ESPN Men's Basketball

Incoming freshmen should anticipate major adjustments at the Division I level. The players are bigger, stronger and faster.

But the uptick in competition is only part of the transition from high school to college. The 21st-century college basketball player should understand off-court expectations, too.

They're all about adhering to proper swagger etiquette.

I hope you all have notepads ready. Here’s what you’ll need to get ready for Division I basketball off the floor:

• An Instagram account: Twitter is so 2011. These days, college basketball players send messages through photos via Instagram. It’s a cool tool. You take photos, attach a brief memo and ship the image to the world. Or if you’re Jared Sullinger, you send photos of text-message exchanges with other All-America forwards. You need this. Trust me.
• Friendships with rappers: Blame Notre Dame’s Skylar Diggins. Lil Wayne’s highly publicized crush on the talented guard dramatically increased her street cred and Twitter follower count. Jay-Z sat behind Kentucky’s bench during the Final Four. Romeo Miller (the onetime Lil' Romeo who now just goes by Romeo) didn’t just support USC basketball. He actually joined the team. Find a rapper. Become his friend.
• Fashionable specs: I know. You have 20/20 vision. Doesn’t matter. This is all about style. I learned about this recent development in college basketball fashion from Michigan State’s Adreian Payne. He says his black glasses project sophistication. It’s either that or an affinity for Clark Kent.
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Kelly Kline/Getty ImagesNerlens Noel brings a signature coif to Kentucky ... but does he have the right backpack?
• The Kevin Durant backpack: Throw the gym bag in the trash. That’s old school. You need a backpack. Not a normal backpack. You won’t haul anything in it. You need a backpack that’s also a fashion statement. Durant’s backpack -- one he wears to postgame press conferences -- started this trend.
• Access to a state-of-the-art facility: Florida State’s players get access to their team’s practice facility by placing their hands on some sort of “Star Trek” detection device. Indiana’s facility features underwater treadmills in the training room, his and hers gyms for the men’s and women’s squads and an atrium that doubles as a museum for Indiana basketball. Players’ lounges -- think college kids bonding, not “Shaft” -- are standard, too. And then, there’s Oklahoma State’s basketball facility. Is that legal?
• Trend-setting hair: Nerlens Noel is covered. But what about the rest of the incoming freshmen? Will your hair matter? It definitely did for Wisconsin’s Mike Bruesewitz. Stores in Madison sell wigs of his former curly-afro look. Still waiting for the cornrows version. The hair on top of St. Louis guard Jordair Jett’s head can only be described as majestic. Talk to your barber about this.
• Beats by Dre headphones: Yes, they’re $300 headphones, but a multitude of college players wears them and, somehow, purchases them. They’re a necessity, I guess. You either have a pair of mammoth Beats by Dre headphones or you don’t wear headphones in public as a Division I basketball player. I don’t think the headphones offer a real advantage over their competitors. But, they’re the norm for college basketball players. The obsession with Dr. Dre’s headphones among NBA players has certainly trickled down. Even high school players demand them now. Put it on the shopping list.

Feel free to add on …

1. The National Association of Basketball Coaches' board of directors is meeting in Indianapolis on Thursday, with the issue of transfers and how to handle the requests as a primary agenda item. The board has some notable names, including Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who was involved in a high-profile case in which the player was initially restricted from transferring to a number of schools; Michigan State’s Tom Izzo; Pitt’s Jamie Dixon; Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim; Notre Dame’s Mike Brey; and NC State’s Mark Gottfried, among others. The NABC doesn’t have legislative power but does serve as a lobbying group to the membership -- and can also influence other coaches on how to handle a transfer situation.

2. The men's NCAA tournament basketball selection committee will also meet Thursday in Indianapolis. The primary agenda item, according to incoming chair Mike Bobinski of Xavier, is to determine the 2013 East Regional site. The finalists are expected to be Syracuse and Brooklyn (Newark, N.J., is still technically in, but it would be a surprise since the regional was there in 2011). Bobinski said it is unusual for the site still to be unknown less than a year before the event. The dismissal of former NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen apparently contributed to the site selection delay; Shaheen’s replacement, Mark Lewis, will be at the meeting. The original plan was for the tourney’s 75th anniversary to have a presence at Madison Square Garden. But the NCAA couldn’t make a commitment before the Garden had to turn in its Knicks and Rangers schedules to the NBA and NHL, respectively. The 2013 Final Four is in Atlanta. The other regional sites are set in Los Angeles (Staples Center), Dallas-Fort Worth (Cowboys Stadium) and Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Stadium)

3. New Illinois coach John Groce has added two transfers in Rayvonte Rice from Drake and Sam McLaurin from Coastal Carolina. The Illini are also busy finalizing their last major non-conference game. Illinois will play Auburn on Dec. 29 at the United Center in Chicago to fill the final significant game on the schedule.

This morning, my man Myron Medcalf honed in on the Indiana Hoosiers. He spoke with coach Tom Crean about Cody Zeller's similarities to Andrew Luck -- which go deeper than "they're both really good" -- and the massive preseason expectations the Hoosiers will face in the run up to the 2012-13 season. Crean is handling the preseason expectations how you'd, ahem, expect -- by trying to instill some perspective in his players, who he believes aren't "caught up" in the hype for next season:

"When you’re immersed in it, you stay in your own reality. And our reality is we’ve got a long way to go to get where we want to go. We’re going to have upwards of eight freshmen and sophomores on this team next year. Obviously, one of them is Cody [Zeller] but still, he’s only going to be a sophomore. And the bottom line for us is we’ve got to get a lot of guys meshed into this team."

Of course, he's right. That goes not only for Indiana's chances of competing for a Final Four spot or a national title, but also for winning the Big Ten, which will again be the nation's best conference in 2012-13.

