Tim Pernetti will be announced as the new Rutgers athletic director at a Thursday afternoon press conference, according to a report in the Home News Tribune, which cites three high-ranking university officials as sources.

The Rutgers board of governors will convene Thursday morning in Newark to vote on whether to accept President Richard McCormick’s recommendation, but the appointment is expected to be a formality.

The school has announced a 12:30 press conference to introduce the new AD.

Pernetti, 38, was one of three finalists for the position, along with North Carolina-Wilmington athletics director Kelly Mehrtens and University of Akron athletics director Mack Rhoades.

All three finalists met with the 14-member search committee, headed by Dr. Philip Furmanski, for about an hour Wednesday, the Home News reported.

“Tim really made a good impression on us,” one committee member told the paper. (more…)

If Bobby Gonzalez and Seton Hall (14-12, 5-9) stand any shot of making the NIT, they must win tonight’s home game with South Florida (8-18, 3-11).

The Bulls have lost four straight and are coming off a 64-50 loss at UConn on Saturday.

“We’re still trying to have a winning season,” Gonzo said after Sunday’s loss at St. John’s. “We still have other games ahead of us. We know that the next one’s very important because we’ve lost three in a row now on the road, two Top 10 teams. Now we’ve got to try to bounce back  and try to see if we can just get one game at a time.”

After the South Florida game, Seton Hall on Saturday hosts No. 1 Pitt, which is coming off last night’s stunning loss to Providence, and then goes on an extended road trip to play both No. 6  Louisville and Cincinnati. (more…)

Even Mike Tranghese thinks Rutgers has a lot of work to do on the hardwood.

The outgoing Big East Commissioner told Chris “Mad Dog” Russo during a radio interview Tuesday that Fred Hill’s club had to improve or there would be changes on The Banks.

“Well, they gotta get better,” Tranghese said, according to a report in The Star-Ledger. “I sound like I’m making excuses and I know this is a hard league, but they don’t have an athletic director at Rutgers. They are in the process of naming someone and I would think that down the road, everybody’s got to win.

“If you don’t win, you’re going to make changes. Our coaches are being paid a significant amount of money. This is a hard league to coach in, but I don’t see any administration staying with any coach for a long period of time when they are winning zero, one, two three or four games.” (more…)

It’s been a tough year for teams ranked No. 1 in the nation.

When Providence downed No. 1 Pittsburgh 81-73 Tuesday night, it marked the sixth time this season –and second time for the Panthers — that the No. 1 team had gone down in flames.

Pitt had just re-claimed the top spot on Monday after beating UConn last week.

While the Panthers can still be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Providence was fighting for an NCAA berth. (more…)

TRENTON, N.J. – A year ago, Doron Lamb and Shaquille Thomas attended school and played basketball in the heart of Northeast urban life, Lamb at Brooklyn (N.Y.) Bishop Loughlin and Thomas at Paterson (N.J.) Catholic.

Now the two young players are about as far out in the sticks as you can get.

The 6-foot-4 Lamb is playing for Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy, No. 2 in the RivalsHigh 100. The 6-6 Thomas competes for No. 99 Beckley (W.Va.) Mountain State Academy.

Read the full story here.

Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano announced that Kirk Ciarrocca and Kyle Flood have been named co-offensive coordinators while Bob Fraser and Ed Pinkham were named co-defensive coordinators.

In addition to serving as co-offensive coordinators, Ciarrocca will now coach the quarterbacks for the Scarlet Knights and Flood will continue as the team’s assistant head coach and offensive line coach.

Both Fraser (linebackers) and Pinkham (secondary) will continue to coach their same position groups in addition to sharing the defensive coordinator duties.

The offensive coordinator position was vacated when John McNulty took a job coaching receivers with the Arizona Cardinals.

**Click here to see the full six-minute SNY interview with Lance Stephenson where he talks about the recruiting process and his goal of winning an unprecedented fourth straight PSAL title.

NEW YORK – In an exclusive video interview that appeared on SNY’s Geico SportsNite and on ZAGSBLOG, Lance Stephenson talked about the difficult recruiting process, his goal of winning an unprecedented fourth straight PSAL city title and his plans for the future. (more…)

My feature on Michael Gilchrist is now up on Rivals.com. You can read it here.

The Celtics were the hands-down favorites to win the Tournament of Champions before the 6-foot-7 Gilchrist broke his foot in practice. With a nucleus of North Carolina-bound guard Dexter Strickland (pictured), junior guard Kyrie Irving and George Mason-bound forward Paris Bennett, to say nothing of role players like Kevin Boyle Jr., Dean Kowalski and Chase Plummer, the Celtics still have more than enough talent to get it done, but they are a little more vulnerable now.

Top-seeded St. Patrick (22-2) will meet fifth-seeded Linden (13-11) in the Union County semifinals, but that game was moved to Thursday at 7:30 at The Dunn Center from tonight because Kevin Boyle’s older brother, Neil, passed away from cancer Sunday and the wake is tonight.

“It’s one thing if he’s not coaching the game but then his son’s not playing,” said Linden coach Phil Colicchio, who worked with his AD, Steve Yesinko, to get the game moved. “He doesn’t need to be thinking about basketball at a time like this.” (more…)

For the second time in school history and third week this season, the Pittsburgh men’s basketball program is ranked No. 1 in the weekly Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN coaches’ polls, both announced on Monday.

Pitt ascended to the consensus No. 1 ranking after entering the week ranked No. 4 in both polls. On Monday, Pitt defeated No. 1 ranked Connecticut, 76-68. On Saturday, No. 3 North Carolina lost an 88-85 overtime decision to Maryland and No. 2 Oklahoma dropped a 73-68 loss at Texas. (more…)