Derrick Brown has no intention of returning to Xavier.

"Doubtful," said the athletic junior forward. "There's a slim chance I come back to school."

The 6-foot-8 (with shoes), 229-pound Brown has worked out for Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago thus far and will remain in the Windy City for this week's pre-draft festivities.

Remember, Brown redshirted his first season in college and has already earned his degree.

"I'm in the draft," Brown said. "I'm not even thinking about anything other than that. I loved my time at Xavier, but I'm ready to move onto a new era."

According to sources close to the situation, Brown will likely sign with agent Bill Duffy.

"I feel like I've done a lot of Xavier," he added. "But I don't feel as though I can increase my stock much with another year. I've been in school for four years and it's time to move on."

While Brown said he is confident that he has put himself in the first round of the June 25 NBA Draft, several NBA executives told FOXSports.com that he could also slip into the second round.

"Right now I'm not even thinking about the second round," Brown said. "But if it happens, it happens. It wouldn't be the best thing, but it wouldn't be the worst, either."

"I feel like right now I'm in a good spot," he added.

Brown said he still has numerous workouts after the combine in Chicago is finished. He'll participate in all three of the mass team workouts (Minnesota, New Jersey and Golden State) and also work out for Charlotte, Toronto, Sacramento and Oklahoma City.

Brown said that the Musketeers and their new coach, Chris Mack, will be fine without him. Xavier was a preseason top 10 team with Brown and are likely still a top 25 club even if he doesn't return.

"I think Coach Mack will do really well," Brown said. "I'd really like to play for him; 'a great coach and knows exactly what he's doing. He's ready for this."

Now Mack will be more dependent on his guard play, and in particular, the play of two backcourt guys who sat out last season: Indiana transfer Jordan Crawford and redshirt freshman Mark "Cheeks" Lyons.

"Jordan's going to surprise a lot of people," Brown said. "He's really good - athletic, fast and can shoot it. He's just a do-it-all player."

"Cheeks really gets after it on the defensive end," Brown added. "He's going to bring a lot of toughness to the team."

But the player who should benefit the most with Brown's likely departure to the NBA is 6-foot-8 forward Jamel McLean, who averaged 4.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in less than 15 minutes per game last season.

"He's different than me," Brown said. "He's more physical, is very athletic and has all the tools - he's just got to put them together."

FONTAN STILL IN LIMBO

No movement from Fordham coach Dereck Whittenburg or the school's athletic director Frank McLaughlin on the Jio Fontan situation: http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/9598272

A few readers have said to me that there appeared to be tampering involved between a few schools (local Big East schools) and Fontan. However, Fontan made it clear that he would sign something saying he wouldn't go to any Big East area schools.

The bottom line is that Fordham looks like a joke in this entire situation because now they continue to hold a kid hostage who doesn't want to - and won't be there next season.

Just let Fontan move on.

RANDOM NOTES: Congrats to 6-foot-10 Kevin Laue on signing with Manhattan. Laue, who spent this past season at Fork Union Military Academy (Va.), was born without a left hand. ... Boston University coach Pat Chambers has added Marquette transfer Pat Hazell. ... Marshall coach Donnie Jones has added South Florida transfer Eladio Espinosa. The Thundering Herd were able to sign Espinosa because former Georgetown transfer Tay Spann graduated and will not play next season. ... One of the few impact players remaining on the board, Humble Christian Life (Texas) forward Latavious Williams, is expected to announce his decision today at 2 p.m. CT. Williams will choose from Memphis, Georgetown, Florida International, Kansas State and Oklahoma. ... Evan Daniels of Scout.com also reported that Noel Johnson (Scout.com, No. 56), a USC signee, has been released from his letter-of-intent. ... Team Final, led by Syracuse commit Dion Waiters, won the Tournament of Champions. ... UNLV's DeShawn Mitchell has transferred to Rider.