HoopsHype.com Draft Rumors

Tuesday, February 9

Walt will not come out and say Cole is definitely headed to the NBA Draft this May, but it long has been believed that’s a certainty. Coach Bill Self has said all along nobody should expect four years out of KU’s big man. Walt said he personally didn’t regret his son’s decision to stay at KU for his junior year, even though the Aldrich family has been hit hard by the economy. “I told him, ‘It’s your choice,’’’ Walt said. “He’s having a lot of fun. He loves Kansas.” Lawrence Journal-World

But what about the millions of dollars the family would have earned had Cole turned pro? “First of all, he would have the millions. His name is on the check, not mine,” Walt said with a laugh. “Things work out. They always have and always will. “If he keeps it up ... I prefer not to say. If I say something, everybody will make it a big deal. More than likely he’ll be gone. There are months left, so you never know.” Lawrence Journal-World

Wednesday, February 3

Kentucky star John Wall insists he "loves" coach John Calipari and the freshman guard says his complaint following a win over Vanderbilt last weekend that he wasn't having any fun was simply a sign of frustration. Wall received pointed criticism from Calipari following a 68-62 loss at South Carolina last week, even though Wall said he didn't think he played that badly. AP

"When you are frustrated you say things you don't mean," Wall said. "We sat down and talked about it and I realized after I watched the film that I did play bad. I had a lot of turnovers and didn't lead the team like I was supposed to." AP

Former Timberwolves guard Troy Hudson said he's talked to Minnesota freshman forward Royce White about the obstacles he'll face if he tries to make it to the NBA without playing college basketball. White, who announced his intentions to withdraw from the university Tuesday, told the Star Tribune Monday that he will consider all of his options, which might include an attempt to go pro. Hudson, one of White's mentors, said he advised White to stay in school for at least a year, so he could give himself an opportunity to showcase his skills for NBA scouts. "I've always told him to make it work at the U," Hudson said Tuesday. Minneapolis Star Tribune

Hudson, who made it to the NBA without being drafted, said he hasn't talked to White about his decision to leave the university but said he believes White has the potential to play professional basketball because of his size, skill set and athleticism. "I definitely think he can play at the next level," Hudson said. "He's just as athletic as any guy in the NBA." Minneapolis Star Tribune

Tuesday, February 2

Is it John Wall or bust for the Nets? Should they fail to land the No. 1 pick (and the chance to draft the Kentucky superfreshman), league sources expect New Jersey to explore trading its choice-which, barring a miraculous turnaround, can be no worse than fourth. One option could be Ricky Rubio. The Timberwolves hold the rights to the Spanish point guard, who signed a six-year deal with Regal Barcelona last summer that does not have a buyout clause until 2011. However if the Nets—who are high on Rubio’s wish list—were to acquire his rights, he would try to negotiate a buyout after this season…. Nets Daily

Jonathan Givony: Stansbury lowering expectations on Renardo Sidney (if he ever gets cleared).Says conditioning is "zero" & he's "a body" Twitter.com

One NBA team official familiar with his organization's scouting said he had heard little buzz about Fredette. However, a scout who watched BYU play Nevada in Las Vegas in December said of Fredette, "we like him." Last year, BYU's Jonathan Tavernari entered his name in the NBA Draft, but withdrew it before the deadline. Fredette knows that's an option. "After the season, I will have a good talk with the coaches and with my family, obviously, and everybody that is close to me, and make a decision of what to do.....So it could be an option, but obviously right now I am not thinking about it too much," he said. Salt Lake Tribune

What advice do you have college kids who are on their way to the draft this June? Courney Lee: "I'd tell them not to look at any of the mock drafts. Just go and workout and work as hard as you can. If you look at the mock draft, they list your strengths and weaknesses. Work on your weaknesses the most. As a player you should know your weaknesses as much as possible and be in the best shape as possible. HoopsWorld

Monday, January 25

An NBA personnel man said he expects Ohio State guard David Lighty to return for another season with the Buckeyes. He said the former Villa Angela-St. Joseph High star is a marginal NBA prospect right now. News-Herald

Sunday, January 24

After filling his stat line again on Saturday (16 points, seven assists, three steals), Kentucky freshman John Wall said he had "no choice" but to enter this year's NBA Draft. That echoed UK Coach John Calipari insisting to radio host Dan Patrick earlier in the week that Wall would turn pro after this season. "I joke about coming back, and like you say, he tells me, no," Wall said after UK's 101-70 victory over Arkansas on Saturday. Lexington Herald Leader

When a reporter noted that players must obey their coach, Wall smiled and said, "Yeah. I really have no choice." Calipari told Patrick he'd wrestle with Wall rather than let the freshman return for a second UK season. "Coach might," a smiling Wall said. "He might pull my eye out. You never know." Lexington Herald Leader

