ESPN Men's Basketball

Needless to say, by the time the news was announced Tuesday afternoon, this was not exactly the shock of the century.

Early Tuesday morning, Mike Brey told our own Andy Katz that Notre Dame had agreed to extend its commitment to the Crossroads Classic -- a four-team event featuring Hoosier heavies Indiana, Purdue, Butler and ND -- for another two years, into 2013 and 2014. Even before that, despite the expiration of the current agreement this season, no one really expected the event to go away. It was assumed the four schools would agree to keep the thing going, one way or the other.

The reason for that is the same reason the official news, as announced by the four schools, is so very welcome: The Crossroads Classic is an event too good not to continue.

Last season's inaugural edition went about as well as anyone could have hoped. The games weren't classics (though Butler's comeback victory over Purdue was certainly exciting), but the event itself was a welcome throwback to the original, organized and hosted by Tony Hinkle at Butler from 1948-51 and from 1957-60. It took the schools 50 years to put a similar event together again, but when they did, they got it right. All four athletics programs teamed together to host the Classic themselves, as opposed to outsourcing it to the Gazelle Group or one of the other patrons, and because they did so they were able to put the games in Conseco Fieldhouse, an actual basketball arena, while splitting the profits evenly among the four.

The end result showcased the collective culture of Indiana basketball. The impulse to gather in Indianapolis and square off on the hardwood -- the same impulse that has made the sport an obsession in the state, even at the high school level, for almost as long as it's been played -- was on full display. Everyone booed IU fans, because that's what other basketball fans from Indiana do. It was just fun, you know?

So, no, it was no shock Tuesday to see the four schools extend their sensible agreement through the 2014 season. But it was excellent to see. In a sport where scheduling too happily tosses aside monumental rivalries for the sake of individual gain (or, if you prefer, "protection" of a "nontraditional program"), the no-nonsense extension of the Crossroads Classic was a small but refreshing change of pace. May it ever be so.

1. The Colonial Athletic Association will meet June 1-2 in Hilton Head, S.C., and the site of the 2013 tournament is expected to be a hot topic. Drexel coach Bruiser Flint said he could see the tournament moving to Baltimore, out of Virginia Commonwealth's home base in Richmond. The problem is that a school like Towson would have to support the event. The CAA is going to have an odd year in 2013 now that VCU is gone to the Atlantic 10, Georgia State is ineligible to play in the tourney since it’s leaving for the Sun Belt and Towson and UNC-Wilmington aren’t eligible due to poor APR scores. That leaves eight schools available for the tourney. The elite of Drexel, Old Dominion and George Mason (as well as possibly Northeastern) should all be near the top of the league.

2. The A-10 will find out that a school like VCU has the size and strength to bump the league up a perceived level immediately. The Rams will be an instant competitor for the A-10 title in year one. Don’t be surprised to see VCU and Butler in the thick of the race for the championship in 2014, too. One of the big winners is the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The A-10 made the prudent move to Brooklyn instead of Atlantic City. Having a tournament with Xavier, VCU and Butler as the headline teams will be a draw. If Saint Joseph’s, UMass, Dayton and others in the area can be factors, the buzz for the event will only increase.

3. Murray State coach Steve Prohm is deciding about which tournament the coveted Racers will play in next season. He’s going back and forth on whether to be in the NIT Season Tip-Off pod at Kansas State (the other three hosts are Virginia, Pitt and Michigan) or become the eighth team at the Charleston (S.C.) Classic. The seven teams signed up for the Nov. 15-18 event are: Baylor, Boston College, Charleston, Colorado, Dayton, St. John’s and Southern Illinois. It’s a tough call for Prohm. He could gamble and go to Manhattan, Kan., to try to get to New York or go to Charleston, where he’s likely to get at least two games against possible NCAA teams.

We have now entered conference realignment's Stage 3. Or is it Stage 4? It's hard to keep track.

Part of the reason it's so hard to definitively describe the where we are in the realignment process is because Stage 1 remains alive and well. Conference realignment isn't Harold Hill. It doesn't stop by one conference, convince university presidents they need a bigger television deal, and then skip town when the con is up. Conference realignment is a virus. It infects cells one by one, but remains thriving in its previously infected hosts, even as it spreads further and further outward. We're almost two years past the Big Ten's opening moves, and the Big East is still flailing, the Big 12 is still looking, and UConn is still trying to get into the ACC. ("Come on, Boston College, let's bury the hatchet!")

The only difference now, as our Dana O'Neil examined in today's look at realignment's latest stage, is that everybody's in on the game. The WAC, the Mountain West, Conference USA, the Sun Belt -- there is no untouched, pristine land left. As Sun Belt Conference commissioner Karl Benson told Dana:

"I still think there are other changes that will occur, and it's all linked,'' said Sun Belt Conference commissioner Karl Benson, himself a realigned leader, having dashed from the fading WAC to the Sun Belt in March. "If the Big 12 does something, the Big East will react. If the Big East does something, Conference USA will react. If Conference USA does something, we'll react. You're already seeing the Colonial, Horizon and Atlantic 10 with changes, conferences that had been untouched through all of this. I think there's still a lot of movement that will occur.''

To wit: On Thursday, the Associated Press reported that Oakland, the dominant Summit League team of the past five seasons, is openly pushing for an invitation to the Horizon League. Long-time Oakland coach Greg Kampe tried to make the push a decade ago, but the University of Detroit, skeptical of sharing the Detroit market with an in-conference foe, kept the Golden Grizzlies at bay. From the AP:

"I know that's a fact because I called the athletic director then, Brad Kinsman, and he told me," Kampe said.

Kinsman said Wednesday that Kampe's recollection is accurate.

"The feeling back then was that it didn't make sense to share this market with another school in the same conference," said Kinsman, who retired in 2006. "Times have changed, coaches have changed, but I don't know what the thinking is now."

