Beas Hamga

“I think he goes to Rutgers on Friday,”  his advisor, Mark Adams, said by phone. “He’s coming out for the game.”

Hamga was supposed to attend last week’s Pitt-Rutgers game, but his flight was cancelled, Adams said.

Hamga would be eligible in the second semester of next year and could play one semester with Rutgers big man Hamady NDiaye, a junior.

“He still wants to play at a high level and the Big East Conference is a pretty good and he thinks he can play at that level, Adams said.

Adams said it will likely come down to South Carolina or Rutgers, but that Valparaiso was still an option as well.

“There’s a chance for Valparaiso if he wants to stay in Indiana and go to a mid-major,” he said.

Either way, Adams wants Hamga to decide by early next week. 

“I hope he will have his mind made up by Sunday,”  Adams said.

Hamga signed with UNLV out of Decatur (Il.) Christian and redshirted his first year. He played in just five games this season before deciding to transfer. He was ranked the No. 5 center in the Class of 2007 by Rivals.

He will have two and a half years of eligibility remaining, beginning in December 2009.

“He’s a very good defensive rebounder and shot blocker,” Adams said. “He’s a very good defensive player. Like most African kids he needs to work on his offense. He’s got a nice shot. He can definitely shoot it.”

***DeAndre Kane , a 6-4 wing out of Pittsburgh who plays at The Patterson (NC) School for Chris Chaney, has reopened his recruitment, according to Evan Daniels of Scout.com, who quotes the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Kane verbally committed to Seton Hall before the New Year, but apparently told the paper he’ll decide between Pittsburgh, Seton Hall and Marquette. 

This whole story has been very hard to pin down, as Kane is not giving many interviews and even Chaney seems uncertain of what’s going on. Last I heard from Chaney, the kid had committed to the Pirates. I’ll try to follow up as best I can.

***Meantime, Seton Hall says it received no official word Monday from the NCAA on Keon Lawrence’s transfer waiver. Lawrence’s advisor, Alif Muhammad, previously told me Lawrence would sit out the remainder of this season even if gets the waiver because he has already missed two Big East games and will likely miss Tuesday’s against Villanova as well.

***

 Xavier became the latest major school to offer a scholarship to 6-8 junior Rod Odom of the Middlesex (Ma.) School, according to Rod Odom Sr.

Odom, who projects as a 6-8 shooting guard, now holds offers from Boston College, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Xavier, West Virginia, William & Mary and Holy Cross, with Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Memphis, Georgia Tech, UConn, PItt, Virginia, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard and Columbia also interested.

***Louisville scored two sophomores from Indianapolis (Ind.) Lawrence North, 6-11 Michael Chandler and 6-6 Ryan Taylor, according to Scout. Both committed while visiting for the Kentucky game.

Pitt ascended to the consensus No. 1 ranking after entering the week ranked No. 3 in both polls. On Monday, No. 2 ranked Connecticut was defeated by No. 11 ranked Georgetown 74-63. No. 3 Pitt defeated both Rutgers (78-72) and Georgetown (70-54). No. 1 ranked North Carolina dropped an 85-78 decision to Boston College.

In the Associated Press poll, Pitt garnered 70 of the 72 first place votes. The USA Today/ESPN poll saw Pitt earn 30 of the 31 first place votes.

“I don’t think it will change anything for us,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon told ESPN.com’s Andy Katz on Sunday night. “We’ve become rivals of schools over the years, rivals of schools that weren’t rivals before.”

Pitt led a parade of nine Big East teams in the Coaches poll: No. 4 UConn, No. 9 Syracuse, No. 10 Georgetown, No. 13 NOtre Dame, No. 15 Marquette, No. 17 Villanova, No. 21 Louisville and No. 22 West Virginia were also ranked.

All nine teams were also ranked in the AP poll.

“I told [Ohio State coach] Thad Matta last week, this would be a great job if we didn’t have to play games,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins told the Charleston Gazette. “We’re 1-0 [in the Big East] and all we have left is 17 more league games and our in-state rival [Marshall a week from Wednesday].”

With the Steelers playing host to San Diego in the NFL’s AFC divisional playoffs on Sunday, it could take some heat off Pitt this week. The Panthers’ next game is Sunday against St. John’s.

