Recruiting timeclock speeds up

Bob Gibbons of All-Star Sports has been covering recruiting for longer than Mike Krzyzewski has been coaching at Duke, but can’t remember North Carolina accepting a commitment from a player as young as Kendall Marshall.

A 6-foot-3, left-handed point guard from Bishop O’Connell High in Arlington, Va., Marshall committed Wednesday to North Carolina. He’s a high school sophomore rated one of the top half-dozen players in the Class of 2010 by Gibbons.

“He’s really an excellent addition for them,” said Gibbons, who lives in Lenoir, N.C.

Marshall’s commitment also demonstrates that even the traditional college powers no longer are waiting for players to mature before offering scholarships. As of Thursday, Gibbons said 108 of the top 150 seniors in the rankings he provides to ESPN.com are committed.

C.J. Leslie, a 6-7 forward from Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh in the Class of 2010, has been committed to N.C. State since June 22.

“The (recruiting) clock has just moved up,” Gibbons said.

He said schools are taking risks with early scholarship offers and commitments. Players who commit early can change their minds. Taylor King was an eighth-grader when he committed to UCLA; he enrolled at Duke this fall.

Sometimes players who commit early don’t mature and develop the way college coaches expect. If colleges withdraw their scholarship offers, coaches’ reputations with future recruits can be harmed.

“(Coaches) are gambling a bit,” Gibbons said. “They (players) have still got three years of high school left.”

But if coaches wait until players are seniors to offer scholarships, there won’t be many uncommitted players left to recruit.

– Ken Tysiac

Just call it 'McKillopville'

Just how much are Davidson fans excited for this season?

Guard Stephen Curry found out last week.

Curry and a handful of other Davidson players brought doughnuts for students who were camping out beside Belk Arena waiting for tickets to go on sale for the games against Duke and North Carolina at Charlotte Bobcats Arena. Student tickets for those games were $10; face value is $25. Tickets for games at Belk Arena are free for students.

"I had never seen anything like that here," Curry said. "They were lined up down the street just for tickets."

Davidson sold its 800 tickets for students within an hour Sept. 13, and then took orders for 400 more.

"I know they expect big things this season, and we do, too," Curry said. "But we have to take it one step at a time. It's just nice to know how much support we have here."

-- Kevin Cary

Mob boss 'infiltrates' UNC basketball

North Carolina athletes gathered in the Smith Center on Monday night gazed intently at former mob captain Michael Franzese.

“You (athletes) were our targets,” Franzese said. Franzese, who agreed to a 10-year prison sentence for racketeering, has left the mob and counsels athletes on the dangers of gambling.

He has spoken at 350 colleges and to major league baseball, NBA and NFL athletes since his release from prison. Here’s what he said Monday:

• “Michael Vick, take a lesson from this. His cousin, his good friends, the people he financed . . . they turned on him.”
  

• “Some of them (athletes he targeted) got hurt. Some of them were forced to compromise the integrity of the game.”
  

• “If I got what I deserved, I’d either be dead or in prison the rest of my life.”
  

Franzese told the players he had fixed games. He wouldn’t answer directly when North Carolina basketball player Michael Copeland asked how many people he had killed.

“One of the biggest regrets I have in life is that a lot of my friends did not make it out of the (mob) life,” he said.

He warned them about poker, disputing “marketing” that denies those who participate in the popular card game are gambling. He told them illegal, offshore sports betting web sites steal clients’ identities.

Franzese said a prominent major league baseball player recently told him that two men extorted $50,000 from the player after obtaining his personal information from a sports betting web site.
North Carolina senior associate athletics director Larry Gallo said Franzese eloquently delivered a message that the school and NCAA constantly preach.

“Hearing it from a mob guy made a big impact,” said North Carolina basketball center Tyler Hansbrough. “Definitely seeing it from an inside point of view changed how you look at things.”

Marcus Ginyard, Hansbrough’s teammate, said he hadn’t been aware of how gambling interests penetrated college campuses.

“A lot of people don’t think there’s a problem,” Ginyard said. “For him to be here and tell us the things he’s seen, you’ve got to listen.”

– Ken Tysiac

Roy Williams reminisces

You might think North Carolina coach Roy Williams’ 2004-05 national champions would be the first team that came to mind when he reminisces about his career.

Turns out he liked the next team – which had lost the top seven scorers from 2004-05 – just as much. He loved taking a bunch of freshmen and sophomores and proving wrong everybody who thought North Carolina wouldn’t be any good.

