Random Rabble: March 19

Where Bruce rambles about topics that interest him but have nothing to do with college hockey.

Haven't done anything like this in a while, so here goes.

The NCAA Tournament is remarkably low on Cinderellas this year. Yeah, there are some double-digit seeds still alive for the round of 16, but it's hard to look at North Carolina State as a Cinderella. They do play in the ACC, after all. Ohio is about the only one left.

Well, until the Bobcats get waxed by North Carolina Friday.

Can Wisconsin advance? Bo Ryan is notorious for getting teams to the Sweet 16 but not any further than that. But his Achilles heel has been lower-seeded teams, not higher. It's games against teams like Davidson and Butler that have left fans steaming, not games like the one coming on Thursday against Syracuse. In some ways, people may actually like the Badgers' chances more in that game, largely because Fab Melo won't play for the Orange, and also because Wisconsin will go in as the underdog.

You could argue Wisconsin beat Vanderbilt as an underdog, too. The Commodores became a sexy pick to come out of that region after Melo's suspension was announced. Suddenly, the Badgers' suffocating defense has knocked the 'Dores out of the dance.

14 of the 16 teams left come out of major conferences. There are low seeds left -- like NC State and Florida and Cincinnati, for example. But the tournament is void of the kind of story it's had with the Butlers and VCUs of recent years.

That is, unless Ohio does the improbable against the Heels on Friday.

Speaking of the NCAA Tournament, ESPN's Bob Knight is getting plenty of heat, and justifiably so. Previewing Saturday's NCAA Tournament games for ESPN, Knight was asked to put a team on upset alert. He chose Kentucky, set to play a game against Iowa State, but he refused to say "Kentucky," instead referring to the Wildcats as "the team from the SEC."

Fellow ESPNer Rick Reilly, shockingly, threw out a pretty funny tweet ripping Knight.

What happens to Bob Knight if he says the word "Kentucky"? Does his lower jaw fall off? Snakes spring from his hair? My God, does he smile?
— Rick Reilly (@ReillyRick) March 17, 2012

It's pretty lame for Knight to go this route. Obviously, there are petty issues with Knight and Kentucky. While those issues might go back to when Knight coached at Indiana, don't forget that Knight had it out with UK coach John Calipari over players attending class.

Knight apologized for those idiotic remarks, but obviously still feels some sort of bitterness toward Calipari. I'm not saying Calipari is clean as a whistle, because I don't know, but it doesn't justify Knight's unprofessional behavior. If he can't talk about Kentucky in an objective manner, he needs to recuse himself from the conversation.

He might feel people would think he's a chicken for doing that, but he'd be the bigger person, something Knight has never been known for in his career.

NFL free agency has been quiet for the Vikings and Packers so far. No one is surprised that the Packers have been in a slumber. Green Bay, under GM Ted Thompson, just hasn't splurged much, if at all. Thompson builds through the draft, and he prefers to spend money on contract extensions for his young talent as warranted. He lets guys walk and makes it look callous and without any real thought attached to it. In reality, these are tough decisions that Thompson has always taken seriously, and I think his success at making good decisions has made some fans lay off the boss.

It seems Minnesota is trying to copy the blueprint Thompson is following. Asked about his team's lack of spending last week, general manager Rick Spielman told KFAN in the Cities that the organization did spend money, noting contract extensions for guys like Adrian Peterson, Chad Greenway, and John Sullivan.

This seems like something Thompson would say, and it's a fair point. Spielman wants to build a quality team through the draft, and use free agency to supplement the guys he's able to find and develop. This keeps the team from overspending on guys like Pierre Garcon, a quality player who got a lot more money than his production to this point warrants.

Did the Vikings overpay Peterson? You could argue they did, and you'd have a point. But teams are almost always better off overpaying their own guys than overpaying for someone else's guys who could easily become questionable fits in their new team's system, not to mention the locker room.

Greenway, on the other hand, was not a smart signing. He's an average linebacker who tackles well, fills against the run well, and can cover people, but he's not explosive, he's not dynamic, and he's not a playmaker. He doesn't make this a better team, and it was a reach of a signing.

