New Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins lost arguably his top recruit to his former school.

Christ School (N.C.) senior power forward Miles Plumlee, whose younger brother, Mason, committed to the Blue Devils earlier this year, is headed to Duke after getting his release from the Cardinal earlier this week.

The news was first reported by Scout.com’s Dave Telep, who feels that the eldest Plumlee (there’s also a talented brother, Marshall, in the Class of 2011) could see extensive minutes as a freshman in Durham.

NO VIOLATION WITH OBAMA

North Carolina’s pick-up game earlier this week with presidential candidate Barack Obama did not break an NCAA rule.

NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson, director of public and media relations for the NCAA, said in an e-mail to the Charlotte Observer: "This was a unique situation and not an NCAA issue. It certainly was a great opportunity for the student-athletes to interact with a presidential candidate."

The rules stipulate that college coaches aren’t allowed to watch pick-up games during the offseason.

UNC spokesman Steve Kirschner told the newspaper that Tar Heels coach Roy Williams was aware he wasn’t supposed to be in attendance, but that these were “extraordinary circumstances,” and with the number of secret service personnel on site, the coach wanted to be on hand to make sure that everything went OK."

GILLISPIE AT IT AGAIN

Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie wasted no time a year ago shortly after he took over in getting verbal commitments from young kids.

But Gillispie has taken it to a new level with the pledge on Thursday from 6-foot-4 wing Michael Avery – an eighth-grader.

``It’s a dream school for him,” Avery’s father, Howard, told Scout.com’s Evan Daniels. “That’s where he wanted to play.”

RANDOM NOTES: Memphis landed long and talented wing Wesley Witherspoon, one of the top remaining uncommitted seniors. Now it appears highly unlikely that the top unsigned player, Devin Ebanks, would commit to the Tigers with the recent pledges of Tyreke Evans and Witherspoon. … Don’t be shocked if Florida State transfer Julian Vaughn lands at George Mason. … If you haven’t seen the picture by now, check it out of Tyler Hansbrough jumping off a frat house balcony into a swimming pool - http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b252/DukeDevils
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My frontrunner for Coach of the Year is Purdue’s Matt Painter, but there are plenty of guys who deserve consideration. Stanford’s Trent Johnson has done a terrific job while coaching in the top conference in the country.

Sure, Johnson has the twin towers otherwise known as the Lopez Twins – Brook and Robin.

But no one figured that the Cardinal had enough in the backcourt to challenge for the Pac-10 regular-season title.

Stanford will travel and play UCLA and USC this week with the title on the line.

Johnson said his team has improved over the season – especially with its long distance shooting. Anthony Goods was shooting the ball at a high rate going into the win against Washington State this past weekend and Lawrence Hill has picked up his game in the last month.

"When we start knocking down perimeter shots, we’ve got a chance,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that Fred Washington and Goods are ####ed up, but the Cardinal are as healthy as they’ve been in his tenure. Brook Lopez played against Cal 10 days ago with a bruised right hand on his shooting hand, but it hasn’t seemed to affect him.

"One thing Brook and Robin do is play extremely hard,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that the overtime win at Washington State was the turning point this season to where his players started to believe they could compete for the Pac-10 crown.

SIZZLING RICE

What makes Boston College guard Tyrese Rice’s 46-point outburst (8-of-9 from long distance and 34 in the first half) even more impressive is that he isn’t blessed with a ton of talent around him.

I wasn’t alone in trying to recall a better first-half performance. North Carolina television analyst Eric Montross echoed the sentiment.

Rice said he had no idea how many points he had at the break until his teammates told him.

LAWSON: 85 PERCENT

North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson, who saw his first game action in nearly a month, said he was about 85 percent after playing 21 minutes against Boston College.

Lawson played well defensively against Rice in the second half, but he still didn’t display the burst that has him among the quickest players in the country.

TALK ABOUT BALANCE

Xavier has six guys in double figures. Arkansas-Little Rock coach Steve Shields doesn’t have a single one.

Shields’ leading scorer is guard Steven Moore at 9.6 points per game yet the Trojans are 19-10 overall and 10-7 in the Sun Belt – which earned them the No. 2 seed in this week’s conference tournament.

Shields has eight new players this year as the team won its third division title in his five years at the helm.

"Our guys have a lot of resiliency and no one cares about getting credit,” Shields said. “It’s a very unselfish group.”

