FanHouse Conference Usa Basketball

The decision by sophomore Doneal Mack to transfer from Memphis last month was a bit of a surprise. It was reported that he was unhappy with only averaging 12.5 minutes per game. The reserve guard was, however, poised to get more minutes with guards Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose going to the NBA. The once highly recruited guard didn't choose a SEC or ACC team as initially indicated. Instead, he ended up choosing the University of New Orleans at the beginning of July and began to take classes.

Apparently he's had another change of heart. Barely a week at New Orleans and he wants to return to the Memphis Tigers. While it appears that Coach John Calipari is willing to take back the flighty Mack, the NCAA is now involved. Mack registered and began taking classes at another school. While it is within an actual window of time to return (14 days) and he took part in no athletic activities, there is still a bureaucracy that needs to be followed before he can be fully reinstated.

All the same, if I'm running the Memphis Tigers website, I don't list his bio and name on the roster until the NCAA signs off on this.

One of the oldest underclassmen to declare for the NBA Draft will be going back to school. Robert Vaden has informed coach Mike Davis that he will be returning to UAB for his senior season.

Vaden played at Indiana for two seasons and left when Davis left to coach in Birmingham. He sat out the 2006-2007 season before having an outstanding junior year this past season.

Vaden is already 23 years old (he'll turn 24 next March) which let some to think he may stay in the draft. His draft stock most likely won't change next year. He'll be older than most draftees, which now means that his talent has hit the ceiling.

He will re-join a Blazers team that should be good enough for an NCAA Tournament bid and could (maybe) challenge Memphis in Conference-USA. He led the team with a 21.1 ppg average and dumped an amazing 142 threes.

Well, Memphis will get back one player from last year's National Championship runner-up squad ... and lose another one.

Robert Dozier will take his name out of the NBA Draft and return to school. The junior will be the top returning scorer on the team (he trailed Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts last season) and should be a guy that John Calapari will lean on next season.

He joins Antonio Anderson as Tigers who declared for the draft but returned to school.

On the flip side, reserve guard Doneal Mack will leave Memphis and transfer. The Charlotte, NC native hinted that Clemson, LSU and Wake Forest are the schools he's looking at heading to.

Mack was fifth on the team in scoring last year (6.9 ppg), but played just 12 minutes in the Tigers' last four NCAA Tournament games (from the Sweet 16 on) and scored no points. During the season, Mack only saw extended amounts of playing time in blowout victories.

You are the Athletic Director at a school in Conference USA where the first thing that is associated with your football program is, "Oh, yeah, the only program to ever get the death penalty in football." The men's basketball team last made the NCAA Tournament in 1993. There's an opening for a job that pays more, greater prestige and doesn't struggle to be the 6th most relevant program in the state.

Of course you would listen if Notre Dame wanted to talk to you about taking their vacant AD position.

SMU athletic director Steve Orsini said Monday he would be willing to listen to Notre Dame officials about their vacant AD position if he is contacted about the job.

Odds are, he'd probably lick broken glass while crawling amidst scorpions to make the interview if needed. Not that he's actually been contacted yet.

It is also worth mentioning that Orsini graduated from Notre Dame, and was co-captain of the football team that won the national championship in 1977. Plus his wife is from South Bend, Indiana. Kind of increases the "duh" factor on a story that discloses Orsini has interest in the job.

Memphis guard Antonio Anderson withdrew his name from the NBA Draft. Because he didn't hire an agent and kept his college eligibility, he will return to Memphis for his senior season.

"I've decided to take my name out of the draft," Anderson told CSTV.com. "The feedback I received is that I would be taken in the second round, and I wasn't comfortable with that. I took my name out this morning and I'm coming back."

It isn't any shock that Anderson would've come back to school. He wasn't viewed as a strong prospect to be a first round pick.

As of now, Anderson will be the Tigers' top returning scorer (he was fourth on the team last year with an 8.6 ppg average). Teammate Derrick Rose will be one of the first players taken in the draft, while Chris Douglas-Roberts is projected to be a late first rounder. Robert Dozier has entered his name in the draft but hasn't hired an agent either.

The cupboard won't be bare, however, as Memphis brings in super recruits Tyreke Evans, Angel Garcia and Wesley Witherspoon.

Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson is saying that the school is not discussing a move to the Big East conference ... hdespite reports saying that they are.

''No, absolutely not,'' Johnson said. ''I have had no meetings with the Big East.''

"We have no expansion plans and are speaking to no schools about expansion," Big East spokesman John) Paquette said.

However, that doesn't mean that he's not interested in leaving Conference USA. There are some rumblings that Memphis does want to move up into a BCS conference and believe they've set up their program to be an attractive addition somewhere.

