Thursday Lay-up Lines

Another quiet day for college hoops, as there are only two games on Thursday's schedule. Most teams will open up this weekend. So who is playing tonight? It is the second round of the CvC at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, where Weber State will take on Prairie View at 8:15 PM, with UCLA playing Miami OH after, with the tip scheduled for 11 PM.

In case you missed it, yesterday was college basketball's fall signing day. So who picked up some noteworthy recruits? From Jeff Goodman's Good 'n' Plenty Blog:

I just returned from Erik Murphy’s signing ceremony to Florida in which he put his name on the dotted line to play for Billy Donovan next year. Murphy joins Kenny Boynton and Deshawn Painter to comprise Scout.com’s third-ranked class in the nation. Here is a bunch of news that has gone down today. We’ll have more later and tomorrow.

Signing Day News

Derrick Favors (1), John Wall (2), Xavier Henry (4), Renardo Sidney (5) and Lance Stephenson (7) all sat idle today and aren’t expected to make a decision in the early period.

Texas – The Longhorns, who have Scout.com’s No. 2 class in the country behind North Carolina, got all three letters of intent from Avery Bradley, Shawne Williams and Shawn Williams.

UCLA – The Bruins signed four guys – led by Tyler Honeycutt (No. 21). Anthony Stover (70), Brendan Lane (83) and Reeves Nelson (89) also inked with Ben Howland today.

Illinois – The Illini – Scout.com’s 13th-ranked class in the country - got four signatures today from the likes of D.J. Richardson, Brandon Paul, Tyler Griffey and Joseph Bertrand. Richardson, Paul and Griffey are all Top 100 kids.

Kentucky – Billy Gillispie got three signatures today – from Daniel Orton (12), Jon Hood (36) and G.J. Vilarino. Orton is the prize of the group, but he may miss his entire senior season of high school with a knee injury.

Oklahoma – The Sooners got all four of their commits done. Tommy Mason-Griffin, Andrew Fitzgerald, Kyle Hardrick and Steven Pledger make up Scout.com’s 14th-ranked class.

Louisville – Rick Pitino and the Cardinals got four players – Rakeem Buckles, Peyton Siva, Stephan Van Treese and Mike Marra. Buckles and Siva are the headliners of Scout..com’s 19th-ranked class.

Purdue got four players signed – guard D.J. Byrd, swingman Kelsey Barlow and forwards Patrick Bade and Jeff Robinson.

Notre Dame inked four guys – forwards Mike Broghammer and Jack Cooley, big man Thomas Knight and guard Joey Brooks.

Vanderbilt signed guard Josh Jenkins, a big-time shooting guard who is ranked No. 67 in the nation by Scout.com.

Clemson signed a three-man class led by Milton Jennings (Scout.com, No. 23). The Tigers also inked Devin Booker (No. 65) and Donte Hill.

Tennessee inked Georgia native Kenny Hall, a 6-foot-8 forward out of Stone Mountain.

Baylor signed AJ Walton, Givon Crump and Cory Jefferson.

Iowa signed Eric May, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound forward out of Wahlert High.

South Florida signed guards Jordan Dumars (son of Detroit Pistons GM Joe Dumars) and Shaun Noriega.

Washington State signed wing Anthony Brown, point guard Xavier Thames and forwards David Chadwick and Brock Motum – a 6-foot-8 Aussie.

Penn State inked Houston native Tim Frazier, a 6-foot-2 guard.

Some other news: We talked about it yesterday, but Malik Alvin, the guard from Binghamton that was arrested after he stole condoms and ran over an old lady trying to escape, wasn't just stealing a few condoms - he stole 36!! And judging by these pictures, I don't think he needs to be stealing any condoms. One of those bills probably could have bought him more condoms than he would ever need.