File under “small world”: On Thursday night, I was down at the Ingenuity Fest (you may have heard the ads on Pittsburgh radio. Hey, if Kennywood is advertising in Cleveland why not an event in Cleveland?). I was helping out at a booth with some other area bloggers. We were actually sharing the booth with a group called Voices and Choices that works on regional economic development. At the end of the evening, one of the V&C guys asked me about my Pitt hat. Turns out he was from Mt. Lebanon, and was a big Pitt fan (he went to Wooster). His name was Greg Keidan. The last name sounded familiar, and with good reason. His father is long time Pittsburgh reporter/sportswriter/radio host Bruce Keidan. Just one of those things.

Is Duquesne and new coach Ron Everhart pushing the envelope too far? Andy Katz at ESPN (Insider subs.) has the story on a Siena player who wants to transfer, Kojo Mensah.

Here’s the background: Mensah, who is the Saints’ top returning scorer after averaging 16.6 points as a sophomore, let the team know in June that he wanted to transfer. The timing of that request irritated Siena, since it was after the spring signing period. In addition, his desire to possibly join friend Shawn James, who himself recently transferred from Northeastern to Duquesne to follow his coach, Ron Everhart, apparently has rubbed the Saints the wrong way, too.

The Saints won’t call out Duquesne for tampering, but there is a clear hint that they don’t want Mensah going there. Under NCAA rules, Siena has the right to release a player with conditions, meaning there are select schools to which Siena won’t give a full release. A full release allows a player to receive athletic aid. A release that singles out a school, such as Duquesne, would mean the player would have to pay for his own scholarship.

Where does this mess stand as of Thursday? In a quagmire, as neither side even agrees on the facts of the case.

“It is my understanding that Kojo didn’t submit any dates for an appeal and hasn’t submitted a list of schools to get a release,” D’Argenio said.

Meanwhile, Mensah’s lawyer, Michael Rosenblatt of New York City, said Mensah did give a list, one that included Duquesne, Providence, UMass and St. John’s.

“They want a blanket release with no conditions,” D’Argenio said.

At least there’s agreement on what Mensah wants — a release with no strings attached.

Rosenblatt said, “Why can’t he play at Duquesne? Why can’t he play with Shawn? There is nothing illegal about wanting to play with a friend.”

“I have my suspicions,” D’Argenio replied about the possibility of tampering. “I want to go over this on a school-by-school basis. The ones I have a problem with, I won’t release him [to]. I won’t release him to any conference school and a few others.

“Generally, that’s how it is done.”

When asked specifically about Duquesne, D’Argenio said, “[Mensah said] he wanted to go to a higher program, be on TV more and improve his NBA chances. I have no problem with a young man thinking that way, but we have all of those laid out here at Siena. He can appeal or give us a list of schools [he wants releases for]. Based on what he said to me, I would expect a list of schools from the ACC and Big East. The last three or four times we played Duquesne, we beat them.” (Siena actually is 2-0 since 2000.)

…

Meanwhile, Everhart wanted no part of this controversy when approached during last week’s Reebok ABCD Camp in New Jersey. He did say the Dukes don’t have a scholarship available for next season. If that’s true, this whole debate could be moot.

Nonetheless, no one will come out of this as a winner. Most coaches agree with Siena’s stance on the conditional release.

I’ll bet he wanted no part of it. Eyebrows were already raised with some earlier moves, and this wouldn’t help.

Meanwhile, the JUCO player Duquesne released from his commitment after the change in coaches signed with Cinci.

Finally this comment from Bruce Feldman (Insider subs.) with regards to the Auburn academic scandal.

I do believe this kind of thing does go on at many schools. OK, maybe not the part where one professor rats out another, but two years ago a reporter I know found that almost half of a top 10 football program had taken a course called Intro to Yiddish.

I have to say it. Oy.