The Twins made a move Monday, sending Tsuyoshi Nishioka to the minors. Nishioka wasn't hitting in spring training (.240 average), and he was continuing to make mistakes in the field. I don't know if this ends the experiment completely, but it certainly is a bad sign.

It doesn't necessarily mean that Minnesota is keeping a better player on the major-league roster. Given his injury setback last year, it could be argued that Nishioka doesn't need to be a bench player for the Twins. He needs to play games. I'm not saying that a two-month stint in Rochester is going to make this signing look good. I'm saying that a two-month stint in Rochester could be just what the doctor ordered to make this signing look like something less than the colossal bust it appears to be right now.

For the Twins, it's probably the last chance to make anything out of the money they gave the former Japanese batting champion.

Doesn't Get Much Better Than This

Couch potatoes, unite!

The next three days are as good as it gets if you're one of those lucky enough to do most of their work from home.

The Minnesota State Boy's Hockey Tournament starts Wednesday at 11 A.M., as Mahtomedi battles Alexandria, followed by Hermantown against Virginia.

If hockey's not your thing, the big boy college basketball conference tournaments are rolling, as the Big East Tournament started Tuesday and really kicks in gear Wednesday (the top seeds don't play until Thursday, but there will at least be ranked teams on the floor on Day 2), and tournament play begins in leagues like the Big 12, Pac 10, and Conference USA (Big Ten and ACC Tournaments start Thursday).

It's wall-to-wall winter sports on television through the end of the week. Awesome stuff. Sit back and enjoy.

If that's not enough, I'm co-hosting the Fleisch and Meyers Show on The Fan 1490 Wednesday and Thursday. I have to admit that it's been a bit strange doing show prep for the first time in nearly a year and a half. It's not the same as preparing for hockey games.

National Coach of the Year: Bo Ryan

I picked up my trusty Sporting News College Basketball Preview about a month before the season started. It's always fun to see where the "experts" pick the top teams to finish, and it's also fun to try to find the potential surprise teams in the power conferences.

I was a bit surprised when I read about the Big Ten, because I kept reading through the predicted order of finish, and I wasn't seeing Wisconsin in the top four. Or top five. Or top six. Or top seven.

Eighth.

Really?

Looked at the capsule, and nothing happened that I hadn't heard about. Bo Ryan was still the coach.

Could people in the know really be counting the wizard down for the count? Apparently.

Ryan will have none of your doubts. He might be one of the more disliked opposing coaches in the Big Ten, but he's also one of the best. If not the best.

Hell, he might be the best coach in the country. While Roy Williams is floundering with highly-touted future NBA stars, Ryan continues to plug away with a future pro or two, but otherwise a fundamentally-sound, smart basketball team that wins games.

The job Ryan has done this season might be among the best he could ever pull off. Under the weight of virtually no expectations, Wisconsin started off a little inconsistent. The Badgers beat Duke, which was wonderful, and their win over Maryland in Maui looks more and more impressive every week.

However, Wisconsin also managed to lose at Wisconsin-Green Bay. No one really knew what they would do in Big Ten play.

Then junior forward and leading scorer/rebounder Jon Leuer broke his wrist in a win over Purdue. That only added to the questions.

No problem, Ryan says. Instead of panicking, the Badgers are playing well without Leuer, and they're small-balling people to death.

"They’ve gone to ‘small ball’ with three guards," said Illinois coach Bruce Weber, and he might have added that they sometimes go with four.

... "(Jordan) Taylor has been getting major minutes since Leuer was hurt, and this three-game lineup is hard to deal with," Weber said. "Trevon Hughes is playing exceptionally well as a senior. And Jason Bohannon, who came in as a catch-and-shoot guard, is now scoring on pull-ups and fades. All three of their guards can dribble and create. We have limitations on our team in that regard.

"You wonder if they might get hurt defensively but they pack in and compensate for their lack of size."

