Time to catch up around the Internet and see what everyone is talking about related to mid-major basketball.
We previously commented on how UCSB's Alan Williams is getting a lot of attention for this coming season. Not one, but two analysts have him at or near the top of the Big West talent this coming season. We like what he was able to do in limited time for the Gauchos, but he wasn't the only one getting attention this week.
Former Oregon player Malcolm Armstead is heading to Wichita State to help bolster a lineup that lost a lot of talent from last season. Still, the Shockers are expected to contend in the Missouri Valley, at least as far as getting themselves an at-large look for the NCAA Tournament.
That has Armstead on Jon Rothstein's list of 20 impact transfers for the coming year, the only mid-major player on the list.
But what else have we seen lately? A lot of tweets.
The first came to us from Penn Athletics. Apparently the area around the Palestra has undergone a little renovation. It previously looked like it was on an urban campus. Now it could fit in anywhere around the country.
Note to Philadelphia residents: that green stuff in front is grass.
If you haven't been to the Palestra in a while - you will be surprised to see this... twitter.com/PennBasketball...
— Penn Basketball (@PennBasketball) July 23, 2012
And the other tweet comes courtesy of Oakland coach Greg Kampe who apparently is still getting to know that the best options in Las Vegas for the food he wants aren't at the places he names
Just got off plane in Vegas to 103 degrees. Searching for a wienerschnitzel then a jack-in-the-box milkshake
— Greg Kampe (@KampeOU) July 25, 2012
On the scheduling side, the Northwest Indiana Times' Paul Oren looks at the schedule that Valparaiso has this season and why it is a good thing that the Crusaders don't have their best opponents at home.
Scheduling is one of those things that is very hard to predict from season to season, but we have to agree with Oren that it looks like Bryce Drew did the right thing, especially as it will pertain to getting RPI boosts, and credit from the committee at Tournament time.
And last, the very good CAAHoops blog goes back in time to show all the injury problems that James Madison has had under Frank Burns. The best season came the single year that Burns didn't have anyone important injured, and the Dukes went 20-12.
This tells me that if you are about to get on an elevator and you see Burns getting on the same one, you need to wait or take the stairs.