Hawaii Basketball Tournaments...No Rainbow Classic mention?

Saw this article run through the AP Wire and found it amusing and quite telling in terms of how the Outriggers Hotel Rainbow Classic is viewed among those in the College Basketball World.

Feel free to post your reaction below, but I personally find it telling about how unimportant this tournament is, in relation with most of these 8-10-12 team non-conference tournaments throughout the country in November and December.

Kim Beck Resigns with Seattle Storm

Thank to WRGW's own Mallory Thompson for this great news. Kim Beck has been re-signed by the Storm for the remainder of the season according to Jayda Evans on her Seattle Times Storm Blog.

Beck has been seen on campus the past few days along with Sarah-Jo Lawrence but should be on her way to Seattle for the rest of the WNBA season.

Seattle is 21-11 and is second place in the Western Conference standings and has just two games remaining in the regular season. We will keep you updated on the story.

Scheduling Update with dates

Here is an updated look at the Men's 2008-09 Non-Conference Basketball schedule to the best of my knowledge right now:

Nov. 14 - @ Boston University
Nov. 26 - UMBC
Dec. 7 - BB&T Classic (Maryland)
Dec. 17 - American
Dec. 27-30 - Rainbow Classic (Colorado, Colorado St, Pepperdine, Vermont, Coppin St, Vermont and tentatively Buffalo after Clemson pulled out of this tournament earlier this month)
Jan 3- @ Longwood

Not scheduled yet are home games vs. Harvard and what must be the backleg of a home and home with Binghamton who are expected to come to the Smith Center this year. While GW has a couple of good neutral court games, I still believe the Colonials should be looking to play 1-2 more challenging games on the road this season. More to come on the 2008-09 schedule.

Dwayne Smith not coming to Foggy Bottom this year

With the Atlantic-10 Basketball Prospectus out, it seems Dwayne Smith is out as well. Under the incoming players on the GW Page (pg. 16) it lists Matt Albritton, Aaron Ware, Tony Taylor and Jeff Alston as the four newcomers for Karl Hobbs program.

Furthermore an article published by the Pioneer Press mentioned that Smith "was ruled ineligible to play for George Washington, because he took two core classes during the extra year."

These clearinghouse rules are predicated on stories that were published by both the Washington Post and New York Times in 2006 about prep schools that were considered "diploma mills," by the NCAA.

Smith, supposedly needed two core classes in his 5th year of high-school to graduate which would violate the 2007 NCAA rule that states that an incoming freshman can only take one core class in his 5th year of high-school to be eligible to play Divison I basketball the following season.

This is a big blow to the incoming class of 2009 who now only have three incoming freshman receiving scholarships. Without Smith the Colonials have an extra scholarship to give for this season and it remains to be seen if the 5-9 Alston or 5-8 junior point guard Johnny Lee will be the 13th scholarship player for the Colonials this season.

GW Recruiting

One of the players that was thought to have GW on his radar apparently is no longer considering Foggy Bottom as a potential landing spot in 2009. Brewster Academy's Givon Crump was recently interviewed by Beaverblitz.com and listed nine schools he is interested in, but not one of them was the Colonials. 

Crump, who is trimming his list, says he is looking at Michigan, Oregon St., Rutgers, Wake Forest and Maryland among others. GW was recruiting Crump early during his junior season, but the Colonials can longer be considered a landing spot for Crump. 

Kenyon named new strength and conditioning coach

Former Adelphi University basketball player and Florida Gators Assistant Strength and Conditioning coach Benjamin Kenyon has been named the replacement to GW's former strength and conditioning coach Mark Bearden.

Here is the release below:

WASHINGTON, DC — Benjamin Kenyon has been named head coach for strength and conditioning for the George Washington University's varsity athletics programs, Director of Athletics Jack Kvancz has announced. He replaces former strength coach Mark Bearden who resigned to pursue other opportunities. Kenyon served as a graduate assistant for strength and conditioning under Bearden at GW from Sept. 2006 to June 2007. While at GW, he worked with men’s and women’s basketball, soccer, men’s golf, baseball and softball.

“We're very excited to welcome Ben back to GW,” GW men's basketball coach Karl Hobbs said. "His experience and basketball background will give our players a new sense of confidence.”

Kenyon returns to GW after serving as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Florida for the past year in Gainesville, FL. A 2006 graduate and four-year basketball letterwinner at Adelphi University, Kenyon worked with the Gators’ men’s and women’s basketball, golf and tennis teams.

Prior to that, he was a strength and conditioning intern at Rutgers during the summer of 2007.

- GW -