The Badgers are one of the best defensive teams in the country. They shoot well from the outside. Once Leuer is back, they'll be able to compete more effectively on the boards. It has some talking about Wisconsin being a potential Final Four team.

While that hype is a bit strong for this early in the season, it's worth noting that Leuer should return in time for the Big Ten Tournament, which should give him one or two games before the NCAAs (no more than three, given Wisconsin's current standing in the league). What remains to be seen is if Leuer's return actually sends Wisconsin into some odd Ewing Theory-triggered fall. Maybe they have gotten to the point where the return of even another inside presence could actually hurt their rhythm.

Don't bet on it with Ryan.

Rush The Court says it best.

Throw Bo Ryan’s name in there along with Jim Boeheim, John Calipari and Steve Alford for National Coach of the Year.

We all know Boeheim or Calipari will win. They're high-profile, needle-moving coaches having stupendous seasons with high-profile, needle-moving programs. Perfect combination for hardware.

Unless you're Brent Musberger, you're not moved by Wisconsin as a member of the voting public for these major awards. You probably don't know that Bo Ryan is 211-78 (.730) as Wisconsin's head coach. You wouldn't know Jon Leuer from Jon Heder.

You should, though. Ryan is the guy who will always be behind a contender. It's not because he changes teams like crazy, and it's not because he always has top recruits as his disposal. It's because he coaches his tail off, understands the game as well as virtually anyone, and puts his players in a system where they can succeed against virtually anyone.

Simply put, Ryan's had a hardware-winning kind of season, whether he wins it or not. He's proven himself as an elite coach in college basketball, and the best of this particular Wisconsin team may be yet to come.

North Carolina Could Miss The Dance

Only twice in the last 21 years has a defending NCAA hoops champion failed to make the field of 64/65/whatever the next season. One of those (Kansas in 1989) was ineligible for the tournament because of probation.

This year, North Carolina is perfectly eligible for the event, but there's a really good chance they won't qualify. The Tar Heels are near the bottom of the ACC entering the week, and there appears to be little hope for a quick turnaround.

Even if the play gets better, UNC may have already done irreparable damage to their NCAA chances. Their RPI sits at No. 79. As noted by ESPN, that places them below such luminaries as Sam Houston State and Louisiana Tech.

For North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who has been nothing short of awesome in his tenure as a head coach in this sport, confusion reigns supreme.

Yes, we figured Carolina would be down a bit from last year's overwhelming high, but we didn't think it would be anything at all like this.

"In 21 years as a head coach, I've never been in this spot," UNC coach Roy Williams told reporters in College Park, Md., on Sunday.

"Somewhere, somehow, I've got to help the kids get out of it. But 2-6 is not comfortable. It's not good."

Oh, and rival Duke comes to town Wednesday, part of ESPN's well-timed Rivalry Week.

Good luck.

With only North Carolina State and Miami keeping them from the ACC cellar, and noted ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi not even listing North Carolina among the top eight teams out of his field, this is more than just an uphill battle UNC is left to fight.

I've seen UNC a few times, including their riveting second half comeback at home against Georgia Tech. Yes, it's a game they lost, but the Heels were hopelessly behind, went on an amazing run, and actually made Tech sweat quite a bit to get the narrow win. While they didn't get the "W" on that day, it looked as if they could recover quickly and stay in the ACC race.

Since then, they've lost four of five, and three of those were by double digits.

Even if the Tar Heels can beat Duke twice, it's hard to imagine them doing any better than 5-3 over their last eight games. That places them at 7-9 in the ACC, 18-13 overall as the league tournament starts.

Yes, this is North Carolina, but they aren't going to magically jump into the list of top 40 at-large candidates. They would still need to win the ACC Tournament to get in.

While it sounds weird to say, it might be time to seriously consider the reality of an NCAA Tournament without North Carolina.

And, no, you can't blame this one on Bill Guthridge or Matt Doherty.

Will NCAA Tournament Expand?