Indiana is the early favorite to win the league, but it's hardly a guarantee. At least two other teams, the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines, are fully justified in having Big Ten title aspirations. Both teams will arguably have as much talent on their rosters as the Hoosiers.

As expected, Ohio State lost Jared Sullinger to the NBA draft, and shooting guard William Buford graduated this spring. But the Buckeyes -- thanks to Thad Matta's excellent 2011 recruiting class -- have big-time players waiting in the wings.

Center Amir Williams was infrequently used in his freshman season, but was the No. 4 center in his recruiting class. He should be ready, after a year of Sully apprenticeship, to take on big minutes and a major role on both ends of the floor. Swingman Sam Thompson could experience a similar sophomore boost, and point guard Shannon Scott will take on a bigger share of minutes playing behind and alongside starting point guard Aaron Craft. Sophomore small forward LaQuinton Ross missed his entire freshman season due to academic issues, but he could play a role as well.

Plus, the remaining starters are awfully good. Deshaun Thomas is one of the nation's most versatile scoring threats who rounded out his game throughout an excellent sophomore season, while Craft remains the nation's best perimeter defender, bar none. Offense may be a struggle for these Buckeyes early in the season, but their sterling ballhawking defense, a trademark of Matta's teams at OSU, isn't going anywhere.

Michigan will be no less talented. Coach John Beilein got the best news of his offseason when he learned that Big Ten Freshman of the Year (media) Trey Burke would eschew the NBA draft and return to school. Burke is a fantastically intelligent, savvy player, and his efficiency statistics (he posted a 105.3 offensive rating in 2012) will only get better as he improves his outside shooting and cuts down on the turnovers that occasionally marred his proclivity (as evidenced by his 28.7 percent assist rate) for the art of the dime. Shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr. could be one of the nation's most polished perimeter scorers as a junior.

Beilein will mesh his leftover talent -- from a team that won a share of its first Big Ten title since the mid-80s, no less -- with the two best recruits of his Michigan tenure. Glenn Robinson III, the son of former NBA star Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson (we agreed we are calling Robinson III "Little Big Dog," yes?) is ranked No. 18 overall in the class of 2012. He has drawn raves from ESPNU's scouts for his "freakish athleticism" and ability to score from the perimeter, off the dribble and in the mid-range. His longtime friend and fellow incoming freshman, power forward Mitch McGary, was once considered the second-best prospect in the class of 2012. He's slipped since then, but only to No. 27 overall in the class, and he promises to be a force in his first season for the Wolverines.

The loss of shooters Stu Douglass, Zack Novak and Evan Smotrycz, and the addition of Robinson and McGary (as well as the return of forward Jon Horford from injury) present Beilein with an interesting but altogether welcome problem: These Wolverines won't be a typical Beilein team. They will attack the glass and pound the paint far more often, if only out of necessity. And with all those weapons, they'll be very difficult to stop.

Then there's Michigan State. The Spartans lost their heart and soul in senior forward Draymond Green, but the rest of the picture is bright: Point guard Keith Appling is back, as are forwards Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix. Impressive freshman guard Branden Dawson saw his season end after tearing an ACL in early March; his return will be tentative throughout the year. The good news? Tom Izzo beat out Indiana and Purdue to land the No. 2-ranked shooting guard in the class, Gary Harris, and will add three top-100 players (power forwards Kenny Kaminski and Matt Costello and small forward Denzel Valentine) to a team positively brimming with big, tough, athletic players. If the Spartans can do without Green -- and that's a valid question, given how much he meant to this program -- and rebound the ball at a similar rate as in 2012, they're legitimate Big Ten contenders, too.

Then there are the usual suspects: Wisconsin is Wisconsin, and Bo Ryan still hasn't finished worse than fourth place, or missed the NCAA tournament, in any season of his 11 seasons at the school. Minnesota will get Trevor Mbakwe, one of the nation's most bruising power forwards (now on his sixth-year medical redshirt season), back from last year's season-ending ACL injury. Purdue coach Matt Painter will bring in three top-100 players (center A.J. Hammons, shooting guard Rapheal Davis and point guard Ronnie Johnson, all three of whom hail from Indiana), an influx of size and young talent to build around. Iowa coach Fran McCaffery hauled in his best recruiting class, including Iowa native Adam Woodbury, the No. 10-ranked center in 2012. Northwestern has Drew Crawford and a spate of solid guards to put around senior transfer Jared Swopshire, an athletic former Louisville forward who could be a perfect fit for Bill Carmody's Princeton system.

You get the idea. Not all of these teams will contend for the Big Ten regular-season title. But most of them will. At the very least, the conference is sure to have a deep spate of teams determined to make any path to the Big Ten crown less a sprint than a drawn-out, physical scrum. Remember when Kentucky went undefeated in its league, with a massive efficiency margin to boot? Yeah. That ain't happenin' here.

Indiana is the favorite, and an obvious pick to get to the Final Four, and for good reason. But before the Hoosiers can turn their attention to the glories of March, they'll have to test their mettle for months on a twice-weekly basis against the best league in the country. That can be a good thing, or a bad one. It can be galvanizing experience, or a humbling one. Either way, nothing will come easy.

Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast.

This morning, I thought we were done with the Bo Ryan-Jarrod Uthoff transfer saga. Uthoff’s long-lost appeal papers had been found in Wisconsin assistant athletic director Justin Doherty’s mailbox, the he-said-he-said appeal question was answered, Uthoff’s transfer process could begin in earnest, and the rest of us could all move on to other things.

Not so much.

On Thursday morning, Ryan appeared on “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” where he found himself in a heated, and not particularly flattering, debate about transfer restrictions and Ryan’s apparently draconian usage thereof. The backlash began in earnest. The backlash to the backlash -- in which at least one college hoops columnist derided the media for “villainizing” Ryan -- soon followed. In the immortal words of Champ Kind: It jumped up a notch.

