ESPN Article

[HebrewHammer]

What does the ESPN insider article on the Big 12 say about both McDermott and UNI, if anything?

[Panthercrazy22]

I don't think that i've read it yet but i think that they probably might have something about that. Because of the whole ISU mix and match roster thing that they have going on. And i think that they will have something about UNI because they ARE GOING TO WIN THE MVC TOURNEY! And it's Mac's old team so they might have something to say either about how he should have stayed here or who he's going to magically make the cyclones have a winning record and do good in the tournies.

[SMK4UNI]

Here is the article, I bolded the stuff about McDermott. The article talks mostly about all the coaching changes the Big 12 is going through this next year and some stud kids that will be showing up on the Big 12 campuses(sp?)

No mention of UNI, besides that is where McDermott use to coach, because it is an article about the BIG 12 and what is going on in their conference.

[SMK4UNI]

First half of the article:

New coaches, stud recruits highlight Big 12 spring

Identification name tags were not needed at this week's Big 12 coaches meetings in Colorado Springs, but there definitely were a lot of new faces. Five of the conference's 12 schools have made coaching changes -- the most in its 10-year history. Combine that with the arrival of some of the nation's best high school talent, as well as the departure of some of the league's best players to the NBA, and you have more storylines than a season's worth of "Lost" episodes.

The coaching changes have provided the biggest buzz, with each of the five having its own unique impact on the hoops landscape.

After a wild and wooly search, Missouri Athletic Director Mike Alden hit a home run, hiring Mike Anderson away from UAB. The former Tulsa guard and long-time Arkansas assistant already has roots in this part of the country and his frenetic, pressing style -- which turned out a Sweet 16 team in 2004 -- will be the most unique in the league. When the cupboard fills up talent-wise, Missouri will create havoc for opponents in what has been, through the years, a grind-it-out league.

Anderson has been around the recruiting block and will effectively sell Mizzou's great basketball tradition, his style of play and the new Mizzou Arena. Success won't happen overnight because of a current dearth of talent, but Tigers fans will see the type of effort from this coming year's team that should forecast happy days ahead.

Kansas State landed its own big fish, luring in former Cincinnati head coach Bob Huggins. Huggins is one of the few coaches in college basketball who can rule by the force of his personality, but in his first season in the Little Apple, he'll have some talent to play with. Kansas State was very close to winning four or five more games last year and has a potential first-round pick in 6-foot-6 senior Cartier Martin. Hugs has quickly added to the stockpile with his first recruits and has an opportunity to shake things up quickly. Certainly, the Kansas-Kansas State rivalry has a chance to become relevant nationally for the first time in years.

Iowa State might have made the easiest and most logical choice by tabbing former Northern Iowa head man Greg McDermott to replace Wayne Morgan. McDermott, a Cascade, Iowa, native who grew up 175 miles from Ames, will battle Iowa and others for some of the state's best talent, which through the years has included the likes of NBA players Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison, Kyle Korver and Raef LaFrentz.

The supposed step up in class also should be minimal, as McDermott's Northern Iowa teams took on and knocked off the likes of LSU, Iowa and Iowa State in the last few years. He is an outstanding offensive coach whose multiple sets will require cerebral players with good basketball IQs.

At first glance, Oklahoma made the biggest surprise hire, luring the youthful Jeff Capel from VCU to replace Indiana-bound Kelvin Sampson. However, after I thought about it some more, the hire makes sense.

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione's shrewd choice of Bob Stoops as the Sooners' football coach already has built him some serious equity in the state of Oklahoma. The choice of Capel, if successful, will make him look like a genius. Castiglione was looking for the best combination of competence and integrity in his new basketball coach and, when he couldn't find it among the country's well-known coaches, for various reasons including contract buy outs, he placed his bet on the 31-year-old Capel.

Capel is the son of a college coach, a former starting point guard at Duke and once was the nation's youngest head coach at 26 years old. That is the coaching equivalent of being an NBA lottery pick after a super freshman season. There is no guarantee he will grow into the next Coach K, especially with a job than will require some serious rebuilding after the graduation of three key seniors and an incoming freshman class that scattered after Sampson's exit, but the expectation is that he has a chance to be a star down the road.

At Oklahoma State, Sean Sutton should have the most seamless transition of any of the new Big 12 coaches. The former Cowboys point guard as been the heir apparent as head coach, and after his father's well-chronicled car accident in February, he was the acting head coach for the last month of last season. Beyond that, Sutton already was handling most of the recruiting and much of the coaching, particularly on the offensive end, in recent years.

Last season, with a very young team, it was hard for the Cowboys to concentrate on two voices as the head coach. This season, that won't be the case. Eddie Sutton will cast a long shadow over the Oklahoma State program -- much like Henry Iba did when his protégé returned to Stillwater. That will be a positive as Sean Sutton moves Cowboy basketball forward.

[SMK4UNI]

Sorry, long article, here is the other half:

Two other schools -- Colorado and Nebraska -- made news by not changing their coaches, but with new ADs in place at both schools, there will be the pressure for the Buffs' Ricardo Patton and the Huskers' Barry Collier to show progress this season.