“[A No. 1 ranking] doesn’t mean much to me, but it will mean something to other people,” Dixon said Sunday night. “It won’t mean much to our players. We’ve been consistently good, but at the same time we haven’t won a national championship, so nothing changes.”

(ESPN.com contributed)

Vincent Council

Both his father, Vincent Council Sr., and Patterson (NC)  School coach Chris Chaney — whose team is ranked No. 1 in the National Prep Poll – said they expected the 6-foot-2 guard to make a decision then.

“We’ll see what happens tomorrow,”  his father said Monday by phone. “He’s supposed to make a verbal tomorrow.”

All signs point to Council picking Providence, but Rutgers, UCF and Arkansas are still in the mix.

Rutgers desperately needs a point guard for 2009 and would have to use Mike Coburn or Corey Chandler without a new once since Anthony Farmer is graduating.

Council was supposed to visit Rutgers for the Dec. 31 Pitt game, but his father said he missed the visit.

The Friars improved to 8-1 but arent blowing out opponents like they did last year when they featured six Division I players.

“We made a lot of mistakes so it really came down to who made fewer mistakes, them or us,” St. Anthony head coach Bob Hurley told the Jersey Journal.

“We’re still young and we haven’t yet worked it all out,” said Hurley.

Villanova-bound guard Dominic Cheek scored 22 points for the Friars and Quinnipiac commit Jamee Jackson added 16.

Eastside (0-4), which features Robert Morris-bound guard Karon Abraham, has yet to win its first game after reaching the Passaic County and North 1, Group 4 finals last year.

“Starting out like this, now I’m frustrated,” Abraham told The Record (NJ) of Hackensack. “I have to be a leader now.

“So I’m coming back and finishing my senior year strong

St. Anthony will get some frontcourt help mid-January when transfers Devon Collier, Ashton Pankey and Derrick Williams become eligible.

St. Patrick, the favorite to win the Tournament of Champions, also gets guard Kyrie Irving after 30 days. He will team up with North Carolina-bound guard Dexter Strickland to form what should be the top backcourt in the Garden State.

***St. Peter’s upset Don Bosco, 57-48, behind 22 points from Miles Davis.

***St. Benedict’s and St. Patrick are No. 3 and 4, respectively, in the latest PrepNation.com poll. Dan Hurley’s St. Benedict’s club has already won the Kreul Classic in Florida and the Gatorade International Championship in Puerto Rico, while Kevin Boyle’s St Pats team won the Beach Ball Classic and reached the final of City of Palms before falling to No. 1 Mater Dei. Highly touted sophomore forward Michael Gilchrist (pictured) erupted for 31 points and 14 rebounds in the Beach Ball final against Marietta (Ga.) Wheeler.

Rice is No. 21 in the PrepNation poll, while St. Anthony and Lincoln both dropped out.

**No. 3 Pitt went into No. 8 Georgetown and handed it to the Hoyas behind 20 points and 17 boards from DeJuan Blair, who looked like a man among boys while outplaying freshman Greg Monroe.

“I played with something on my back saying, ‘They’re picking this young cat against me, and I’m not going to take it,’” Blair said. “I was always an underdog throughout my whole life. I think I showed a lot of people.”

Pitt had played a relatively soft schedule prior to this game, but they certainly looked poised and in control, moving the basketball very well on offense and simply dominating on the boards.

Pitt outrebounded G-town 46-21 and outscored them in the paint 48-22.

**St. Johns scored the biggest win of head coach Norm Roberts tenure with a 71-victory over No. 7 Notre Dame at Madison Square Garden.

DJ Kennedy scored 20 points for the Johnnies, who are playing without Anthony Mason Jr. (foot) and Malik Boothe (thumb).

Justin Burrell, playing with a facemask because of several facial fractures had 18 points, and Paris Horne scored 14 while playing great defense on Luke Harangody, who still had 28 and 14.

Roberts was asked if this was the best win of his tenure that has seen the Red Storm go 58-71.

Asked if this was his biggest win, Roberts told reporters: “Probably because of us being depleted a little bit and having the young guys step up. In this league you’ve got to be ready to play No. 2, No. 3, No. 16. There are so many good teams. We want our guys to stay focused and not give up. You can’t put your head down. You have to fight through adversity.

“I told them there was no miracle stuff that happened out there. We committed 18 turnovers. There was no us making 12 3s. It was just us playing hard and not giving up.”