And so the final news update came this afternoon. From ESPN.com news services:

Wisconsin athletic officials, after meeting Thursday with basketball player Jarrod Uthoff, have agreed to lift all transfer restrictions except for Big Ten schools for the redshirt freshman.

The university said in a statement that Uthoff met Thursday with associate athletic director Justin Doherty and athletic director Barry Alvarez, as part of the appeal process.

Doherty, Alvarez and basketball coach Bo Ryan then met and decided to lift “permission to contact” restrictions on any school outside of the Big Ten Conference, the school said. Ryan supported lifting the restrictions outside of the Big Ten, according to the university.

In short, Ryan and the school have decided to let Uthoff transfer anywhere he wants, provided that school is not in the Big Ten.

Why the sudden reversal? Wisconsin would no doubt argue that this was the process all along, the give and take between schools and players on restrictions, appeals, permissions and so on. This is how it goes. This is how it can be resolved. Nothing to see here.

The more obvious and more likely explanation is that the “media won.” Those aren’t my words, mind you. They’re the words of various folks on Twitter, many of whom crowed at Ryan’s acquiescence following what is now the third day of nearly relentless negative press.

That’s one theory, and it’s probably pretty close to the truth. When your otherwise sterling reputation is being tarnished over something that (to any outsider, at least) appears rather petty and small, it’s best to just let it go and move on. Wisconsin did here, the firestorm loses oxygen, and we all find another argument to entertain us. After all, there’s always someone, somewhere, who’s wrong on the Internet.

But before you go back to getting mad at people for spoiling “Game of Thrones” with book references, let’s circle back on a few final things about the great Wisconsin transfer adventure of April 2012:

1. No one should think Bo Ryan is a bad dude. If that’s your takeaway from all this, you’re missing the point. Ryan is a great coach and one who genuinely does things the right way, and his reasoning for this isn’t as simple as “Oh, he’s just being vindictive.” That may be the case. It also may not. Either way, it’s beside the point.
2. The geographic circumstances of the transfer are beside the point, too. Uthoff said he wanted to transfer while Ryan was away with his wife. This has been cited as a reason why Ryan would feel antipathy toward his player, as an example of Uthoff’s supposed shadiness in dealing with his move. Would it have been better to handle face to face? Probably. Should it really matter all that much? No.
3. There are instances in which a coach could reasonably decide to keep a player from transferring to a certain school. One example is transfers between conference opponents. The other is if a coach knows a school was tampering with his player -- nudging him toward a transfer before permission-to-contact is granted -- and he wants to close ranks, to make sure the rest of the nation’s coaches know that kind of behavior will only ensure the player doesn’t transfer to your school. That seems less than ideal on all fronts, but at least it makes some sense. Like Nos. 1 and 2 above, though, this is beside the point.
4. Here’s the point: This is a bad rule that allows coaches to do things they shouldn’t be able to do when their players decide to transfer, one that speaks to the deep imbalance of personal efficacy in collegiate athletics. That’s what this is about.

Transfers must already sit out a year before they can play at another school. They sign one-year scholarships renewable by the school alone. They play for tuition and room and board, but nothing near the seven-figure sums their coaches make. And those coaches, practically speaking -- despite what Ryan has attempted to argue about buyouts -- can leave for new jobs almost whenever they want. (When’s the last time a coach wanted to leave a school but wasn’t allowed? Can you even remember?)

All of those factors contribute to this imbalance. That’s the problem -- it’s the rule.

Ryan didn’t have to exploit this rule so dramatically. The rule allows him to do so, but it doesn't require him to. Crucial distinction. In many cases, coaches place few restrictions on players who decide to transfer. But just as often, they do set these restrictions.

For example, while we were all arguing about Jarrod Uthoff, Tulsa all-conference guard Jordan Clarkson has had his approved transfer choices narrowed to just three schools out of the eight he requested by Golden Hurricane brass. This is not a new, or particularly rare, occurrence. It’s happening elsewhere even as we speak.

Ryan handled this situation poorly, from his ballooning restricted list to the “I didn’t make the rule” copout to the unfortunate Mike & Mike call-in Thursday morning. But he’s relented now. The drama is over. What remains is this rule -- and how coaches and athletic directors use it to exert a level of control over players that players themselves don’t even have. A coach shouldn’t, and many don’t. But some do. The root problem is that they can.

No one is demonizing Ryan. Or at least they shouldn’t be. The rule -- and what it does to make college basketball a system in which players are commodities to be controlled -- that’s the bad guy here. Let’s not forget it.

The Big Ten altered its transfer rule within the conference for the 2011-12 season and beyond -- and long before this week's Bo Ryan-Jarrod Uthoff controversy.

The league is allowing players to receive grant-in-aid, but it is also putting a harsher eligibility penalty in place that takes away a year of play from the transfer.

Chad Hawley, the Big Ten’s associate commissioner of compliance, said Thursday that the rule change was created to prevent penalizing players from receiving scholarship money. But the conference wanted to add a penalty if the player transferred within the conference.

The old rule stated that once a player signed a grant-in-aid agreement at one Big Ten school, he could transfer to a second Big Ten school but would not be allowed to receive any financial aid.

The new rule, adopted for this current academic year, allows a player to receive the aid, but he would have to sit out the NCAA-required one-year in residence and lose a season of eligibility.

So in the case of Wisconsin’s Jarrod Uthoff, he would be allowed under Big Ten rules -- if Wisconsin didn’t block him -- to transfer to the University of Iowa (his home state school). However, he’d have only three seasons of eligibility left, not four. And Uthoff would have to sit again after redshirting this past season. Uthoff hasn’t publicly expressed an interest of going to Iowa or another Big Ten school.

