"I'm back"
Michael Jordan had retired from the Bulls; he wanted to try his hand at baseball. It had been years since he played the sport but only he knows why.  Jordan certainly proved more successful playing basketball than baseball. Rumors began circulating in 1995 he was returning to the Bulls, prior to his return two words were uttered; I'm back.  This is not the same story but it bears some similarity.  Jordan had proved he chose the wrong game and returned to basketball. On the other hand after a successful coaching career Brown was fired by the Bobcats in 2010. It’s my belief Brown was “lost” with no basketball in his life. 

Early in 2012 Brown was hired at SMU to turn around a bad basketball program.  Brown the only coach in history to win an NCAA and NBA Championship was in his element as the “teacher” began retuning the Mustangs. His first team finished 15-17, this years team barely missed being selected for the NCAA Tournament. The NIT selection committee chose his Mustang team and continued molding this team. Last night Brown‘s team lost the NIT Championship 65-63, they finished the season with a 27-10 record. This AARP coach will be 74 years old by the time the season rolls around in the fall. He still has the desire to teach and coach the game he loves after all these years.

He’s yet to make a decision
The high school basketball season is complete and yet Myles Turner remains uncommitted. The majority of high profile athletes announced in 2013 or earlier this year to the school of their choice. For those unfamiliar with Turner he’s a 7 foot 225 pound center who hails from Bedford (TX). Turner is one of a wealth of talent produced in recent years from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro. ESPN Top 100 2014 list him as the number two prospect in the nation, Rivals list him number 6. Very few high profile prospects remain uncommitted this late in the year. 6-9 Cliff Alexander (Rivals number 9) contacted Turner in an attempt to persuade him to join him, Alexander committed earlier this year to Kansas. This late in the year any number of schools would make room for this talented 7 foot prospect once he makes his decision.

No second guessing from me
Several in the media and a number of fans question Wiggins leaving early for the NBA, the same holds true for Parker and Embiid should they declare.  It would benefit all parties if they remained in school and enhanced their game. It’s probably not going to happen due to these considerations and maybe some I might have overlooked.

The first of course is financial reward. Few college students leave school with a multi-million dollar contract in hand. A shoe deal is a secondary financial reward to the NBA salary. An athlete returning to school may not play at the same level exhibited the previous season. Poor play might cause a player to slide into the second round meaning a non-guaranteed contract. Of course the very worst fate the athlete could suffer returning to school is an injury which excludes him for draft consideration or ends his basketball career.

RPI
I’m similar to a number of basketball fans; I often get caught up in the numbers. As we all know numbers don’t translate to anything except other numbers. We look at the Top 25 or RPI to demonstrate the value of our team. Florida is the RPI leader no surprise but exactly what is RPI? *“The current and commonly used formula for determining the RPI of a college basketball team at any given time is as follows.RPI = (WP * 0.25) + (OWP * 0.50) + (OOWP * 0.25) where WP is Winning Percentage, OWP is Opponents' Winning Percentage and OOWP is Opponents' Opponents' Winning Percentage.

The WP is calculated by taking a team's wins divided by the number of games it has played (i.e. wins plus losses).” The second place team (Arizona) and third place team (Kansas) have been eliminated. Sitting at number six is the Wisconsin Badgers, where does Wichita State sit? The Shockers are number 16, how about UConn they finished number 23. The NCAA must have a method to determine the effectiveness of a team and this is the method utilized. The above cannot be considered the only evidence of a team’s strength it’s just a barometer. The main reason its value is questionable it’s based on teams non-conference won-loss record. Ask Kentucky, UConn, Wisconsin and Florida their view of RPI. *Wikipedia