Christian returned to the Mid-American Conference. He was Kent State’s coach and had six 20-win seasons before going to Fort Worth. Christian was 56-73 at TCU. Last season, the Horned Frogs were 18-15, their first winning season since 2004-05. In the College Basketball Invitational tournament, they finished the season with a second-round loss at Oregon State.

The Horned Frogs are moving from the Mountain West Conference to the Big 12. They last went to the NCAA tournament 14 years ago when Billy Tubbs was their coach. TCU assistant Bill Wuczynski is leaving to join Christian in Ohio. Assistants Rob Evans and Reggie Brown and director of operations Cody Hopkins met Johnson and their TCU futures are unknown.

The next three years at LSU were not as successful for Johnson. The Tigers lost in the first round to Oregon and they had back-to-back 11-20 seasons before going 18-15 this past season. Receiving a bid to the NIT, they lost in the first round to Oregon. Johnson spent four seasons at both Stanford and Nevada before joining LSU.

Reports suggest that Johnson will make $1.5 million base and other incentives that could push things toward $2 million. The departed Jim Christian made around $600,000, so it shows much more of a commitment than TCU has made in the past.

Johnson’s teams struggled the next two seasons before going to the NIT last year with the same number of wins as TCU had under Christian, after going to the NCAA tournament his first season. He inherited some good teams at Stanford and LSU, and in Baton Rouge. Before going to Nevada as head coach, Johnson was an assistant coach at Stanford.

In 2008, when Johnson got to LSU, he had a team filled with seniors. The Tigers went 22-41 combined with only five SEC wins the next two years before going 18-15 last season with an NIT appearance, although he went 27-8 and won the SEC regular season championship his first season.

by sending the Dragons to a loss at John A. Daskalakis Center, UMass is hoping to extend its run on the NIT betting menu. The 90-88 loss was a game that got away, a game UMass could have won. Since then, in the Atlantic 10 tournament they have won tough games against Temple, and at Mississippi State and Seton Hall in the NIT.

So far, UMass has pulled off several upsets but the No. 3 seed in Drexel, who have been a moneymaker for bettors this season. On the season, the Dragons sit at 29-6 (20-12-1 ATS). Massachusetts is 18-13-1 OU and Drexel is 15-18 OU. According to the latest pro hoops power rankings here at Odds Shark, it is a betting matchup between the No. 58-ranked Minutemen and the No. 79-rated Dragons.

Massachusetts was a 77-67 winner on the road against Seton Hall in their last action. They covered the 7.5-point spread as underdogs. On Saturday, Massachusetts earned a 77-67 victory over Seton Hall and got 20 points from Chaz Williams at Prudential Center.

Last time out for Drexel, they battled Northern Iowa at home and were a 65-63 winner, although they failed as a 7.5-point favorite in the match. leading Drexel over Northern Iowa, Samme Givens went off for 28 points and added 5 rebounds, 65-63, on Sunday at John A. Daskalakis Center.

The point spread for Massachusetts Minutemen +6.5, while for Drexel Dragons it is -6.5.

ESPN and the Big 12 Conference have unveiled their season slate, called ESPN’s Big Monday Presented by Bud Light, which is chalk full of Big 12 men’s college basketball action.

It all gets going on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, January 17, when Kansas State will be at Missouri at 5:30 p.m. and Kansas will be at Baylor at 9:30 p.m. All four teams participated in the 2010 men’s NCAA Tournament, with Baylor and Kansas State advancing to the Elite Eight.

A popular weekly series with NCAA Basketball betting fans, which also features a doubleheader with the BIG EAST Conference, the ESPN Big Monday games will then air every Monday during conference play at 9 pm, from January 24 to February 28, and highlight the nation’s top teams in action. Some other top matchups include: Baylor will follow its Martin Luther King Jr. Day appearance with a game at Kansas State January 24. Baylor defeated Kansas State 76-74 last year in Waco.

Kansas will visit intrastate rival Kansas State February 14 in a continuation of the longest-running series between two conference squads. Oklahoma State will visit Kansas February 21. Oklahoma State handed Kansas its only regular-season Big 12 loss last season with an 85-77 victory.

Initially, the NCAA was considering going with the lowest eight seeds to comprise this new round but decided against this in the end. This is probably bad news for mid-major schools who have generally had too many schools represented in the first round of the tournament. As far as the bigger conferences, this could mean that two lower seeded teams could be eliminated in this early round.

This is the 2nd time the field has been expanded in the past nine years after one team was added in 2001. In 1985 the tournament had a major expansion going from 48 to 64 teams. Even though this new format will not please everyone involved, it will probably go over pretty well considering the other options that were being discussed. Most experts as well as fans hope that this will be the end of expansion for a long while but as long as TV revenues continue to rise, who really knows when it will end.

Jeffrey Jordan formerly played for Illinois; however he left the team after the last season played. He averaged an amazing 13 minutes per game played last season, out of a total of 92 games. Unfortunately, Jeffrey Jordan will be required to sit out during the first season, which is a rule of transferring. He will join his brother Marcus Jordan on the court for the 2011- 2012 season.

Jeffrey also confirmed on his Twitter account that the rumors were true; he is joining the UCF team. On Friday, he proudly exclaimed, “About take off to my new school the University of Central Florida in Orlando… I’ll holla at y’all on the Side.” Later in the evening, Jeffrey Jordan posted, “First night in Orlando… wow.”

Jeffrey is the older of the two brothers. Marcus Jordan the younger brother was very excited that his brother was joining him. He too happily posted on his Twitter page that, “My brother … is officially here… Haha let’s dooooo ittt!!!!” The last time the two played with each other on a team was in high school. There is a lot of excitement about Jeffrey joining the team from friends, family, and fans.

Small forward Michael Gilchrist of Elizabeth, N.J. is widely regarded as the prize of this year’s recruiting class and wherever he is playing, there will be plenty of college coaches in the immediate vicinity. He is also tipped to be a favorite in coming season. Another prospect that is challenging Gilchrist for top billing is small guard Austin Rivers. Rivers plays for the United States under 18 national team and is highly regarded by many of the NCAA coaches. Most coaches will be in Las Vegas for the July evaluation period which extends from July 6-15 and 22-31.

The July evaluation period actually has made the summer months more enjoyable for NCAA College coaches. Now that the recruiting period has been limited to the July evaluation period and condensed their activity into one intense month of wooing prospects and making inroads with their coaches, so they can be tipped off when the next NCAA quality player is featured.

Las Vegas is the central hub of activity for the largest summer tournaments and summer leagues which include the best prospects in the nation. There are other locations featuring major camps and tournaments but the best ones are located in Las Vegas.