What are they waiting for?

What is the Jacksonville State basketball program waiting for? School to start? New athletics director Oval Jaynes to officially take over (he's already said to have had meetings with some coaches)? Midnight Madness?

It's been months since James Green has been named the program's head coach, and you know the staff has been working, but there's been no formal word on signees, a schedule, a contract.

So much time has passed since the hiring announcement that they've already killed any initial excitement toward the program and with the football opener Thursday night interest now will be cursory at best.

There have been snippets of info, like the four major-college guarantee games the Gamecocks are expected to play (UAB, Iowa State, South Carolina and UMass), but whenever it does come out, this will be the latest their complete schedule has ever been released.

When inquiries about Green's contract has been made, high ranking university officials have said at various times (a) it would be available in the library when completed, (b) was expected to be available the Tuesday after the last board of trustees meeting, (c) is still in draft form. The only new contracts in the library file are those of soccer coach Julie Davis and women's basketball coach Becky Geyer.

As for the signees, there was a mid-summer announcement about the transfer of Nebraska's Jay-R Strowbridge, but he won't be available to play until 2009-2010. The roster on the website does list four new names -- freshman guard John Barnes of Fort Walton Beach, Fla.; freshman forward Brandon Crawford of Montgomery; early signee Stephen Hall, a freshman forward from Birmingham; and Geddes Robinson, a redshirt freshman forward from the Bronx.