Stephens reportedly helped his cause in a workout with the Brooklyn Nets, though. He recorded a 46-inch maximum vertical leap, according to ESPN’s Chad Ford, the highest ever recorded for a prospect.

Here at Brooklyn Nets workout. My favorite @DdotJAY30 is here. Measured with a 46" max vert here. Highest EVER measured by NBA

—
Chad Ford (@chadfordinsider) May 22, 2013

Stephens was one of college’s basketball’s must-see dunkers this past season, and not only in games. He showed off his ups by kissing the rim in practice. That skill is completely useless in the NBA, but it’s still really cool.

Check out Stephens kissing the rim in the video below.

Thumbnail via Facebook/D.J. Stephens

Mike Krzyzewski

Krzyzewski will try to lead the Americans to a third straight gold medal, a person with knowledge of the decision said Wednesday. Originally expected to step down, Krzyzewski will hold a news conference Thursday at Duke to confirm his return, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no official announcement has been made.

The Hall of Fame coach has led the Americans since 2005, winning gold at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and the 2010 world basketball championship. His return was first reported by Sports Illustrated.

“I think it’s great,” two-time gold medalist LeBron James said Wednesday night before the Miami Heat faced Indiana. “What he means to USA Basketball is beyond just what we do on the court. It’s what we stand for as Americans and being proud of the red, white and blue every time we step off the bus or practice or talk to the media or whatever the case may be. I think it’s great.”

Krzyzewski repeatedly said he planned to end his international coaching career following the Americans’ victory last summer in London. Yet USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo preferred to hold off any discussion until after Coach K finished his season with the Blue Devils, and he got the answer he wanted.

The 66-year-old Krzyzewski will lead the Americans next summer at the renamed World Cup of Basketball in Spain, where a victory would qualify them for the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil. They are 62-1 over the last seven years.

Krzyzewski’s return could help land commitments from some of the top NBA stars who have enjoyed playing in the program he and Colangelo revamped in 2005. James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony are among the All-Stars who have won multiple gold medals under Krzyzewski.

“I’ve got the utmost respect and trust in Coach K,” James said. “And whatever he decision was going to be, I think we all would support that.”

James has said he would like to be there in 2016 as well.

“It would be great,” James said. “First, I’ve got to make sure I stay healthy. If I’m fortunate enough to be healthy, I would love to represent my country again, but that’s a long time from now. So we’ll see.”

The U.S. team had been led by an NBA coach from the time NBA players were first used in the 1992 Olympics through the 2004 Games, when the Americans lost three times and finished third.

They managed only another bronze in their first tournament under Krzyzewski, the 2006 world championship, but haven’t lost a game since while restoring the U.S. as the top team in the world.

While that’s a matter for history classes to correct, George Washington University is at least doing its part to help people make the geographic link between its school and the man after whom it is named.

The school released an image of the new design it is planning for its basketball court at the Charles E. Smith Center on Monday. As well as the hardwood, navy blue coloring and the now-requisite hashtag, the floor also has some nice art of some of the city’s most famous landmarks.

It’s both a nice touch and very, very intentional, to help people connect that George Washington University is, indeed, in Washington, D.C.

“[The design] further emphasizes our campus setting in the heart of D.C.,” director of athletics and recreation Patrick Nero said in a news release. “When people around the world are watching our games, we want them to immediately recognize and understand the university’s unique setting in the middle of the action in this world-class city.”

Here’s hoping everyone knows who George Washington was. (He was the president, OK? First president of the United States.)

Check out the new court in the photo below.

Photo via Twitter/@ESPNCBB

But the Hamilton, Mass., native might not necessarily jump at the chance to play for his home-state team. After performing at the NBA draft combine in Chicago, the sophomore out of Syracuse sounded lukewarm to the idea of playing for the Celtics.

“That would be nice, but I kind of want to get away and play somewhere else,” Carter-Williams told the Boston Herald. “If the opportunity presents itself, that would be great. If I get chosen by the Celtics, that’s not something I’d get upset about. I’ll be happy about it. I’d just enjoy my time and work hard.”

Carter-Williams might be disappointed if he were drafted by the Celtics, but it has nothing to do with the team. A recent CBS Sports mock draft has him going sixth overall, while the latest DraftExpress mock draft has him going 12th. The Celtics are slotted to pick 16th, so Carter-Williams would have to suffer a Jared Sullinger-type drop for Boston to draft him.