“Each and every year presents a different challenge,” Williams said Wednesday. “That team was fun to coach.”

Williams will do a lot of reminiscing this week as he gets inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Wednesday, he and his mentor, Dean Smith, met with the media to share their thoughts as Williams prepares to join Smith in the Hall of Fame.

Smith said Williams should have gotten into the Hall of Fame earlier.

“He’s got it all,” Smith said. “You go into a home (of a recruit), and he’s just as honest and straightforward (as could be).”

Before he makes a speech, Williams usually jots a few notes on an index card and ad libs. His induction speech is just the third one he’s ever written out. His two keynote speeches at alma mater, T.C. Roberson High in Asheville, were the others.

He says he wrote out the speech because the Hall of Fame wanted him to keep it brief. But he also is afraid he will get emotional as he thinks back about his past teams, coaches, friends and family.

“I had great, great, great help along the way,” he said.

– Ken Tysiac

Davidson-Winthrop in BracketBuster game?

Davidson will have another chance to showcase itself when the Wildcats play in the ESPN BracketBuster event Feb. 23.

The Wildcats won't know their opponent until February, but Davidson is already slotted to be a road team in the game. ESPN has already released all the home teams and road teams for the event, so Davidson could play at teams such as Southern Illinois, Old Dominion and Butler.

There's also another enticing possibility: Winthrop.

The Eagles are scheduled to be a home team in the event, and that could finally get the two local rivals on the court together, something that hasn't happened since 1992.

That matchup will certainly depend on how each team is doing. If Davidson and Winthrop can repeat last season's success, don't be surprised if the two schools end up renewing their rivalry in Rock Hill.

-- Kevin Cary

UNC vs Kentucky series lives on

North Carolina and Kentucky will continue their highly anticipated nonconference basketball series through at least the 2009-10 season, North Carolina senior associate athletics director Larry Gallo said Thursday.

The Dec. 1, 2007 game in Lexington is the last game the schools have under contract, Gallo said. But Gallo said North Carolina coach Roy Williams and first-year Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie have agreed the series should continue.

"We think this will continue for a long time," Gallo said. ". . .It’s one of those great rivalries that should keep on going."

North Carolina has played Kentucky the last seven seasons, winning the last three times after the Wildcats won four in a row. The Tar Heels lead the overall series 19-10.

Kentucky is the winningest team in Division I, with 1,948 wins in its history. North Carolina ranks second in Division I with 1,914 wins. – Ken Tysiac

Gaudio has time on his side

The biggest round of applause by Wake Forest supporters at Wednesday’s news conference announcing Dino Gaudio as the Deacons’ new basketball coach came when athletics director Ron Wellman said Gaudio had been given a five-year contract. No "interim" tag for Gaudio, an assistant to the late Skip Prosser at Wake Forest and Xavier since 2000. "I never would have done that to Dino," Wellman said. "That’s the worst thing you can do. You’re saying you’re a lame duck. How do you coach like that? And you can’t recruit."

-- Gaudio’s record (68-124) in two previous head-coaching jobs at Army and Loyola (Md.) is less than impressive. But those have never been college basketball powers. He’s got more experience now and more resources with which to work. Still, he will be going against some of the giants of his profession in the coaching-rich ACC. "I don’t worry about him locking horns with some of the greatest coaches in the country," Wellman said.

-- Gaudio did a good job of deflecting some of the blame for Wake Forest’s defensive inadequacies in recent seasons off Prosser and onto himself, while promising more emphasis in that area.

-- Gaudio looked elegant in a gray pinstriped suit that included a double-breasted vest. "We have a new dress code at Wake Forest," Wellman joked. "It appears that vests are in."

-- David Scott

ECU's move only first step

The timing – five months after the end of East Carolina’s season – was the only odd thing about Monday’s news that Ricky Stokes is finished as the Pirates’ basketball coach.

Stokes was 14-44 in two seasons and clearly wasn’t getting the job done. Former associate head coach Mack McCarthy will serve as interim coach in 2007-08 now that Stokes has been moved to associate athletics director for basketball.

East Carolina athletics director Terry Holland has coached Virginia to two Final Fours, so he certainly has his own ideas about how to revive the program.

Here are some things the program needs and Holland should keep in mind as he searches for a new coach:

D.C.-area recruiting. Greenville is just 4 ½ hours from Washington, D.C., but has just one player on its roster (freshman Jamar Abrams of Richmond) from remotely near that fertile recruiting area. The new coach can build a stronger talent base if he is successful recruiting the D.C. area.

