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 Tuesday, November 28
Sendek's sensational offseason continues
 
 By Andy Katz
ESPN.com

How about Herb Sendek for comeback coach of the year?

And he hasn't even coached a game yet.

Sendek first got a new contract from a new athletics director Lee Fowler in the offseason after it looked like he could be under some scrutiny for failing to get to the NCAA Tournament in four seasons.

Then, Sendek went out and completed one of the top 10 recruiting classes a few days into the week-long early signing period that began Wednesday.

The Wolfpack signed potential superstar shooting guard Julius Hodge out of St. Raymond's in the Bronx. The rest of the class could start with Hodge in center Jordan Collins (DeMatha High/Hyattsville, Md.), small forward Levi Watkins (Montrose Christian High/Rockville, Md.), point Dovonte Edwards (Chapel Hill High/N.C.) and power forward Josh Powell (Riverdale High, Ga.).

"The recruiting reflects momentum and progress in our program," Sendek said.

Sendek, ever the presidential one in his reserved comments, has connected well with recruits over the past few seasons. He signed high-profile players like Damien Wilkins, Adam Harrington (who transferred to Auburn), Marshall Williams (who left the program), Anthony Grundy and McDonald's All-American Scooter Sherrill.

"What we're trying to do is find interchangeable players, players who are versatile," Sendek said.

The secret to Sendek is that he is personable, even though he doesn't always come across that way to the public. He's in a tough spot on Tobacco Road under the shadow of Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and the specter of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The Wolfpack seem to be always reminded of the 1983 title game and the late and loved Jimmy Valvano.

But Sendek has been able to use the Wolfpacks' history to his advantage in luring some of the top regional talents. Having to recruit to a new 19,000 pro arena has helped, as well. This was the first recruiting class that Sendek could take to the arena, rather than show them a hole in the ground or a diagram.

The hoopla over this recruiting class isn't expected to overshadow the Wolfpack in the same way Seton Hall's top 10 recruiting class dominated the talk about the program last November. The Pirates shook off the talk about this year by running to the Sweet 16 in March. N.C. State has the same potential with Cliff Crawford the likely starter at the point, Grundy at shooting guard, Wilkens, Sherrill and a trio of Ron Kelley and Kenny Inge as well as Damon Thornton, assuming he is released to play with the team again after being suspended for running afoul with the law.

"Our present players are concentrating on the season at hand and I don't think they'll get caught up in next year," Sendek said. "This recruiting class won't take center stage."

Not yet. That honor goes to Sendek for now.

Recruiting fallout
Most coaches, speaking on condition of anonymity, are split on what they would do if they had a similar situation to Dan Monson at Minnesota. Monson is in a must-get situation with Duluth (Minn.) forward Rick Rickert. His parents want him to go to Minnesota, but Rickert committed to Arizona. They didn't sign the national letter of intent Wednesday and still hadn't as of Friday. The early-signing period ends next Wednesday.

Monson, who can't comment specifically on Rickert, said he doesn't have a pattern of recruiting players who have already committed. But, in Monson's defense, this case is unique.

The family is split and the family is almost willing the Gophers' staff to continue the recruitment. Minnesota hasn't, at least to ESPN.com's knowledge, done anything against the rules other than continue with their weekly phone call. Schools had unlimited calling Monday through Wednesday. Minnesota was on the phone with Rickert until 5 a.m. one of the nights.

Arizona is understandably frustrated, but the Wildcats shouldn't fret yet. If Rickert does want to attend and his parents don't sign the letter than he can still go to Arizona and receive a scholarship. They just may have to sweat out the whole season and late signing period. Plenty of players still attend a school if they don't sign a letter, like UCLA's Jason Kapono, who did that two years ago.

"If the kid and his parents are on the same page then I don't think you should keep recruiting him," said one assistant. "But if there's a split and the parents want you to recruit him then you might have to. It's a tough call."

Rickert hasn't made any overtures that he's going to wait until the spring just yet.

