ESPN Andy Katz Blog

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Quick hitters for Friday from the pre-draft camp:

• North Carolina's Ty Lawson didn't play on Thursday because of a hip pointer. Lawson may not have to play again and still could go in the first round.

• UCLA's Kevin Love said he has been told that Minnesota likes him at No. 3. He said he could see himself going that high.

• IUPUI coach Ron Hunter said junior George Hill just wanted the experience of being at the pre-draft camp. But after a few days, Hill wasn't able to stand out enough to where it makes sense for him to stay in the draft.

• Hunter said he's up to over 200,000 donated shoes for his trip to Africa. He'll take them there in July as part of his campaign for Samaritan's Feet, which puts shoes on those who don't have them around the globe.

• Former NBA assistant Brian James, who has done work for ESPN, could possibly land on Johnny Dawkins' staff at Stanford.

• Love said the Bruins could still win the national title without him next season.

• UCLA junior Luc Richard Mbah a Moute hasn't stood out enough to warrant staying in the draft. He still may, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of buzz around him.

• One of the best stories at the camp has been Mike Taylor, a former Iowa State guard who is trying to become the first D-League player drafted. Taylor played for the Idaho Stampede last season and never went through the draft. The majority of D-League players go through the draft and end up in the D-League. But there was enough support for Taylor to be at the camp, so he was brought in this week. He hasn't disappointed with his active play at both ends of the court. He should be a solid second-round pick.

• A number of NBA personnel are wondering why John Riek was invited. The 7-foot-2 IMG Academy center got injured Tuesday and didn't play again. A number of NBA personnel said he needs to go play somewhere significant before he'd be ready.

• Expect Texas guard A.J. Abrams to go back to school since he couldn't land an invite to the draft camp.

• UAB coach Mike Davis expects Robert Vaden to work out for the next two weeks, but said he's still confident that Vaden will return to the Blazers for his senior year.

• North Carolina's Danny Green tweaked his ankle on Thursday but was still hopeful that he can show enough of his game to stay in the draft.

• UMass senior Gary Forbes scored 30 points Thursday night, and if nothing else, got himself noticed for a possible second-round selection and certainly for some more workouts.

• Nebraska coach Doc Sadler was upset about the Big 12's 10-2 faculty-rep ruling against the Huskers. Recruit Robert Sallie can't play for Nebraska because he broke Big 12 rule 6.2 that states if a player enrolls at an institution part-or full-time, he has to have met NCAA requirements. Sallie did take classes in August 2006, but he wasn't cleared by the NCAA while being enrolled as a part-time student. He then left in the fall and went to San Francisco City College and became the California community college Player of the Year last season. Sadler was hoping that the 6-foot-5 Sallie would get a waiver since he never played at Nebraska and didn't spend a full semester there. But the faculty reps in the Big 12 didn't see it the same way. Sallie is now free to transfer to any other institution outside of the Big 12.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- North Carolina's Ty Lawson clearly proved that he was a step ahead of the rest of the players and a likely first-round pick in the first day of five-on-five competition at the NBA pre-draft camp, according to at least one West Coast team executive.

The other player who may have looked the part was UAB's Robert Vaden. He scored well, making 6 of 11 shots, including 1 of 3 on 3s, for 13 points.

But Vaden, unlike many others here, has a realistic view of his situation. Sure, he wants to go in the first round and would love to get a guaranteed contract, even high in the second. But he seems to be at peace if he can't get something like that after this week or in the coming weeks prior to the June 16 deadline.

The fifth-year senior led the Blazers with 21.1 points a game. He set a Conference USA record with 142 3s last season.

"If I decide to go back to school, I'll be in a good situation," said Vaden, who started his career with coach Mike Davis at Indiana for two seasons before transferring to UAB for a year and playing last season for Davis. "I don't want to go back, but I have to have something guaranteed. I'm coming out here to show I can defend, handle the ball a bit, make plays and I think I showed that."

Vaden said he has workouts scheduled for Phoenix, Boston, Denver, Houston, Minnesota, Washington, Cleveland and San Antonio -- most of which means he's being looked at as a potential late first-round pick or more likely second round. Still, he'll be hard-pressed to get a guaranteed idea of where he stands by June 16.

The Blazers are due to get back point guard Paul Delaney III, who was injured for most of last season, and redshirt Terrence Roderick, a scoring wing who sat out last season and will have an impact, Vaden said.

"We were almost good enough to get to the tournament with just me last season," Vaden said. The Blazers finished second to Memphis at 12-4 in Conference USA and finished 23-11 overall. UAB lost to Virginia Tech in the second round of the NIT.

"We've got a chance to be pretty good next season," Vaden said.

Final nuggets

• North Carolina coach Roy Williams was in attendance watching games at the Milk House Wednesday night with his wife, Wanda. Williams was here checking out his three underclassmen entrants Wayne Ellington, Lawson and Danny Green. He said if all three players stay in the draft, the Tar Heels still have a chance to be pretty good, but there are "different levels of pretty good." If Lawson stays in the draft, which seems to be a high probability since he's playing well, then Williams said Bobby Frasor, back from a knee injury, and incoming freshman Larry Drew would share the point.

"Larry Drew will be a big-time player for us," Williams said.

Williams also said the signing of guard Justin Watts before the end of the spring-signing period wasn't completely based on the possibility of losing three perimeter players but it didn't hurt to have a backup.

Williams was pretty calm and at ease with being in an early-entry situation for the first time at Carolina.

"There's nothing I can do about it, so I'm going to enjoy watching the games and support the kids and whatever they want to do I'm in favor of," he said.

• Washington State coach Tony Bennett wasn't in attendance since neither Kyle Weaver nor Derrick Low was here. Bennett said Wednesday night that Low desperately wanted to be invited but wasn't and that Weaver chose not to attend.

• Kansas assistant Ronnie Chalmers said he didn't feel his son, Kansas junior Mario Chalmers, had to play at the camp. He said Mario hasn't made up his mind yet as to whether or not he'll stay in the draft. He said Mario has workouts scheduled with Phoenix (15th pick), Washington (18), Cleveland (19), Denver (20) and New Orleans (27). Chalmers is considered in the next-best group of guards after the initial wave of Derrick Rose, Jerryd Bayless, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon, Russell Westbrook and D.J. Augustin. Chalmers and Lawson are also behind Brandon Rush and Chris Douglas-Roberts, but are both likely in the first round.

• Stanford sophomore center Brook Lopez will work out for Minnesota (3) and Seattle (4). His twin brother, Robin, is working out for a number of teams picking from 10 to 20 in the first round.

• Pitt senior Mike Cook is progressing well in his rehab from major surgery after injuring his knee in a win over Duke on Dec. 20. His appeal to get a sixth year of eligibility is going to be a long, drawn-out process, according to the staff, and may take well into the summer.

• BYU coach Dave Rose said junior Lee Cummard, who wasn't invited to the camp, still has a group workout scheduled next week in Houston. So, he may drag his decision out a few more weeks. But Rose is optimistic Cummard will return.

• Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said the SEC coaches talked about going from 16 to 18 regular-season games at the SEC meetings in Destin, Fla., Wednesday, but it didn't get very far. He said the "bottom line is getting into the [NCAA] tournament, and if isn't broken then we don't need to worry about fixing it."

The SEC put six teams in the NCAA tournament last season with Tennessee, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Georgia (which won the SEC tournament), Kentucky and Vanderbilt. But the inequity of adding two more league games didn't make sense to the coaches, Gottfried said. The current format of two divisions, where each team plays the other twice with six crossover games against the other (three home and three road) teams, is easy for everyone to understand, he said.

The Alabama coach also said the league coaches praised the SEC for a fabulous job handling the tornado-disrupted SEC tournament, when it had to be moved from the Georgia Dome to Georgia Tech. He said other conferences were calling the SEC for their own contingency plans.

• College coaches here in attendance Wednesday: the Alabama staff, UAB's Mike Davis, Rose, Williams, Oregon's Ernie Kent, Morgan State's Todd Bozeman, Nebraska's Doc Sadler and former Indiana assistant Jeff Meyer.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- If Luc Richard Mbah a Moute decides to return to UCLA, he has a chance to go to four Final Fours during his NCAA career, a feat that would be matched by fellow Cameroonian countryman and teammate Alfred Aboya, as well as fellow classmates Darren Collison and Josh Shipp.

But the chance for Aboya, Collison and Shipp to reach one more Final Four could be tied to Mbah a Moute's decision in the next few weeks.

Mbah a Moute is here at the NBA pre-draft camp to see if he can get, at the very least, a guaranteed second-round contract. Anything short of a guarantee, and he'll return to the Bruins, he said. That's not what he wants, but he'll take the option since he said he will be six classes away from graduating after the spring quarter concludes next month. That means he could graduate in December and have a stress-free Pac-10 and NCAA tournament in 2009.

Mbah a Moute isn't Kevin Love. But he is a vital piece of Ben Howland's team. He's an experienced player who understands what Howland wants. He's a key rebounder at both ends of the court and would potentially give the Bruins four experienced senior players heading into 2008-09 (Shipp declared but has since withdrawn from the draft, according to published reports in Los Angeles).

The Bruins did lose a first-team All-American and Pac-10 Player of the Year in the freshman Love. Sophomore guard Russell Westbrook is likely going into the top 12 in the draft and will probably sign with an agent soon. But if Mbah a Moute returns, the Bruins will have six of their top nine players back, including four players (Collison, Shipp, Mbah a Moute and Aboya) who have started plenty of games for them over the past two seasons. The recruiting class, was rated No. 1 by Scouts Inc., has a little bit of everything: multiple ballhandlers in Jrue Holiday (also a prolific scorer), Jerime Anderson and Malcolm Lee; an up-and-down scoring forward in Drew Gordon; and a solid post player in J'Mison Morgan, who was released from his national letter of intent with LSU and just signed with the Bruins last week.

The Bruins expect to play much more up tempo next season, and if Mbah a Moute returns, they'll have a crafty player who can work the angles in the halfcourt, too.

But Mbah a Moute isn't here for a relaxing week in central Florida. He's here to try and stay in the draft.

"You only get one opportunity for this and you do your best," Mbah a Moute said. "I'm doing this like I'm not coming back. But if I have to, I will."

Mbah a Moute said going to three Final Fours and not winning any of them has left him a bit empty.

The Bruins will be the consensus pick to win the Pac-10, with Arizona State and possibly Cal (if Ryan Anderson withdraws from the draft) trailing behind. UCLA also will have a legitimate shot to be a No. 1 seed again next season. Having Mbah a Moute isn't a must for this to occur, but he would certainly help. If he returns, there will be less pressure on Morgan and Gordon to produce immediately.

"Hopefully I'll know where I stand after this camp," said Mbah a Moute, who plans on working out for individual teams the first few weeks of June prior to the deadline to withdraw on the 16th. "I can be a second-round pick, but it depends on how much interest. You have to see if it's a good opportunity."

Final nuggets

• USC freshman Davon Jefferson said the decision to stay in the draft and sign with an agent was his and his alone. He said he didn't have a problem coming to play this week because "I wanted to play with the best players and have fun."

Jefferson said he knew during the season that he was ready to leave USC and felt he was ready for the NBA.

"The main thing was it was the best thing for me and my family," Jefferson said. "We had an OK year. Coach [Tim] Floyd taught me a lot as a man and as a person off the court. It was a tough situation, but I enjoyed it while I was there."

Jefferson is a likely second-round pick heading into the camp.

When asked about knowing of any extra benefits for former teammate O.J. Mayo, Jefferson said, "I don't think he did anything wrong, that I knew of."

• Following up on Tuesday's Daily Word about the list here, there were a few other potential first-round picks that likely turned down invitations to be at the draft camp: Washington State senior Kyle Weaver, Indiana senior D.J. White, Western Kentucky senior Courtney Lee and Kansas junior Brandon Rush.

• Every year at the NBA draft camp there are interesting sightings of coaches who may be looking for work. The most jarring one was seeing former Indiana interim coach Dan Dakich, now unemployed, standing above the Milk House court, while former head coach Kelvin Sampson was down below since he is now a member of the Milwaukee Bucks coaching staff.

• The MAC meetings are going on in Chicago, and according to a coach in attendance, there was more talk about expanding the league to 14 teams with adding Temple (Atlantic 10 for all sports but football) and Western Kentucky (Sun Belt) as full members. Temple plays a MAC schedule in football and has added MAC nonconference games for basketball. This kind of decision would be made for football, but if they did ever join the league in hoops, it would make this league even tougher and potentially put it in position to earn multiple bids (which hasn't happened since 1999).

