ESPN Men's Basketball

The last time we checked in on the Border War -- Kansas and Missouri's century-old blood feud, currently cancelled by conference realignment -- it was just two weeks after Kansas's run to the national title game.

The setting: an elementary school in Lee's Summit, Mo., a suburb of Kansas City. The crime: A school administrator played the Kansas fight song on the day of the national title game. The principal may have thought this was a fun and lighthearted activity designed to lighten the mood at the start of another school day, but that principal thought wrong. Missouri fans -- some of which went so far as to accuse the principal of attempted KU "indoctrination" -- were not happy.

Unfortunately, the latest batch of Mizzou-KU-related hatred is not quite as entertaining as that. But give credit to Kansas City Star writer Rustin Dodd, who opens his story on the matter with a truly tremendous lede:

There’s an old saying in college sports: If one school refuses to play you, then you can be darn sure you don’t let that school have specialized license plates in your state.

Wait, what?

As Dodd explains, "word leaked out" last week that the University of Kansas Alumni Association was attempting to get KU-themed vanity license plates approved by Missouri lawmakers. The horror! Naturally, to prevent this egregious crime against humanity, two brave Missouri state senators took time out of their busy schedules to stand up for the rights of Missouri fans everywhere.

“With the long-standing rivalry between Mizzou and KU, I find it appalling that the creation of this license plate would be conceived in the Show-Me State,” Sen. Stouffer said.

Indeed. To be fair to the Missouri folks, Kansas's alumni association has a history of trolling other states for acceptance of the vanity plate. A few years back, it even tried to get one approved in North Carolina, before finding out the state required a presale of at least 1,300 plates before a new one could be approved. The alumni association's director of alumni programs, Danny Lewis, even admitted to the trolling:

“Our group in North Carolina wanted to annoy the Duke and North Carolina grads by getting KU license plates out there,” Lewis said, adding, “We approach everything state by state.”

KU has plates in Maryland and Texas, if that helps, and it does have a rather large alumni base in Missouri, of course ... but, well, yeah: I'm going to go ahead and assume there aren't many Missouri lawmakers who want to be labeled as backstabbing KU-loving traitors, simply because they approved a license-plate plan.

And so the Border War lives on. Unfortunately, these programs won't continue to settle things the good old-fashioned way: on the court. Instead, their fans will have to continue to find other outlets. Message boards, elementary schools, automotive flair -- really, the options are endless. Even if the series itself isn't.

Laurie Fine, the wife of former Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, announced Wednesday in Geneva, N.Y., her intention to file a lawsuit in federal court against ESPN and two of its employees, saying she was libeled during the network's reporting of child sex abuse allegations against her husband.

Most every college hoops fan already knows about Jabari Parker, the No. 1-ranked player in the class of 2013.

We are not strangers to his story: He is nearing the end of his junior year at Simeon High School in Chicago, Ill., the alma mater of Derrick Rose and plenty of other sought-after prep talents. He is 6-foot-9 (and possibly still growing) with nearly unlimited skills -- passing, ballhandling, mid-range shooting, interior strength -- and he comes across as more well-grounded and unselfish than your average highly ranked recruit. His father, Sonny, played for Texas A&M and the Golden State Warriors; his mother, Lola, was born a Mormon in her native country of Tonga. Parker shares his mother's faith; as Seth Davis wrote last summer, Mormonism is a bedrock of the recruit's worldview.

But college basketball fans are more familiar than most with players like Parker. Fans of his potential college choices -- which run the gamut from DePaul and Northwestern to Kansas and Kentucky -- have tracked his prep career and analyzed his every utterance for hints of his future choice.

Parker is about to gain a whole new audience. Why? Because this week, he graces the cover of Sports Illustrated, just the latest prep phenom in the post-LeBron James era to do so. But Parker's cover, as you can see here (hat tip: NBC) comes with a twist: A subhead that reads "The Best High School Basketball Player Since LeBron James Is ... Jabari Parker."

Now that's pressure. It is also arguable, given the talent that has come through the ranks -- Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, and on down the line -- since James became a national sports celebrity at St. Vincent's-St. Mary's back in 2002. Having seen Parker play a few times, it's safe to say he lacks the dominant aura James had then, and maintains to this day. When you watched LeBron, you knew you were watching a transcendant player. When you watch Parker, you are sure you're watching a very, very good one. But the visceral feeling stops there.