The Big Ten does allow for an exception if there is a complete release by the original institution that signed the player.

Hawley said the Big Ten has had only one in-conference request this past year, and it was for the sport of wrestling.

Michigan coach John Beilein has a long-standing policy in which he doesn’t allow transfers to go to a conference-member school or to a school that’s on the team’s schedule over a two-year period. Evan Smotrycz transferred to Maryland, an ACC member, without any issues since the Terps were where he wanted to go and wasn’t on Beilein’s banned list, according to a school spokesperson.

Ohio State only blocked sophomores J.D. Weatherspoon and Jordan Sibert from transferring within the Big Ten, according to a school spokesperson.

Uthoff’s case drew national attention because Badgers coach Bo Ryan’s banned list included the ACC (due to the ACC-Big Ten Challenge), Iowa State, Florida and Marquette, the latter two because both schools are on Wisconsin’s schedule.

“It’s fairly common practice to have conference to conference transfer policies,’’ Hawley said. “We wanted to get away from the financial aid penalty but keep something in place, and this is the model we settled on.

“In a sport like basketball, you have to sit a year and what our rule does is charge a season of competition, too,’’ Hawley said.

Here is the specific Big Ten intraconference transfer rules from the conference:

Intraconference Transfer Rules.

1. Pre-Matriculation. A prospective student-athlete who has signed a tender from a Conference institution and has not yet triggered transfer status per NCAA Bylaw 14.5.2 (conditions affecting transfer status), is subject to the following intraconference transfer requirements:

a. Signed National Letter of Intent. A prospective student-athlete who signs a valid National Letter of Intent (NLI) with a Conference institution but subsequently enrolls at an alternate Big Ten institution shall be required to complete one (1) full year of residence at the alternate (i.e., certifying) Big Ten institution and shall be charged with the loss of one (1) season of eligibility in all sports. These penalties shall be applied regardless of any decision made by the NLI Steering Committee on behalf of the prospective student-athlete.

1. Exception - Complete Release by Signing Institution. If the Big Ten institution at which the prospective student-athlete originally signed the NLI grants a "Complete Release" from the NLI, the prospect shall be permitted to enroll at any other Conference institution without penalty.

2. Exception - NLI Declared Null and Void. Should the NLI become null and void prior to the prospective student-athlete's matriculation, the prospective student-athlete shall be free to enroll at any other Conference institution without penalty.

b. Signed Tender without National Letter of Intent. A prospective student-athlete that signs a valid tender with a Conference institution but subsequently enrolls at an alternate Big Ten institution shall be required to complete one (1) full academic year of residence at the alternate (i.e.,
certifying) Big Ten institution and shall be charged with the loss of one
(1) season of eligibility in all sports. Upon mutual agreement of the two involved Conference institutions, this penalty shall be waived by the Chair of the Academics and Eligibility Subcommittee.
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2. Post Matriculation. A student-athlete that has signed a tender from a Conference institution and has triggered transfer status per NCAA Bylaw 14.5.2 (conditions affecting transfer status), may not represent an alternate Big Ten institution in intercollegiate athletics competition until the individual has completed one (1) full academic year of residence at the alternate (i.e.,
certifying) Big Ten institution and shall be charged with the loss of one (1) season of eligibility in all sports.

3. Pre- and Post-Matriculation Exceptions

a. Cancellation of Tender Due to Inadmissibility. When a prospective student-athlete is inadmissible to the institution for which a tender has been accepted, the tender shall be considered null and void and the intraconference transfer penalty does not apply.

b. Dropped Sport. When a Conference institution drops the student-athlete's sport in which the student-athlete has participated, the intraconference penalty does not apply.

Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan joined Mike & Mike to discuss restricting the transfer options for freshman forward Jarrod Uthoff.

Editor's Note: In a heated exchange on Mike & Mike Thursday morning, Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan weighed in on Jarrod Uthoff's appeal to transfer, why he is barring Uthoff from moving to certain schools and more. Ryan says his actions are within the rules and common in college basketball. Listen to the full interview here.

One last post about the Jarrod Uthoff transfer saga, and that’s it. No more. Never again. I promise. Probably, anyway.

But come on: I couldn’t not blog about this. From ESPN’s Andy Katz and the Associated Press in this ESPN.com news report:

Ryan said he was told that Uthoff didn’t hand in his appeal. He later learned that the appeal was put in assistant athletic director Justin Doherty’s mailbox in an envelope without a stamp. Ryan disputed a report that Uthoff dropped off the appeal and said a woman did in his place.

Uthoff told the AP that he had a friend deliver the letter to the office of Doherty before the deadline and a secretary put it in his mailbox.

“Apparently, he didn’t check his mailbox,” Uthoff said.

After three days of confusion and recrimination and diatribes from all sides -- from Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan disallowing every ACC school, Marquette and Iowa State (in addition to the Big Ten, which is common practice) to Uthoff saying he would appeal with the school, to a source telling me no appeal was received as of Tuesday night -- there’s your answer for why this transfer situation has become so MUBAR’d (messed up beyond all recognition; it’s my family-friendly variation): Because the mail got mixed up.

Seriously. A stampless letter that went unnoticed. That’s all it was. That’s kind of amazing, right?

Now that the letter has been recovered and everybody is on the same page -- or at least aware of the same page, in said aforementioned envelope -- Wisconsin and Uthoff can leave the logistical messiness behind and get down to the real, live transfer and appeal process. Per the report linked above, “Jarrod is going to be afforded the normal, NCAA-described appeal process,” Doherty said.

That’s good news. But it doesn’t get to the heart of the situation, which is summed up rather nicely by these two points from Ryan:

“There are rules of a scholarship,” Ryan said. “I didn’t make them up. […] Coaches told me they can appeal and win but there is a process. I haven’t lied. I’m on the [coaches] board and have taken stands on unpopular things. But this is something that all coaches do. I didn’t make the rules. I’m just following them."