Here is the full list of the 64 participants in the NBA's pre-draft camp from Tuesday through Friday in Orlando, Fla.:

Ramel Bradley, Sr., Kentucky
Tyrone Brazelton, Sr., Western Kentucky
Takais Brown, Torpan Pojat, Helsinki, Finland
Keith Brumbaugh, Hillsborough CC, Florida
Stanley Burrell, Sr., Xavier
Brian Butch, Sr., Wisconsin
Jamar Butler, Sr., Ohio State
Pat Calathes, Sr., Saint Joseph's
Joe Crawford, Sr., Kentucky
Chris Daniels, Sr., Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Joey Dorsey, Sr., Memphis
Marcus Dove, Sr., Oklahoma State
Josh Duncan, Sr., Xavier
Frank Elegar, Sr., Drexel
Wayne Ellington, Soph., North Carolina
Patrick Ewing Jr., Sr., Georgetown
Gary Forbes, Sr., UMass
Shan Foster, Sr., Vanderbilt
J.R. Giddens, Sr., New Mexico
James Gist, Sr., Maryland
Vladimir Gulubovic, Vojvodina, Serbia
Kentrell Gransberry, Sr., South Florida
Danny Green, Jr., North Carolina
Malik Hairston, Sr., Oregon
DeVon Hardin, Sr., Cal
Richard Hendrix, Jr., Alabama
George Hill, Jr., IUPUI
Kyle Hines, Sr., UNC-Greensboro
Jiri Hubalek, Sr., Iowa State
Lester Hudson, Jr., Tennessee-Martin
Othello Hunter, Sr., Ohio State
Darnell Jackson, Sr., Kansas
Shawn James, Jr., Duquesne
Davon Jefferson, Fr., USC
Joseph Jones, Sr., Texas A&M
Sasha Kaun, Sr., Kansas
Marcelus Kemp, Sr., Nevada
Ty Lawson, Soph., North Carolina
Maarty Leunen, Sr., Oregon
Longar Longar, Sr., Oklahoma
Aleks Maric, Sr., Nebraska
James Mays, Sr., Clemson
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Jr., UCLA
Drew Neitzel, Sr., Michigan State
DeMarcus Nelson, Sr., Duke
David Padgett, Sr., Louisville
Jeremy Pargo, Jr., Gonzaga
Trent Plaisted, Jr., BYU
Quan Prowell, Sr., Auburn
Shaun Pruitt, Sr., Illinois
Charles Rhodes, Sr., Mississippi State
John Riek, IMG Academy, Florida
Brian Roberts, Sr., Dayton
Russell Robinson, Sr., Kansas
Richard Roby, Sr., Colorado
Sean Singletary, Sr., Virginia
Ronald Steele, RS-Sr., Alabama
Bryce Taylor, Sr., Oregon
Mike Taylor, Idaho D-League
Mark Tyndale, Sr., Temple
Robert Vaden, Jr., UAB
Deron Washington, Sr., Virginia Tech
Sonny Weems, Sr., Arkansas
Reggie Williams, Sr., VMI

• Skills, strength, agility and medical testing only (15 players):

Joe Alexander, Jr., West Virginia
Darrell Arthur, Soph., Kansas
D.J. Augustin, Soph., Texas
Jerryd Bayless, Fr., Arizona
Michael Beasley, Fr., Kansas State
Eric Gordon, Fr., Indiana
Donte Greene, Fr., Syracuse
DeAndre Jordan, Fr., Texas A&M
Brook Lopez, Soph., Stanford
Kevin Love, Fr., UCLA
O.J. Mayo, Fr., USC
JaVale McGee, Soph., Nevada
Anthony Randolph, Fr., LSU
Derrick Rose, Fr., Memphis
Russell Westbrook, Soph., UCLA

This is the first year the committee didn't subjectively select players for the camp or for the physical-only portion. The NBA polled the teams with a secret ballot and kept the results private until late Sunday night. The committee pushed the physical-only list to 20 players in years past. But this year, the NBA was adamant that it was going with only the top 15 vote getters.

This doesn't mean the lottery is set with the aforementioned 15 players. Italian Danilo Gallinari is sure to be in the top 14.

Still, Alexander (West Virginia) and Greene (Syracuse) being voted into the top 15 means they can safely project they will be selected high enough to stay in the draft. So far, neither has given up his amateur status by signing with an agent. But if Alexander and Greene are making their decisions based on this list, West Virginia and Syracuse can start planning on not having them next season.

Arthur (Kansas), Love (UCLA) and Westbrook (UCLA) also haven't signed with agents. But that is merely a technicality. They all are likely to stay in the draft and go in the top 12.

By far the biggest surprise is the willingness of some high-profile underclassmen to participate in the camp, notably the trio from North Carolina.

Sophomores Ellington and Lawson aren't locks for the first round, so they decided to participate and try to play their ways in. Neither has signed with an agent, and this clearly is an attempt to prove they are first-round worthy and should stay in the draft. Teammate Green also decided to play, a necessity if he wants to get into the second round and not return to school.

UCLA's Mbah a Moute is another name underclassman willing to participate. He easily could play himself into the second round with a strong performance and decide not to return to school. Gonzaga junior point Pargo, brother of New Orleans guard Jannero Pargo, is playing in the hope that he can crack the first round, if not get some sort of guarantee for the second round.

Alabama's Steele and Hendrix have different agendas. Steele is trying to prove he is healthy after sitting out the season with a knee injury, while Hendrix has a legit shot to convince NBA teams he should be selected high enough that he should stay in the draft.

UAB's Vaden, Tennessee-Martin's Hudson and IUPUI's Hill all are prolific scorers who could play their ways to higher in the second round. If they receive some sort of guarantees, they might choose to stay in the draft, too.

Every year, there are a few surprise participants but usually even more intriguing omissions.

Underclassmen who haven't signed with an agent and aren't playing or on the physical-only list are: Kansas junior Mario Chalmers, Kansas State redshirt freshman Bill Walker, Florida sophomore Marreese Speights, Cal sophomore Ryan Anderson, NC State freshman J.J. Hickson, Arizona sophomore Chase Budinger, Mississippi State junior Jamont Gordon, BYU junior Lee Cummard and Texas junior A.J. Abrams.

The NBA didn't offer specific reasons why certain players won't play. The most likely scenario for this crew is that a number of them declined invitations. It's possible the last few were not invited. It's hard to project what these nine players are going to do, but the decisions not to play by Walker, Chalmers, Speights, Hickson and Budinger can't be good signs they will go back to college.

The one underclassman who did sign with an agent and isn't playing is Robin Lopez, a sophomore from Stanford.

There are four players who signed with agents and are playing: USC freshman Jefferson, BYU junior Plaisted, post-grad high school student Riek out of IMG Academy in Florida and Duquesne junior James. The most significant senior who isn't playing is Georgetown center Roy Hibbert. Notable underclassmen who will go in the first round but won't be in Orlando are Memphis junior Chris Douglas-Roberts and Ohio State freshman Kosta Koufos.

Players arrived in Orlando on Monday and will participate in drill and scrimmage work Tuesday before playing a game a day Wednesday through Friday. There will be 16 days after the camp concludes for the underclassmen who have not signed with agents to decide whether they are going to stay in the draft.

The Pac-10 sent out an internal memo Thursday to its officials and staff to ensure that everyone in the league keep Tim Gabutero in their prayers.

Forget about the slime part of the sport for a moment -- money, the runners, the negativity that has swirled around the game. Stop for a moment and think about someone like Tim Gabutero, an official who tirelessly worked games in various Division I leagues on the West Coast for 25 years before pancreatic cancer hit him in December.

Gabutero, 52, recently married to Maggie (the pair have a 1-year old daughter Jaclyn) in the Seattle area, is battling valiantly.

Over the past few days I spoke to Gabutero's good friends -- official Scott Thornley, MWC coordinator of officials Bobby Dibler, LSU coach Trent Johnson (who went to high school in Seattle with Gabutero) and the Pac-10 coordinator of officials Bill McCabe.

All of them are on edge.

They all conveyed how serious Gabutero's plight is at this juncture. Dibler said Gabutero and his wife traveled to Portland to see a specialist. "We're all just hoping and praying," he said. "No one knows the value of prayer more than me."

Dibler said he has faith because of what he went through on June 14, 2000 when Dibler's wife, Carroll, 56, and their daughter, Kristin, 20, were shot and killed in the family's El Paso home.

He is trying to stay positive. "I know he's battling. I know he is, but it was hard for him to talk recently,'' Dibler said. "His voice was very weak. He's lost weight. We're all praying for him."

It was Thornley who first pushed Gabutero to go to the doctor when the two were officiating a game at the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu.

Thornley recounted the same story this week that he told me in January: He saw Gabutero in the locker room at the Stan Sheriff Center and had a feeling that he didn't look right.

"He took off his shirt, and I knew he had lost weight,'' Thornley said. "I asked him how much weight had he lost and he said maybe 10-15 pounds, and I told him he couldn't afford to lose that much weight. He wasn't that big.''

He said that Gabutero told him that his stomach had been upset, and he hadn't been hungry.

Gabutero went home to Seattle, saw a doctor and was diagnosed. He hadn't work another game since the Rainbow Classic championship on Dec. 22 between Saint Mary's and Ohio.

When I talked to Gabutero in January, he said that he had pain in his stomach earlier in December and thought it would go away. He said the pain got worse and worse, and when he returned from Honolulu he went into the emergency room and received the diagnosis on Dec. 24. "It was a shock to me, and my wife, it wasn't something that I was ever expecting to happen,'' Gabutero said in January.

Throughout the last few months, he has undergone chemotherapy, radiation and other holistic methods. At the time, he said he was hoping and praying that the cancer cells would shrink.

In January, Gabutero said, "We don't know [what will happen]. It's in God's hands. We're just going to go by what the doctors are saying now.''

Gabutero said at the time that coaches from around the country -- and especially in the West -- had called to encourage him. During the season when Stanford played at Washington, Johnson went to Gabutero's house to visit with him hours before tipoff.

Thornley said this week he fears the worst. It was just last November that the officiating community on the West Coast lost one of its own -- Andy Rios -- to cancer. "We all had that funny feeling in Honolulu that something wasn't right,'' Thornley said. "He just didn't have that same cheery look [and] bounce as he always does."

No one is predicting what will occur. But everyone in the officiating community on the West Coast is extremely concerned and is hoping, praying that Timmy will somehow pull through.

Final nuggets

• Former St. John's coach Mike Jarvis and Florida Atlantic athletic director Craig Angelos are in negotiations, but the contract isn't done yet. Until it is, there won't be a news conference. The earliest it could occur is Tuesday.

• The NBA is holding firm that it won't officially release the Orlando pre-draft list until Monday, not just to media outlets, but also to the committee that voted on the players and the teams. That hasn't stopped some schools from sending out news releases that their players have accepted invitations. A few have trickled in to say they're playing, led by Alabama's Ronald Steele and Richard Hendrix, UAB's Robert Vaden and IUPUI's George Hill.

• The count of returning players continues to climb with announcements from Marquette's Jerel McNeal, Alabama's Alonzo Gee, UTEP's Stefon Jackson, UCLA's Josh Shipp and Missouri's Leo Lyons all saying they are returning to school. Memphis coach John Calipari said Thursday that Robert Dozier and Antonio Anderson were going to China on Sunday. It would be highly unlikely that they would stay in the draft if they were going to China.

The players to keep an eye on, as to whether or not they'll play in Orlando next week, include: Texas' A.J. Abrams, Cal's Ryan Anderson, Missouri's DeMarre Carroll, Kansas' Mario Chalmers, BYU's Lee Cummard, North Carolina's Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson and Danny Green, Mississippi State's Jamont Gordon, NC State'sJ.J Hickson, UCLA's Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Gonzaga's Jeremy Pargo.

Underclassmen Joe Alexander (West Virginia), Chase Budinger (Arizona), Bill Walker (Kansas State), Russell Westbrook (UCLA) and Marreese Speights (Florida) are considered possible top 20 picks, so it would be highly unlikely they would accept an offer to play in Orlando. But they have all maintained their amateur status so far. So, too, has UCLA's Kevin Love and Kansas' Darrell Arthur, but these likely lottery picks aren't going back to school. You can book that.

One of the things you learn quickly about Mike Montgomery and Trent Johnson is that they don't tend to make excuses, harp on the past or get too emotional.

They tend to be direct, to the point and rarely get hung up on what they can't control.

And that's why neither is going to mope about waiting for a critical player to test the NBA's draft process (Cal's Ryan Anderson) or whine about losing a key recruit (J'Mison Morgan, a one-time LSU signee who got out of his national letter of intent) or waiting for the recovery of LSU's top two players from offseason surgeries (Tasmin Mitchell and Garrett Temple).

If Anderson returns to Cal, the Bears legitimately could be a top-three team in the Pac-10 next season, along with UCLA and Arizona State.

The Bears will lose center DeVon Hardin and wing Eric Vierneisel. But if Anderson comes back, the Bears will retain a prolific scorer and a potential All-American and Pac-10 Player of the Year. They will also have a solid contributor in Jamal Boykin, the team's top defender (back from an injury) in forward Theo Robertson, the starting backcourt in Patrick Christopher and Jerome Randle, and an infusion of talent on the perimeter in incoming freshman shooting guard D.J. Seeley. (Montgomery said Seeley had work to do to get eligible but has done well.) Montgomery also went out and nabbed point guard Jorge Gutierrez to offset the loss of Garrett Sim this spring, who got out of his NLI (national letter of intent) to go to Oregon once Ben Braun was out at Cal.

The Bears can be competitive in the Pac-10's top six without Anderson. With him, there's the potential to compete for an NCAA berth and a league title.

Montgomery said as of Wednesday he didn't know if Anderson was going to play in the Orlando pre-draft camp next week. He said Anderson was originally against playing but may have changed his mind. He said if Anderson were told he's in the lottery, then he would likely stay in the draft. But that doesn't appear to be the case at this point.

"Hopefully he'll come back," Montgomery said.

