Several little things to get out.

A story on incoming freshman Talib Zanna’s journey from Nigeria to the United States. Go figure, it was not an easy thing. Even coming from a well-educated family, Nigeria is a mess and his father passed away this past year.

A nasty mess brewing at the Kiski school where 2010 verbal commit Isiah Epps might prep (unlikely now).

A coach hired to take the basketball program of an Indiana County private school to national prominence sued Monday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, claiming he was forced out for recruiting too many black players.

Anthony Cheatham, 31, of Edgewood claims administrators at The Kiski School told him they would not tolerate fielding an all-black lineup.

“He was told to recruit scholastic, highly talented basketball players,” said Cheatham’s attorney Sam Cordes.

Cheatham was an assistant at Robert Morris and also trains future and present NBA players including Sam Young. Messed up stuff.

I really don’t think Coach Dixon is sweating his annual NCAA Recruiting exam.

“You can’t recruit until you pass it,” Dixon said hours before the Erie Chapter of the Panthers Club’s annual sports banquet at the Kahkwa Club on Tuesday.

With college basketball coaches being able to start summer recruiting next month, passing the test now is a must for them.

“I’ve never failed the test,” said a smiling Dixon, whose team won a school-record 31 games in reaching the Elite Eight last season before losing to Villanova.

Dixon said the coaches have 90 minutes to take the test and must score 80 percent.

It’s an open book test, but the rules are lengthy and not so easy to figure out.

“Open book” being the key aspect.

To help pass the time of the offseason, one of my colleauges at FanHouse has prepared a list of the top-25 college basketball coaches.

He places Jamie Dixon at #17. I only quibble that Dixon should be about one spot higher, because he has overrated Matt Painter of Purdue. Painter is good and may merit being up there in a few years, but not yet does he rank #14.

By the time the Tim Floyd and the USC mess is finished, the Trojan job will be one of the most unattractive spots out there. Thus making the inevitable rumors that will occur after Floyd is fired regarding Dixon just silly. Really, shedding players and recruits at an epic pace. Floyd just seems clueless to his culpability.

“Kansas has two players who would have been NBA lottery picks, Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins, and they are returning to school,” USC Coach Tim Floyd said late Monday night, only hours after hearing about Johnson. “Good for them.

“Our guys get an offer from Islamabad and they’re gone.”

Let’s see. Collins and Aldrich are at Kansas where they have a shot at winning the national championship in 2010. They are on a stable team with a coach that has won and put players in the NBA.

Floyd and USC recruit hoping the glamor and location will get the kids, and the main promise seems to be that they will be able to get a future paycheck for playing basketball. The team has little shot at even contending for the Pac-10 next year.

Then there is that whole NCAA investigation hanging over the program; a coach that nearly bailed for Arizona — after previously telling a recruit that he wouldn’t like it if the recruit looked at other schools after giving a soft verbal; to say nothing of that the kids that want to bail ASAP were the ones the coach recruited and presumably knew what they were looking for.

It is very dangerous out there in the world of recruiting. UConn in a bit of trouble it would appear on its face.

The University of Connecticut violated NCAA rules in the recruitment of former guard Nate Miles, a six-month investigation by Yahoo! Sports has found.

Miles was provided with lodging, transportation, restaurant meals and representation by Josh Nochimson – a professional sports agent and former UConn student manager – between 2006 and 2008, according to multiple sources. As a representative of UConn’s athletic interests, NCAA rules barred Nochimson from having contact with Miles or from providing him with anything of value.

A UConn assistant coach said he made Nochimson aware of the Huskies’ recruitment of Miles. Later, the assistant coach said he knew that Nochimson and Miles had talked.

Nate Miles never played a game for UConn. He was kicked out of the school this past fall when he violated a restraining order against a female student. He’s now at the College of Southern Idaho, a junior college.

How much trouble UConn could actually be in and when anything could happen, is still a big question mark. Hell, USC is still cruising along a year after the revelations regarding O.J. Mayo and his time in LA.

Still, I am betting that somewhere in Maryland, Gary Williams will hear about this and just smile.

Not really my preference, but it seems to have gotten the attention of the NCAA in Ben Mauk’s case.

