Mid-Major Minutes: June 4

Good morning! If you’re reading this, you’re clearly starting your day off right with an effort to better yourself by becoming more educated about the goings-on in the mid-major world.

In a landscape so dominated by the biggest schools and conferences, it’s quite hard to winnow down the information you want and need to hear about your favorite mid-major programs.

Thankfully, Mid-Major Madness is here to aggregate the news and links for you, providing you with a brand-new, daily post about the world of mid-major hoops.

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#Content to Read

Utah Valley’s Mark Pope and Utah State’s Tim Duryea talk transfers (The Salt Lake Tribune)

Kyle Goon of The Salt Lake Tribune (gotta love a good rhyme) spoke with both Utah-area head coaches about the “rising transfer tide” that’s gripping college basketball. In this piece, Pope discusses the benefits of recruiting transfers while Duryea “thinks that NCAA rules are far too easy to circumvent.” It’s really a fantastic article that you should take the time to check out today.

Aztecs are getting a grad transfer (NBC Sports’ College Basketball Talk)

Kameron Rooks, a graduate transfer who was formerly a Cal Golden Bear, has decided to head to San Diego State for a season. It sounds like the biggest issue moving forward will be his health, as Scott Phillips writes:

Rooks was injured during a good chunk of his time at Cal as he missed one season with an ACL injury, had surgery on his foot last summer, and then had surgery on the same knee again last season.

Seton Hall is getting a transfer too! (Big East Coast Bias)

McKnight, a former Sacred Heart Pioneer, is transferring to Seton Hall, where he’ll be eligible to play in 2018. Big East Coast Bias wrote an excellent profile of McKnight, a shooting guard who was one of the NEC’s best players last season, and what he brings to the Pirates.

Paul Krebs retiring at New Mexico (ESPN.com)

New Mexico’s Athletic Director, Krebs has been a staple of Lobos sports for quite some time now. However, he has suddenly decided to retire while under the watchful eye of investigators. As ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg details:

Last week, New Mexico attorney general Hector Balderas opened an investigation into the use of state money to send university officials and several boosters on the golf trip to Scotland.

Yikes.

Javon Pickett is headed to Mizzou (The Kansas City Star)

Originally a member of the Illinois basketball team, Pickett decided to leave the program after John Groce’s firing. Pickett was highly sought after by many mid-major teams during his original recruitment, as Tod Palmer notes:

Aside from Illinois, Pickett — an ESPN four-star prospect, who was ranked No. 10 in Illinois and No. 37 among all 2017 shooting guards — also had offers from Saint Louis, Western Kentucky and Illinois State among other mid-major programs.

Ultimately, he decided to join Cuonzo Martin at Mizzou, a team that is already looking rejuvenated under their new leader.

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Tweets of Interest

Kindness in the community

A certain OVC school is happy about its city’s NHL team

East Tennessee State is taking on the Cats...

...and so is Vermont.

We invited Jon to eat with us tonight in earnest...

...he declined.

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Recruiting Roundup

The Zags offered a Spokane-area recruit: (The Spokesman-Review)

We’ve got a battle brewing for this stunning player from Ann Arbor. (MLive.com)