Each week, I write about the sport I love, college basketball:
• It was crazy watching the scene out in Los Angeles; the flooding of Pauley Pavilion was sad. Hopefully the court will be deemed playable for the upcoming season. There are a lot of good nonconference games scheduled there.
• UAB guard Chad Frazier, who earned All-Conference USA first-team honors last season, has left the Blazers program. He was third in the league in scoring (17.7 PPG) and fifth in assists (4.3 APG). Frazier faced allegations of domestic violence, clearly a no-no. That was a blow to Blazers coach Jerod Haase's program.
• Marquette guard Todd Mayo has left the school to pursue a pro career. He averaged 11.3 PPG last season for Buzz Williams, who left for the Virginia Tech job. Mayo left before new coach Steve Wojciechowski's first year at Marquette.
• Coaches would love to have one McDonald's All American on their roster. How about four on your second team? Yes, John Calipari has that at Kentucky this season. I keep thinking about that and saying, "WOW!"
• There will be a lot of home cooking for NC State. Mark Gottfried has a handful of challenging nonleague games, including Tennessee, Cincinnati and Louisiana Tech. Only two of his first 14 contests are out of the state of North Carolina. The Wolfpack will visit Purdue and face West Virginia at Madison Square Garden.