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Iowa freshman forward Tyler Smith has been granted his release from the university. He said that he wanted to transfer closer to his home in Pulaski, Tennessee, to be closer to his father, who suffers from lung cancer. Athletic director Gary Barta saw it coming. "I have had conversations with both Tyler and his father from the time we knew we would have a coaching change," said Barta. "Both expressed a sincere appreciation for Iowa, but also hinted toward a desire for Tyler to continue his career closer to home.” New coach Todd Lickliter supported the decision.

Best Performance: Tajuan Porter, Oregon

Make all the short jokes you want. Call him things like “diminutive” or “pint-sized” and write stories implying his 5 foot 6 inch, 160 pound (if that) frame is somehow a huge disadvantage.

Just don’t say it to UNLV.

- Amazingly, all of this year's Sweet Sixteen teams came into last week within the Top 22 of the CHN Top 50. The "lowest" ranked team was Tennessee at #22. In the AP and Coaches Poll, they were all within the Top 34.

Brewer is POW, Chism is ROW.

Polls on Monday were relatively standard.. perhaps the placement of Notre Dame and Michigan State were most interesting. The Spartans received 87 votes in the Coaches Poll, good for 25th spot, while Notre Dame was right behind with 57 votes. In the AP Pol though, Notre Dame was 20th, a full 16 spots ahead of the 36th ranked Spartans. Whats odd is that the placement of these teams doesn't correspond to any sort of Big Ten/Big East bias in the polls. Despite the slap to 8-1 Notre Dame in the Coaches Poll, fellow Big Ten team UCONN is ranked 11th, 3 spots ahead of its spot in the AP. Further, despite the love for MSU in the Coaches Poll, Wisconsin is a spot lower at 5th in the Coaches..