Marquette should get a better feel as to whether sophomore guard Dominic James will return to school after Wednesday's briefing from the NBA's underclassmen advisory committee.
James has worked out only once, other than a less than stellar performance at the Orlando pre-draft camp two weeks ago. He worked out for Houston last Tuesday while still in Orlando.
James has one more workout scheduled. Tuesday, he'll work out for the New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets. On Wednesday, Marquette coach Tom Crean said James is supposed to hear from the NBA exactly where he stands in the draft.
According to multiple sources, the news likely won't be good for James, who could possibly go undrafted if he were to stay in the draft. The deadline to withdraw is a week from Monday (June 18).
The Eagles want James back, but they're also not sitting around idle waiting for him either. Crean said guards Jerel McNeal, Wes Matthews and David Cubillan have working extremely hard since the end of the season. Assuming James returns, the Eagles won't lose a single key contributor off last season's 24-win, NCAA Tournament squad and should be a factor in the Big East race throughout the season.
Final nuggets
• Georgetown's Jeff Green is getting quite an audience. He's had the entire Sixers and Bulls brass checking him out on campus for a workout. And now he's got a U.S. Senator and owner coming this week. Milwaukee Bucks owner/Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl (D) is expected to be in attendance for Tuesday's workout at Georgetown. The Bucks requested a time change with the Hoyas so Sen. Kohl could be in attendance. Green's decision on whether to stay in the draft is easily the most intriguing of anyone else on the fence. He's a lock for the lottery. If he returns, then the Hoyas are a given top-three preseason team.
• Here's the deal on Yi Jianlian through multiple sources in the league and close to Yi: His workouts have been very strong, and there is quite a bit of buzz about him in the league. But there are still only a few teams where he may land in the lottery. He could go as high as No. 3 to Atlanta now that the Hawks are on board with the process of getting him out of China. Atlanta wasn't in the mix as much early in the draft process during the season since the assumption was that Phoenix was going to get the pick (the Hawks' pick was protected up to the top three). Boston is still a strong possibility at No. 5 or if the Celtics were to trade the pick to say Portland, Phoenix or Golden State, all well-liked homes from the Yi camp. The final drop-dead spot for Yi is No. 9 to Chicago. The Bulls won't pass up on Yi if he's on the board. The expectation is that Yi won't go 1 or 2 (Portland and Seattle), No. 4 (Memphis), No. 6 (Milwaukee), No. 7 (Minnesota) or No. 8 (Charlotte) for various reasons -- from fit to working on his case of getting him out of China to whether the Yi camp wants him in these particular locales.
• Washington freshman center Spencer Hawes was on our ESPN Radio Gameday show Saturday, and he told me that he still doesn't know what he's going to do about staying in the draft. He worked out for Minnesota and Chicago, with the Bulls a strong possibility. But Hawes is also scheduled to work out for Sacramento (No. 10), Philadelphia (No. 12) and Atlanta (No. 11) before the withdrawal deadline. I've yet to talk to someone in the league who believes, unlike in the Green case, that Hawes will return to UW. But Hawes isn't showing his cards publicly. He's still saying he's undecided. One team told me over the weekend that the rumor was that Hawes had a promise from Minnesota. But the reason this stuff is hard to believe is because if that were the case, then why would he continue to work out for teams beyond No. 8?
• Detroit debunked the promise to Eastern Washington's Rodney Stuckey at No. 15. The Pistons do want a scoring guard but are also considering Nick Young (USC) and Javaris Crittenton (Georgia Tech) among others. The Pistons are also bringing in Crittenton's teammate and still undecided freshman Thaddeus Young. But Young's work out date is after June 18. It's easy to read into that and assume Young is staying in the draft, but you should know that these dates were originally scheduled with the assumption that Detroit would be in the NBA finals. So the dates could change. Meanwhile, it looks like you can lock in Texas A&M senior guard Acie Law no lower than No. 14 to the L.A. Clippers. Law told ESPN.com as much in Orlando, and then he canceled his workout with the Pistons at No. 15.
• Anthony Grant was also on our show Saturday. And as usual, he was all class. The VCU coach, who was likely going to be the next Florida coach had his good friend Billy Donovan not changed his mind on the Magic, claims that he has no ill feelings and was in touch with Donovan the entire time last weekend. He was on his way to pick up Florida AD Jeremy Foley at the Richmond airport when Christine Donovan called Foley and said her husband was having second thoughts. Grant and Billy Donovan spoke that Saturday morning and continued to keep the dialogue open throughout the weekend. As for Grant being the victim here, he denies it. He said he's perfectly pleased with his new contract -- a six-year deal and a salary bump that pushes him from $275,000 to $400,000 -- after a stellar first season where he won the CAA regular-season and tournament titles and beat Duke in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Pitt.
• Alabama point guard Ronald Steele is still on target for a July 1 return to the court after having both knees scoped in April, according to the Tide staff. His left knee was essentially fine but the right knee is on a 10-12 week program. Meanwhile, he's in the pool doing light running and jogging. Steele's health will determine just how much of a contender the Tide will be in the SEC West next season.
• New Santa Clara coach Kerry Keating isn't too thrilled with the schedule he was left behind from Dick Davey's staff. The Broncos will open up with seven straight road games unless the Broncos can get a home opener on Nov. 9 or 10. Meanwhile, Keating would like to offer up a legislative change to recruiting. (He should know about rules and regs since his father is Larry Keating, Kansas associate athletic director and chairman of the men's basketball rules committee.) Keating would like to see the NCAA increase from the current 130 total days of recruiting to 150 days to be used at the coach's discretion. Keating said there are too many events in May and June that coaches cannot attend and by the time they get to evaluate in July, the players are a bit spent.
"We've got to stop putting so much pressure in the month of July," Keating said. "These players are burned out halfway through the month and then everyone complains at the end of the month."
Keating said he'd like to have two two-week dead periods where coaches would essentially go on vacation -- the two weeks after the Final Four and two weeks in August before school starts. Every other day would be fair game for recruiting with the coaches choosing when to use their 150 days throughout the calendar year.
Andy Katz