Thursday, January 21

Ivan Rangel has never played a basketball game for Plano West, but he doesn't need to be on the court to turn heads. The junior center only needs to stand next to it. Or stand anywhere, because the native of Colima, Mexico, is 7-feet tall. He might be an inch under that, but Rangel turned 17 just a few months ago and he's probably still growing. He's big enough to dream about playing in the NBA someday. "A lot of people say I'm going to be there, and each day I wake up, I say I'm going to be there," Rangel said. "But right now it's just a dream." Dallas Morning News

Kentucky coach John Calipari joined the show to talk about his 18-0 start and more. Calipari said several interesting things, including a very frank comment on freshman star John Wall. Calipari said he hopes Wall isn't around for more than one year. "If he came to me and said he was the No. 1 pick in the draft, and he wanted to come back, we'd probably be wrestling on the floor," Calipari said. SI.com

Tuesday, January 12

We continue to keep our eye on a number of freshmen and a few have drawn interest from NBA scouts over the past few weeks. A number of NBA scouts remain very high on LaSalle big man Aaric Murray. His numbers don't particularly wow you and he's been inconsistent. However, he has good size and has impressed scouts with his ability to step away from the basket and shoot the jumper. In fact, Murray has shown terrific range from the college 3. He missed 8 of 9 3-pointers in a recent game against Xavier, yet is still shooting 41 percent from beyond the arc for the season. On Saturday, his 18-point, 9-rebound performance against UMass was his best of the season. With so few dominant centers in this year's draft, Murray may get some suitors as we approach April. Several scouts say he could be a late-first-round pick if he declares for the draft. ESPN.com

Radford center Artsiom Parakhouski has one goal: to become the first Belarusian to play in the NBA. It's a lofty goal, no doubt. But when one reviews the road Parakhouski has traveled so far, there is little reason to believe he can't make it. You may not have heard of him yet, but the NBA sure has. SI.com

The Toronto Raptors had a scout at Radford's practice on Monday, in fact, as the 6-foot-11, 260-pound senior continues to play his way onto the radar of a draft lacking center prospects. Parakhouski leads the nation in rebounding at 12.9 per game, is second in field goal percentage at 63.2 percent and third in scoring with 24.1 points per game. He had double-doubles at Duke (23 points, 14 rebounds) and Kansas (21, 13) and has scored in double-figures in every game. NBADraft.net projects the senior to go early in the second round, while DraftExpress.com has Parakhouski as the last pick of the first round -- a spot that would make history in his home country. "That is my goal," Parakhouski said of the NBA (heavily emphasizing the "N" in his Russian accent). "I'm trying to prove that people in my country can be in the NBA if they want to be." SI.com

A Knoxville sports agency says it signed Tyler Smith as a client over the weekend--and they're already fielding inquiries from the NBA and overseas. Jared Karnes of the A3 sports agency is expected to release a statement shortly. A3 sports agent Jared Karnes told 10News "We're trying to help him look at all the opportunities that might be available." The Tennessean

Saturday, January 9

Let John Wall have all the pressure. Derrick Favors will just continue watching cartoons. Wall, Kentucky's freshman point guard, is the consensus choice by scouts to be the No. 1 pick in June's NBA Draft while Georgia Tech freshman power forward Derrick Favors is the consensus No. 2 selection. But there's a world of difference between the two when it comes to hype. Google "John Wall Kentucky basketball'' and you get 685,000 results. Google "Derrick Favors Georgia Tech basketball'' and it's 194,000. "I don't really like all that pressure on me,'' Favors said recently in an interview with FanHouse. "So give him all the pressure. Let it stay like that. I don't need none of that. Just staying under the radar (is fine with Favors).'' FanHouse.com

One NBA executive said he recently asked 10 scouts to each project the 10 top picks in June's draft. The only two names provided by all 10 were Wall and Favors. "It's a two-man draft,'' the executive said. FanHouse.com

"If I'm ready, I'll go,'' Favors, averaging 12.1 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.2 boards, said of coming out after one college season. "If I'm not, I'll stay another year.'' FanHouse.com

Wednesday, December 30

From what I can gather from people close to (Malcolm) Lee, Lee will bolt UCLA for the Draft. Despite a so-so year from him, someone will take him in the first round based purely on upside. ESPN.com

Saturday, December 12

Asked whether NBA executives and scouts told him to curtail his on-court theatrics when he went to a couple of tryout camps last spring, Vasquez said, "They love my passion; that's what I haven't been playing with. "For some reason, I just wanted to change a little bit, just play the game instead of wasting energy. It's not working. It's not me. I have to go back to playing with a lot of energy and leading by example. In order for us to win big games, I'm going to have to step up." Baltimore Sun