In any case, that comparison is a lot of pressure for a high school kid. How will Parker handle it? We'll see. But if the first three years of his burst onto the recruiting scene -- where he has been the second coming since he was 14, and maybe earlier -- are any indication, he will handle it with grace borne of belief that basketball is only one item on a long list of personal priorities.

Parker is about to make The Leap. If I had to take a guess, the kid will be just fine.

I'm not sure how much Duke can use newly committed recruit, power forward Amile Jefferson, in the 2012-13 season. It strikes me as difficult to assume a player with such a slight frame (Jefferson is listed at 6-foot-7, 190 pounds) who is a "jump shot away from being special" (according to ESPN recruiting scouting analysis) will play alongside Mason Plumlee, and Duke's coterie of perimeter scorers, or whether Duke needs more of the stretch-forward role they got from departing senior Ryan Kelly, the apparent antithesis of Jefferson's game.

But in the end, it doesn't matter: Duke desperately needed to add to its 2012 recruiting class. On Tuesday, after one of the most drawn-out recruitments in recent history -- it feels like we say that every year -- Jefferson spurned NC State, Kentucky, Ohio State and Villanova. The decision was surprising; many expected Jefferson to commit to NC State, and Jefferson's mother even carried an NC State hat in her purse, just to be safe. In the end, Duke landed the No. 25-ranked player in the class of 2012, because Jefferson considered it a "once in a lifetime opportunity."

Clearly, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's recruiting pitch got across.

The questions now are whether Jefferson can help right away, where fellow McDonald's All-American and shooting guard Rasheed Sulaimon fits in the backcourt, and so on. If Jefferson can excel as early as this season, all the better for the Blue Devils. If he can't, he provides the promise of well-developed talent as a sophomore, particularly after Mason Plumlee graduates. In either case, with a short bench, a lack of frontcourt depth, and the creeping suspicion that Coach K had (even briefly) lost the pace of the nation's best recruiters, Jefferson's commitment is as important for competitive reasons as it is symbolic ones. Where the pieces all fit remains to be seen.

It's probably fair to assume Coach K will figure it out. After all, there's a reason why his take-home got this big.

Six weeks after his team finished a somewhat-surprising season with a march to the NCAA title game, Kansas coach Bill Self ducked out of Lawrence last weekend for a vacation with a couple of buddies.

Destination: Cabo San Lucas.

“It wasn’t awful,” Self said of his trip. “I promise you that.”

It was tough for staff members not to be jealous of Self when he returned to work at Allen Fieldhouse Monday, tanned, refreshed and relaxed.

Self is glad he snuck the trip in when he could. The Jayhawks hosted a recruit on Monday and Tuesday, Self’s basketball camps are slated for next month, and most of July will be spent on the road recruiting.

Kansas has won eight straight Big 12 titles and averaged a national-best 33 wins over the past six seasons. As difficult as it’s been to reach that level of excellence, Self knows maintaining it will be even tougher.

“We’ve set the bar pretty high around here,” he said.

Self spent some time Tuesday answering questions from ESPN.com.

What sort of feedback have you received since your march to the NCAA title game?

Bill Self: From recruits, the [response] has been positive. We probably won’t know as much from them until the November signing period, because that’s when we’ll hopefully capitalize on our run to the finals. I think the fans are excited around here. Everyone is disappointed we lost to [Kentucky] but, on the flip side, I think this is a team that really got a lot further than everyone probably anticipated we would have. So with that, everyone thinks it was a great campaign.

You’ve won eight straight Big 12 titles and have been to four Elite Eights and two Final Fours since arriving at Kansas. How confident are you that next season’s team can continue that trend of high-level success?

BS: They told me the other day that we’ve averaged 33 wins over the last six years. So the past teams have set the bar pretty high. I never thought this past year’s team would get to 32 [wins], to be honest -- especially with the way we started. I don’t see how in the world, playing in the Big 12, that next year’s team can get to that level. But players do rise up to the challenge around here. We lost two great players in Thomas [Robinson] and Tyshawn [Taylor]. We’re going to have to have some guys step up and some newcomers step up and be good for us. But I do like our guys. I think we’ll have a chance to be a pretty good team.

Since you mentioned newcomers, Ben McLemore, who redshirted last season, has received a lot of hype of the last 12 months. Is he as good as advertised?

