FanHouse Big East Basketball

The rumors started swirling over the weekend that Lance Stephenson, the ultra-talented guard out of New York, was visiting and would commit to Cincinnati. Tuesday, the news broke and was confirmed elsewhere that Stephenson is indeed committing to the Bearcats. Whether official word will come before or after his July 15 court date regarding his misdemeanor sexual assault charge is undetermined.

While teams have been scared off from recruiting Stephenson for plenty of reasons (the sexual assault, meddling father, attitude questions, academics, NCAA eligibility relating to an online documentary on Stephenson), Cincy coach Mick Cronin seems willing to take a chance on Stephenson -- assuming the NCAA clears him to play.

The deadline for underclassmen to withdraw from the NBA draft came and went Monday at 5PM. Plenty of underclassmen had already made decisions to not even test the waters (Willie Warren, Oklahoma) or previously decided to return (Patrick Patterson, Kentucky). Still, plenty of others never looked back by hiring an agent right away (Earl Clark, Louisville).

The focus is strictly on the players that took it up until this weekend or even right under the wire Monday afternoon. Before getting to the programs that "won" and "lost" with the decisions to stay or go there are two teams that have counter-intuitive situations.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun was hospitalized Saturday after he collapsed following a 50-mile charity bicycle ride during which he fell and broke five ribs.

Calhoun, 67, was taken to the UConn Health Center in Farmington, where he was listed in good condition. He was to be held overnight for observation and released Sunday, said Maureen McGuire, a hospital spokeswoman.

"Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. " John Milton, Paradise Lost.

Ralph Willard turned that quote on its head in every way. The head coach of the Holy Cross Crusaders has apparently decided that he would rather give up his successful reign as head coach of his alma mater to return to being an assistant to Rick Pitino at Louisville.

While there is no word on Willard's Web site yet, Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv is reporting that Willard has decided to accept Pitino's offer to be his assistant coach. It is doubtful that Willard will take much of a paycut. It is more likely that he will get more money from Louisville to be Pitino's assistant.

In an effort to talk about something college basketball-related other than scandals in the summer, let's talk best current coaches. We'll attempt to order the top 25 current coaches in the nation. This is about the present and the future, not the distant past. What a guy did in the mid-90s doesn't matter near as much as the direction his program is currently headed. Past pedigree also matters, to an extent. For the perfect mix of past accomplishments with present achievement and a paved road for future success, look no further than the man atop the list.

A great advantage for big-time college athletics is that they are tax-exempt. From the NCAA to the athletic departments at Texas and Ohio State, they can reap the revenue and not pay taxes because they are part of educational systems.

With the country in a recession, the national deficits rising and tax revenue declining, the U.S. Government has to find other revenue streams. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in a report, suggested looking into the commercial activities of collegiate athletic departments.

On its face, one of the sillier declarations of testing the NBA draft waters was UConn freshman forward Ater Majok declaring for the draft. Ater Majok never played for UConn this season, as Majok's academic situation took quite a while to unravel. Not too surprising for a Sudanese native that first went to Australia before getting to the United States. The NCAA decided that Majok would not be eligible until the 2009-10 season.

Nate Miles, briefly of UConn, but this past season with the College of Southern Idaho (a junior college) has also declared for the NBA draft. Having both players go pro -- even if they do not get drafted -- is probably the best case scenario for UConn and Jim Calhoun.

That is "Thunder" the presently retired, and generally forgotten mascot of the St. John's Red Storm from the 90s. After mercifully bucking the trend of a cartoonish or anthropomorphic mascots for most of the decade, St. John's plans to bring back a mascot (H/T to Deadspin).

Clearly, that was what has been behind the declining attendance and malaise that covers St. John's basketball. No mascot to wander in the stands, scare children and pose for photos. The St. John's athletic department will even let you vote for the mascot -- including an updated version of Thunder. The choices are after the jump.

With John Calipari now coaching at Kentucky, top shooting guard Xavier Henry reopened his recruiting. C.J. was already on the Memphis squad following a failed professional baseball career, but that meant little. Ultimately Xavier Henry has opted to go to Kansas, and his older brother will be joining him.

The addition of Henry to a recruiting class that includes power forward Thomas Robinson and point guard Elijah Johnson -- both top-50 recruits -- means that a likely top-10 recruiting class will join a Kansas team that finished in the top-10 and will be returning everyone. Kansas now joins North Carolina and Michigan State as the presumed favorites for 2010.

We now know the identity of the person who allegedly tried to extort millions of dollars from Louisville's head basketball coach Rick Pitino. Her name is Karen Sypher, and she is the estranged soon-to-be ex-wife of Tim Sypher, the equipment manager for Pitino's Cardinals.

The allegations levied by Sypher against Pitino are still being kept under wraps, and her divorce documents have been sealed by the courts, but it's not too tough to see the underlying concern here. We have a young woman who is going through a divorce and allegedly threatening to go public with something that could potentially harm Pitino's public image. Hmmmm ... I wonder what she is threatening to say?