From a sheer performance standpoint, Kampe's desire is hardly outlandish. The Golden Grizzlies would have been near the top of the Horizon League in the past three seasons in attendance and RPI, which is what really matters. In terms of actual on-court performance, the Golden Grizzlies' Ken Pomeroy average adjusted efficiency rank over the past four seasons is 116.5; that would have put them right in the thick of last season's Horizon League, whose average KenPom rank was 174.6 and had only four teams rank higher than the Grizzlies overall. (In 2011, Oakland's best season in decades, Kampe's team ranked No. 66 in efficiency. Only Butler, at No. 41, ranked higher.)

Plus, there are good common sense reasons why it could work. Kampe cites the travel footprint as beneficial; teams could play Oakland and Detroit within two days' time and "wouldn't even have to change hotels." And then there's the potential of a budding rivalry:

"I think an Oakland-Detroit rivalry would be huge in southeast Michigan," he said. "When we played, there would be full houses, we'd be on the front page of the Detroit News and Free Press. There also would be television exposure that would help both schools and the Horizon. I don't see how it would be a negative for Detroit to have us in the same league."

I admit I'm not as familiar with the dynamics of the Detroit college hoops scene as some; would an Oakland-Detroit rivalry really generate front page local interest? That seems a little ambitious, right? (Commenters, please enlighten us). But even if Kampe is overstating the case, the points are valid. Oakland almost feels like a Horizon League already. This makes sense.

But the point of this isn't the suspense -- oh, the suspense! -- of a possible Oakland-to-Horizon move. It is, as Dana wrote, that realignment is no longer merely about the big boys. It is not longer just about football. Football is still a major concern, of course, but now that conferences large and small are doing everything in their power merely to survive as leagues, the doors are opening and closing everywhere. Basketball is a concern. In many cases, it is the only concern.

I don't know what we call this stage of realignment. The "technology adoption lifecycle," originally developed by three researchers studying agricultural innovation patterns at Iowa State University, produced the Rogers' bell curve, which looks like this. Maybe we're in the "late majority" stage? Or maybe agricultural innovation adoption has nothing to do with conference realignment, and this entire paragraph was pointless?

Maybe so. But rest assured, no school and no league wants to end up labeled a "laggard." No one -- and for what seems like the first time since this whole thing started, I mean no one -- wants to risk being left behind. Everyone is moving; everyone is looking. The question is: Where do we stop?

1. Butler coach Brad Stevens said that the Bulldogs will have to get out of the four years left on its scheduling agreement with Xavier since the two schools will be league members beginning in 2013-14. He also stated that there are no tournament conflicts ahead of the Bulldogs with another A-10 school. Stevens is excited about the move. So are Xavier’s Chris Mack and Dayton’s Archie Miller. Mack said it’s a major coup for the A-10 and moves the conference a bit more West. Miller lauded Butler’s ability to attract major non-conference opponents and how that would take the conference to another level.

2. Old Dominion is still considering a move to Conference USA and according to one school source there is still indecision. The move for the Monarchs for football would make sense if it’s going to upgrade. But for hoops? ODU needs to be with VCU and George Mason. The Monarchs don’t need to move to another one-bid league that is losing its best team in Memphis. If ODU were going to the A-10 then that would be worth endorsing. But a move to CUSA is not.

3. NC State didn’t prohibit Tyler Harris from transferring. The Wolfpack gave him a full release. But shouldn’t Harris have some accountability in this decision? Scholarships are renewable on June 30 each year. Harris made up his mind to transfer on May 2, instead of soon after the Wolfpack season ended in March. NC State took a pass on a junior college transfer and as a result is now caught short handed with nine scholarship players. Coaches and schools have been wrong to block players from transferring but players need to also make decisions in a timely fashion for all parties involved. That’s the right thing to do.

The news is officially official: Butler is waving farewell to the Horizon League once and for all, and moving all of its sports to the Atlantic 10 starting in 2013, as Andy Katz reported Tuesday night and Butler formally confirmed Wednesday morning.

It's a big move, and an obviously advantageous one, for the flagship men's basketball program: The Bulldogs will play better competition on a regular basis, they'll be on TV more often, and they don't have to fret about avoiding slipups in conference play and/or winning the conference title to get in the NCAA tournament every season. Atlantic 10 at-large bids are far more plentiful than that.

The question is: Can Butler compete with the top end of the A-10? Can it consistently win one of those bids?

Not everyone is convinced. The Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy believes Butler will have to change its recruiting style -- wherein Brad Stevens eschews top-end talent for good teammates and sleeper prospects -- to maintain a foothold in its new environment:

Stevens said during our lunch he would continue to value “level of basketball ability, character and everything else that goes into it, what’s important to them, what kind of teammate they are.” And no doubt he will. But Butler will have to shop in more crowded aisles now. It never will be the same.

CBS' Gary Parrish has some similar concerns:

Gun to head, I think Butler will be fine because Stevens is too good to be bad. But there's no denying the Bulldogs' world is changing. Recruiting must improve. Facilities should be upgraded. If those things don't happen, America's most beloved college basketball program could find itself in waters that are a little too deep because the A-10 is a significant step up in competition, and because the next Gordon Hayward or Shelvin Mack -- i.e., two pros who weren't projected as pros out of high school -- isn't the easiest thing to find.

These are valid concerns. Butler's modus operandi goes a little something like this: Recruit lesser-known character guys and overlooked talents, build those teams into cohesive four-year groups, and then slowly rinse and repeat. With the exceptions of Gordon Hayward (a now-promising pro for the Utah Jazz who sprouted Anthony Davis-like inches late in his high school career) and Shelvin Mack (a little-known guard out of Kentucky), the Bulldogs have always thrived on players with less sheer talent than panache, players who were better as the sum of parts than as raw parts themselves.

Perhaps Butler's most important recent player -- forward Matt Howard -- was a combination of these qualities, a player good enough to receive looks at high-major schools like Indiana and Wake Forest but not good enough to receive promises of stable playing time. He chose Butler instead, and four years, two Final Four appearances, and a host of (both basketball and academic) individual awards later, the rest is history.

Likewise, Butler's basketball resources -- logistical things like their recruiting spend, willingness to splurge on charter flights, renovations to Hinkle Fieldhouse and campus practice facilities -- will need to be the subject of a consistent commitment on the part of the school. These are the concerns, and they are valid.