BS: From an athletic standpoint, he’s about as impressive of a kid as we’ve had. He’s got great feet. He could be a good defender. There aren’t too many guys that can score that want to be told they could be a great defender. But he could be. He could be a terrific defender. We think he’s going to be really good. We think Jamari Traylor is going to be really good, too. But these guys don’t know what they’re doing. Even though they’ve been here for a semester practicing with us, it’s still going to be all brand new to them. But they both have a chance to impact this program in a big way, and I would anticipate it being next year.

As good of a season as he had last year, what can center Jeff Withey do to enhance his game even more?

BS: To me, Jeff is a guy that has probably improved about as much during the course of a season as anyone I’ve been around. He goes from being a guy who couldn’t get in the game two years ago to just barely getting in last year to now, he (owns) the all-time record in the NCAA tournament for blocked shots, and there have been some pretty good players in the NCAA tournament. Offensively, he’s got to get stronger. He’s got to get to where he’s the No. 1 option inside, whereas last year he played off of Thomas. I think he’s capable. I just think he’s got to get stronger.

Any early thoughts on the Big 12?

BS: Our league is always going to be good. Adding TCU and West Virginia offsets the loss to Texas A&M and Missouri. It gets us an opportunity to play another game in the [Dallas-Fort Worth] metroplex, and of course we get a personality coming into in the league in Huggs (Bob Huggins). Our league, basketball-wise, will not take a step backward. We’ll take a step sideways because it’s different personnel. But not a step backward. I think we’ll have a great shot to be one of the top three or four leagues in the country, as we have been, for the most part, year in and year out.

Would you like to see the Big 12 add a few more teams, or do you like it at 10?

BS: To be honest with you, I thought nine was the perfect number. Because that way you’re playing 16 league games and, in football, everybody plays eight game. But I understand the reasoning why you’d want to go to 10 or 12. Without question, I understand the reasoning. It gives you more of an appearance of stability and more of a safety net as conference realignment continues to develop. Hopefully the brakes have been put on that, at least for the short term. But I anticipate us expanding. We’ve even heard rumors here recently about a school from the ACC (Florida State) potentially looking to come our way. I think you’ll have more and more of that talk. Because the Big 12, at least from an appearance standpoint, is on the best footing it’s been on in a long time.

The NBA draft is less than two months away. Everyone knows Thomas Robinson will likely be a top five pick, but what about Tyshawn Taylor?

BS: We’ve been in a situation like a lot of schools have, where NBA scouts get a chance to see your guys in practice and in multiple games. There’s no telling how many (NBA) teams watched our last eight or nine games. You come away impressed [with Taylor], but once you see him in person, and in an individual workout, you’ll be even more impressed. He’s a good workout-guy. He’s good technique-wise, he’s got great fundamentals, he’ll show that he can shoot it, because he can. He just didn’t shoot it well in the tournament, but he shot it well for us, for the most part, all season long. He’s definitely a first-round talent. Whether he’s able to get in there ... that remains to be seen because of what certain teams may be looking for. But I’ve had some good players, and he’s definitely a first-round talent.

1. The Colonial Athletic Association will meet June 1-2 in Hilton Head, S.C., and the site of the 2013 tournament is expected to be a hot topic. Drexel coach Bruiser Flint said he could see the tournament moving to Baltimore, out of Virginia Commonwealth's home base in Richmond. The problem is that a school like Towson would have to support the event. The CAA is going to have an odd year in 2013 now that VCU is gone to the Atlantic 10, Georgia State is ineligible to play in the tourney since it’s leaving for the Sun Belt and Towson and UNC-Wilmington aren’t eligible due to poor APR scores. That leaves eight schools available for the tourney. The elite of Drexel, Old Dominion and George Mason (as well as possibly Northeastern) should all be near the top of the league.

2. The A-10 will find out that a school like VCU has the size and strength to bump the league up a perceived level immediately. The Rams will be an instant competitor for the A-10 title in year one. Don’t be surprised to see VCU and Butler in the thick of the race for the championship in 2014, too. One of the big winners is the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The A-10 made the prudent move to Brooklyn instead of Atlantic City. Having a tournament with Xavier, VCU and Butler as the headline teams will be a draw. If Saint Joseph’s, UMass, Dayton and others in the area can be factors, the buzz for the event will only increase.