That is, I’m sorry to say, a copout.

There is a crucial distinction between what the rules allow Ryan to do and what they require him to do. The rules allow him to place schools on a banned list. They don’t require him to carve out entire swaths of the college hoops map -- the Atlantic Coast Conference, to be exact -- because of the slight chance that the school Uthoff transfers to will play Wisconsin in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge one day. Ryan could have left every school in the country (save the Big Ten) on Uthoff’s potential permission-to-contact list and still have been following the rules. He isn’t merely following the rules -- he’s proactively working within them. There’s a difference.

Because the rules allow this, coaches are safely ensconced behind the “I didn’t make the rules!” gambit your least favorite teacher so frequently called up. But that doesn’t mean they should. They shouldn’t. Far as I can tell, few disagree.

In the end, it’s not like this is the crime of the century. Uthoff still has quality possibilities out there, including a possible move to Creighton. But every offseason, we have at least one of these kinds of scenarios -- wherein a player is restricted from transferring to a school he wants to attend because a coach has disallowed him from doing so. Railing against this gets tiring! I’m not having fun! Are you? But here we are, every offseason, because the rule needs to change.

College basketball players already have to burn a year on the bench if they want to change schools. We’re still waiting on mass adoption of four-year scholarship agreements, to say nothing of a cost-of-attendance stipend. There’s so much about the NCAA’s amateur model that is outdated, wrongheaded or just plain wrong.

We can argue about many of those things. But the ability of a coach to control his transferring player’s career in such authoritarian fashion -- it seems like a small thing, compared to the capital-Q amateurism Questions, but it’s little things like this that slowly and subtly grate at the public perception of the NCAA’s legitimately virtuous core mission. This is one we can all agree on.

Coaches: Let players go. Just … let them go.

NCAA committees: Change these rules.

Mr. Uthoff: Make sure your crucial, life-saving paperwork gets where it needs to be. Hire a bicycle messenger, if necessary. Those guys are good.

Wisconsin brass: Check your mail!

With our powers combined, we can avoid these kinds of exasperating, confusing, grating transfer debates in the future. Do we have a deal?

On Tuesday, Wisconsin redshirt freshman Jordan Uthoff's story -- in which Uthoff told coach Bo Ryan he wanted to transfer and watched as Ryan subsequently added 25 schools (all of the Big Ten and ACC, plus Iowa State and Marquette) to Uthoff's banned list -- became just the latest example of the drastic lack of equality between college basketball coaches and their amateur players.

It is also, apparently, an example of mutually shared confusion.

On Monday, Uthoff told the Metro Sports Report in its original story that he was appealing the banned list to Wisconsin's athletics compliance department:

Uthoff has appealed the restrictions to the University of Wisconsin's compliance office, which is the office that informed him of the bans in the first place.

"I have not heard back from them," he said. "The next step would be the NCAA."

On Tuesday night, a source close to the Wisconsin program told ESPN.com that wasn't the case.

"We have not received any appeals," the source said.

When Division I men's basketball players wish to transfer, they follow a typical process. First, they speak to their coach. Then, they formally submit a transfer request, which includes permission-to-contact letters for schools players wish to speak with about a possible move. The school can approve or deny permission to any of these schools.

Depending on the results, players have up two business days to submit a written appeal of the school's/coach's banned list.

According to the above source, Uthoff did not appeal any of the schools that were originally banned by Ryan. According to Uthoff, he did.

Ryan declined to comment when reached for comment by ESPN.com's Andy Katz Tuesday night.

Uthoff's situation is not the only transfer matter up for scrutiny in recent days. At Tulsa, according to the Tulsa World, all-conference sophomore Jordan Clarkson requested permission to contact eight other schools in his transfer matter. He was released to talk to three, according to the World, potentially because of allegations of premature contact with other schools during the season. Clarkson's father adamantly denied these claims.

Both Uthoff and Clarkson's transfer sagas are emblematic of outsized coaching power, true, but they are also, as some have argued, emblematic of the behind-the-scenes confusion that makes it difficult to understand transfer situations in the first place, particularly for outsiders. Thanks to privacy laws and intentional obfuscation, schools typically don't release their reasons for restricting players' transfer options. Saint Joe's coach Phil Martelli was hammered relentlessly for refusing to release Todd O'Brien to play for UAB this season. As O'Brien languished on the bench at UAB, and the media murmured "there's got to be more to this story," Martelli constantly refused comment. As such, O'Brien's account reigned, and Martelli's once-sterling reputation was at least somewhat tainted.

Without some process of disclosure, the reasons coaches have for not allowing a player to transfer to a different school -- beyond the obvious competitive aspects -- rarely, if ever, see the light of day. And so confusion reigns.

Of course, that assumes there are valid reasons to block a player from transferring to a different school in the first place. I would argue there is never a particularly good reason, but even allowing shades of gray -- same-conference transfer bans seem at least somewhat understandable, as is the desire to prevent tampering -- the power coaches can wield over where their player finishes his or her career seems as unnecessarily outsized as the process is cumbersome.

The lesson, as always: Nine times out of 10, just let the kid transfer. The bad press isn't worth it. Neither is the headache.

Getting to Madison is easy. It's the leaving that's hard.

