Fastbreak Friday

Justin Anderson changed his commitment from Maryland to Virginia. By Justin Young National Hoops Report Each Friday the National Hoops Report will go through the notes of the week in the world of recruiting. Which team won the week? Which commitments stand out? What news should you know? Fastbreak Friday answers those questions. COMMITMENT OF THE WEEK R.J. Hunter of Indianapolis (Ind.) Pike to Georgia State. The son of new Georgia State head coach Ron Hunter picked his dad’s school over interest from Wake Forest, Cincinnati, Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt, and Iowa. The elder Hunter left IUPUI in large part because he wanted to be at a school with a competitive advantage to help entice his son to come and play for him in college. Clearly the move the Atlanta paid off for the family. Trey Zeigler turned down high-major offers to play for his father, Ernie, at Central Michigan. Zeigler was one of the top scoring freshman in his first season. Ray McCallum, Jr., did the same thing. He spurned high-major schools to play for his dad, Ray, Sr., at Detroit. The younger Hunter could be a star in waiting in the CAA. Georgia State hasn’t had a big star on the roster in quite some time. No pressure young Mr. Hunter. No pressure at all. DECOMMITMENTS OF THE WEEK Justin Anderson switched from Maryland to Virginia. “The Cavaliers were always my second choice behind Maryland,” Anderson said in a press release from Montrose Christian. “After the departure of Coach (Gary) Williams and Coach (Rob) Ehsan it just feels like the right fit.” Williams retired and Rob Eshan was recently hired at Virginia Tech. Anderson is the best player to commit to Virginia in the Tony Bennett era. According to Jerry Meyer at Rivals.com , Anderson could be climbing up the rankings. Anderson is one of the more freakish athletes in the 2012 class with his strong physique, long wing span and tremendous leaping ability. He plays with a strong motor and can also defend multiple positions. The promising progress in his skill game landed him in the five-star range of the most recent Rivals150.  Jordan Goodman reneged on his commitment to Rutgers. NCAA DUMBS DOWN THE T.O.C. For the first time in 17 years, Bob Gibbons and his terrific Tournament of Champions won’t be taking place at North Carolina, Duke or N.C. State. That’s a crying shame. I wrote about this topic last month. The NCAA prohibits any boys basketball tournament to be held on college campuses. http://nationalhoopsreport.net/2011/04/22/toc-takes-a-major-hit-kids-are-the-real-losers/ Yeah, because that makes a lot of sense. Gibbons is hot under the collar about it, and he should be. “This rule doesn’t affect football. It doesn’t affect golf or soccer or tennis or swimming. It’s only boys basketball. Right now, we could have a girls basketball tournament on all these campuses. But not one for boys.” The tournament will go on but not playing at the famed college basketball campuses has caused a number of high profile teams to withdraw from the event. I, for one, hope Gibbons and other tournament directors follow through with a class action lawsuit against the NCAA. The rule makes zero sense and it is unlawful. ON TAP Because of the venue challenges for Gibbons, other tournaments inherited more top flight teams. The third session of the EYBL tour is this weekend in the Los Angeles area. You can follow the games via box scores and check the latest stats here . The Best Buy Chicago Classic looks like it will be a big hit. The major .com sites will be there, too. Check the National Hoops Report on Tuesday for the Weekend Linkage .

Towson transfer Isaiah Philmore chooses Xavier

Posted by Jeff Borzello For the second season in a row, Chris Mack and Xavier have landed a marquee mid-major transfer. Last season, the Musketeers picked up Travis Taylor from Monmouth. On Wednesday night, Towson transfer Isaiah Philmore made the move to Xavier. “He thought it was a good fit,” Delaware Sharpshooters AAU coach Duane Coverdale told CBSSports.com. “He really liked the staff on his visit. They have a very strong tradition of being very successful. That’s something he wanted to be a part of.”

For VCU students, basketball success doesn’t come cheap

The price of sustaining last season’s unprecedented basketball success at Virginia Commonwealth will apparently come out of the pockets of its students. According to VCU’s budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, the school will raise fees $50 per student in part to pay for an $875,000 increase in the budget for intercollegiate athletics. About $733,000 of the athletic department’s windfall is earmarked for the men’s basketball program to help pay for scholarships, facility repairs and the huge raise coach Shaka Smart and his staff received after taking the Rams to their first-ever Final Four this spring. To fend off interest from NC State, Missouri and a handful of other higher-profile schools, VCU increased Smart’s annual salary to $1.2 million , double what he earned last year even after factoring in his bonuses. Smart’s new salary makes him the Colonial Athletic Association’s highest paid head coach and one of the most well-paid non-major conference coaches in the nation. Very few athletic departments without a high-profile football program are self-sustaining, so VCU is far from alone in supplementing its intercollegiate sports budget with student fees in addition to private donations and ticket and TV revenue. Nonetheless, it’s rare for an increase in university fees to so clearly be a result of the price of keeping a basketball coaching staff intact. How will VCU students react to the increase in fees? Some won’t be thrilled, but those who followed the men’s basketball team’s stunning run probably will be understanding. Some students scrounged up hundreds of dollars in gas and hotel money and spent a 22-hour car ride with complete strangers to make it to the Final Four in Houston last month. What’s another $50 when you’ve already been through that?