Both men have proven they are good basketball coaches but, with the success of gridiron powers like Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M in basketball in recent years, patience will run thin soon at these football schools. Patience has become directly proportional to NCAA Tournament appearances, and Patton (two) and Collier (zero) haven't nabbed enough of them in their tenures.

Colorado must hope that leading scorer Richard Roby returns for his junior season as he currently toys with staying in the NBA Draft. Nebraska, coming off a 19-win NIT season and with a nucleus of young talent back, is capable of playing its way into the upper echelon of the league but everything must go right. A below-the-radar recruiting class must make an impact, as well.

Somewhat lost in the spring coaching carousel is the news that eight top-40 players, including five McDonald's All-Americans, will be arriving on Big 12 campuses this fall. They will jon somewhere between 13 and 15 (depending on whether Texas' Daniel Gibson and/or Colorado's Roby return) of the league's top 20 scorers. While there is only one elite team (Kansas) in the league at the moment, there is more balance from top to bottom than at any time in the history of the expanded league.

With all five starters back and a healthy supporting cast, some felt Kansas was deep enough. Not Bill Self. He added Chicago point guard Sheron Collins and Dallas power forward Darrell Arthur to a club that should open the season ranked No. 2 or No. 3 (with North Carolina) behind defending champion Florida.

Team chemistry will be a key, but Self has created a "survival of the fittest" mentality that involves competing and playing hard. While success in the regular season is virtually assured, getting past the first round of the NCAA Tournament is critical after two straight upset losses to Bucknell and Bradley.

At Texas, Rick Barnes is coming off one of the toughest weeks he's had since arriving in Austin, losing Big 12 player of the year P.J. Tucker early to the NBA draft and big man Mike Williams to a transfer. However, when former Oklahoma signee Damion James committed to Texas early this week, it gave Barnes his best recruiting class as a head coach. James will join fellow high school All-Americans Kevin Durant and D.J. Augustin as Barnes quickly reloads.

The Longhorns have switched roles with Kansas -- now they are the young, talented team that is expected to blossom by February while the Jayhawks become the hunted.

In Waco, the young Baylor Bears have endured NCAA sanctions, including an unprecedented removal of their non-conference schedule a year ago following the major violations from the Dave Bliss era. Miraculously, Scott Drew and his staff have recruited a solid young nucleus with which to build the program.

McDonald's All-American Demond Carter joins a stable of very good young guards led by junior Aaron Bruce, who played most of last season injured. Sophomore Curtis Jerrells also showed at the end of the year that he can be a star in the Big 12. While an immediate jump to the top of the league is unlikely, Baylor basketball suddenly is in its best shape in years.

One team that might make that jump, though, is Texas A&M. Billy Gillispie's name was mentioned for various coaching opening after his Aggies lost a heartbreaker to LSU in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, closing out their best season in almost two decades. Wisely, the Texas A&M administration raised his salary, and wisely, Gillispie stayed, because no one is better suited to be the Aggies' coach.

Gillispie, a former Texas high school coach, truly is considered one of their own by the coaches in the state and it has translated into recruiting success in what has become one of the most fertile recruiting areas in the country. Almost every Aggie is home-grown and each of the six newcomers is as well. The key recruit, Brian Davis from Dallas suburb South Grand Prairie, played in Sonny Vaccaro's Roundball Classic and should complement Joseph Jones, the conference's best offensive post player.

Texas Tech went the opposite way -- frustrated with its inability to recruit high school players who could make an immediate impact next season, the Red Raiders have signed at least four junior college players. Charlie Burgess, a 6-1 point guard from New York City, should make an immediate impact. If he does, he'll team with 6-5 junior Martin Zeno and one of the country's underrated players, 6-1 senior Jarrius Jackson, to form one of the most potent perimeter attacks in the conference.

Regardless of what happens, Bob Knight is almost assured of becoming the NCAA's all-time winningest coach -- he sits 10 wins away from surpassing Dean Smith's total of 879.

While I shouldn't be in the prediction business and I probably will have to eat my words in March, I think the Big 12 is looking at eight teams in the postseason right now. The four teams in the NCAA Tournament look to be Kansas, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Texas. Kansas State and Oklahoma will be bubble teams. Baylor and Texas Tech should make the NIT.

As far as individual awards, here's how I see the preseason all-league teams shaping up:

First team: Jarrius Jackson, Texas Tech; Julian Wright, Kansas; Brandon Rush, Kansas; Kevin Durant, Texas; Cartier Martin, Kansas State; Joseph Jones, Texas A&M; Richard Roby, Colorado

Second team: Mario Chalmers, Kansas; Michael Neal, Oklahoma; Aaron Bruce, Baylor; Curtis Jerrells, Baylor; Acie Law IV, Texas A&M; Damion James, Texas; Daniel Gibson, Texas

Should be quite an interesting season

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/insider/columns/story?columnist=fraschilla_fran&id=2458928

[Matt Trump]

Thanks for posting that SMK!

[HebrewHammer]

thanks, not what i was hoping to read neccisarily, but a good article none the less.