It sounds like a cheesy slasher-flick movie poster, or some lame facsimile thereof. But it's become true for Wisconsin forward Jarrod Uthoff, a redshirt freshman who last week told Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan he wanted to leave the program to find a better offensive fit. Ryan, as per NCAA rules, outlined a list of schools to which Uthoff would not be allowed to decamp. Ryan put the entire Big Ten, Iowa State (Uthoff is an Iowa native), Marquette -- and, now, according to the Metro Sports Report -- the entire Atlantic Coast Conference on Uthoff's apparently-still-growing list of banned schools:

"I just got an email about it today from Wisconsin's compliance office," Uthoff told the Metro Sports Report Monday night. "I didn't see it coming." Uthoff said the University of Virginia (an ACC school coached by former Wisconsin assistant Tony Bennett) sought permission from Wisconsin to contact him. As a result, Ryan added Virginia and all the other ACC schools to the no-contact list. Uthoff said he doesn't know why Ryan has placed so many schools on the restricted list. "You have a better guess than I do," he said. "I'm not really sure."

It's a valid question. If I had to take a guess, I'd wager Ryan really doesn't want Uthoff's departure to come back and hurt him somewhere down the line. He doesn't want to play him at a Big Ten school, or at Marquette, or even in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, apparently. (And the Iowa State thing? I'm wagering Ryan is no fan of the budding transfer landing zone under Fred Hoiberg. But again, that's just a guess.)

But whatever answers you want to come up with, they don't really matter. Know why? Because if Ryan wanted to leave Wisconsin to take a job in the ACC, he could. If he wanted to take a job at Iowa State or Marquette or in the Big Ten, he could. There are no restrictions on where and when he can coach, provided he and a school reach an agreement on a contract. But for players, a coach merely needs to add 30 or so schools to a ban list, and that's that.

Just let the kid go, coaches. Maybe he'll come back to haunt you somewhere down the line. Maybe there are personnel issues the public doesn't know about. Honestly, none of that stuff really matters. All that matters is how bad this looks, how petty it feels, how silly the rule and any coach who chooses to take advantage of it really is.

It's far worse than Uthoff hitting a jumper for Virginia in two years, that's for sure.

A recap of Thursday's action in the Men's Basketball Championship.

(4) Louisville 57, (1) Michigan St 44
Rick Pitino improves to 10-0 as a coach in the Sweet 16 -- the best mark of any coach in the history of the tournament -- and Tom Izzo loses to a Big East team in the Men's Basketball Championship for the first time in his career (5-1).

Michigan State's 44 points and 28.6 field goal percentage are both its worst in a Men's Basketball Championship game.

Gorgui Dieng blocked seven shots, tying both his career high and the school record for blocks in a Men's Basketball Championship game (Pervis Ellison, 1989), to help Louisville advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2009 and the 12th time in school history.

Draymond Green leads the Spartans with 13 points and 16 rebounds in his final collegiate game.

(1) Syracuse 64, (4) Wisconsin 63
With their victory over Wisconsin, the Orange return to the Elite Eight for the first time since winning the national championship in 2003.

With his 48th tournament victory, Jim Boeheim passes John Wooden for fifth place all-time in tournament wins.

Wisconsin shot 14-for-27 from behind the arc but just 7-for-22 from inside. The 14 3-pointers are the second-most in a tournament game for the Badgers.

The last time Syracuse won a game by one point in the NCAA tournament was the Sweet 16 in 2003, when the Orange beat Auburn 79-78 and went on to win the national championship.

It’s just the fifth time a 1 seed won by just a single point in the Sweet 16.

Wisconsin tried to impose its will in this game, limiting Syracuse to just 52 possessions. That’s the fewest possessions for Syracuse in any game in the past 15 seasons. The previous low was 54, done twice (1999 versus Princeton and 2006 versus West Virginia, both wins).

(7) Florida 68, (3) Marquette 58
Florida reaches the Elite Eight for the fourth time in seven seasons behind one of the best defensive efforts in the shot-clock era.

The Gators have allowed just 153 points through three games in the tournament; only two teams since 1986 have allowed fewer in their first three tournament wins.

The Golden Eagles made 20 field goals, just one more than their season low, but are the first team to top 50 points against Florida in this year’s tournament.

(2) Ohio State 81, (6) Cincinnati 66
Aaron Craft led the defensive effort with six steals, an Ohio State record in a Men's Basketball Championship game. The loss matches Cincinnati's worst in the Sweet 16.

Deshaun Thomas leads all scorers with 26 points (20 in the first half) and adds seven rebounds as Ohio State beats Cincinnati in the Men's Basketball Championship for the first time in school history.

Thomas joins a great list of players in the past five seasons to average at least 25.0 point per game and reach the Elite Eight. The bad news for the Buckeyes is that none of the other three players reached the Final Four.

BOSTON – The T-shirts were only gifts from Nike, concocted by some faceless marketing whiz, not crafted by clever seniors looking to send a message.

Still, if Syracuse players got together to try to formulate a motto for their team and for their season, they couldn’t have come up with better than the three words emblazoning their Ts:

By Any Means.

Syracuse has won 34 games this year, nail-biters and blowouts, won with defense and won with offense, with their starting center and without him.

The Orange just win, amazing even their seen-it-all coach with their pluck and knack for pulling victory from the jaws of defeat.

“If I wasn’t the coach, I’d be sitting there thinking, how are they going to win that game? They can’t win that one,’’ Jim Boeheim said last week. “And then they do.’’

And really that’s all that matters at this time of year. From October until February, a team has to justify its worth, prove it deserves a bid, prove it merits a high seed.

Now, though, the means needn’t justify the end. Pretty or ugly, easy or hard, it makes no never mind.

Syracuse opted for a plateful of the last Thursday night, surviving a Wisconsin shooting clinic that was equal parts awe-inspiring, amazing or terrifying, depending on your team color choice, to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since its national title run in 2003, 64-63.

“Yeah, by any means, that’s perfect for us, that’s how we played today, how we’ve played all season,’’ sophomore guard Dion Waiters said. “By any means. It fits.’’

