The 2013 Offseason

One of the fascinating aspects of Rev’s tweets about a walk-on is they coincided with the beginning of a “Dead Period” for recruiting….May 16-25.

The Dead Period is defined as: A period when it is not permissible to make in-person recruiting contacts or evaluations on or off-campus or to permit official or unofficial visits by prospective student/athletes to campus.

So, I would say we shouldn’t hold our breath waiting for an announcement of any kind unless something is already signed, sealed, and delivered (as we used to say in the olden days).

On May 26 the NCAA allows schools to go back to on campus in-person recruiting during what’s call the Quiet Period…..A period when it is permissible to make in-person recruiting contacts only on the institution's campus. No in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts or evaluations may be made during the quiet period….

And it goes back and forth like this all summer (with evaluation periods and contact periods thrown in)....no wonder there are so many full-time compliance guys in athletic departments these days.....

DeanMurdoch wrote:35-second shot clock = too slow (in my opinion)
24-second shot clock = too fast (in my opinion)

Wish they would just settle for the middle temperature oatmeal and go with the 30-second shot clock.

The NCAA men's basketball rules committee couldn't get enough support to even vote on reducing the 35-second shot clock at their meeting earlier this month.

But the committee did take the step of 1) adjusting the elbow-clearing rule, 2) clarifying the block/charge rule, and 3) introducing more video replays at the end of regulation and overtime to ensure out-of-bounds and shot-clock violation calls are made correctly.

Pending approval from the Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which will meet on a conference call on June 18, these rules will go into effect for the 2013-14 season.

1) The change to the elbow rule gives officials the opportunity to adjust a call if the player is making a basketball play and inadvertently hits a player.

An official can call a flagrant foul 1, a flagrant foul 2, a player control foul, or if the official goes to the monitor, he can wipe the foul away if he sees no contact. In the past, once a call was made, the official couldn't erase the call or just call a player-control foul. Officials will still emphasize that an offensive player can't rip through a play high and have the elbow make contact.

2) The block/charge call was also adjusted.

In the past the official had to judge if the defender was in front of the offensive player with his two feet down and facing the offensive player. He also had to determine if the offensive player had left the court before the defensive player was set.

Now the defensive player cannot move into the space once the offensive player has started his upward motion with the ball. By moving it to when the dribbler begins his upward motion for a shot or a pass, it pushes back a few steps to allow the official more time to make the call….this will probably lead to more blocking calls.

3) Refs will be allowed to go to the monitor in the final two minutes of regulation and overtime to determine who should retain possession for a play out of bounds.

Officials now also can go to the monitor during that time frame to check on shot-clock violations.

Officials also can go to the monitor immediately in the final four minutes of a game and overtime to see if a shot was a 2- or 3-pointer. In the past, officials had to wait until the next TV timeout to check but would signal to the scorer's table what the official called (a two- or 3-pointer). But sometimes there isn’t a TV timeout until the final minute or two minutes of a game, and the rules committee didn't want to wait that long.

The next year the rules committee can change rules will be spring 2015….so I hope there are no complaints from anyone between now and then……

So what’s going on at UNLV?

Now it would appear sophomore-to-be guard Katin Reinhardt will ask to transfer after the Memorial Day weekend.

A graduate of Mater Dei, the 6-5, 210 Reinhardt could have a major impact on a program; Oregon, USC & UC Irvine appear to be his likely destinations.

Reinhardt started against UP last December, but had a tough night shooting only 2-10 for 4 points.

DoubleDipper wrote:One of the fascinating aspects of Rev’s tweets about a walk-on is they coincided with the beginning of a “Dead Period” for recruiting….May 16-25.

OK, the "Dead Period" is over and we're into the "Quiet Period" when the NCAA allows schools to go back to on-campus in-person recruiting. (No in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts or evaluations may be made).

I expect we'll see at least a couple of visits to UP by student/athlete prospects in the coming weeks....