As soon as Orlando is over, Anderson will have until June 16 to work out for teams and make up his mind.

"He doesn't have a lot of time," Montgomery said.

Johnson doesn't have the chance to sweat out the return of his second-leading scorer. Freshman Anthony Randolph decided to enter the draft and sign with an agent. Then Morgan asked for his release from his NLI. Johnson said he didn't fight Morgan's departure because of the Academic Performance Report (APR) that penalizes schools that lose transfers.

But all isn't lost. The Tigers still have a decent core that can be competitive next season in the SEC West. Five of the top six scorers are back, and the three early signees didn't ask out of their NLIs so they'll be on the roster, as well.

Johnson said Mitchell was cleared a week ago to participate after left ankle surgery earlier in the season. Temple had wrist surgery and Johnson said the junior will have ankle surgery next week, taking him out of action until August.

"We've got a really good nucleus," Johnson said. "All is good."

Final nuggets

• Memphis may be getting some great news for next season. Memphis coach John Calipari and assistant John Robic said that Robert Dozier and Antonio Anderson are slated to leave Sunday for the team's weeklong trip to China. That means they won't be going to the Orlando pre-draft camp next Tuesday. Neither coach would say for certain that either player was withdrawing from the draft, but the players won't be available to be evaluated by NBA teams over the next week, making it seem unlikely that they would stay in the draft.

The trip to China is Calipari's second in a year after cultivating a relationship with the Chinese Basketball Association. He had a coach from China on his staff throughout the season. Originally, the plan was for the Memphis team to go on the trip and use it as a foreign trip. But, since Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts declared for the draft, and senior Joey Dorsey was going to pursue his pro career, the Tigers didn't have enough bodies to play.

Calipari said the NCAA told him he could make it a Memphis trip. The team, which would include his five to seven players (depending on Dozier and Anderson), could practice and count it as a trip. Or he could make it a Conference USA trip, with other players from other schools, but not practice prior to the trip.

Memphis chose the latter option.

Calipari, Robic and Rod Strickland will represent the Memphis staff, with players Anderson, Dozier, Willie Kemp, Doneal Mack, Shawn Taggart, Jeff Robinson and Pierre Niles. UTEP coach Tony Barbee is going on the trip and taking Claude Britten and Julyan Stone. Tulsa head coach Doug Wojcik is going on the trip and taking leading scorer Ben Uzoh. He was going to bring Jerome Jordan too, but a visa issue prevented the sophomore from going on the trip. Southern Miss' Larry Eustachy isn't going but he is sending leading scorer Jeremy Wise and Andre Stephens.

Robic said the team will play three games, including one against the Chinese Olympic team, minus Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian. The team, which will wear Nike-sponsored shoes and C-USA uniforms, leaves Sunday and will return June 2. Calipari, Strickland and Robic will stay in China for a clinic the following week.

• UCLA, among other schools, is still waiting for a decision from Morgan, who was released from his commitment to LSU last week.

• Former North Carolina Tar Heel Alex Stepheson, who transferred to be closer to his family, is likely going to end up in the Pac-10, with member schools pursuing him, notably UCLA and Oregon State.

• Gonzaga junior guard Jeremy Pargo may be leaning toward playing in the pre-draft camp in Orlando. If that's the case, expect the Zags' staff to be there to watch him and see if their starting point guard returns next season. Pargo would love to stay in the draft but isn't a first-round lock.

• The NBA isn't giving up the list for Orlando because it's not done yet. NBA personnel said the league wouldn't release the list until Monday. Members of the pre-draft committee are being shut out as well. The problem is that there were so many early entrants, the league office is trying to get a handle on who is going to play in the event. Also, there are players who were candidates to play in Orlando who are withdrawing from the draft and returning to school, like Texas A&M's Josh Carter and UTEP's Stefon Jackson.

This happens every year as agents play this cat-and-mouse game of not committing to having their players play in Orlando. The problem with waiting it out to see who will play is the committee has a hard time making other commitments to players who want to play (i.e. a number of seniors). There are only 60-70 playing spots and 20 physical-only slots for the potential top 20 picks.

Quick hitters on a post-lottery Wednesday:

• USA Basketball has sent out invites to the 30 players for the Under 18 team that will be coached by Davidson's Bob McKillop, Georgetown's John Thompson III and VCU's Anthony Grant and will train in Washington, D.C., from July 1-10 (either at Georgetown or at the Wizards' facility). Here are 28 of the 30 invitees for the U-18 competition in Argentina from July 14-18, according to McKillop:

Isaiah Armwood (2009)
Kenny Boynton (2009)
Dominic Cheek (2009)
Derrick Favors (2009)
Drew Gordon (UCLA)
JaMychal Green (Alabama)
Kenny Hall (2009 committed to Tennessee)
Jordan Hamilton (2009)
Jrue Holiday (UCLA, still pending if he'll go to the tryout)
Matt Humphrey (Oregon)
Ryan Kelly (2009) Sylven Landesberg (Virginia, tryout still pending)
Malcolm Lee (UCLA)
Leslie McDonald (2009)
Darius Miller (Kentucky)
Reeves Nelson (2009 committed to UCLA)
Mason Plumlee (2009 committed to Duke)
Lance Stephenson (2009)
Ari Stewart (2009)
Dexter Strickland (2009 commitment to North Carolina)
Hollis Thompson (2009 committed to Georgetown)
Terrell Vinson (2009)
Jonathan Wall (2009)
Kemba Walker (Connecticut)
Maalik Wayns (2009 committed to Villanova)
David and Travis Wear (2009 committed to North Carolina)
Wesley Witherspoon (Memphis)

• Davidson coach Bob McKillop said that incoming 6-foot-10 center Frank Ben-Eze is recovering well from ACL surgery on his right knee. He said Ben-Eze, a one-time Harvard commitment, played with a stress fracture during the season, which ultimately led to the ACL injury. McKillop said it's too early to tell what kind of impact Ben-Eze will have on the Wildcats since he won't be ready to play until mid-October. The Wildcats lose point guard Jason Richards but do return All-American guard Stephen Curry and big man Andrew Lovedale.

"Ben-Eze will have a setback with the amount of time he's missing and the jury is still out," McKillop said. "But he's a pure talent and his work ethic and toughness should help us. He'll have an impact in the program."

• Brewster (N.H.) Academy coach Jason Smith said Emmanuel Negedu's choices for his next school -- now that he has been released from his letter of intent to Arizona -- are Georgia Tech, Memphis, Tennessee and Indiana.

• No word on where Georgetown guard Jeremiah Rivers will transfer yet, but Indiana desperately wants him.

• Beginning Thursday until the end of the month (that's May 22-31), college basketball coaches are entering a new dead period. This was designed to give coaches a mandatory break from recruiting and to make it an even playing field. That means there can be no official or unofficial visits during this time period. The only thing related to an evaluation that the coaches are allowed to do is go to the Orlando pre-draft camp next week.

There was a time, just two years ago, where the NCAA forbid coaches from watching their players at the NBA pre-draft camp because they could've seen prospective student-athletes. That rule existed when high school seniors could go to the draft camp. Now that there are no more high school players in the NBA draft, there aren't any recruitable athletes at the camp.

• Coach Dave Paulsen, formerly of Williams College (Mass.), has a great rep in the biz and should do well at Bucknell. But it is interesting that the Bison chose Paulsen over one of its own in Virginia assistant Bill Courtney, who was just inducted into their Hall of Fame.

• Texas A&M got great news for its chances to land in the top four in the Big 12 with Josh Carter's announcement that he's returning to school and not staying in the draft.

• Instead of another mock draft I'll offer up a few potential locks:

I don't see new Charlotte coach Larry Brown drafting an unproven talent like DeAndre Jordan or JaVale McGee. I would expect Charlotte to go with a known commodity at No. 9 like Kevin Love of UCLA or D.J. Augustin of Texas if available.

The L.A. Clippers have such a quandary at the point that a guard seems to be a lock.

I can't imagine New York going with anyone that has character issues with the new regime in place.

UCLA sophomore Russell Westbrook will climb and could be a great fit for Sacramento at No. 12 or Golden State at No. 14.

If Derrick Rose goes to Chicago at No. 1, then the Kirk Hinrich experiment likely will end with the Bulls.

Miami, like Seattle last year, is clearly in the best position with a can't-miss decision of Rose or Michael Beasley at No. 2.

• Pitt is no longer a lock to go to the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament in New York with UCLA, Duke and Michigan. The Panthers are more likely to land in the Legends Classic in Newark, N.J., with Texas Tech. The five schools in the mix for the four remaining spots in the two tournaments are Pitt, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Washington State and/or Southern Illinois.

Over the past two weeks, ESPN.com conducted a lottery poll to get a consensus of the NBA draft lottery (the top 14), and 26 of 30 NBA teams responded. The representatives varied from a GM to a player personnel director to a director of scouting to a scout. One vote was given per mention.

Unanimous selections (6)

Jerryd Bayless, Fr., G, Arizona -- 26
Michael Beasley, Fr., F, Kansas State -- 26
Eric Gordon, Fr., G, Indiana -- 26
Brook Lopez, Soph., C, Stanford -- 26
Derrick Rose, Fr., G, Memphis -- 26
O.J. Mayo, Fr., G, USC -- 26

Near-consensus (4)

Danilo Gallinari, F, Italy -- 25
Anthony Randolph, Fr., F, LSU -- 24
Darrell Arthur*, Soph., F, Kansas -- 22
Kevin Love*, Fr., C, UCLA -- 22

Last four spots

Russell Westbrook*, Soph., G, UCLA -- 21
D.J. Augustin, Soph., G, Texas -- 18
DeAndre Jordan, Fr., C, Texas A&M -- 17
JaVale McGee, Soph., C, Nevada -- 13

Also receiving multiple votes (11)

Nicolas Batum, F, France -- 9
Joe Alexander*, Jr., F, West Virginia -- 6
Chase Budinger*, Soph., F, Arizona -- 5
Donte Greene*, Fr., F, Syracuse -- 3
Kosta Koufos, Fr., F, Ohio State -- 3
Robin Lopez, Soph., C, Stanford -- 3
Chris Douglas-Roberts, Jr., G, Memphis -- 2
Roy Hibbert, Sr., C, Georgetown -- 2
J.J. Hickson*, Fr., F, NC State -- 2
Brandon Rush, Jr., F, Kansas -- 2
Marreese Speights*, So., F, Florida -- 2

*Still hasn't officially signed with an agent.

Interpreting the poll

The top 10 vote-getters are assuredly locks to stay in the lottery.

The top-10 also could be dominated by freshmen, with the potential that seven of the 10 could be from the heralded class of 2007.

This also will be a playmaker's draft at the top, with nearly half of the lottery picks likely going to perimeter-based players.

There is likely bad news for UCLA fans, considering that Love and Westbrook were beloved by the majority of voters, but technically neither has given up his eligibility yet. The two fence sitters to keep the closest eye on are Alexander and Budinger. A number of voters said these two could climb in the lottery with good workouts.

The senior class was weak for the lottery. The only senior who received a vote was Hibbert.

Another interesting name here is Speights. He received two votes, and the voters who picked Speights considered him a lock for the lottery. Speights will have a tough decision to make. If he gambles and stays in the draft, he could slide into the second round because the one or two teams that do like him might have another player fall to them.

Clearly, Love, Westbrook and Arthur -- who also technically hasn't signed with an agent yet -- are thought of highly enough to stay in the draft. Alexander and Budinger aren't too far behind, either. Hickson, like Speights, would be taking a gamble because he is another player who had little lottery interest save from two teams. But neither team liked him enough that it would have to take him.

If getting drafted in the lottery is the goal, then by that logic, Jordan and McGee likely will be able to say they made the right decision. Neither is a proven commodity, but each is thought of highly enough to go in the top 14. Koufos is rolling the dice by already signing with an agent. A number of voters said they couldn't see him coming close to the lottery. Greene will have a tough decision to make, as well.

The only player to get just a single vote was North Carolina sophomore point Ty Lawson, who still hasn't signed with an agent.

One GM said workouts will change the perception of a lot of these players, especially those who came in from 11 to 14 on the various ballots.

Mayo's potential NCAA issues had zero effect on his status in the lottery. Gordon's late-season dip didn't seem to bother anyone, either.

Even though the majority of voters didn't put the top two in order, there was a definite tendency to discuss Rose over Beasley with the top pick.

Final nuggets

• Word started to spread in the Big 12 on Monday night about Wesley Johnson's decision to transfer out of Iowa State. One rival coach said late Monday night that this was "huge. Iowa State was going to be pretty good, not great, but pretty good with him."

Johnson, a 6-foot-7 forward, averaged 12.4 points as a sophomore. And Iowa State coach Greg McDermott was shocked by the news, so much so that he went down to Johnson's hometown of Corsicana, Texas, to try to change Johnson's mind, according to The Associated Press. Johnson likely will be a coveted transfer to sit out next season. He was one of two returning starters for the Cyclones, which finished 14-18. Not having him is a major setback for McDermott's rebuilding process.

• Virginia is heading to Canada for Labor Day weekend. Expect a number of teams to do likewise because such trips have become the norm among college teams looking for a jump start to the season, especially teams in a rebuilding situation. Virginia is dealing with the post-Sean Singletary era after he dominated the ball for the Cavaliers the past two seasons.