Stronger scheduling. Some people thought Holland overscheduled when he put coach Skip Holtz up against numerous ACC schools and West Virginia in football. Then the Pirates defeated Virginia and N.C. State last season to reinvigorate the program. East Carolina’s only intriguing basketball games outside Conference USA last season were against N.C. State and Wake Forest. The Pirates should find a way to play at least four ACC/Big East-caliber schools every season.

Commit to a style. Whether it’s fast paced or tough and physical, the new coach needs to come with a style and philosophy that can give him an edge in recruiting the type of players he wants.

This still is a difficult job because East Carolina basketball has little winning tradition and the high school talent level in North Carolina is in a swoon. But particularly with Holland running the department, the Pirates can and should do better.

– Ken Tysiac

Gaudio would ease transition at Wake

With Skip Prosser’s memorial services over, Wake Forest athletics director Ron Wellman at some point soon will turn his attention to the future of the school’s basketball program.

During Prosser’s funeral Wednesday in Clemmons, N.C., it became obvious the man for the job is Prosser’s associate head coach, Dino Gaudio. Wake Forest’s players appeared devastated by Prosser’s sudden death at age 56. Taking away the current staff from the players and forcing them to work with new coaches would traumatize them more.

Gaudio demonstrated he is ready for the job as he eulogized a man he started working with in 1981, when Gaudio assisted Prosser at Central Catholic High in Wheeling, W.Va. At an emotional time, Gaudio explained Prosser’s philosophy and devotion better than anybody else could, demonstrating the speaking ability necessary for any ACC coach to succeed.

Gaudio has been a head coach from 1997 to 2000 at Loyola of Maryland and from 1993-97 at Army. It’s been difficult for anybody to win at either place. Gaudio was 36-72 at Army – but that school has had just one winning season since Mike Krzyzewski left for Duke in 1979. Gaudio was 32-52 at Loyola, but predecessor Brian Ellerbe was 33-48 and successor Scott Hicks was 16-97.

Some have suggested the current staff be kept in place in an attempt to keep the high-profile commitments of Al-Farouq Aminu, Ty Walker and Tony Woods that gave Prosser one of the nation’s best Class of 2008 recruiting hauls. But that’s a short-term, short-sighted view, and there’s no guarantee it would work.

The reason to hire Gaudio (and give him a five-year contract) is to maintain stability when a hire from outside the program could make a chaotic situation worse. The timing of this coaching search would make it difficult to attract marquee candidates anyway.

If the man Wake Forest needs is already on campus, Wellman ought to hire him.

– Ken Tysiac

International basketball a benefit to players

North Carolina forward Deon Thompson and Davidson guard Stephen Curry demonstrated this summer why college coaches get excited when their players get selected by USA Basketball to play in international tournaments.

The Tar Heel players are raving about Thompson’s physical condition as he prepares for a larger role starting in the post opposite Tyler Hansbrough with Brandan Wright departed for the NBA.
Thompson averaged 10.0 points and a team-high 6.1 rebounds as Team USA won the silver medal at the Under-19 world championships. On the same team, Curry again showed he’s as good as players from so-called “major” conferences after his brilliant freshman season. He averaged 9.4 points.

Davidson coach Bob McKillop said Curry had a “very productive” experience with the Under-19 team, and he’s “delighted” with Curry’s progress.

“He’s an incredibly special player,” McKillop said. “He’s got the full package of talent and attitude and work ethic and team orientation and basketball IQ.”

The opportunity for top-notch competition with USA Basketball is so attractive that even injured players get something out of it. North Carolina guard Wayne Ellington played in just one game before suffering a sprained left shoulder, but merely making the Pan Am Games team ahead of Tennessee’s Chris Lofton and Marquette’s Wes Matthews and Jerel McNeal was an accomplishment. Ellington's shoulder is better, a university spokesman said.

After DeMarcus Nelson fractured his left wrist during Pan Am trials, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said he was still glad Nelson participated. (Of course, as U.S. Olympic coach, Krzyzewski probably needed to say that).

Coaches understand that USA Basketball tours are not for everybody. Hansbrough, who gets physically pounded all season and doesn’t enjoy flying, certainly could have made the Pan Am Games team if he’d tried out. He’s probably better off avoiding more pounding.

But those who play test themselves against the best college players and the best the world has to offer. That can only help.

– Ken Tysiac