Just a little nugget to stay on top of the Pitt assistant coach hiring watch. From Andy Katz:

Pitt has offered the top assistant job to Saint Joseph’s assistant Mike Rice. Hawks coach Phil Martelli expects Rice to accept the job. The Pitt assistant job has been one of the most coveted this spring.

[Emphasis added.]

Reads like St. Joseph’s didn’t come up with much of a raise or promotion.

New Manhattan Head Coach Barry Rohrssen hired a couple new assistants.

Continuing to assemble his staff, head men’s basketball coach Barry Rohrssen has added two more assistants with strong New York ties. Rohrssen recently announced the hiring of Edgar De La Rosa and John Alesi who both come to Manhattan after serving on Big East coaching staffs this past season.
…
Alesi spent last season working with Rohrssen at the University of Pittsburgh. Alesi, a New York native, served as Pitt’s basketball video coordinator. Alesi assisted the Panthers’ staff in opponent and self scouting, helped with some areas of recruitment, and oversaw the program’s film exchange.

Prior to his stint at Pittsburgh, Alesi served as an assistant coach at Baruch College of the CUNY Conference during the 2004-05 campaign and a graduate assistant coach for Hofstra University of the Colonial Athletic Association during the 2003-04 season.

“I am impressed with John’s love for the game of basketball,” commented Rohrssen. “He is a young energetic coach with a strong work ethic, which will be beneficial to our program.”

It was speculated that Alesi might get promoted to Pitt’s Director of Basketball Operations with Antigua moving up to Assistant Coach, but reports that it will be Brandin Knight instead now receive greater credence.

For whatever reason, I’m feeling like being fair. So let me say, I don’t think the fact that WVU B-ball head coach John Beilein got cited for disorderly conduct by a police officer at the Pittsburgh Airport is that big a deal. Nor do I think that WVU should even think about taking any steps to ‘punish’ Beilein. There’s nothing to punish, it’s a traffic citation that looks bad.

West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong said Wednesday no immediate disciplinary action would be taken against basketball coach John Beilein after he was cited for disorderly conduct at Pittsburgh International Airport.
…
[Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles] Moffatt said the coach was cited for refusing to move his car, after telling the officer he didn’t have to move the vehicle because he was the West Virginia basketball coach.

Beilein’s attorney, Bob Fitzsimmons of Wheeling, W.Va., called it a misunderstanding.

“We don’t think it was disorderly conduct,” Fitzsimmons said. “It’s a misunderstanding between two individuals at a very busy Pittsburgh airport at the end of the Memorial Day weekend.

“It’s a very routine thing, but because he’s a coach, it gets escalated to something more, when it really isn’t. It isn’t a criminal matter.”

If you’ve dropped off or picked anyone up at an airport in the last couple of years you probably have your own annoyed stories of how petty, uncaring, and frustrating the cops are at airports.
They enjoy flexing their increased power to order people to move with greater zeal.

What amuses me was the reported playing of the “do you know who I am?” card by Beilein as he lost his cool. Apparently it had served him well in Morgantown, and he forgot he was no longer in West Virginia.

Okay, I’ve been trying to get this post written for almost a week, but a mixture of things (including losing an entire completed draft to the ether) has prevented the completion. I have been a long-time believer that the Bloated Big East would break-up following the 2009-10 basketball season. I felt (and still feel largely) that the football schools would have to split if ESPN kept shunting more of their games to fill weekday slots, which is why I keep bringing up the activities of the Mountain West Conference. Then there is the 12 game schedule creating difficulties in lining up enough opponents with only 7 conference games.

The Big East football teams need another team (at least), but it seems unlikely and unwise that the BE would further expand the conference to 17 or 18 at this time. Nor would many teams that could be potential partners be that interested in being football only affiliates. No one wants to be Temple.

So, for example, the argument that the Big East should consider Central Florida for membership

If I’m Big East commish Mike Tranghese, I’m placing a call to Central Florida’s new AD Keith Tribble and floating the idea of the Knights joining the Big East.

When I spoke with Tranghese a couple of months ago, he said the league wasn’t looking into expanding from eight teams. His argument against expansion — it dilutes bowl revenue by adding another share, among other reasons — is fair. But UCF is a natural fit, geography notwithstanding. UCF is the largest public university in the state of Florida, and Orlando is among the top 20 television markets in the nation.

The Knights just locked in high-profile coach George O’Leary for the next 10 years with a fat contract, and are 16 months from completing a new, 40,000-seat on-campus facility.
…
There logistics to adding UCF, most notably, scheduling for what would become a 17-team Big East basketball league. But it’s really not about hoops. Football drives the engine in college sports. By adding UCF, the Big East adds a big television market (see: advertising revenue) and further strengthens recruiting in the state. And gets to pick the brain of one of the game’s brightest administrators on a daily basis.