Seton Hall F Anali Okoloji transferring to George Mason

Seton Hall forward Anali Okoloji will transfer to George Mason. The Brooklyn product will join former area stars Ryan Pearson (Christ the King) and Sherrod Wright (Mount Vernon) at the CAA program. Okoloji told the News he left the Pirates because “I didn’t get a chance to showcase my …

Katz mentions Flint as possible Penn State target

Bruiser Flint mentioned in connection with Penn State coaching search: More here: News and notes

ODU scores well in APR

The NCAA’s annual report card, a forumula known as the Academic Progress Rate, is in,

VCU looks to raise $733K for hoops team (AP)

Virginia Commonwealth University plans to increase student fees so it can give $733,000 more to the basketball program, including for coaches’ raises. Head coach Shaka Smart was given a $1.2 million contract after taking the Rams to the NCAA Final Four this past season. According to VCU’s budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, the school plans to increase its mandatory university…

Refresh, refresh, refreshing linkage

Here’s an interesting article from Brian Mull. More here: Refresh, refresh, refreshing linkage

NCAA Rule Says Jones Can’t Enroll at St. John’s (UPDATED)

Hofstra among the schools that have inquired about Lamont “Momo” Jones. Arizona transfer Lamont “Momo” Jones cannot enroll at St. John’s this year because Moe Hicks is on staff, according to an NCAA rule implemented in 2010. According to a St. John’s source, rule 11.4.2, essentially says that until two years after a non-coaching staff member has been employed any student-athlete that’s been coached by that staff member cannot be recruited. And if that student-athlete were to enroll at that institution, they would be declared permanently ineligible. NCAA spokesman Chuck Wynne was not immediately available for comment Tuesday. Hicks coached Jones for two years at Rice High School before Jones left Rice to spend his junior season at American Christian (Pa.). He finished up at Oak Hill Academy. Hicks was hired at St. John’s on June 1, 2010, meaning St. John’s could not bring in any of his former players until June 1, 2012. After the hiring, it was understood that St. John’s could not recruit a player such as Kadeem Jack or Jermaine Sanders , who both starred at Rice under Hicks. Jack ultimately landed at Rutgers and Sanders at Cincinnati. Even if Hicks were to leave for another job, St. John’s would still be prohibited from recruiting one of his former players, the St. John’s source. The New York Post reported recently that it was a done deal that Jones would transfer to St. John’s, and at least one national pundit blindly concurred. In today’s editions, the Post said the situation is now in flux because of the rule. Dermon Player , the former St. John’s and Seton Hall assistant who is advising Jones on his transfer, said St. John’s, Seton Hall, UConn, Hofstra and Iona are among the schools that have inquired about Jones, who said he wanted to transfer to be closer to his Harlem home and his ailing grandmother. Player said nothing was done and he was waiting for Jones to return East this week. Both St. John’s and Jones have interest in one another, multiple sources with knowledge said, with one key source adding that the first Post report was “premature.” But if Jones were to spend the upcoming season at another institution and then attempt to enroll at St. John’s in 2012, that might be an option. “There are ways to get this done,” a source with knowledge said. “It depends on how badly both sides want it.” (Photo courtesy Tucson Citizen) Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter And like ZAGS on Facebook  

What about a mid-major challenge?

The idea of a mid-major vs. mid-major conference challenge isn’t a totally new one. Readers are creative in this way, sending variations of high-major and mid-major early-season conference challenge ideas — hey, what if we paired up the Atlantic-10 and the Mountain West? — more frequently than you would think possible. Still, give some credit to ChicagoNow’s Chicago College Basketball Blog . If you’re interested in seeing two mid-major conferences duke it out the way the Big Ten and ACC (and now Big East and SEC) do, the Horizon League and Mid-American Conference seem like pretty good places to start. From ChicagoNow’s Chris Burrows : Consider that during the 2010-2011 season HL and MAC teams met 28 times — the average Horizon League team played close to three MAC teams in one season. Under my proposed HL/MAC Challenge format, which would require little in the way of extra travel since these conferences are geographically similar (if you switch out Wisconsin for western New York), the ten Horizon League teams would all get two games against MAC opponents. That means two of the 12 MAC teams would only get to play one game each in the challenge for a total of 20 games. You won’t see high-majors playing 20 game challenges. No way. In many ways, as Burrows writes, it’s a natural fit. Not only do the two conferences already meet frequently, but the  Horizon and MAC are evenly matched from top to bottom in most seasons, including last year. An even more salient point is this: Small-college hoops conferences can have a tough time getting even die-hard college hoops fans to pay much attention before the BracketBusters shows up in February. If a challenge format would boost either league’s profile — and maybe this would work for a few other easily paired-off conferences, too — then it almost seems like a no-brainer. At the very least, it certainly couldn’t hurt. ( Update : As some folks on Twitter have pointed out , yes, I am aware that the Missouri Valley and Mountain West have paired up for the MVC/MWC Challenge the past three seasons … I just didn’t mention it in the post. Either way, this remains a solid idea for the Horizon and the MAC, no?)

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