With the NCAA late signing period coming to an end Wednesday, it appears that Devonta Pollard and Chris Obekpa will remain on the board.

Neither has surfaced to say they have signed a Letter of Intent and getting quality information on either player is tantamount to prying secrets out of North Korea.

Multiple sources told SNY.tv that the 6-foot-9 Obekpa is leaning toward Cincinnati but it is still possible he could take other visits, too. He also lists Providence, DePaul, Oregon, St. John’s and UConn.

The 6-8 Pollard is reportedly considering Alabama and Texas.

If neither signs a Letter of Intent, they could still commit to a school and not be bound by the paperwork.

Several other top 2012 players are still on the board and could end up prepping, reclassifying or landing on a college campus this fall.

That group includes Savon Goodman, Michael Chandler, Torian Graham, Norvel Pelle and Carlos Morris.

Rob Moore, Goodman’s coach at Philly Constitution, told SNY.tv Wednesday that N.C. State was now recruiting the 6-6 Goodman and that he planned to take more visits after the dead period ends. He recently visited Seton Hall and Pitt.

Chandler, who has decommitted from three schools, is linked to St. John’s but is still waiting to be cleared by the NCAA.

Graham has decommitted from N.C. State twice and is working on his academics.

Pelle, a former St. John’s, is also dealing with academic issues, per my recent story on him.

And Morris has not signed and may opt to prep, according to his AAU coach, Antwan Tennell.

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Former Temple guard Aaron Brown has committed to Southern Miss.

The 6-foot-5 Hackensack, N.J., native will have two years of eligibility left after sitting next season.

“I think it was the best opportunity for me after sitting out my year,” the former St. Benedict’s Prep guard told SNY.tv by phone following his visit to Southern Miss. “I want to take the year off to get better physically and skill-wise.”

Brown averaged 6.4 points and 14.6 minutes last season at Temple.

He chose Southern Miss in part because of his relationship with assistant coach Jareem Dowling.

“He was my national team coach [with the Virgin Islands],” Brown said. “That made it a bigger factor.”

He also came to like the campus, choosing it over Wagner and Boston University.

“I thought it was going to be all country but it’s a beautiful campus,” he said. “The coach [Donnie Tyndall] is getting other transfers. They’re getting some bigs.

“I’ve known [Tyndall] since he was at Morehead State. With the right guys he could keep doing the same thing at Southern Miss.”

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Former Iona shooting guard Kyle Smyth has committed to Seton Hall and expects to be eligible for the 2012-13 season.

“I decided to make things official and commit to Seton Hall,” the 6-foot-4, 190-pound guard from Don Bosco Prep told SNY.tv by phone.

Smyth, who averaged 5.7 points and 2.0 rebounds last season for the Gaels, picked Seton Hall over Boston College after visiting a week and a half ago.

This will be his fifth year after redshirting as a freshman and he expects to be eligible right away, along with fellow transfers Gene Teague and Brian Oliver.

“By all accounts, I’m going to be eligible,” he said.

Smyth graduated from Iona in December and will pursue an MBA program for marketing at Seton Hall.

Smyth, who had 21 points in a win over Providence as a redshirt freshman, is coming full circle.

He is a New Jersey kid who initially committed to then-Iona coach Kevin Willard in a class that included Scott Machado, Jermel Jenkins and Trinity Fields.

Now he’s returning home to play for Willard at Seton Hall.

“I’ve known him and the staff from all the way back then,” Smyth said.

Smyth joins Oliver and Teague and Texas transfer Sterling Gibbs to give the Pirates four transfers. Gibbs hopes to get a waiver to play right away.

“The team has got a lot of potential,” Smyth said. “The have transfers kicking in this year that are going to be very good.

“Obviously, they lost two good seniors so that will be a void to fill for the whole team. There’s a lot of potential there to make it a season to remember.”

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Washington, D.C. will host the 2013 East Regional and New York City won’t.

There had been talk of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn hosting the event, but the NCAA instead announced Wednesday that Georgetown University will host the event at the Verizon Center March 28 and 30.

“In 2009, when the committee selected hosts for the 75th tournament, there was a concerted effort to include cities with a rich history to help mark that milestone,” said Mark Lewis, the NCAA’s executive vice president for championships and alliances. “The decision to delay the announcement of the East Regional site was made because the committee wanted to explore several options. In the end, we think celebrating 75 years of one of the country’s favorite sporting events in our nation’s capital and a great basketball city is fitting.”