They are also, perhaps, a bit overblown. For one, Butler has already begun to recruit more high-profile players. As Yahoo!'s Jeff Eisenberg notes:

They were a finalist along with North Carolina and Indiana for Cody Zeller, one of the nation's top centers in the 2011 class. They landed Arkansas transfer Rotnei Clarke, a sharpshooter coveted by many elite programs. They signed top 100 prospect Kellen Dunham in the Class of 2012. And they secured a commitment from top 100 power forward Nolan Berry and have offers out to at least a trio of other even more highly ranked Class of 2013 recruits.

Likewise, the Bulldogs have already begun to ramp up the financial backing of the program, too. The men's basketball program already receives a lion's share of the program's athletic spending. Hinkle Fieldhouse, one of the nation's most beautiful and historic basketball arenas, is set to receive a $25 million renovation in coming years. Stevens is under contract for 10 more seasons -- 10 more seasons! -- and he is believed to make just more than $1 million per year. Butler will surely have to spend more on game travel and recruiting, but the increased revenue from the move should help to offset those costs.

When you really boil it down, the concern over Butler's move, as it relates to continued success on the basketball court, goes like this: The Atlantic 10 has more good players than the Horizon League, and Butler will need more good players. Stevens wants to recruit his kind of player -- success and all, he won't abandon "The Butler Way" -- but the competition within the Atlantic 10 may force him to look outside his normal boundaries for recruits. Either that, or Butler won't win. Either way, something will change.

This concern assumes that there aren't players within Butler's recruiting sphere of influence -- which is centered in Indianapolis, the nexus of one of the nation's best and deepest prep hoops reservoirs -- that are both good enough and "Butler enough" to play for Stevens. Forget that this ignores the existence of Hayward and Mack and Howard, players who carried Butler to two straight national runner-up finishes. It assumes that Stevens can't find more of these players, or can't locate top-100 guys, even as he is already two years into that stage of the program's evolution. And it insinuates the existence of a big, bad Atlantic 10, a place where homey little Butler can't possibly hope to compete, not with Butler Way players who play committed, tight-knit basketball for one of the nation's best coaches.

I happen to think they can. The past five years is evidence enough for me.

Butler will have to grow and evolve in certain respects in its new home, no question. But it won't have to change what it is at its very core. Stevens is Stevens, after all. And new conference or not, Butler can still be Butler.

1. The Butler Bulldogs and the A-10 are expected to come a resolution within two weeks, according to at least one source close to the situation. The plan would be for Butler to join the A-10 for the 2013-14 season and replace the Temple Owls. Butler has always been the first choice for the A-10, once the Owls were on the move to the Big East. If A-10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade pulls this off it should go down as the second most significant basketball realignment coup behind the ACC getting the Syracuse Orange and the Pittsburgh Panthers from the Big East. The A-10 would be at 14 if it gets Butler. Expanding to 16, which isn't a necessity, is the only way the VCU Rams and George Mason Patriots come into the picture out of the CAA.

2. If the automatic qualifier is done for the BCS in college football then why did the Boise State Broncos join the Big East? Meanwhile, the WAC could be imploding, making Boise State’s move to the conference in all other sports highly suspect. The San Diego State Aztecs at least has its basketball program in a stable conference in the Big West while its football program is in the Big East. Boise State may have to reconsider its hoop location. Boise State’s Leon Rice was at Mountain West meetings this week. The MWC invited Boise, even though the Broncos are leaving. The Big East didn’t do the same with Syracuse and Pitt. Those two schools will head to the ACC meetings, even though they don’t play in that league until the fall of 2013 at the earliest.

3. The Virginia Tech Hokies' hiring of James Johnson was a surprise, considering he was an assistant with the Hokies two weeks ago before leaving for Clemson. Johnson may very well end up being the best choice, but athletic director Jim Weaver will need to answer if this was a short or long-term solution and whether he actually did a national search. Johnson has paid his dues as an assistant but he leaps into an ACC job at a time when the Hokies can’t afford to drop.

Yes, that’s right: After Wednesday’s signing day madness -- Nerlens Noel to Kentucky, Shabazz Muhammad to UCLA, extra extra, read all about it -- we’ve gone and built another extremely early top 25. I know, I know. You’re excited.

The whole “too early” thing isn’t just shtick; it really is way too early to be thinking about next season’s top 25 (as if preseason rankings matter in the first place). This is all just guesswork. Fun, mostly pointless guesswork. But it’s the offseason! What else are we supposed to do?

In any case, you can check out the top 25 here. Not everyone could make the cut, which is where the rest of this post comes in. Here’s a look at some of the best teams that didn’t land in today’s top 25 -- and what they’ll bring to the floor in 2012-13:

VCU: It’s clear the Rams weren’t a one-show pony in 2011; in fact, as coach Shaka Smart is proving, this is a program with staying power. Indeed, with the exception of NCAA tournament play, Smart’s 2011-12 team was considerably better than the one that made 2011’s unlikely run, and that looks likely to be the case again in 2012-13. With star guard Darius Theus alongside returners Briante Weber, Troy Daniels, Rob Brandenberg and Treveon Graham -- and with Bradford Burgess’s little brother Jordan arriving as a freshman in the fall -- this may be the best HAVOC-style defensive team of Smart’s tenure.

Kansas State: The 2012-13 Kansas State Wildcats won’t make any aesthetically inclined fan’s list of must-see teams. With just one player signed for the class of 2012 -- three-star center Laimonas Chatkevicius -- recruiting isn’t going to get anyone all hot and bothered, either. But boring as the Wildcats may seem, their returning solidity will give them a chance to be effective. Those returners include 7-foot forward Jordan Henriquez and veteran backcourt members Will Spradling, Rodney McGruder and Angel Rodriguez, who was inconsistent but promising as a freshman last season. This group wasn’t all that much to look at in 2012, either, but under former coach Frank Martin, it thrived on rebounding, defense and toughness. Newly hired coach Bruce Weber will love to work with this team.