3. Murray State coach Steve Prohm is deciding about which tournament the coveted Racers will play in next season. He’s going back and forth on whether to be in the NIT Season Tip-Off pod at Kansas State (the other three hosts are Virginia, Pitt and Michigan) or become the eighth team at the Charleston (S.C.) Classic. The seven teams signed up for the Nov. 15-18 event are: Baylor, Boston College, Charleston, Colorado, Dayton, St. John’s and Southern Illinois. It’s a tough call for Prohm. He could gamble and go to Manhattan, Kan., to try to get to New York or go to Charleston, where he’s likely to get at least two games against possible NCAA teams.

ESPN's Andy Katz and Michele Steele discuss VCU's decision to move to the Atlantic 10 immediately.

Let's be honest: This was not the coaching carousel's finest year.

In the 2011 edition of this column, I wrote that "this year's version came and went with minimal fuss" because "no truly elite programs had openings." Poor 2011. If only we knew what we had then. (Speaking of not knowing what you have: I gave Missouri's hiring of Frank Haith an "F." Sigh. Hindsight's 20-20, I guess.)

I mean, consider the contrast: Last year, we had openings at Arkansas, Georgia Tech, Miami, Missouri, NC State, Oklahoma, Princeton, Providence, Tennessee, UNLV and Utah -- a host of programs with recent success or high expectations or long-standing tradition or some combination therein. By comparison, 2012's highest-profile coaching vacancies were Illinois, Kansas State and … Virginia Tech? Mississippi State? LSU? Now that's "minimal fuss."

So goes the beginning of my column on the 2012 coaching carousel, which lists and analyzes the various coaching moves -- big and small -- in what was a rather tame spring for coaching news. Read the entire column here.

The removal of slippery decals from basketball courts -- something we can all agree on -- isn't the only recommendation the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Rules Committees (MWBRC?) made to the Playing Rules Oversight Panel (PROP -- now there's a handy acronym) Monday.

There are a handful of interesting potential rules changes or applications in this release, including an update on the block-charge rule, a topic we'll discuss in more detail later in the week. Also among the potential changes? A crackdown, for lack of a better term, on sideline antics in response to calls made by officials during the games.

Under the topic heading "Sportsmanship," the NCAA said both committees "recommended more stringent adherence to officiating guidelines regarding bench decorum by coaches and bench personnel next season." Among the behaviors the basketball rules committee believes "hurt the image of the game" and should be penalized with technical fouls are obvious -- things like continued comments to or about referees regarding foul disparities or "cheating" a team, profane comments referring to "race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation," things like that. Those should probably be obvious technicals anyway. But the NCAA also included the following items:

• Prolonged, negative responses to a call/no-call that are disrespectful or unprofessional and include waving or thrashing the arms in disgust, dramatizing contact by re-enacting the play, or running or jumping “in disbelief” over a call/non-call.
• A negative response to a call/no-call that includes approaching/charging an official in a hostile, aggressive or otherwise threatening manner; emphatically removing one’s coat in response to a call/no-call; or throwing equipment or clothing on to the floor.
• Continual criticism during a game regarding the same incident after being warned by an official.

Those types of things are downright common in college basketball. Coaches have for many years been given relatively free license to throw temper tantrums on sidelines, and oftentimes their assistant aren't far behind. It's gotten to the point that if you watch a lot of college basketball (or the NBA game, for that matter), you're almost anesthetized to it. Coaches leave their boxes. They scream and flail and plead for calls. They make funny, faux-shocked expressions. It's so rampant it has long since stopped registering.

But such a push dovetails with what NCAA national officiating coordinator John Adams' wrote to his refs in a much-publicized January memo. Adams' was mostly concerned with instances of on-court taunting -- players hanging on the rim after dunks, staring each other down, and other similarly nefarious activities -- but he also included a point of emphasis for officials regarding the behavior of sideline personnel:

"Article 2 deals with the conduct of bench personnel," Adams wrote. "If a coach is out on the floor complaining about a call, it is not your job to walk him back. It is your job as an official to assess a technical foul for violating the provisions of 10-5-2, a,b,c, e or f. If a coach is gesturing and complaining across the floor at you to the point where he has ignored a warning to stop, DON'T go across the floor to have a 'baseball umpire confrontation' with him, just assess him a Technical foul."

