PREP SCHOOL INVESTIGATION

Danny Wetzel of Yahoo Sports on Notre Dame Prep being investigated.

Parents of former players from the Fitchburg, Mass., prep school told Yahoo! Sports they have been contacted by NCAA investigators and asked about topics including academic and eligibility issues, financial irregularities and recruiting practices at the longtime basketball powerhouse. The NCAA has already ruled Maryland recruit Sam Cassell Jr. and Xavier’s Myles Davis academically ineligible to play.

“They seemed to be focused on academic issues at Notre Dame Prep, but they asked about a number of other issues as well, how tuition payments worked, visits by assistant coaches from certain schools, the behavior of specific players and general life within the program,” said Everett Swain, whose son Charles was part of the basketball program for most of the 2010-11 academic year. Swain, who is from Texas, spoke with investigators this week.”

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Twitter: @CoachFinamore

FRIDAY’S FACE-UP

Bernard King’s Journey to Springfield: During his rookie season in New Jersey Bernard scored 24 points per game and pulled down eight rebounds.  Some say the Nets were the worst team in the NBA; they may be right, New Jersey finished 24-58.  Bernard set a New Jersey Nets franchise record for most points scored in a season with 1,909. Early in the season he exploded for 41 points against the Philadelphia 76ers. Walter Davis was named Rookie of the Year, King earned First Team All-Rookie honors.

1-Andy Katz of ESPN.com with Rhode Island head coach Danny Hurley.

2-Gary Bedore of KU Sportson the Jayhawks Boot Camp and how the young guys are feeling. There’s a four-letter word that best describes Bill Self’s Kansas University basketball Boot Camp. “Pain,” KU freshman guard Rio Adams said Thursday with a smile. “It’s pain you don’t mind going through,” the 6-foot-3 Seattle native quickly added.

3-Phil Zaroo of MLive on Michigan State’s Branden Dawson and his progress after his injury last season. Coach Tom Izzo: “His knee – he’s back doing drills almost 100 percent, but it’s the seven months he missed. How long it takes to make that up – as we’re learning from Peyton Manning there’ll be some ups and downs, I’m sure, in the early part of the season.”

4-Jerry ZGoda of the Star Tribune on Ricky Rubio. “There’s not a time because it depends on how the knee goes,” he said. “Now I start running and I feel good. In three, four weeks, I’m gonna start agility and if my knee swells a little bit, I have to stop. If not, I’m going to keep pushing it. I’m trying to do as much as I can do. They have to stop me sometimes because I want to do more. Sometimes it’s just bad for my knee to do more things.”

5-Harry Plumer of Mass Live.com on Derrick Kellogg and his message for the freshmen in Amherst. “They have to learn how hard you’ve got to play, how you’ve got to compete and get after it,” Kellogg said. It’s not an overnight process, either. Though all three freshmen were on campus participating in workouts this summer, Kellogg said it takes much longer to complete the adjustment from high school to college basketball.

“It can take a whole season at times,” Kellogg said. “I think young kids, they continue to learn and get better as the season goes on and really I’m not sure if they know how hard they have to play until halfway through the season.”

Today’s Birthday’s: Johnny Dawkins (49), Bonzi Wells (36), Jose Calderon (31), Emeka Okafor (30), Anderson Varejao (30) (Thanks to Camp Darryl)

There’s another story out there of a coach and an athlete involved in deviant behavior. How many times do I have to say – CUT IT OUT. YOU’RE RUINING YOUR CAREER…PLUS, YOU’RE EMBARRASSING YOUR FAMILY!

HOOPS135@HOTMAIL.COM

TWITTER: @CoachFinamore

THURSDAY’S TAKE-AWAYS

Bernard King’s Journey to Springfield: Hubie Brown on Bernard. “The temptation is to focus on the two games where Bernard scored 50 points in Texas back-to-back, a great achievement. But in my mind, the really amazing thing was his playoff series against the Detroit Pistons. He averaged better than 40 points per game with two dislocated fingers. He made it look so easy that people didn’t realize the pain he experienced just catching the ball. He shot 60% from the floor during that stretch.” (New Yorker Magazine Sept. 17, 1984)

(New York Post)

1-Chicago Sun-Times on Joakim Noah attempting to bring kids together for a peaceful basketball game in Chicago.

