Action/reaction UPDATED: BYU joins the WCC, Jimmer Fredette, Stanford, UCLA and Pac-12 basketball

Oliver Graham

12:15 p.m. update: Read this its bad news for Oregon. As Ive noted before, if the Ducks are found to have violated NCAA rules in the Willie Lyles case, then everything theyve accomplished in the past few years their rise to super-program status becomes a sham.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable and safe holiday weekend. The Hotline will ramp back up next week.

Action: Brigham Young joins the West Coast Conference on July 1 in all sports except football.
Reaction I: The Cougars first WCC game were talking mens basketball is Dec. 29, against an opponent TBA. (League schedule has not been finalized.) The big question, of course, is whether center Brandon Davies will be reinstated for the 2011-12 season. With Davies, the Cougars should challenge Gonzaga and St. Marys for the conference title. Without him, BYU could be looking at a mid-level finish.
Reaction II: But with or without Davies, the Cougars will have a prominent role in the leagues ESPN/ESPN2 Thursday night telecasts.
Reaction III: Not to be overlooked by WCC fans: BYUs first class womens soccer team, which will join the programs at Santa Clara and Portland to give the conference a powerhouse trio.

Action: Stanford hires Charles Payne as assistant basketball coach, replacing Rodney Tention.
Reaction I: Tentions departure couldnt have been his idea you dont go from the Stanford staff to the University of San Diego staff voluntarily.
Reaction II: Payne, who was one of Todd Bozemans assistants at Cal in the mid-1990s, also worked as a west coast NBA scout for a few years. Since 2008, he has been Stanford basketballs director of student-athlete development.
Reaction III: Payne and Tention are basically the same age, so the move and again, Ill presume this was all orchestrated by Johnny Dawkins couldnt have been about getting younger. Is Tention being cast as the fall guy for Stanfords struggles? Perhaps. Would that be unfair? Absolutely.
Reaction IV: Make no mistake: This is all about Dawkins and, by extension, athletic director Bob Bowlsby. The program has floundered under their stewardship, and despite institutional support his predecessors never had, Dawkins has strung together three consecutive second-rate seasons in a bad league.
Reaction V: That said, the Cardinal should be better next season than it has been wing Anthony Brown is playing well for the U-19 team and may even compete for an upper-half finish in the Pac-12. Arizona, UCLA, Cal and Washington should make up the top tier, with Stanford and the Oregon schools on the next level. If we presume the Cardinal does well against a soft non-conference schedule I havent seen the lineup, but its safe to assume it will be soft because its always soft then 18-20 victories seems reasonable.

Action: Reggie Bush reportedly reverses field and declines to return his Heisman Trophy.
Reaction: I can understand not wanting to give the trophy back. But dont say youre going to do it, then renege.

Action: Jimmer Fredette goes to Sacramento (via Milwaukee) with the No. 10 pick in the NBA Draft.
Reaction I: Ive tweeted this, and perhaps even mentioned it on the Hotline, but its worth repeating: The Jimmer question existed because of his skin color. If Fredette were a black guard with the same game if he averaged 29 ppg against quality competition and had that shooting range and a good first step and strength and balance and could get to the basket whenever he wanted nobody would have asked if he could play in the NBA.
Reaction II: I got a kick out of reading all the positive evaluations of Jimmer in the weeks before the draft, with media analysts and NBA scouts all saying he was more athletic than they expected. Each time, I shook my head and thought: Did you watch him play!?!?!

Action: UCLA forward Tyler Honeycutt and guard Malcolm Lee picked in second round of NBA Draft.
Reaction: Time for another quick rant: No, Ben Howlands system doesnt allow for gaudy statistics and SportsCenter-worthy highlights, but his players understand the game, theyre tough, and they play defense and this has been the case for years. The notion that his coaching style would adversely affect UCLA players in the NBA and negatively impact recruiting a notion first proposed by the Lavin camp, by the way has always been nonsense.

Action: CBSSports.coms Jeff Goodman looks at the top non-conference games nationally for the 2011-12 season.
Reaction: The fact that there are no Pac-12 games on the list speaks to the state of the conference: It should be another down year for the league, its best teams not among the nations elite. (Want more evidence? Check the Draft Express mock for 2012 and count how many Pac-12 players are projected for the first round.)

Action: The Arizona Republics Doug Haller lists the best basketball teams of the Pac-10 era.
Reaction: Haller has Arizona 88 on top, followed by UCLA 95. Id flip em the Bruins, who won 19 in a row to end the season, were the best team of the era and would have been a matchup nightmare for the Wildcats in a hypothetic showdown. Otherwise, its tough to find fault with Hallers list. Well done.

Action: The NBA lockout begins.
Reaction I: Its great news for college basketball. With the NBA shut down I keep hearing the lockout will last into 2012 there will be less competition for dollars, headlines and eyeballs next winter.
Reaction II: The timing couldnt be better. With top talents like Jared Sullinger, Harrison Barnes and Terrence Jones returning, there will be more elite teams more high-quality basketball than in the past couple years.

Betting Suggestions