The means in this matchup came in the form of Fair and prayer. That would be C.J. Fair, who was so ineffective in Pittsburgh that reporters were probing for health issues or injury to explain his 1-of-10 shooting in the first two rounds of the tournament, and who out of nowhere shot 7 of 9 to finish with 15 points and seven rebounds on Thursday.

As for the prayer, that came from Waiters, who looked for a little divine intervention as Wisconsin, which shot a blistering 14 of 27 from the arc, had the ball, 15 seconds and a chance to win the game.

“I just kept saying, ‘Please don’t make it, please don’t make it, please God, let him miss,’’ Waiters said.

Whether it was a prayer or simply good defense, Waiters' request was heeded, with Jordan Taylor’s long-distance 3 falling short and Josh Gasser’s desperation heave missing on the buzzer.

“That clock just had to end,’’ Orange junior Brandon Triche said.

When it did, Taylor and his Wisconsin teammates lay prone on the floor. There is one way to beat a zone and UW executed it to near perfection, at one point draining six 3s in succession to go from down seven points to up by three.

But when the Badgers needed those shots, they couldn’t come up with them, missing their final five, including Taylor’s heave.

The loss once more denies Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan a chance to get out of the regional semifinal. The man who racked up Division III titles like a tie collection is now 1-4 in the Sweet 16.

“It was on the line, and I felt like I got my legs into it,’’ said Taylor, who finished with 17 points. “I knew it was a deep 3 but it felt good and then to see it kind of come up short was kind of heartbreaking.’’

One team’s heartache …

“This is one of the best games I’ve been involved in in a long time,’’ Boeheim said. “I think the best game anyone played against us and didn’t beat us.’’

Truth be told, this game was a microcosm of that entire season -- an unexpected star, timely defense and an answered prayer has been both the Orange’s means and recipe all year.

Blessed with a roster deep enough to field a second team, Boeheim has the luxury of finding the hot hand and then feeding it well. In three NCAA tournament games, three different players have led the Orange in scoring.

Fair hadn’t been the guy in a while, though. He’s been on this side of terrible since the postseason began, 2-of-17 from the beginning of the Big East tournament through the third-round victory over Kansas State. He swears he never lost confidence because Boeheim never gave up on him -- Fair retained his starting position and kept playing minutes.

On Tuesday, he said he had a feeling -- not quite a premonition -- that he would play well against the Badgers. And then he promptly turned the ball over on his first touch and missed two free throws a few minutes later.

“I was like, ‘Oh man, this cannot happen,’ ’’ Fair said.

But with five minutes left until the halftime break, Waiters found Fair in transition and the sophomore slammed home the dunk, igniting the partisan Syracuse crowd and his own offensive game.

He’d tack on four more points in quick succession before intermission and keep rolling in the second.

“These were the same shots I was taking last week,’’ he said. “This time they were just going in.’’

Of course, it seemed like most everything was going in during this game. It was a mathematical misnomer, with Wisconsin shooting better from outside the arc than inside of it and Syracuse hitting nine fewer 3s.

And winning.

Which is why it makes only perfect sense that defense sealed the victory.

After watching the Badgers hedge toward Loyola Marymount’s seemingly untouchable record of 21 made 3s in 1990, Syracuse extended its zone a good two steps beyond the line.

Those extra inches made all the difference, pushing Taylor just enough out of his comfort zone to make that last shot difficult, it not downright impossible.

“We wanted to get a stop,’’ said Scoop Jardine, who with Waiters crowded Taylor on his final shot. “We knew it was going to be something with Jordan trying to penetrate or kick out to one of his shooters. We’ve been in that situation before throughout the year. … We believed in our defense. We didn’t panic, we stayed with them and we believed in it and got the stop to win the game.’’

By any means.

Jimmy Dykes on Syracuse surviving Wisconsin, 64-63, to advance to the Elite Eight.

BOSTON -- A quick look at No. 1 seed Syracuse’s 64-63 victory over No. 4 seed Wisconsin in Sweet 16 action in the East Regional at TD Garden on Thursday night:

Overview: After all the talk about how Wisconsin would solve the vaunted 2-3 zone of Syracuse, it was the Wisconsin defense -- the top scoring defense in the country this season -- that struggled to contain the Syracuse offense early. Syracuse shot 63.6 percent in the first half, including 50 percent on 3-pointers, and led 33-27 at the break.

In a wild second half, the Orange weathered a furious storm of 3s from the Badgers and held on -- just barely -- for the win. The last time Syracuse won a game by one point in the NCAA tournament was the Sweet 16 in 2003, when the Orange beat Auburn 79-78 and went on to win the national championship.

Turning point: This was a game of punch-counterpunch in the second half. It seemed that whenever one side would hit a big shot, the other would invariably answer.

So after Jordan Taylor hit yet another big 3 -- he had four in the half -- to put Wisconsin up 59-56 with 7:05 to go, was there any doubt Syracuse would find a way to answer?

If there was any doubt in the Orange, it didn’t show. Baye Keita converted a layup, then Dion Waiters made one of his own to give Cuse back the lead at 60-59.

Taylor had a chance to win it for Wisconsin as time expired, but his heave was short and the Badgers couldn’t get a good shot off the air ball as the Orange escaped.

Key player: This was a balanced effort by the Orange. Four players scored in double figures, led by C.J. Fair with 15.

Key stat: This one’s easy -- without the 3, there’s no way the Badgers get back into the game at all. Wisconsin shot 51.9 percent from beyond the arc for the game and was 9-for-16 in the second half as it rallied to make things interesting at the end.

Syracuse also shot well from 3, hitting 55.6 percent for the game. The difference was in the number of shots. Wisconsin took 27 as it attempted to rally from a double-digit deficit, while Syracuse took only nine.

