"That's just how I was raised. I feel like Northwood, the basketball gym felt like my home since I'm there so much, before, during and after school... I just wanted to help out. That was really it."
You'd have to catch me off the record to answer that question. The implication was clear: Now that every school can pay players -- either through direct revenue share or name, image and likeness dollars -- Big Ten schools are no longer disadvantaged in recruiting by everything from booster bag men to shoe company AAU connections.
St. John's basketball ranks ninth all-time in NCAA Division I wins with 1,973 and has appeared in 32 NCAA Tournaments, achieving nine Sweet 16s and two Final Fours.
Michigan enters the afternoon tilt as a solid 7.5-point favorite against a red-hot Tennessee squad, backed by a significant home-region advantage in Chicago.
Dayton has a +154 scoring differential, topping opponents by five points per game. It is putting up 75.1 points per game to rank 198th in college basketball and is giving up 70.1 per contest to rank 72nd in college basketball.
They were just ruled out for the rest of the game. We'll evaluate them tomorrow, but when they went out they weren't coming back. Both players were ruled out midway through the fourth quarter of a Thunder win that extended their lead over the San Antonio Spurs for the top seed in the Western Conference to 3.5 games.