If I had to rank the college game's on-court problems, I'd put coaches' behavior pretty low on the list. (Remember that block-charge tease? Exactly.) But it is a problem nonetheless. If the new emphasis is enforced properly, it will surely be a net positive, if only for the pace of the game. And, yes, it will be strangely satisfying to see coaches -- grown men and tantrum-throwers extraordinaire -- forced to close their mouths and put their arms at their sides and juts accept the call, disagree with it though they may.

At the very least, my hope is this: The NCAA's increased crackdown will trickle down, urging the nation's rec league referees to be less inclined to listen to failed high school basketball players pretending to be Rick Pitino for 40 minutes every Tuesday night. If my calculations are correct, this will spurn a 45 percent increase in my enjoyment of rec league basketball. Fingers crossed!

What if Tim Abromaitis got a (probably deserved) sixth year, too? Imagine how excited Mike Brey would be then.

As it stands, the Notre Dame coach is already quite stoked. On Friday, he learned that senior Scott Martin would be granted an additional year of eligibility by the NCAA, his sixth overall, thanks to a lost 2008 year transferring from Purdue and an ACL tear that cost him his 2010 season. On Monday, Martin and Brey got around to discussing the decision with the media, and as Martin cracked jokes about the bad economy ("So I figured why not stay in school for one more year?"), Brey wrapped his arms fully 'round his own very high expectations for the 2012-13 Fighting Irish. From the Chicago Tribune:

"I want this group to dream extremely big dreams, because they are very realistic," Brey said. "And dream them from Day One. We got a lot of work to do it. But I am excited about chasing big goals.

"We've talked about the Big East tournament, trying to win that. We've talked about playing deep in the NCAA tournament. This is a group that should be able to digest all that and do that. That's exciting for me, going forward. I like to have that: Boy, we can do it and we're expecting to do it."

Those are indeed big goals for this team, particularly without Abromaitis, but there are reasons to expect so much. Notre Dame's mid-season Big East run in 2012 proved this group of Irish, when cohesive and self-contained, can play with just about anyone in college hoops on any given night. It's an experienced group, but it's also one that keeps improving. Forward Jack Cooley proved to be one of the best offensive rebounders in the country in 2012 (and an underrated post scorer to boot), and he could compete for Big East player of the year honors in 2012. Sophomore guard Jerian Grant is an equally underrated perimeter presence who pulled off the rare feat of a high assist rate (29.5 percent) and a relatively low turnover rate (15.6 percent) in his 2012 season.

That duo alone would have kept this Irish team near the top of the Big East next season. Martin's return -- alongside good and/or emerging guards Eric Atkins and Pat Connaughton-- gives the Irish a deep, experienced, well-rounded team.

It's tempting to look at this Irish lineup, compare it to the talented heavies in the Big East and wonder if Brey isn't merely wishcasting. But the more you dig in, the more you appreciate Grant and Cooley's performances in 2012 ... well, no wonder Brey is so excited. He has every reason to be.

Editor’s note: Each week, ESPN.com writers will debate a topic of interest in the college basketball landscape. Today’s topic: Which teams made the best coaching hires?

Dana O'Neil: Illinois' John Groce

He wasn’t the first choice. He might not have been the fifth choice (I frankly lost count) and maybe he still isn’t the popular choice.

That’s fine. I still believe John Groce is the right and best choice for Illinois.

Here’s the thing, Illinois fans: I hate to be harsh but your perception of the job and the reality of it are not exactly in the same city limits. Right now, Illinois is not an easy gig, so it would be a calculable -- and probably foolish -- risk for a Shaka Smart or a Brad Stevens to take the leap. I get that you have to ask. In fact, you, like every other BCS school, might be contractually obligated to at least float the offer by college basketball’s two It men.

But when the inevitable rejection is returned, the idea is to go for the best guy available. For Illinois, that’s Groce, a man who has made more than a decent impression in his tenure at Ohio, upsetting Georgetown two seasons ago in the NCAA tournament and taking the Bobcats to the Sweet 16 this past season. One more made free throw against North Carolina and we might have finished up March talking about Groce as the "next Shaka Smart or Brad Stevens."

Groce is smart, talented and perhaps most critical for Illinois: He’s a very good talent evaluator. Note, I didn’t say recruiter. Yes, he helped Thad Matta lure Greg Oden, Mike Conley and Deshaun Thomas to Ohio State, and recruiting those guys was huge, but it didn’t exactly take James Naismith to figure out they are talented.