There has been a lot of chatter lately about the future of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. The 64-team field became a field of 65 a few years back, as a 31st conference became eligible for an automatic bid.

(The rules state that 34 teams must receive at-large bids, so the field was expanded to 65 teams to avoid having to change the rule.)

The idea of expanding the tournament has been an open topic for a number of years, with advocates existing to take the field to 96 or 128 teams. Back in the days of the old radio show, I advocated an expansion to 96 teams, because I was intrigued by the idea of awarding first-round byes to teams.

Shockingly, the idea of a 96-team tournament isn't sitting well with some. Take Jim Delaney, commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, who spoke with Sporting News Today in Monday's edition.

"I don’t know about threatening the popularity of the tournament as much as having more dilution of the regular season. I do think the tournament is elegant in the way that it’s structured, but I’m more concerned about, 'What does this mean for the sport of basketball from November through March?' I don’t think it would make the tournament less popular. It would affect it in some ways. There’d be different kinds of competition in the first and second round."

Delaney's right on one point. This change would not make the tournament less popular.

However, the argument about the sanctity of the regular season doesn't hold water.

Out of the 31 conferences that play Division I basketball and have an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, close 20 of them will be one-bid leagues in any given year. Only one of those conferences -- the Ivy League -- does not use a postseason tournament to determine its automatic bid.

For these leagues, the regular season is completely pointless. A team could go 16-0 in league play, winning by an average of 25 points, and they would still miss the NCAAs if they didn't win the three-day league tournament.

Now, the commissioner of a power conference that makes a ton of money on its postseason tournament -- a tournament that is also used to give out the league's automatic NCAA bid -- wants you to believe that the regular season matters in the sport.

Really?

The addition of 32 teams creates a few problems. For starters, and this is going to sound ridiculous, the normal one-sheet bracket would die, and you have no idea what this could do to overall interest in the tournament. No one does, because the impact this has on office pools could be an issue.

(Of course, the NCAA will not have a clue about this, because in their minds, no one takes part in office pools. Riiiiight.)

Who gets the byes? The top 32 seeds? How about rewarding teams for actually trying to win their conference tournament by awarding an automatic bye to any team that wins its regular season and tournament championships?

There it is: Real incentive for a team to give it their all in their league tournament. Makes the quality of basketball in them much better.

Downside does exist here. There will be pushback from traditionalists, but the traditional 64-team field is no more. It will go to at least 66 by 2020, when the Great West Conference qualifies for an automatic bid for the first time. Traditionalists have a point, because the old field of 64 was special, but 64 is gone, and it's never coming back.

What's the harm of finishing the expansion to a point where they won't have to do anything again (unless they want to)? 128 levels the playing field, but can you imagine the craziness of 64 first-round games?

Not only that, but if you want to restore some sort of value to the regular season, is there a better way at this point than giving teams that are really good from start to finish a chance to earn a first-round bye?

The NCAA has some tough decisions to make, both with the size of the tournament and the broadcast outlet that wins the television rights. Hopefully, they aren't bogged down by bureaucratic BS, and they can make sane decisions that will help grow the scope of the championship, while also keeping in play many of the traditions that make it special.

Congratulations, Chad Calcaterra

Not many basketball players from this area make it to Division I. The most recent was former Duluth East star Cory Johnson, who started his college career at Iowa State before moving on to Valparaiso.

Before him, former Gopher Rick Rickert, now playing professionally in New Zealand, was the most notable of the last 15 years or so.

Cloquet is known as a hockey town. They have a top-notch youth program, one of the best facilities in the area, and a very good tradition at the high school level. Recently, their football and basketball programs have garnered some attention, too.

The basketball team now has a Division I player to brag about. Senior Chad Calcaterra, the tallest player in the area, has verbally committed to Colorado State.

The 6-10 forward has been courted by many Division I schools, but committed to play for the Rams after visiting campus this past weekend.

Both assistants to CSU coach Tim Miles, who worked previously at North Dakota State, are from Minnesota.

Calcaterra will be eligible to sign his letter of intent later this year.