Tennessee: The 2011-12 Tennessee Volunteers were a rebuilding team -- a post-Bruce Pearl mess, which is what they were supposed to be -- until Jan. 21, and no further. That’s when Tennessee took down Connecticut at home and went on to win 10 of its last 13 games and land the No. 2 seed in the SEC tournament, just behind the Kentucky Wildcats. Tennessee’s early season woes prevented the Vols from making the NCAA tournament, but Cuonzo Martin set a clear tone for his new program, one that should carry over -- with a little help from sophomore Jarnell Stokes, whose midseason freshman arrival synced up with the Volunteers’ run -- into his second year in Knoxville.

Saint Louis: Make no mistake: The Billikens will miss Brian Conklin, a 6-foot-6 forward who played more like he was 6-10, with the interior scoring numbers to match. Otherwise, Rick Majerus’ team -- which gave Michigan State a go in the NCAA tournament’s third round -- is back. Kwamain Mitchell, Dwayne Evans, Cody Ellis, Mike McCall and Jordair Jett; these are the players who brought Majerus and SLU back to some measure of national prominence in 2011-12. There’s no reason to expect anything less in the season to come.

Cincinnati: When Yancy Gates faded Xavier center Kenny Frease on Dec. 10, we didn’t know how Cincy’s season would end up. But few would have expected the Bearcats in general -- and Gates specifically -- to so fully turn their fortunes around. Now, Mick Cronin must move on without his powerful senior center. If Cincy lands center Christopher Obekpa, the No. 77 recruit in the ESPNU 100, all the better. (For what it’s worth, many scouts think Obekpa is heading to Providence.) But if not, Cronin can lean on the accomplished veteran backcourt of Sean Kilpatrick, Cashmere Wright and Jaquon Parker.

Five more to watch:

Ohio: The Bobcats lost coach John Groce to Illinois ... and that’s pretty much it. As returning lineups go, you can’t do much better than this. All 10 of Ohio’s rotation players from last season -- which ended in a Sweet 16 finish, lest we forget -- are back in 2012-13, including star guard D.J. Cooper.

Marquette: The Golden Eagles lost their two best players, seniors Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder, to the inescapable maw of time. But every main contributor around that star duo will be back, including Vander Blue, Davante Gardner, Chris Otule (coming off a December ACL injury), Todd Mayo and Junior Cadougan. This will remain a talented up-tempo team led by one of the nation’s most tireless coaches in Buzz Williams.

Butler: Will the Bulldogs return to prominence in 2012-13? It certainly looks that way. Brad Stevens’ young team will be without senior guard Ronald Nored, but otherwise will be a year older and wiser next season, while its chief deficiency -- shooting, scoring, offense in general -- should be alleviated by the arrival of sharpshooting Arkansas transfer Rotnei Clarke. Butler may not get back to the Final Four, but a return to the top of the Horizon League looks likely.

Miami: The Hurricanes were one of a handful of bubble teams left behind on Selection Sunday; in the end, a win at Duke in ACC play wasn’t enough to make up for an otherwise mediocre résumé. But 2012-13 holds some measure of promise. Star guard Durand Scott returns, as do forwards Reggie Johnson and Kenny Kadji. If the Hurricanes continue to improve under Jim Larranaga, they should be dancing in no time.

Maryland: The Terrapins struggled during the program's first post-Gary Williams season, but the pieces are in place for a step forward in Year 2. Star guard Terrell Stoglin -- one of the ACC's best perimeter scorers -- is back, as is center Alex Len. Meanwhile, coach Mark Turgeon is already reaping the rewards of a renewed focus on elite-level recruiting: ESPNU top 100 players Shaquille Cleare and Jake Layman highlight a solid incoming class that should contribute right away.

Honorable mentions: Alabama, Florida State, Pitt, Murray State, Stanford, Saint Mary’s, Iowa State, Xavier, Nevada.

1. It’s really a shame that Kendall Marshall's last game was against Creighton in the third round and not Kansas in the Elite Eight. We never really saw the full potential of this Carolina team. Had Marshall been able to avoid injury then the Tar Heels would likely be in New Orleans competing for the title. But that’s the beauty as well as the cruelty of sports. Now Marshall is declaring for the NBA draft with John Henson and Harrison Barnes, too. Roy Williams has had three sets of elite teams in his brief time at North Carolina. Two of the three won titles in 2005 and 2009. This one was destined to win one, too. But it will always be remembered for what could have happened, instead of what they did -- finish a game short of the Final Four.

2. A decision on Butler going to the A-10 isn’t final yet, but all indications are that it’s still pointing in that direction. Butler was once in a league with Xavier and Dayton and with Saint Louis nearby it’s a slam dunk for basketball and the overall athletic department. The hurdle for the department would be to ensure that it’s not too much of an added cost for the non-revenue sports. A-10 sources and Colonial Athletic Association sources all said there was no truth to George Mason and VCU moving to the A-10, too. They’ve gone public with that, as well. The A-10 shouldn’t go to 16 anyway at this juncture. All it needs to do for now is replace Temple for Butler. If Charlotte were to leave for the CUSA-MWC merger then the A-10 can deal with that loss later.

3. Pat Kelsey took over the job at Winthrop in a surprising move since Kelsey had resigned from his Xavier assistant position to spend more time with his family last year. I spoke with Kelsey a few times and he legitimately feared that he was not spending enough time at home and that he was going to miss his children’s lives. Kelsey was deeply troubled by the death of his mentor, former coach Skip Prosser. But the year off did wonders for him. The hope is that he has his priorities set and can allow himself at a smaller, less intense school like Winthrop to stay grounded and keep the balance necessary in his life.

The coaching carousel is in full swing these days, with jobs opening and vacancies filling and Illinois news conferences just begging to be held. (How has this not happened yet?) But forget Frank Martin and South Carolina. The best hire of the week goes to ... Brownsburg High School in Brownsburg, Ind.