The NCAA agreed on Wednesday to re-hear Mauk’s appeal for a sixth year to complete his four years of eligibility.

If the appeal reaches the Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee, which ruled against Mauk on Aug. 8, Mauk has been assured that he will be given a chance to speak, something that he was not allowed to do the last time.

But Kevin Murphy, Mauk’s attorney, said he hopes the matter never reaches the committee.

“The (NCAA) staff is going to hear it first,” Murphy said. “If the staff agrees with us, he’s back on the field.”

File a lawsuit that would force the NCAA to make its explanation in a court of record and suddenly they want to re-hear the matter. Funny how that works.

Count on Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News to know about all of this.

The Panthers played 27 regular-season games–nine non-conference, 18 in the Big East season. They competed in the Big East tournament, which counted as one game because any team could be eliminated the first day. They played four early games in the Hispanic College Fund Basketball Challenge, which counted as two under NCAA rules for multi-team events. The Panthers’ NCAA Tournament appearances does not factor in; postseason doesn’t count because there’s no expectation a team will make it. So as permitted by the organization’s rules, Pitt’s schedule officially consisted of 30 games last season.

If you count Cook as having played 11 games, he is not eligible for the waiver. Indeed, he took the court 11 times. There’s no disputing that. He played a full complement of minutes in every one of those games.

However, it seems curious for the rules to be different for a team and a player in terms of how the games are calculated. If those four games in the Hispanic College Fund tournament counted only as two on Cook’s record–as they did for Pitt to meet NCAA scheduling rules–he officially would have played nine games last season. He’d be at exactly 30 percent and eligible for the waiver.

That case was made to the reinstatement committee nearly two months ago. Its members apparently thought hard about this, because they did not issue an answer for quite a while. But they still said no.

“They say, ‘There may be merit to your case, but we can’t do anything about it,’ ” Dixon said.

The university was told it could attempt to change the rule through the NCAA’s legislative process.

Of course, by the time a new rule could be adopted, Mike Cook’s grandkids would be D-I prospects.

If the committee had wanted to be just, it could have essentially rewritten the rule by issuing a precedent-setting decision. Instead, the committee chose expedience.

Got that?

Two different calculations, one screw over.

Cook had never taken a redshirt — medical or otherwise. He sat out one year under NCAA rules for transfers — he was not eligible to play. While getting a 6th year is rare, it would only have been a 5th year of actual eligibility. That’s one of the key differentials between the Ben Mauk case at Cinci and Mike Cook’s.

Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap.

University of Pittsburgh head men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon announced Wednesday that senior forward Mike Cook has been denied an additional year of competition from the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

In order to be considered for a sixth year extension, Cook would have needed to obtain a medical hardship waiver for his participation during the 2007-08 year. NCAA rules state that to be eligible for a medical hardship, a student-athlete must participate in no more than 30 percent of the team’s regular season games in order to guarantee an extra year of athletic eligibility. Even though Pitt played 37 total games including six postseason games, NCAA rules only allow postseason contests to be counted as one game when determining total number of games played. Since Cook played in 34 percent of Pitt’s games, Pitt filed an appeal with the NCAA to grant him an additional season of competition, as well as a sixth year after the hardship waiver was denied by the conference. The appeal was denied by the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee, comprised of faculty members and conference and athletic administrators.

One game. If it had been the 10th game when he got hurt — he’s getting another year. If it had been in game 12, not at all in dispute and there isn’t even an appeal. But right in the middle. Realistically Pitt played 37 games. For counting purposes a conference tournament and the NCAA Tournament get lumped as one single game. The numbers were uncomfortable.

In the end they fell back on, “a rule, is a rule, is a rule.” Why? Damned if I know. I do know whatever the letter of the rule, the spirit just got dumped on like John Edwards in a cancer survivors chatroom.

“Situations like this are hard to take when you know how dedicated Mike’s life has been to playing basketball,” Pitt Basketball Coach Jamie Dixon said. “Over the last three years, Mike has contributed significantly to our success both on and off the floor and has been an important member of our basketball family. When I asked Mike why he wanted to come to Pitt, he simply said he ‘wanted to win’. And he has won, going 40-8 as a starter. He has grown into a leader and has become an outstanding example for the younger players in our program. Mike has earned his degree and will have the opportunity to continue his career professionally when he returns to the floor.”

