Non-Big XII Thread

[Chicat]

There’s a story coming out that George Mason got scammed out of $180K and a trip to the Bahamas.

When the team got to the airport their plane tickets were fake. They then realized they also didn’t have hotel accommodations and the games they were supposed to play hadn’t been set up.

They used a legit company that sets these things up so it was either a rogue employee or the whole company decided to Break Bad.

[mofo]

Were they going to the Fyre Festival?

[CatsbyAZ]

As someone who follows Kentucky basketball nearly as closely as Arizona, the (other) Wildcats are predicted to finish 6th in the SEC going into the season - from a CBS Sports preview:

"Not a single scholarship player is back from Calipari's final team, and scoring wing Jaxson Robinson is the only player coming with Pope from BYU. Thus, nearly everyone is both new to the school and new to each other. What the roster lacks in high-end sizzle it makes up for with depth and diversity. The Wildcats are a deep group of veterans with well-refined skill sets. Robinson is the most dynamic offensive weapon of the bunch after proving his chops as a three-level scorer for the Cougars last season. Former San Diego State point guard Lamont Butler and bombastic ex-Arizona guard Kerr Kriisa will handle the ball quite a bit."

I have ZERO faith in Mark Pope; he'll last two years before Lexington gives him the Billy Gillispie treatment:

[CalStateTempe]

Is Pope the CBB for UK hoops?

[UAdevil]

Tony Bennett stepping down. Wow.

[Merkin]

Tony Bennett stepping down. Wow.

That is odd.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Bennett recently gave an interview to ESPN's Jeff Borzello, where he made reference to the recent NCAA changes (specifically NIL issues):

I gotta call Jay Wright and see what he says, right? I always have said, when you’re doing this, you’re in this profession, whether you agree how it’s going or not, you have to be true to yourself and really look at it and say, who am I? Can I operate how I want and can it be successful enough? And you get to choose if you wanna be a part of it or not. And when you feel it’s time, like Jay did, like Coach K, maybe Saban, it’s their choice. And you can sit here and complain and gripe. Or you have a decision to make. Either you try to do it in your way or you get to make that decision. So I think Jay Wright probably foresaw the where this is going … It’ll be better whenever there’s regulations. Is that three to five years away? Who knows? But if it’s not — those are decisions that every man has to make when it’s his time.

[CalStateTempe]

Should’ve made this decision in April and not Oct right?

[Merkin]

Should’ve made this decision in April and not Oct right?

Read elsewhere that he wanted UVA to hire his hand picked successor instead of going through the normal recruitment process.

Didn't read on to see who it was.

Could be too based on his comments above that the NCAA no longer requiring athletes to sign binding contracts (NLI) might have pushed him over the edge, since that is recent. Recruiting is hard enough without making athletes accountable.

Now the school has to leave a scholarship open for a player who might not even show up the day before classes start.

[Beachcat97]

I agree that the timing is really weird.

Also, if he's healthy and only 55, it's not hard to imagine him coaching again. Plenty of good jobs are gonna open up in the next few years. I even wonder how long Scheyer lasts at Duke.

[AZCatGirl]

Should’ve made this decision in April and not Oct right?

Read elsewhere that he wanted UVA to hire his hand picked successor instead of going through the normal recruitment process.

Didn't read on to see who it was.

Could be too based on his comments above that the NCAA no longer requiring athletes to sign binding contracts (NLI) might have pushed him over the edge, since that is recent. Recruiting is hard enough without making athletes accountable.

Now the school has to leave a scholarship open for a player who might not even show up the day before classes start.

Then he should've toughed it out this last year and THEN quit. He's completely screwing over his team by doing it now. Is trying to force your successor in THAT important?

[CatsbyAZ]

“Florida men’s basketball head coach Todd Golden has been accused by an undefined number of women for sexual harassment and stalking.”

“The claims regarding sexual harassment, which could also include sexual exploitation, cited sending photos and videos of his genitalia while traveling for UF, unwanted sexual advances on Instagram, requesting sexual favors, and various occasions of stalking.”

“There was allegedly more than one occasion in which Golden was taking photos of women walking or driving and sending those pictures to the subjects involved.”

[AZCatGirl]

New Mexico just defeated UCLA pretty easily. They might not be ranked by the time we play them.

[CatsbyAZ]

WBRC has learned "that a flight that appears to be carrying the Auburn men’s basketball team to Houston was diverted because of an altercation on the flight."