Yahoo! chronicles the enormous number of gifts Ware has received from well-wishers. Among them are benign items like gum and silly putty, to everything from motivational books to gift cards to a box of T-shirts. Many fans have also sent in small amounts of cash with their letters.

And Ware can keep none of it. Due to NCAA rules, Ware is not allowed to receive gifts from fans, and that even extends to include legitimate tokens of goodwill.

That’s where Stephanie Davis comes in. Davis is a secretary in the athletics office at Louisville. However, her job description has changed a bit over the past few weeks, as she’s been designated for taking care of the continuing correspondence coming in to the university for Ware. Davis says that there are three full bins of mail for Ware, each one containing hundreds of letters.

Much of that mail has been flagged to return to sender. Any letter or package which is believed to violate NCAA rules is being sent back, or, in the cause of a box of “Be Ware the Cards” shirts, will be donated to a shelter. Louisville senior associate athletic director for compliance John Carns has been assisting Ware to determine what correspondence should not be kept.

The Yahoo! story also notes that Ware received an ACC blanket as a gift from conference commissioner John Swofford, which is, apparently, perfectly legal under NCAA rules.

Related articles

• NCAA Wont Allow Kevin Ware To Receive Get Well Gifts (blacksportsonline.com)
• One-On-One: Kevin Ware on his road back (espn.go.com)
• Louisville Claims No Profit from Controversial Kevin Ware-Themed Shirts (bleacherreport.com)
• L’ville’s Kevin Ware Already Rehabbing (lostlettermen.com)

As one of the nation’s top high school basketball recruits, the daughter of future Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. had scholarship offers from a number of college basketball powerhouses. But she instead chose to forge her own legacy at a school not known for it’s women’s basketball, Arizona, where her brother, Trey, is a wide receiver on the Wildcats football team.

“My family was pretty shocked. I hadn’t said anything because I didn’t really know what I was thinking,” Griffey told Central Florida News 13. “My brother is here and my dad and him were high fiving.

“One thing I really wanted to do ever since I was younger was make a name for myself and for a program, like how Skylar Diggins made her name at Notre Dame and Brittany Griner made her name at Baylor.”

Griffey was ranked No. 45 overall and No. 12 among guards in ESPN’s girls’ basketball prospect rankings. Prior to missing her junior season with an ACL injury, she earned Class 8A Player of the Year honors in Florida while leading Dr. Phillips High School to a state championship.

Arizona’s women’s basketball program has struggled in recent years, finishing 10th in the Pac-12 last season with a 4-14 conference record (12-18 overall).

Thumbnail photo via Facebook/Ken Griffey Jr.

NBA personnel officials and scouts gathered Thursday for the annual NBA draft combine, and players who went through workouts and interviews said they weren’t concerned whether this year’s class seems light on depth and talent. In fact, some see that as an opportunity.

“This draft class, they say there’s no Kevin Durant, there’s no LeBron James, so there’s a big window open,” said Georgetown small forward Otto Porter Jr., who calls his game similar to that of Memphis Grizzlies veteran Tayshaun Prince.

The player who got the most attention was Nerlens Noel from Kentucky, but the 6-foot-10 freshman’s availability will be in question since he is recovering from a torn ACL in his left knee after surgery in March.

Noel said he is “ahead of schedule,” but being ready for a season opener is overly optimistic, and Christmas is more of a target date.

“I’ve started to shoot some free throws the last week with a different type of brace on,” said Noel, who has yet to start running again in his rehab. “I’m 100 percent confident of not just gaining what I had but definitely being stronger, coming back better. During this time that I won’t be playing basketball, I’ll just be working on a lot of things that I needed to polish when I was playing.”

Noel called shooting among his needed areas of improvement.

“I think I’m at a good point, but obviously I can’t do too much right now,” Noel said. “I’m just doing a lot of form shooting right now. I think when I come back I’ll be able to knock down that 15-footer and be able to take my game to another level.”

Noel paid close attention to what happened with Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose this season. Rose sat out the entire year recovering from the same injury.

“It’s an injury you’ve got to be mindful of,” he said. “You can’t try to rush back from it. You want to have longevity in your career, just be careful with it.”

Noel said he’ll be particularly careful about the mental aspect of being comfortable with his return.

“As much as you want to be back, you want to be playing as long as you can in the NBA and not have to reinjure yourself and go through all this again,” he said.

If the injury causes Noel to slide, Kansas’ Ben McLemore is often mentioned as a likely No. 1 overall pick. He would be the first shooting guard selected No. 1 since David Thompson in 1975.