Quick hitters for Monday:

• Here's a trend that is hard to argue: Two players who had initially signed with Kelvin Sampson but pulled out of their commitments to go elsewhere have succeeded.

Scottie Reynolds (Villanova) and Damion James (Texas) are having solid careers after once signing with Oklahoma and then jettisoning themselves once Sampson bolted for Indiana.

The next beneficiary for this sudden trend should be Devin Ebanks. West Virginia landed Ebanks, a 6-foot-8 forward, on Sunday, and the expectation is that he will be a home run get for Bob Huggins (is there any doubt that Huggs wasn't going to get stud recruits in Morgantown?).

"He's pretty good," Huggins said from the Big East meetings Monday in Florida. "We'll be hard to guard. We've got a lot of balance."

If Joe Alexander returns for his senior season, then the Mountaineers will be extremely hard to guard. But Alexander is a serious candidate to stay in the draft since he's being considered for a lottery spot.

If Alexander doesn't return, Huggins said that Ebanks will get the majority of Alexander's touches. He also said that there are plenty of plays to run for Da'Sean Butler and Alex Ruoff, too, to make this team hard to defend.

Former Indiana assistant/interim coach Dan Dakich said Monday he went to see Ebanks once Sampson resigned in case Dakich was going to be the Indiana coach next season. That was before Ebanks got out of his commitment to go to Indiana.

"He has great hands, he can really score," Dakich said. "It's a really good get, early, late, whenever. It's a good get. He can score from the angles and rebound. He looks like he really likes to play."

Dakich said that when Ebanks came to Bloomington his visit, the Long Island native wanted to be in the gym as much as possible.

One assistant that was recruiting Ebanks said of him, "He'll have a major impact. He's a big-time scorer."

• Emmanuel Negedu still wants out of his national letter of intent after meeting with Arizona coach Lute Olson Sunday in New Hampshire.

"There is too much drama," Negedu said Monday afternoon. "[Olson] told me that I should come for a visit down there and I would change my mind. I'm not changing my mind. I don't want to go."

Negedu picked the wrong time to take his official visit to Arizona. He went to Tucson when Olson was on leave, and the Wildcats lost at home to rival Arizona State. He spent the entire weekend with assistant coach Josh Pastner, who has since left for a similar position at Memphis. Smith said he told Negedu that any time a team loses to its rival, the players aren't going to want to host a recruit. But Smith also said the change in the coaching staff -- notably the departure of Pastner, who was the first coach to contact him when he came to the United States from Nigeria -- made Negedu want to opt out.

"He would have helped them with his toughness and how hard he plays," said Brewster Academy coach Jason Smith. "He's got a high-level motor."

Negedu also said that if he doesn't get a release, he would go back to Brewster. But if he does get his release, then he could go anywhere.

• Memphis coach John Calipari said he's going to meet with junior Robert Dozier this week to see if Dozier understands that he has a chance that he could possibly drop to the second round or go undrafted.

"I want to make sure he's OK with not getting drafted," Calipari said.

Calipari said he told Darius Washington the same thing when the guard declared, but Washington stayed in the draft and ultimately went undrafted.

"[Dozier] could be top 15 next year," Calipari said. "But if he's OK that he could go undrafted and still wants to stay in the draft then fine, I'm OK with that."

Dozier probably would be in Orlando at the pre-draft camp May 27-30. Calipari anticipates that junior guard Antonio Anderson will return to school after declaring for the draft.

• Calipari may not make up his mind on whom to offer his other assistant job to prior to leaving for China next week. He's looking at Pitt's Orlando Antigua and Georgetown's David Cox. Calipari said Rod Strickland still needs to finish his degree requirements. He's close to doing that, but Strickland can't be promoted to a fulltime, recruiting assistant until then.

• Bucknell's search is winding down with Virginia's Bill Courtney and Williams College head coach Dave Paulsen deep in the mix. Courtney played at Bucknell and is highly thought of on campus.

• Brown is expected to start interviewing this week, with Brown assistant Jesse Agel, Illinois assistant Jay Price, Washington assistant Paul Fortier (a former assistant at Cornell) and Paulsen high on the list for the Bears' vacancy.

• The WCC is pursuing going to a Thursday-Saturday league schedule instead of Saturday-Monday. The league coaches are expected to welcome this because it would certainly help with missed class time and allow the traditional day off being Sunday rather than Tuesday.

• Santa Clara is in the Arizona subregional of the NIT Season Tip-Off. (In notable other matchups within the four-team pods, Davidson is at Oklahoma and St. John's is at Boston College.) Santa Clara coach Kerry Keating said the Broncos were contacted about hosting the losers bracket so that it can get two more games. The NIT said a year ago that it was moving toward a format that would guarantee four games for all 16 participants, not just the four teams that reach New York. But there at least one to three other sites will have to be determined.

• Keating, whose father is Kansas' associate athletic director Larry Keating, a former AD at Seton Hall, is also looking at innovative scheduling moves. He's putting together a format for 2009-10 to guarantee two home and two road games with four teams from four other conferences. His plan is to get teams from the Mountain West, Big Sky, Big West and WAC. The five coaches would agree to play two home games and two road games that would be arbitrarily drawn. No one would have to return the game the following season. This way a team can lock in two home games, especially since it's hard to get home games.

• I know there was a glut of talent at North Carolina, but losing Alex Stepheson, who is transferring, still hurts. Stepheson gave the Tar Heels a nice shot-blocking presence off the bench. I liked the way he had the potential to be difference maker off the bench. He had three key blocks to separate the Tar Heels from Washington State in the Sweet 16.

• Barring a contractual impasse, former St. John's coach Mike Jarvis will be the next coach at Florida Atlantic University in Jarvis' new hometown of Boca Raton, Fla.

FAU athletic director Craig Angelos was preparing a contract for Jarvis to review over the weekend. Jarvis needs to run it by his attorney and the two sides need to make sure it is agreeable to both before they can decide to move forward. FAU's plan is to hopefully hold a news conference next Friday after Angelos returns from week-long Sun Belt meetings.

Angelos said he vetted Jarvis extensively. He spoke at length with a number of contacts, including NCAA director of enforcement David Price as well as Jarvis' friend, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. If anyone should have a pulse on anything NCAA among athletic directors it should be Angelos. He worked at the NCAA in rules and regulations for three years and then worked in the Miami compliance office for eight years, moved onto as an assistant athletic director before heading to FAU.

His arrival at Miami coincided with a pay-for-play Pell Grant scandal in 1989.

"I'm not sure there are other Division I-A athletic directors that have worked at the NCAA or taken a case to the committee on infractions," Angelos said. "I have the credibility to look into Mike."

The end result was there were no red flags in pursuing Jarvis. Jarvis wasn't nailed in the one NCAA issue that arose months after he left St. John's. The only thing that came out of a May 11, 2006 penalty letter was that the "former head men's basketball coach failed to monitor a financial situation of a student-athlete."

"The allegations made were unfounded and I was totally, totally cleared," Jarvis said. "There were things that I was blamed for, things that happened even though I wasn't coaching at St. John's."

The report does state: "that the former director of basketball operations claimed the former men's basketball coach supplied some of the cash during the 1999-2000 academic year but the former head men's basketball coach denied that assertion, and no allegations were made against the former head men's basketball coach by the NCAA enforcement staff related to cash payments, the committee noted in its report."

Jarvis was also referencing that he was blamed two months after his December departure about a nasty allegation raised by a woman in Pittsburgh against members of the St. John's team.

The final hit to St. John's was that it had a two-year probation beginning May 11, 2006, the self-imposed postseason ban for 2004-05 was accepted and so too was the reduction in scholarships from 13 to 12 for 2005-06 and 2006-07. The 47 wins during Abe Keita's time (he was the international student who was ultimately suspended for the alleged payments to him and it was reported that he didn't cooperate with the NCAA) were vacated. So too, was the NIT title from 2003.

Jarvis was out after six games the following season. Jarvis said that his departure was akin to a divorce.

"Contract negotiations had broken down," Jarvis said. "I agreed to leave. That's what happened. We agreed. It was mutual."

Five years later, Jarvis is "enthusiastic and excited and very interested in getting back," into coaching.

You can tell in talking to Jarvis that he wants another shot at college basketball, regardless of the locale. This one makes even more sense since he lives three miles from campus and he and his wife have decided this is where they want to retire. Jarvis did interview with Stanford's Bob Bowlsby for that opening which ultimately went to Duke associate head coach Johnny Dawkins. So, if Stanford is talking to Jarvis, clearly he's cool for FAU.

"I really miss it, I really miss coaching, the teaching the opportunity to use the gift that God has given me, to teach young men," Jarvis said.

"I could have been very bitter about the way things were handled [at St. John's], but I'm in a much better place today because of all that," Jarvis said. "I'm in a much better place today than at any point in my life. In many ways I'm starting over again. I'm 63. I'm spiritually three years old. I'm between three and 63. I feel as good as I did when I was in my early 40s."

Angelos is ecstatic about the current state of affairs at FAU with $10 million poured into the arena for a new floor, chair-back seating, new locker room and state-of-the-art video board. Angelos said the facility went from a gym to an arena that seats 4,000.

Jarvis kept busy the past five years by working for ESPN regional and during the past two summers coaching the Athletes in Action U.S. team in the Jones Cup in Taiwan. He said he has been doing basketball clinics domestically and internationally, as well.

Jarvis said he's proud of having a helping hand in fighting for the Red Storm to get a new practice facility.

"If I wasn't there to fight for it, I doubt very much [it would have happened]," said Jarvis. Current coach Norm Roberts was the first coach to use it, a year after Jarvis was gone.

"Maybe I stayed too long, probably a few years too long there," Jarvis said of his six years in Queens.

"Very few people get a second chance to do anything, especially what you love to do and I'm looking forward to being able to go back and basically start all over again," Jarvis said. "So many people leave this earth and wish they had done this or that and hopefully, God willing, I'll get that chance to do it even better than before. I was pretty good before and want to be better next time."

Jarvis said he misses being a voice for the game and he's hoping that he'll have that platform again "to talk about things that need to be talked about that others aren't willing to do so."

• In order for the NCAA to ever act on the allegations that former Kansas forward Darrell Arthur had a grade change in math as a junior at Dallas' South Oak Cliff High, which would have made him ineligible to compete in college, there would have to be evidence that Arthur or Kansas knew, should have known, and/or were involved in arranging the grade change.

That's according to the NCAA. Kansas associate athletic director Jim Marchiony said Thursday night that the Jayhawks aren't doing anything until they hear from the school district that is investigating the matter. Kansas coach Bill Self had nothing to say on the matter because at this point there is nothing to say.

Arthur, who was also heavily recruited by Baylor and LSU before landing at KU, was cleared to play by the NCAA clearinghouse, which was basing its information on his high school transcript. So of course Kansas would go with the information it receives from the clearinghouse. It's a reach to assume that four years, later Kansas would be accused of playing an ineligible player and then have to forfeit the games in which Arthur played in the past two seasons, including the Jayhawks' recent national title.

The extensive WFAA-Dallas report Thursday night will be monitored closely by Kansas. But it's a long way toward taking the jump that this could cost Kansas significantly. At this point, there are no indications that Kansas is complicit in any way. Remember, this is when Arthur was a junior in high school, and there are denials coming from Arthur's high school coach James Mays Jr.

The key issues will be whether the grade was changed and whether or not Arthur had knowledge of any change. Arthur would know how he did in school, how strong he was in math and whether or not he earned a passing grade.

But there doesn't seem to be any hysteria coming from Kansas or the NCAA at this juncture to fear that they could be harmed if, in hindsight, Arthur shouldn't have been cleared by the clearinghouse. They dealt with the existing facts and it's hard to go back on that at this time.

Arthur is expected to go in the late lottery or in the middle of the first round in next month's NBA draft after a solid, but not spectacular two-year career at Kansas.

Former Indiana head coach Kelvin Sampson is an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Former Indiana assistant Ray McCallum is the head coach of the University of Detroit.

Former Indiana assistant Rob Senderoff is an assistant at Kent State.

Sampson's interim head coaching replacement, Dan Dakich is unemployed.

Granted, Jeff Meyer, the other assistant at Indiana last season, is also looking for work.

But Dakich wasn't even on the staff the year when there were phone call violations that led to the Indiana debacle this past year: IU self-reported violations that led to Senderoff's forced resignation last October; the NCAA sent notice of a major violation in February, which led to Sampson's acceptance of a buyout a week later; and Meyer's and McCallum's departures when Indiana hired Tom Crean last month.

"That's life I guess," said Dakich, 45, still living in Bloomington with his wife and two children. "I'm not a victim, not a martyr. I don't look at that way. That's part of life. Ray got a great opportunity. Kelvin got a great opportunity. At some point, I'll get a great opportunity I guess."

Dakich has had quite a circuitous route to get to this point. He was the head coach at Bowling Green for 10 years, reaching the NIT twice. Bowling Green was 24-9 in 2001-02 with Keith McLeod as the top player.

But in the next five years Dakich's teams were riddled with injuries. In 2004-05, the team's best player, Germain Fitch, missed the final 10 games after suffering a career-ending knee injury during a postgame celebration. Dakich also lost one of his top players, Ron Lewis, to Ohio State.