The pros for staying in Conference USA is, well, domination in basketball and a shorter travel schedule. The cons are everything else (competition, mo' money, mo' exposure, etc). They'd also rejoin Louisville and Cincinnati as conference brethren.

The rumblings also have East Carolina also thinking about bolting C-USA for the Big East.

Derrick Rose has to be a pretty big man on the Memphis campus. Star of the basketball team about to make millions tends to have an intoxicating effect on the coeds.

Unless the coed has a boyfriend on the football team, that is. Playing second fiddle around school has to grate on the gridiron gang and when a guy like Rose comes sniffing around your girl, it's bound to raise your hackles. And, hackles raised, the football player is probably going to win if things escalate to a fight. Shame that it happened to Rose just before he was to go on camera and announce his move to the NBA.

Multiple sources close to the Memphis basketball and football programs have told CBSSports.com that Rose was recently involved in an altercation over a girl with Tiger football player Steven Black, an altercation that didn't go so well for Rose. Put another way, the possible No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft spent the early part of this week looking like a person who had just been in a scrap, making the way he announced his future plans -- through a release distributed by the Memphis Sports Information department -- convenient, if not necessary.

Black and Rose are both 6'3" but the footballer has about 30 pounds on him. A guy who dominates by pushing around smaller guards ain't gonna fare too well in that kind of fight. Even so, isn't Rose being a bit vain? As you can see above, we've seen him with a scrape or two before.

(H/T Sports by Brooks)

As noted, Tyreke Evans announced he would attend Memphis (for one year before the almost certain leap to the NBA). What he didn't do is sign a letter of intent (LOI) to attend Memphis.

So it's easy to understand why Evans, the fourth-rated high school basketball player in the country, announced Wednesday he was committing to play at Memphis -- and why he has yet to sign his national letter of intent.

Evans insisted there was nothing secretive about his decisions, explaining he had to head directly from the news conference held at his school, American Christian Academy, to New York and the Jordan Brand All-Star Classic, and that he would sign as soon as he returns Monday.

Sure, because there would be no time in his schedule to sign his name to anything and trust family or friends to fax the LOI.

Evans chose Memphis because of the coach. Not the school. He admitted what everyone knew. He also knows that Calipari's name is coming up for NBA jobs. Yes, Calipari and Memphis have agreed to a new contract that pays him $2.5 million. It isn't a signed contract yet. Plus, everyone knows that coaches contracts tend not to hold up real well when more money is offered.

So, why should Evans put his own name to a binding agreement?

Ever since Memphis frittered away the NCAA Championship Game, there were rumors that John Calipari might be looking to make another try at the NBA. With Derrick Rose, Joey Dorsey and, potentially, Chris Douglas-Roberts heading to the league, the timing seemed right. Yesterday, though, just as Rose was announcing his departure, Coach Cal signed a contract extension to remain as the Tigers coach.

We found out why today. Tyreke Evans, McDonald's All-American and all-everything shooting guard, signed a letter of intent to play with the Tigers this afternoon. With all the openings in the starting five, Evans will be expected to shoulder a heavy load during what's widely believed to be his only collegiate season. Evans chose the Tigers over closer-to-home Villanova but it wasn't much of a surprise.

Evans is close to William Wesley, the Zelig of basketball in the United States. Wesley is close to just about everyone in the game but he's especially close to Calipari. The two men worked together to broker Memphis's deal with China and Wesley was close to Rose and it's believed he helped steer him to Memphis.

And then there's the unsavory business surrounding a murder committed by his cousin which Evans witnessed. It's believed to be gang-related and Evans might not mind getting out of Dodge for a while. As MJD points out at The Dagger, it's hard to argue with a recruiting pitch that includes the fact that "no one in Memphis wants to murder you."

Another day, another high profile freshman announcing he's going pro. This time it is Memphis' Derrick Rose.

Sometime this week, Rose will announce that he's heading to the NBA:

The Commercial Appeal and WPTY-TV both cited sources close to the Memphis program in reporting that Rose, who averaged 14.9 points and 4.7 assists per game in the regular season and 20.8 points in six NCAA tournament games, would declare his intent to enter the draft. the Tigers finished national runners-up to Kansas.

WPTY and cable news channel CNBC also reported that Rose is close to signing with agent Arn Tellem. When asked about the possibility of signing Rose, Tellem's agency, Wasserman Media Group, declined to comment, according to WPTY's report.

This was a no-brainer, as it comes off of rumors that he's already looking for an agent. Rose saw his already high stock rise even greater as he lead his Memphis Tigers to the NCAA Championship game. He may be the one player who can knock Kansas State's Michael Beasley off the #1 spot.

With all the money he's about to make, he can buy a truckload of Gummi Bears!