Time to hit the news and notes from around the Big East basketball conference after a long Memorial Day weekend. Exciting news for St. John’s and Marquette as each school picks up a 2009 commitment in recent days. There is a late qualifying player for the class of 2008 that Marquette is trying to get involved with. Adam Zagoria takes a look at two upstate NY prospects that could be in the Big East starting with the 2009-2010 season, one has already committed to Rutgers and the other has been considered a Syracuse commit at times, but that is not the case. Also, updates on Dashonte Riley, the latest Georgetown commit, Durand Scott, who has many in the Big East interested in his skills, Ryan Kelly, a fast progressing North Carolina big forward, and an introduction to Meyers Leonard, a virtually unknown player from Illinois that is sparking some Big East interest.

Also, we look at Van Coleman’s top 40 recruiting classes of 2008. Kentrell Gransberry and Joe Alezander continue to work the NBA draft process from different angles and we give a little love to a couple Big East assistants as they prepare to do much of the legwork this summer bringing in the new talent to the conference for the future.

Hopefully everyone got a chance to check out Alex Schwartz’s interview with Donyell Marshall: One of the NBA’s Good Guys.

Later today, Doug Ferguson will take a deeper look at the 2008 NBA draft prospects from the Big East conference.

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Brian Crownover set out from Philadelphia early Saturday morning for Long Island to check out the action of the GBOA East regional basketball tournament. Looking forward to seeing teams such as the NY Panthers, Gauchos, Team Philly, Grassroots of Canada, Juice All-Stars and others, Brian drove to Half Hollows Hills West High School in anticipation of catching the early action, however, a late scheduling change moved the tournament play to Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, but no notices were posted.

Not to waste a trip to the Big Apple, the ever resourceful Brian decided to catch the exciting action of the IS8 semifinals instead and he filled us in on the performances of some of the better 2008 Big East recruits as well as some younger talent that could fine their way to the Big East in the future…

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Today’s hot news centers around the Memphis Tigers and the reports from Fox 13 in Memphis that the University is in serious talks about joining the Big East. The news brings up more questions that answers, especially with recent remarks from Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese on the topic of expansion of late, which indicated the subject is not even on the table at all.

In other news, a Pitt assistant could be on the move and it might help his new school with a big spring target. South Florida continues to rebuild their roster as they pick up another later period commitment.

We will be back later today with more…

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2008 Speice Run ‘N Slam Bill Hensley Memorial
By Doug Ferguson

America’s basketball heartland was at a fever pitch this past weekend as the city of Fort Wayne, IN hosted the 2008 Bill Hensley Memorial Run N Slam AAU Tournament. While games were strewn in gyms all across the hub of Northeast Indiana, a majority of the action was held in the tradition-rich Spiece Fieldhouse. This museum disguised as a collage of eight courts is littered with memorabilia that is enough to keep basketball lovers in awe for days. Indiana legends from Larry Bird to Greg Oden and John Wooden to Bob Knight just begin to account for the jerseys hanging from the rafters.

Fans got to see all of this, and that was before a whistle blew or a buzzer sounded. The action overall was outstanding, however slightly disappointing for fans of the Big East. A few late scratches for various reasons left many of the conferences followers doing a lot of scratching in their own right. Only they were scratching their heads instead of a lineup card as two of the conferences top early recruits were unfortunately absent from action this weekend.

Center DaShonte Riley (high interest in Georgetown) did not travel with his team (Detroit’s “The Family). His team fared fairly well without him, going 3-0 in pool play before eventually falling in the elimination tournament leaving many to wonder if they are beatable with him in the lineup.

Team Philly, led by point guard Maalik Wayans (verbal commit to Villanova) was set to play as early as a week ago but ended up not making the trip to the Hoosier State. The show went on however, despite the absentees and there was still an extremely high level of basketball being played on the holy ground of the sport. Here are some of the highlights.

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Commitment Alert: Gaby Belardo, 6′3 G from Notre Dame Prep (MA)

Projected 2008-2009 Roster:

Seniors: Mobalaji Ajayi (BF), Jesus Verdejo (G/F), Aris Williams (BF)

Juniors: Chris Howard (PG), Mike Mercer (G), Alejando Rivas-Sanchez (C)

Sophomores: Dominique Jones (SG)

Freshman: Dwan McMillan (PG), Eugene Teague (BF/C), Eladio Espinosa (F), Gaby Belardo (G)

Early 2009 Commitment: Shaun Noriega (G)

With a recent run of transfers leaving the South Florida program, Stan Heath and his staff still have work to do filling their roster for the 2008-2009 season, and, following the recent commitment from Pratt CC center Alejandro Rivas-Sanchez, Guard Gaby Belardo Commits to the Bulls (St. Petersburg Times).

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