RANDOM NOTES: Arkansas received a verbal commitment from 6-foot-7 freshman Aaron Ross of Pulaski Academy in Little Rock. … Eight years after taking over the program and after four postseason losses to Winchendon, Brewster Academy coach Jason Smith won his first NEPSAC Class A championship on Sunday with an overtime victory against Winchendon. Unsigned guard Trey Blue had 20 points, but Arizona-bound Emmanuel Negedu won tournament MVP honors by averaging 14.3 points and 14 rebounds in three games. … According to Scout.com, Tennessee nabbed talented junior big man Kenny Hall over the weekend. The 6-foot-9 Hall is long and athletic and should fit in to Bruce Pearl’s system.

Just about 20 months ago, LSU coach John Brady was a hero in Baton Rouge. His Tigers were in the midst of an improbable Final Four run – courtesy of Tyrus Thomas and Glen “Big Baby” Davis.

Now Brady is fighting for his job.

The LSU head man was smart enough to ink a five-year, $5 million deal after the Tigers were knocked off by UCLA in the national semifinals two seasons ago.

One year can go a long way – especially in the wallet.

If you remove the Final Four from the equation, Brady has a pair of NCAA first-round exits, a pair of NIT appearances and two seasons in which there was no postseason at all since 2000.

It’s gotten downright ugly in Baton Rouge this year. The embarrassing loss at Villanova in which the Tigers blew a 21-point lead late in the second half was one thing, but getting blown out by 20 points at Wichita State (this is a rebuilding Shockers team) last night was a statement-making loss.

“We were deer in the headlights,” Tigers coach John Brady said in the postgame news conference.

This wasn’t exactly North Carolina or Memphis. It was Wichita State – a team with a quality tactician in Shockers head man Gregg Marshall, but one with average talent.

I realize that Brady is without arguably his top player, Tasmin Mitchell, but this team still isn’t an NCAA tournament team even if Mitchell, the one key holdover from the Final Four team, is healthy.

The Tigers are 6-4 and haven’t beaten a legitimate postseason team yet. They barely got past Division 2 Chaminade out in the Maui Classic last month. A year ago, LSU finished 17-15 and probably wouldn’t even have earned an invitation to this new joke of a postseason tournament that is starting up soon.

The talent level in Baton Rouge just isn’t what it’s been – or maybe the players have already given up on their coach.

Maybe it’s a combination of the two.

LSU can’t shoot the ball, but what’s more glaring is that the Tigers got decimated on the glass, 50-31, by a non-athletic Wichita State frontline that is about as far from intimidating as it gets.

Brady has made a living out of keeping the elite in-state guys home (Brandon Bass, Thomas, Davis), but he swung and missed on the nation’s consensus No. 1 player, Greg Monroe, who chose Georgetown over his home-state Tigers a couple months ago.

If Brady keeps swinging and missing, he’s going to be out.

CARDINAL RULE

Trent Johnson’s decision to play an exhibition game on Sunday following a two-break break for finals made him look like a genius. The return of Brook Lopez didn’t hurt, either.

Lopez scored 20 points and grabbed six rebounds in just 19 minutes as Stanford blew out Santa Clara, 74-48.

Lopez had missed the first nine games due to, believe it or not, academics.

The Cardinal avenged a 16-point loss to Santa Clara last season with the win and Johnson’s team is now 9-1.

The Cardinal had lost all three of its games following the lengthy break for finals in Johnson’s tenure, so he opted to play an exhibition game on Sunday in an effort to shake off some of the rust.

Wednesday’s Notables:

- Florida freshman Nick Calathes had another impressive performance and the Gators versatile guard is putting up terrific numbers in the last five Gators wins – 19.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists.

- Arizona big man Jordan Hill may have played his best game since arriving in Tucson. The sophomore went for 16 points and 19 rebounds in a win at UNLV. The Wildcats won despite only getting a total of 14 points from Chase Budinger and Jerryd Bayless.

- Matt Painter’s Purdue team is young and will have its ups and downs. Want evidence? After beating Louisville this past weekend, the Boilermakers lost to Wofford, 69-66, last night in West Lafayette.

- Providence starting point guard Sharaud Curry made his season debut last night in a 94-89 win against Sacred Heart. Curry played nine minutes and had 3 points and 3 assists. Weyinmi Efejuku led the Friars with 21 points and 10 boards.

- Baylor's comeback win at South Carolina last night snapped a 25-game road losing streak by the Bears, which was a Big 12 record. It was Baylor's first true road win since a 73-72 victory at Purdue on Dec. 30, 2004. Freshman LaceDarius Dunn scored 24 points and hit six 3-pointers in last night's win.

