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Roundball Chatter
Dick VitaleSPECIAL TO ESPN.COM
May 26 2006
Each Friday I will write about the sport I love, college basketball
Just an idle thought while I was driving to the Broken Egg recently. Imagine if LeBron James did not go to the NBA right away out of high school, instead opting for Ohio State? If he became a Buckeye and stayed close to home, he could have played his senior season in Columbus with diaper dandy Greg Oden! Wow, what a dream team that would have been … oh well.
With the ACC-Big Ten Challenge pairings announced recently, I love the idea that Ohio State is facing North Carolina and Indiana squares off with Duke. This is a great event that generates interest during the pre-conference schedule. It isn't cupcake city, baby! My question is, why doesn't the Big 12 and SEC have a Challenge? Think about it, Kansas-Kentucky, Texas-Florida. You could have some great coaching match-ups.
Texas suffered another loss when forward Mike Williams announced he is transferring. Williams came into Austin with a lot of potential. The Longhorns have lost LaMarcus Aldridge, PJ Tucker, Brad Buckman and Kenton Paulino. Daniel Gibson has entered the draft but could still pull out and return to school. Rick Barnes did get some good news when 6-8 Damion Jones joined a superior recruiting class. Jones originally committed to Oklahoma but was released from his scholarship when Kelvin Sampson left for Indiana. The class is led by McDonald's All-Americas Kevin Durant and guard D. J. Augustin.
Big news for Villanova's Jay Wright. After losing Randy Foye and Allan Ray to the NBA draft, the Wildcats added McDonald's All-America Scottie Reynolds. The 6-1 guard originally committed to Oklahoma, like Jones did. Remember, Villanova hopes to have a healthy Curtis Sumpter back too.
Talk about great bloodlines! Georgetown, coached by John Thompson III, son of John Thompson, will coach Jeremiah Rivers. The 6-4 guard is the son of Celtics head coach and former NBA star Doc Rivers.
New Oklahoma boss Jeff Capel did a great job hiring a pair of experienced coaches to his staff. Ben Betts left his head coaching position at South Carolina State, while Oklahoma also added former Mississippi head coach Rod Barnes.
I wish former Purdue head coach Gene Keady all the best. His wife Pat suffered a heart attack earlier this month. I hope she has a speedy recovery.
Wow, the Wooden Classic has a pair of interesting match-ups. Tim Floyd's USC squad faces George Washington, while UCLA takes on Billy Gillespie's Texas A&M team December 9th at Arrowhead Pond.
Sometimes a change of scenery can help both parties. That could be the case at St. Joseph's with guard Abdulai Jalloh announcing his intention to transfer. When Jalloh was on, he was tough, scoring 30 points against Ohio State. He had his ups and downs, and Phil Martelli now has just one full-time starter returning, forward Rob Ferguson. Martelli has a good recruiting class coming in.
St. Peter's hired former Seton Hall assistant John Dunne as the school's new head coach. Dunne's first assignment will be finding scoring help now that Keydren Clark, one of the top ten Division I scorers of all time is gone.
Maryland recruit Jeff Jones has reneged on his original oral commitment. The 6-4 junior will be available for recruitment for the 2007-08 season. The young man could still end up at Maryland.
Seton Hall's Bobby Gonzalez continues to have great success. Larry Davis has decided to join the Pirates after originally committing to NC State. He decided to skip on the Wolfpack when Herb Sendek went to Arizona State.
Dick Vitale coached the Pistons and the University of Detroit before broadcasting ESPN's first college basketball game in 1979. Send a question for Vitale for possible use on ESPNEWS.
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