Andrew Wiggins, the top-ranked high school basketball player in the 2013 recruiting class, announced Tuesday that he will play for the Jayhawks this fall in what will likely be his lone collegiate season. The 18-year-old son of a former NBA player and a former Olympic track star chose to play for Bill Self in Lawrence over North Carolina, Kentucky and Florida State.

“We looked at all the offenses and the players coming in,” Wiggins’ father, Mitchell, told the Courier-Journal. “You can’t go wrong with any of those four schools,. He’s been under the microscope for three years. LeBron [James] took him under his wing the last two years. Kevin Durant has given him a lot of advice, Ray Allen has given him a lot of advice, Michael Jordan, a couple of weeks ago, spoke with him. He’s a very humble kid, he works hard and he has a lot of talent. It’s a relief for him because it was overwhelming for him.”

Wiggins, a native of Toronto, attended Huntington Prep in West Virginia, where he averaged 23.6 points, 11.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game in his senior season en route to being named the Naismith High School player of the year.

He’ll join fellow top recruits Wayne Selden (a Boston native) and Joel Embiid on a Kansas squad that fell to eventual national runner-up Michigan in overtime in the Sweet 16 this year.

If you haven’t seen Wiggins’ eye-popping highlight reel, take a look at the video below.

Photo via Facebook/Andrew Wiggins

Nebraska men’s basketball coach Tim Miles recently had what he thought was an innovative idea. If the youngsters are all about the social media, why not him?

Miles recently tweeted a picture of his own autograph on a basketball  but it wasn’t a conventional autograph. Along with his John Hancock, Miles also included his Twitter handle (@CoachMiles, if you’re interested), noting with a hashtag that he is trying to start a new trend.

No confirmation if this, in fact, the very first Twitter-handle autograph, but check out the image in Miles’ tweet below.

First ever twitter handle autograph #newtrend http://t.co/2dB8aomKlf

—
Tim Miles (@CoachMiles) May 10, 2013

Earlier this week Pitino went out on the water with some friends to fish for marlin for the first time in his life. So, of course he caught one, as Pitino and his buddies reeled in an 80-pound whopper of a marlin that ought to make a nice addition to someone’s den.

Check out a picture of Pitino and his boys with the mammoth fish below.

Photo via Twitter/@jdemling

The Arizona Cardinals picked Mathieu in the third round of the NFL draft this year, grabbing a player who is unarguably talented but carries quite a bit of baggage into his professional career. Mathieu had several missteps while at LSU, including being kicked off the team last August after positive drug tests, according to the university.

That led Mathieu’s stock to drop in the draft — and perhaps made the Cardinals think they could have him play without a great contract. Peter King of Sports Illustrated reported Monday that Arizona plans to give Mathieu random drug tests “as often as weekly,” and the team doesn’t intend to offer a contract with guaranteed money. Instead, Mathieu’s pay will come in the form of bonuses, which puts the team in a good spot if it wants to cut him, King reports.

Not so fast, Mathieu’s agent says.

Pat Lawlor, who represents Mathieu, is calling out the report.

“Ridiculous,” he told Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. “Not gonna happen. We had no contract discussion with them.”

Just because there have been no contract discussions doesn’t mean that it won’t happen, of course, but this negotiating has gotten off on a strange foot for both sides. While the Cardinals may be trying to strong-arm Mathieu, the fact that they already picked him and have now revealed their plans gives Mathieu and Lawler the upper hand. The team has also said it plans to move Mathieu to free safety.

Mathieu was already betting coming into the draft that his obvious talent would ensure him a home, no matter what happened in his past. As long as he continues to show potential, the Cardinals may have little room to disagree.

Pitino promised the Louisville Cardinals that he would get a tattoo if they won the national title. Surprisingly, after the team won it all, Pitino didn’t back down, promising to fulfill his obligation. A few days later, Pitino said he would get a cardinal and an inscription noting his team as the 2013 national champs.

Now, finally, the long wait is over, and Pitino’s new tat has been revealed.

Posting shirtless with the national championship trophy in the foreground, the 60-year-old Pitino showed off the tattoo — which is actually Louisville’s “L” logo, and not a cardinal. It should also be noted that Pitino seems to have a lot of freckles on his body.

Check out Pitino’s ink in the image below.

Photo via Twitter/@ESPN

It was initially rumored that Smith would join the sizable pool of college stars that have declared for the NBA draft, including Kansas’ Ben McLemore, Michigan’s Trey Burke and Louisville teammate Gorgui Dieng.

Smith’s father fueled those speculations with his comments after the Cardinals defeated Burke and the Wolverines in the national championship, saying his son had nothing left to prove at the college level.