Dakich was 156-140 at BG, and he did not seek a contract extension to return to the school after the 2006-07 season.

Dakich also was head coach at West Virginia in 2002 for one week. He bolted quickly, suspicious of potential NCAA violations when he arrived on campus, and he returned to Bowling Green.

Last June, Sampson threw a lifeline to Dakich at Indiana when Jerry Green retired as director of basketball operations. A few months into Dakich's tenure, he replaced Senderoff as an assistant but with restrictions since the self-imposed school sanctions wouldn't let that position recruit. Then, when Sampson accepted the buyout in mid February, Dakich was chosen ahead of McCallum by IU athletic director Rick Greenspan to replace Sampson. There was a near-mutiny for one practice on a Friday afternoon before a road trip to Northwestern, but everyone was back in the fold for the game.

Indiana went 3-4 during Dakich's tenure, losing to Minnesota on a buzzer-beater in the Big Ten tournament and ending the season with a big loss to Arkansas in the NCAA first round.

Dakich said that Greenspan bumped up his salary when he became interim coach. He also said he got a $185,000 payout at the end of his time at Indiana.

"Money-wise, I'm OK for next year, but I want to work," Dakich said.

Dakich said he met with Crean shortly after he was hired from Marquette and discussed the team, the program and how Indiana needed to get back.

"It's going to be great here. It's Indiana," Dakich said. "It's going to work out for Tom."

Dakich said the hardest part for him as interim coach wasn't the basketball, but rather all the other minutiae he had to deal with, the off-court issues plaguing the program.

Dakich is also convinced that he would have had a shot at the permanent job if he had won.

"It comes down to wins and losses," Dakich said. "I think Rick Greenspan really wants Indiana basketball done the right way, kids going to class, kids doing things the right way. That's what I was trying to do from Feb. 20 on."

Dakich said he wants to be a head coach again, but the pickings are slim. He said he would be an assistant again, but he doesn't have any feelers at this juncture.

"I like to work, I want to work," Dakich said. "I have a bunch of friends telling me that I have the greatest gig going for this next year. But I want to work."

Final nuggets

• Former St. John's coach Mike Jarvis met with Florida Atlantic athletic director Craig Angelos on Wednesday but hadn't been offered the head coaching job as of late Wednesday night. Jarvis, a Boca Raton resident, interviewed for the Stanford job, too.

Jarvis desperately wants to get back into coaching after spending the past four years dabbling in television. Jarvis was fired after six games into the 2003-04 season amid NCAA issues dealing with an ineligible player. St. John's placed itself on two years probation and took itself out of the 2005 postseason.

Jarvis has had plenty of success during his career, leading Boston University to the NCAAs twice, George Washington four times (including a Sweet 16) and St. John's three times (including an Elite Eight in his first season after taking over for current ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla). But if Jarvis gets the FAU gig, replacing Rex Walters who went to the University of San Francisco, then it would arguably be his toughest job to date. Making FAU a factor in the Sun Belt isn't an easy chore. FAU was 8-10 in the Sun Belt last season and 15-18 overall, but the league has some decent powers in Western Kentucky (Sweet 16) and South Alabama (NCAA first round last season).

• The NCAAs new enforcement initiative should be an interesting watch. LuAnn Humphrey is the first of three enforcement officers to be reassigned within the department, focusing solely on men's basketball. David Price, the NCAA's director of enforcement, said Wednesday that he isn't making any new hires but redirecting Humphrey and two others from the NCAA to immerse themselves in the sport. Humphrey had already done this to some extent, going out into the field in the past year, talking to coaches, players and the media to discuss problems in the sport. But there were other cases, sometimes other sports, on her plate. Now, for the first time, the plate will only be filled with men's basketball.

Price said there are 20 investigators in the unit. The three members of this group will be investigators and present cases, and yet they will still be an outreach for everyone in the sport. Price said the hope is that these investigators can act as a deterrent.

Humphrey said the hope is that they can get their "ears to the ground" and find out what the real problems are in the sport.

Price said he's convinced that the investigative arm will be well-received within the basketball community. Humphrey said her goal is to talk to every group that is affected, like high school coaches, parents and summer-league coaches. In the past, the enforcement staff only got out in July to canvas the recruiting events across the country. But the charge is to get out during the school year too.

Of course, finding and rooting out the major issue facing the game -- runners who could be supplying top players with money -- will be hard to stop, prove and get ahead of as it has been an issue for a years now. The other issue is that the random auditing of programs and players, to see if there are violations, isn't allowed under NCAA legislation, although Humphrey said she thinks it would be a great idea.

• As transfers make their way around the country due to coaching changes, watch to see how many attempt to challenge the one-year in residence requirement, meaning the transfer could play immediately and not have to sit out a season.

Since July 1, 2007, the Division I Administrative Rule Subcommittee received 20 appeals involving transfers after a coaching change, according to the NCAA.

Nine of the 20 waivers were granted. Three were because of a "documented force out" by the new coaching staff, meaning the new coach basically told the player that he won't be welcomed back in the next season. Two were granted because of a coach-son transfer, where the father transferred leaving his son behind. Two were granted due to a documented student-athlete well-being safety issue. Two were granted due to extraordinary circumstances outside of the student-athlete's control. This last group is where Tennessee's Tyler Smith fits after he left Iowa to be with his terminally ill father back in Tennessee.

The other 11 were denied when the appeal was based solely on a coaching change.

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted ACC commissioner John Swofford Thursday that the ACC will study the early-entry deadline (April 27 this year) and the time between the withdrawal date for the NBA draft (June 16, always 10 days before the draft). North Carolina has three players -- Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson and Danny Green -- in this limbo period.

"There is just the sense that period of time is too long," Swofford told the AJC, which also reported that the ACC will decide if it wants to recommend legislation to the NCAA to alter the calendar.

While it's true that the time period is too long and that coaches are held hostage as players test the draft process, there is nothing the NCAA can do to change the calendar. This is the NBA's calendar, not the NCAA. What the NCAA could do is pass legislation that if you declare for the NBA draft, then you're no longer eligible to return to college.

"Do you want to hear a good story, about someone who is fully taking advantage of being in college?" UCLA faculty rep Don Morrison said. "I give you Alfred Aboya as exhibit A. He's graduating in three years, and he wants to be the president of Cameroon. I'm really psyched about that."

Morrison pointed to Aboya for some good news in the sport. Aboya is a perfect example of a young man who is taking full advantage of what the scholarship is offering him at UCLA.

Aboya said Tuesday that he's going to walk through graduation next month, with two more classes to finish in the first summer session later in the month. He said his plan is to be accepted into UCLA's two-year public policy master's program, play his senior season for the Bruins, finish up school, play some professional basketball and then work his way through the Cameroonian government with the ultimate goal to be president of his native land.

"That's always been a dream of mine, trying to run the country or be involved in politics," Aboya said. "And the only way to do that is to get an education and get an expertise in the field. I'd like to be involved in diplomacy and public policy."

There is a potential curveball to Aboya returning to the Bruins, but it is a long shot. Aboya will play for the Cameroonian national team in the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament in Athens, Greece, from July 14-20. Aboya can finish his exams before departing for the Greece, but if Cameroon were to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, he could garner more exposure on an international stage, putting him in position to impress a professional team. But Cameroon's chances of finishing in the top three out of the 12 teams competing -- Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Korea, Lebanon, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Slovenia -- seem slim.

"If the opportunity presented itself, I might try to pursue a professional career and then finish school later on," Aboya said of graduate school. "If we don't qualify [for the Olympics], I'm coming back to UCLA, coming back to be a graduate student in public policy most likely."

Aboya's teammate and countryman, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, declared for the NBA draft but didn't sign with an agent. Mbah a Moute might not be able to play for Cameroon if he stays in the draft and is on a summer-league team.

Mbah a Moute is a prince of a local village where his father is a chief. But Aboya is the one who wants to be democratically elected leader.

"We have elections and after you establish residency, and have 80 mayors co-sign you can run once you're over 35," Aboya said. "But for the next 10 years, I plan on finishing school and pursuing a professional career a little bit before going back home to pursue my political career."

Assuming that Aboya does return to UCLA, he'll be penciled in as a starter. He'll start with Mbah a Moute (if he returns). If not, James Keefe will likely be the frontcourt starter. Aboya averaged only 2.9 points and 2.2 rebounds a game for the Bruins, which reached their third straight Final Four. He averaged 4.1 points and 4.2 rebounds a year ago, but that was prior to Kevin Love's arrival. Love declared for the draft, making Aboya's role even more important next season for coach Ben Howland.

Final nuggets

• The most clueless quote of the draft process may go to Duquesne guard Kojo Mensah, who decided to sign with an agent this week. He told InsideHoops.com: "It's a good time right now to come out, especially based on the amount of media attention we had this year."

Say again? The attention that Duquesne received in the past year was mostly for the shooting of five players, including Mensah, in September of 2006. Mensah averaged 12.1 points and 3.4 assists and shot 23.9 percent on 3s for the 17-13 Dukes.

"I'm not sure what to tell you," Duquesne coach Ron Everhart said about Mensah's decision to skip out on his senior season.

Does Mensah really believe he is a potential draft pick? In the first round?

"He must," Everhart said. "Why else would you sign with an agent?"

Mensah's decision comes on the heels of junior Shawn James' decision to sign with an agent too and stay in the draft. But the difference is that the 6-foot-10 James is a specialist. He blocked 111 shots (4.0 bpg) for the Dukes this season. He blocked 196 shots (6.5 bpg), which led Division I, when he was a sophomore playing for Everhart at Northeastern. Both Mensah, who started his career at Siena, and James signed with agent Steve Cronin.

"Everyone wants to lump these two guys together, but Shawn is 24 years old, will be 25 in the fall," Everhart said. "He's getting married this summer. He's a specialist. Shawn does things that most guys don't. But Kojo falls into a situation where there are a lot of guards out there."

Losing Mensah and James puts a serious crimp into Everhart's rebuilding phase.

"They were obviously major parts of what we were doing," Everhart said of his top two scorers.

All is not lost. Everhart said he's banking on returners Aaron Jackson, Bill Clark, Damian Saunders and David Theis and newcomers Eric Evans, B.J. Monteiro, Shawntez Patterson and Chase Robinson to ensure the Dukes will be competitive again. Everhart said the Dukes, which will have nine scholarship players next season, will lack size but will be quicker with a guard-oriented team.

• The NBA is going to a secret ballot to determine the rosters for the Orlando pre-draft camp May 27-30 at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. Vote tallies for the top 70 players are expected to be doled to members on the committee by the end of the week. Each member was asked to submit 70 names for the camp and then received a ballot. Ballots were due Tuesday. Committee members were then expected to signal out players that may opt out of playing and would want to be considered physical-only for the camp.

But there are plenty of players that would need to play to increase their draft position but still may not participate. Someone that could fit the criteria could be Alabama's Richard Hendrix. He is a bubble player for the camp yet could play well enough to make himself a late first-round pick and stay in the draft. The camp is slated for 70 players (seniors, underclassmen and foreign players), with 20 additional physical-only players who are usually candidates for the lottery (top 14).

• Good story in the LA Times about impact recruit Demar DeRozan of Compton potentially asking out of his commitment to USC if the Trojans face severe sanctions from the NCAA. DeRozan is the 7th-ranked recruit in the class of 2008 by Scouts Inc.

But here is the problem with that line of thinking: The NCAA won't dole out any penalties, let alone send a notice of allegations, for months and maybe a year, well past DeRozan's matriculation date in August.

• ESPN.com NBA Insider Chad Ford reports that BYU junior Trent Plaisted signed with Mark Bartlestein, eliminating any chance Plaisted would return to the Cougars for his senior season. Plaisted told the BYU staff that he would wait until Memorial Day to make a final decision on signing with agent, according to BYU assistant Dave Rice. Rice was surprised to hear that Plaisted had signed. This is an interesting move. We'll see where Plaisted lands in the draft.

But more than anything, this could be a crushing blow to the Cougs, who were a likely favorite for the Mountain West next season with Plaisted. Plaisted averaged 15.6 points and 7.7 rebounds for the Cougs.

BYU coach Dave Rose will also have to sweat out Lee Cummard, too. The Cougs' top returning scorer (15.8 ppg) also declared for the NBA draft.

• If multiple reports are true and former LSU signee J'Mison "Bobo" Morgan ends up at UCLA, then the Bruins will have aided their frontcourt significantly in bodies alone. The big man was a coveted recruit of LSU, and UCLA is in desperate need of another post player after losing Love, Lorenzo Mata-Real and possibly Aboya and Mbah a Moute. New LSU coach Trent Johnson issued a statement Tuesday on Morgan's release from his national letter of intent.

"The bottom line with me will always be that I want players here who want to play for LSU," Johnson said in the statement. "There is some closure with this decision, but no player will ever be bigger than the program."

UCLA got Morgan's release Tuesday. Morgan chose LSU over UCLA in the fall when John Brady was the head coach. Morgan is considered a solid player but not projected to be a star.

Quick hitters for Tuesday:

• The ACC is staying at 16 regular-season league games for next season and actually shelved the discussion to expand to 18 league games until the next television contract is up in two years. The Pac-10, Big East and Big Ten play 18 league games now. The ACC, SEC and Big 12, among the major conferences, play 16 games.