Washington, D.C., will join Arlington, Texas, along with Indianapolis and Los Angeles as sites for the regional semifinals and finals from March 28-31. Dayton will host the First Four March 19 and 20 and is one of eight cities hosting second- and third-round games March 21-24. The others are Auburn Hills, Mich.; Austin, Texas; Kansas City, Mo.; Lexington, Ky.; Philadelphia; Salt Lake City; and San Jose. The Final Four will be held April 6 and 8 in Atlanta.

The committee also announced that the Missouri Valley Conference will serve as the host conference for the tournament games taking place in Kansas City.

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Hofstra head coach Mo Cassara continues to build his 2012 recruiting class with the signing of Darren Payen, a 6-foot-8 power forward from Hamden Hall (Conn.).

Payen also considered Rhode Island, Vermont, Northeastern, and St. Bonaventure.

“I picked Hofstra because it was the best fit for me,” Payen told SNY.tv. “It has a good combination of academics, location and it’s a mid-sized school so it’s not too big.

“And from the additions they’ve made to their team, their basketball program should make a jump in these next couple years.”

Payen joins Hofstra’s 2012 class of 6-8 forward Jimmy Hall (St. Anthony’s), 6-2 guard Dallas Anglin (Seton Hall Prep) and 6-6 forward Jordan Allen (Long Island Lutheran – redshirted).

“I’m going in as a wing 4/3 type player,” Payen said. “With my ability to shoot threes now, I can become a true wing player pending the improvement of my ball-handling. Also, I will have the opportunity to play right away there, probably coming off the bench my freshman year.”

The Pride also sat out several transfers: 6-8 wing Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (UConn), 6-2 guard Taran Bouie (Penn State), and 6-10 center Daquan Brown (Fresno State) last season.

Former Hawaii guard Shaquille Stokes also visited campus Tuesday, the same day former UConn AD Jeff Hathaway took over at Hofstra.

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PHILLY — Amile Jefferson kept his college decision a secret from virtually everybody up until the time he announced Tuesday afternoon in the gym at Philadelphia Friends’ Central.

Even his mother.

“No, he wouldn’t tell me,” Quetta Jefferson told SNY.tv with a smile. “I asked him, he wouldn’t tell me.”

In the end, Jefferson pulled the trigger for Duke over N.C. State, Villanova, Kentucky and Ohio State. He called the coaches from the other schools five minutes before announcing.

“When I sat down and talked to my family and we weighed out everything, Duke just seemed like the right fit,” he said after slipping on a Duke hat.

The 6-foot-8 Jefferson said he didn’t fully decide until about two day sago.

His father, Malcolm Musgrove, who played at Delaware State, said N.C. State was the leader until Duke became involved in January.

“I would say that N.C. State was the frontrunner prior to Duke University coming back into the fold,” Musgrove said.

Once Coach Mike Krzyzewski began recruiting Jefferson, the whole paradigm shifted.

“Duke having that strong academic tradition along with a great athletic program and him having the ability to have both in one school was really appealing to him,” Musgrove said. “He knows it’s going to be challenging academically, he knows it’s going to be challenging on the court. But I believe he’s up for it and prepared for it.”

During his career at Friends’ Central, Jefferson finished with 1,569 points (averaged 14 ppg), 839 rebounds (7.5 rpg) and 189 blocks (1.7 bpg). During his four-year career with the Phoenix, the team captured four Pennsylvania Independent Schools Tournament championships as well as two Friends’ School League titles, while posting a 98-14 won-loss mark.

Jefferson seemed especially impressed with Coach K and praised him many times during the presser.

“It’s a place where I can see myself playing for Coach K and they value academics just as much as they do athletics,” he said.

He added: “Coach K brings an energy to our team that I want to bring back to him. When he looks in my eyes I want him to see the energy that I see in his eyes.”

Playing time at the small forward and wing position was also a factor.

“Right now I don’t think they have a player at my position,” he said. “I don’t think they have a guy like me and I hope to bring energy and passion to the whole university.”

Friends’ Central coach Jason Polykoff said the Duke staff sees similarities between Jefferson and former Duke star Shane Battier, now with the Miami Heat.

“He’s going to add that piece, that Shane Battier, that Luol Deng piece that they’ve had that’s made them successful,” Polykoff said.

“He’s diverse and he’s multi-talented,” the coach added. “I think he’s going to add that element of putting that ball on the ground along with being able to put his back to the basket that. Although they had a great team this past season, they didn’t really have that piece.”

Said Musgrove: “We believe that Amile has a lot of work to do to become a Shane Battier, but he’s a very versatile player. Not your traditional four, not your traditional three, but somewhat of a hybrid of the two.

