Mid Major Madness sits down with Kevin Easley, one of the top mid major assistants in the country and North Carolina coaching veteran.

MMM: What do you plan to bring to High Point this season? 

Kevin: Soon after joining the High Point family, I was overwhelmed by the growth and vision of the University. The vision starts internally from the leadership of Dr. Nido Qubein, the President of High Point University. He and his staff have done a wonderful job of providing an ideal environment for the student athlete of the University. HPU was recently voted by News and Report as the "#1 Up and Coming School in the South." Craig Keilitz, Director of Athletics, also has a strategic plan to take HPU Athletics to the next level.  I knew with Mr. Kelietz's plan, I would have an opportunity to bring energy, enthusiasm, and a winning attitude to a distinguished and notable University. There is no doubt to me that the men's basketball program has a lot to uphold at HPU therefore, I try to be better than I was the previous day. This is truly a promising situation for me because this is the first time I have been on a new staff. I believe that finding a niche' and blending in with the rest of the staff is key.

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Mid-Major Madness sits down with Arkansas State University assistant coach Elwyn McRoy this week to get inside the mind of one of the best recruiters in Mid-Major college basketball.

MMM: Recruiting has been one of your specialties. What advice would you give to a young high school basketball player looking to play college basketball?

Elwyn: My advice to a HS athlete would be to do the little things that others aren't willing to do. Such as diving on the floor, being a good teammate, handing the ball to the refs, playing through bad calls with no facial expressions or negative body language, always giving eye contact to his coach when being spoken to and be coachable. In short be uncommon, do things that set your self apart from everyone else.

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Mid-Major Madness sits down with Drake University assistant coach Kareem Richardson this week to get inside the mind of a MVC coaching veteran.

MMM:  What are the expectations for the Drake basketball program heading into the 2009-10 season?

Kareem:  We are trying to cultivate a very high standard for our guys and program here at Drake. We want to strive for perfection to achieve excellence while maintaining the standard of our personal and collective best in everything we do. Our expectation is excellence or at worse case each individual player's best each game.  If we can get that done then at the end of the year, we as a team, will meet our expectations.

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Less than one week after being ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press Poll, Butler earns the top spot in the preseason Mid-Major Top 25.

The Bulldogs, who finished last season with a 26-6 record and a No. 4 ranking in the final Mid-Major poll of the season, received 28 of the 31 first place votes. No. 2 ranked Gonzaga received two first place votes and No. 3 ranked Siena received the other. Rounding out the top five are Northern Iowa and Western Kentucky.

Old Dominion, which won the inaugural CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, headlines the next five, followed by Creighton, Akron, Wright State and Niagara.

The Horizon League, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and Missouri Valley Conference each boast two teams among the top 10, while the Colonial Athletic Association leads all conferences with four teams ranked in the first Top 25 of the season.

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CollegeInsider.com, a nationally recognized website, is proud to announce a newly formed partnership with the Great West Conference which grants an automatic qualifier bid to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). The Great West men's basketball conference tournament champion will automatically be placed amongst the field of 16 teams participating in the CIT.

The seven basketball playing league members of the Great West that will be vying for the bid include: Chicago State University, Houston Baptist University, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), University of North Dakota, University of South Dakota, University of Texas-Pan American and Utah Valley University The agreement makes the CIT the first postseason college basketball tournament outside the NCAA tournament to agree to an automatic qualifier to any NCAA conference.

Ultimately the goal of the Great West champion should be the NCAA Tournament and Plan B  the NIT. But given the number of division I programs and the limited number of spots available, planning to get into these postseason tournaments is wishful thinking.

Of course some pundits will scoff at the notion of the Great West being guaranteed a spot in the postseason, but ask the players, coaches and fans of those programs what they think. For the first time NJIT and the other coaches in the league know there is a reward waiting in March.

Finally a victory, albeit small,  for the Mid-Majors.

West Point Academy, which to sports fans is known simply as "Army" has severed ties with head men's basketball coach Jim Crews, a report it the Times Herald-Record (Middletown, N.Y.) cited.

To say that it is extremely rare for a coach to be fired only weeks before the season starts is an understatement. Crew, who owned a less then stellar 59-140 (0.296) mark at Army, had all four of his top scorers returning from last season. Coaches around the Patriot league agreed that Army finally had its first realistic shot at winning the league in decades.

Word is that Gene Marshall, Army's deputy athletic director, will serve as the interim coach. Marshall coached at Ramapo College (NJ), and was the interim head coach for Army's women's program in 2005 when they were between coaches.

As for a permanent replacement, it might be the perfect opportunity for a little-known coach by the name of Bob Knight to make a comeback at his first Division I coaching gig...

Mid-Major Game of the Week:

Get ready for a good ol' fashion shootout out when Houston visits Oklahoma State in Stillwater this weekend.  With State coming off a huge victory at home over Georgia last week, and Oklahoma down for the count, the Cowboys are looking like the only team that might give Texas a run for the Big XII South title.

Houston, headed by the talented Chase Keenum, has an incredibly high powered aerial attack. Aided by the trio of RB Bryce Beall and receivers Patrick Edwards and Tyron Carrier, Keenum will be give (albeit a much improved) Oklahoma State secondary fits.

Of course, the Cougar defense is in for an even longer day with a ridiculously stacked Cowboy offense. Zac Robinson to Dez Bryant all day, with an occasional 20 yard run from Kendall Hunter will outmatch, outspeed and leave the Cougar D in the dust come Saturday.

The last time these two teams met, Oklahoma State won 56-37. Don't be surprised if this match up ends with even gaudier numbers.

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Mid-Major Game of the Week:

Football season is finally upon us and by the graces of the football gods, we are lucky enough to have what may be one of the best match ups of the season for our appetizer.... Boise State v. Oregon.

Arguably the single most important game of the year for the boys in blue, a win against Oregon tonight can put it in the lead or the coveted non-big six BCS spot and continue to cement the Broncos as one of the premiere Mid-Major programs in college football.  Boise won last year in Eugene against a good Oregon team and the Ducks will be looking for a little revenge.

Boise will have to contain the likes of  Heisman candidate running back LeGarrette Blount and QB Jerimah Masoli if they hope to come away with the win. Look for Chip Kelly, in his college coaching debut, to take it to the Boise defense with everything the Ducks can muster.

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After weeks of kicking and screaming, FIU head coach Isiah Thomas and Athletic Director Pete Garcia finally agreed to get their butts kicked by North Carolina instead of... getting their butts kicked by Ohio State in the opening round of the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament this November.

Isiah  and Garcia, who somehow thought he had a better chance at beating a senior laden Buckeye team over the defending national championships (who lost their entire line-up to the NBA) cited that it was simply a conflict of contractual terms with organizer Gazelle Group in his defense. Luckily, both realized that all this bad publicity is probably not the best way to start off Zeke's illustrious tenure as head coach of the Golden Panthers.

Tune in next week, when Isiah tries to sues the Sun Belt for making him lose to Western Kentucky twice in the same season....