Friday, December 11

Now another relatively anonymous player from the Northwest, Charles Garcia of Seattle University, is attracting attention from NBA scouts. Garcia is the NCAA’s fourth-leading scorer, averaging 25.7 points per game and 10.4 rebounds through nine games. The 6-foot-10, 230-pound junior forward scored a career-high 41 against Wofford and 24 in a win at Utah. Close to 10 NBA scouts were on hand to see Garcia play against UC-Davis last week, and several told Yahoo! Sports they are now keeping close tabs on him. The former Riverside City College star worked on his guard skills before growing seven inches in high school. He originally committed to Washington, but couldn’t get eligible. “He’s certainly the hot player of the moment,” one Western Conference scout said. “I highly doubt he was on anyone’s radar. He could be a first rounder. Everyone has to see him twice to see if he’s a true prospect. You’ll hear more about him as the season goes on. I’ve seen him once, and I want to see him again. “He has the body and everything. No one realized he was that good.” Yahoo! Sports

One Western Conference scout said of Kentucky freshman guard John Wall, “He’s an absolute beast. He’s better than Derrick Rose at this point in college. He’s faster from end to end than any guard I’ve seen in a while.” Yahoo! Sports

About a dozen NBA scouts, including Sacramento Kings president Geoff Petrie and Los Angeles Clippers assistant general manager Neil Olshey, scouted the Iowa State-Cal game last Saturday to watch Cyclones forward Craig Brackins. The 6-foot-10, 230-pounder scored 42 against Kansas last season and is on the Wooden Award Watch list. But several of the NBA scouts left disappointed. Brackins scored 21 points, but didn’t show much improvement from last season. “He needs to improve his rebounding and improve his range,” one NBA scout said. “He has a nice midrange game and he’s a good passer, but he needs to get more physical.” Yahoo! Sports

Chad Ford: Guys NBA scouts are warming to in search of legit PGs: Harvard's Jeremy Lin & UC Davis' Mark Payne tinyurl.com/nbadraftblog Twitter.com

Jonathan Givony: Freshman Xavier Henry is wowing Kansas fans bit.ly/5jvL0y Bill Self: "he has been very unselfish" Twitter.com

Sunday, December 6

Other than his ability on the court, that’s what stands out the most about Wall. He cares about what others think of him – probably because he realizes there are so many perceptions about him that aren’t true. A 6-foot-4 point guard, Wall will almost surely turn pro after just one season at Kentucky. Most NBA analysts say he would’ve been the top overall selection in last year’s draft had he been eligible to submit his name straight out of high school. Yahoo! Sports

Still, Wall hardly fits the stereotype of an arrogant, one-and-done player who views college as an annoying pit stop en route to the NBA. If anything, he’s just the opposite. “It’s nice to be known as a good player,” Wall says. “But I want to be known as a good person, too.” It may be awhile before Wall gets that reputation nationally. In Lexington, though, it’s already established. Yahoo! Sports

During the summer, he achieved a 4.0 grade-point average – mainly, he says, because he made it a point to sit in the front row of each class. “Some of the best advice I ever got,” Wall says. “If you sit in the back, you can laugh and get away with anything. But if you’re in the front, you have to pay attention.” When he’s out in public, Wall says he never lets his pants sag below his waist, and he has no plans to regrow the braids his AAU coach made him shave when he was 14. Wall doesn’t have any tattoos. “I’m not trying to put down the people that have them,” Wall says. “But for me right now, it’s all about image. You can’t walk around looking like a thug. There are kids out there looking up to me. I’ve got to set a good example.” Yahoo! Sports

On the final day of the vacation, Wall’s father fell ill and had to be hospitalized. He died the next morning. “Everyone tells me I look like him and that I act like him,” says Wall, who was only 9 at the time. “People say he was a good guy, a fun guy to be around.” Wall pauses. “That weekend is the best memory of my life,” he says. “Just playing on the beach with him, going out to eat and having good conversations … I’m just so glad we took that trip so I have that to remember him by. I was so young, you know … I just don’t have much else.” Yahoo! Sports

Williams became the first player to be drafted out of high school by the D-League when the Tulsa 66ers made him the final selection of the first round last month. A star forward from the Humble (Texas) Christian Life Center Academy, Williams was rated as the 17th best player in the 2009 recruiting class by Rivals.com. He selected Memphis over Georgetown, Kansas State and Florida International, but had trouble qualifying academically and began to consider his professional options. Like Jennings, Williams wanted to improve his stock for the NBA draft. He chose to stay closer to home to do it. “There are no regrets at all,” said Williams, who has played sparingly since the 66ers’ season started last week. “…I just came here to get better.” Yahoo! Sports

