Bluegrass Hoops Report

- Elizabethtown High School star big man Curtis Washington signed to play for the USC Trojans.

- Louisville Trinity's Josh Sewell signed on with the Miami (OH) RedHawks.

- Holmes High School defending Sweet 16 MVP Ricardo Johnson made official his commitment to Ohio University today, signing on with the MAC school.

- DeMatha (MD) forward Victor Oladipo signed with Indiana University today, becoming coach Tom Crean's first member of the 2010 class.

- Former Louisville recruit J.J. Moore signed with Pittsburgh.

Today marks the beginning of the early signing period for college basketball, the time that players can sign a letter of intent with the school of their choice.

-So far today, Kevin Gray signed with Morehead State and Kentucky recruit Perry Jones signed with Baylor.

-Also, big man Kenye Anyigbo committed to Western Kentucky University last night and expects to sign very soon. (Source:AllKYHoops)

It's that time again as most schools begin their regular seasons this week, and with the beginning of the college basketball season comes the beginning of this new weekly feature from the Bluegrass Hoops Report: The Local College Hoops Update.

Every week we will be taking a look at what's going on with all the other great college programs in the state that are not named either Kentucky or Louisville.

-Northern Kentucky (#20 Div-II) played Dayton University (#22 Div-I) close last night in a 71-61 exhibition loss. Dayton was led by senior Marcus Johnson's 13 points off the bench. Chris Wright and Mickey Perry (above, #0) each chipped in 11 for the Flyers who led 41-34 at the half. NKU was led by Scott Bibbins' 15 points and David Palmer (above, #34)'s 13 points and 5 rebounds.

The Flyers, considered by many to be the sleeper favorite in the NCAA Tournament this year, led the Norse 41-34 at halftime. Dayton has impressive athleticism for a mid-major, as showcased by a Marcus Johnson block followed up by a streaking fast break dunk from Chris Wright.

NKU faces Grand Valley State on Nov. 19th, while Dayton opens up their regular season Nov. 14th with a home game against the Creighton Bluejays.






-The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, fresh off of nearly back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances the past two seasons, are set to play their final exhibition game of the year tonight against Xavier (La.) of the NAIA at 7pm in Diddle Arena. In WKU's first exhibition test they fended off an upset-minded Bellarmine squad (#1 Div.-II), winning 70-65. Western Kentucky received some love in the first AP Top 25 Poll, tied for 48th with 2 votes.

Senior AJ Slaughter (above) was voted pre-season Player of the Year by the Sun Belt Conference coaches. The 6-3 guard from Shelbyville, Ky. averaged 17.3 ppg during the Sun Belt Tournament, and enters the season with 986 career points, just 14 shy of becoming the 43rd member of the 1,000-point club at WKU.


-The Murray State Racers nearly upset California in a 75-70 loss last night in their regular season opener played at Cal. The Racers fought off an 18-point second half deficit to just 5 at game's end. Murray's home opener is this saturday against Missouri-St. Louis at 7 pm.


- Morehead State won in a blowout Monday night in their final exhibition against Asbury College, 91-57. Junior Kenneth Faried (above) put up a double-double. Here's an excerpt from MSUeagle.com of the game's biggest play:

"Faried tipped an Asbury pass to Peterson who led a 3-on-2 fast break down the left side of the floor. Peterson drove the lane and threw the ball off the backboard to a streaking Faried who rose and slammed the alley-oop home."

The Eagles travel to Lexington on Friday for their season opener against the Kentucky Wildcats at 6:30 pm.

- Florida State's Solomon Alabi held off Georgetown College last night in the schools' final exhibitions. The 7-foot-1 Alabi recorded a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, leading the 'Noles to a 71-63 win. The Georgetown Tigers were led by Eddie Gray's game-high 19 points.

Ballard High School senior forward Keisten Jones, considered to be one of the top seniors in the tough 7th region this season, has made his college decision.

The 6-foot-3 Jones chose the Div.-II Bellarmine Knights over scholarship offers from North Carolina A&T and Georgetown College and had also received interest from Eastern Kentucky, Middle Tennessee and Wright State.

Jones said he chose the Knights because of their pre-season No. 1 ranking in Div.-II, their academic excellence, and the chance to stay home.

Jones' Ballard Bruins kick off the 2009 season with a Dec. 1 match-up at Lexington Bryan Station.

The defending Big East champion Louisville Cardinals hosted Scotty Davenport's Bellarmine Knights, ranked #1 in Div-II pre-season polls, for their final exhibition game before heading to St. Louis on Nov. 17th to take on Arkansas in the regular season opener.



