-Xavier has lost its two best players this off-season. Mark Lyons has transferred to Arizona where he will play for his former head coach Sean Miller. Due to the fact that he earned his undergraduate degree, he will be eligible to play right away. Desmond Wells will also be leaving school after Xavier decided to expel him earlier this month. It is not a legal issue since a grand jury did not indict him. In fact the Hamilton County District Attorney took some time to blast Xavier in the local media for mishandling the case and expelling someone who he believed was clearly innocent. With that kind of endorsement, Wells should have no trouble finding a new place to play. For those of you scoring at home, Xavier has been nationally embarrassing itself about every other month since the big brawl back in December of this past season in their regular season game against Cincinnati.
-Rick Majerus will not be on the sidelines for Saint Louis this season. He is taking a medical leave of absence and will be replaced by Jim Crews, who was the head coach at Army before becoming an assistant at SLU. The Billikens are returning the bulk of their roster from last year, and expected to be a solid NCAA Tournament team again this year. They still could be, but not having Majerus could play a role. The teams Crews coached at Army were…well…lets just say they weren’t NCAA Tournament caliber teams.
-Most schools are in the process of finalizing their schedules. Many have just one or two more games to schedule, and others are still finalizing the dates. Michigan State and Connecticut will face each other to begin their seasons….in Germany. I wonder if they get double the RPI points for that. As we all know, UConn will not be eligible for the NCAA Tournament this year due to a retroactive punishment handed down by the NCAA regarding the team’s APR. This raises the question about this game in Germany. After it is played and the teams return to the United States, will the NCAA determine that the schools gave the players improper benefits when they aided them in obtaining their passports?? The press will then write about how UConn should have considered that before going on the trip.