Dutt’s initial plan was to send Williams overseas, where he had already received a guarantee for a $100,000 contract in China. Following Jennings’ blueprint seemed like a good plan. Dutt, however, also looked into the D-League and ultimately recommended it would be better for Williams to stay in the United State where NBA teams could easily monitor him – even though he would be paid only $19,000. “It would have been hard,” Williams said of playing in China. “I was a little nervous.” Yahoo! Sports

The D-League offers players a chance to play for teams run by NBA franchises. Oftentimes, the teams have a coach who is appointed by their NBA affiliate and who runs a system similar to that of the NBA team. Presti met with Williams at the Thunder practice facility after the D-League draft and attended the 66ers’ first team meeting and practice. The 66ers also will attend several Thunder games in Oklahoma City. “I will learn more here than [overseas],” Williams said. Said 66ers coach Nate Tibbetts: “We get a chance to work with ‘Tay’ every day, try to teach him how to be a pro and find out what kind of kid he is." Yahoo! Sports

Though Jennings was a much better NBA prospect than Williams, Jennings, too, had trouble getting consistent minutes in Italy. Eighteen-year-old Jeremy Tyler has also struggled after forgoing his senior year in high school to play professionally in Israel. Williams, at least, has the comfort of playing in his own country, albeit without some of the riches. Judging by the amount of emails he’s received, his transition to the D-League is being watched closely by other prospects weighing their options. “Most kids go to college,” Tibbetts said. “But he’s here and he’s playing against older guys. …He’s going to have to come in and learn how to fight and battle just like he would at a college level. But now he’s doing it against grown men.” Yahoo! Sports

Friday, December 4

Donatas Montiejunas’ name isn’t easy to pronounce, but NBA fans might want to remember it. The 7-foot-0, 215-pounder is projected to be the top international prospect in the 2010 NBA draft. One NBA international scout compared the Benetton Treviso forward-center to Dirk Nowitzki and Andrea Bargnani. NBA scouts become enamored with the Lithuanian when he had 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the World Team’s 97-89 win over the United States in the 2009 Nike Hoop Summit. “He has all the skills and the tools in the world,” the scout said. “People are questioning his toughness and mentality, but he’s a 7-footer who can shoot it, can pass it, is athletic and can get steals. He has all the basketball components.” Yahoo! Sports

Wednesday, December 2

Nevada basketball coach David Carter said Tuesday he anticipates sophomore forward Luke Babbitt and junior guard Armon Johnson will play for the Wolf Pack again next season but doubts Babbitt will be back for his senior year. He also said Johnson still could decide to enter the NBA's 2010 draft if it appears likely he would be a first-round pick. The two former Reno-area prep stars were all-Western Athletic Conference first-team selections a year ago and Babbitt is this year's preseason favorite for the WAC's most valuable player. The 6-foot-9 forward is averaging 19 points and nearly 11 rebounds per game this season. KOLOTV.com

Carter said some of that speculation could be based on the fact he sometimes allows NBA scouts to attend practices. "NBA scouts have come to our practice to evaluate the kids, evaluate their demeanor, their character. They talk to their teammates," he said. "You give a kid $1 million, you better come see him practice. If you don't, you're stupid." KOLOTV.com

Monday, November 30

A lot of NBA scouts are beginning to ask whether Oklahoma's Willie Warren made a mistake by returning to the Sooners for his sophomore season. With Griffin in the frontcourt last season, Warren got lots of open looks and appeared to be a top-10 pick. However, the Sooners are struggling this season, and Warren is having a tough time carrying the load. ESPN.com

After serving a one-game suspension for being ejected from a game following a altercation in which he reportedly head-butted an opponent, an embarrassing story in the New York Times, and a series of contests in which he was mostly a spectator, there is finally some positive news to report from Israel about Jeremy Tyler. Tyler played 12 minutes and finished with 5 points, 4 rebounds, 3 fouls, 2 turnovers and 1 block on 2-4 shooting from the field this weekend, helping his Maccabi Haifa team secure the victory on the road over Barak Netanya. It's good to see him crack the rotation in a more significant way and find some productivity at such a young age. Hopefully he can build on this and continue to progress. DraftExpress.com

Motiejunas appears to be playing a bit better these days since we last wrote about him, even starting a couple of games as of late, while Seraphin continues to struggle to get off the bench for Cholet. He’s seen just 7 minutes in each of the last two games his team has played in Pro A France. The two teams and their highly touted NBA draft prospects will meet on January 5th for a rematch in Treviso. DraftExpress.com

Saturday, November 28

Jonathan Givony: Someone emailed to ask how big Erving Walker is. Well,he walked by me in press conference & was clearly shorter. Im 5-8 1/2, or 173cm, so... Twitter.com