The Cards came out ready to play, holding off the Knights' talented three-point shooters with solid man-to-man defense all night. UofL led 43-30 at halftime and ended the game with a 88-65 victory.



Cards' coach Rick Pitino opted to start both Samardo Samuels (pic'd) and Terrence Jennings after saying earlier this summer that the two big's wouldn't be on the court at the same time very often. Filling out the starting line-up was the 3-guard attack of Edgar Sosa, Jerry Smith and Preston Knowles.



This more experienced line-up played well together in the first half, with guards Sosa and Knowles leading the way at the start. Sosa went 5-for-6, scoring all 12 of his points in the first half, while Knowles put up 10 in the first period finishing with 15. They helped to offset the hot start of Bellarmine junior Justin Benedetti, who scored 13 of his 21 points in the first half, finishing the game 8-of-16 from the field with five three pointers.



The player of the game for Louisville, however, was sophomore center Samardo Samuels. Samardo had his way in the paint against the smaller Div-II opponents (Bellarmine's starting big men were 6'6" and 6'7") en route to an impressive 18 point, 14 rebound performance, going 7-of-13 from the field.



Another higlight from the game was the performance of highly touted UofL freshman Peyton Siva. Siva, despite a thin 6-foot frame, possesses great athleticism and showed that off on two different plays: first, trailing former Male High School product Forrest Smallwood, Siva rose up from behind the taller player and swatted his lay-up out of bounds and into the stands. As if that wasn't enough to get the fans in Freedom Hall excited, Siva later followed a contested lay-up by Jerry Smith with a reverse-dunk off the miss.



Preston Knowles told the Courier-Journal:



"It was the fact that he dunked it backwards- that was nuts," Knowles said.

Freshmen big men Daniel Orton and DeMarcus Cousins look to be a strong combo, comining for 15 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Orton logged 18 minutes while Cousins, the starter, played 17. The duo probably played on the perimeter in this game more-so than they will against tougher competition as Calipari was most likely trying to give them some in-game experience in those spots. If they had played more in the paint they would have dominated the Campbelsville front line- the heights of the Tiger's starters read 5-10", 5-10", 6-2", 6-4", 6-8".

NCAA Player of the Year candidate Patrick Patterson delivered a surprisingly ho-hum performance, likely because of the same reasons Cousins and Orton's numbers weren't as high. Patterson hardly played in the paint at all, sans one alley-oop dunk he received in the first half. Pat finished with just 4 points, but even more alarming were these stats: 2-7 FG%, just 5 rebounds, and 6 TO's. Again, like I said earlier about the freshman bigs, Patrick will play a more traditional role against better teams. It is alarming to see how much he struggled on the wing in the Dribble Drive, however, as Calipari had expressed such great hope for the pre-season All-American's all-around game to flourish in the new offense.

Other Notes:

- Darius Miller looked tentative in scoring just 4 points, going 2-of-5 from the field and turning the ball over 4 times.

- The battle for playing time between Jon Hood and Ramon Harris should be interesting, as Hood displays better ball handling and shooting while the senior Harris possesses superior defensive skills.

- Senior forward Perry Stevenson just might be the fan-favorite this year as he received a strong crowd response when he was put in late in second half after not playing at all in the first half. Perry scored 11 points in 6 minutes, including a nice drive and finish down the lane and a three-pointer from the top of the key.

- Kentucky's next and final exhibition opponent is this Friday against Clarion (?), John Calipari's alma-mater.

The Louisville Cardinals are currently hosting the #1 rated power forward in the 2010 class by Rivals.com, Tobias Harris, who has already made visits to Syracuse, Tennessee and Kentucky.

The 6'8", 220-pound Harris arrived in Louisville on Sunday and is scheduled to stay until tomorrow (Tuesday).

After his vist with the Cards, Tobias is scheduled to check out Georgia Tech, Maryland, and West Virginia before making his final decision November 19th.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP)—Kentucky point guard John Wall has been cleared to play by the NCAA.

The school announced Friday that the 6-foot-4 freshman must sit out two games and repay almost $800 in expenses incurred during unofficial visits to schools during his junior year at Word of God Christian Academy.


Wall’s status had been up in the air as the NCAA investigated the relationship between Wall and Brian Clifton, his former AAU coach. Clifton was a certified agent for a period during Wall’s recruitment, and the NCAA looked into whether Wall accepted any illegal benefits from Clifton during that time.

Wall will miss an exhibition game against Campbellsville on Monday and the season-opener against Morehead State on Nov. 13.

SOURCE: Yahoo Sports