Groce also found D.J. Cooper. Overlooked for virtually everyone else coming out of high school, Cooper is now on everyone’s wish list, so much so, in fact, there were reports that some schools might have violated tampering rules in an attempt to lure him into a transfer.

That’s what Illinois needs right now, a coach who can make inroads with top recruits and maybe find one that prefers a program "on the rise" to one that’s arrived, but also a coach who can find a few unexpected, overlooked future stars.

Oh, and by the way, Cooper is from Chicago.

Jason King: Colorado State's Larry Eustachy

Just when it looked as if Colorado State was poised to name Ernie Kent as its basketball coach, the Rams reversed course last month and hired Larry Eustachy.

It was about time somebody hired him.

Eustachy shouldn’t have had to spend eight seasons at Southern Miss before getting a better job. The alcohol issues (and photos of him drinking and partying with students), which led to Eustachy’s resignation at Iowa State in May 2003, were serious, to be sure.

The situation may have ruined Eustachy’s chances of ever landing another job in one of the six major conferences.

To me, that seems a bit extreme. Coaches have been given second chances after committing far worse acts, and a lot of them aren’t nearly as accomplished as Eustachy, who is clearly a new man after making some well-documented changes in his life off the court. The more I read about Eustachy, the more confident I am that his problems are in the past and that he’s completely focused on his job and winning basketball games.

He certainly did that at Southern Miss, where the Golden Eagles won 20 or more games in each of the past three seasons. He led the school to the NCAA tournament in 2012, which no doubt helped him land the Colorado State gig after Tim Miles bolted for Nebraska.

Kudos to the Rams for giving him a shot.

It may seem like eons ago, but Eustachy won two Big 12 titles at Iowa State -- not an easy task with Kansas in the league -- and also earned conference crowns at Utah State and Idaho.

He’s familiar with the Midwest and Western parts of the country, which will be advantageous in recruiting. And he’s inheriting a healthy program, so Eustachy should be able to pick up where Miles left off.

There were a ton of good hires this offseason. Frank Martin to South Carolina, Pat Kelsey to Winthrop, Bruce Weber to Kansas State and Larry Brown to SMU (yes, I actually liked that one) to name a few.

But I like the Eustachy hire the most, mainly because I like to see deserving coaches -- especially good ones -- get a second chance.

We all make mistakes. Eustachy has obviously learned from his.

We can disagree on many things. You dislike "Girls." I think it's kind of incredible. You don't play video games. I am deciding whether to buy "Max Payne 3," "Diablo III," or both. You like Dwyane Wade. I think his game (pivot, head fake, draw foul, strut) is infuriating. Different strokes, different folks. It's all good.

With that said, there is at least one thing we will not -- cannot -- disagree on: sponsorship stickers on basketball courts.

Nobody likes those things. Every November and December, they clutter college basketball's neutral courts and exempt tournaments, advertising things like time-specific energy dosage and car parts. Which would be all well and good, I guess, were the decals relatively harmless. They aren't. The stickers are a different surface from the court -- they have a slick plastic-y feel, as opposed to the smooth traction of finished wood -- and each and every season we see a handful of players slip on them, threatening injuries both minor and serious. They are a scourge, these stickers, and they need to be destroyed.

Good news is the NCAA agrees. Last week, the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Rules Committees decided to recommend a rules change requiring all courts to be "of a consistent surface." From Monday's NCAA basketball rules committee release:

Members of both committees, which conducted their annual meeting May 6-8 in Indianapolis, agreed that “the playing court must be completely finished in a manner that is consistent throughout.”

This rules change does not restrict the use of decals, but it does make clear that those marks must be similar to the rest of the court. This includes the three-foot sideline and restricted area behind the baseline. [...]

Rules committee members cited times they’ve seen players slip on areas not consistent with the rest of the court. They are suggesting that any additional logos or decals have the same kind of traction as the rest of the floor.

“The safety of our student-athletes has to come before anything else,” said John Dunne, the chair of the men’s basketball rules committee and coach at St. Peter’s. “We’re seeing players slip on the non-consistent parts of the floor too many times.”