What’s next: Syracuse will now move on to the Elite Eight, where it will face No. 2 seed Ohio State on Saturday night in Boston.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

Before the Sweet 16 gets under way, our experts offer their predictions for all four regions:

EAST REGION (Boston)

Jay Bilas: Ohio State over Syracuse
Eamonn Brennan: Ohio State over Wisconsin
Fran Fraschilla: Syracuse over Ohio State
John Gasaway: Ohio State over Syracuse
Doug Gottlieb: Ohio State over Syracuse
Andy Katz: Ohio State over Syracuse
Jason King: Ohio State over Syracuse
Joe Lunardi: Wisconsin over Ohio State
Myron Medcalf: Wisconsin over Cincinnati
Dana O'Neil: Ohio State over Syracuse
Miles Simon: Syracuse over Ohio State
Dick Vitale: Ohio State over Syracuse
Jay Williams: Syracuse over Cincinnati

WEST REGION (Phoenix)

Jay Bilas: Michigan State over Marquette
Eamonn Brennan: Michigan State over Marquette
Fran Fraschilla: Michigan State over Marquette
John Gasaway: Michigan State over Marquette
Doug Gottlieb: Florida over Michigan State
Andy Katz: Michigan State over Marquette
Jason King: Marquette over Michigan State
Joe Lunardi: Michigan State over Marquette
Myron Medcalf: Michigan State over Marquette
Dana O'Neil: Michigan State over Marquette
Miles Simon: Marquette over Michigan State
Dick Vitale: Michigan State over Marquette
Jay Williams: Marquette over Michigan State

SOUTH REGION (Atlanta)

Jay Bilas: Kentucky over Baylor
Eamonn Brennan: Kentucky over Baylor
Fran Fraschilla: Kentucky over Baylor
John Gasaway: Kentucky over Baylor
Doug Gottlieb: Kentucky over Baylor
Andy Katz: Kentucky over Baylor
Jason King: Kentucky over Baylor
Joe Lunardi: Kentucky over Baylor
Myron Medcalf: Kentucky over Xavier
Dana O'Neil: Kentucky over Xavier
Miles Simon: Kentucky over Baylor
Dick Vitale: Kentucky over Baylor
Jay Williams: Kentucky over Baylor

MIDWEST REGION (St. Louis)

Jay Bilas: Kansas over North Carolina
Eamonn Brennan: Kansas over North Carolina
Fran Fraschilla: North Carolina over Kansas
John Gasaway: Kansas over North Carolina
Doug Gottlieb: Kansas over North Carolina
Andy Katz: North Carolina over Kansas
Jason King: North Carolina over Kansas
Joe Lunardi: Kansas over North Carolina
Myron Medcalf: Kansas over North Carolina
Dana O'Neil: Kansas over North Carolina
Miles Simon: Kansas over North Carolina
Dick Vitale: North Carolina over Kansas
Jay Williams: NC State over North Carolina

BOSTON -- Like so many other kids who grew up in and around Philadelphia, Bo Ryan made the in-season pilgrimage to the Palestra.

There, he would watch legendary Big 5 coaches such as Harry Litwack and Jack Ramsay and Jack Kraft ply their trade. He was just a kid, awed by the games and the coaches but he was also a future coach, mesmerized by the strategy and tactics.

“You talk about zones and you go to the Palestra when you’re 10 years old, 11 or 12 and you’re watching ball movement and body movement," Ryan said. “Those guys were so good in how they taught and how they cut and how they used skip passes."

Now the Wisconsin coach is hoping for a little osmosis.

His Badgers will face top-seeded Syracuse and the Orange’s vaunted 2-3 zone in the Sweet 16 on Thursday (7:15 p.m. ET).

Wisconsin doesn’t face a whole lot of zone in the Big Ten, but when the Badgers do, they’re pretty effective against it. So far in the tournament, Wisconsin is shooting 46 percent against zone defense, according to ESPN Stats & Information, including a tournament-best 47 percent from the 3-point arc.

The Badgers will need that and more against Syracuse to win.

“It’s nothing we haven’t seen," Jordan Taylor said. “We’ve all been playing basketball for years now. I know their 2-3 zone is a little different with the length that they throw at you, but it’s really no different.’’

Of course, the simplest way to beat a zone, as Ryan learned in those childhood Palestra visits, is to hit shots.

Wisconsin is fortunate in that it has plenty of guys who are comfortable shooting from outside.

The trick is to find guys who can connect.

“If you’re not hitting shots it gets in your head sometimes, then it’s kind of a multiplier effect -- 'Oh, am I going to make the next one?'’’ Ryan said. “We’ve watched every game that Syracuse has played and you’ve just got to work the ball, use good ball and body movement, and when you do get those shots, just believe they can go in.’’

Who to watch

Syracuse’s Dion Waiters: The Big East’s sixth man of the year is always critical for the Orange, but never more so than in the tournament. Against Kansas State, Syracuse was plus-17 with Waiters in the game and minus-1 without him.

“They have guys that could score 20," Ryan said. “They have probably more guys that could score 20 than most teams that you’re going to play.’’

Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor: The senior point guard is not just the Badgers’ best scorer, he’s also their best ball handler. His 2.99 assists-to-turnover ratio will likely blister the NCAA record.

That’s critical because no one in the country capitalizes on mistakes better than the Orange. Syracuse gets 27 percent of its offense off turnovers, using miscues to start its break.

“He’s one of the best guards in the country," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said of Taylor.

What to watch

The pace. Few teams have been able to force tempo against the deliberate Badgers. Wisconsin averages only 59.2 possessions per game, the fewest in the country, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to trouble scoring. Wisconsin still scores 66.7 points per game.

All that is key for a Syracuse team that is especially strong on the break. Syracuse can and will score in a half-court set, but if the Orange can up the tempo on the Badgers, things could quickly get dicey for Wisconsin.