• Clearly the hottest topic at every spring meeting is the elimination of the April recruiting evaluation weekends in 2009. Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg reiterated that again from the ACC meetings Monday night. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, preparing to head to the Big East meetings later this week in Florida, said not having evaluating weekends in April will hurt the lower-level schools that still need to sign players in the senior class.

• Greenberg said the ACC coaches discussed how they can better market their league to the media and the NCAA selection committee. (Eleven of the 12 ACC coaches were in attendance with Duke's Mike Krzyzewski absent. Krzyzewski has been making the rounds during the NBA playoffs, talking to his Olympic players for this summer's competition in Beijing.)

"We need to sell the depth of our league that there is no rocking chair game in this league and it's not just Duke and Carolina," Greenberg said.

"Look at our last place team, NC State. It went 3-1 against other BCS conferences," Greenberg said.

Greenberg's point about NC State is valid considering the Wolfpack did beat Villanova in Orlando, won at Seton Hall, beat South Carolina and defeated Davidson. And, even though the Wolfpack were much better than a 12th-place team in talent, NC State still ended the season with nine straight losses. That streak actually started after the Wolfpack beat Virginia Tech by 10 at home on Feb. 5.

But the ACC is once again peeved that it received only four bids to the NCAA tournament for the second time in three seasons. Virginia Tech was the odd team out this past season, taking North Carolina to the brink of an upset before Tyler Hansbrough beat the Hokies on a jumper in the semifinals of the ACC tournament. Virginia Tech finished 9-7 in the ACC regular season and was 19-13 after that loss to the Tar Heels. The Hokies finished ahead of Miami (8-8) in the ACC standings and beat the Canes in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament. But during the regular season, the Hokies didn't beat an NCAA team.

Miami coach Frank Haith said the Hokies deserved to be in the NCAAs. But Haith also cautioned that the ACC can't complain too much about bids since the league received seven in 2007.

"We've got to do a better job of communicating our strengths," Greenberg said.

But does that matter? Greenberg's theory is that once the three new members of the ACC -- BC, Virginia Tech and Miami -- did well, there was a public perception that the league wasn't as strong. His theory is that there is a different opinion on the expansion in the Big East. Once the new teams in the Big East did well -- such as Louisville and Marquette -- then that was viewed as strength of the league, not a negative, according to Greenberg.

"Maybe we're just better," Greenberg said of having the newer teams do well. BC was in contention for the league title in its first two seasons before dropping down to the bottom last season. Miami jumped up to the NCAAs last season for the first time since joining the league. Virginia Tech made the NCAAs in 2007 and came close in 2008.

Greenberg said that the ACC needs to make it clear that it should fight for its bids. Still not sure what that means, but he said there are "only 34 spots, and if we don't put our gloves on then we won't get them. The Big East put their gloves on and is much more aggressive about their league than ours."

Greenberg did say that as much of an argument can be made for including Virginia Tech in the field at 9-7 in the ACC, he says he sees the flip side that argument that they shouldn't have gotten in (remember, the Hokies had no wins against Carolina, Duke or Clemson).

"But it's still hard to devalue those nine wins because for some other team, winning at Maryland is a quality win," Greenberg said.

• The location of the 2012 Final Four won't be decided until November, according to NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen.

• College basketball programs shouldn't run scared but rather be even more vigilant with the new enforcement arm dedicated to men's hoops at the NCAA. The three-person staff is looking to clean up the game as best as it can, and there will be a strong focus on the same type of allegations leveled against O.J. Mayo and USC: agent runners feeding prospective student athletes with cash and gifts, and schools accepting the practice as the norm to get the one-and-done high-profile player.

Quick hitters for Monday:

• Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie said Monday that he's going to Derrick Jasper's hometown of Paso Robles, Calif., Wednesday to see if the sophomore guard still wants to transfer out of Kentucky. Gillispie said Jasper will finalize his decision this weekend, and Gillispie was told that Jasper wanted to be closer to home. Jasper was limited by injuries this past season and didn't play in the first 10 games. He missed one other game during the season and ended up averaging only 4.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 20 games.

"We didn't need to lose Derrick, but he's about 95 percent sure he's going," Gillispie said.

Gillispie said rising junior Jodie Meeks, who had sports hernia surgery after the season, should be good to go for next fall. Like Jasper, Meeks battled injuries and played in only 11 games this past season, his last on Feb. 16. Meeks averaged 8.8 points and 2.6 rebounds for the Cats.

If Jasper leaves, the Wildcats will be down three returning perimeter players. Seniors Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley are gone, and Alex Legion transferred out during the season. Gillispie said reserve Michael Porter will be back, but Gillispie is banking mostly on incoming players, like 6-6 guard Kevin Galloway from the College of Southern Idaho, 6-6 forward DeAndre Liggins from Nevada and Darius Miller, a 6-7 forward out of Mason County High in Kentucky, to be productive.

"We'll be pretty good, not great," Gillispie said of the perimeter. "We're adding some experience with Jodie coming back healthy and Kevin should be a pass-first guy for us."

Meanwhile, the Cats are hopeful that freshman Patrick Patterson comes back from surgery on his left ankle. Gillispie said Patterson, who averaged 16.4 points and 7.7 rebounds a game, got his cast off last week and is in a walking boot. Gillispie said he was told that Patterson is healing well. He said Dr. James Andrews, the surgeon, should be back in town to visit with Patterson again later this week. The Cats also return rising juniors Perry Stevenson and Ramon Harris upfront and added a newcomer in Josh Harrellson.

Gillispie said he's also looking at adding another player or two to the recruiting class for 2008. He may also take on a transfer if Jasper were to leave.

• Kentucky still has return games with Louisville (road), Indiana (home), North Carolina (road) and is looking at starting another home-and-home next season with one possibility being Michigan. The Wildcats are in a tournament in Las Vegas with two guaranteed games at home followed by two in Las Vegas. The three other hosts are West Virginia, Iowa and Kansas State.

• One aspect of the O.J. Mayo-agent saga that wasn't covered was how this will affect his NBA draft status. The answer is not at all. Remember NBA personnel decision makers deal with the same folks -- agents and runners when talking to potential and current players.

• Expect the Big East coaches to discuss the new NCAA rule that forbids coaches to evaluate prospects on weekends during April. This was a hot topic at the Pac-10 coaches meeting last week in Phoenix. The Big East coaches meet later this week in Florida. The ACC coaches started their meeting in the Florida on Monday. The coaches weren't all aware of the new rule, either and voted 12-0 to help push to override it within the NCAA legislative cycle.

The number of teams making the NCAAs is also a topic that gets aired out at all of these conference meetings, with coaches looking for creative ways to get more teams in the field. Ultimately there may be only one way -- win. The ACC coaches will look at scheduling models Tuesday that include an 18-game league schedule. The league looked at this a year ago and decided against bumping it up from 16.

• The NCAA tournament selection committee met Monday in Detroit, site of the 2009 Final Four. The committee wasn't expecting to break news, just go over logistical issues from 2008, look ahead to 2009, meet with the National Association of Basketball Coaches board directors Monday and Tuesday and discuss summer basketball and another other issues the NABC wants to discuss. The site selection subcommittee for the 2012 Final Four will meet in June. If your city has a dome, then it's probably on the list.

• As expected, Arizona assistant Josh Pastner accepted a similar position on Memphis' staff. He replaces Derek Kellogg, who left to become the head coach at UMass. But Memphis coach John Calipari isn't done adding to his staff. Instead of simply bumping up Rod Strickland to replace Chuck Martin (who became the head coach at Marist), he is also interviewing prospective candidates. He has talked to Pitt's Orlando Antigua and Georgetown's David Cox.

If you want to blame someone for Tennessee suddenly losing two players who the Vols had counted on last season, two players who reportedly failed drug tests, then blame coach Bruce Pearl.

That's what he wants you to do.

He'll take full responsibility for not having Duke Crews and Ramar Smith on the squad for next season.

"I spent two years trying to get them to do what they were supposed to do on and off the court,'' Pearl said. "I failed it."

Smith and Crews didn't exactly have stellar seasons for the Vols. Smith was in and out of the lineup as a point guard, averaged 7.4 points and shot just 23 percent on 3s. Crews averaged 5.4 points and 4 rebounds a game.

"Duke and Ramar leave eligible,'' Pearl said.

But Pearl didn't take their departures lightly. He was quick to point out that he nabbed another guard in former Oklahoma player Bobby Maze, who played at Hutchinson (Kan.) JC last season. The Vols also signed one of the top shooting guards in the Class of 2008 in Scotty Hopson as well as three other incoming freshmen in center Phillip Jurick, forward Renaldo Woolridge and point guard Daniel West.

The Vols' best catch was when Tyler Smith decided to return for his junior season instead of opting for the NBA draft. Tennessee will have a core of returnees in Smith, J.P. Prince, Brian Williams and Wayne Chism to anchor the team next season.

"With Bobby Maze and Daniel West coming, we have a chance to be as good or better at the position,'' Pearl said of point guard. "We're still going to recruit, still going to coach and as fast as we can get things turned around.''

Losing Smith and Crews, though, still leaves a sour taste for Pearl. "We're going to keep this thing rolling, but I promise you my coaching staff and I have been upset for a while and may stay upset,'' Pearl said. "I may have upgraded the talent, but we still failed. We weren't able to get everything out of Duke and Ramar.''

Pearl then rhetorically said, "Who was the best shooting guard out of high school last year? Scott Hopson. Scotty Hopson is coming to Tennessee so we've got a guy who can replace Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith [the top two leading scorers]. We also have a real talented player who sat out last season in Cameron Tatum.

"We'll be younger on the wings and our backcourt will be new, and it's going to be hard for us to maintain this level [SEC champs] but with Bobby Maze coming in, Scotty and Cameron, we'll be awfully talented."

Final nuggets

• Former Providence guard Dwain Williams was at Oregon State Thursday and is expected to transfer to the Beavers. Williams (11 ppg, 41 percent on 3s) got to know new coach Craig Robinson while he was at Brown. Getting Williams is the first step in Robinson trying to upgrade the talent at OSU. The Beavers failed to win a Pac-10 game last season. Williams is the first Providence player to leave since Keno Davis replaced Tim Welsh.

• Tennessee signed on for a home-and-home with Kansas which begins next season in Lawrence. The Vols are also in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando in November at Temple. They will be on the opposite bracket with Gonzaga. The classic includes Georgetown, Oklahoma State, Maryland, Michigan State, Siena and Wichita State, too. Tennessee also gets Gonzaga and Memphis in Knoxville and will play Marquette in the SEC-Big East Invitational in Nashville. This game has lost a bit of luster now that Tom Crean is at Indiana. Crean and Pearl had a spirited coaching rivalry while the two were in Milwaukee. "We'll have the toughest schedule in the country,'' Pearl said.

• Good for Crean to call out Detroit and former IU assistant Ray McCallum for what appeared to be some meddling in Eli Holman's transfer. Holman went a bit crazed when he informed Crean that he was transferring. But Crean said in Friday's Indy Star that he was told Holman wanted to be closer to home in the Bay Area. Instead, he ends up with McCallum in Detroit.

• Tell me again why Missouri's Leo Lyons declared for the NBA draft and then withdrew on Thursday before the final spots were announced for the Orlando pre-draft camp. It's good for Mizzou, but it doesn't make much sense for Lyons.

• The proposal the Pac-10 coaches want to override is 2007-30c (April evaluation period limitations). This was adopted recently and will prevent coaches in 2009 from going on the road to evaluate over the weekends next April. The Pac-10 coaches also voted to require a mandatory preseason meeting between the head coach and student support group on campus to discuss appropriate and expected fan behavior. This comes after the hatred spewed at UCLA's Kevin Love by Oregon fans at Mac Court last season.

• The NBA is still working on finalizing the Orlando pre-draft camp list but there are likely at least nine locks for physical-only, according to someone who is familiar with the list: Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Michael Beasley, Eric Gordon, Jerryd Bayless, Anthony Randolph, Brook Lopez, Kevin Love and Danilo Gallinari of Italy. This list will expand to at least 20. The camp rosters of 65-70 should be known within a week. The camp is from May 27-30 at the Milk House on Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex.

The anniversary of the most controversial decision of Billy Donovan's coaching career -- his decision to leave Florida for the Orlando Magic and subsequent reversal -- is still a few weeks away.

So, how did that work out for you, Billy?

Well, the Magic are in the second round of the NBA playoffs, fresh off beating Detroit at home Wednesday night to draw within 2-1.

Meanwhile, Donovan is sweating out whether or not his only reliable post player from a disappointing NIT season -- Marreese Speights -- will return to school or stay in the NBA draft. The prospect of coaching a team that is loaded with 10 freshmen and sophomores isn't ideal.

But guess what? Donovan is completely at peace with every move he's made.

"I feel good about it," Donovan said. "I'm happy they're doing well. I'm happy for Stan [Van Gundy, the current Magic coach]. The goal for the organization was to get to the second round. They're at where they wanted to be. The hire turned out to be great."

A year ago, Donovan accepted an offer to coach the Magic after winning his second straight national title at Florida. The news conference announcing his hire was on May 31, a Friday, in Orlando. Later that night, after an ill-advised goodbye news conference back in Gainesville -- with his children's forlorn faces in attendance -- Donovan had second thoughts. By Sunday night he wanted out. But since he had signed the contract, it would be three more days before he could negotiate an exit agreement that included a clause that he wouldn't coach in the NBA for five years.

