Word on the Court: 5/14

- A pair of excellent articles from former Philly writer Dana O'Neill on the five year anniversary of the Dave Bliss debacle at Baylor, including an interview with the man himself (Dana O'Neil ESPN.com with Bliss, with former assistant coach Abar Rouse, who now works in a factory making airplane parts

- Everyone is still buzzing about OJ Mayo (as you can see here, here, and here), but the most interesting subplot may be the future of mega-recruit Demar DeRozan, who may look to get out of his SC commitment with the upcoming sanctions. (Signal to Noise)

- Duquesne's Kojo Mensah takes home the much sought after 2008 title of "Least Heralded Player to Already Sign With An Agent"

- Tough break for BYU as Chad Ford and Andy Katz are reporting that Trent Plaisted will hire an agent and stay in the draft

- Just when you thought that Billy Gillespie has had enough 9th grade recruiting for one season, he appears to be on his way to getting another (Go Vols Extra)

- Bob Huggins faceplants after tripping over a plastic cone in the Charlotte airport. Amazingly, alcohol was not involved. (Dean's List, SI)


- A few big preseason tournaments that have been announced over the past month that we really haven't had the time to post on......

ACC-Big Ten Challenge (Duke-Purdue, Miami-Ohio State, North Carolina-Michigan State..... )
Old Spice Classic (Gonzaga, Michigan State, Tennessee, Oklahoma State, Siena, Wichita State, Maryland, Georgetown)
Coaches vs Cancer (Duke, Pitt, UCLA, Michigan)
CBE (Syracuse, Florida, Kansas, Washington)
Las Vegas Shootout (West Virgina, Kentucky, Iowa, Kansas State)
Paradise Jam (Wisconsin, UConn, Miami, San Diego, Southern Miss, La Salle, Valpo, Iona)

(Much thanks to Andy Katz and his blog for reporting the CVC and CBE match-ups)

STF Summer School Is Now In Session

That's right, this is what you get for slacking off during the actual college basketball season....you have to read a vast array of link dumps and previews of a season that is still five months away.

With finals out of the way along with other things I held off until the end of college basketball season (moving into a new apartment among them) STF can finally return to a somewhat normal posting schedule. Not like there is whole lot of non-Mayo college basketball news out there, but we'll at least be back to at least once-a-day posting. The definite summer schedule won't be hammered out for another week, but here is what is down pat so far...

Word on the Court Link Dump: Wednesdays

STF Summer Outlook: Bi-weekly

College Hoops Q&A: Monthly

(New Feature) Blog Roundtable: Bi-Weekly

More features likely to follow, but that's what we have for now. And when he's not busy with the outstanding minor league baseball blog Bus Leagues, expect to see lots of Extra P around here as well. Hell, if we are lucky, maybe even a Dark Secrets to really uncover the truth about OJ Mayo and his promoter.

OJ Mayo Finally Lives Up to His Reputation

Because I had to attend two graduations separated by 300 miles in three days, I'm way behind on the OJ Mayo story. As everyone knows by now, Mayo is in a bit of hot water as he has been accused of receiving thousands of dollars in cash and other gifts from promoter/agent Rodney Guillory over the past four years. The story was broke on ESPN's E:60 by a former Mayo associate, who provided receipts to back up his claims.

Can't exactly say shock was the emotion I felt when the accusations first broke. Mayo came to USC with red flags the size of a Times Square billboard, which explains why he's been investigated since 2006.

The bigger surprise is that Mayo's major distraction to the college basketball world came so long after the season. The majority of college basketball fans were probably pleasantly surprised at how smoothly things went for Mayo in his one and only season at USC, as he always said the right thing and never seemed to cause a problem (except when, you know, he punched a teammate or something). But this appears to be when the other shoe has finally dropped.

The blame is going to be spread all around for this: USC, Mayo, his shady promoter, the NBA age limit, blogs, Tim Floyd, USC's compliance department and so on. This site isn't in any kind of position to blame anyone, STF can only offer this advice to all athletes: stay far, far away from any reporter even remotely associated with E:60. That show is quickly on it's way to becoming the To Catch a Predator for shady athletes.

More on this story as it will surely develop.

Peking at the Future of College Basketball

These upcoming summer olympics have spawned a sort of China-mania in the sports media. I have no doubt that a search for China-related storylines led to the story I just read in the Sacramento Bee.

Seems the next big thing in college basketball is the Chinese center. We've been seeing the likes of Yi Jianlian climbing up NBA draft boards, and slick college coaches have decided to get in on that action. And when I say slick, I mean John Calipari. He believes he can get Chinese players to come to Memphis:

It's one of the reasons Calipari started a five-year coaching exchange program with China's government and the Chinese Basketball Association.

This past season, 15 Chinese coaches visited the Memphis campus to watch the first 10 days of Calipari's practice. One coach was selected to stay as a season-long intern.

Calipari will take his team to China to play three exhibition games this summer against the Chinese Olympic team. The university also has signed an agreement for a Chinese student-exchange program.

The five-year exchange program benefits China because the country wants to strengthen its national basketball program and needs a new generation of coaches with modern coaching and training methods.

Calipari and Memphis provide that training.

Daniel Lyght, the author of the article, could only find evidence of three current Chinese players in the college ranks. Shang Ping is a 6'10" Forward at Nebraska. Max Zhang (pictured above) will play his first year at Cal when he takes off his redshirt next season. Ji Xiang is another six-ten forward who has landed at Hawaii.

Hard to say when or if this asian fascination will pay dividends in the U.S. The article cites many difficulties, including high travel expenses, standardized test scores (talk about a cultural bias), and the ever-present langauge barrier. One thing's for sure - with athletic departments investing this much time and effort in the process, they'll be expecting results within the next few years.

It's a small world, after all.

[Sacramento Bee]