This release just landed in my e-mail in-box:

NEW YORK, NY (February 18, 2010) – Jordan Brand, a division of NIKE, Inc., announced today during a special ESPNU Selection Show that the top 10 ranked ESPNU 100 players – No. 1 Harrison Barnes (Ames, IA/North Carolina), No. 2 Jared Sullinger (Columbus, OH/Ohio State), No. 3 Brandon Knight (Coral Springs, FL/Undecided), No. 4 Kyrie Irving (West Orange, NJ/Duke), No. 5 Tobias Harris (Dix Hills, NY/Tennessee), No. 6 Will Barton (Baltimore, MD/Memphis), No. 7 Josh Selby (Baltimore, MD/Undecided), No. 8 C.J. Leslie (Holly Springs, NC/Undecided), No. 9 Perry Jones (Duncanville, TX/Baylor) and No. 10 Tristan Thompson (Brampton, ONT/Texas) – will headline the nation’s best high school senior basketball players at the 2010 Jordan Brand Classic, presented by Foot Locker, at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday, April 17 at 8:00 p.m. EST. This year’s event will once again be televised nationally live on ESPN2.
Read more »

Kentwood basketball star Joshua Smith will play at UCLA. The 6-foot-10, 270-pound center on Monday evening gave an oral commitment to the Bruins.

Smith, rated as the No. 4 center in the nation by Scout.com, said UCLA was his frontrunner all along.

“In the end it was something I wanted to do. This was my choice and it’s where I wanted to go,” Smith told Scout.com. “I would say at the end of my junior year. Before that, they were in the front kind of like what the rumors were saying. I gave the other schools a chance just to …

Read more »

I saw these photo’s of the Kentwood football team’s Monday night scrimmage on Mick White’s Kent Valley Sports site. The big guy? That’s senior Joshua Smith. The 6-foot-10 basketball star with offers from Duke, UCLA, Washington and others is playing football for the first time since eighth grade.

I spoke with Conquerors coach Rex Norris on Sunday evening and he said Smith is competing for playing time like everyone else. It didn’t sound like Smith’s playing time would be limited or he’d only be used in certain situations — PAT block, anyone? — but that he’ll play a …

Read more »