Oh, Canada

Brian Mull gives the scoop on another transfer at The Dub…

Marlo Davis is a 6′0″ point guard from Canada and a friend of Vladie Kools. He earned second-team junior college All-American honors at Lake Region State College in Devils Lake, N.D.

Money quote for me:

“Vlad made it sound like it was the best place on earth,” Davis said. “It’s beautiful. I’ve only been here a day and I already feel like part of the team.”

The kid grew up in Toronto and played juco in North Dakota. Fredericksburg will look great. Wilmington? I’d bet the kid can’t get the smile off his face.

Tiny Bubbles

Head over to a site called Mahalo.com.

Basically, it’s a sort of Wiki meets About.com meets Google, where the guy that runs it–a guy named Jason Calacanis–says that “Mahalo is the world’s first human-powered search engine powered by an enthusiastic and energetic group of Guides. Our Guides spend their days searching, filtering out spam, and hand-crafting the best search results possible. If they haven’t yet built a search result, you can request that search result. You can also suggest links for any of our search results.”

Here’s your assignment: head over there and suggest a listing for caasports.com, caazone.com, and of course this blog. The only college basketball entries are Florida and Ohio State, and this is a chance to get in early on something I believe will be successful and give it a mid major flavor.

If you’re feeling particularly plucky, suggest Kyle’s site or any other mid major site over at the left of this page. A rising tide lifts all boats, you know.

Calacanis seems to be one of the smart guys and I like the model. The fact that his pic is a bulldog doesn’t hurt, either. (Some of you know of the tragedy of my English bulldog Buddha.)

Pandering? Perhaps, but it’s best done now instead of October 15.

Relax

Come on. It was a holiday weekend. You had no business checking here, and even less than no business disappointed that there was no update.

Try this instead. It’s my old standby for sunny, holiday weekends. Grab a pork tenderloin from the store–preferably organic because the chemicals will kill you. Slit the center of it lengthwise, and drop rosemary down into the pig. Wrap in foil and fire it onto your grill for about a Stella-and-a-half. Cooking times may vary.

Money.

I also flipped through Cinderella poolside this weekend. And wondered who would be smart enough to hire me for Book #2.

***

I’ll get my phone into the spin cycle later this week but don’t get too excited. Remember, we’ve hit June. It’s charity golf tournament season.

Next Question

Kids are absolutely hysterical. I was lucky enough to speak to a class of fourth graders today. The impetus was being an author, how I got there, how do you publish, the writing process, etc. You know, a very inspirational 40 minutes that will surely fire up the next Hemingway or Feinstein.

So I spoke rather eloquently (remember they are 10 years old) for awhile and then took questions. I was excited when about 15 hands immediately shot into the air.

“Do you know JJ Redick?”

“Did you interview any women’s basketball players?”

“Did you play basketball?”

“Do you know any skateboarders like Tony Hawk?”

Some kid asked me about some soccer player.

And it went on like that, and became rather amusing. Finally, a little blonde kid with glasses spoke up and asked me if I had met Arnaud Dahi, because he had gotten his autograph.

Love is a Battlefield

If you’ve read the book or even remotely follow mid major hoops, you are well aware of the scheduling conundrum. I detail in an early chapter the creative (and not-so-creative) means in which coaches and administrators are attempting to get attractive games on their schedule.

Which brings us to a little website called Basketball Travelers. This site boasts that it is “America’s leader in organizing exciting, memorable, and unique tours and tournaments for college and high school teams adn their fans.”

That’s fine, and I’m sure they do a bang-up job. What has caught my attention is the “game and tournament bulletin board” portion of the site, which is where coaches and administrators post available games, dates, and related information for the upcoming season. Yes, it is the Match.com of college basketball scheduling.

Now, practice begins in less than five months. One would think most schedules are complete. One would be wrong. I counted 91 posts for available games. My only gauge, admittedly, is that feels like a huge number. (To be clear, too, some schools posted twice.)

The funny part of these posts is the true Match.com aspect of it all:

St. Mary’s offers accomodations at the “luxurious Lafayette Park Hotel.”

Of course Hawaii is picking up the tab for your airfare and rooms–and importantly ground transportation.

Rhode Island can let you “experience Newport and the ocean.”

Montana State promotes a banuqet. Really. Serving elk?

Missouri State is the topper: a 53-inch big screen teevee.

Ah, but once you get past the external, some schools get right down to dating business. You can tell who is experienced at this online dating, er scheduling, thing:

Massachusetts notes that they are “graduating our top three scorers…” The implication is clear: “we’re going to stink after this year. Come beat up on us!”

Oregon is offering $60,000. (Note: William & Mary boldly says they are available to the “highest offer.” I see a match!)

Arkansas says BCS conference only, Vandy says “high major” and Florida State wants a Top 25 program. Which poll?

Heck, all Albany wants is a doggone scrimmage.

It’s fun as a fan to peruse this site. I say do so. But if you read between the lines, you can see that scheduling is getting difficult for everyone, and the Internet is once again changing the way in which we all do business.

Thank God Its Friday

Allright, I’m going to admit I’m quickly becoming a Jeff Goodman fan. Guy does his homework and brings more than the typical “ain’t Roy Williams a great coach” depth to his analysis. I like that.

Here’s an article with an interview with Goodman, who also appears to be a pretty normal guy.

There is a CAA reference:

Q: Most underrated coach in the country?

Anthony Grant of VCU. I called it the best hire two years ago when he left as Billy Donovan’s top assistant and, for once, I looked smart. This guy is a future star. He’s got charisma and can really coach. I’m not sure how underrated he is these days after he knocked off the Dookies in the first round of the Big Dance, but if (actually when) Donovan leaves for the NBA, Grant should be a no-brainer as his replacement in Gainesville.

