The college basketball world is still spinning at a high rate, and it’s not going to slow down too much in the next month, since it’s in this period that possible NBA Draft choices are going to work out and be evaluated by scouts, thereby determining if they’re going to stay in the draft pool or withdraw. Schools are still trying to arrive at the proper arrangements with their head coaches based on the past season. It is just three weeks since the season ended – there is a lot more activity to consider, and these are some of the stories making news in college basketball right now:
Wisconsin Secures Greg Gard To An Extension
The Badgers underachieved to a degree during the regular season, but they did very well in the Big Ten Tournament and in the NCAA Tournament. They came within one Florida three-pointer of reaching the Elite Eight in the East Regional. They upset defending national champion Villanova, which offered a reminder of how capable a head coach Greg Gard is. The team loses a lot of veteran talent this offseason, which is why Gard needed the reassurance that he was the man trusted to carry the program forward in Madison. That is the foremost message sent by Wisconsin’s decision to extend his contract.
South Carolina Locks Up Frank Martin With An Extension
Had Wisconsin beaten Florida in Madison Square Garden a month ago, the Badgers would have played South Carolina in the Elite Eight. Frank Martin did the best coaching job in March of anyone in college basketball. No team underwent a stronger, sharper, more positive turnaround from the regular season to the NCAA Tournament than South Carolina. Scoring averages went way up; the frontcourt stayed out of foul trouble and was very effective; role players came alive; and the team’s defense was suffocating. Martin had made the Elite Eight seven years ago at Kansas State, but getting South Carolina to the program’s first Final Four puts him into a higher and more elite category of coaches. It gives him ample job security at South Carolina, and this extension signed with the school is confirmation of how established he is in the profession. It is hard to imagine him moving anywhere. He’s going to be in Columbia for a very long time and be a much-loved coach decades from now. It’s one of the feel-good stories in college basketball for this son of Cuban immigrants.
Ike Anigbogu Of UCLA Declares For The NBA Draft And Signs An Agent
The UCLA exodus continues. This is not a surprising move, but it reiterates the point that Steve Alford will coach a very different roster next season and has to replenish talent at several spots. Everything came together for UCLA last season, but with so many players being one-and-done, Alford won’t have much continuity next fall. He’ll have to start almost from scratch, and how he does next season could profoundly affect how fans and boosters at UCLA perceive him.
Shareef O’Neal Commits To The Arizona Wildcats
The son of Shaquille O’Neal committing to any program would have made news, but committing to Arizona while UCLA deals with a player exodus only reaffirms that Arizona will be a better, stronger team next season.
There had been some rumors that O’Neal would follow in the footsteps of his father and play at LSU. However, the Tigers are a terrible team right now and O’Neal clearly didn’t want to be part of a rebuild. The Tigers won just 10 games last season and tied for dead-last in the SEC with a record of 2-16. O’Neal is the type of player they could have built around but opted for a program that is closer to winning.
When realizing that Gonzaga and Oregon are also going to be hit hard with defections while Arizona star Allonzo Trier decided to stay one more season in Tucson, it’s even more apparent that the Wildcats are going to enter next season as the Pac-12 favorite and a front-level Final Four contender.
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