Why? Because Brownsburg tapped Butler senior guard Ronald Nored -- whose final season at the school concluded in recent weeks -- to be its newest head boys' basketball coach. Nored was introduced at a news conference Wednesday morning. According to Indianapolis Star preps reporter Kyle Neddenriep -- and no surprise to anyone that covered Nored in his four seasons at Butler -- the 22-year-old already has the whole "win the news conference" routine down pat. Oh, and he already has a particularly important alum in his corner: Current Utah Jazz guard, former Butler star and Brownsburg native Gordon Hayward:

“I texted him and said, ‘Gotta talk,’” Nored said. “He wrote, ‘What do we gotta talk about? So when he called me back I told him I had the chance to be the head basketball coach at Brownsburg. He said, ‘What? Are you serious? You better do that. You can’t turn that down.’ The fact that Gordon was so excited about it was good for me because Gordon and I are so close that he can be honest about things with me. If he thought it wasn’t a good decision, he would have told me that and I would have respected it. But his excitement got me excited for it as well and definitely had some input in my decision.”

That almost makes Nored's decision sound like a lark -- Dude! You should totally do that! It'd be awesome! -- but the man is dead serious about his coaching career. He's been spotted coaching on the sidelines at AAU events, and he's made clear his desire to one day join Butler coach Brad Stevens' full-time staff.

The Brownsburg job will be both a challenge and an opportunity. According to Neddenriep, Brownsburg is one of the "best jobs" in the Indianapolis area, replete with young talent. As such, there was no shortage of interest in the gig: Nored beat out 50 other applicants, including many with long-time head coaching experience, for the gig. But Nored will be by far the most inexperienced coach in his conference: Only two of his Hoosier Crossroads Conference counterparts have fewer than 11 years experience.

In any case, Brownsburg's hire strikes this humble blogger as incredibly smart. Not only is Nored an excellent coach in the making -- a funny, energetic dude that studied under Stevens for four years and went to two national title games in the process -- but his hiring is the ultimate media coup.

After all, I did just write a post about Brownsburg High School boys' basketball. So, you know, case in point.

1. SMU is joining the Big East in 2013 and wants to make a slash in replacing Matt Doherty. The Mustangs, according to sources, have Marquette’s Buzz Williams in their sights. But those close to him would be stunned if he were to leave Marquette, now a top Big East program, for a school that will enter the league at the bottom. The money can’t be more than comparable to what he makes now, and proximity to his hometown can’t be that big a deal, right? Unless something happens to prove otherwise, chalk this one up to wishful thinking.

2. Illinois has now been spurned by VCU’s Shaka Smart and Butler’s Brad Stevens. This should be yet another sign how well schools pay at some spots outside the power six. And it speaks volumes about being happy with your situation, school, boss and city for a coach’s family. Now that Illinois has struck out with Smart and Stevens, it should focus on Ohio’s John Groce. Groce has done wonders with the Bobcats and has strong Big Ten ties. I’d be surprised if Groce were to turn this gig down if offered. He’s hot now and, while he could win the MAC next year, it’s still likely a one-bid league and winning the conference tournament is a tenuous proposition.

3. South Carolina would like Kansas State’s Frank Martin. But if Martin is seriously interested in leaving Kansas State (he has publicly said he hasn’t talked to anyone), he should look at Mississippi State, which is a better basketball job than South Carolina. There is plenty of talent in the state, more recent success in the sport, and a more passionate fan base for hoops.

1. Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton has no interest in the Illinois job, according to a source with direct knowledge of his plans. Hamilton declined to publicly comment. The source said Hamilton wants to stay at Florida State where he believes he will have a better team in 2013 than he had when he won the ACC tournament in 2012. The Seminoles, which lost to Cincinnati in the third round of the NCAA tournament, do lose key seniors Xavier Gibson, Luke Loucks, Deividas Dulkys and Bernard James. But the return of Michael Snaer and Ian Miller will secure the backcourt. Still Hamilton is firmly committed to staying at FSU where he has said he can finish his career in Tallahassee.

2. Butler coach Brad Stevens is enjoying the CBI and anticipates a semifinal matchup against Pitt that would be likened to an NCAA tournament game. “Pitt is healthy right now and playing well,’’ Stevens said Tuesday night. Stevens, who coached in consecutive national title games, said the CBI has done wonders for his team. “I look out on the court and see three freshmen and six guys in our top eight who are freshmen and sophomores,’’ Stevens said. “That’s why we’re not in the NCAA tournament. But we’re getting better and growing.’’ Still, it’s not easy for Stevens to watch the NCAAs. “It’s really hard,’’ Stevens said. “It’s never easy to watch.’’

3. A number of sources close to Northwestern’s Bill Carmody have wondered throughout the year if Carmody would return after the exhaustion of trying to get the Wildcats to the NCAAs. Still, the Wildcats have improved dramatically under Carmody and are always competitive. If he were to resign then the Wildcats would have to look at Duke associate coach Chris Collins, who is from Northbrook, Ill. Collins is ready to make a break from Duke and would do wonders back in his hometown.

1. Nebraska has reached out through a third party to see if there is interest from Colorado coach Tad Boyle, according to sources. Boyle would be a fool not to listen, but he should stay put as long as it’s not crazy money. CU should bump him up since in two seasons he has taken the Buffs to the NIT Final Four and on the doorstep to a bid, to the Pac-12 tournament title, and now to the third round of the NCAA tournament. CU is on the rise in the Pac-12 while Nebraska has a long road ahead in the Big Ten.

2. Pitt can exact revenge on Butler in Wednesday’s CBI semifinals. The Bulldogs denied the Panthers a shot at the Final Four last year in Washington D.C. -- a complete meltdown by the Panthers in the final frenzied possession. Oregon State and Washington State are in the other semifinal. If Butler wins then the Bulldogs will be playing for a championship for the third-straight season. Regardless of the tournament, not too many teams could say that during a three-year run.

3. Danny Hurley has a decision to make as to whether he wants the Rhode Island job. Shaka Smart will have a similar decision but about Illinois. This will be an interesting test case. Both coaches, albeit at different levels, have spoken eloquently about how much they love their respective jobs at Wagner and VCU and the levels they’re at in coaching. Let’s see if they stay in one spot or chase the dollar to resurrect a program.

The past two years, we've grown accustomed to fawning over at least one adorable bulldog mascot in the NCAA tournament. That bulldog mascot has often been Butler Blue II, who reveled in non-stop attention as his favorite team made unlikely runs to the pinnacle of the sport in 2010 and 2011. (Important note: Butler Blue III is now in the building, and, like all bulldog puppies, is almost jaw-droppingly cute.)