PLANTE, GUIDINGER PART OF UMD HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2009

Greetings from Sioux Falls, where I've been on family "business" since Thursday.

The UMD Athletic Hall of Fame's Class of 2009 has been announced. The following info comes from the school's press release.

A quartet of All-Americans -- Jeff Guidinger (basketball), Ron Johnson (golf), Derek Plante (hockey), and the late Corey Veech (football) -- three-time all-conference selection Ann (Patet) Henry (softball), and former heavyweight boxing contender Scott LeDoux (football) will all be paid a lasting tribute on Oct. 3, 2009 when the University of Minnesota Duluth Athletic Hall of Fame holds its 12th enshrinement ceremony. The addition of this distinguished group will bring the UMD Athletic Hall of Fame membership to 94.

Guidinger drew the curtain on a rewarding basketball career in 1986-87 by attaining NAIA All-American (third team) honors in addition to being named the Northern Intercollegiate Conference Player of the Year. The Milwaukee, Wis. native and Whitefish Bay Dominican High School alumnus exited the Bulldog program ranking fifth in career scoring (1,422 points in 119 games for an 11.5 ppg), second in rebounding (731) and first in block shots (130). A two-time winner of the NAIA District 13 Player of the Year Award, Guidinger paced the NIC in field goal shooting (.624) as a senior while securing All-NIC recognition for the second year in a row (first team in 1986-86 and second team the previous year. He also finished atop the Bulldog scoring and rebounding charts in each of his final two seasons. Guidinger, who was selected UMD’s Outstanding Senior Male Athlete for 1986-87, helped lead UMD to three NIC championships (1983-84 and 1985-87), four NAIA National Tournament berths, four 20-win seasons and a 95-28 overall record during his four years of starting duty at the power forward position. Chosen to UMD’s All-75th Anniversary Team in 2006, Guidinger spent one season (1987-88) as a UMD student assistant coach after his playing days were over.

Johnson, who grew up in Duluth and attended East High School, was a four-year letterwinner in both golf and hockey (left wing). In the spring of 1962, he joined teammate Tom Maas as UMD’s first golf All-Americans after placing fourth individually at the NAIA Championships. Johnson, who captained the Bulldogs to a third place team finish at that national event, also played an integral part in UMD’s conquest of four straight Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles. On the ice, he skated a regular shift in 73 career games and was credited with 39 goals and 31 assists for 80 points -- good for the No. 4 spot on the Bulldogs’ all-time scoring list at time. Johnson served as an alternate team captain in his farewell season with the hockey Bulldogs and wound up missing half of the year with separated shoulder. In May of that year, he was bestowed with UMD’s 1962-63 Outstanding Senior Athlete Award.

LeDoux, a native of Deerwood, Minn., lettered three years with the football Bulldogs, including in 1968 when he started on both the offensive and defensive lines, before pursuing a career in professional boxing. As an amateur, he won the Upper Midwest Golden Glove title while he was a sophomore at UMD. LeDoux posted a record of 33-13 with four draws in 50 professional bouts and is the only fighter to have boxed 11 world champions: George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Leon Spinks, Ken Norton, Frank Bruno, Mike Weaver, Gerrie Coetzee, Mike Tyson (training camp) and Lennox Lewis (training camp). He later served on and chaired the Minnesota Boxing Commission for 18 years and was employed as a ringside boxing analyst for ESPN2 Tuesday Night Fights in 2000.