DoubleDipper wrote:So what’s going on at UNLV?

Now it would appear sophomore-to-be guard Katin Reinhardt will ask to transfer after the Memorial Day weekend.

Coach Rice confirmed Reinhardt's departure today.

With Reinhardt leaving, it means six players who accounted for 131 starts and 71 percent of the team’s scoring last season have left the program.

Freshman forward Anthony Bennett declared for the NBA Draft, and junior forward Mike Moser announced his intention to graduate this summer and transfer to Oregon for his final season of eligibility. Anthony Marshall, Justin Hawkins and Quintrell Thomas graduated.

I don't know if the Pilots play at UNLV this year, but if they do, they'll see some new faces on the team UP lost to 68-60 last year in the Chiles Center.

#5 Ari Stewart returns for USC. #5 Fred Richardson III returns for Oregon. #5 Chris McNealy returns for UC Irvine.

My guess is that Reinhardt will transfer to whichever school lets him have #5 so he doesn't have to change his self-hashtag from #KR5.

DeanMurdoch wrote:#5 Ari Stewart returns for USC. #5 Fred Richardson III returns for Oregon. #5 Chris McNealy returns for UC Irvine.

My guess is that Reinhardt will transfer to whichever school lets him have #5 so he doesn't have to change his self-hashtag from #KR5.

Well, as he has to sit a year, and it’s more than likely JB will leave school after he graduates in 2014, #5 should be available at UP…..just kidding; the Pilots don’t need Reinhardt!

IMO, Reinhardt needs to surround himself with better advisors. I’m told he’s looking for a school that will allow him to get more “touches” and feature him at PG so he has a “better chance of playing in the NBA.”

He’s said he like to be a point guard….but he’s NOT played the PG since grade school. He’s a terrific catch and shoot player….but he’s also a Mater Dei grad….they have a history of getting bad advice and transferring…..Gary Franklin did the same thing and now plays less at Baylor and is NOT the starting PG.

DoubleDipper wrote:Coach Rice confirmed Reinhardt's departure today.

Coach Reveno's comments on the news of Reinhardt's transfer:

The days of transferring kids coming with big warning signs are over. Cultural shift has good kids listening to bad advice.

……I don't know specifics just that these kids with "warning signs" don't stand out from peers like they used to.

CBS article about Reinhardt’s leaving UNLV:
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/blog/eye-on-college-basketball/22311669/seriously-katin-reinhardt-how-were-you-not-happy-with-your-role

Bottom line, if Reinhardt wasn't good enough to play point guard at UNLV, where is he going to be good enough to play point guard? And if Reinhardt wasn't happy living in Las Vegas and shooting a million times a game for a good team, when will he ever not be looking for something else?

DoubleDipper wrote:Bottom line, if Reinhardt wasn't good enough to play point guard at UNLV, where is he going to be good enough to play point guard? And if Reinhardt wasn't happy living in Las Vegas and shooting a million times a game for a good team, when will he ever not be looking for something else?

Reinhardt was 51-for-139 (.367) from INSIDE the arc last year. To put that into perspective...on a team like the Pilots who had their offensive struggles last year, Reinhardt's 2PT FG% would have been (by far) the lowest on the team (not including Carr due to small sample size).....so his 2-for-10 that he shot against UP last year was close to the norm rather than an aberration.

"Katin told me why he was leaving," UNLV coach Dave Rice told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in an article published late Sunday. "He said that he feels his best opportunity to play in the NBA is to play more minutes at the point guard position. Katin would have had an opportunity to compete for minutes at the point, but I've never guaranteed anyone that they will start or play a certain number of minutes."

You'd think this guy would have counted himself lucky that with a program like UNLV, had a huge role as a freshman that only would have expanded this year with Bennett, Moser, and Marshall graduating.

But what do I know.

