Big East Tournament, Connecticut News, Connecticut Recruiting, Georgetown Recruiting, Louisville Recruiting, Seton Hall Recruiting, Syracuse News, USF Recruiting

BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (5/27/2009)

Not a ton going on around the Big East this morning, but some interesting stories nonetheless. Leading off is a developing situation involving Jarrid Famous and his commitment to USF. It looks like Famous is being pulled in a couple different directions as his JUCO coaches are saying he wants out of his LOI while his father insists he will be playing for the Bulls. We will watch this story unfold…

Elsewhere, Jim Boehiem isn’t fretting over personnel losses to the professional ranks, he has high praise, VERY high praise, for incoming frosh pointguard Brandon Triche. Also today, an update on the Big East Tournament format, Jim Calhoun talks business and hoops with UConn fans, Roscoe Smith is a 2010 small forward in very high demand and another of 2009′s top prospects left uncommitted made a decision and will not be coming to the Big East to play college ball.

Read about it below…

There is a situation brewing at South Florida centering around top spring recruiting prize Jarrid Famous who signed a letter of intent with the Bulls earlier this spring.

The Tampa Tribune reported yesterday afternoon that USF’s Top Hoops Recruit Wants Out of his letter of intent. According to Westchester (NY) Community College assistant coach Mickey Carey, Famous is no longer comfortable with the situation at USF since he has had no contact with USF head coach Stan Heath since he signed and assistant coaches Byron Samuels and Dan Hipsher are no longer with the Bulls. Carey is citing the uncertainty of the staff and the fact Heath only has two years left on his contract, which, would cover the two years Famous would be at USF.

Reached by Greg Auman of the St. Petersburg Times, Famous’ Father Insists He is Coming to USF.

“Jarrid is going to South Florida. He’s not switching schools,” Jerome Famous told the Times by phone. “He’s going to South Florida, no doubt about it.”

According to the Times update, Jerome Famous said Carey has tried to steer his son away from USF in the past, but that his son is not going to back out out of his signing with the Bulls.

Carey told the Tribune that Arizona, Missouri and Seton Hall, just like prior to his signing with USF, would be under consideration again.

This is definitely a strange turn of events. The parting of ways between USF and Samuels was known well ahead of Famous’ commitment to the Bulls and Hipshers imminent departure was also well known at the time of the commitment.

“There seems to be a rift among the [Westchester] coaches wanting him to go to Arizona,” Heath told the Tribune on Tuesday. “The dad assured me the kid is coming. I spoke briefly with Jarrid today, and I am supposed to talk to him again later today.”

I guess we will see how it plays out…sounds like someone might not be getting what they expected out of the deal…
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Speculation began last week when Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey ‘tweeted’ that discussions at the Big East meetings in Florida touched on a possible re-formatting of the Big East Tournament, which expanded to include all 16 teams in Madison Square Garden last season. However, in the end, the 16-team format has won over the majority of the conference and the Big East Will Keep Tourney Format (Charleston Gazette) as is for now.

Personally, I like the 12-team format and making teams earn their way in.
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Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun is making the rounds on the banquet tour this spring. The latest stop for the Hall of Famer Calhoun to Talk Business and Basketball with Local Fans (Greenwich Time) was the annual meeting of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce.

Coach Calhoun touched on topics of the NBA draft and professsional opportunities of his three seniors from last season as well as the two underclassmen who declared, he spoke about the returning players for next season who will mix with a talented incoming recruiting class and spoke briefly about his record with the NCAA in light of the ongoing investigation into alleged UConn recruiting violations during the recruitment of Nate Miles.

“After 37 years, my record with the NCAA is clean,” Calhoun told the crowd. “And you’ll see very shortly it is still clean.”
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ESPN Rise updates the recruitment of Baltimore (MD) Walbrook High School 6-foot-8, 195-lb wing Roscoe Smith, who performed well at last weekend’s Bob Gibbons TOC AAU event in North Carolina. Smith is Looking at All of his Options and maintains he is wide open at this point. The article does mention offers from Connecticut and Louisville.

Smith is not planning to play the AAU circuit this summer, but will be able to be seen by college coaches at the various elite camps this summer, including the Lebron James Skills Academy. NBE is planning to get their first summer look at Smith at the NBA Top 100 camp next month.
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Georgetown recruiting target Latavious Williams ended his school selection process on Tuesday as Williams Chooses Memphis over Georgetown (Washington Times), Kansas State and Florida International.

The Hoyas had yet to offer Williams a scholarship officially because Williams has yetto earn a qualifying standardized test score. The Starkville (MS) native had a guaranteed scholarship offer at Memphis where he could sit out as a partial qualifier if need be, something unavailable at Georgetown.
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The job of succeeding Jonny Flynn at Syracuse belongs to incoming freshman point guard Brandon Triche. The Jamesville-DeWitt star and nephew of former Oranhe forward Howard Triche is drawing rave reviews from his future coach. According to SU head coach Jim Boeheim, Triche is a Better Point Guard than Jonny Flynn (Sporting News).

“I think he’s going to be a great player,” Boeheim told Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News. “He can shoot it. He’s smart. He’s physical. He can’t go by people like Jonny, but nobody can.

“He’ll start right away for us.”

Boeheim isn’t saying Triche is a better player right now, but as a point guard, his strengths might be better suited to run the team next season.
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