"I don't have any regrets," Donovan said. "You have to have great emotion and enthusiasm for what you're doing. And in my situation, my heart was more into this challenge."

Florida finished the season at 24-12, losing to UMass in the NIT semifinals in New York. The Gators finished the regular season by losing three straight games in the SEC and then folded quickly in the SEC tournament, losing to Alabama in the first round. That prompted this response from Donovan at the tournament after he said he heard freshman Chandler Parsons say the team wasn't ready to play.

"It's in front of our guys, what it takes to win," he said then. "For whatever reason, I haven't brought it out in them. They're not committed to it. But I'm not necessarily really that excited about these guys being sophomores, to be honest. I don't think people change a whole lot, and I don't think you've seen the basketball team change at all this year. So it's hard for me to get overly thrilled or excited."

Donovan then moved the team's practices for the NIT out of the state-of-the-art practice facility to an on-campus facility, where the Gators used to practice when current NBA players Udonis Haslam and Mike Miller first arrived on campus in 1998.

Nearly two months later, Donovan's tone hasn't change much from his initial emotional comments.

"I didn't like the tone they had," Donovan said on Thursday. "It wasn't that I didn't want to coach them as sophomores. But I don't think they had an appreciation for what had happened before they got here. I think they thought, 'Hey I've got Florida across my chest, so we're going to win.' I really wanted to make sure they didn't get into a trap because of the way they were viewing the end of the year."

The Gators were fine offensively last season, near the top in of the SEC in scoring and field-goal shooting but had slumped to the bottom of the league in field-goal and 3-point defense.

Donovan said the Gators, which started off 18-3 and 5-1 in the SEC, hadn't played some of the best teams in the league, notably Tennessee. He never felt like the players truly committed themselves, and so his comments in March had been bubbling up since January.

"I didn't like where we were mentally," Donovan said.

But the quick fix isn't coming, especially if Speights stays in the draft. Donovan said the realistic appraisal he's getting from NBA executives is that the sophomore will go anywhere from 22-40. Donovan said Speights said that he would return if he's not in the top 20. But that could easily change.

"He understands he's not a lock," Donovan said. But the problem is that Speights may not understand that he has a chance to be in the top 15 in 2009 if he has a great junior season.

"If we lose him, it will definitely hurt us," Donovan said. "I want him to be here, but for the right reasons. He would be one of three upperclassmen with Dan Werner [a junior] and Walter Hodge [the lone senior]."

The Gators also added Georgetown transfer forward Vernon Macklin, who won't be eligible until the 2009-10 season. But the hope is that he'll be in Gainesville soon and able to help the team in practice this summer.

Then Donovan would have the whole team (minus Speights) back for summer school, plus Macklin and former champs Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green coming back after a year in the NBA to go to school and work out with the Gators.

Donovan said the next wave of heralded newcomers -- big men Eloy Vargas, Kenneth Kadji, Rayford Shipman and Allan Chaney, and guard Erving Walker -- need to come in with the right mindset.

"They need to have a level of humility and respect the guys in front of them," Donovan said. "I want to see which freshmen can impact winning. We've got the whole summer to get the right mindset with this group. The guys coming back have to provide the leadership and the other guys have to trust them."

That means more heat on rising sophomores Nick Calathes, Jai Lucas, Parsons, Alex Tyus and Adam Allen, the players who were called out by Donovan in March.

"If Speights doesn't come back, we're still relatively young again and we'll see how we handle that," Donovan said. "Now all of a sudden we wouldn't have 14 or 15 points a game, and we'll still have a lot of questions. I knew this would take a while [to rebuild]. But I'm still excited about it."

Final nuggets

• The Pac-10 meetings that concluded Wednesday were surprisingly uneventful. The coaches were expected to go after Pac-10 coordinator of officials Bill McCabe after a number of questionable calls during the season and Pac-10 tournament, and then the the officials advanced in the postseason.

But that didn't happen. A number of coaches said Wednesday that the meeting was somewhat pedestrian.

"There were no fireworks," said ASU coach Herb Sendek, who was visibly upset after two late-game calls went against the Sun Devils versus Washington State in Tempe and then against USC in the Pac-10 tournament in Los Angeles.

But the coaches weren't thrilled when they found out that as of April of 2009, there will no longer be evaluation weekends. A few coaches weren't aware that this rule disallowing extra recruiting weekends in April had been passed. The issue for the coaches is this: They feel that evaluating in April allows the head coaches to get out and watch high school sophomores and juniors. If this is taken away, then they feel the head coaches will have to find time to recruit during the season, a tough chore if it's out of market. There is a movement within the Pac-10 to get the league to endorse legislation to challenge this new rule.

• Pitt's Mike Cook, who tore his ACL in a December win against Duke in New York, is back on the court working out. And the school is hoping that it will hear about his appeal for a sixth season sometime in June.

• UCLA coach Ben Howland said he's thrilled with point guard Darren Collison's attitude. He expects the rising senior to be in the weight room this summer working on strength. The coach is also advising him to take summer school both sessions so that in the spring of 2009, he will only have to take one class and can focus on the NBA draft.

Meanwhile, the Bruins are hoping but still sweating whether or not juniors Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Josh Shipp will return for their senior seasons instead of staying in the NBA draft. The staff firmly believes that if sophomore Russell Westbrook is in the top 20, he will stay in the draft.

• Seeing Delonte West on the Cavs and Jameer Nelson on the Magic makes me marvel even more how good Saint Joseph's had it in 2004 when the Hawks were a No. 1 seed and lost to Oklahoma State in the Elite Eight. You wonder if that ever could be repeated with this kind of talent on Hawk Hill.

Quick hitters for Wednesday:

• Lute Olson apparently got his top assistant. Whether or not he's a successor is an issue that will be debated.

But it would be highly unlikely that Arizona would make the same mistake twice and a tab a successor prematurely.

Denver Nuggets assistant Mike Dunlap is expected to be named associate head coach at Arizona. Multiple sources told ESPN.com late Tuesday night that Dunlap would accept the position. The Arizona Daily Star reported Tuesday night on its Web site that Dunlap would be Olson's top assistant. The paper quoted Dunlap that he "didn't anticipate any problems" but that nothing had been formally signed.

Dunlap is a highly respected coach within the business, coaching in Australia and winning a Division II national title at Denver's Metro State. He interviewed for multiple jobs in the West while at Metro State. But he chose to stay before going to the Nuggets two years ago as an assistant on George Karl's staff. He was also a candidate at Cal, Oregon State, Stanford, Rice and Loyola Marymount this spring. Dunlap interviewed for the Chicago Bulls opening, too.

But it would be surprising if the Wildcats made anything official about Dunlap's future after naming Kevin O'Neill as Olson's successor during his leave of absence last December. That news conference seems almost comical now that O'Neill was pushed out after the season, given a bogus administrative title within the athletic department and will likely be in the NBA by next season.

Olson is clearly looking for stability on his bench by bringing in Dunlap and former Arizona State assistant Russ Pennell to replace O'Neill and Miles Simon, who was forced out last week. Olson will likely have a third spot open, the top recruiting position, when assistant Josh Pastner leaves as he is expected to do for a similar post at Memphis. The Memphis job is going through a formal process, but all indications from sources at both schools is that Pastner will take the position.

Olson has said on many occasions since coming back last month that he intends on finishing his contract, which runs through the 2010-11 season. Olson, who will be 74 when the season begins, is clearly looking to reshape the direction of the program with a total cleansing of the staff. The only move, though, that isn't being forced is Pastner, who would be leaving on his own terms.

The biggest question facing the Wildcats is whether or not sophomore Chase Budinger stays in the NBA draft. The Wildcats already lost All-American guard Jerryd Bayless to the draft. And while incoming guard Brandon Jennings is an impact player, losing Budinger would be a major hit for the Wildcats' ability to contend with UCLA and Arizona State atop the Pac-10 next season.

• Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon is anxiously waiting through the early-entry process. If Josh Carter stays in the draft, the Aggies would be very thin on the perimeter without Carter, who averaged a team-high 12.2 points a game. Carter is waiting to see if he'll be invited to the Orlando pre-draft camp (May 27-30). Carter is a possible second-round pick, at this juncture, if he were to stay in the draft. A year ago, when Joe Jones declared for the draft and played in Orlando, Turgeon said he always felt Jones would return. He's not ready to say that yet about Carter. The Aggies would need Donald Sloan to suddenly become a much better 3-point shooter (25 of 89, 28.1 percent) if Carter bolts.

• Turgeon pulled off a crazy recruiting trip by going to Australia for roughly 30 hours. Texas A&M, like Washington State, Gonzaga, Vanderbilt and probably Saint Mary's, are all checking out the next big man from Australia in 6-foot-10 Shane Harris-Tunks.

• Texas A&M still needs three games for next season. The highlight games are a tournament in South Padre Island, Texas, with Tulsa, Illinois and Kent State. The Aggies will also face Arizona at home, LSU in Houston and Alabama on the road.

• Florida's schedule is done. The Gators are in Kansas City for the CBE Classic with Syracuse, Kansas and Washington. They signed up for a home-and-home with NC State that will start in Gainesville next season. They will also play Florida State, Winthrop in Miami, Central Florida in Jacksonville and likely a game in Orlando against UMKC.

• New Loyola Marymount coach Bill Bayno is already using his wide array of contacts. The Lions got Seton Hall transfer Larry Davis, who played in all 32 games for the Pirates last season. Davis is from Middle Village, N.Y., and Bayno is from New York as well. Look for Bayno to milk his eastern contacts and be a draw for players to come West.

• The APR results that were made official Tuesday weren't a surprise to the schools that were dinged for a scholarship reduction. Here is the loss of scholarship breakdown, and it can be taken in 2009-10 or 2008-09, but if you're already under 13 then it's essentially moot.

2 -- Colorado State, Jacksonville State, Lamar, Liberty, Quinnipiac, San Jose State, UAB, USC

1 -- Central Connecticut, College of Charleston, FIU, Idaho, Kansas State, Louisiana Tech, Manhattan, Mercer, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Purdue, San Francisco, Seton Hall, South Alabama, South Carolina, Southern Utah, St. Peter's, Tennessee, UNC Greensboro, UTEP, Wyoming

Liberty coach Ritchie McKay said the Flames took the loss of one scholarship this past year and will take one more this coming year.

New Hampshire coach Bill Herrion said the Wildcats took their one scholarship off the books this past season.

Kansas State had the option of taking it last fall but opted for this coming season and will be at 12 scholarships for 2008-09, although that depends on what happens with Bill Walker, who declared and could very well likely stay in the draft.

Purdue didn't use a scholarship this past season so that counted for its penalty.

A number of the schools hit had coaching changes, and the NCAA is listening to that as an issue. But if players leave without being in good academic standing or prior to the end of the semester or quarter, then there isn't that much the NCAA can do about it if it is going to stick to the letter of the law of the APR.

DeAndre Jordan will likely be a lottery pick.

But if you look at his numbers at the end of this past season, it doesn't compute.

Jordan didn't play much at the end of the season and Texas A&M still won.

In the last five games of the Aggies' season, the 7-foot freshman didn't play against Iowa State, played five minutes against Kansas State, four against Kansas (including three fouls), five in the first round of the NCAA tournament against BYU and 15 in the two-point loss to UCLA in the second round. His minutes ranged from 13 to 33 throughout the season.

And that's OK. Jordan won't be drafted based on his 7.9 points, six rebounds or 1.3 blocks a game in his only season with the Aggies.

The Aggies won't say it publicly but the reality is that they played better without him during that stretch. They only lost to Kansas in the Big 12 tournament and to UCLA in the NCAA tournament.

The Aggies' staff was concerned that he was thinking about the NBA too much toward the end of the season. The reality is that for the Aggies he was a much better prospect than he was a player.

Jordan is going to be selected on his potential. That's what has driven the NBA draft for years and it will be true for a player like Jordan. The Aggies expect him to go in the top 10-12 in the lottery.

Jordan's name consistently comes up in the lottery after discussing it with a number of NBA decision makers this week. Jordan is working out in the Philadelphia area with Michael Beasley. Once he gets in front of NBA teams they will likely salivate at his potential and raw athleticism, but may be guarded about where to select him.

At least one NBA scout said that taking Jordan will be like taking a high school senior akin to Kwame Brown or Andrew Bynum. The difference of course is that Brown was expected to play immediately and wasn't able to handle that challenge. Bynum wasn't forced to play immediately, and was able to develop at a slower pace.

"Who would you take in front of a 7-foot, 19-year old with an upside like him?" said a former NBA scout who has seen him work out in the past month. "If you draft him with the expectation that he's going to come in and help you right away then you made a mistake. He's an insane athlete with unbelievable coordination. But he's not going to play right away."

"Someone is going to ask, though, if he can't play in the Big 12 tournament then how can he play in the NBA?" said another scout. "The answer of course is that he's a talent."

Jordan was recruited by Billy Gillispie to play for the Aggies. But Gillispie left to go to Kentucky. New coach Mark Turgeon tried to give Jordan a long look. Ultimately, it didn't mesh with the current makeup of the team. But that won't have a bearing on his draft status.

