Since last Friday marked the official start of high school hoops practice in New Jersey, we recommend you check out this tremendous video piece on Dominic Cheek by Collin Orcutt and Michael Preston of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Orcutt and his colleagues worked on this piece for several weeks, following Dom through workouts, [...]

Former Bloomfield (N.J.) Tech star Casiem Drummond is leaving Villanova.
The 6-10, 280-pound junior center has decided to transfer and will not be with the team when it takes on Penn tonight in a Big 5 matchup at the Palestra. He cannot transfer within the Big East, as per league rules.
Bloomfield Tech coach Nick Mariniello [...]

Here are a few quick notes from the world of college hoops and recruiting…
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski checked out John Wall, the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2009 according to Rivals, on Friday night, according to Dave Telep of Scout. N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe was also in attendance for every game of [...]

Clark Francis’ rankings of the Top Seniors in the Class of 2009 are out and Brooklyn Lincoln guard Lance Stephenson tops the list.
Stephenson has said he will wait until the spring to announce his future plans. St. John’s, Kansas and USC are among the schools recruiting him, and some speculate he may also opt to [...]

Having completed his final official visit to Pittsburgh this week, Dominic Cheek has no timetable for making a decision but will sit down next week his coaches to discuss his options.
“Today [Friday] was our first day of practice so we’ve got to concentrate on St. Anthony right now,” Friars associate head coach Ben Gamble said [...]

Nearly everywhere Dominic Cheek goes, he seems to run into a former teammate.
At Kansas, it was Tyshawn Taylor. At Rutgers, Mike Rosario. At Pitt is is Travon Woodall.
Of the five schools still on Cheek’s list, three feature freshmen who played alongside Cheek last year on St. Anthony’s undefeated national championship team. Only Memphis and Villanova [...]

Check out my SNY interview with Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds from Big East Media Day.
“He can be a scorer,” Nova coach Jay Wright told ESPN. “He can drop 40 on you and he can maybe come up with a game where he maybe gets 12 and 10 assists. And he’s also developing into a very, [...]

After 5 hours of watching college hoops tonight, I feel like I’ve just seen a couple of games in March Madness.
How good were those Notre Dame-Texas and Syracuse-Kansas games? Incredible action for November.
And a couple of impressive victories by the Big East.
Syracuse came from 13 points down in the second half to defeat defending national [...]

When defending national champion Kansas takes on 2003 NCAA champ Syracuse tonight in the final of the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic on ESPN2 (10 o’clock), look for a couple of rookies with New Jersey ties to play a key role.
Freshman Marcus Morris, a Philly native who played at Apex Academies in Cherry Hill, N.J., [...]

Lots of holiday week action on the hardwood…
**No. 2 UConn beat No. 19 Wisconsin, 76-57, to win the Paradise Jam in the first ever meeting between the schools. Jerome Dyson led the Huskies with 21 points and 3 steals, former Rice standout Kemba Walker continued to excel by notching 12 points, 8 rebounds and 4 [...]