He did indeed. He left East Carolina where he was the man, but the rest of the team sucked. He had to do everything. He could have padded his stats and likely looked a lot better to NBA scouts. He came to Pitt and became part of a team. A family. He gave up a lot more chances to score. Embraced defense and — I hate this, it’s like a frickin’ eulogy.

I’m just really pissed about this.

Look, by all accounts Cook’s rehab is going a bit slower than expected. This was a brutal injury for a wing player. In all probability it will take him another 6 months — at least — before he can approximate where he was before the injury. He would have been a great presence and leader for the team, but his contributions would not have been as big. This wasn’t about how much better Pitt could have been with him. I think that was overstated.

It’s about the NCAA, once more, talking about how it is about the student-athlete. That it’s about the kids, and then falling back to hidebound rules when convenient and screw the kids.

One thing in the Pitt press release, though, did make me feel good.

Cook graduated from Pitt this spring with a communications degree and has spent the summer rehabbing his injury and preparing to action. The university will provide Cook an opportunity to remain in Pittsburgh as he takes additional classes and continues his rehabilitation.

That’s how you treat the student athletes.

Cook will at least have the time to really rehab. To really get better. All the while getting more education and prepared for the future. Even if in the short term, it’s just about basketball.

In an interview last month, Cook sounded ready to move on.

“As long as I can play basketball, that’s the most important thing to me,” he said. “If it’s not here, then I have to work for it to be somewhere else.”

Seriously? Again? What more info could they possibly need (Insider subs).

Pitt was supposed to hear this week from the NCAA about whether Mike Cook would receive a sixth season of eligibility. But the NCAA asked for more information, and Pitt has still not gotten a decision. Cook tore his ACL against Duke on Dec. 20.

I did check the date on Andy Katz’s blog post on this. It is for today, so it isn’t a rerun from info of last month. This is getting beyond stupid. The other problem with the continued delays is that it screws up the system if they do turn Cook down.

The NCAA system allows for appeals and requests for reconsideration. If the NCAA takes this long to make the first decision, there will be no practical chance to make an appeal and have a decision made before the school year starts. More than just making it very difficult for Pitt to set a roster, they are keeping Mike Cook’s life on hold with this. He’s in limbo with moving on to the rest of his life.

You have to be kidding.

The decision on Pitt guard Mike Cook’s medical redshirt may not come this week, as has been reported.

According to a source close to the situation, the decision by the NCAA may take another month, not nearly as soon as coach Jamie Dixon told reporters earlier this week.

Exactly what other information do they need? What other factors are under consideration?

This is a decision where you balance the letter of the rule — player can’t play more than 1/3 of the season — which he hit in the Duke game where he got injured to get a medical redshirt. The spirit/mercy of the rule — not taking away the chance to play and compete in collegiate athletics because of injuries.

Complicating things is that Cook would essentially be a 6th year senior since he used a redshirt when he transferred from ECU.

Still, all of this is known. This really should be about the NCAA just making the decision already.

In the matter of proving Sampson was “knowingly” violating NCAA recruiting rules.

Senderoff, who facilitated the three-way calls, said he didn’t remember reading an e-mail from an IU administrator June 13, 2006, stating the NCAA’s clarification that three-way calls were not allowed. Sampson acknowledged seeing the clarification but said he thought the subsequent three-way calls at issue were two-way calls.

In the case summary, the NCAA enforcement staff flatly challenges Sampson’s claim, citing several interviews with recruits.

Recruit DeJuan Blair, now a player at Pittsburgh, told an NCAA investigator he was “100 percent” sure he was on the phone with Sampson and Senderoff at the same time.

“If coach Sampson said something funny, coach Senderoff would laugh; or he would ask a question and coach Senderoff would answer; or coach Senderoff would ask a question and he would answer about Indiana,” Blair said.

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle did a piece on football prospect Averin Collier and how much texting goes on in the recruiting process. Collier says during one recent month he received over 1000 text messages from coaches that want them at their schools. It’s pretty safe to assume Pitt is one of those schools and Dave Wannstedt is one of the coaches that sends him multiple messages per day.