But Smith, a first-team All-Big East selection and third-team All-American this season, admitted that he does not yet possess the maturity to succeed in the NBA.

“I’m happy I finally got it off my chest,” he said at a press conference. “What was crazy after doing all the pros and cons of staying or going, the pros of staying were so much better than the pros of leaving.

“All my pros I put down for me leaving were very immature. You have to put the work in to get better, you have to do this, you have to do that. Those are challenges I felt like, along with coach, we both felt I’d be running way from, getting better and maturing as a player.”

In addition to Smith, Louisville also returns starting forwards Wayne Blackshear and Chane Behanan and Final Four Most Outstanding Player Luke Hancock as the Cardinals will attempt to become the first repeat champions since Florida in 2006 in 2007.

The Canadian phenom is quickly taking over the basketball world, and he took a small step toward that last week as a member of the World Team at this year’s Nike Hoop Summit. The 6-foot-7 Wiggins, who is expected to choose among Florida State, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina, finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and four assists Saturday in a win over Team USA. Wiggins reportedly also took part in a quick 3-point contest during his week in Portland with Kentucky-bound Karl Towns Jr. – and lost. The kicker? Towns is 7-1.

But for those Wildcat fans with visions of Wiggins and Towns combining to give coach John Calipari the nation’s most dominant inside-out game, time for a reality check. Not only has Wiggins yet to commit to Kentucky, but Towns has reclassified to the class of 2014, meaning even if Wiggins does play in Lexington next season, it seems pretty far-fetched to imagine him sticking around for a sophomore season to team up with Towns.

Check out some highlights from Wiggins at the Nike camp in the video below.

Thumbnail photo via Facebook/Andrew Wiggins

According to ESPN, Rice — who was fired earlier this month after video of him physically assaulting players and using homophobic slang became public — will collect $475,000 in a settlement with Rutgers. Rice had two years remaining on his contract, and he was owed more than $1 million.

“Tonight’s agreement is in the best interests of the university, and I am pleased this issue has been resolved,” said school president Robert Barchi.

In addition to Rice’s settlement, Barchi announced that up to $1.2 million had been set aside for other coaches and staff involved with the scandal. Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti was fired shortly after Rice, essentially for not firing Rice late in 2012 when he was first made aware of the video.

The top three picks — Griner, Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne, and Notre Dame’s Skylar Diggins — enter the WNBA as one of the most talented trios in league history and will be linked throughout their careers. They sat down with Sports Illustrated’s Maggie Gray to talk about sexuality and equality in sports.

Griner didn’t shy away from her own sexuality in the interview, stating that she is gay herself.

“I really couldn’t give an answer on why that’s so different,” Griner told Gray, when asked about gay players in the NFL versus women’s sports. “Being one that’s out, it’s just being who you are. Again, like I said, just be who you are. Don’t worry about what other people are going to say, because they’re always going to say something, but, if you’re just true to yourself, let that shine through. Don’t hide who you really are.

“It really wasn’t too difficult, I wouldn’t say I was hiding or anything like that. I’ve always been open about who I am and my sexuality. So, it wasn’t hard at all. If I can show that I’m out and I’m fine and everything’s OK, then hopefully the younger generation will definitely feel the same way.”

Delle Donne and Diggins both expressed their support of Griner and others and hope that men can someday be as supportive.

Photo via Facebook/Baylor Athletics

You probably remember this, of course, even though a key element of it is not true.

Sullinger was indeed predicted as a top-three pick — in 2011, in far-ahead projections that, due to their nature, often rely on a lot of assumptions and speculation. By the time the 2012 draft rolled around, Sullinger was consistently slated to go in the middle of the lottery, maybe as high as sixth, in the majority of mock drafts. This is not taking anything away from Sullinger, who proved up and down this season that many of his naysayers were wrong. But a lot had changed in a year. Nobody was drafting Sullinger, healthy or not, ahead of Anthony Davis, Bradley Beal or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Nobody.

Then the red flag came up, the Celtics nabbed Sullinger and the team started rewriting the narrative. Suddenly, Sullinger would have been drafted in the top three, or at least the top five, sans red flag. Never mind that Cleveland, picking fourth, wanted a wing player, or that Sacramento, picking fifth, had a weird fascination with Kansas’ Thomas Robinson, or that Portland, picking sixth, badly needed a point guard. Sullinger was a top-five talent, so he would have gone in the top five, all other evidence be damned.