DoubleDipper wrote:He’s said he like to be a point guard….but he’s NOT played the PG since grade school. He’s a terrific catch and shoot player….but he’s also a Mater Dei grad….they have a history of getting bad advice and transferring…..Gary Franklin did the same thing and now plays less at Baylor and is NOT the starting PG.

Stole this from somewhere - of the nine Mater Dei High players ranked in the Rivals top 150 since 2007, Reinhardt is the eighth to transfer at least once.

DeanMurdoch wrote:Stole this from somewhere - of the nine Mater Dei High players ranked in the Rivals top 150 since 2007, Reinhardt is the eighth to transfer at least once.

Too many "advisors" wanting a "piece of the pie" and no real barriers from outside influence on 17/18/19 year-olds, IMO.

There may be some really good personal reasons in those transfers, but between selfish outsiders and selfish players, the transfer list will just continue to grow and many coaches and fans will be left scratching their head.

With the recent departure of Oskars Reinfelds , and the addition of Aitor Zubizarreta and Volodymyr Gerun to the UP international basketball roster, joining Thomas van der Mars and Riley Barker (….yes, Canada is considered “international” in terms of a player’s background), it started me thinking about the international flavor of the WCC as a whole.

Lazy by nature, I decided it was too daunting a task to test my theory that the WCC had a high percentage of international players….but as luck would have it; I found someone else had done all the research and made it public.

This from Josh Horton, an 18 year-old sports writer from Seattle…posted on WestCoastConvo: http://westcoastconvo.com/2013/05/28/the-west-coast-conferences-international-influence/

Ever thought to yourself, “the WCC sure has a lot of foreign players?” Well there are a lot of them. In fact, last season the WCC had the highest proportion of international players among all of the conferences in division one college basketball. Here are how all of the conferences rank in proportion of international players.
1. WCC- .241 (30/124)
2. A-10- .133 (29/218)
3. Big East-.130 (29/223)
4. Am. East- .129 (16/124)
5. Big 12- .121 (17/141)
6. MWC- .120 (15/125)
7. WAC-.118 (17/144)
T-8. Ivy- .116 (14/121)
T-8. PAC-12- .116 (20/172)
10. Southland- .112 (16.143)
11. MAAC- .111 (16/136)
12. Sun Belt- .102 (15/147)
13. Big South-.098 (16/163)
14. NEC- .096 (16/166)
T-15. MVC-.094 (13/138)
T-15. Big West- .094 (14/149)
17. Southern- .089 (14/158)
18. Great West- .088 (6/68)
19. SEC- .086 (16/187)
T-20. Patriot- .083 (10/121)
T-20. Horizon- .083 (10/120)
22. Big Sky- .082 (12/146)
23. ACC- .079 (13/165)
24. Big 10- .075 (13/175)
25. C-USA- .065 (10/154)
T-26. MAC- .061 (10/163)
T-26. MEAC- .061 (11/181)
28. CAA- .060 (9/151)
29. Summit- .057 (7/122)
30. Atlantic Sun- .053 (7/132)
31. OVC- .043 (7/164)
32. Independents- .034 (1/29)
33. SWAC- .014 (2/144)
It is evident that the WCC has the largest proportion of international players in division one college basketball, and it’s not even close. Every team in the West Coast Conference has at least one player of foreign descent on their team. No other conference in the country can make that claim.

Some of you may have seen this tweet from Rev today while he was attending the WCC meetings:

Just heard about two NCAA violations in WCC. 1) athlete using Univ. water to wash car, 2) coach text recruit "who is this?".

I asked about the car wash and was told a female golfer at one of the WCC schools used the water, and was subsequently required by the NCAA to pay the school $20….the amount that was determined to be value of the water used…..that’s a lot of water, IME.

Apparently the water used by the student/athlete was not available to other students….

DoubleDipper wrote:Some of you may have seen this tweet from Rev today while he was attending the WCC meetings:

Just heard about two NCAA violations in WCC. 1) athlete using Univ. water to wash car, 2) coach text recruit "who is this?".

