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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES

May 30, 2006

Former McDonald’s All-American Mike Williams has not had the easiest time while a member of the Texas Longhorns. Beginning with a battle to be eligible as a freshmen to seeing decreased playing time as a sophomore, the 6’7 forward has decided it was time to move on. He has reached a decision on his new home, McDonald’s All-Amercian Williams Transferring to Cincinnati (Cincinnati Post). Williams will have to sit out the 2006-2007 season, but will have two full seasons of eligibility beginning in 2007-2008.

Thad Mumau covers ACC basketball for FayetvilleOnline.com and has a little more on Larry Davis’ decision to commit to Seton Hall after being given his conditional release from North Carolina St: Lowe’s Hiring Doesn’t Impress Prep Coach. I think some of this is taken slightly out of context, I think what Coach Oliva is annoyed with is that Sidney Lowe is still tied up with the Detroit Pistons and has not been cleared by the NCAA to begin recruiting and still has to earn his college degree to be the coach at NC St, so when he refers to a “guy who can’t coach”, I think it is more in terms of the situation that Lowe is in before he can even begin contacting the players that are committed. Of course, that is my interpretation, so, maybe Oliva did in fact mean that lowe can’t coach…

Anyway, it is still not official, as far as I know, that NC St has given Davis a full release, one of the stipulations with the ‘conditional’ release was for Davis, and the other commits, to give Lowe a final chance to meet with them. The Davis saga being played out more publicly than than of Dan Werner might make this one a little more interesting, or, maybe not…

Speaking of Seton Hall, the New Jersey Star-Ledger’s M.A. Mehta takes a look at Bobby Gonzalez’s First 50 Days with SHU. I think ti was a given that Gonzalez would breathe new recruiting life into the Pirates and having the NC St situation play out like it did, he certainly had timing on his side with playing time to offer players like Eugene Harvey and Larry Davis in the Big East. Liek Mick Cronin at Cincinnati, Gonzalez had quite a bit to sell a soring recruit and playing time in the nation’s top conference certainly went a long way, plus, both are energetic recruiters that work extremely hard out on the road.

Mitch Vingle of the Charleston Gazette has a comprehensive article summing up the Big East meetings of last week where a future Basketball TV Deal Should Keep Big East from Splitting. This is a follow-up to ESPN’s article by Andy Katz from last week and Vingle also has extensive quotes from WVU AD Ed Pastilong on the plan to stick together by the 16-team conference.

I think Vingle hits the nail on the head at the end of his story: “Money Talks. And no one walks.”

It looks like, according to Greg Auman’s blog, that Collin Dennis to Transfer from USF.

The Charlotte Observer catches us with former UNC-C commitment Michael Beasley, who was believed to have committed to Kansas St, but seems to be a little more open. Connecticut is mentioned in the article, but maybe UNC-C is not completely out of the picture as Beasley Thinks Twice about Sticing with Charlotte.

Some more recruiting news can be found with FoxSports.com Recruiting Buzz. In the article, Mike Sullivan of scout.com takes a look at the recruiting of Big East prospects Corey Stokes, Sylvan Landesberg and Mike Cobourn from last week’s Five Star Classic in Manhattan.

The 2006 NBA Draft is still weeks away, but CBS Sportsline columnist Greg Doyel uses this week’s Ten for Tuesday to look at 10 prospects that could make the leap into the 2007 NBA draft. Geogretown’s rising junior duo of Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert are mentioned.

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