“And that’s where we believe the game is moving, bigs who have the ability to put the ball on the floor, who have perimeter skills and can defend multiple positions and we believe that’s Amile.”

Jefferson joins Houston Strake shooting guard Rasheed Sulaimon in Duke’s 2012 recruiting class. The Blue Devils missed out on Shabazz Muhammad and Tony Parker, both of whom picked UCLA.

The Devils also add redshirt bigs Alex Murphy and Marshall Plumlee.

“We’ll be a little bit bigger, we’ll be longer, we’ll be more athletic,” Jefferson said. “Bringing in Rasheed Sulaimon, a great guard from Houston, will help us run more, get up and down.”

“I believe that if Amile goes in in July and really works hard, he’ll have an opportunity to play right away,” Musgrove said. “Sulaimon is a friend of Amile’s a great player in his own right.

“They have two redshirt freshmen that Amile spent a lot of time playing against in Alex Murphy and the youngest Plumlee brother. When you look at that core of kids coming in as freshmen coming in, you’re talking four years of really good players.”

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Maryland freshman Ashton Pankey is transferring due to family reasons.

Pankey, a 6-foot-9 redshirt freshman forward from the Bronx, N.Y., told head coach Mark Turgeon he needed to find a school closer to home in order to aid his family.

He is considering St. John’s, Iona and Fordham, sources told SNY.tv.

“My mom is the rock in my life and I promised her I would take care of her like she did for me,” Pankey said. “Therefore, I am choosing to put my family first and look for a school closer to home.

“I’m sad that I must leave the University of Maryland, as I have enjoyed my time here with my teammates and coaches who have been my second family. I would like to thank them for their support during this time. I’ve become a better person and player while at Maryland.

“I thank my coach, assistant coaches and teammates, as well as the continued devotion of Maryland fans,” Pankey added.

“Ashton was raised in a close-knit home; he and his mother are very close,” said Turgeon. “We support him in this difficult time. It was great to have Ashton as a part of our program; we appreciate the hard work that he put in academically as well as on the court.  He has a lot of potential and we wish him success moving forward.”

Pankey missed all but one minute his freshman year due to a stress fracture in his leg. Last season, he played in all 32 games, averaging 4.7 points and 4.9 rebounds. He had four double-figure scoring games (high of 17 vs. Radford) and three games with double figures in rebounds (11 vs. Iona and Virginia Tech).

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The Nets will host their annual NBA Draft Combine this weekend in New Jersey featuring 44 draft-eligible players. Here’s the list:

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Chicago Marshall shooting guard Milton Doyle may soon commit to Kansas, his mother told SNY.tv Tuesday morning.

“Right now he’s just visiting,” Lisa Green said by phone. “We talked about it. I did tell him if he wants to give a verbal commit he can do that. If he really likes it, if they really woo him.”

The 6-foot-4 Doyle has been on campus since Monday and is due to return to Chicago Tuesday night.

“He hasn’t committed yet,” his mother said.

Doyle initially committed to FIU but parted ways once Chicago native Isiah Thomas was fired. (Read more on that here.)

“The way things went it was really tacky and really messy how things went down,” Green said. “Basically  he was going because of Isiah, because of what Isiah can teach him.”

Kansas assistant Kurtis Townsend is recruiting Doyle, who averaged 19 points, eight rebounds, five assists and five steals while earning third-team All-State honors last season from the Chicago Tribune.

Kansas returns guards Naadir Tharpe and Elijah Johnson, plus senior wing Travis Releford. They also have freshmen wings Andrew White and Ben McLemore coming in.

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Former UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway will be introduced Tuesday as the new AD at Hofstra during an 11 a.m. press conference, a source with knowledge told SNY.tv.

Hathaway is the latest person with UConn ties to land at Hosftra. Former Hofstra AD Jack Hayes, now the AD at Brown, worked for Hathaway at UConn. Assistant basketball coach Pat Sellers was an assistant at UConn under Jim Calhoun. And former UConn guard Jamal Coombs-McDaniel transferred to Hofstra and will be eligible this year.

For the past year, Hathaway, 52, served as the chair of the NCAA Tournament men’s basketball selection committee.

Hathaway lost a power struggle with Calhoun at UConn and was forced out by president Susan Herbst last fall in what was called a “retirement.”

Yet under his leadership, UConn won multiple men’s and women’s NCAA championships and the football program emerged from mediocrity to make the 2011 Fiesta Bowl.

Hathaway and Hofstra coach Mo Cassara enjoy a strong relationship, sources told SNY.tv.

Photo: AD

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