Plante was a driving offensive force for the Bulldogs for four winters, culminating with a senior year in which he racked up an NCAA-leading 92 points --- still the second highest single-season total in team history -- for a school-record 2.49 points per game average. The Cloquet, Minn. product captained the Bulldogs to the 1992-93 WCHA regular season title and a berth in the NCAA Regionals and, in the process, was chosen as a Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalist, a first team All-American, the USA Hockey Male Athlete of the Year, and the WCHA Player of the Year. In addition, he was a All-WCHA first team honoree as a senior after receiving second team honors the previous winter. Planted closed out his collegiate career with 219 points on 96 goals and 123 assists in 138 outings which currently puts him in a tie for second place on the UMD’s all-time scoring charts while his career points per game average (1.587) trails only UMD Hall of Fame Inductees Bill Watson (1.94 ppg), Keith “Huffer” Christiansen (1.92 ppg) and Brett Hull (1.588). During his final season, he paced the Bulldogs in points for the third winter in a row en route to landing UMD’s Most Valuable Player Award an unprecedented third consecutive time. A member of the WCHA All-Academic Team as a senior and the owner of team records for most career game-winning goals (15) as well as most playoff assists (13) and playoff points (19) in one season (1992-93), Plante was chosen UMD’s Outstanding Senior Male Athlete for 1992-93. Plante, who played two years of baseball with the Bulldogs as a reserve second baseman (1991 and 1992), went on to enjoy an eight-year stint in the National Hockey League with Buffalo (1993-99), Dallas (1999-2000 when he won a Stanley Cup), Chicago (1999-2000) and Philadelphia (2000-01), producing 96 goals and 152 assists for 248 points in 450 regular season games. Selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1989 NHL draft (8th round, 161st pick overall), Plante also did time with the International Hockey League’s Chicago Wolves (1999-2000) and Michigan K-Wings (1999-2000) and the American Hockey League’s Philadelphia Phantoms (2000-01). He spent another six seasons playing professionally in Europe and Japan before retiring following the 2007-08 season. He skated with Team U.S.A. at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships on seven occasions: 1992, 1993, 1996, and 2000-2004.

Henry arrived on the UMD campus from South St. Paul in 1985, and over the next four years distinguished herself as one of the most prolific hitters in Bulldog softball history. The three-time All-NIC third baseman (1986, 1987 and 1989) was a member of three NIC championship teams and helped UMD advance all the way to the finals of the 1988 NAIA National Championship in Oklahoma City, Okla., where she landed All-Tournament Team honors. When she hung up her collegiate spikes for good in the spring of 1989, Henry held down the No. 1 spot among Bulldogs for career games played (172), at bats (535), hits (188), doubles (29) runs batted in (129, a mark which still stands), total bases (257) and slugging percentage (.477) while sporting a .351 lifetime batting average. She also set school single-season marks for RBI (45) and fielding assists (114) during the 1988 season. Henry who was a co-recipient of UMD’s Outstanding Female Athlete award in 1988-89, served as an Bulldog assistant coach for two years (1990 and 1991), as the head softball coach at the University of Wisconsin-Superior for one season (1992) and as the assistant softball coach and head volleyball coach at Henry Sibley High School for six years (1996-2001).

Veech, who was killed in a automobile accident in September 1990, capped off a remarkable senior season with selections to the Associated Press Little All-American and Football News All-American second teams. The Hermantown, Minn. native started three years in the Bulldog offensive backfield and concluded his career owning no less than 15 school records, including five marks which still remain -- rushing attempts in a career (606) and single-season (269 in 1986), most 100-yard rushing games in a season (nine in 1986) and consecutive 100-yard rushing games (seven in 1986) and punt returns in one game (eight in 1985). Chosen to the All-NIC team on two occasions (1985 and 1986), Veech was bestowed with the NIC's Most Valuable Player award as a senior after leading that circuit in both scoring and punt return average. He handled an alternate team captain role on a UMD club which went 8-1-2 overall and shared the No. 18 spot in the final 1986 NCAA II poll. That same year, he ran for 1,377 yards, a figure which then ranked second to only Ted McKnight's 1,482 yard effort in 1976 on UMD’s single-season charts. Veech’s rushing average during his farewell year (125. 2 yards per outing) was the sixth best in in the nation while his 11.1 points per game mark was bettered by only one other NCAA II player. He topped the Bulldogs in rushing and scoring both as a junior and senior and finished as UMD’s second all-time leading ground gainer with 2,768 yards.

Congratulations to all six. It's a heckuva group.

GOOD HIRE FOR FIU?