“The recruiters ruined it because they overdid it,” he said. “It was a classic case of overkill, of trying to keep up with the Joneses. Syracuse sends you seven text messages in a day, so Pitt figures it has to send eight, and so on and so on. It just escalated to a point where it became ridiculous.”

He won’t need to worry once August 1 rolls around; at that point the NCAA’s ban on “electronically transmitted correspondence” goes into effect.

I’d also love to know how these coaches are sending these messages. Is it from a phone issued by the athletic department? Do they get a phone (probably more like a Blackberry) for texting? I wonder if I can get Wannstedt’s number and maybe we can chat about the season…

(Hat tip: David in Orlando)

Last week the NCAA Rules Committee approved moving the 3-point line back 1 foot starting in the 2008 season. The women’s line will remain at 19′9″, so there will be the unaesthetic sight of two arcs running parallel. That should confuse refs and players periodically. Another early observation was that the moving the line back, would be a hit to the mid-majors that rely more on shooters than players going inside.

The overall consensus in the media and most fans, though, has been overwhelmingly positive. Myself included. It shouldn’t be a shot where teams average over 33%. It should be a much tougher shot, and taken less frequently. Mike DeCourcy gives a good breakdown of what is hoped to be accomplished with it.

Empirical: Of every 10 shots taken in the 2006-07 season, 3.4 were launched from 3-point range, up from about 1.5 of every 10 in 1986-87, the first year of the 3-pointer. Over the past 11 seasons, 3-point accuracy improved from 34.1 percent to 35.0 percent.

Anecdotal: “You’ve got bad shooters taking it — you’ve also got bad shooters making it,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey says.

Teams that set their perimeter players behind the 3-point line on offense will have to move them back. Teams that try to drop from the perimeter to double-team the ball in the post on defense will have more ground to cover. With less congestion in the key area, it likely will be easier for officials to identify the bumping, clutching and grabbing that defenders employ to disrupt offensive flow.

All this is expected to enhance the value of player movement, with and without the basketball. It’s a more beautiful game when the players are in motion.

When the local Pittsburgh college coaches were surveyed on the issue, it seems to reflect the view of major/mid-major biases. Coach Dixon was happy about it.

Pitt’s Jamie Dixon, whose Panthers rank among the nation’s elite programs, takes a different viewpoint than his counterparts at Duquesne and Robert Morris.

“I don’t think it will make too much of a difference,” Dixon said. “It was just a matter of time. We all knew this was coming. When I sent in my survey, I knew it [the line] was getting changed. I thought if they were going to move it, they should take it back to the international line.”

Mike Rice at Robert Morris isn’t a fan of moving it back; and Ron Everhart at Duquesne seems tepid at best. The one thing Dixon and Everhart did agree was that the lane should have been widened as well. Maybe they will take that up later.

There are always unintended consequences of a rule change. Syracuse and teams that play zone, look to be beneficiaries of the move.

One is how the move might encourage more teams to play a zone defense because if a zone is designed to force opponents to shoot 3-pointers, it’s reasonable to think more teams will become favorable of zones considering 3-pointers should now by definition be more difficult to make. Meanwhile, the schools that already predominantly play zone will likely enjoy a larger degree of success.

Advantage: Syracuse.

“Jim Boeheim, right now, is very happy,” UCLA coach Ben Howland told CBS SportsLine.com on Thursday afternoon. “In college basketball, you don’t have the same skill level as you do in the NBA, so you’re going to see a lot more zone.”

Things could really come together for the ‘Cuse in ‘08 when you factor in that their ‘07 recruiting class is huge in terms of ranking (top-5) and numbers (6 new players). They have a year to learn the zone and get comfortable with each other before the new rule. I’m just making note of that now.

DeCourcy also identified the type of players that will benefit from the move after next season: “The Bomber (Chris Lofton, Tennessee); Mid-range shooters (Jerel McNeal, Marquette); Aggressive wing players (Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis); Point guards who can run the fast break (Darren Collison, UCLA); and the Strong low-post players (Darrell Arthur, Kansas).

In the final group he includes DeJuan Blair as a player that will be dominating in the low-post, and will benefit from the change.