Today in the Mid-Day Rumble, a Hall of Fame head coach has resigned at the wrong time, two recruits who might not be eligible for college basketball took center stage at Peach Jam, and Bob Knight supports Donald Trump.
Hall of Famer leaves SMU
Between the tragedies that happened in Dallas last night and the fact that the live recruiting period just opened on Wednesday, this was awful timing for Larry Brown to resign as head coach of SMU. Brown was searching for a long term contract, but according to ESPN, the Mustangs only wanted to extend him for a maximum of 2-to-3 years.
Tim Jankovich will take over as the new head coach of the Mustangs. He formally was the head coach of Illinois State and North Texas, and was hired by SMU to eventually take over for Brown.
Brown has famously coached three separate college programs (UCLA, Kansas and SMU), and all three have dealt with scandals. UCLA was given a postseason ban and probation for using ineligible players, Kansas was banned from the postseason following an NCAA Championship (Brown left for the Spurs after the title), and SMU was caught committing academic fraud and was also banned from the postseason.
Oddly enough, Jay Wright (who is good friends with Brown) told Goodman that he feels Brown is not done coaching.
Live period number one
2018's number one overall recruit Marvin Bagley III and 2017's number one overall recruit DeAndre Ayton took center stage at the Nike Peach Jam on Thursday. But instead of talking about the play of two high quality prospects, there was more discussion about the possibility of both not playing NCAA basketball.
There are eligibility question marks surrounding the two talents, who could eventually be number one picks in future NBA Draft's.
Kentucky is interested in multiple point guards in the 2017 recruiting class, including Quade Green, Tremont Waters, Trevon Duval and Trae Young. Green spoke with Kentucky.com and was asked about the plethora of guards that the Wildcats are recruiting. "It really comes down to who commits first," he said.
St. John's has zero scholarships remaining in 2017, but they have been targeting Andre Rafus for a while in case of a transfer or change in their roster picture. Rafus is cutting his list down to seven following the Elevate Summer Hoops Icebreaker tournament this weekend.
He told SNY that North Carolina State, Butler and Kentucky will definitely make the cut.
News/Notes
Bobby Knight campaigned for Donald Trump back in April and now he's speaking in favor of the Republican candidate yet again. He will be involved with Trump at the Republican Convention in Cleveland later this month.
Syracuse hired a new Athletic Director, former ESPN executive Vice President John Wildhack, earlier this week. Jim Boeheim was fond of the hiring, as he feels Wildhack's leadership skills and experience will be important to Syracuse's athletic department.
Hall of Fame broadcaster and the Voice of Duke, Bob Harris, will retire following the 2016-17 season. He is the longest tenured play-by-play announcer in the ACC.