2-CBS Sportsline has a story on Duke’s Men’s basketball team now using i-pads.

3-On this day, 9/27/02 the Harlem Globetrotters were enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a team. They originated in Chicago in 1927 by Abe Saperstein.

4-The Refs are back and ready to go in the NFL. How long will it take for someone to complain when they make a bad call?

HOOPS135@HOTMAIL.COM

TWITTER: @CoachFinamore

WEDNESDAY’S SHELL DEFENSE

Bernard King’s Journey to Springfield: Bleacher Report.com posted their All-Time New York Knicks team. Bernie made the cut; he gets the start at small forward. (Frazier, Monroe, Reed, and Ewing) So here you have a guy on the New York Knicks all-time team and he is NOT in the basketball Hall of Fame?  What really separates King from Carmelo Anthony, though, is the multi-faceted, two-way nature of his game. Not only was he a deft and willing passer, but he didn’t shy away from responsibility on the defensive end. He was superb at defending the passing lanes, and when healthy, could keep even the most elusive of athletes in front him.

1-This day in hoops: September 26, 1973 the late, great Wilt Chamberlain signed to coach the San Diego Conquistadors of the ABA. ‘The Stilt’ coached just one season; the squad went 37-47.

2-Bleacher Report on Ohio State men’s basketball; mainly DeShaun Thomas.

3-Howard Beck of the New York Times on the Brooklyn Nets. “Our focus is not beating the Knicks or being better than the Knicks,” said Billy King, Nets general manager. He added, “I don’t consume myself with the Knicks and anything they do.”

4- SB Nation.com with their list of the Top 100 College basketball players in the nation. Cody Zeller of Indiana checks in at # 1. Do you agree?

5- MLive.com Scott DeCampsat down with Tom Izzo for a Q&A. Izzo on Social Media:  I hate it (he smirked). I think it’s going to be the death of all of us. I know there’s a plus to it and communications people will be mad at me, corporately there will be people mad at me, because it is a good marketing tool in some respects but, again, we’ve done what we do so well – we throw something out at young kids. We said, “Here, deal with it,” and we forgot to educate them on how to use it and how critical it can for them and how damaging it can be. … 

I try to tell my guys, “Anytime you text, tweet, Facebook, do any of those instant messaging (things),” — I’ve got ‘em all now, and I’ve got an 18-year-old daughter – “just make sure what you say on there, you can say it right here with the TV cameras live and well. If you feel comfortable with that, then cool. If you don’t, you’re in trouble.” It is a new animal to deal with, though.

HOOPS135@HOTMAIL.COM

TWITTER: @CoachFinamore

TUESDAY’S TIP-INS

Bernard King’s Journey to Springfield: The 1984 Eastern Conference playoffs between the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons was memorable. Isiah Thomas scored 16 points in 94 seconds but it was Bernard that won the game for the Knicks in OT; eliminating the Pistons from the playoffs on their home court.

1-Everton Bailey Jr. of the Oregonian with a disturbing story about a basketball coach, a 13 – year – old player and abuse.

2-WISH TV.com on Butler’s coach Brad Stevens, and his love for stats. “I think it’s a unique way of looking at the game that may be able to help best communicate to your players something that puts them over the top in a game,” Stevens said.

3-ESPN.com with a story on a mother who wrote a letter to Texas Tech about her son who attended the Texas Tech basketball camp and was the target of Billy Gillispie. She was not happy.

Today’s birthday’s: (Compliments of Darryl Matthews, AKA, ‘Camp Darryl’): Hubie Brown 79, Bob McAdoo 61,  Scottie Pippen 47,  Chauncey Billups 36.

HOOPS135@HOTMAIL.COM

TWITTER: @CoachFinamore