Butler's struggles this season have prevented them from returning to the NCAA tournament, so neither Blue II nor Blue III get to make another appearance. Which means we'll have to look elsewhere for a cute tournament bulldog mascot, and hey, what about Georgetown? They're bulldogs. They have a mascot. Let's all take sideline photos of him!

Bad news, everyone: Jack, the Georgetown bulldog, is out for the tournament with a torn ACL. From the DC Sports Bog:

Yup, the keeper of the mascot, Father Christopher Steck, sent out a series of Tweets on Monday about Jack’s status.

“Dang... Jack has torn his dog ‘ACL’!” he wrote. “Surgery probably; 2 mo. recovery. Happened Sunday; likely from jumping on couch. He’s limping badly.”

The old couch jump. It'll get you every time.

Jack is waiting to see if he'll need surgery, but in the meantime, he wasn't likely to travel with the Hoyas to their first-round game in Columbus as it's too far away from D.C. He'll have to watch the festivities from the couch. Or, actually, the floor. That couch has done enough damage already.

Whether this is a bad omen for Georgetown remains to be seen. The good news for Hoyas fans? At least it's only the mascot -- as opposed to, say, the team's starting center. There are worse fates on the eve of the tournament, that's for sure.

Here are a few things we learned from the biggest games Saturday afternoon. Check back later for analysis of tonight's games.

No. 3 Ohio State 58, No. 20 Wisconsin 52: Ohio State is hardly a breakneck team, but its adjusted tempo this season is 68.9 possessions per 40 minutes, far above those of many of its Big Ten brethren. The Buckeyes like to get out on the break a little. Thad Matta has a ton of talent, shooting, athleticism, scoring, you name it, and the Bucks aren't shy about letting it shine in the open floor.

In other words, this is exactly how Wisconsin wanted this game to go. It wanted it to be slow -- as slow as possible, in fact -- and it was. These two teams traded 57 possessions Saturday afternoon. If you had told Bo Ryan this game would be this slow, he'd have given his team an excellent chance of knocking off what might just be the best team in the nation. This is the luxury of having Jordan Taylor commanding your team: If you want the game to be deathly slow, with supreme economy of movement and as few possessions as possible, you can't do better than the Badgers' point guard.

The only problem? Ohio State has Jared Sullinger. Wisconsin does not. "The Artist Currently Known As Sully" just so happens to be very comfortable playing half-court offense, and as good as UW was on defense -- as much as it shaded and doubled and harried and harassed -- Sullinger was simply too much. He played all 40 minutes Saturday. He scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field in the first half alone. He finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds (5 offensive), 3 steals, just 1 turnover and an 8-of-10 shooting mark at the charity stripe. He was too much. Jared Berggren did his best, and the Badgers kept their shape well defensively -- there's a reason OSU scored just 1.02 points per trip -- but they never found an answer for the big man on the block.

They also learned the lesson anyone who has played this Ohio State team (or last season's version, for that matter) already knows: The Buckeyes defend, too. Per Ken Pomeroy's metrics, the Bucks are the stingiest per-possession defense in the country. The second stingiest? Wisconsin. But while the Badgers allow .81 points per trip, OSU allows an absurd .77, the rare team that forces turnovers but doesn't give away fouls and one that also cleans up the defensive glass. UW has had its troubles scoring from time to time this season, but the Buckeyes are a whole 'nother animal.

Play fast, play slow, play at your court, play in Columbus. Play however you like. If you don't have someone who can guard Jared Sullinger -- never mind a group of players to check the insanely talented group around him -- and/or an offense that can find a way to score against this kind of defense, it doesn't really matter. Ohio State is going to beat you.

Wyoming 68, No. 13 UNLV 66: For much of the season, during a remarkably quick turnaround, San Diego State coach Steve Fisher has been the consensus favorite for national coach of the year. Deservedly so. But any mention of the words "coach of the year" should also, after today, be followed closely by the words "Larry Shyatt."

Shyatt's story is remarkable. Wyoming gave him his first head-coaching gig in 1997, but after a successful season, he left to take over at Clemson, where he stayed until 2003. Shyatt spent the past several years on Florida coach Billy Donovan's bench, until this offseason, when he returned to Laramie to start over and repay a debt he felt he owed for his quick departure 15 years ago.

And what a return it has been. In 2010-11, the Cowboys finished 10-21 overall and ranked No. 215 in Pomeroy's adjusted efficiency rankings. After a two-point stunner over UNLV -- during which they led for nearly all 40 minutes and turned it over just eight times -- the Cowboys now are 18-5 and ranked among Pomeroy's top 60 teams in the country. This is primarily thanks to their defense, which Shyatt has transformed entirely. Last season, the Cowboys were hands down the worst defensive team in the Mountain West. This season, the defense is among the MWC's best, and on Saturday, it held UNLV to 3-of-14 shooting from beyond the arc.

The question now -- after the school's first victory over a ranked team in 12 years -- is whether Shyatt's miracle story can end with an NCAA tournament berth. The jury is still very much out, and Wyoming probably will have to grab another big win or two to be bubble-relevant going forward. But NCAA tournament or no, this team has made a drastic year-over-year turnaround. It has gone from a no-name afterthought to a program on the rise. And Shyatt's prodigal return is the reason.

Notre Dame 76, No. 15 Marquette 59: It's not fair to say the Fighting Irish looked totally irredeemable in their 8-5 nonconference start, but they certainly didn't look good. Notre Dame was dominated by Missouri, handled by Georgia, no match for Gonzaga, beaten by Maryland and overwhelmed by Indiana. Any time the Fighting Irish played a good (even decent) team, they looked exactly like what all thought they were: rebuilding, in transition, mediocre, meh.