However, every year one or two players sneak in from the mid-majors. VCU's Eric Maynor, IUPUI's George Hill, Eastern Washington's Rodney Stuckey, Nevada's JaVale McGee and Western Kentucky's Courtney Lee have all been taken in the first round in recent drafts. None of those players are what you'd call household names, but all have found a measure of success in their early careers. This year could be a really good year for players from smaller conferences. We already profiled one potential lottery pick, VCU's Larry Sanders, two weeks ago. Here's a look at seven other players from mid-major schools that NBA scouts and executives say have a realistic shot of landing somewhere in the first round. Paul George, 6-foot-7, F, So., Fresno State. George is the highest-rated player on the list. He was totally off the radar screen for much of last year, but now scouts are following him virtually every game. A number of NBA scouts I spoke with think he could end up in the lottery at the end of the season. George is the prototypical small forward who can shoot, rebound and run the floor. ESPN.com

Tuesday, November 24

Vaccaro: The problem with David Stern's system -- and I think David is the smartest, and you can quote me on this because I don't have to kiss anybody's ass -- everybody wants to play in the NBA. If you don't you can't ever reach your acclaim. You can't. But the whole point of this is everybody got caught up in [the brawl in] Detroit. And they never forgot Detroit. And then it became an age limit thing. Well, Brandon was able to overcome it all. He singularly did it. Let's go back to John Wall, Lance Stephenson and Renardo Sidney. These are the kids who could have gone to Europe -- who had the ability to be professional. They would have been drafted in last year's draft. They may have gotten cut, but they would have gotten drafted. All three had different situations occur during their freshman years in college. Wall had to pay back $800 to his friend who turned out to be an agent. Stephenson wondered if his professionalism had been violated by starring in some video. And Renardo's situation, whatever it is, to the harm of the kid, he still hasn't been allowed to play and we're going into December. ESPN.com

Brandon Jennings has a chance to be the Spencer Haywood of his generation. To change the rules. Do you have a sense of how likely that is? Any chance they'll abolish the age restriction in collective bargaining? Vaccaro: I have a feeling, a Sonny Vaccaro feeling, that the age limit won't be a factor anymore. I think in collective bargaining, everyone will come to their senses, and allow this to happen. I have more than just a feeling. I believe totally that something good will happen out of something negative, and we'll go on. The only way you stop [high-schoolers going professional] is don't draft them. That'll stop it, quick. ESPN.com

Now that you've seen it up close, do you think the European model of basketball development (with players going professional at a young age and training year-round) is better than our university-based system? Vaccaro: I've got a much better understanding. I have my own intellectual understanding of the way they do things, and I believe them! Because there's no bull crap. ... There's no detour in your life. You either are going to be this example, this professional athlete, or you're not and you'll have to find ways to acclimate yourself to other parts of your life. But it's no different from being a serious student of anything. Preparing yourself to be the best at whatever field they want to go into. So, they do it right. It's painful. They go running in the mountains. It's much different than going to the island of Hawaii or whatever we do in America for training camp. It's certainly much different than the pitiful way we get kids ready with the twenty hours a week in the NCAA, but I don't even want to get i nto the college basketball thing. But basically, I agree with the European model. They're proteges getting ready to be professionals. ESPN.com

Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury is understandably worried this week about Renardo Sidney's capacity to handle the unknown. Every day, Stansbury said, Sidney comes to practice and asks the same question: Any word? The answer has been no for quite some time. No word on his eligibility -- and even though it was changed recently to being "under review" -- there is no guarantee that a decision about his eligibility is forthcoming. Earlier this year, the L.A. Times reported that there were questions about how the Sidneys, who moved from Jackson, Miss., to the Los Angeles area, could afford housing in the area for the two years they lived there. The story detailed the connections between sneaker sponsorship and Sidney's odyssey to Southern California. ESPN.com

Sidney's attitude apparently fluctuates. He isn't in great shape yet, because it's hard for him to push himself to the maximum without knowing whether he'll play. The coaching staff has similar feelings since they can't count on using him at this juncture. Through a variety of sources, the school is under the impression that the NCAA hasn't found a violation yet to hang the case on. The school is hoping to hear more early this week, but with the Thanksgiving holiday, this could drag on into December. ESPN.com

Meanwhile, from a variety of sources with knowledge of the situation, if no decision occurs then Sidney is essentially ineligible. The NCAA knows that Mississippi State isn't going to run the risk of playing Sidney, even if Jackson were to get a court injunction. Why? Because if he's ultimately ruled ineligible, the Bulldogs would have to vacate games -- and it's not worth doing that. Sources said that the NCAA legal counsel has been in the loop and it would defy logic from the NCAA's standpoint if the organization purposely used this as a stall tactic to help a legal case that could be forthcoming. If Sidney were to sue to force an injunction, then the NCAA could use that lawsuit as a way to use discovery to get some of the information that it still covets. The case has been completely tossed upside down with it moving from the enforcement wing to the eligibility center, which the head of that operation, Bill Saum, has been removed from his post. This has slowed the case down by forcing others to get involved who haven't worked on the case from the outset. The NCAA won't say anything about Saum's departure except that it was a personnel matter. ESPN.com

