Roscoe Smith (AP)If the NCAA grants transfer Roscoe Smith's petition to play immediately at UNLV next season without sitting out a full year, that decision will impact more than just the Rebels.

It also could cause major problems for Smith's former school.

UConn officials are worried that giving Smith a waiver could open the floodgates to other players on its roster seeking to transfer, ESPN.com reported Friday. The basis for Smith's waiver is that he left UConn because the school is banned from the postseason next year as a penalty for its sub-standard APR scores.

The NCAA has previously only granted transfers immediate eligibility if their former school's postseason ban is longer than the length of their remaining eligibility. Senior Alex Oriakhi will be eligible right away at Missouri next season because of that interpretation, but Smith is a junior and would only receive a waiver if the NCAA altered its policy.

UConn's concerns about the stability of its roster could certainly be valid if Smith becomes eligible next season. At the very least, you can be certain there would be opposing coaches sending feelers through back channels to guards Ryan Boatright and Shabazz Napier to let them know immediate playing time is available if they opted to leave.

The other interesting aspect of Smith's waiver request is that UNLV might be better off it gets denied. While it's understandable that Smith would want to play right away next season, where exactly is he going to play?

Isaac Chew and Jalen JamesNew Illinois coach John Groce's quest to attract top prospects from the city of Chicago has encountered some unexpected obstacles.

Isaac Chew, the assistant Groce hired six weeks ago to recruit Chicago, bolted this week for a similar job at Marquette, leaving a key void on the Illini staff at a time when it will not be easy to fill it. Making matters worse for Illinois, highly touted class of 2013 point guard Jalen James, formerly of Chicago's Hope Academy, tweeted Wednesday he is opening up his recruitment despite originally committing to the Illini last year.

"I wish Coach Groce And The Illini Staff The Best Of Luck In The Future!" James tweeted.

It's hard to say whether Chew or James is the bigger loss for Illinois, but both were clearly important to Groce's rebuilding efforts.

Chew, who spent the 2011-12 season under Frank Haith at Missouri, is a former Chicago Public League Player of the Year at Wells High School. The hope for Illinois was that he'd replace Jerrance Howard, a well-connected and well-respected assistant who recruited Chicago for Bruce Weber for five years before opting to join Larry Brown at SMU instead of staying at Illinois under Groce.

Chew agonized over the decision to leave Illinois so abruptly, but not even a counter offer from the Illini could prevent him from accepting Marquette coach Buzz Williams' invitation to join his staff.

"It was an emotional decision. It was emotional for me and for my wife and my family," Chew told the Champaign News-Gazette. "Coach Groce is going to do a great job (at Illinois). This had nothing to do with the challenge. I think the world of coach Groce and his staff. I just couldn't pass up this opportunity. That's just the bottom line."

Kentucky's and Indiana's Sweet 16 matchup last March may be the last for a while (Getty Images)

One week after the announcement that the rivalry between Indiana and Kentucky will go on hiatus for the foreseeable future, the Hoosiers apparently made a failed last-ditch effort to reach a compromise to preserve the series.

Kentucky rejected a May 10 proposal from Indiana suggesting two years of neutral-court games and two years of games on campus sites, according to a letter from Indiana athletic director Fred Glass to Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart. The Bloomington Herald-Leader obtained the letter Wednesday via a public records request.

"Indiana was willing to reach out and propose a compromise to play series' games on a neutral court so it could facilitate a game in Bloomington (and Lexington) during the normal four-year cycle of a college student," Glass wrote. "Unfortunately Kentucky's refusal to consider anything other than a two-year neutral site only contract based on your new 'non-traditional' scheduling philosophy has doomed a series that should be bigger than that."

What this latest revelation suggests is the rivalry is more important to Indiana than it is to Kentucky at this point. Both traditional powers will survive and even thrive without facing each other on an annual basis, but Indiana was far more willing to compromise than their counterparts.