Now? After Saturday's strong home win, which was keyed by a massive second-half run, it's impossible to discount the Irish. The Syracuse upset of two Saturdays ago was more than a random upset or a product of ND's mystically inexplicable propensity to upset elite teams in South Bend. No, Mike Brey's team is much more than that. Guard Eric Atkins is among the nation's most improved players, but he might be eclipsed in that category by forward Jack "Don't Call Me Mini-Harangody" Cooley, who, after years of geeks like me writing, "Hey, that guy looks exactly like Luke Harangody," is rapidly making his own name. (And Patrick Connaughton, whose Irish-name swagger deserves serious respect, was tremendous, too: 23 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 big blocks on huge defensive stops. Dude can play.)

Most impressive in this game was Notre Dame's late push, even if "push" feels like an understatement. With eight minutes remaining in the second half, the Irish led 54-48. The final score speaks for itself. Marquette is a good team, and the Irish simply ran away. The only conclusion: Notre Dame is pretty darn good, too.

No. 11 Florida 73, Vanderbilt 65: It was the opinion of this writer that Florida and Vanderbilt felt like identical SEC twins: guard-oriented perimeter offenses led by sharpshooters (Vandy's John Jenkins, Florida's Kenny Boynton), versatile play from outside-in small forwards (Vandy's Jeffery Taylor, Florida's Bradley Beal) and one true post presence apiece (Vandy's Festus Ezeli, Florida's Patric Young). So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that this game's box score featured such near-identical numbers for both teams. Each team recorded 12 assists; each team snagged nine steals. Both teams turned the ball over at about the same rate. The teams' effective field goal percentages were similar. Vanderbilt shot 18 free throws. Florida shot 17.

You get the idea. So what was the difference? Simply put, 3-point shooting. The Gators made 11 of 24 shots from beyond the arc. VU shot just 8-of-25 from long range. There were other differences, too: Florida outrebounded Vandy on the offensive glass, grabbing 36.8 percent of its available misses to just 28.6 percent for the Commodores. But the real difference was shooting. Florida made three more of its 3s, and it shot 16-of-17 from the charity stripe.

All told, it wasn't Vanderbilt's best offensive day, but there are promising signs. For one, it didn't score the ball particularly well and still hung with a good team on the road. For another, there are signs Vandy's defense, which has played so well (surprisingly so) in the SEC campaign, is for real. It held the nation's best offense to 1.09 points per trip at home; compared to UF's usual output, that's not too shabby.

In the end, this is just what Florida does. It makes shots. It made a few more of them in this one. Not a bunch more. Just a few. But in a game this close, with such a doppelganger of an opponent, a few extra makes were all the Gators needed.

No. 24 Florida State 58, No. 18 Virginia 55: The scoreline says it all. If you don't like slow, plodding, offensively challenged basketball, this was not the ACC matchup for you. But it also was the rare game in which both teams can come away feeling pretty good. Virginia's task in Tallahassee was to take on one of the nation's best defenses and hottest teams, one that recently had found a scorching offense to go along with its typically staunch defense.

Florida State no doubt hoped to keep the good offensive vibes rolling, but more important in the end was holding serve on its home floor. After an incredible streak that included a 33-point win over UNC and a win at Duke, the last thing the Seminoles needed was a lackluster home loss to pull their record (and, maybe, their spirits) back to earth.

FSU didn't keep the offense rolling. Virginia's defense was nearly up to the task. The Cavaliers forced Leonard Hamilton's team into a turnover on 31 percent of its possessions. Unfortunately, UVa coughed it up even more frequently than did FSU. That's the thing about this Florida State team, which is now 7-1 in ACC play: When the Noles are shooting the ball well and scoring it with ease, they're just about unstoppable. But even when they're not, that defense will always be there, providing a baseline when the going gets tough. That has to be comforting, doesn't it?

No. 6 North Carolina 83, Maryland 74: How good are the Tar Heels? Sometimes it's hard to tell. They often look dominant, every bit the national title contender we assume they'll be in March. Just as often, though, they struggle, particularly on the road and frequently against teams they should rather easily handle. Maryland is one such team.

On Saturday, facing the Terrapins in front of a rowdy crowd, the Tar Heels struggled. There's no other way to put it. Maryland brought it, sure, but UNC often seemed to be on its heels, no pun intended. UM center Alex Len was excellent, and Terrell Stoglin showed why he probably should be an all-ACC inclusion by the end of the season. By the 17-minute mark in the second half, Maryland had opened a nine-point lead. Suddenly, as analyst Len Elmore said, the Heels found themselves in a dogfight.

Here's another reason Carolina is so often so hard to appraise: This team seems to have the fabled ability to "hit the switch," i.e., to suddenly focus its efforts, let talent take over and go win the game even when not playing well. And that's what happened Saturday. UNC seemingly flipped its switch, started locking down on defense, started getting easy buckets on offense, started making 3s -- you know, basically, all the things this team should do -- outscoring Maryland 46-34 in the second half en route to a victory. It wasn't pretty, and we often tend to expect more from purportedly great teams, but it's impossible to dismiss this team's talent and its ability to transform that talent at a moment's notice.

No. 2 Syracuse 95, St. John's 70: And so all was well in the land of the Orange. When sophomore center Fab Melo was lost to a lingering first-semester academic issue, Syracuse lost its first game of the season without him, and even in the two wins that followed -- at Cincinnati and in questionable fashion over West Virginia -- the Orange didn't look anything like their typically dominant selves. With so much depth and talent, it was hard to pin all this on Melo's absence ... but it was hard to compare Syracuse's offensive output with and without Melo (not to mention its block percentages, where Melo really excels) and not think the newly trim and focused big man didn't have a much bigger effect on this team's 20-0 start than many originally thought.

And then you watch Saturday's game, Melo's first since his return. You see the big man score a career-high 14 points on a tidy 5-of-6 from the field. You see the Orange roll St. John's to the tune of 1.34 points per possession on a day when they didn't shoot the 3 particularly well (just often). You see them tie a season high with 24 second-chance points and 52 in the paint.

Given all that, you can't help but think Melo is absolutely crucial to this team's national title chances. And then our fine friends at ESPN Stats & Information send along the following statistics, and you see the facts in all their glory: With Melo, Cuse is 21-0, and averages 38.9 points per game in the paint (28.7 without him), 14 second-chance points per game (6.3 without) and 1.18 points per possession (1.00 without), and has an offensive rebound percentage of 39.5 (25.5 without).

