will get strong again and they'll be an afterthought in football.

"I don't think we'll do well in the Big Ten. It's possible, but I don't think we'd do well at all. I just don't see how Syracuse or Rutgers fits in with Iowa and Illinois."

True, the Big East is already a massive basketball conference that doesn't have longtime meaning for every team. Games like DePaul-Providence or Villanova-South Florida don't have much appeal, but the league doesn't revolve around those. It revolves around Syracuse-Georgetown and UConn-Pitt. Without those, the Big East's hoop appeal would drop like a stone.

So if expansion does happen, it's up to the schools to preserve those rivalries. You can't stop expansion (though, if the NCAA tournament expansion is any indication, you can slow it down) or a school in search of a buck, but you can do your best to hold onto what you got and what you love.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

Coaches shouldn't use absolutes. College hoops just isn't a place where permanence applies.

When Dana Altman accepted, then backed out of the Arkansas job in 2007, he returned to Creighton claiming that "ego and money" caused him to jump at another job, but ultimately decided he couldn't leave Omaha.

"This is home," Altman said then. "This is where I will finish my coaching career. That's pretty obvious now."

Three years later, as Altman prepares to be announced as Oregon's new coach, that quote doesn't look so hot. And it's not sitting so well with the Blue Jays he left behind. This story from the Omaha World-Herald details a locker room that's both miffed and sad:

"After (Arkansas), he was going to be here for a good while," Antoine Young told the paper. "Apparently not, huh?"

Young said he was disappointed and hurt.

"Especially when he's my coach, I'm his point guard. That relationship is supposed to be, you know, it's a strong bond. ... He's almost like a family member.

"I had a nice freshman year with him. We've known each other so long. We went through some struggles together this year. But at the end of the year, we were making strides, I thought."

It's not that Altman was wrong to take the Oregon job. He'll get paid nearly $2 million a year and will have a chance to build a program that features a sparkling new facility, more recruiting money and doesn't cope with the roadblocks a Missouri Valley school has.

But this time, leave out the absolute. It'll be easier on everyone.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

Time's almost up for NBA hopefuls to put their names in the draft.

More than 60 underclassmen have declared for the draft thus far (full list here), but Sunday's the last day to do so. Those who don't sign with an agent have until May 8 to change their minds.

If you're thinking that's not a very big window to help players decide, you're right.

And for more on that, turn to Mike DeCourcy (who else?). His recent article details why the rule was changed (coaches wanted more time to golf less impact on potential recruits making decisions) and how it's made everything tougher for those on the fence. For example:

After Villanova's Scottie Reynolds, Kentucky's Patrick Patterson and Texas A&M's Donald Sloan, among others, worked out for teams last spring and discovered the time wasn't right, only 32 legit underclassmen were available for the NBA to draft. Of those, 25 were chosen, 18 in the first round. Five of the second-rounders played in the league this season and two played overseas.

The process had become extremely efficient. It didn't need repair. Here's what it's been replaced by: Kentucky freshman guard Eric Bledsoe will have a chance to work out for four interested teams. If he chooses, he'll have to cram those workouts into a period of seven days when he doesn't have classes scheduled—by rule, no workouts can conflict with class time—and he'll make a final call just hours after the last workout concludes.

Some stars like Purdue's E'Twaun Moore, BYU's Jimmer Fredette and New Mexico's Darington Hobson will probably be back for the 2010-11 season. But it'll be interesting to see if guys like Xavier's Jordan Crawford, Butler's Gordon Hayward and Kentucky's Daniel Orton will join them.

We hoopheads can only hope.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

Oregon's search is almost over. And it was worth the wait. Almost.

Dana Altman, according to a report from FoxSports.com, will leave Creighton for the Ducks job. An announcement is expected Monday. It's not the sexy hire Oregon boosters and fans wanted, but it's a solid hire given Altman's coaching acumen and record.

He's not Mark Few or Jamie Dixon, but a more accomplished version of Jeff Bzdelik, who was hired by Wake Forest earlier this month for his Xs and Os. Altman's just as good, and has been doing it longer.

Altman's 327-176 in 16 seasons at Creighton, including 11 consecutive 20-win seasons . He took the Jays to seven NCAA tournaments between 1999 and 2007. They only won two NCAA tourney games in that span, but they favored just once, as a six-seed in 2003.

Altman also spent four seasons at Kansas State, where he was 68-54 from 1990-94. He also accepted, then passed on the Arkansas job in 2007. 

