Nic Wise may have made the wisest decision of his yet-to-be started professional basketball career, informing Arizona coach Sean Miller that he plans to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and return to Tuscon for his senior season. Wise was projected as a late second-round pick or perhaps even undrafted. His return gives Miller a veteran, tested player who can help the Wildcats' resurgence.
"We are all very excited with Nic's return," Miller said on the school's Web site. "His talent, leadership and ability will make him one of the premier players in the Pac-10 this coming season. As important, this puts him in position to leave the University of Arizona with his degree. We are looking forward to a great senior year for Nic."
Sean Miller views what's left of his inherited roster at the University of Arizona and realizes he will be his seniors' fourth coach in four years. He is preceded by Kevin O'Neill, Russ Pennell and of course Lute Olson, who retired because of health reasons. Pennell led the Wildcats to the Sweet 16 in March but was told there was no chance he would retain the job.
So Miller takes over after a successful tenure at Xavier, but with only residue of a team in Tucson. Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill declared for the NBA draft and have hired agents while point guard Nic Wise is still pondering his draft options. Miller seeks to bring the tradition back to Arizona but the process will take time, especially considering the recent coaching upheaval.
In an effort to talk about something college basketball-related other than scandals in the summer, let's talk best current coaches. We'll attempt to order the top 25 current coaches in the nation. This is about the present and the future, not the distant past. What a guy did in the mid-90s doesn't matter near as much as the direction his program is currently headed. Past pedigree also matters, to an extent. For the perfect mix of past accomplishments with present achievement and a paved road for future success, look no further than the man atop the list.
A day ago, folks in Tucson thought yet another coach had turned down the offer to be the next head coach of the Arizona Wildcats.
A day changes a lot of minds. Xavier coach Sean Miller originally declined the offer from Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood, but asked for a day to sleep on the decision. After waking up, Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Miller took the job, letting Xavier officials know on Monday he would not be returning.
Pitt has been ranked No. 4 or better in all but one week this year. Despite that, the story all season has been that Pitt has never won more than two games in the NCAA Tournament.
Duke has been hanging around the top 10 all season. The Blue Devils had a slide in the middle of conference play, but tweaking the lineup seems to have worked (except when facing North Carolina) in sparking them to yet another ACC Tournament Championship.
It'll be hard for Keno Davis to top his first year on the bench as a head coach. Drake improved from 17-15 to 28-5 and swept the regular season and tournament titles in the Missouri Valley Conference. That meant the Bulldogs made their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1971 and won a school-record 21 straight games at one point in the season. And, to top it all off, he was named the Associated Press Coach of the Year today.
His father Tom won the award in 1987 with Iowa and the Davises are the first father-son duo to win the honor. He's just the second first-year coach to win the award. Bill Hodges, who took Larry Bird and Indiana State to the finals in 1979, was the first and, interestingly, he's also the only other MVC coach to take home the honor.
Given Drake's extended history of mediocrity, it's hard to argue with the choice. Bo Ryan of Wisconsin finished second with Bruce Pearl, John Calipari and Purdue's Matt Painter close behind. All definitely deserved consideration but I'm surprised that Sean Miller of Xavier isn't higher up the list. Xavier's been successful for years but they dominated the A-10 this season and Miller got production out of every player in his rotation.
Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports is reporting that Indiana is wasting no time in its coaching search, calling Washington State coach Tony Bennett the day after his Cougars were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament and telling him the job is his if he wants it.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Bennett is expected to leave Washington State, and that he's also one of the top choices of the administration at Cal.
According to Goodman, Bennett is atop a list at Indiana that includes Xavier's Sean Miller, Pittsburgh's Jamie Dixon and Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings. Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl's name has also been mentioned in connection with the Indiana job.
Kelvin Sampson took a contract buyout during the season after the NCAA said he violated recruiting rules. Dan Dakich, who took over as interim head coach, has said he wants the job on a permanent basis but is apparently not seen by the Indiana administration as a strong candidate.
The question is whether any strong candidates will want the job. When Sampson was hired Indiana was seen as one of the most attractive jobs in the country, but with likely NCAA sanctions, does it make sense for a coach like Bennett, who has a good thing going at Washington State, to leave?
If he does, the financial compensation will likely be substantial. Although Bennett has the job security of a seven-year contract at Washington State, his $800,000 salary is paltry compared to what Indiana will be willing to pay if it thinks Bennett can deliver national championships on the court and compliance with NCAA rules off it.
Here are just some little tidbits about the Elite 8, which begins tonight:
Never has all four #1 seeds advanced to the Final Four (they all are still alive)
The only remaining coaches that have won a National Championship are Rick Pitino and Roy Williams. They face off against each other tonight.
Xavier's Sean Miller and Davidson's Bob McKillop will be making their first Elite 8 appearances. The others have all been there before.
Louisville and UNC play in the men's tournament at 9:00pm tonight in Charlotte. The women's team will face off in the women's tournament at noon in New Orleans.
This is UCLA's third straight Elite 8. They won the last two times.
This is Memphis' third straight Elite 8. They lost the last two times.
Half of last year's Elite 8 is back.
When Roy Williams was at Kansas and Rick Pitino was at Kentucky, Kansas beat Kentucky 150-95 back in 1989.
The last South Region champion to win the entire tournament was Kentucky in 1998.
College basketball coaches are a weird bunch. They are control freaks who are media savvy and live in an isolated world of hoopdom. But what if they weren't coaching? What would they do? Who would they be?
The blog CatsandBeer.com attempts to figure that out to hilarious results:
Xavier coach Sean Miller made a curious change to his starting lineup for today's tournament lid-lifter. Josh Duncan, the Atlantic 10 sixth man of the year, started and Jason Love went to the bench. That's not a totally unusual alignment for the Musketeers but Love had started the final 21 games of the year. Duncan, on the other hand, made sure Xavier didn't suffer any offensive slowdown when they went to the bench. He led the team in scoring, after all.
There hasn't been any reason given for the switch. Love entered the game a couple of minutes in, so there's no injury. Duncan's a senior while Love's a sophomore, perhaps that was part of Miller's thinking, but it seems odd to make a change to a formula that's worked so well this season.
Georgia's up three with nine minutes gone by, but this could prove to be just a sideline to an easy Xavier victory. If it doesn't, though, many around the Musketeers might find themselves wondering why Miller broke something that didn't need fixing.
Nic Wise may have made the wisest decision of his yet-to-be started professional basketball career, informing Arizona coach Sean Miller that he plans to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and return to Tuscon for his senior season. Wise was projected as a late second-round pick or perhaps even undrafted. His return gives Miller a veteran, tested player who can help the Wildcats' resurgence.
A day ago, folks in Tucson thought yet another coach had turned down the offer to be the next head coach of the Arizona Wildcats. 
Pitt has been ranked No. 4 or better in all but one week this year. Despite that, the story all season has been that Pitt has never won more than two games in the NCAA Tournament.
It'll be hard for 
Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports is 
College basketball coaches are a weird bunch. They are control freaks who are media savvy and live in an isolated world of hoopdom. But what if they weren't coaching? What would they do? Who would they be?
Xavier coach 
