Each week I will write about the sport I love, college basketball:
Massachusetts made a good move bringing home one of their own when it hired Derek Kellogg to replace Travis Ford. I like the passion and enthusiasm Kellogg has for his alma mater. He was a gutsy player with the Minutemen. I love his work ethic and feel he learned a lot at Memphis as an assistant under former Massachusetts coach John Calipari.
Drake hired former Arizona State assistant Mark Phelps to replace Keno Davis. Phelps served as an assistant under Herb Sendek at both NC State and ASU. It probably helped Phelps that current Drake athletic director Sandy Chubb used to be an associate athletic director for the Sun Devils. The job became available when Davis took over at Providence. At least Sendek got some good news when 6-9 forward Jeff Pendergraph passed on entering the NBA draft early.
Another player that opted to return to school instead of entering the draft early was Clemson guard K. C. Rivers. I was very impressed with Rivers during the ACC tournament and he will get even better with another season under Oliver Purnell.
Tom Crean has already made magic at Indiana. The Hoosiers landed 6-5 combo guard Nick Williams from Mobile, Alabama. He was named Alabama High School Player of the Year and he picked Indiana over the likes of Alabama, Wake Forest, Arkansas, Georgia Tech and Kansas State. Williams originally signed with Marquette but he was let out of his commitment when Crean left for the Hoosiers. Now they will be reunited. Indiana also landed 6-2 guard Devan Dumes from Vincennes. Dumes began his college career at Eastern Michigan and actually impressed Crean by scoring 16 points against his squad.
There is another Dixon making noise at Pittsburgh. Coach Jamie Dixon signed JUCO guard Jermaine Dixon, the brother of former Maryland star Juan Dixon. At 6-3, Jermaine Dixon was one of the premier JUCO players at Tallahassee, Florida CC, averaging almost 21 points and seven rebounds last season. The Panthers had a scholarship open up when big man Cassin Diggs recently decided to transfer.
More movement in the Big East. St. John's suffered a blow when guard Larry Wright decided to transfer. Wright opted to leave following the discovery of an illness involving a family member. He averaged over nine points a game and gave the Red Storm an outside shooting threat.
Former Boston College forward Shamari Spears has decided to transfer to Charlotte. Bobby Lutz has had some success with transfers in the past.
Vanderbilt added 6-7 forward-guard Jeff Taylor from out of New Mexico. Among the other schools that expressed interest in him: Texas, UNLV and Gonzaga. That's a nice addition for coach Kevin Stallings.
Kentucky landed JUCO transfer Kevin Galloway. The 6-6 Galloway started his college career at USC but transferred to the College of Southern Idaho. Coach Billy Gillispie will be happy to add Galloway to a returning corps that includes Patrick Patterson up front.
Jerry Wainwright got a big man when he signed 6-11 Krys Faber from Los Angeles. Faber had 27 rebounds in a high school game last season.
Dick Vitale coached the Pistons and the University of Detroit before broadcasting ESPN's first college basketball game in December 1979. Send him a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.