Huge win for the Johnnies, who will sandwich road games against Pitt and Villanova against a home tilt with UConn.

**Seton Hall dropped to 0-2 in Big East play and suffered its second straight blowout loss, falling 92-66 to West Virginia at the Prudential Center.

Jeremy Hazell scored 29 points — hearly half of the Pirates output — on 9-of-14 shooting. Eugene Harvey added 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting.

After missing games with a knee injury, senior forward John Garcia came back and played 16 minutes before fouling out, tallying just 2 rebounds and 2 assists.

Former Bloomfield Tech star DaSean Butler had 18 points and 9 rebounds and Alex Ruoff added points for the Mountaineers (11-2, 1-0), playing their Big East opener. West Virginia shot 8 of 18 from beyond the arc.

Ironically, Butler (pictured)  told me last week that he considered going to Seton Hall, but after Louis Orr left, he wasnt sure what the future held.

“I was really thinking about staying home for either Rutgers or Seton Hall,” Butler said. “But Rutgers, I ended up not getting a scholarship [after the coaching change]. And with Seton Hall, some real close friends told me that Coach Orr might not be coming back. And I wanted to play for Coach Orr, but I didn’t know who was going to be there.

“I had no clue that they were going to get ‘Gonzo’ [Bobby Gonzalez] there. I knew him for a while from when I was younger, and he’s a great coach. If I knew he was going to be there, I probably would have thought it out a little more.”

Seton Hall has dropped four of five since an 8-1 start. Next up is a home date with Villanova on Tuesday.

**Rutgers completed its trifecta against the No. 1, 2 and 3 teams in the nation with an 80-49 blowout loss at No. 2 UConn on Saturday.

The Scarlet Knights fought No. 1 North Carolina bravely before falling 97-75 and led No. 3 Pitt at the 9:51 mark before losing 78-72.

But playing a UConn team that was coming off a tough home loss to Georgetown proved too much for Fred Hill and company.

Hasheem Thabeet (15 points),  Jerome Dyson (14) Jeff Adrien (13), Stanley Robinson (11) and Gavin Edwards (10) all scored in double-figures in the rout.

Greg Echenique led RU with 17 points on 4-of-6 from the field and 9-of-9 from the stripe.

Mike Rosario, praised by Carolina coach Roy Williams last week, struggled to score 10 points on 2-of-13 shooting. The Knights were outrebounded 37-25.

It doesnt get easier for the Knights, who host Marquette and Syracuse before visiting Cincinnati and returning home to face Louisville.

Rutgers junior All-America wide receiver Kenny Britt decided to forego his final year of eligibility and enter the 2009 NFL Draft. The nation’s second-leading receiver in yards per game in 2008, Britt finished his career as the BIG EAST’s all-time leader in receiving yards (3,043) in 34 games.

“It has always been a dream to me to go to the NFL and this is a gateway and an opening to leave this year,”  Britt said. “I have an opportunity to go and I want to take my chances and go.”

Britt ended the season with school records in single-season receptions (87) and receiving yards (1,371) to help guide Rutgers to its third consecutive bowl victory.

Britt is the second player in the Greg Schiano era at Rutgers to leave school early and enter the NFL Draft. Ray Rice left Rutgers following his junior season and was a second round draft selection of the Baltimore Ravens in the 2008 NFL Draft. During Britt’s three-year career in Piscataway, the Scarlet Knights won 27 games, including three bowl victories.

During his three-year career “On the Banks”, Britt became one of the nation’s elite wide receivers. A Third Team Associated Press All-America selection in 2008, Britt was also a First Team All-BIG EAST selection after leading the league in both receptions and receiving yards. He finished second in the nation in receiving yards per game (114.2) and eighth in receptions per game (7.4).

Britt leaves Rutgers as the school’s most decorated wide receiver. The career receiving yards leader in BIG EAST history, Britt also tied the conference record with former Pitt wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald for career 100-yard games with his 14^th 100-yard game in the PapaJohns.com Bowl victory vs. NC State.

Britt is Rutgers’ all-time leader in career receiving yards (3,043), career touchdown receptions (17, tied with Chris Brantley), consecutive 100-yard receiving games (5 in 2008), career 100-yard receiving games (14), single-season receiving yards (1,371 in 2008) and single-season receptions (87 in 2008).

