Villanova junior guard Corey Stokes was issued a citation for public urination early Thursday morning.

Stokes was urinating between two parked cars at about 3 a.m. while surrounded by several teammates when a Lower Merion police car pulled up. The incident occurred outside a bar down the street from the Villanova campus after the Wildcats beat South Florida, 74-49.

“He got a summary offense for disorderly conduct,” said a source with direct knowledge of the situation.

Stokes was not arrested and will have to pay a fine, the source said.

“This was a simple mistake by a college student,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said in a statement. “Corey regrets it and has apologized for it. We will now deal with it within our basketball family.”

Sources said Stokes was expected to play in Saturday’s nationally televised game at Syracuse (9 p.m., ESPN).

Syracuse and Villanova have both secured first-round byes in the Big East tournament beginning March 9 at Madison Square Garden.

A junior from Bayonne, N.J., Stokes is averaging 9.1 points and 4.0 rebounds.

(Photo courtesy Villanova Athletics)

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Duke-bound point guard Kyrie Irving and Western Kentucky commit Derrick Gordon combined for 25 points to lead St. Patrick over Union 64-47 in the semifinals of the Union County tournament Wednesday night in Elizabeth, N.J.

Michael Gilchrist added 9 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks.

The Celtics are in the final for the 18th straight year and will face Tyrone Johnson and Plainfield Saturday at 3 at Kean College.

“That’s a big-time game. I know everybody wants to see me and Kyrie match up. Everything is on, the lights are on. Throw the ball up and I’m coming out to play hard,” Johnson, a junior point guard who dropped 21 points as Plainfield beat Linden, 55-41, told Mike Kinney of The Star-Ledger. (more…)

My wife, Jen, and I went to see the second of two ‘Further‘ shows Wednesday night at Radio City Music Hall, and I must say…the experience exceeded all of my expectations.

Phil Lesh will be 70 in March and Bobby Weir is 62, but they sounded just about at the top of their game. It was my first experience listening to John Kadlecik of the Dark Star Orchestra, who sings the Jerry Garcia parts and sounds just like him.

It’s a little eerie, honestly. Close your eyes and it sounded like Jerry is right there in the room. It’s kind of like the film ‘Rock Star,’ based on the real-life story of Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, a Judas Priest tribute singer who was eventually chosen to replace Rob Halford in the real Judas Priest.

Check out this version of ‘Mr. Fantasy’ from Tuesday’s show.

Last night’s show included ‘Scarlet Begonias,’ ‘Fire on the Mountain,’ ‘Touch of Grey,’ ‘St. Stephen’, ‘Uncle John’s Band’ and a tremendous ‘Brokedown Palace’ to close.

Anyway, the energy was great and I highly recommend catching some of this tour if you can. They play at Mohegan Sun on Friday.

Here’s the setlist, courtesy Phantasytour.com: (more…)

Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick High School filed suit in federal district court in Newark Wednesday against the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, claiming numerous civil rights violations and seeking to enjoin the NJSIAA from barring the school’s boys’ basketball team from the State tournament, which begins March 1.

The complaint alleges that the NJSIAA violated St. Patrick’s student-athletes’ rights to due process, privacy and the free exercise of religion by ignoring its own regulations, entering the school’s gym under false pretenses, taking secret video of students on school property and disregarding NJSIAA precedents. (more…)

**Click the Video Player at right for my interviews with Tom Konchalski, where he talks New York and New Jersey high school playoffs and recruiting**

CALIPARI MAKING A RUN AT CORY JOSEPH

Just when you thought recruiting of the high-level senior guards had settled down comes the news that Kentucky coach John Calipari is making a run at Cory Joseph.

Calipari was in Las Vegas Monday to scout the 6-foot-3, 180-pound Joseph, a senior McDonald’s All-American at Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep who had previously cut his list to Villanova, UConn, Texas, UNLV and Minnesota.

“He was out here Monday. He came to practice,” said Findlay coach Michael Peck, coach of the defending national champions.

Peck said Calipari did not explicity offer a scholarship, but he assumed that’s what the coach had in mind. (more…)

Alex Kline of BoxofMess.com continues to put in work interviewing many of the top high school prospects in the New York metropolitan area.

In this piece, Kline gets Burlington (N.J.) Life Center stars Dion Waiters and LaQuinton Ross talking about their future goals and plans.

The 6-foot-8 Ross has already been compared to Kevin Durant by Burlington coach Wilson Arroyo.

The junior transferred from Murrah (Miss.) High in order to play a national schedule against better competition. (more…)

NEWARK, N.J. – After receiving a three-year contract extension last September, Bobby Gonzalez boldly proclaimed that his team was shooting for the NCAA tournament this season.

“I wanted to be in the postseason my third year, so to me, there’s self-induced pressure on myself to get the team to the postseason because we haven’t been there yet,” Gonzalez said then. “The NIT is a lot harder to get into than it used to be, but I’m not going to be satisfied with the NIT — that’s not what I want for this team. I want this team to go to the NCAA.”

With three games left in the Big East regular season, the Pirates appear to have a legitimate shot at making the Big Dance for the first time since 2006 under Louis Orr.

Read the full story here.

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Lance Stephenson will likely return to Cincinnati for his sophomore season instead of declaring for the NBA Draft, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

“I think I’m going to stay and keep working,” Stephenson told the newspaper. “I don’t think I’ve had an NBA season this year so the best choice for me is to stay.”

“Lance really likes it at Cincy,” Lance Stephenson Sr. added in a text message. “My wife and I are happy how he’s maturing and enjoying the college life. We will support him with any decision he makes.”

The all-time leading scorer in New York state history, Stephenson was tabbed as the Big East Preseason Rookie of the Year, but there is no guarantee he’ll win the postseason award.

Rutgers rookie Dane Miller is averaging 12.5 points and 6.6 boards overall and 9.4 points and 6.1 rebounds in the conference. He has won the last three Rookie of the Week honors.

Stephenson is averaging 11.2 points and 4.8 rebounds overall and 10.7 and 4.6 in Big East games. (more…)

Tracy McGrady might as well drop No. 3 off the back of his freshly minted Knicks jersey and replace it with 22,483,124. As far as New York is concerned, those eight figures define T-Mac better than, well, T-Mac.

This is an age in which salary figures and cap hits and expiring contracts are more important than talent for a number of players, when a seven-time All-Star is little more than a means to end. In McGrady’s case, the back-to-back scoring champ is being used to recruit another scoring champ.

The Knicks will cut T-Mac to lure LeBron James.

Read the full story by Art Garcia and myself here.

(Photo courtesy AP)

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Moses Abraham has only been in this country for three months since arriving from Nigeria the day before Thanksgiving, but he’s already in very high demand.

A 6-foot-9, 237-pound power forward with a 7-3 wingspan, Abraham plays for Temple Hills (Md.) Progressive Christian. His advisor, Joe Boncore, said Abraham is in the Class of 2011 but will go to school in the fall of 2010 after picking a school in two weeks.

“He’s going to make his decision the first week of March. He’s got about six schools that’s he’s narrowed his list down to,” Boncore said by phone.

Boncore listed Georgetown, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Florida, Maryland and Seton Hall as the top seven.

Numerous other schools have offered, including Texas, UConn, UCLA, Rutgers and Kansas State. (more…)