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Wednesday Top 3

• As mentioned earlier today, Donte Smith from Mt. San Antonio College will petition to the NCAA to join the SC basketball team this Fall.  The story behind Donte is he failed to qualify coming out of high school by .002 points due to his mother being sick his senior year.  OU was heavily recruiting Donte, but after this weekend's USC Elite Camp, he decided to commit shortly after being offered by Coach Floyd and staff. 

If Donte qualifies, he'll battle it out with Angelo (if he also qualifies) for playing time and add necessary depth at the PG position.  Having played one season at Mt. SAC, he'll have 3 years of eligibility at SC. 

• The 2nd commit of the day for the basketball team came from 8th-grader, Ryan Boatwright from Aurora, Illinois.  Here's a few comments about Ryan's decision from his father:

"They were the first one to show interest in Ryan," said Boatwright's father, Mike. "A lot of people have said Ryan isn't that good, but he went to USC's camp and played well."

Boatwright played well enough that Floyd put forth a scholarship offer on the final day of camp. DePaul, Indiana and a few smaller schools had expressed interest, but USC was the first to step up with an offer.

"It shocked me," Mike Boatwright said of the offer. "But Ryan loved it there and he decided on his own."

"The campus is gorgeous," he added. "It's a private school and both myself and his mom were impressed with the academic standards at USC. That's really what got us."

Personally, I don't take much stock into this commitment.  With Dwayne Polee Jr. - the other 8th grader to commit last year - I can see the possibility of him wearing a SC uniform because of his ties and location relative to the program, but in this case we have an 8th grader making a tremendously important decision coming off the high of playing well at a college camp.  When you add distance as a factor and the local schools whispering in his ear, the chances that this commitment sticks doesn't look too good.  At this point it's completely worthless to speculate, so I'll put this on the back burner for a WHILE...

• Congrats to Hershel Dennis for receiving a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA.  As I mentioned before, Hershel was one of the more impressive players I saw during Spring practice and at the Huddle.  Let's hope he sees the field and makes good of this opportunity. 

Monday Top 3

• Paragon over at ConquestChronicles.com has a nice little interview with Matthew Kredell from the Daily News.  Some interesting behind-the-scenes info on there, so go check it out. 

• Despite the push from OJ, DeAndre Jordan is staying at Texas A&M.  Also, check out Andy Katz latest pre-preseason top 25 for info on teams around the nation. 

• Spring practice ended on a positive note with Hershel Dennis still running strong and Travon Patterson scoring 3 TD's to continue his impressive performance from the Huddle.  Coach Carroll released the end-of-Spring depth chart on Friday and one has to wonder whether Patterson's performance on Saturday puts him over Hazelton as the top flanker.

Thursday Top 3

• Looks like Bob Huggins is seriously considering ditching K-State after one year for his alma mater West Virginia.  Why is this relevant to SC?  Well, if Huggins leaves that means Michael Beasley could opt out of his LOI.  Beasley, a 6-9 235lb PF who plays like a SF, is rated the #1 overall player on Rivals.com.  He showed brief interest in SC before committing to K-State and is good friends with OJ Mayo.  Never say never, right?

Here's a video clip of him in action. 

• Hershel Dennis says he feels "stronger" and a "little faster".  I had a chance to watch him play on Tuesday and I thought he looked like his old self.  He was making some great cuts and showed a nice bit of burst.

• I like the new "open forum" feature on Scott Wolf's blog - lot of good info.  Here are the links to the two open forums held so far:  Part 1 and part 2.