Trent Johnson is a glass half-full kind of guy.

The Stanford coach could be full of pessimism because his most talented player, sophomore 7-footer Brook Lopez, is ineligible for the first semester.

``We’re as healthy as we’ve ever been,” Johnson said. “In my 16 years, I’ve never gone into a year with a full complement of guys.”

It was also be different for Brook Lopez from a year ago, when he was injured and missed the first five games after offseason back surgery. After missing about 10 practices, Brook has been able to practice with the team since last Friday.

Johnson told FOXSports.com that he anticipates Lopez being cleared to play after grades are posted – which will be somewhere mid-December. That would mean he misses the first nine games and could return at home against Santa Clara on Dec. 19.
 
``What we’re talking about with Brook are maturity and accountability issues,” Johnson said. “It is what it is and Brook’s fully aware. He’s not going to let the NBA talk get to his head.”

``He knows what’s at stake,” Johnson added. “He knows he has to mature and be held accountable. There’s no grey area.”

Johnson said he’s hopeful that the Cardinal can take care of the ball more effectively than a year ago, when they had just one more assistant than turnovers as a team.

``It was a team-wide problem last year,” he said. ``It wasn’t just the point guard.”

Look for Mitch Johnson and Drew Shiller, who transferred from San Francisco, to get the majority of the time at the point guard spot with Fred Washington filling in at times.

HOKIE POKIE

No ACC team lost as much as Virginia Tech.

Hokies coach Seth Greenberg will have to find a way to replace the backcourt tandem of Zabian Dowdell and Jamon Gordon, who helped lead Virginia Tech to a 22-12 record last season.

Greenberg knows what he has with athletic wing Deron Washington and shooter A.D. Vassalo. The rest is somewhat of a mystery as the Hokies open up tonight against Elon.

``We’re getting better, but I still don’t know what we have,” Greenberg said.

The Hokies biggest question mark comes at the point guard spot after Nigel Munson, who was slated to run the team, surprisingly transferred out of the program.

Diminutive freshman and Las Vegas native Hank Thorns (5-9, 140) hasn’t been overwhelmed in two scrimmages against Jonathan Wallace (Georgetown) and Devan Downey (South Carolina), two of the better floor leaders in the country.

``He’s been solid,” Greenberg said.

The Hokies will need some post production out of the combination of 6-foot-9 junior Cheick Diakite and sophomore Lewis Witcher. Expect 6-foot-7 freshman Jeff Allen to produce immediately at the power forward spot.

Freshman forward J.T. Thompson will give the team energy off the bench – and Greenberg is hopeful that Thompson’s cousin, Dorenzo Hudson, will be able to join the team after the first semester – maybe in time for the Dec. 16 contest at Old Dominion. Hudson is a talented scoring wing who wasn’t academically cleared in time to join the team for the first semester.

GRAND MARSHALL

A day after Kentucky lost to Gardner-Webb, 7-foot senior Garrett Stutz committed to Wichita State despite heavy interest from the Wildcats and SMU.

Believe it or not, Stutz actually committed to new Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall’s 11-year-old son, Kellen.

According to one source, the pair played a game of Pop-a-Shot (an electronic basketball game) while Stutz was on his official visit this past weekend. Stutz called up last night and asked the younger Marshall if they could play the game for the next four years.

This was a huge get for Marshall, who has a trio of seniors – P.J. Couisnard, Matt Braeuer and Phillip Thomasson – leaving the program after this season.

Marshall said he’s excited about the future. He has long, 6-foot-8 freshman Aaron Ellis, who has been a pleasant surprise, and then Stutz and 6-foot-4 guard Toure Murray out of Houston will come in next season.

Marshall is also waiting to hear whether athletic 7-foot ####ian Ehimen Orukpe will be eligible and play second semester this season. Orukpe, the perfect complement to Stutz, is still trying to pass his exit exam in ####ia.

However, Marshall isn’t looking past this year, either. It’s just that the ex-Winthrop coach goes in not knowing much about the Missouri Valley Conference.

RANDOM NOTES: LSU coach John Brady’s team will be more perimeter-oriented after losing Tyrus Thomas and Glen “Big Baby” Davis in the last two years. ``We’ll run the ball more than in the past,” Brady said. “For this team, an 18-foot jumper may be better than an 8-footer.” … Tennessee guard J.P. Prince had shoulder surgery yesterday and is expected to miss the next month or so. That’s not a huge hit for the Vols because Prince wasn’t eligible to play until mid-December after transferring from Arizona in the middle of last season.