The question now will be if Altman can recruit out West.

He's gotten standout players to Creighton, including Kyle Korver, Rodney Buford and Anthony Tolliver, which should bode well for his Ducks future. Convincing similar talent – or even the players Ernie Kent had – to come to Eugene would place Oregon among the Pac-10's upper echelon, though still probably shy of Washington, UCLA and Arizona.

So after all that, Altman represents a slight boost from Ernie Kent. Doubtful that's what Oregon wanted after a prolonged coaching search, but it'll have to do.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

At the rate John Calipari's going, it'll be news when Kentucky doesn't bring in a top-flight recruiting class. And when that happens, it'll probably be because Calipari's no longer coaching in Lexington…

For those not paying attention – or who ignore recruiting news – Calipari's debut season with the Wildcats resulted in a freshman class for the ages: four five-star recruits, including the nation's top two players, John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins. Last week, he secured the top players in the class of 2010, Brandon Knight, and 2011, Michael Gilchrist.

And now, he added to his class of 2011 by convincing point guard Marquis Teague – the No. 2 overall recruit – to come to Lexington. More impressive was that Teague was seen as a lock to attend Louisville, which had recruited him hard the past two years. How many players can say no to Rick Pitino like that?

"I almost committed to Louisville twice, but that just shows what Coach Cal can do," Teague told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "It means Coach Cal is a great coach and a great man to change my mind like that."

That's the No. 1 recruit in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and the Nos. 1 and 2 recruits in two out of three years. (Also, Derrick Rose was the No. 1 overall recruit in 2007. Just sayin'.)

(whistles)

The familiar refrain of "you can't win a national title with freshmen" will keep surfacing, but with this kind of talent and Calipari's recent record – he's 172-17 at Memphis and Kentucky in the last five seasons – the Wildcats are always going to be in the title hunt. (How ridiculous is that record? Moreso than his recruiting hauls?)

And give Teague some credit. With Gilchrist on the wing, he's thinking bigger.

"I think we can do some great things at Kentucky, have a nice dynasty," he told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

It's possible. Kentucky's already three years into the recruiting dynasty.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

Everyone's got something to say about the NCAA tournament expansion, which makes sense. We've been chattering about it nonstop for months.

Yet it seems the expansion from 65 teams to 68 – not 96 – didn't prompt a multitude of similar stories. That's a happy change. Instead of everyone railing against going to 96, there's more than one school out thought out there.

On that note, here's your NCAA expansion roundup.

I offer two links on the expansion basics from Eammon Brennan and Matt Norlander. Read up. Then move onto the opinions.

Did the NCAA actually listen to everyone who ripped the idea of 96? Gary Parrish thinks so.

Then again, maybe the NCAA simply made the savvy move by setting everyone up to think we were headed for 96. That way 68 sounds marvelous, writes Pat Forde.

There is skepticism. Brett McMurphy doubts the field of 68 will remain the field of 68 for very long. Perhaps that's true given that some coaches are still pushing for more expansion, but it's hard to envision after the storm NCAA officials endured this spring. Give it until at least 2016.

What did the players think of the expansion? Dana O'Neil did the legwork before the news hit and found mostly mixed results. Some don't mind, some do. (Stunner.)

There was much rejoicing. I mean a lot. Like everywhere.

Hey wait, what about the logistics? After all, which eight teams are going to be slated for those four play-in games?

What about an expansion response in cartoon form? (It's worth it.)

And finally, we hoops pundits deserve some finger wagging for thinking the move to 96 was a done deal. Turns out the sky wasn't falling.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

That gust of wind you felt Thursday? A collective sigh of relief from college basketball fans, pundits, bloggers and coaches – yes, even coaches – at the news of the NCAA tournament expanding to 68 teams.

For the last month or so, everything seemed pointed toward an expansion of 96 teams. But perhaps the online petitions, protest groups and endless columns about why 96 is a bad idea actually got through to the NCAA.

Or maybe the NCAA just made the canny move to make us all think 96 was evitable, so the news of 68 teams would seem fabulous. (Too cynical? Nah…)

Anyway, the official announcement won't be until April 29, but it sounds as if everything's ready to go with a new 14-year deal that'll have CBS and Turner broadcast the tournament. (No, really, it's a go. Probably.)