Meanwhile, Louisville escaped a scare when Houston-area point Carlos Hurt (who moved to Louisville over the summer) pulled back his decision to put off his commitment until the spring and signed with the Cardinals.

Minnesota didn't harass local Minneapolis shooting guard Alan Anderson when he committed and then signed with Michigan State.

Barnes gets burned
While Minnesota is still recruiting Rickert, Mississippi never had the chance to keep Keith Langford. Langford, a guard from Crowley, Texas, committed to Mississippi in June, but the commitment was regarded as soft all summer.

What does that mean? That Langford was fair game to everyone else in the country with the Rebels the easy target to beat. Langford ended up signing with Kansas.

"It?s a tough business," Mississippi coach Rod Barnes said. "If you get a commitment, you end up being a sitting duck. Teams can say anything. You're the only team to beat."

Barnes said when he got the commitment from Langford he stopped recruiting shooting guards. Now he'll have to get one in the spring.

"I made a commitment to him and he made one to me," Barnes said. "I called and wished him well. I don't have any hard feelings but it did leave us in a bad situation. For my sake, I wish we would have known earlier."

Barnes said the toughest thing is the time spent recruiting a player that is wasted when the commitment doesn't stick.

"It's unfortunate," Barnes said. "We?ll just go after it in the spring."

Buzz Peterson
Buzz Peterson could face off with his alma mater if Tulsa and UNC meet in the NABC Classic final Saturday night
Buzz to Chapel Hill
Lost amid the Coaches vs. Cancer opener is the NABC Classic in Chapel Hill, N.C. and the return of Buzz Peterson to Carolina.

Ironically, Peterson was supposed to host his alma mater when the Tar Heels open up Appalachian State's new arena Nov. 17. Instead, Peterson will coach Tulsa against Arizona State Friday in the opener, hoping to play North Carolina Saturday night if the Tar Heels beat Winthrop.

If the matchup occurs, Peterson doesn't have to worry about motivation. Tulsa lost to North Carolina in the Elite Eight in the South last March.

"It's not going to be hard to motivate them because they know how close they were,'" Peterson said. "But we better get past Arizona State first."

Peterson said he still had to buy a ton of tickets for the Appalachian State-North Carolina game for family and friends in the Boone, N.C., area.

The Golden Hurricane could be as quick as last year, albeit not as experienced at small forward and center. Peterson said he'll still stay small with Greg Harrington, Dante Swanson and Marcus Hill on the perimeter with David Shelton and Kevin Johnson, a former home schooled player, inside. Shelton led the Hurricane in scoring off the bench last season.

The depth will largely consist of Charlie Davis, LSU transfer Marcus Ledoux, freshman Jack Ingram and suspended center DeAngelo McDaniel, who was expected to come off the disciplinary list for this weekend's games.

Peterson wasn't thrilled about playing a game 19 practices into the season, especially with a new team. Arizona State's Rob Evans is entering his third season and he's not thrilled, either. He said the Sun Devils were scheduled into the game before he got there from Mississippi.

"I'm not in favor of it," Evans said. "I'm looking at our kids and wondering if we're ready for this. Then I realized we really shouldn't be, because we've only practiced for a few weeks."

North Carolina, which will likely start freshman Adam Boone at the point, although Joseph Forte will log some time bringing up the ball, will have a trapezoid free-throw lane at the Dean Smith Center. The NCAA is experimenting with the wider lane in exempted tournaments.

"Why are we tampering with the game?" Evans said. "The rules have always been on the book, all they have to do is enforce them."

The trapezoid lane wasn't met with enthusiasm at the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament Thursday night. The Preseason NIT will use the wider lane, too.

"I don't like it," Villanova coach Steve Lappas said. "In fact, I hate it. We keep messing around with the game. We finally got a real good center in the low post (Kentucky transfer Michael Bradley) and we've got put him four feet further from the basket."

Lappas had his staff put lines on the court during practice to get the players used to the lane. But he's worried that officials will call more three-second calls.