Monday, November 23

Jonathan Givony: DX D-League scout Richard Walker attended Tulsa preseason game and says Latavious Williams was impressive, active. Twitter.com

Sunday, November 22

Chad Ford: Draft tip from a GM today: "Watched that John Wall kid. He's really good. You should probably have him in the lottery." Twitter.com

Jonathan Givony: New trend: Int'l players entering name in draft 1st year they're allowed, trying to go 2nd round to circumvent rookie scale, ala Chrs Eyenga. Twitter.com

Friday, November 20

Speaking of my coach, he happens to live on the same street as me. It's kind of interesting to catch your head coach out walking the dog at night. Also, while on the topic of interesting things, my teammate Tyreke Kirksay shot a medium-sized medicine ball from half-court the other day in practice and made it on his first try. Unbelievable. HoopsWorld

Jonathan Givony: NBA scout sitting next to me says that Wesley Johnson is a "probable lottery pick" in his opinion. If he keeps playing this way all season. Twitter.com

Jonathan Givony: Wesley Johnson is making a strong impression on the NBA people here. Hearing some Wilson Chandler, Shawn Marion comparisons. Twitter.com

Jonathan Givony: Always interesting for me to see how the scouts at these events go about evaluating guys. Some take notes w/pen & paper, some on blackberry. Twitter.com

Jonathan Givony: One guy here has a laptop he busts out at every timeout, but most don't write anything. Some don't even seem to be watching the game. Twitter.com

Monday, November 16

He took the detour heard around the world, and he's been hearing since from a growing global chorus that he's on the wrong track. But despite three turbulent months in Israel, Jeremy Tyler says he's undeterred in his quest for the promised land of the first round of the 2011 NBA draft. "There's never a day that I regret my decision," Tyler, 18, said this week. ESPN.com

As for the schoolboy superstar's early opinion of himself, Hasin said, "I cannot say we knocked it down from 10 to 0, but I think from 10 to 7." After an up-and-down preseason and highly publicized struggles adjusting to life on his own 7,500 miles from home, Tyler's early regular season has been a virtual bust. Through three league games, he has played a total of only 20 minutes and scored just two points, both on free throws. ESPN.com

Makhtar Ndiaye, an agent with the company that represents Tyler, has been in Israel for more than two weeks and has a different perspective. "I don't think he realized how hard it would be," Ndiaye says. "We did." Ndiaye, the first player from Senegal to reach the NBA, says he can identify with the pressures Tyler is experiencing as a pioneer in his own right. "It's an honor and a burden, and you're under the microscope." "Sometimes Jeremy doesn't realize the effect of what he's saying," Ndiaye says. "He's a kid finding his way. He's a kid who needs guidance, and all parties need to step up [to support him]." ESPN.com

With a little more than three minutes left in a blowout loss Saturday, Tyler and 6-9 Moti Moscovitz of Gilboa Galil exchanged shoves. Then, according to Tyler, "He [Moscovitz] grabbed my jersey, and I accidentally head-butted him when he pulled me closer to him." Tyler was ejected, which also meant an automatic suspension for the next game. Moscovitz received two free throws and no penalty. Teammate Davon Jefferson, who played a year at Southern California and is Tyler's longtime friend, corroborated his account. "I don't think he did anything wrong, and the refs were real ridiculous," Jefferson said. "The other guy faked it with a flop, and Jeremy's a foreigner and a rookie." ESPN.com

After transferring this summer from a tiny team competing in a small league in his local first division to Italian based Benetton Treviso, we’re witnessing the first steps taken by top Lithuanian prospect Donatas Motiejunas. So far, the transition hasn’t been easy, which is to be expected considering the immense jump in the level of competition he's facing, but he has been making progress from week to week, something we’ll have to continue to track as the season moves on. Motiejunas is coming off the bench for Benetton, playing most of the frontcourt minutes (16.4 on average at the moment) left over by power forward Judson Wallace and center Sandro Nicevic. In contrast to last season, he’s not a focal point for his team offensively in the least bit, mostly living off scraps in the form of pick and roll finishes, weak-side cuts, spot-up jumpers, easy finishes recieving the ball in transition, and the occasional post-up play. Considering his rookie status and the stage of development he’s currently at, this is not a surprise in the least bit. This season has been a learning experience for Motiejunas thus far, one that will very likely be very beneficial as he makes the transition to first round draft pick and eventually, NBA player. DraftExpress.com