It should be noted that this is merely a recommendation. The NCAA rules committee merely floats rules changes to the Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which can reject or approve recommendations. The oversight panel will meet via conference call June 12, according to the release. Bureaucratic processes aside, though, it's hard to imagine the NCAA not eventually ratifying this idea. Is there anyone who could conceivably disagree? Anyone who wants to stand up for the rights of slippery, potentially dangerous sticker-makers the world over?

Didn't think so. We're all of us -- fans, players, coaches, the NCAA, everyone -- on the same page. That doesn't happen often, but I'm glad it's the case here. High-five, everyone!

1. Conference USA coaches and athletic directors met in Destin, Fla., Monday and, according to multiple sources, there is a strong movement to move the 2013 conference tournament from Memphis to Tulsa. Memphis is leaving for the Big East after next season and while it would make more economic sense to keep the event where it is, there isn't a lot of goodwill toward the Tigers to give them an added advantage in their final season in the conference. A decision on the tournament will be made next month.

2. Old Dominion is taking its time on deciding whether to upgrade football. The A-10 is apparently not an option anymore. If the Monarchs are deciding between the CAA and upgrading football to go into C-USA, then from a basketball standpoint, staying put makes more sense. If it’s a football decision then the Monarchs have to move. If it’s about hoops then ODU staying with George Mason and in a familiar basketball-first conference would be more beneficial to the continued success of this program.

3. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski made his intentions clear that he won’t coach the US National team beyond this summer. An NBA coach could be the next choice (and on Twitter a good suggestion came in the form of Doug Collins). If a college coach has another shot then Michigan State's Tom Izzo or Kansas' Bill Self, who have strong USA Basketball ties, could be in the pecking order. But it’s still unclear what direction the team/program will take after Coach K departs from the top job.

The offseason is rough, but at least we have two things:

1. The NBA Playoffs.

2. Olympic basketball.

I realize there are many college hoops fans who have no interest in the pro game, and while I don't understand you lot -- it's really good basketball, promise! -- such a stance does mean you likely take no solace in the mere presence of the NBA playoffs. But we can all get behind Olympic basketball, right? The collection of the world's best players, wearing the Stars and Stripes, vying for a gold medal -- it's a thrilling experience made all the more exciting by the continued global evolution of the game.

Though it may feel like it, it wasn't always this way. Just twelve years ago, USA Basketball appeared to be on something like a permanent decline. The 2004 Olympic team failed to capture gold at the Games, losing to Argentina 89-81 in the semifinals, and the recriminations were long and loud and thoroughly embarrassing to coach Larry Brown and his players (most notably Allen Iverson), who were seen as emblematic of the NBA's supposed me-first culture. The international game was on the rise -- less selfish, less brash, more fundamental -- and the United States, dominant basketball superpower, was on the way out.

That didn't happen, and we have two men to thank.

One is USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo, who revamped the men's national team with the establishment of a player pool designed to give the organization more structure and continuity. Colangelo's general vision has been the driving force behind the idea of USA Basketball as a program, not as an isolated, once-in-four-years affair.

The other is the man Colangelo hired to oversee the team, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who today announced this summer's 2012 Olympics would most likely be his last on the job. Under Coach K, USA Basketball became something less like a lark -- hey, sure, let's go win gold and travel, should be fun -- and something more like a consistent, dedicated annual effort. In 2008, Coach K selected an amazing team built on the league's best talent, with players who were not only better than their competition but adjusted their styles to the international game (a frequent criticism of past teams) and played selfless, ego-free basketball. Coach K got Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul and Dwight Howard and you-name-it to play together. (Watch footage of Bryant's defense in that tournament. It was breathtaking.) When Spain's talented team tested the Americans in the 2008 gold medal game, they were ready. The 2004 team would have been run off the floor.

Then, in 2010, Coach K won again, this time in the FIBA World Championships with a group of players effectively dubbed the "B Team" -- young, emerging stars like Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Andre Igoudala, Kevin Durant and Kevin Love. (The list goes on: Eric Gordon, Stephen Curry, Rudy Gay, Danny Granger ...). Nearly every player on that team came back from the 2010 FIBAs and went on to be a star on the league, Durant and Rose most notably. And is it a coincidence that Lamar Odom was sixth man of the year in 2011, or that Tyson Chandler anchored the Dallas Mavericks to an NBA title?