P.S.–Hey Jeff, I’ve got connections, too, for Fox Sports’ inevitable Mid Major reporter.

Barely There

Brian Mull gives the 411 on Jeff Horowitz.

The Benny Moss quote: “Jeff has graduated and decided to move on with the next phase of his life. I wish him all the best and he’s going to be successful in everything he chooses to do.”

Probably accurate. I met Horowitz once and seemed like a nice kid. Good for him.

Brow furrower from, nowhere: what was Herrion doing down there at CoC? I haven’t looked it up, but I feel like about four players from a couple years back transferred out, and I distinctly remember a fight among two players. (Not the usual rough intense practice wrestlemania…)

Move It On Over

Oh, PK, what has your success wrought?

There’s a renewed energy west of Baltimore, and along with that is some head-scratching. You see, the energy is but a year or two old (die-hards notwithstanding, so please don’t email me) and most of the Towson hoops followers know no life outside Gary Neal.

So, what has PK brought to make you forget Neal? First, he has another year of experience from My Favorite CAA Player, Jonathan Pease.

But Kennedy is also bringing in some talent and experience:

Start of season: Junior Hairston, a transfer from College of Charleston, enters as a junior. He is listed at a Tommy Breaux-like 6′8″ and 195 lbs and averaged 2.1 points and 2.6 rebounds per game at CoC. Hairston’s rep: fire.

“I have to slow him down in practice sometimes, he’s so emotional,” Kennedy said last year. “You’d think he’s playing for an NCAA at-large bid every day in practice.”

Eligible December 20: Josh Thornton, a transfer from Georgetown. Thornton will be a sophomore, and word is that he can flat out shoot. Also keep in mind the oft-forgotten bonus of a transfer: he has practiced with the team since last year. The whole “getting to know you” thing is a bit overblown.

Thornton was recruited by many major schools before landing at Georgetown. The talk reminds me of a player a few years ago by the name of Willie Taylor from VCU. If the players’ career paths are indeed similar, Thornton will most definitely have an impact.

Eligible next season: Vernon Carr, a 6-1 combo guard from Pensacola JC, by way of UTEP. Carr started a game as a freshman but has spent the bulk of his two UTEP seasons battling injuries. Carr will also be a junior upon his arrival.

Finally, and I cannot get confirmation on the signing, is Richmond transfer Brian Morris. Understandably the folks at Towson cannot comment on someone that has not officially signed nor been accepted into school, but everybody’s rumor mill has this one as a done deal. It is not. Morris’ brother, Shaun, is Towson’s DBO. Morris has also stated he is transferring. (Morris’ other brother John just graduated from ODU.)

The skinny on Morris–other than being skinny–is that he is a taller version Tim Crossin with less shooting ability and longer hair…coach-on-the-floor type who logged a pile of minutes as a freshman.

I’ll see what I cannot find out.

Nothin’ to Prove

This is what I’m talking about. All I can think of when Pecora is getting “arrested” is Coach K and those syrupy, pre-programmed, ridiculous Amex commercials.

There’s no national debate about Hofstra getting recruiting advantages because Pecora is drinking egg creams on his coach’s show.

Priceless stuff.

And somewhere, Gary Williams is considering an insurance commercial.

That’s the Way

(Smashing Pumpkins version, not KC and the Sunshine Band)

I might have just solved one of the world’s great mysteries this morning–or at least one of the things that often crosses my mind–and I have WaPos Dan Steinberg to thank.

Dan writes today about some woman being tossed from American Idol and how she represents the Spurs. His assertion: she’s “too professional” and not what the competition is all about.

Now, I have no use for the NBA or Idol. Besides, I’m a Shear Genius guy anyway. (Can you believe they booted Pig Woman and the indescribably gay guy?)

Anyway, the blog entry made me think back to a philosophical conversation I had with Kyle Whelliston sometime towards the end of this past hoops season. We were talking about why people root for mid majors. Part of my belief was that as Americans, we root for the underdog, especially now that our country has become chock full of overdogs. Part of our fabric is that we want to struggle and strive and overcome because that’s how great things–truly great things–are accomplished. It is the pure “American Way” that has become lost over time.

In saying the San Antonio Spurs are too professional and thus not liked (21st in road NBA attendance, he quotes Michael Wilbon), Dan got me the rest of the way home.

We love mid majors for all my earlier reasons, plus the fact that mid major teams are fun and different and real. Think about Jim Larranaga and the number of times two years ago you thought “Coach K would never do that” or “Boeheim would never say that.” Think about how accessible the coach and the George Mason team was. They didn’t have the cadre of PR foofs and random staffers buffering them from the beauty of the event.

Think about this year and why the country jumped on VCU. The Rams’ style of play was so different and so fun and you could see the smiles on the players’ faces. You couldn’t help but to root for them because they were soaking up the experience and overcoming adversity. And loving it. They accomplished something very difficult to do these days: they forced you to care. To cheer.

George Mason’s approach to the NCAA tournament and VCUs specific defense were unplanned. Each assessed a situation and reacted. There is a purity in that we can all identify with. The contrast was how Connecticut walked into the Verizon Center last year and how Duke entered the HSBC Center this year: rehearsed.

Think about it this way: you remember Lamar Butler’s smile. You remember Eric Maynor’s scowl. You remember Larranaga’s words and VCUs trapping everywhere. They made you enjoy it because they did just that.

Now try to pick out Georgetown’s Jeff Green. Ray Felton? Conley Jr.? You only know AC Law because he’s left-handed. Heck, other than personal appearance give me the difference in Bill Self and Roy Williams and Jim Boeheim.

Not memorable faces. Not memorable styles. Not memorable people.

Too professional.

Overdogs.

Just like the NBA.