Indiana offered to play half the games on a neutral court and to rearrange its schedule or even pay to cancel a previously planned game on Kentucky's slate to make sure next year's game could be played. Kentucky, however, refused to budge, insisting it would agree on nothing besides two years of neutral-site games.

"We currently do not have any agreements with more than two years remaining and would like to maintain the current flexibility of our future scheduling," Barnhart responded via a statement Wednesday. "If we entered into a four-year deal with Indiana, including the last two years at campus sites, not only would that alter our flexibility but it would also mean that we would have to end our home-and-home series with Louisville in order to keep our nonconference road schedule balanced. We are not interested in doing that."

The unfortunate takeaway from this public sniping is that it makes it much more unlikely the two sides reach a resolution in the near future.

Kentucky's five underclassmen announced altogether in April they're turning pro

Eager to fight the perception his players don't go to class, Kentucky coach John Calipari found a way to draw attention to the issue.

He included a headline-grabbing jab at his critics in Tuesday's press release announcing the national champion Wildcats amassed a 3.12 team GPA during the spring semester.

"All these are good kids," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "We had a GPA as a team for this term with five players who are leaving early, so all this stuff bitter old men say that they don't go to class, it's not true."

The "bitter old men" crack is likely aimed at former Indiana coach Bob Knight, whose distaste for Calipari's reliance on one-and-dones at Kentucky is a poorly kept secret.

Knight famously refused to utter the word "Kentucky" on the air at ESPN last season, leaving the Wildcats off his list of the nation's elite teams. He also called one-and-dones "a disgrace" last spring and had to apologize for erroneously saying Kentucky's 2009-10 Elite Eight team "started five players in the NCAA tournament games that had not been to class that semester."

Fair or unfair, the release of Kentucky's team GPA tends to make more national headlines than it does at other schools because it's considered a referendum on whether the one-and-done system meshes with the academic philosophies of universities.

Fred Hoiberg (AP)Only two years into his first term, the Mayor has been reelected.

Iowa State announced Tuesday evening it has agreed to an eight-year extension with coach Fred Hoiberg that will increase his annual salary from $800,000 to an average of $1.5 million. Hoiberg shared Big 12 coach of the year honors last season after the Cyclones finished third in the conference and beat UConn in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

"Returning to Ames has been so much more than expected for our family and I'm thrilled to have the chance to continue developing a nationally competitive program at Iowa State," Hoiberg said in a statement. "The support of our fan base and commitment of our players has brought the magic back to Hilton. I am humbled with the extension, to say the least, and anxious to continue our journey at Iowa State."

An eight-year extension that nearly doubles Hoiberg's salary might seem premature for a coach merely entering his third year, but the former Ames High and Iowa State star is probably worth the risk. The hefty raise creates a perception of stability among recruits and reduces the financial incentive for Hoiberg to pursue an NBA coaching gig if a franchise shows interest in the former Minnesota Timberwolves executive.

In a mere two years, Hoiberg has restored interest in Iowa State basketball by rebuilding the program through a combination of solid recruits and high-profile transfers.

Royce White and two other starters have departed from last year's team, but next season's Cyclones should still contend for a second straight NCAA tournament bid. Marquee transfers Will Clyburn (Utah) and Korie Lucious (Michigan State) will help bolster a roster that still includes starters Chris Babb and Melvin Ejim, as will a strong recruiting class highlighted by coveted power forward Georges Niang.

Brad Stevens (AP)It won't take long to settle the debate over whether Butler can emerge as an instant contender in the Atlantic 10.

Instead of formally joining in its new league in 2013 as it originally planned last month, the school announced it will leave the Horizon League immediately and begin play in the A-10 next fall.

The wording of statements from both Butler athletic director Barry Collier and A-10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade suggest the Horizon League may not have allowed the Bulldogs to compete in postseason conference tournaments next season had they stayed. VCU left the CAA immediately rather than remaining an extra season for the very same reason.