One of the best NBA draft oriented storylines developing in the always-interesting Adriatic league revolves around 19-year old Serbian wing player Andreja Milutinovic. Despite coming off a lackluster spring and summer at the junior level, when he played very uninspired basketball, Milutinovic has bounced back in a major way, emerging as the go-to guy of his very young FMP Zeleznik squad, and leading them in scoring thus far with nearly 14 points per game. DraftExpress.com

Wednesday, November 11

Now, Calipari. They vacated his Final Four with Memphis and I think that’s a crime. I don’t think that should be vacated. On three occasions, the NCAA clearinghouse was there in Memphis and cleared Derrick Rose to play. Flat out said, ‘play him, he’s eligible.’ Why have a clearinghouse? If they tell you somebody is eligible … don’t you have to take some responsibility as the clearinghouse? I don’t think they have any right to take away that banner. You said he was eligible. The Big Lead

One-and-done seems to be a problem plaguing college hoops right now - the latest ESPN 2010 mock draft has seven freshman going in the lottery. What needs to be done? Dick Vitale: I don’t like the one-and-done. I think it’s a disgrace to the game. I think it embarrasses the term “student-athlete.” It makes that a farce. Kids like Rose and Beasley - there’s no way in the world those kids wanted to be in college. Why should we deny them the NBA? I’d like to see this plan, we can call it the V Plan - I would love to see a panel of experts - Jerry West, Larry Bird - guys that are GMs and presidents in the NBA and have great knowledge of players’ ability - designate 5-6 kids a year that they think are legit 1st round draft choices. Those kids should have an option - college or pros. But if they go to college, they should not be allowed out until they complete their 3rd year. One and done is a joke. The Big Lead

How much longer do you want to work? You just turned 70 this summer … Dick Vitale: My idols are people like Vin Scully and Ernie Harwell. You work as long as you possibly can. Physically, emotionally, if you can handle the travel … Obviously ESPN has become a big-time player in all sports now, but I think it’s going to be really tough for CBS to give the NCAA tournament up. The Big Lead

This summer, two coaches dominated the headlines - Pitino and Calipari. How damaged are their legacies after Pitino’s sex scandal and Calipari had another Final Four scrubbed from the books? Vitale: It certainly doesn’t help their image, or their resume, and it brings the doubters out in full force. However - remember this - Rick Pitino has said it once, twice, 20 times, 50 times: He made a mistake. He made an absolute mistake. No doubt whatsoever. What he did, as a married guy, he knows was wrong. However - saying all that … he was a victim of an extortion attempt. The trial is coming up. This woman has been charged with extortion, which is a criminal offense. Rick, when I talked to him [Friday] … is so dedicated to two factors: Family and Louisville basketball. That’s all he wants to concentrate on and that’s all he wants to do. As long he has admitted to his wife and kids what a mistake he made … you know, people make mistakes. The Big Lead

When we sat down to chat with Tyler, he was very likable, though, and had the charm that one day could pay big dividends alongside NBA successes on the court. He came off as a bright, personable high school kid. But he was just that — a kid. And he still is. Except he has a $140,000 contract to play a game in a foreign country without the benefit of informed, trusted people looking out for his best interests. San Diego News Network

Sunday, November 8

I returned from Israel after spending a few days with Jeremy Tyler, and in short, things are not well with Tyler. (For all the details, here’s my story from Haifa, Israel). Tyler, according to his teammates and coaches, is immature, distracted and caught up in a web of agendas. He’s far from a bust, but with nearly two years until he’s eligible for the N.B.A. draft, things aren’t going well and need to change soon. New York Times

I spent a few days in Rome last year with Jennings and his mom, Alice Knox and little brother, Terrence Phillips. (I’m still convinced Terrence could become president some day.) Jennings was adjusting to life as a pro while there, but his struggles weren’t as intense and obvious as Tyler’s. Here are a few basic thoughts on both situations. The key difference is that Tyler went over by himself, and it’s clear he needed some structure. One of his agents, Makhtar Ndiaye, has now moved over there indefinitely to try and help Tyler better adjust. According to his teammates and coaches, Tyler isn’t in shape and doesn’t work hard. Tyler denied just about every piece of criticism about him, sounding much like a typical thin-skinned American teenager. New York Times

His coach calls him lazy and out of shape. The team captain says he is soft. His teammates say he needs to learn to shut up and show up on time. He has no friends on the team. In extensive interviews with Tyler, his teammates, coaches, his father and advisers, the consensus is that he is so naïve and immature that he has no idea how naïve and immature he is. So enamored with his vast potential, Tyler has not developed the work ethic necessary to tap it. “The question is whether he’ll take responsibility of his career,” Haifa Coach Avi Ashkenazi said. “If he thinks he’s going to be in the N.B.A. because his name is Jeremy Tyler and he was a very good high school player, he will not be.” New York Times

