June 13, 2008

Every Friday I give my thoughts on the sport I love, basketball.

• It has been a busy offseason for Memphis coach John Calipari. Not only has he seen players like Derrick Rose leave but the coaching staff has had changeover as well. The latest move saw the Tigers add Orlando Antigua to the staff when he left Pittsburgh. Having Antigua and former Arizona assistant Josh Pastner is a major positive for Calipari. Don't discount another solid season for the Tigers as Memphis has brought in Tyreke Evans, Angel Garcia, Matt Simpkins and Wesley Witherspoon.

• It has been a busy time for conference commissioners to announce future retirements. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese and WCC commish Mike Gilleran decided their futures. Now the Pac-10 will be looking for a replacement for Thomas Hansen, who will retired after next summer. He has put in over 26 years on the job and he has seen so much growth in college athletics. Hansen certainly will be missed.

• Ben Howland keeps on getting good news. Darren Collison decided to return to school. J'Mison Morgan decided to attend UCLA after being released from his commitment with LSU. Now Josh Shipp has pulled out of the NBA draft and will be returning to Westwood.

• Brown finally named a replacement for Craig Robinson, who left for the head coaching job at Oregon State. The Bruins, second in the Ivy League last season, stayed in the family by promoting assistant Jesse Agel. Continuity in a winning program is important and Brown looks like it made positive strides under Robinson. Agel was an assistant at Brown for two years; prior to that he spent 17 seasons as an assistant at Vermont. Now he gets his chance as a head coach.

• It is not often that a college tournament includes three former NBA head coaches. That will be the case for a tournament in Las Vegas in late November. Among the coaches in the field: Lon Kruger (UNLV), Leonard Hamilton (Florida State) and Mike Montgomery (California).

• Speaking of UNLV, the Runnin' Rebels are playing an six-game exhibition tour in Australia from June 25-July 6. Led by guard Wink Adams, coach Kruger's Runnin' Rebels will be a contender in the Mountain West.

• At mid-major schools, it is important to sign coaches to long-term deals to keep them happy. A couple of schools that gave five-year extensions recently, wise decisions in my opinion, include Western Michigan (Steve Hawkins) and Cal State-Fullerton (Bob Burton).