"The unexpected circumstances that precipitated Butler's request to move immediately were unfortunate, but we will welcome Butler into the A-10 as a valuable new member," McGlade said. "The Atlantic 10 has the potential to have the strongest year in league history in 2012-13 with 16 outstanding programs."

What McGlade said about the strength of next season's A-10 is no hyperbole. With Butler and VCU in the fold and Temple and Charlotte not set to depart until the following year, the league will be loaded enough that four or five NCAA tournament berths would be a reasonable goal.

VCU returns every rotation player besides Bradford Burgess from a team that nearly made the Sweet 16. Saint Louis again should be a Top 25 contender with everyone except forward Brian Conklin back. Butler adds sweet-shooting Arkansas transfer Rotnei Clarke to a roster whose poor perimeter shooting was its biggest weakness. And don't forget perennial powers Xavier and Temple, which figure to still contend despite heavy personnel losses.

Screen shots of Chad Renfro via WJXT-TV

Of all the injuries college basketball players have sustained this year, Chad Renfro's may have been the scariest.

Renfro, the leading returning scorer at Division II Barry University in Miami Shores, Fla., was paddling out on his surfboard to catch a wave at a beach near his parents home in Jacksonville when he felt sharp pain in his left foot. A shark bit him with enough force to slice most of a tendon, damage a bone and require 85 stitches to close the wound.

"Immediately I knew what it was, so I just paddled back in as fast as I could — caught the next wave in," Renfro told WJXT-TV in Jacksonville.

"I was sitting there and people kept looking at me. I was trying to get someone to help me, and then one girl had walked over and I told her to call 911, and then I saw the lifeguards drive by, and so I just hollered for them and they came over."

The silver lining to the shark attack is Renfro's injuries could have been far worse. The 6-foot-4 guard expects to return to the basketball court in time for the start of next season and even hopes to get back on a surfboard as soon as possible.

Experts have said what bit Renfro was likely either a four-to-five-foot bull or lemon shark, both of which are common off the coast of Florida.

Renfro's mom joked with WJXT-TV that her son would be more likely to win the lottery than get bit by a shark while surfing. Hopefully he buys a winning ticket when he leaves the hospital because he's due for some good luck.

Damontre Harris (AP)For a guy who recruited and developed numerous NBA forwards and centers including Al Horford, Joakim Noah, David Lee and Udonis Haslem, Florida coach Billy Donovan had a surprisingly tough time recruiting a big man the past six months.

It started last November when elite forwards Jarnell Stokes, Alex Poythress and Robert Carter all spurned the Gators for Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia Tech respectively. It continued this winter when coveted Pittsburgh transfer Khem Birch chose UNLV over Florida in January. And it became a desperate search earlier this month when McDonald's All-American Anthony Bennett eliminated the Gators from his list and followed Birch to UNLV.

Florida finally found a solution over the weekend when South Carolina transfer Damontre Harris chose the Gators over Kansas. The 6-foot-9 forward will likely sit out next season and have two years of eligibility remaining beginning in 2013, giving Florida a badly needed insurance policy should starting center Patric Young leave for the NBA after this season as is expected.

The Gators were very fortunate Young chose to stick around for his junior season because he is the lone back-to-the-basket scorer and interior defensive presence on next season's roster. Senior-to-be Erik Murphy has the size to defend opposing big men, but he's not a shot blocker on defense and he's far more comfortable on the perimeter offensively.

Both those guys may be gone after the 2012-13 season, which is why it was critical for Florida to land Harris. He averaged 6.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game as a sophomore at South Carolina, showcasing his talents to Donovan last season with 12 points, nine rebounds and six blocks at the O'Connell Center.

The addition of Harris won't change Florida's recruiting focus for the Class of 2013, which begins with talented in-state product Chris Walker, a 6-foot-8 power forward considered to be one of the top 10 high school seniors-to-be in the nation. Walker reportedly is still considering Kansas, Florida, Ohio State and Kentucky, among others.