It's been a fairly newsy, if not eventful, week considering it's the offseason:
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Former 4-star guard Offutt could join Hoosiers’ roster (Indiana Daily Student)
"I don’t know quite yet, but we’ll see," he said. "I’m leaning towards Indiana as of right now." As the article notes, Offutt, who is from Warren Central in Indianapolis, was the #99 player in his class. He missed his senior year of high school with a knee injury and played sparingly in his one full season at Ohio State. Offutt would be a walk-on (Big Ten rules prevent him from transferring as a scholarship player unless he sits out two years) , and my understanding is that he would be eligible at the end of the fall semester and would have one additional year of eligibility after that. He may never live up to his original recruiting rankings, but having a player like Offutt without burning a scholarship would be nice. -
New basketball coordinator (The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.)
"Drew Adams has been named the coordinator of basketball systems for the Indiana men’s basketball team. Adams, a Bloomington native, was a student assistant the last two years at the University of Tennessee. He replaces Brian Barone, who was named an assistant coach at Wisconsin-Green Bay earlier this week." -
IU hires McClain as basketball assistant coach (The Indianapolis Star)
"[Steve] McClain, the associate head coach at Colorado the past three seasons, spent nine seasons as the coach at Wyoming, where his teams made four postseason appearances. McClain will be introduced at a news conference Friday at Assembly Hall." Seems like a solid hire. I don't know much about McClain's coaching background, but he had a solid record as a head coach and hopefully will enhance the staff.
The latest on Muncie Central’s Jeremiah Davis (Inside the Hall)
"Davis, the No. 54 player nationally in the 2011 class according to Scout.com, said he wasn’t sure where the rumors of a Wednesday announcement originated and added that his decision is not dependent on any of his peers." Rumors have been ebbing and flowing about Davis for months. IU still seems to be in good shape with him, and as a kid in the 40-60 range in the recruiting rankings, would be a nice get for Crean in response to the charges that he is ignoring Indiana recruits. The likelihood is that the media would ignore him as surely as they ignore Derek Elston and Jordan Hulls and Austin Etherington, but I can dream, right?
At end of first round, Rodger Saffold still on the board (The Hoosier Scoop)
Many expected the Colts to takeformer IU OL Saffold with their late first round pick, but it didn't happen. The draft resumes tonight at 6 p.m. EDT, and Saffold may be one of the first players off the board.
NCAA proves itself either savvy or receptive (College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN)
Pat Forde makes some sense on the issue, which, of course, is the NCAA's announcement that CBS and Turner will televise every Tournament game nationally, and that the tournament will expand by only 3 teams, to 68. As he notes, the important part is that the contract is in no way contingent on a future expansion. I guess we won't know for a while whether the NCAA is content with a 68-team field. I would like to think that a cursory look at Joe Lunardi's 2011 Bracketology made the NCAA realize, "holy crap! No one is going to take Thursday and Friday off of work to watch the functional equivalent of the NIT!" But maybe Forde is right and we have been being played. The NCAA made no announcment about the specific format, and the wide presumption is that there will be four "opening round" games, but nothing is set in stone. As I said earlier, a 96 team field would let in too many mediocre teams, would ruin the first two days of the Tournament, and the proposed six consecutive days of Tournament play may have pushed the event beyond the point of diminishing returns. Still, the NCAA didn't ruin its own tournament. That's progress, I guess.