Class of '66 Old Fart

Mildly surprised that he spurned both Cal and PUke with Barnes as his 'mentor'.

Too Many!

I think Yogi is having way too much fun keeping us on pins and needles.

Sophmore Wanaah Bail of UCLA intends to transfer.  Was academically ineligible for the 2nd semester; only averaged 9 min./game.

The longer it takes to learn what Yogi intends to do the less likely we can find a solid replacement from JUCO or 5th year grad transfers as the pool of competent replacements dwindles as they commit to other schools.  I would certainly hope that CTC and Yogi have had lots of conversations and are on the same page.

Wisconsin's Sam Dekker has declared for the NBA draft.

  ENOUGH ALREADY!  We're still oversigned by 1 and yet we're "reaching out" to Mulder and Murphy and still hope to land Thon.  This gives me a very uneasy feeling.

He's a blue-collar, hard-nosed kid with a good basketball IQ.  Not the most athletically gifted basketball player but very glad he's on our team.

  Interesting to see how Hurley and Shaka Smart do in 3 or 4 years after moving from their historical geographical locales and especially strong recruiting connections.  Will they be able to maintain those connections and can they successfully develop new connections in the great southwest?   

    l like the muscular definition that's already evident in O.G.'s shoulders and biceps.  Wish we still had Je'nay Jackson on board to work with all 3 but especially with Juwan and Thomas who will need to 'muscle up' for the rigors of B1G basketball.

Nice words to hear, but things happen and the only sure things in life are death and taxes but let's hope we do indeed get to enjoy 2 years of Thomas.

To no one's great surprise, Jahlil Okafor has declared for the draft.

Just so I'm clear on this, if they successfully got at least a 'C in Crayon 101; Intro to Not Running With Scissors along with a passing grade in Proper Use of Paste there is no negative impact on pUKe's APR?

Very much agree.  I think Holt more than earned his way with the play he gave us especially considering how late it was when he joined the team.  And this is in no way meant as a negative slap at DD.

In the case of pUKe which may lose 5-7 players to the NBA draft, how do these early departures (not to mention previous year's early departures) impact its APR calculation?  Or do they not play a factor in the calculation whatsoever and the early declarers for the draft simply stop attending classes and there are no repercussions?

UTEP's Vincent Hunter declaring for the NBA Draft.

I didn't want Troy to leave any more than anyone else, but on the flip side, we are still oversigned by 1 for next season.

If Troy goes, he goes.  Will that be a catastrophic event for next year?  No!  Troy made huge progress this last season, but he still has many deficiencies which showed up towards the end of the season.  If Troy is the only departure out of what was our basic player rotation I think we'll be OK with our 3 incoming recruits.  Yes, they will be freshmen, but from videos they seem to have more polish to their game than what Troy showed us as a freshman.   Early departures for a stab at the pros and the lure of the $$ is a fact of life in college basketball.     OOPS!  I had already posted the above and then saw the news that Troy is staying but it doesn't change the thoughts I expressed above.

I've often used the word epidemic to describe what happens at the end of each season and I'll bet we don't hear of more than 2/3 of the transfers that take place if that many.  But are we too hard on Crean?  Nah!

I'll be honest and admit that I don't feel the same way about Eric Gordon, Noah and Cody that I do about Vic, Jordan, Derek and Verdell.  The latter 4 I've tried to keep close tabs on their careers after candystripes but I really don't follow the first 3 that closely and I think it relates to the lack of a 'cemented connection' because they were on campus for only 1 or 2 years.  Am I the Lone Ranger in this regard?

Adding strength obviously and for JBJ and RoJo in particular I'd suggest trying to catch live chickens ala Rocky to improve foot speed and agility.

Shaqquan Aaron to transfer from L'ville.

I hope it is because I'd like nothing better than to kick the s**t out of them and Sleaze Boeheim.

Rondae Jefferson, sophmore at Arizona announced for the draft.

No doubt it will be later rather than sooner.  My hat's off to Tennessee for taking the bull by the horns and axing Tyndall the way they did.   Then there's the other side like Syracuse and UNC who've been caught redhanded as hell with major academic issues spanning years and Boeheim and Williams are still going on their merry way.  That's as mind numbing as seeing that Dave Bliss has gotten a college coaching position.  NCAA = No Cajones Across America.