Discussing his problems, Tyler tended to point fingers. Asked about his immaturity, he said his teammates should treat him like a man. Asked about his reluctance to work and listen to his coaches, he said he was skeptical of their knowledge and methods. Tyler, the captain and focus of his high school’s offense, said he was still adjusting to a new role. New York Times

Two games into the season, Tyler is very much a work in progress. He’s averaging just more than seven minutes a game and has scored all of one point. He is already is beginning to confront questions about whether he should have stayed in school. “I only make history if I succeed. I didn’t come here to fail,” Tyler, sounding both frustrated and determined, said after playing a scoreless 4 1/2 minutes in a Haifa victory this week. YNetNews.com

Tyler had complained he was bored with high school competition. He now acknowledges a difficult adjustment. No longer the big man on campus, he is just another player on a professional roster, living on his own in a foreign land. There is little socializing with his teammates—grown men, many with families, all trying to carve out professional careers of their own. YNetNews.com

“My mission,” he said, “is to shake David Stern’s hand.” New York Times

Tyler still talks openly about retiring with $200 million in the bank after a 15-year N.B.A. career. He also talks about modeling, the documentary being made about him, and how he and his girlfriend, Erin Wright, the daughter of the rapper Eazy-E, will grow up to be an American power couple. But he scored just 1 point in his first two games, and his coach was baffled that a player with such great potential could arrive without basic skills like boxing out and rotating on defense. Tyler is lost, Ashkenazi said, if he cannot do what he does best: taking the ball to the rim and dunking. New York Times

For missing a workout and showing up late to an interview, Tyler was fined $1,000, the largest penalty the team had levied in three years. Tyler said he would be fined $1,000 for each subsequent violation, no matter how small, a sign the team is losing patience. “These are all men out here,” Rich said. “The way you earn respect is by keeping your mouth shut and going to work and being a professional.” New York Times

Friday, October 23

Things didn't start out exactly as he planned when Jeremy Tyler - the 18-year-old phenomenon from San Diego who signed with Maccabi Haifa this past summer, becoming the first US player to skip his senior year in high school and opt to play in Europe - got into his first game as a burly 12-year-old. The way he remembers it, Tyler - who previously had been "mostly into baseball," had fallen asleep for a while on the floor beneath the team bench, and woke up just as the second half of his local summer league team's game was starting. The youngster then checked into the game, but was unfamiliar with the rule that the teams switch baskets at halftime. "So I came in, and I don't know what happened, but I got a rebound and put it back up, and it wasn't supposed to go back up on that side," he says with a laugh after a recent Winners Cup game in Jerusalem. The mistake earned him his first nickname: Minus Two. Jerusalem Post

But Tyler is confident he's made the right move, even though he's still missing two very important things about San Diego: "Jack-in-the-Box [hamburger chain] and Mexican food." Indeed, it's hard to take the boy out of the man-child, but Tyler sounds like he knows what he's up against - a boy in a man's world on the court until he earns the respect of some of the other players in the Israeli league. "In high school, everything was a good move, but here I don't know if I've found a good move yet," he says after a practice game that saw him held to just a handful of points. "I'll just have to play it out and see what works. First, I'm here to try to help the team as much as possible to win. But individually, I'm just trying to show the world that I did make the right decision... It doesn't matter how old you are; if you have the talent, you should be able to go do it. Jerusalem Post

Despite the difficult learning curve ahead, he's still convinced making the jump from high-school ball in San Diego to the Israeli league was the right move. "What I believe is that sometimes college can take away from your game, because in college, everyone has a certain role to play... if you're the rebounder, you're supposed to get rebounds, and that's OK... but as a professional you have to be able to rebound, block shots, make outlet passes, alter the other team's shots. I just thought that college would take away from my game," says Tyler, still looking for an Israeli food he likes, despite getting invited to teammates' homes more often now. Jerusalem Post

Friday, October 16

A former Big East Player of the Year, Harangody entered his name into the NBA Draft last summer. In what coach Mike Brey referred to as a key recruiting victory, the Andrean grad decided he would return to South Bend for his fourth and final season. "The most important thing is my teammates -- I came back to spend another year with them," Harangody said Thursday at basketball media day. "I'm never going to be around a group of individuals like this again." NWI Times

Thursday, October 15

Isaiah Thomas of Tacoma said he is looking forward to his sophomore season at the University of Washington, while also admitting that it might be his last. “Whatever God has in his plan, that’s what is going to happen,” Thomas said Wednesday. “If the opportunity (to go to the NBA) is there, I’ve got to take it. If it’s there and it’s wide open and they’re talking about first round, you’ve got to look at that. But if it’s not, why not come back to college? It’s the best four years of your life.” The Olympian