Britt’s 178 career receptions rank third in Rutgers history and fourth in BIG EAST history. He ended his career with a reception in 31 consecutive games – the seventh-longest streak in BIG EAST history.

Vincent Council

“He never made it to the Rutgers visit,” Vincent Council Sr. said. “So they’re going to reschedule another one.”

The 6-foot-2 Council plays at The Patterson (NC) School, the No. 1 prep school in the National Prep Poll, and is considering Providence, Rutgers, UCF and Arkansas. His father says he’s leaning toward Providence and could announce soon.

“He wants to see other schools,” the father said. “He wants to see Arkansas also.”

As for the 7-foot Hamga, Mark Adams, his advisor, said his flight to the Pitt-Rutgers game was “cancelled.”

“He hasn’t rescheduled it yet,” Adams said. “He’s trying to do it for Wednesday for the Marquette game.”

Hamga is transferring from UNLV and is considering Rutgers, South Carolina, Ole Miss and Oklahoma State.

Adams said Oklahoma State was a “long shot”  because they’re waiting on a high school senior, whereas Hamga will likely decide by next week.

“By this time next week he should decide,” Adams said.

1. Can Pitt beat Georgetown?

The Hoyas are coming off a thorough beating of No. 2 UConn, the preseason favorite to win the conference, in Hartford on Monday. Now the No. 3 Panthers come to town Saturday (noon, ESPN) and could give the Hoyas trouble. Georgetown beat UConn with Greg Monroe taking Hasheem Thabeet away from the basket and then dishing off for backdoor cuts. But Pitt has a lot of big, physical defenders in DeJuan Blair, Tyrell Biggs and Sam Young, which should make it harder for the Hoyas to score on backdoor cuts. Will the same strategy work?

2. What is up with Louisville?

Picked No. 2 in the Big East, the Cardinals have lost to Western Kentucky, Minnesota and now UNLV. You have to question whether the loss of David Padgett means more than we otherwise thought. This team has a lot of talent in Earl Clark and Samardo Samuels, but no true point guard. How good will the Cards be in the long run?

3. How many losses with the conference winner have?

UConn was projected to win the conference and the Huskies already have one loss. You have to figure the top teams will all beat up on each other, meaning the winner could be a team with three or four conference losses. That, in turn, could hurt that team come Selection Sunday. The Big East winner won’t have a sparkling 30-2 record, like Memphis has had in past years. Could the conference winner get a No. 2 seed?

4. When will Rutgers get its first victory?

The Scarlet Knights are in the midst of an unprecedented stretch in which they’re playing the No. 1, 2 and 3 teams in the nation in a row. After losing to North Carolina and Pitt, Rutgers must visit No. 2 UConn on Saturday (7 p.m., SNY), and you can bet Jim Calhoun and his troops won’t be in a good mood after losing handily to Georgetown. After that, Fred Hill’s club hosts a Marquette team that just beat Villanova; a Syracuse team that has wins over Kansas, Florida and Memphis; visits Cincinnati; and hosts Louisville. After that stretch, Rutgers visits St. John’s at Madison Square Garden Jan. 24 and Seton Hall Jan. 29. It’s not hard to imagine an 0-6 start before meeting the two local opponents.

5. How much will John Garcia’s return help Seton Hall?

The Pirates played without their best frontcourt player for four games, and lost at Syracuse, 100-76, on Tuesday night. Without Garcia, who has been bothered by problems with his surgically-repaired knee, Seton Hall relied on sophomores MIke Davis and Brandon Walters, who were outmuscled and outclassed by Arinze Onuaku and Syracuse’s front line. Garcia should return for Saturday’s games with Da’Sean Butler and West Virginia at The Rock. Can the Pirates get a home win over a quality opponent with him back in the lineup?

**Finally, here’s a good story about Brooklyn native Phil Taylor, playing for Marietta (Ga.) Wheeler instead of Brooklyn Lincoln. Dylan Butler wrote it for fiveborosports.com.

West Virginia will open Big East play on the road when it visits Seton Hall on Saturday.

The 6-foot-7, 233-pound Butler is a Newark, N.J., native who led Bloomfield (N.J.) Tech to three New Jersey Group 1 state championships and the 2006 Essex County title. A first-team All-State selection, he also played in the Jordan Brand Regional Game at Madison Square Garden as a senior.

Read the full story here.