Billy Tubbs
Billy Tubbs likes the way his TCU team is shaping up this season.
Tubbs talking like a sleeper
The buzz around Texas isn't limited to George W. Bush. Word in the state is Billy Tubbs is back. After two straight subpar seasons at Texas Christian, Tubbs could be the sleeper team to emerge out of the Western Athletic Conference.

"We're quicker and deeper and more athletic than we've ever been," said a confident Tubbs.

The reason for Tubbs' optimism rests with his newcomers. Greedy Daniels, the once wild point at UNLV, has settled down since arriving in Fort Worth.

"Everyone will be shocked at that boy," Tubbs said. "He's quick and making plays like we've never had at TCU. He can be really good, and at times bad, but he sees the floor real well and can create."

But here's the shocker, Tubbs is playing Daniels at shooting guard. The defensive stopper is no longer a lock to be a playmaker. Tubbs wants Daniels' activity, but he doesn't necessarily need him handling the ball.

Thomas McTyer will instead start at the point with Ryan Carroll returning on the wing. Tubbs is going with 6-9 junior college transfer Marlon Dumont at one forward and 6-10 Derrick Davenport in the middle. Davenport is more of a defensive pest but Dumont is the offensive force at power forward that the Horned Frogs missed when Lee Nailon left.

TCU's strength is its depth with Tubbs' ability to bring Myron Anthony, Bingo Merriex and Larry Allaway as the first three off the bench on the wings. Estell Laster and Nucleus Smith will rotate in, as well.

"Dumon's a helluva dunker," Tubbs said. "We'll keep juggling this lineup."

Tubbs actually has the luxury of redshirting two players -- James Davis and Corey Valsin. Does that mean he's returning to TCU when the Horned Frogs enter Conference USA?

"Buzz Peterson has five years at Tulsa and a big buyout, so I'll coach five to 10 more," quipped Tubbs about Peterson's connection to TCU athletics director Eric Hyman. "I got golfed out this summer and now it's too cold to golf so you've got to coach. I plan on being here. I brought in four kids and we're signing possibly four freshmen."

But first things first. Tubbs has some payback games this season, notably Princeton (he lasted four minutes against the Tigers last season), Butler, Tulsa and Fresno State in the WAC.

Weekly Chatter
  • St. John's expects to get freshman center Mohamed Diakite for the Dec. 2-3 BB&T Classic in Washington D.C. Diakite is still awaiting word from the NCAA but the coaching staff said he has a qualifying test score. Meanwhile, Diakite had two pins inserted in his left hand after breaking it Nov. 1. The Red Storm are confident that he'll be healthy and enough, as well as eligible, by the first weekend.

  • Any coincidence that UCLA's Jason Kapono was the only player Thursday night at the Coaches vs. Cancer wearing NBA socks? He was the only player among the four teams who declared for the draft and then returned to college.

  • SMU finally got some good news when center Mike Niemi returned to practice after missing the first 20 with a back injury. But center Jon Forinash is still out for another six weeks with a foot injury.

    "But we can finally go five-on-five in practice," SMU coach Mike Dement said.

  • In case you noticed, the reason this reporter went with an Arizona-Michigan State championship game, instead of Duke-Arizona, is this: the brackets match up the East and the West in the semifinals.

    If Duke and Arizona hold serve and are the two best teams in the nation in the East and West then the selection committee will have a hard time deciding where to put Duke. One of the sub regionals in the East is in Greensboro, N.C., making the Blue Devils a natural for that site.

    But why can't the Blue Devils go to the South to say Memphis and then end up in Atlanta for the South regional final? The problem could come in if Tennessee is a clear No. 1 in the South. Then the committee might feel the need to place the Volunteers in Memphis, although Greensboro, might be just as close, even if it's in another state.

    In any event, the committee will have an interesting dilemma to avoid a potential national final in the semifinals.

  • One of the more bizarre non-conference games will occur in the fall of 2001 when Florida plays at New Hampshire and its 7,200-seat Whittemore Center. The deal is a two-for-one contract, with the Wildcats playing the second straight game in Gainesville, Fla., this season. Florida coach Billy Donovan set up the game for New Hampshire native sophomore forward Matt Bonner.

