Quick hitters for Friday:
• South Florida is constantly swimming upstream in the Big East. The Bulls need all the help they can get to stay competitive in the best conference in America. That's why Stan Heath desperately needed to get freshman forward Gus Gilchrist eligible.
Gilchrist won his appeal to play in mid-December (Dec. 14, to be exact, against Niagara) after transferring from Maryland. Gilchrist's story is all over the map. He signed to play at Virginia Tech but after the tragic shootings on campus in 2007, Gilchrist got out of his national letter of intent and went to Maryland. The problem is that the ACC has a rule that states a player not only has to sit out a year but also lose a year of eligibility.
"If he hadn't had to lose a year of eligibility he'd still be at Maryland," South Florida coach Stan Heath said of the 6-foot-10 forward. Heath said Gilchrist tried to appeal the ACC rule while he was sitting out with the Terps last winter/spring. He had valuable practice time going against then-senior Maryland forward James Gist. Gilchrist lost his last appeal in March. But had he stayed at Maryland he would have had only two-and-half seasons to play. By transferring, and now winning an appeal, he'll have three-and-a-half to play. He sat out three total semesters before he'll actually be playing.
South Florida was devoid of frontcourt power, and Gilchrist will help immensely come Big East play. The Bulls have a stud guard in sophomore Dominique Jones. Now Gilchrist, along with Georgia transfer Mike Mercer, who will be eligible Dec. 14, too, will provide the Bulls with a productive shot, six games before the Big East opener.
"We wouldn't have been very good without him," Heath said. "He will help us with his size, skills, and he's exactly what we need."
But Heath has to remind his staff not to get too excited, considering Gilchrist hasn't played a Division I game yet.
• Normally, a season opener between Howard (3-13 MEAC, 6-26) and Oregon State (0-18 Pac-10, 6-25) in Washington, D.C., wouldn't mean much at all.
But that was before Illinois senator Barack Obama won Tuesday's presidential election. There is no indication -- yet -- that Obama will show up to see his brother-in-law, OSU coach Craig Robinson, coach his first game with the Beavers. Obama is in Chicago working on the transition to the presidency. Still, Howard coach Gil Jackson is preparing his players as if this could be a major event.
Jackson said he's under the impression Howard has never hosted a major conference team at home. Howard is having a pep rally Saturday night to get the fans jazzed about the season. Jackson said he anticipates interest for this game like he's never seen before, with fans from Princeton (where Robinson played), Oregon State alumni in the D.C. area, and perhaps fans who are hoping to see if the Presidential-elect shows pushing the capacity of the 2,700-seat Burr Gymnasium.
Jackson -- who said he knows Vice President-elect Joe Biden since Jackson is from Wilmington, Del., where Biden has lived since he became a U.S. senator in the 1970s -- said the Bison are making this game a big deal. The series is actually a two-for-one, with two of the games in the same season, as Howard will go to Oregon State on Dec. 20.
Oregon State was predicted to finish last in the Pac-10. Jackson firmly believes the Bison could challenge Morgan State in the MEAC.
• Oregon State might find in the nonconference that teams are more amped up to play the Beavers because of Robinson and Obama, a strange target for a winless Pac-10 team. I don't think any Pac-10 teams will have added impetus to beat the Beavs since they have done so handily over the years.
• How about this slap to first-year Providence coach Keno Davis? PC interviewed Robinson but didn't make an effort to hire him before Oregon State took him out of Brown. Instead, they looked to Drake, where Davis was the national coach of the year. At the time, it was understandable. Now, with the overwhelming exposure Robinson has received, it's amazing to see how much more attention Oregon State has had compared to Providence. Well, the Providence Journal is running a poll with the question "Did Providence College make a mistake by not hiring Craig Robinson?" The results as of Friday were: 71 votes for yes; 41 votes for no.
• Texas and Connecticut signed up for a home-and-home series starting in 2009-10. The first game will be in Storrs or Hartford, the next year it will be in Austin, and then the series will take two years off before resuming in 2013 in Austin and finishing up in Storrs or Hartford in 2014.
• Texas and Gonzaga will scrimmage in Denver on Saturday, and the latest rumbling around the NCAA is that a tweak could be coming with the scrimmage rule, to ensure that players can't miss any school if they're going to travel for a scrimmage.
• From ESPN.com's Dana O'Neil: Losing Shane Clark for three to six weeks shouldn't hurt Villanova too dramatically.
The Wildcats return every player from last year's Sweet 16 team and have more than enough bodies to compensate for the absence of the senior, who underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove loose particles from his right knee this week. Expect sophomores Antonio Pena and Corey Stokes to slide in and cover the minutes usually taken by Clark.
Plus, if all goes according to plan, Clark, who averaged 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds last season, should be back in mid-December, long before Villanova gets into the meat of its season.
• The WAC has had talks with the Missouri Valley Conference about a challenge prior to the Mountain West stepping in and setting one up with the Valley. So now the WAC is looking toward the WCC to do some sort of scheduling series in 2009-10 and beyond. One proposal would have the top four teams in each conference playing each other. Gonzaga would have to go along with the idea, but the Zags should do it. Gonzaga has plenty of high-profile games/series every season but also plays regional games, so there is no reason why the Bulldogs couldn't have a game with Nevada in a given year. The WAC already plays plenty of WCC teams, but a formal agreement would help both leagues.
• I was in Chicago earlier in the week and met Robert Morris coaches Al Bruehl and Aubrey Volius, who are trying to get former Indiana center DeAndre Thomas into shape. Thomas transferred out of Bloomington to the NAIA school in Chicago. Thomas has struggled with his weight, checking in at over 300 pounds, but the Morris coaches are hopeful he can be a major contributor for them this season. Morris has had plenty of success at its level, with NAIA Final Four appearances in 2005, '06, '07, and an Elite Eight appearance in '08.
• I saw Tim Grover's new Attack Athletics gym, and it is quite impressive. Grover is well-known for being Michael Jordan's trainer, but he has mushroomed into a cottage training industry as the most recognizable name in the field. Robert Morris uses the gym for practice.
Grover used to have a gym that was home to a number of NBA workouts before the NBA draft camp moved from Chicago to Orlando. Over the summer, at various points, 40 different NBA players trained at this new facility. The $17 million facility has four regulation NBA courts and a 10,000-square-foot weight room.
Walking through the NBA-style locker room, it is remarkable to see the names on the lockers of regulars who come through: "MJordan, KBryant," whenever they are in town.
The lounge is akin to an NBA facility with all the amenities: a pool table, a massive-screen TV, dining area and meeting space with computers for Internet access. The training room is top-shelf with a cold pool, hot tub and training pool adjacent to the private shower/bathroom area. The services Grover provides are first-rate. If LeBron James is in town with the Cavaliers to play the Bulls, he can call ahead to Grover to get a massage, a haircut, go to one of the three private nap rooms for a siesta or even get a manicure or a pedicure. Grover has people on call for each service. An NBA star doesn't have to deal with any interruptions or disruptions from fans.
Grover is hoping the facility can be the training center for the 2016 Summer Olympics if Chicago lands the bid.
Andy Katz