Quick hitters for Monday:

• In discussing potential lottery picks with decision makers in the NBA, one thing is starting to become clearer: Fence sitters like West Virginia junior Joe Alexander, Syracuse freshman Donte Greene, NC State freshman J.J. Hickson and UCLA sophomore Russell Westbrook are highly thought of at this point, three weeks before the Orlando draft camp (May 27-30). That means that they'll all have tough decisions to make since they could be potential lottery picks.

That's why all four will likely take their decision down to the June 16 withdrawal date. Workouts and interviews will be a key for all these players if they're going to convince teams to take them in the lottery.

A few other players are receiving positive feedback, like Kansas junior Mario Chalmers, Arizona sophomore Chase Budinger, Cal sophomore Ryan Anderson and North Carolina sophomore Ty Lawson. All four have said they won't sign with an agent to retain their amateur status.

It would be hard to find a coach at any of these eight schools who didn't think it was a strong possibility that once their player declared there was a good chance he was going to stay in the draft.

With the NCAA allowing NBA teams to pick up the tab for workouts after Orlando, more players may be able to work out for the teams that really are interested in them, giving the players a realistic shot to learn their draft position.

• The decisions by Tennessee's Tyler Smith, North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough and Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet continue to be the biggest surprises of the players who decided to remain in school, according to those who make personnel decisions in the NBA.

• Matchups for the Coaches vs. Cancer and CBE tournaments will be determined soon. But one juicy rematch could occur in Madison Square Garden next November.

If the four hosts advance to New York for the CVC, the likely semifinals could be Duke vs. Pitt and UCLA vs. Michigan. Duke is scheduled to play Michigan a week later, so that would detract from a Duke-Michigan semifinal and set up a likely Duke-Pitt rematch of a dandy game last December at MSG. Assuming UCLA wins, then you'd either have a classic UCLA-Duke final of the event with two of the best name programs in the game, or a UCLA-Pitt game, which pits two top 10 teams and two best friends in Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon of UCLA and Pitt, respectively.

The CBE four hosts that are due to arrive in Kansas City the week of Thanksgiving could also be set up for a potential bracket of Syracuse vs. Florida and Kansas vs. Washington. The organizer of both events is still working on the final details, but the brackets should be known soon.

• Memphis coach John Calipari talked to Arizona assistant Josh Pastner last week in Los Angeles. Pastner is suddenly a hot commodity with interest from Kentucky, Oklahoma State and now Memphis in the past two years. Calipari is looking at finding a person who can organize recruiting and be an in-the-trench assistant. Calipari lost two assistants to head coaching jobs -- Derek Kellogg to UMass and Chuck Martin to Marist -- and promoted Rod Strickland to fill one of the spots.

If Calipari offers Pastner the job and Pastner accepts, then Lute Olson will end up having an entirely new staff when he resumes his coaching career. Arizona, as expected, made two staff announcements with Miles Simon out and former ASU assistant Russ Pennell in. Former interim coach and one-time Olson successor Kevin O'Neill is already out, and if Pastner leaves then Olson will have three new assistant coaches.

Olson is trying to lure Mike Dunlap away from the Denver Nuggets' bench. Dunlap was a huge success at Metro State in Denver prior to going to the NBA. Dunlap had a tendency to talk to a lot of schools but never accepted a head coaching gig in Division I.

Did I miss something? Did the state of Alabama produce multiple NCAA tournament teams? Is there something that someone at UAB or Alabama isn't telling us?

Is there any reason that a combined six players from Alabama and UAB declared early for the NBA draft?

Not really.

It's almost surprising, giving the onslaught from the Tide and Blazers, that players from Auburn and Troy didn't jump into the mix, too.

Seriously, though, the Tide, which finished 17-16 overall, 5-11 in the SEC, have three potential starters that declared in point guard Ronald Steele (who didn't play this past season due to injury), forward Richard Hendrix (17.8 ppg) and guard Alonzo Gee (14.5 ppg).

"I won't know my roster until June," Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said Friday of the June 16 withdrawal date. Gottfried said Gee informed him right before the deadline that he was going to declare. Gee, like a number of fellow juniors, wanted to take advantage of the new NCAA rule that allows NBA teams to pay all expenses for individual team workouts, not just the Orlando pre-draft camp later this month if they get invited.

Meanwhile, UAB coach Mike Davis had three players on the list released by the NBA on Thursday, too. UAB finished 23-11 overall, losing to Virginia Tech in the NIT second round. The Blazers finished 12-4 in Conference USA, second behind Memphis.

Junior Robert Vaden (21.1 ppg) and sophomore Walter Sharpe (14.2 ppg in just 12 games because he was academically ineligible for the second semester) were expected to declare. Davis said he had no idea that junior Reggie Huffman (7.7 ppg) was going to be on the list, especially since Huffman told him he wanted to stop playing basketball and was expected to transfer.

"He got his release; he told me he wanted to focus on his academics," Davis said. "Huffman declaring shocked me. That's like my mama declaring."

Davis said if Vaden shoots well in workouts he wouldn't be surprised if he were to stay in the draft. He said the same is true of Sharpe. But he said Sharpe would be academically eligible for next season if he were to return.

The American college player list was up by 10 from 59 a year ago. That doesn't shock someone like UTEP coach Tony Barbee, who had a player declare in junior Stefon Jackson.

"The way it's set up now I full expect every junior to do this," Barbee said. "But I fully expect Stefon to be back in El Paso next season."

The problem, though, is that schools are held hostage by the process. As Gottfried said, the Tide won't know their roster until mid-June. The early-entry deadline was moved up two years ago from mid-May to late April but the withdrawal date hasn't changed from 10 days prior to the draft.

"Think about it: Our season ends in mid-March and these players have the rest of March, all of April, all of May and into June to decide," Gottfried said. "That's a lot of time for agents and runners to talk to them."

• The list also included a few other random names that came as a surprise. Duquesne junior Shawn James was going to declare but few apparently knew that fellow junior Kojo Mensah would declare. This is a player who shot 23.9 percent on 3s, and had a 99-89 assist-to-turnover ratio for the Dukes. Not sure there is a market for his talent in the NBA.

• IUPUI junior guard George Hill has the talent to be drafted this June. Hill told the staff at IUPUI that whether or not he gets invited to Orlando will weigh on his decision to stay in the draft. If he does stay then Hill might not go with coach Ron Hunter on a goodwill tour of Africa this July to put shoes on the feet of those who need them in four African nations.

• The Orlando pre-draft committee was scheduled to hold a conference call Friday afternoon to discuss the invite list for the 60-70 players that will compete in games May 27-30 at the Disney Wide World of Sports Milk House and the 20 physical-only players, according to Pete Babcock. Babcock, one of the leaders of the committee and a former NBA GM, said Friday morning that the committee hopes to nail down the rosters in the next two weeks. He said they have abandoned the process of trying to convince players to play. He said there are plenty of players who want to play in the event to be evaluated.

• Gottfried is still working on his schedule. He's in the Maui Invitational and is hosting Texas A&M and is at Clemson.

• Davis said he wants play more teams like Butler, Davidson and Western Kentucky, teams that everyone knows are good. He said he's going to reach out to play them next season.

• Here are some of the foreign trips that are being planned for the offseason: UNLV to Australia (late June, early July); Purdue to Australia (August); Nichols State to Australia (May); South Carolina to Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria (August); Columbia to The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Monaco (August); Brown to Belgium, France (August); Monmouth to Italy (August) and UC Davis to France, Switzerland and Monaco (August).

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey had the newly extended 3-point line put down on the Irish's practice court as soon as the season ended.

"I wanted our guys shooting it during pickup games and when they're just in there shooting," Brey said. "I thought it would look a lot different next to the women's line but it doesn't. Our guys weren't fazed by it at all."

The men's line is being moved back a foot to 20-feet, 9-inches. The women's line will remain the same at 19-feet, 9-inches and most of the floors where both the men and women share the facility will have two lines.

Syracuse put a new line down recently. Connecticut will do the same soon. Georgetown is putting it down this week.

Villanova has had it down all season on its practice court. "We used it all year," coach Jay Wright said of the new distance for next season.

"It didn't affect us at all," Wright said. "I don't think it will have much of an impact. I really don't. I'm not sure the kids noticed it."

Jim Boeheim echoed Wright's comments. "That line makes no difference," Boeheim said. "I thought it would at first, but I don't think it makes a difference at all."

Jim Calhoun said the line looked long to him and that "there will be certain guys who won't be taking 3-point shots next year."

• Notre Dame just picked up Mississippi State transfer Ben Hansbrough, and now the Irish are in the running with Valparaiso for Purdue transfer Scott Martin. Martin was the fourth-leading scorer on the surprising Boilermakers this past season. The freshman from Valparaiso, Ind., averaged 8.5 points a game.

• Brey isn't about to add too much more to the nonconference schedule with a road trip to UCLA in February and the Maui Invitational (North Carolina, Texas, Oregon, Indiana, Saint Joseph's, Alabama and Chaminade). Brey said he has been contacted about participating in the Hall of Fame game in Indianapolis at the Colts' stadium but hasn't decided if he wants to do that yet. The other teams Brey said he was told are under consideration are Gonzaga, Indiana, USC and Oklahoma State for the double-header.

"I don't know if we need to do anymore," Brey said. "With 18 league games we've probably got a lot already with UCLA and Maui. That's pretty powerful."

• Brey said he can't wait to take his team to Ireland in August. I told him that he must visit Connors Pub in Doolin, Ireland. The whole town packs into the pub, and it is as Irish as you can imagine. Now, this was 14 years ago, but I have been told it still is the place for a slice of Irish music, food and drink.

• Wright said the Wildcats are still in flux with their schedule. He said Villanova is trying to work a home-and-home with North Carolina, starting in Chapel Hill. He has also talked about the Jimmy V Classic in New York with a possible Davidson matchup. Wright said the Wildcats are in a tournament at the Palestra, too, with Penn State, Rhode Island and Hartford as some of the teams, and of course the Wildcats have the Big Five schedule with Saint Joe's, Temple, LaSalle and Penn.

"When Temple beat Saint Joe's [in the A-10 final], that bumped Temple into the top 50 and gave us another conference champion win. I really think having another top 50 and conference champion win helped our NCAA bid," Wright said.

• Calhoun said former Huskies Curtis Kelly and Doug Wiggins are getting plenty of feelers from neighboring schools. He said Kelly has talked to URI and Iona, and he doesn't mind stepping down a level. Wiggins is talking to UMass and URI.

• Boeheim, an assistant on the U.S. Olympic team, was in Phoenix for the Suns-Spurs NBA playoff game and to meet with fellow coaches Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Mike D'Antoni (Suns) and Nate McMillan (Trail Blazers).

• Boeheim said he still doesn't know what freshman Donte Greene is going to do and whom he is going to listen to since his draft status is all over the first round.

"He's probably more likely to leave than not, but I talked to one team at 28 [which would mean Memphis] isn't interested in him," Boeheim said. "Then how far is he going to drop? One team had Donte at 42 in the draft. "He'll be eligible if he were to come back. But who knows. Three or four teams weren't interested at all. A couple are."

Meanwhile, Boeheim said that rising junior Paul Harris is going to make it academically so there won't be any defections. He said Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins, both coming off ACL injuries, are doing great in their recovery.

• New Oregon State coach Craig Robinson still has two assistants to hire, taking only Doug Stewart with him from Brown. He said he'll have 10 scholarship players but is hoping to land an impact transfer for 2009-10, as well as possibly someone for next season. Robinson was on the road nonstop once he got the job after the Final Four, heading to Los Angeles, Houston, Las Vegas and Denver. Oregon State didn't win a Pac-10 game last season.

• Georgetown coach John Thompson III said the Hoyas will resume their series with Duke, which had a year off in the contract this past season, starting in Durham next season. He said the Orlando Old Spice Classic that he signed up for last week with Gonzaga, Michigan State, Tennessee, Oklahoma State, Siena, Wichita State and Maryland will be a good gauge for "where we are. That's what I wanted."

• Thompson said he had been wanting to get involved with USA Basketball so he's thrilled to join Davidson's Bob McKillop (and assistant Anthony Grant of VCU) on the U-18 team that will play in Argentina (and train in DC) in July.

• Thompson said Vernon Macklin is transferring after two seasons and will likely head to a fellow high-major school but he wasn't sure where at this point.

• West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said he anticipates junior Joe Alexander will go all the way to the withdrawal deadline (June 16) before making a decision on whether to return. The Mountaineers' headline games are in Las Vegas at a tournament with the projected teams (assuming they get out of their host sites with two easy wins) -- Kentucky, Kansas State and Iowa. Huggins said he also signed up for a home-and-home with good friend and former assistant Andy Kennedy of Ole Miss, with the series starting in Oxford next season.

• No reason to question Tony Bennett's decision to stay at Washington State from a financial standpoint. The Seattle Times' Bud Withers reported Thursday that Bennett became the first "million-dollar man" at Washington State. Bennett has led a remarkable turnaround at Wazzu the past two seasons, leading the Cougs to the NCAA Sweet 16. Bennett turned down Indiana and didn't push despite some interest from Marquette, LSU and the Bay Area openings at Cal and Stanford. His salary doubled (from just under $400,000 to $800,000) after last season's second-place Pac-10 finish (WSU was predicted to finish last). Now with a $200,000 push, he'll get over $1 million in addition to an extension that takes him to 2015.