Louisville Recruiting, Marquette News, NBA Draft Early Entry, Seton Hall Recruiting, Syracuse News, West Virginia News

BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (5/9/08)

Add another event that the NBE Basketball Report will be at this weekend as Doug Ferguson will head to Chicago to cover the GBOA North on the University of Illinois-Chicago campus. Top names o n the AAU scene such as the Illinois Bobcats, SYF, Rising Stars, Terry Porter Elite, Milwaukee Rebels, Team Detroit, D1 Greyhounds and others will be competing. We will have the coverage of Sunday’s championship rounds.

As mentioned yesterday, Anthony Jaskulski will be at the inaugural DC Assault ‘Take Your Best Shot’ AAU Tournament this weekend at the fabulous Hoop Magic Sports Academy in Chantilly (VA) will the be. We will also have a correspondent (or two) at the Hoop Group’s Southern Jam Fest on the University of Virginia campus.

Good news from Charlotte as Bob Huggins is fine after his fall at the airport. Letter of intent will be signed (or have been) by Louisville and Seton Hall recruits after delays. Jonnie West may never live up to his father’s legacy, and few ever could, but he will be putting in the effort to create his own at WVU. Dominic James is high with a ‘Buzz’ for Marquette’s new coach. Dante Greene is closer to a final decision on his status with the NBA draft and the Washington Times updates their 2008-2009 early Top 35 in college basketball. A Big East target is also off to C-USA. All these, and more, below:

West Virginia fans, players and friends of coach Bob Huggins were relieved last evening to learn that Huggins is Fine After Fall at Charlotte Airport (Charleston Daily Mail) that required a precautionary trip to the Carolinas Medical Center in downtown Charlotte. After a few hours being observed by medical personnel, Huggins was released and made it to the Charlotte chapter of the West Virginia University Alumni Association event held at Carmel Country Club for dinner. Coach Huggins was expected to participate in the golf event earlier that day, which he flew into Charlotte for.

Extensive travel since the season came to a close has taken a toll on the 54-year old coach, but yesterday’s incident seems to be an accident and not health related.

There is not denying that Jonnie West has a lot to live up to on the basketball court. Afterall, his father Jerry West is the greatest player ever to come out of West Virginia University and his likeness is used as the NBA’s logo. For Jonnie, a soon to be redshirt sophomore on Bob Huggins’ WVU squad, his goals are not to re-write the WVU record books, but more of a simple nature. For the immediate future, West’s Goals at WVU are to Bulk Up and Play More (Daily Mail) and take it from there.
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FoxSports.com’s Jeff Goodman caught up with Marquette’s star point guard as Dominic James is Enjoying the Buzz with the Golden Eagles as Buzz Williams takes the reigns of the program from Tom Crean. Although Williams was on Crean’s staff for just one season after a short stint as the head coach of the University of New Orleans, James felt all along that Buzz was the coach the players wanted the most to keep things at a high level for Marquette.
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Although he has been orally committed to Louisville and coach Rick Pitino since last October, rumors about the future of 6’4 shooting guard Kyle Kuric remained. Without signing a letter of intent, neither party was bound to the verbal commitment. Would Louisville still have a scholarship available? Would Kuric look to one of the other schools that recruited him, like Michigan, St. Louis, Southern Illinois or Evansville?

Well, the speculation and rumors can officially cease come Monday as the 6’4 shooting guard from Evansville (IN) Memorial High School ends the process as Kuric Will Sign with Louisville (Courier Press) and be part of the UL family. Kuric averaged 20.8 points and 6.7 rebounds, was named the All-Metro player of the year, leading his team to a sectional championship.
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Another player signing a delayed Letter of Intent happened yesterday as Melvyn Oliver Finally Signs LOI (zagsblog) with Seton Hall after a few delays. The Pirates were recently publicly reprimanded by the NCAA for an APR score that resulted in a scholarship penalty.

The delay in Oliver’s LOI could have been additional due diligence by the University into the player who has attended a few high schools, including a newly formed prep school, Mississippi Elite Christian Academy, to insure all the academics were in order. Or, maybe it was just lost in the mail…
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Seton Hall was also involved in the recruitment of Chris Turner and the Pirates Sign the 6’5 Guard (The daily Reflector). However, it was the Pirates of East Carolina who get the signature of Turner on a letter of intent. Again, with Turner, several bigger schools were interested, but questions on his academics as he has been to a few different high schools and prep schools the last couple years clouded the picture.
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Will he or wont he? That question is still alive about Dante Greene as he test the NBA draft process. However, the question looks closer to being answered with bad news for Orange fans as Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard reports that Greene is Eyeing an Agent and if he signs, he would no longer be able to come back to school and compete for SU.
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Here is an Updated Preseason Top 35 from the Washington Times that lists four Big East teams in the Top 10 (UConn #1, Pitt #2, Louisville #4 and Notre Dame #9) and five more among the top 35 (Villanova #14, Georgetown #17, West Virginia #19, Syracuse #27 and Marquette #34). That is just a B-R-U-T-A-L league next year!

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