I asked about the car wash and was told a female golfer at one of the WCC schools used the water, and was subsequently required by the NCAA to pay the school $20….the amount that was determined to be value of the water used…..that’s a lot of water, IME.

Apparently the water used by the student/athlete was not available to other students….

Some of the national websites picked up Rev's tweets and used them to write another "The NCAA is absurd" story (and the more of those the better IMO).

$20 for a car wash? I only have to pay $6, and someone else (and a machine) does all the work. #stupidncaa

DoubleDipper wrote:the amount that was determined to be value of the water used…..that’s a lot of water, IME.

Apparently the water used by the student/athlete was not available to other students….

Washing your car with bottles of Evian is really the only way to get that show room shine.

up7587 wrote:$20 for a car wash? I only have to pay $6, and someone else (and a machine) does all the work. #stupidncaa

At Portland's water rates ( 2.25 gallons for a penny as stated on the Portland Water Bureau website) that's 4,500 gallons of water, or enough to fill about half a backyard swimming pool.

Here's the pool at the home for old broken down soccer fans. For the record, it is available to all UP students.


So maybe she dipped the car in a pool.


But you don't know. They just charged me $3.75 at the airport for a Litre bottle of FIji water ( a taste of paradise). Maybe that's what she washed the car with.

up7587 wrote:$20 for a car wash? I only have to pay $6, and someone else (and a machine) does all the work. #stupidncaa

Clearly I am in the wrong line of business...

Hmm, golfer is fined for a "free drop." Just doesn't sound right....

It would appear further penalties are forthcoming as I'm told the showers in the WCC locker rooms are available to student/athletes only, not the student body in general....

Just kidding, I hope.

Reform is needed throughout college athletics, yet its leaders are too busy calculating the value of a couple buckets of soapy water to attack the real issues.....I believe that's the point of Rev's tweets on the subject that continue this morning.

DeanMurdoch wrote:#5 Ari Stewart returns for USC. #5 Fred Richardson III returns for Oregon. #5 Chris McNealy returns for UC Irvine.

My guess is that Reinhardt will transfer to whichever school lets him have #5 so he doesn't have to change his self-hashtag from #KR5.

UNLV transfer Katin Reinhardt has made a decision; he's headed home to USC where he can surround himself with his homies and get even more bad advice……

#5 Ari Stewart will have graduated by the time Reinhardt is eligible to take the court, I believe.

DoubleDipper wrote:UNLV transfer Katin Reinhardt has made a decision; he's headed home to USC where he can surround himself with his homies and get even more bad advice……

To each their own, I suppose. Let's be real...regardless of how many minutes he got last year, he isn't the first player and won't be the last player to switch schools to go after what he perceives is a better situation for himself. Many people (including myself) consider this a ridiculous decision - obviously he doesn't.

If I was close to the kid, I'd be telling him that he needs to start worrying about his stigma. Right now, everything about him is screaming me-first - the transfer, his personal hashtag and "fan account" on Twitter, etc. Dude, just lie low and work on your game for the next 17 months until you can play.

But again...what do I know.

The NCAA person hired to check on social media tweeted this today.

@NCAADana: This whole car washing story is a little out of control. Not a violation & no NCAA action.

Then John Infante pointed out that if is a secondary violation that would be technically true, as that would be dealt with at the conference level. ( but still an NCAA violation if restitution was not made?)

Which in my book makes it even worse with the conference being even stupider than the National folks.

The offseason is a time to look forward with optimism, but it's also a time to reflect on the past season and temper one’s frustration at the losses that resulted in another play-in game in Las Vegas, and instead recall the good times…..

A look at the 2012-13 highlight reel shows the guys did play some pretty darn good basketball, at times. (For optimum enjoyment of this video....your speakers should be ON).

Nice write-up on the car wash tweet: http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/49180578/

h/t found on O-Live