Seton Hall athletic director Joe Quinlan has suspended junior forward Robert “Stix” Mitchell for the first two games of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off because of an incident that transpired last year.

“Robert Mitchell will be suspended for Seton Hall’s first two games of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off for the violation of team rules,” the school said in a statement.

Read the full story on SNY.tv here.

Thomas Robinson’s mother is getting some high-powered visitors this week in Washington, D.C.

Lisa Robinson, the mother of the 6-foot-8 senior from Brewster (N.H.) Academy ranked No. 7 among power forwards in the Class of 2009, played host Monday night to Memphis head coach John Calipari and assistant Orlando Antigua.

Kansas coach Bill Self will visit with the mother Wednesday morning, before heading to Brewster to watch Thomas work out.

“I know that Coach Calipari and Orlando Antigua had a home visit with Thomas’ mom last night,” Brewster head coach Jason Smith said. “They went to Washington, D.C. to speak with Thomas’ mom. (more…)

Lance Stephenson has expressed an interest in visiting several schools other than St. John’s, but no officials to Kansas or Memphis have yet been set up, according to sources close to the situation.

Kansas head coach Bill Self did speak recently with the 6-foot-5 Stephenson, who has repeatedly said he won’t pick a school until the spring.

A student-athlete has to have taken the PSAT, SAT or ACT to go on an official visit. (more…)

Bobby Gonzalez has made two hires to the vacancies on his staff.

Dennis Kazimir will take over as Director of Basketball Operations and Rodrick Rhodes will become Assistant to the Head Coach/Administrative Asst.

Kazimir, 31, takes over for Steve Sauers, now at Iona. A Brick, N.J. native and 2000 Seton Hall graduate, he previously worked at Tiffin University and at Wright State. He also worked as director of AAU tournaments for the Hoop Group, and has experience with a number of camps, including Rbk U and ABCD.

Rhodes (pictured), 35, starred at St. Anthony under Bob Hurley, where he won State titles in 1989 and ’91, and went on to star at Kentucky under Rick Pitino for three seasons before transferring to USC. He was drafted in the first round (24th overall) by the Houston Rockets in 1997 and played three season with the Rockets, Grizzlies and Mavericks. (more…)

There appears to be some confusion surrounding the recruitment of Sean Kilpatrick.

Ryan Hurd, the head coach at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., said the only official visit Kilpatrick had set up through the proper channels was an Oct. 24 trip to Providence.

Yet Gerard Jones, who is advising Kilpatrick, says the 6-foot-5, 210-pound shooting guard from White Plains, N.Y. will also visit Cincinnati the weekend of Oct. 11.

“The only one scheduled is Providence Oct. 24,” Hurd said.

“He is planning to visit Cincinnati (Oct. 11),” Jones said Tuesday.

Jones said Kilpatrick holds offers from Providence and Cincinnati and that Marquette was interested.

Hurd denied an Internet report saying Kilpatrick held offers from Cincinnati, Pitt, Marquette, Kansas State, Central Florida, Missouri and Arkansas.

(more…)

The recruitment of Ravenscroft (NC) senior Ryan Kelly gets more and more interesting.

Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey was at Ravenscroft at 6:30 this morning for Kelly’s workout, according to a source.

Then Kelly, ranked No. 8 among power forwards in the Class of 2009, spent the day on an unofficial visit to Duke, where he sat in on a workout, attended some classes and planned to spend the night. (more…)

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Beating Division I-AA Morgan State 38-0 at home is one thing.

Going on the road to face Pat White and Big East preseason No. 1 West Virginia is another challenge altogether.

Rutgers (1-3) has never won in 15 attempts in Morgantown, yet that is where the Scarlet Knights will find themselves on Saturday when they meet the Mountaineers (2-2) and their vaunted spread offense in their Big East opener (SNY, noon).

Read the full story here.

**Guide to the Big East: Headed South After South Fla. Loss?

**Read the post from this summer in which White calls out West Virginia baseball coach Greg Van Zant for not having enough African-American players on his team.

**My colleague Keith Sargeant from the Home News Tribune did the painstaking work of transcribing West Virginia coach Bill Stewart’s conference call. And here is Rutgers coach Greg Schiano’s weekly conference with the writers.

Gauchos coach Dwayne Mitchell said Durand Scott’s official visit to UConn this weekend went well.

“It went well,” said Mitchell, who was on the visit. “He just liked the tradition of the program. It’s a traditional program. Coach (Jim) Calhoun has a lot of tradition. (Scott) likes the success they’ve had over the years since (Calhoun) has been there.”

Scott, a 6-foot-4 combo guard out of Rice High School in Manhattan, played pickup and said he enjoyed it.

“Playing with those guys shows me what I need to work on and at the same time, I’m also having a lot of fun,” he told the Journal Inquirer. “It’s a fun experience being around them and I know what I’m looking forward to when I get to the next level.” (more…)

Memphis head coach John Calipari and assistant Orlando Antigua finally had their in-home visit Sunday night with St. Anthony star Dominic Cheek and Friars head coach Bob Hurley.

The 6-foot-5 Cheek is the No. 6 shooting guard in the Class of 2009, according to Rivals, and a first-team All-State selection.

“It thought it went very well,” Hurley said of the visit. “I thought it was very good presentation. I think we felt real interest from their end, real interest in getting Dominic down there to visit. They had done their homework. They knew his strengths, they run the same offense that we do at St. Anthony.” (more…)

It was an eventful weekend for the Pitt basketball program.

The Panthers got a commitment from 6-9, 220-pound forward Talib Zanna of Bishop McNamara High in Md.

Zanna was born in Kaduna, Nigeria and has only been playing in the U.S. since the fall of 2006. He came here to pursue his dream of play college ball in America. He is not ranked in the Top 150 and is not well known but becomes the third forward to commit for 2009. Dante Taylor of National Christian, and J.J. Richardson of Missouri City, Texas also committed.

“Talib came here as a sophomore,” Bishop McNamara coach Marty Keithline said. “He’s a five man, a back-to-the-basket player. He has a good hook shot, shotblocking skills. He’s developed a 15-foot jump shot, expanded his game since he’s gotten here. He’s developed into a multi-faceted player.

Zanna averaged 15 points, 13.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks as a junior. He also had offers from St. Joe’s, Oklahoma, Villanova , Boston College and Providence. (more…)