Logan Aronhalt (AP)In dire need of depth and experience at guard after leading scorer Terrell Stoglin abruptly entered the NBA draft last month, Maryland bolstered its backcourt on Sunday with a transfer who it hopes can help immediately.

Logan Aronhalt, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard who averaged 13.8 points and 4.3 rebounds for Albany last season, will enroll at Maryland for his final year of eligibility. The fifth-year senior will be able to play right away rather than sitting out a year because he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in human biology in December.

Seeing Aronhalt resurface at Maryland surprised a current head coach in the America East because the veteran guard lacks the athleticism he possessed early in his career. Chronic knee pain plagued Aronhalt all of last season, limiting him to a total of 26 minutes in Albany's final seven games.

"He has good mid-range game, he can shoot it out to three and he's physical, but I just worry whether athletically he can compete at the highest level because of the injuries he has had," the coach said. "They've kind of taken away his athleticism. Maybe he can use angles and use his body to get to the rim, but it's not going to be above-the-rim type stuff. It's going to be old-school using his craftiness to finish at the rim.

"Now I think, the intangible stuff, he brings to the table. He provides leadership. He's going to be a kid who works hard day-in, day-out. He's a good student. He's a winner. That's probably his biggest asset."

The addition of Aronhalt makes sense for Maryland even if he's not at full strength because the Terps backcourt is riddled with question marks.

Pe'Shon Howard, Maryland's projected starter at point guard, missed the first six weeks of last season with a broken foot, then returned for a month before tearing the ACL in his right knee in early February. He and potential breakout star Nick Faust will likely be part of the starting five, leaving one wing spot open for Aronhalt,  incoming freshmen guard Sam Cassell or promising 6-foot-8 Jake Layman if Maryland chooses to go with a bigger lineup.

VCU coach Shaka Smart (US Presswire)

In the three days since VCU announced it was joining the Atlantic 10 next season, Shaka Smart has reached out to each of the Rams' in-state CAA foes in hopes of continuing the rivalries as part of the non-league slate.

So far the results have been mixed.

Smart said Friday he's "98 or 99 percent sure" the Rams will begin a series with former CAA rival Old Dominion next season in Norfolk. He has met more resistance in talks with George Mason, James Madison and William & Mary, partially because their schedules for next season are mostly done and partially because they're unsure if they want to continue playing VCU.

"This is a bold move that we at VCU have made," Smart said. "I think there's certainly some people that don't like the move we made, but I think the people down at Old Dominion understand the importance of the rivalry we have with them. I'm almost positive we're going to be able to continue that and play this year. They said it would have to be at their place, so we're going to accommodate that."

If George Mason or the other Virginia CAA schools decide to turn down VCU's offer, it certainly wouldn't be the first time conference realignment jeopardized a regional rivalry.

Kansas has refused to schedule Missouri for the foreseeable future now that the Tigers are SEC-bound. The future of the West Virginia-Pittsburgh rivalry is also in doubt. And Baylor women's coach Kim Mulkey made it abundantly clear she won't schedule Texas A&M once the Aggies leave for the SEC by hearkening back to the divorce she previously endured.

"My feeling is this," she said. "If a man wants to divorce me and says our relationship has no value to him, and then he asks me if he can sleep with me, the answer is: No!"

Even though it's easy to criticize college basketball's one-and-done system for turning education into a necessary evil, it's important to remember there are players who work to become the exception to that rule.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the longtime NBA forward who turned pro in 1996 after one season at California, never gave up on his education. The 35-year-old took classes sporadically throughout his 13-year NBA career and more regularly since he retired, earning a degree in sociology from Cal on Monday with a 3.8 GPA no less.

"I started, so I wanted to at some point finish," Abdur-Rahim told Cal's official athletics site. "I was here a while ago, I had a good freshman year and I left early, but I always had a goal of wanting to come back and finish earning my degree. I just wanted to set an example for my children, younger brothers and sisters and any other younger athletes that left school early."

North Carolina's Vince Carter and Georgetown's Jeff Green are among the underpublicized group of other NBA players who have earned their diplomas despite leaving college early, but few have done it under the circumstances Abdur-Rahim did.

Not many players would be dedicated enough to take the equivalent of three full years of classes after being selected No. 3 overall in the 1996 NBA draft and making millions of dollars a year for more than a decade. And not many players would make the commute between Sacramento and Berkeley for classes the past couple years while also serving as the assistant general manager for the Kings.

It's fitting that Abdur-Rahim would be the one to buck that trend because he never wanted to leave Cal in the first place. Even after scoring 21 points per game as a freshman and being named Pac-10 Player of the Year, Abdur-Rahim changed his mind several times before entering the draft, ultimately turning pro because it was the financially responsible decision.

Steve Orsini, left, SMU President R.Gerald Turner, center, and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith pose for photo (AP)

In Steve Orsini's tenure as SMU athletic director, he revitalized the football program by hiring June Jones, he orchestrated the school's move to the Big East and he landed Larry Brown after an admittedly meandering, overambitious basketball coaching search.

Surely that success earned him a contract extension, right? Uh, apparently not.

In a move that apparently surprised even those within the athletic department, SMU announced Thursday afternoon that it has fired Orsini with three years left on his contract. The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday evening that a growing clash between Orsini and school president R. Gerald Turner led to the termination.

"After several discussions over the last few weeks it became apparent to me that it was necessary to make this change," Turner said in a statement released by the school. "While we both are committed to the support of our student-athletes and coaches, a unified effort is required for future progress."

The most bizarre aspect of Orsini's firing is the timing of it.