We can argue the developmental benefits of USA Basketball under Coach K. What we can't argue is the massive evolution the team has undergone since that nightmare in 2004. A fractured, bloodied entity is long since behind us: The 2012 men's Olympic team will come in as the obvious favorite, and none of the questions of the past -- Can the personalities work together? Can the U.S. play the international style? -- will linger over the proceedings. Coach K is an old-fashioned patriotic type. Whether you agree with his politics or not, his ability to imbue his star-studded, millionaire-loaded national teams with that spirit -- country first, team second, individual last -- has to be considered among the finest accomplishments of his career.

It would be too much to say Colangelo and Coach K "saved" USA Basketball. The players are far too good for that. Even as the game globalizes, the rest of the world still has a long way to go to catch up. And the personalities of the 2008 stars, specifically Bryant, went a long way toward ensuring a level of focus and dedication not seen in 2004.

Still, eight years ago, USA Basketball was in crisis. Today, it's as strong as it's ever been. It isn't always hard to coach the best players in the world, but it isn't always easy, either. And Coach K was the perfect man for the job.

Yes, it's that time of year again -- the time we all join together around the fireplace (or MacBook Air, or whatever) and learn what the upcoming year's edition of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge will see fit to bring us.

It's like Christmas in May! OK, it's not really like Christmas. It's considerably less awesome than Christmas. Honestly, it's considerably less awesome than the ACC/Big Ten Challenge itself, because at least that features actual basketball, rather than the mere promise of it. But it is May. Right now, this is the best we can do. (Besides, it beats talking about conference realignment.)

Anyway, as usual, the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge will bring us quite a lot. Below you can find the matchups, as released by the conferences at 2 p.m. ET Monday:

Tuesday, Nov. 27

Minnesota @ Florida State
North Carolina @ Indiana
NC State @ Michigan
Maryland @ Northwestern
Iowa @ Virginia Tech
Nebraska @ Wake Forest

Wednesday, Nov. 28

Purdue @ Clemson
Ohio State @ Duke
Georgia Tech @ Illinois
Michigan State @ Miami, FL
Boston College @ Penn State
Virginia @ Wisconsin

The first day of competition, Nov. 27, is practically guaranteed to be the best. Why? Because it offers North Carolina at Indiana and NC State at Michigan, the former of which is the first time the two bluebloods have met since Sean May, Rashad McCants and Raymond Felton rolled into Bloomington in 2005, just one stop on the way to an eventual national championship. The 2012 edition will offer a decidedly different flavor. Indiana is the program expected to compete for a national title, while UNC -- though still very talented, with a deep coterie of guards and a marquee big man in sophomore James Michael McAdoo -- will be in some ways rebuilding from the losses of Tyler Zeller, John Henson, Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall, all of whom left bound for the NBA.

The latter matchup, NC State at Michigan, will give us a great early glimpse of two teams with designs on conference titles -- and a great look at how the relatively young Wolfpack, featuring veterans C.J. Leslie and Lorenzo Brown but also top-ranked recruits Rodney Purvis, T.J. Warren and Tyler Lewis, will adapt to the challenges of winning big games on the road.

There are other attractions too, of course, including Ohio State's trip to Duke on Nov. 28. Iowa at Virginia Tech probably intrigues me more than it should. Minnesota at Florida State will be fascinating; sixth-year senior Trevor Mbakwe vs. that interior defense? Yes please.

You get the idea. The real question here: Can the Big Ten continue its streak of Challenge victories? After starting 0-10 -- an entire decade of failure -- the Big Ten has now won the past three matchups against the ACC. The first two were 6-5 squeakers, but, in a sign of how much better the Big Ten was than the ACC in 2012 (which even the staunchest, most provincial ACC fan would not deny), the Big Ten handled the competition with ease, winning by a final score of 8-4.

In a vacuum, you'd expect the Big Ten -- which most project to be the best league in the country next season -- to prevail with similar comfort in 2012. (A win would put the overall tally at 4-10. The Big Ten has a lot of ground to make up.) But strange things happen in two days in November. We'll just have to wait -- and wait and wait and wait -- and see.

Which brings us to the most depressing part of this little annual May tradition: realizing that these games are something like 220 days away. As is tradition, I ask that anyone with proprietary time-travel technology please contact the blog with any ideas you may have for erasing the huge gap between now and the start of the new basketball season. Failing that, I might have to freeze myself like Eric Cartman waiting for a Nintendo Wii. What could possibly go wrong?