Give the NCAA some credit - for once.
They gave Wake Forest an exception and allowed new coach Dino Gaudio and the
Demon Deacons to go into the homes of Al Farouq Aminu, Tony Woods and Ty Walker
last month to conduct a pair of in-home visits after Wake coach Skip Prosser
died of a heart attack in late July.
It was a smart move so that Gaudio and the rest of the staff stood a legitimate
shot at keeping their frontcourt trio committed.
The threesome all made unofficial visits to Wake this past weekend and a clear
sign that they remain on board is that Walker
had a "WF" shaved into his head.
According to three members of the Wake
Forest staff, none of the three
players have been meddled with by any other schools.
Aminu, Woods and Walker will all take their official visits the weekend of Oct.
27-28 - when Wake Forest
will hold its annual black/gold scrimmage and the football team plays North
Carolina in football.
DIVORCE FINAL
The on-again, off-again soap opera between the Morris Twins and Memphis
is over.
Marcus and Markieff Morris, a pair of forwards out of Philadelphia
who will attend Apex Academies this season, have decided to re-open their
recruitment for the second time.
``We didn't want to go somewhere that we're not 100 percent sure about," Marcus
Morris told FOXSports.com on Sunday night. ``It wasn't anything specific."
Maybe not, but all you have to do is look at their former high school coach,
Dan Brinkley at Prep Charter, to find out why the twins didn't stand true to
their pledge to John Calipari and the Tigers.
Brinkley was adamant that his kids weren't going to play for Calipari - even
though Marcus denied that fact to FOXSports.com.
There's a reason that Marcus and Markieff wound up at Apex Academies with a
bunch of no-name Division 1 hopefuls. Apex is local and Brinkley wanted to
retain as much control over the decision-making process as possible.
GREG MONROE HOSTING FINAL EIGHT
The top-ranked player in the Class of 2008, Greg Monroe, has tried to keep his
final eight schools fairly secretive - but FOXSports.com has the list, along
with in-home visit dates for each school. Here you go:
Duke - yesterday (Sept. 9)
Georgetown - yesterday (Sept. 9)
LSU - Sept. 11
USC - Sept. 16
Baylor - Sept. 18
UConn - Sept. 22
Kansas - Sept. 22
Texas - Sept. 25
That means that Florida, Louisville and Kentucky all didn't make the list.
SELF CONTROL
Kansas coach Bill Self said that Darrell Arthur is 100 percent recovered from a
stress fracture in his left leg which forced him to miss the FIBA U19 World
Championships in Serbia in July.
Self also said that the target date for Brandon Rush's return remains Dec. 1,
but the Jayhawks won't really know until the athletic wing - who tore his ACL
in his right knee prior to the NBA Draft - starts pushing his change of
directions.
RANDOM NOTES: Look for Anthony
Gurley to land at Northeastern. It's literally five minutes from his house,
Huskies coach Bill Coen recruited Gurley while he was an assistant at BC.
Gurley and Matt Janning would be a terrific wing combo in two years. ... Virginia
will likely hire Rick Brunson to replace Rob Lanier, who left for Florida.
... Baylor coach Scott Drew picked up an important commitment when talented and
long 6-foot-11 wing (that's right, wing) Anthony Jones chose the Bears.