While on the football side UCF is probably the most attractive of very limited options, there just wouldn’t be the support in the Big East for adding that school unless Notre Dame was jettisoned.

That’s really the only scenario where I see adding a school like UCF occurs. The Big East issues ND an ultimatum to go all the way in or leave the conference. Presumably, ND would say no, and have a go at becoming a full independent again. Or — more likely — join the Atlantic 10 or see if Conference USA would take them in all but football.

I don’t actually see that happening, but that is about the only b-ball program I could see being driven out of the camp. For all the others, there is just too much money on the table to leave without a major fight.

Only recently have I started to backtrack as the new TV contract has loomed and looked to be a big winner. Apparently the Big East meeting in Florida last week went really well (belated hat tip to Reed).

Tranghese said he can’t talk about the next television contract, slated to begin in 2007-08, but it is anticipated to be the richest ever for the conference and will grant it a record number of exposures. There could be multiple national nights on ESPN as well as the weekend games on CBS. The conference tournament is exclusive to ESPN, with every game being televised. A number of coaches have discussed how impressed they were with the deal.

Collectively, the number of appearances on CBS and ESPN is supposed to be equal or better than what any other conference is receiving.

“This deal will stun a lot of people,” Tranghese said.

The conference didn’t officially vote on raising the number of conference games from 16 to 18 in 2007-08, but it is expected to be voted on by the athletic directors and presidents this summer and be in place in time for the new TV contract.

The magnitude of the new deal was hammered home at the meeting. The underlying message: If the league ever split and tried to make deals with the same TV partners, they wouldn’t collectively add up to the one the 16-team Big East is receiving.

“When we started this, it was all about basic survival and to protect the current institutions,” Tranghese said. “People assumed it wouldn’t last. But after going through one year, the publicity and exposure everyone has received, no one wants to split.”

This is why the Big East is something of an anomaly. There is no question how big the football money is. But in the Big East, the b-ball money appears to be where the growth is really happening.

At the very least the Big East will probably stay like this until 2013.

So do the specifics on the hoops contract being hammered out. The first year of the deal will be 2007-08. And, according to a Big East source, it will be “for more than two years.”

Which zaps even the possibility of a split until, what, 2011?

“We had an agreement that in the future that would be specifically addressed,” Pastilong said. “In my opinion it will be done so quickly — to continue as is. We have congeniality between members, success and a plan for the future that is progressive and imaginative.”

When the current Big East lineup bonded, the schools agreed to give the setup a commitment of five years. This past school year apparently went so well, though, there are few thoughts of even revisiting that commitment.

What happened? Well, the Big East’s basketball teams flourished. Connecticut and Villanova were No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament. The league had a record eight teams in the event.

Of more impact, though, is the fact that the “basketball” schools proved to be of worth. (And is there anything that bonds more effectively than money?)

That’s a big point. Going into the season, the only basketball school of note appeared to be Villanova. Georgetown and Marquette, though, both took big steps forward for long term stability. That means those schools are not acting as a drag on the conference and making it more difficult for the football schools to walk away.

The numbers of the new deal haven’t been leaked yet, but the deal as a whole is expected to be very good for all members.

While the deals aren’t completed, sources said the Big East will break all records for money and appearances with its ESPN basketball pact. The equally good news is that the TV deal for Big East football will increase over the present contract.

The Big East football schools shared approximately $15 million annually, while the basketball schools received $10 in the previous deal.

The new agreement will be the direct opposite of what was predicted by many naysayers when Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech left for the ACC. The word then was that Big East football was all but dead and that a split of the football/basketball factions within the conference was inevitable.

“The spirit was very upbeat,” Welsh said. “The last few years we had teams leaving and others coming in, and we didn’t really know where we were heading but now everyone’s excited. I don’t think there’s any more talk about splitting up after five years or anything like that.”

Last year, Providence was the lone Big East school not to play a basketball game on either ESPN or ESPN2. The new contract would guarantee multiple appearances for all 16 schools.

“The (TV) deal will be great for all of us, both in exposure and financially,” said Welsh. “As someone said, it will separate us from everyone else and give us more coverage than anyone except Duke. They seem to have their own network.”

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said the TV deals could be announced in the next month. He’s consistently told football schools like Pittsburgh and Syracuse that they’re better off staying with Catholic school brothers Georgetown and Villanova and the TV money is backing up those claims.

Okay, if the money for the football TV deal actually increases along with the reports that all the games will be televised somewhere — meaning they can be seen on ESPN GamePlan — that is huge.

I still have big concerns about how much the Big East will get used by ESPN as weekday football filler, but things aren’t as bad as I thought they would be.