So, yeah, I suppose you could say he's pretty important. Impressive performance for Melo, impressive win for Syracuse.

Memphis 72, Xavier 68: "That Used To Be Us." It's the title of Thomas Friedman's questionably considered new book. It also feels appropriately descriptive of the Xavier Musketeers, who spent the first two months of the season earning difficult wins thanks to late rallies but were the victims of such a rally Saturday afternoon at the FedExForum.

Xavier opened a 10-point lead in the second half, but Memphis fought back. The Musketeers opened another one with seven minutes remaining, finding themselves up double digits (62-51) as the Tigers' ugly offense appeared headed toward a losing effort. And then something funky happened. Memphis used a 12-1 run to rally all the way back and tie the game at 63-all with 2:12 remaining. And then something even funkier happened. Memphis closed out the game with a score of made free throws. The Tigers shot 24-of-28 from the line, including 9-of-11 in the final two minutes. Joe Jackson alone was 12-of-12. All told, Memphis went on a 17-1 tear, and the game went from 62-51 to 68-63 before the Tigers closed it out.

It was a nice -- and much-needed -- win for Memphis, sure, but more than anything, it spoke to the seemingly downward trajectory of the Musketeers. This team hasn't been the same since the Dec. 10 brawl, of course, but at this point, the cause-and-effect is beginning to look tenuous. Now more than ever, it looks like X really wasn't all that good in the first place. Losing on the road is hardly a crime. Losing like this? It's something closer.

Some more observations from this afternoon's games:

• Is Arizona on the rise? It's hard to ignore the three-day stretch the Wildcats had, getting not one but two wins on their Bay Area road trip. First, the Wildcats held on for a win over apparent league favorite Cal on Thursday, and then they looked even more impressive in their 56-43 victory at Stanford on Saturday afternoon, holding the Cardinal to just 16-of-63 (!) from the field and 3-of-12 from 3 in their own building. Zona might or might not get on the bubble by the end of the season, but these sort of performances might just carry the Cats to the top of the league's standings before all is said and done. At the very least, Sean Miller's team is worth keeping an eye on.
• Butler's offense is not worth keeping an eye on -- and it continues to cost the Bulldogs games. It's been the case all season, really, and it was the case again today. The Dogs lost to a team that made just two of its 10 3-point field goal attempts and shot just 20-of-47, because Butler's offense was even worse: 18-of-51 from the field, 4-of-19 from 3, just one made field goal from any bench player, a tough 0-of-7 night from Ronald Nored. The Bulldogs can't score. Nothing new here. But give some measure of credit to Detroit for a tough win on the road. Hinkle Fieldhouse was sold out, and the Titans got the job done in Indy for the first time since 1999.
• Baylor loves to play close games. It's either that or the Bears can't help themselves. Whatever the reason, the good news is Baylor seems more capable than most of winning those close games, particularly on the road. It did so twice this week. The first came in a three-point win at Texas A&M on Wednesday. The second came Saturday afternoon, when Oklahoma State rallied from a nine-point deficit to take a 57-56 lead on Keiton Page's 3 with 1:42 remaining. Baylor ended up finishing the game in the final moments, which is nothing new. The Bears have played eight games decided by five points or fewer this season. With the exception of the 89-88 loss to Missouri, they've won every single one. That might not be by design, and it probably doesn't help Bears fans' blood pressure levels, but it's the kind of trait that might come in handy in March.
• Seton Hall is officially off the wagon. A loss at UConn is understandable, even forgivable, but the Pirates were absolutely smacked, 69-46, by a team that had lost six of its previous eight games, to say nothing of Jim Calhoun's sudden and indefinite medical absence. That's Seton Hall's sixth consecutive loss. Unfortunately, the Pirates' happy redemption story is rapidly shrinking under the rigors of Big East play. Shame.
• Before Saturday, South Florida's Big East record was 6-3. Considering the Bulls entered conference play with a 7-6 record and their best conference win was at Villanova, it was fair to say that surprising league start had more to do with South Florida's schedule than its skill. After today's blowout loss at Georgetown -- USF's worst conference loss since joining the Big East and its worst loss period since 2004 -- I think we can officially cement that perception.

Player of the Night - Travis Bader
It was supposed to be a battle between Reggie Hamilton and Nate Wolters. But Bader stole the show in Oakland's 92-87 win against South Dakota State. He came off the bench to hit a school-record 10 three-pointers to finish with a career-high 37 points. He's the third Division I player with 10 threes in a game this season, and second to do it coming off the bench, joining Iona's Sean Armand. Bader's 37 points are the most off the bench since Lamar's Mike James went off for 52 last season.

Stepping Up - Tyler Zeller
Zeller went for 21 points and 17 rebounds as North Carolina topped NC State, 74-55. He's the first Tar Heel with a 21-17 game since Tyler Hansbrough in 2008. Zeller is now averaging 17.0 PPG and 12.0 RPG in conference play. The win gave the Tar Heels 11 straight against NC State, matching their longest streak in the history of the rivalry.

Filling Up the Stat Sheet – Nate Wolters
South Dakota State came up short, but Wolters again put up some eye-popping numbers. He had 21 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds. Wolters is now averaging 21.0 PPG, 6.2 APG and 5.0 RPG. Going back to 2000, only four players have maintained a 20-5-5 average over a full season: Norris Cole, Evan Turner, Ricky Minard and Speedy Claxton.

Breakout Game - Tevin Svihovec and Emmanuael Addo
Northern Colorado lost in double overtime to Idaho State, 99-94, but just getting that far was something of an accomplishment. The Bears' top two scorers combined for six points. That meant others picked up the load. Svihovec (30) and Addo (28) combined for 58 points even though they were averaging just 16.4 PPG coming into this one.

Ugly Stat Line of the Night - Butler Bulldogs
Apart from last year's National Championship Game, Butler had its worst offensive showing of the past 15 years. The Bulldogs shot just 28.1 percent in a 53-42 loss to UW-Milwaukee. Butler missed its first 12 three-pointers, and finished 1-16 from three-point range. Its starting lineup finished 0-12 from long range.