We bring this up because a similar rewrite of reality happened Tuesday, when Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart announced he would not declare for the NBA draft. The move made sense. At 6-foot-4, Smart probably is too small to play shooting guard as a pro, and scouting reports indicate he does not run the pick-and-roll well. Yet as soon as he made his decision public, the reaction across the basketball blogosphere was shock that a “high lottery pick” was staying a Cowboy.

What? No. Stop. While a couple projections placed Smart as high as the top four — with ESPN calling him the No. 1 point guard on the board — those were not typical before Smart’s announcement. Many reliable draft websites had Smart being selected in the mid-to-low lottery, with the extremely thorough Draft Express placing him at No. 9. These projections have to be part of the reason Smart is staying in college. His move is not a shocking, boneheaded reversal. It is simply practical.

In a draft widely considered to be weak, Smart had several knocks against him. Trouble operating the pick and roll is as severe a red flag as any medical-related one for a would-be NBA point guard. Greivis Vasquez and Raymond Felton have proved that if a player can do little else other than run a pick and roll well, he can play point guard in the pros. Likewise, worries about Sullinger’s lack of length and athleticism reportedly caused some executives to back away from him prior to the draft, before any concerns about his back came up.

Again, this is not a knock against Smart or Sullinger. If anything, Sullinger’s success illustrates how a paint-by-numbers approach to the draft is loaded with faults. Both players show how drastically the premise can shift when the situation changes, however. It is easy to make predictions when they can’t possibly come true. Projecting Smart as the third overall pick would have been laughable when there was still a chance he could be in the draft. Now that he will not be drafted anywhere, such a wild projection cannot be proven false, so apparently it can be paraded around as truth.

Sullinger will be back on the court next fall, battling for a spot in the Celtics’ starting lineup. Smart will be back in Stillwater, Okla., hopefully honing his outside shot and running pick-and-roll drills until he collapses. They should turn out to be pretty good players, no matter where they were — or were not — drafted.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Photo via Facebook/Oklahoma State Athletics

Mike Rice

Rice was spotted this weekend still coaching his daughter’s AAU team in Neptune, N.J., according to Deadspin. Rice was as wild as ever, yelling at coaches and players, according to HoopsCritic.com.

On Sunday afternoon, Rice told one of his players, “I can’t even look at you.” Rice has been involved with his daughter’s team “for some time,” according to the Asbury Park Press and parents of the AAU team supported Rice on Twitter.

Obviously, Rice may treat 12-year-old girls differently than he treated 18-year-old men at Rutgers, but after video surfaced of the coach throwing basketballs, heaving verbal assaults and pushing players, it would seem highly inappropriate for him to be coaching at the youth level. If reports are true that Rice is still out of control and acting like a “lunatic,” as HoopsCritic.com relayed, maybe coaching just isn’t for him.

One can only wonder why parents of Rice’s AAU team are allowing him to stay on, except that he’s obviously overqualified for such a gig. It sounds like a bad Onion headline that Rice could get fired from coaching 18-to-22-year-old men, but that he’s perfectly allowed to lead 6th-and-7th-grade girls. Let’s hope this coaching gig doesn’t last as long as his three-year tenure at Rutgers.

Photo of the Day

Sadly, that glorious beard is no more.

Tweet of the Day

It’s Marathon Monday!

My fav Marathon Monday moment was frosh yr, when friend offered runner sip of beer. Guy took can instead, chugged entire thing, kept running

—
Daniel Duquette (@daniel_duquette) April 15, 2013

Video of the Day

At least the kid has a good arm.

Rick Pitino has dashed those dreams, though, choosing instead to have a little cardinal tattooed on his left shoulder in honor of Louisville winning the 2013 NCAA Tournament. Pitino said he would fulfill his promise of getting a tattoo after Louisville won, and he said on CBS This Morning this week that the cardinal will do the trick.

“I said it … not believing this was going to be a reality, but I am going to get it. I’m a man of my word,” he said. “I’m going to get it on my left shoulder. It will be a cardinal, and it will say 2013 champions.”

Maybe Pitino will be a real champ and show it off while wearing a tank top or something.

Correspondent Asif Mandvi profiled University of Minnesota wrestler Joel Bauman, who’s NCAA eligibility was revoked after he published a rap song under his own name. According to NCAA rules, student athletes are not allowed to profit from their names in any way.

The segment contrasts Bauman’s plight with that of former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon, who is suing the NCAA for using his likeness in the EA Sports video game NCAA Basketball 09.

Check out all the sarcastic, yet poignant hilarity in the video below.