Well, who the hell is FIU, anyway?

Florida International is a Division I institution in Miami. They're growing, as evidenced by a new facility that went up for the football program. However, the basketball program has been quite stagnant. In fact, they averaged 693 fans per game in a 13-20 season in 2008-2009.

Instead of letting the basketball program flounder, the administration reached out to an old friend of athletic director Pete Garcia.

Next thing you know, everyone knows who FIU is, because Isiah Thomas is their basketball coach.

Zeke is virtually untouchable in the NBA right now. He underachieved in a stint at Indiana's head coach, then embarrassed himself and the league's most marketable franchise with a disastrous stint as head of operations with the New York Knicks.

What Thomas will find in the college game is something a bit different than he had in the NBA. Yes, young athletes have egos unlike anything he would have seen when he was a kid. Yes, young athletes are bigger and stronger than most anything he would have seen when he was a kid.

However, there's no salary cap. Only scholarship and recruiting restrictions. No matter the media attention his hire got, FIU is not in the college basketball spotlight. And there's no doubt Thomas has a passion for and a knowledge of the game of basketball.

While there's no doubt that Thomas has been a lightning rod in his time as a coach or personnel guy in the NBA, my FanHouse colleague Jay Mariotti makes a very good point.

This is his last lifeline in the sport. The fact he's willing to take his massive, tainted name to an obscure program suggests he still has a measure of good character and might put it to positive use: coaching young people, teaching them about life and using his own experiences as a how-to -- and how-not-to -- handbook.

If the fact that he's willing to work with an obscure program doesn't convince you that he's serious, try this.

Thomas' introduction to FIU on Wednesday included the revelation that the former New York Knicks coach and president — who's still owed millions from the NBA team — will donate his salary back to the school for his first season. School officials did not release the exact figure, other than saying it's between $200,000 and $300,000. "I did not come here for the money," Thomas said.

It's a good start for Isiah. For FIU, it's officially a low-risk move. They give him perhaps a tad more money than they'd give a hotshot assistant from Gardner-Webb (no offense at all to Gardner-Webb, but I'd expect a school like FIU to hire a good coach from a very small school for their gig). In return, they get notoriety and recognition that they'd never otherwise get.

For Thomas, it's a chance to get his reputation heading back in the right direction. He has a long road back to where his image was when he was kissing Magic Johnson, but he has to start somewhere.

GOOD LUCK, CAL

It's a program whose alumni and fanbase have eaten alive competent coaches like Tubby Smith (now with Minnesota) and Billy Gillispie (now unemployed).

Am I really supposed to believe the same won't happen to John Calipari?

The Memphis coach has reportedly decided to leave the school to become the next coach at Kentucky, replacing the fired Gillispie. He apparently wasn't a nice-enough guy, though something tells me that if he had won 60 games over two years instead of 47, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Frankly, "not a nice-enough guy" is a pretty poor excuse for firing a coach who hasn't had much of a chance to coach his own recruits. But it's not my buyout money, so I don't care what Kentucky thinks they have to do.

But what happens when they have to buy out Calipari for not being nice enough, or not winning enough, or not recruiting enough blue-chippers?

Reality is that I respect Calipari a great deal. I think he's a good coach, and I think he's generally a pretty decent fellow as far as college coaches go. He reminded me of a snake-oil salesman at Massachusetts, but he seems much more genuine to me now. That's a trait that Kentucky fans will find endearing, because it doesn't sound like they felt that way about Gillispie.

The criticism of Calipari (besides his ridiculous salary) is that he has never won in a big conference. However, that's not terribly important. If he can get the kind of recruits at Kentucky that he got at Massachusetts and Memphis, there's no reason to think he won't be highly successful.

It's also worth noting that he hasn't just won in big conferences. He's thoroughly dominated.

If he doesn't get eaten live by the fans, Calipari will put Kentucky back into national championship contention. From there, let's hope those fans understand that college basketball isn't what it used to be, and sometimes it really has to be good enough to make the Elite Eight.