News and Notes

Hoop Fans of Nevada have been watching the recruiting of Luke Babbitt since past Summer. He makes a reverse on his decision to play at Ohio State and decides to play at Nevada. Big story indeed, as Nevada will now feature Hug's Armond Johnson next year with Babbit to follow after this season. Meanwhile, Al Laroque has to be a proud Papa with the announcement that Lindy will be playing at Stanford.

Lindy was one of the top Women's basketball player in Southern Nevada playing for Durango. She got her test scores in and qualified to play at Stanford. She could not wait to call Stanford Coach Tara Vanderveer to let her know the news. So kudos to Lindy for joining the Cardinal.

The NIAA has redesigned the enrollment numbers for classifications going into the 2008 school year. The enrollment numbers immediately effected Manogue and Gorman,both private Catholic schools who are well below the 4 A enrollment number. Both schools will petition the NIAA to remain in 4 A status.

The NIAA also turned down the request to add another out of State High School to play in the NIAA. Beaver out of Arizona is closer to Nevada than it is most of the schools that they currently play in Arizona. With many in State schools barking about out of state teams winning Nevada Championships, the school out of Arizona did not have much of a chance to be approved.

On the basketball front, the NIAA tabled the decision to go back to the original 8 team tournament until the fall. This is a move that is long over due. The tourney has lost it's luster and has been flawed with many quality Southern and Northern teams being not invited after a single loss in their Regional Championships. With declines in attendance and frankly the marginal costs to bring more teams to the tourney, the NIAA should make the move to approve the 8 teams to play on the biggest stage of Nevada Hoops. Again, you only have to look back on great tourneys that featured Kevin Gaines of Clark, Marcus Banks of Cimmaron, Demetrius Hunter of Cheyenne that all played in the State Semi Finals one year. Or the many times that Gorman and Centennial girls battled for one slot after being ranked 1 & 2 in the State all season, in addition to being nationally ranked.

Olek Czyz of Reno is getting plenty of attention this Summer from major college programs. He is no longer the secret after playing for the Las Vegas Prospects behind Babbitt last Summer. He has rides from Pepperdine, Washington State and other PAC 10 programs going into the Summer. Now Kentucky is after the 6'8 forward and the Cats believe that they are the lead choice in the race. All this attention is good news for other recruits this Summer from Nevada as it brings more attention to our State's best.

Anthony Marshall of Las Vegas is getting plenty of attention and recently made a visit to Arizona State. Expect the list of suitors to grow even larger as the Summer Hoops season gets into full mode in a couple of weeks.