The $10.8 million deal will put every game on TV, though you may have to watch Tru TV to find some of 'em. That's good for fans and good for the three additional teams that will be added. Starting next year, every game will be shown live. CBS will retain coverage of the regional finals, Final Four and title game through 2015, while the networks will split those duties starting in 2016. The NCAA will still stream games online. (There are far more details to be found here.)

Not that everyone's a fan of the expansion.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, a longtime proponent of a bigger tournament, still wants more teams, but said 68 was OK for now. "You can't expand by eight, 10. There's no way to figure that out," he told the AP. "This is the easiest way and hopefully down the road there will be a bigger expansion."

Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun took the opposite stance.

"I have a tough time seeing why we have to change a concept that has been so good," Calhoun said. "This year, the parity was incredible. If you have something that has become magical and what has enhanced it is not more games, but the Butlers and the parity. Those things are what have done it. George Mason. It's been proven time and again."

Too late. Now the complaints center on what will be done with extra teams.

Instead of one play-in game on the Tuesday after Selection Sunday, there'll now be four. While the obvious thing to do would be to have the winners of those four games play the No. 1 seeds (like this), some are pushing for the play-in games to be only at-large teams and not automatic bids like Belmont, Winthrop or North Texas. Instead, have those at-large bids play the 5-seeds, or something similar.

This year that would've meant schools like Minnesota, UTEP or Utah State playing on Tuesday, then playing their matchups.

Is that better? Worse? Fair? Who knows.

But now that 96 is (likely) out, everyone's gotta argue about something.

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Appalachian State must think coaching skills run in the Capel family. That or Mountaineers athletic director Charlie Cobb is even braver than Ron Wellman.

They made Jason Capel the successor to Buzz Peterson, who took the job at UNC Wilmington last week. That makes Capel, 30, the youngest coach in D-I. The age isn't out of the ordinary – his brother, Jeff, was 27 when he was hired at VCU in 2002 – but his experience is.

Capel has one year as a Peterson assistant last season. That's some faith in a hire.

"Coach Capel's wealth of life experiences have led to him developing many of the qualities that we were looking for in a head coach, including maturity, humility and a presence that impresses anyone that comes in contact with him," Cobb said. "I look forward to coach Capel helping us achieve the championship aspirations that we have."

Not that Capel will stink. He could be a natural. But that's a healthy leap for Cobb to make, especially when longtime assistant Matt McMahon was available.

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Branding the media with an East Coast bias is an easy way for most of the country to say "stop talking about New York so much!" It's a fair criticism given the amount of schools not on the Eastern seaboard. However, sometimes it can't be helped.

Like when nine of the 13 NYC-area schools make coaching changes. That's news no matter where you live.

Thankfully, Basketball Prospectus did an outstanding breakdown of who's out, who's in, why the changes were made and what may happen next. NYC writer Asher Fusco's two-part analysis has great nuggets, such as why Seton Hall will probably be slower in 2011, if Steve Lavin can win with his returning talent and what was good about St. Francis basketball (not much).

So if you hate the East Coast talk, my apologies. We'll return to our normal Kansas/Kentucky programming soon enough.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.

John Calipari and Rick Pitino are usually cast as rivals. From their showdown in the 1996 Final Four, to battling in Conference USA and now fighting for state bragging rights, the two coaches are usually talked about in the same breath.

So why would a prize prospect be any different?

Louisville's long been seen as the landing spot for point guard Marquis Teague, but Kentucky – fresh off another stellar Calipari recruiting class – is now seen as a contender for the 6-2 Indianapolis star, who will announced his choice on Thursday. And it sounds like Pitino's getting nervous about it.

A column from Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier-Journal speculates that one of the biggest benefits to Louisville's agreement to play Butler on Dec. 17, 2011 in Indianapolis is that it would give Teague a chance to play before a hometown crowd just a month into his college career.

If Teague is a one-and-done type player, that'll be by far his best chance to do at in college. Sure, it's reading a lot into a game that will already be one of the best of the non-conference slate, but it's not a huge stretch.

At this point, Louisville needs Teague, while Kentucky just wants him. A John Clay writes, that's an important and crucial distinction when it comes to the Cardinals thriving in the same state as Calipari.

Rivals indeed.

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By May 10, Brad Stevens will have something in common with Bernie Mac, Richard Marx and Barney the Dinosaur: "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

The Butler coach will be a guest of the Chicago Cubs on May 10 and lead everyone in singing the traditional 7^th-inning stretch song.

And a piece of advice for Brad: Don't replicate any of these knuckleheads. Nobody likes it when their ears bleed.

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here to follow him.