• North Carolina transfer center Alex Stepheson won't play for USC against UC Irvine on Saturday, but the hope is that a decision on his appeal can be made in time for Tuesday's game against New Mexico State.
That's if the Tar Heels respond quickly enough.
USC coach Tim Floyd said Friday that Stepheson's paperwork is now in the hands of his former school and that technically the Tar Heels have 10 days to respond.
"We're hoping to get a response sooner than that," Floyd said.
Stepheson is attempting to play without sitting out a year because of illnesses in his family. Stepheson told ESPN.com last month that he had to provide documentation about his parents to prove a need for him to forgo the traditional year-in-residence requirement for transferring from one four-year school to another.
Floyd said that while he waits for Stepheson's eligibility to be resolved he will start 6-foot-10 senior center
Keith Wilkinson next to 6-9 junior
Taj Gibson. Floyd said he'll bring 6-7 freshman
Leonard Washington off the bench as one of the top replacements for Wilkinson.
Floyd said that he was originally going to redshirt 6-10 freshman
Nikola Vucevic of Montenegro but that now, with the chance Stepheson may not gain his eligibility, he may play Vucevic. Floyd said he'll likely hold him out against the Anteaters and see whether it's necessary to play him next week.
"That's the other implication in this," Floyd said.
If the 6-9 Stepheson becomes eligible for the Trojans, they immediately become a Pac-10 title favorite along with UCLA and Arizona State. He would shore up the frontline next to Gibson and provide a safety net along the backline for the starting perimeter of
Daniel Hackett,
Dwight Lewis and
DeMar DeRozan.
• Floyd said he reminded his staff after watching Charlie Coles' team nearly nip UCLA on Thursday night that if they want to take over a mid-level program then they need to watch how Coles maximizes his talent. A year ago, the Trojans had to slog through a game in the Anaheim Classic to get past the RedHawks. Miami of Ohio nearly had No. 4 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion before losing 64-59.
"It's just miserable to play against them. Nobody does more with lesser talent, " Floyd said of Coles. "He's just terrific."
• Boston College announced Friday that it was suspending senior point guard and leading scorer from a year ago
Tyrese Rice for the Eagles' season opener against Central Connecticut State for a violation of team rules. Sophomore
Biko Paris will start in Rice's place.
• Checking in with Gonzaga as the Zags prepare to open the season. The five key points, according to head coach Mark Few:
1. Center
Josh Heytvelt is better than he was last year, both mentally and physically.
2. Freshman guard Demetri Goodson will help the Zags tremendously as a speedy, strong and reliable backup to Jeremy Pargo at the point.
3. Austin Daye is close to being back to his normal self after taking most of the summer and early fall off to deal with a knee injury that required rest. His conditioning isn't 100 percent yet, but he has started to regain some of the strength.
4. The Zags can go nine deep, but Few said that the minutes will vary and that he's still figuring it out.
5. Sophomore center Robert Sacre got the boot off his broken foot and has been cleared to run. Meanwhile, senior guard Micah Downs is in his best place physically and mentally since transferring to Gonzaga from Kansas two-plus years ago.
The Bulldogs open the season Saturday against Montana State-Billings.
• Kansas State may need to rename itself DC Assault. The Wildcats, with their connection to the Washington, D.C., AAU program through assistant Dalonte Hill, a former DC Assault coach, will have had six players from the program in Manhattan, Kan., after Kansas State signed 6-9 Wally Judge and 6-4
Rodney McGruder this week. The first four DC Assault players to sign with the Wildcats were former K-State star Michael Beasley and current players
Ron Anderson, a sophomore; redshirt freshman
Jamar Samuels; and sophomore
Dominique Sutton. The package deal of Hill, reportedly the highest-paid assistant in the sport at $420,000 a year, and Beasley is now expanding to a legitimate pipeline from, of all places, D.C. to the Little Apple.
• Charlotte moved to add football to its athletic department. If that occurs by 2013, I could definitely foresee a long-term move by Charlotte back to a more natural destination in Conference USA.
Andy Katz
