After South Florida head coach Stan Heath visited with recruit Jarrid Famous Sunday night, the news is that Famous is still planning on attending the school.

“There didn’t have to be any smoothing over,” Westchester Community College coach Tyrone Mushatt, who also attended the meeting, told Greg Auman of the St. Petersburg Times. “There won’t be any confusion about this. He’s going to South Florida.”

WCC assistant Mickey Carey had previously said the 6-foot-11 Famous wanted to get out of his Letter of Intent because he hadn’t heard from Heath in some time and hadn’t been informed of the departure of assistants Dan Hipsher and Byron Samuels.

“I can only go by what Jarrid has told me, and the comments that were made [from Carey] were never comments that Jarrid made to me,” Heath told the St. Pete Times.

Famous, who did not answer his cell phone and is reportedly ill, averaged 25.2 points and 13.7 rebounds last year at WCC. He chose USF over Arizona, Missouri and Seton Hall. He is due to arrive at USF June 25.

Lance Stephenson still hasn’t picked a college, but he is scheduled to play hoops on Thursday.

The 6-foot-5 Stephenson is one of several high-profile players who will compete in the 2nd Annual Frankie Williams Charity Classic at the Theodore D. Young Community Center in Greenburgh, N.Y. (See game info below.)

The event is slated to feature Kevin Parrom (South Kent/Arizona), Sean Kilpatrick (White Plains HS/Cincinnati), Dante Taylor (National Christian Academy/Pittsburgh), Durand Scott (Rice/Miami), Omari Lawrence (South Kent/St John’s) and Sherrod Wright (Mt. Vernon/George Mason). (more…)

Fordham athletic director Frank McLaughlin wants star point guard Jio Fontan to return to school, but Fontan and his family say he will never play for Fordham again.

McLaughlin has repeatedly ignored interview requests from the media (myself included), but he did tell a Fontan confidant that the school will not release the young man from his Letter of Intent because it wants him to be a part of the program’s future.

“We had a very good conversation. [McLaughlin] was kind enough to give me a call back,” said Todd Washington, a senior adviser to the President of the Puerto Rico Basketball Association who is advising the Fontans in the matter. “They just voiced how much they care about Jio and that Jio’s the cornerstone of their program. They have no hard feelings. They know what Jio’s position is but that they’re hoping that Jio comes back.”

He added: “The impression that I got is that Fordham is just not going to release Jio under any circumstances.” (more…)

You have to feel for Josh Pastner.

The guy just gets the Memphis job and within the span of a few weeks he loses one signed player (Darnell Dodson) and two Memphis leans (DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall) to Kentucky coach John Calipari.

Then NCAA allegations surface that while Calipari was head coach at Memphis, major NCAA violations occurred. Derrick Rose is alleged to have had someone else take his SAT and Rose’s brother, Reggie, allegedly rode the team charter without paying.

Yet through it all, Pastner is keeping a stiff upper lip and spreading the word that the penalties likely won’t impact the current team or the future of the program. It seems, though, that the Tigers’ 38-win season and Final Four appearance in 2008 could be vacated.

Pastner says in this interview with MyFoxMemphis that he was informed of the allegations right before they became public. Dan Wolken of the Memphis Commercial Appeal informed Pastner of the allegations while he was reporting the initial story.

Pastner also says Memphis still needs to land “a few more” players for next season, and also focus on landing recruits in the Classes of 2010, 11 and 12.

Scottie Reynolds wasn’t invited to the NBA Combine this weekend in Chicago, but he still hopes to get selected in the June 25 NBA Draft.

“It wasn’t disappointing at all,” Reynolds said Friday by phone, referring to the 52 players invited to the event. “Would I like to be there? I would be lying to you if I said I wasn’t. It just didn’t fall my way. I kept a great attitude about it. And I’m just going to the next day, and controlling the things I can control.” (more…)

Latavious Williams says he’s still committed to Memphis, but the latest allegations against the program may cause him to end up elsewhere.

“I’m still committed,” he said Friday by phone. “Right now they’re looking into that [allegations that someone else took the SAT for former point guard Derrick Rose]. I’m going to take my time and chill out.”

Williams is set to graduate May 29 from Humble Christian Life Center in Houston, and he said he and his family were still discussing the latest news about the NCAA charging Memphis with “major violations”.

“We are just talking about the situation and the violations,” he said. “We’re trying to see what ‘s gonna happen.”

Memphis is scheduled to appear before the NCAA Committee on Infractions June 6.

“Everybody is very concerned about the situation but [Memphis coach] Josh [Pastner] is a great guy and everybody really, really respects him and we want to  give him the benefit of the doubt and find out what went on and what the repercussions might be,” Humble coach Carlos Wilson said. “We want to find out what the best decision for Latavious would be.

“We’re going to kind of wait and see what happens with the June 6 situation, which is right around the corner.”

(more…)

Things are going from bad to worse for Derrick Rose.

One day after the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that Rose may have had his SAT taken by someone else, his hometown Chicago Sun-Times now reports that Rose had his grades changed in high school.

The paper cites sources who say Rose and three other Chicago Simeon teammates had their grades changed for a one-month period after their June 2007 graduation. The grades were then changed back after the transcripts were mailed out to colleges. (more…)

Paterson (N.J.) Catholic freshman guard Kyle Anderson and Seton Hall Prep sophomore guard Sterling Gibbs were among those named to the inaugural USA Developmental National Team.

The 6-foot-7 Anderson is a star on the rise at Paterson Catholic, which this past year won the Passaic (N.J.) County championship and beat St. Anthony of Jersey City in the state playoffs.

“He’s very excited, he thinks his chances of making the team are good,” Kyle Anderson Sr. said of his son, who holds offers from Pittsburgh, Georgetown and Temple and has garnered interest from Texas, Baylor, Indiana and Miami.

Gibbs is a 6-1 point considered among the best in the nation in his class. His older brother, Ashton, plays for Pitt. Gibbs told Northstar Basketball Indiana, Pitt, Seton Hall, and Rutgers have offered, yet he lists Villanova as his leader.

The team will first look to capture the gold medal at the inaugural 2009 FIBA Americas U16 Championship June 17-21 in Mendoza, Argentina, and qualify for the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship. (more…)

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that one of Derrick Rose’s former  Chicago Simeon teammates may have taken his SAT for him.

‘‘ [The NCAA] thinks that [former Simeon player Kevin Johnson] took [the SAT test] for him,” Luther Topps, who coached Rose’s club basketball team with Derrick’s brother Reggie, told the newspaper.

Topps said he and Simeon coach Robert Smith don’t know anything firsthand.

‘‘[Smith and I] didn’t know anything about his test,’’ Topps said. ‘‘Reggie moved me and him out of the way long before that, as soon as the money got involved.’’ (more…)

John Calipari’s honeymoon at Kentucky sure didn’t last long.

Just a week after wrapping up what some consider among the best recruiting classes in the history of college basketball, the Memphis Commercial Appeal breaks the news that the NCAA is investigating Memphis — Cal’s old program — for major violations during the 2007-8 season.

The NCAA sent Memphis officials a letter alleging “knowing fraudulence or misconduct” on an SAT exam by a player on the 2007-08 team.

Though the player’s name is redacted from the report, it is believed to be Derrick Rose, who spent one season at Memphis before going on to play for the Chicago Bulls. The report does not mention Calipari by name. (more…)