If Turner had lost faith in Orsini's ability to lead SMU's athletic department, why let him lead the school's search for a new basketball coach that culminated in the hiring of Brown less than a month ago? Orsini did bungle the search by going after unattainable candidates like Marquette's Buzz Williams and Harvard's Tommy Amaker, yet he also salvaged things by making a splashy, albeit controversial hire.

Ultimately, it appears the falling out between Turner and Orsini must have escalated in the past few weeks. We may never know what happened between the two administrators, but chances are it wasn't an amicable parting.

Murray State fans before last season's game against Saint Mary's (US Presswire)

With an All-American candidate and five other rotation players back from a team that won 31 games last season and fell just a few buckets shy of the Sweet 16, Murray State enters next year with high expectations once again.

That's great news for the Racers in every respect except one: Scheduling.

Opposing coaches are wary of agreeing to home-and-home series with Murray State since the Racers are good enough to beat anyone next season yet don't carry the prestige of a high-major or more established mid-major. As a result, Murray State coach Steve Prohm has been unable to fill two vacant home dates because potential opponents either aren't willing to come to Murray or aren't good enough to help the Racers' quest to contend for an at-large bid again.

"It's just tough," Prohm said. "We've still got to get two more home games because so far we're on the road for a tournament and four other games. We haven't gotten anything confirmed yet, but hopefully we can get a couple good programs in here that can help us in the long run."

Since Murray State plays in a league that was 21st in RPI last season even with the Racers' unprecedented success, Prohm knows the only way his team can build a resume worthy of an at-large bid is to notch marquee wins out of conference. Therefore he's trying to put together a schedule that strikes a perfect balance between giving the Racers ample chances to pick up big wins but not over-challenging them.

On Wednesday, Prohm accepted an invitation to the Charleston Classic, a solid eight-team tournament in mid-November featuring Baylor, Colorado, St. John's, Auburn, Dayton, Boston College and Charleston. Murray State previously agreed to a home game against Western Kentucky and road games at Dayton, Lipscomb, Evansville and Arkansas State. 

Kent Bazemore (Getty Images)If VCU's departure this week was a punch to the gut for the CAA, then Old Dominion's exit is an even more crippling blow.

The Monarchs will announce Thursday afternoon that they're leaving for Conference USA in 2013, a decision that will soon leave the CAA without two of its three premier programs over the last decade. Adding to the anguish, the league will have just seven teams eligible to compete in its conference tournament next year unless it breaks with policy and allows Old Dominion to participate.

What the loss of Old Dominion and VCU means for the CAA is it will be difficult for the league to land multiple NCAA tournament bids for the foreseeable future. Unless an upper echelon CAA program like George Mason or Drexel radically upgrades its non-conference schedule and thrives against those top teams, the weakened league slate will make at-large bids an extreme long shot.

The CAA has said it will look into expansion to replace the ODU, VCU and Georgia State, but replacing programs of that caliber will not be easy. The best-case scenario might be adding Charleston and Davidson, two tradition-rich Southern Conference programs who in time might be able to contend in the CAA and help the league grow again.

Keeping Old Dominion would have made it far easier for the league to absorb the loss of VCU, but the Monarchs' football-driven dalliance with Conference USA apparently was too great an opportunity to pass up.

While Old Dominion's three-year-old football program has emerged quickly as a national contender at the FCS level, the Monarchs had no guarantee another FBS conference would make them an offer in five years if they chose to bypass this one. As a result, school officials eventually accepted it after a prolonged evaluation period, gambling that they can upgrade their infrastructure and facilities to prepare for the move sooner than expected.

Photo via Rivals.com's Brett Dawson

Anyone who walked by the fountain in Lexington's Triangle Park outside Rupp Arena on Wednesday afternoon probably assumed the University of Kentucky was the victim of an elaborate rivalry prank.

Believe it or not, however, the fountain's blood-red water isn't the brainchild of a clever Louisville or Indiana fan. Instead, it's merely a promotion gone wrong.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Downtown Lexington Corporation tried to temporarily dye the water pink to promote the airing of the '80s classic Pretty in Pink on Friday evening in the park. The event is the first in the Fountain Films on Friday series during which free movies will be shown once a week in the park this summer.

The sight of so much red water outside the home of Kentucky basketball has elicited very different responses from Kentucky and Louisville fans.

"Why is the water in the fountain at Triangle park red?" wrote a Kentucky fan on Twitter. "If they wanted to color it, shouldn't it be BLUE!?!?!"

Countered Mike Rutherford of the Louisville fan site Card Chronicle: "I'm not saying God did this, but I'm also not saying God didn't do this."

Creighton celebrates its win over San Diego State in last year's Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge

When the Missouri Valley Conference agreed to an annual league-wide challenge with the Mountain West four years ago, its hope was the event would ease some of the struggles its top teams have scheduling marquee non-conference games.

Unfortunately, this year's event does little to accomplish that goal.

Preseason Valley favorite Creighton draws Mountain West also-ran Boise State despite returning All-American Doug McDermott and nine of its top 10 players from last year's 28-win team. Fellow Valley contenders Wichita State and Illinois State also received unappealing matchups at Air Force and home against Wyoming respectively.

Why would the Valley waste an opportunity to showcase its top teams rather than pit them against the likes of NCAA tournament contenders UNLV, San Diego State, New Mexico or Colorado State? Well, it wasn't entirely by choice. Instead it's partially a result of the rigidity of the four-year agreement the league entered with the Mountain West.

Since no Valley team can play the same Mountain West opponent twice in a four-year cycle and every team needs two games at home and on the road, the options for what matchups the leagues could create this season were limited.

Creighton has previously met San Diego State and New Mexico and required a home game this year, taking UNLV and Colorado State out of the running. Wichita State already met San Diego State and UNLV and needed a road game, meaning that New Mexico wasn't an option.