St. John’s landed its only player of the fall signing period Wednesday when Ronald Roberts signed with the Red Storm.
Roberts is a 6-foot-7, 205-pound combo forward out of Bayonne, N.J. who plays at St. Peter’s Prep and for the Playaz Basketball Club. He chose the Johnnies over St. Joe’s.
“I signed to St. John’s today,” Roberts [...]

Michael Gilchrist, the consensus No. 1 player in the Class of 2011, is making an unofficial visit to Villanova this weekend.
The 6-foot-7 Somerdale, N.J., native, who plays for Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick, also visited Villanova’s campus last year.
“What we are hoping to get out of this visit is more of the academic side,” Cindy Richardson, Gilchrist’s mother, [...]

Trevor Releford, a 6-foot, 180-pound point guard from Shawnee Mission (KS) Bishop Miege, committed to Alabama Friday over Oklahoma.
“Yes. I liked the campus, the players and the coaches,” he said by phone.
Releford, the younger brother of Kansas guard Travis Releford, previously said he likes Alabama because of his relationship with new head coach Anthony Grant.
“Alabama [...]

Roscoe Smith, a 6-7 small forward out of Oak Hill (Va.) Academy, will visit Duke unofficially Sept. 6, according to his father, Brian Thompson
Thompson said the following schools are recruiting his son and would have in-home visits: UConn, Duke, UCLA, Maryland, Georgetown, Florida and Kentucky.
“I’m going to pick out the school that I’m going to [...]

The Dallas Mavericks traded for Tim Thomas on Tuesday but you have to wonder if the Paterson, N.J. native will stay there for long.
The 6-foot-10, 250-pound Thomas, 32, signed a one-year deal for $1.3 million with the Mavs, his fourth team since last November.
The deal is low-risk for Dallas, which didn’t use any of its [...]

There is good news for fans of Fordham basketball.
Jio Fontan, a 19-year-old point guard out of St. Anthony in Jersey City, has decided to return to campus for his sophomore year and play with the Rams.
“When he came home from New Zealand he felt he had great momentum from how the tournament went and [...]

PHILLY – Drove down here this morning and I’ve already eaten a Philly cheese steak at the Pour House with Dana O’Neill of ESPN.com and Brendan Quinn of Basketball Times. Quinn did the driving and did a spectacular job parallel parking in front of the restaurant, a la George Costanza in the hospital episode of [...]

One day after Rutgers guard Mike Rosario dropped a career-high 54 points on France, the U.S. held him to 11 points in an 82-61 victory in the FIBA U19 World Championship in New Zealand.
Howard Thompkins (14 points, 9 rebounds) and Gordon Hayward (11 points, 7 rebounds) led the way for the USA, and Duke guard [...]

Here’s an update from the U19 World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand…
Rutgers guard Mike Rosario had a game-high 28 points on 9-of-19 shooting but Puerto Rico lost to Greece 107-98 on Friday.
Fordham guard Jio Fontan added 15 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds.
In Puerto Rico’s first game Thursday, Rosario notched 17 points on 6-of-18 shooting, [...]

Mike Rosario and Jio Fontan leave for New Zealand on Wednesday for the FIBA U19 World Championship slated for July 2-12.
And don’t be surprised if they sleep with a basketball once they get there.
You see, the duo — who are playing for Puerto Rico in the event — slept with a FIBA basketball during training [...]