    Bonner scored a career-high 35 points in Monday's exhibition victory for the Gators. The game marked the return to the bench of Donovan, who had been by his wife Christine's side for a week after she suffered a tragic miscarriage in the fullterm of her pregnancy.

  • Temple agreed to a nasty schedule next week of potentially playing Monday-Wednesday-Friday, but the Owls aren't happy about a schedule snafu later in the month.

    The Owls open the Preseason NIT by hosting Delaware Monday. They've conditionally been told that they will host a potential second-round game against either New Mexico or George Mason Wednesday. The Owls then open up Memphis' season and John Calipari's new gig next Friday at the Pyramid. By Tuesday, if the Owls win two games in the NIT, they would be in New York for a Wednesday-Friday format Thanksgiving week.

    Temple coach John Chaney agreed to open up for Calipari on ESPN. But the staff isn't thrilled with the administration pitting the Owls at Miami (Ohio) on Nov. 30. Why? They'll return Friday, Dec. 1, for a practice in advance on hosting Duke Saturday afternoon.

  • Georgetown's inside game took a hit when Lee Scruggs was ruled ineligible for the first semester. The word in the Big East was that Scruggs was the best player in the Big East at the end of last season. Having Scruggs in the Hoyas' lineup gave them one of the most formidable frontlines in the nation next to Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje and newcomer Wesley Wilson. The 6-11 Scruggs averaged 20 points a game in the Big East tournament last March after getting eligible at midyear.

    Georgetown coach Craig Esherick said Scruggs lost focus last spring during his contemplation of the NBA draft. The earliest Scruggs can get back is Dec. 22 Maryland-Eastern Shore. The key games Scruggs will miss are at Louisville Dec. 5 and a potential championship matchup against TCU in the finals of the Honolulu Shootout Nov. 26.

  • Louisville is hoping to hear by Nov. 15 if Muhamed Lasege is eligible to go with the Cardinals to Hawaii to first play the Warriors on Nov. 17, and then to the Maui Invitational the following week. The 6-11 Lasege has practiced with the team throughout the fall while he waits for word on whether or not he is deemed a professional because he was given aid to go from Nigeria to Russia to Canada two years ago.

  • Butler's chances of winning the Midwestern Collegiate Conference could be curtailed with the latest injury to 6-11 senior center Scott Robisch. Robisch had his right patella tendon repaired and is out indefinitely. Robisch was able to stretch the defense out with his ability to hit the 3-pointer.

    In his absence, Butler will go with a three-guard look with 5-9 Thomas Jackson, 6-foot Brandon Miller and 6-2 LaVall Jordan. That leaves 6-6 Rylan Hainje, an undersized power player on the boards, and 6-10 Joel Cornette inside. Butler will miss Robisch's shooting and size at Evansville on Dec. 2 and desperately needs him to beat TCU on Dec. 23.

  • Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe brought in officials in practice to call everything on Josh Moore to get him used to being physical inside. The 7-foot Moore needs to learn how to use his wide base before the Wolverines get into a physical, and foul-heavy Big Ten.

  • The California Junior College Association was rocked last week when Fresno City, College of Sequoias and Porterville College were all disqualified from postseason play for subsidizing players. Fresno City went a step further and fired coach Denny Aye. The cleanup is one of the most aggressive jobs done by a junior college conference.

  • WAC commissioner Karl Benson said the league is preparing legislation to send to the NCAA management council that would grant Hawaii a special exemption in any talk about exempted tournaments. Benson said Hawaii needs a Division I host school exemption because its non-conference schedule relies on tournaments. Hawaii has only three single non-conference games -- Louisville, Texas-Pan American and at UCLA. The proposal would give teams that play at Hawaii an extra game on their schedule.

  • Virginia might end up being the fourth host for next season's 16-team Legends tournament. Iowa, Missouri and Memphis are the other three host sites. Each school will host a seeded four-team tournament with the four winners moving onto a final four in Kansas City at the NABC headquarters.

    Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com. His Weekly Word on college basketball is updated Thursdays/Fridays throughout the year.
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