by Alex Schwartz

I spoke to Derrick Gordon '11 of St. Patrick's (NJ) within the past half hour, and he has informed me that he will indeed be pledging to Western Kentucky this evening. At about 6:00pm EST (about 30 minutes), the talented Garden State guard plans to commit to the Hilltoppers. He is currently on the Sun Belt school's campus for its Elite Camp. After months of speculation that Gordon would commit to WKU today, it seems that this is indeed the case, despite the fact that he has received high-major interested from schools such as Virginia Tech. I will talk to Derrick later tonight, and once it's official, I will post a quick article on it.

A few days ago I was fortunate enough to get in touch with one of the premier shooters in America, Mike Marra '09 of Northfield Mt. Hermon School (MA). A gifted long-range bomber, Marra will take his game to Louisville next year. "[The] coaching staff was big, [and] also, the facilities are amazing," stated Mike as to how he decided on the Big East power. Providence, Syracuse, Miami, and Wake Forest were the other schools he had as finalists. What is he most excited for about getting down to the defending conference champions? "Having a weight trainer to tell me exactly what to do and when to do it. I think that's going to help me out a lot. [I am] also looking froward to [Head] Coach P's [Rick Pitino] crazy, intense practices." Speaking of Rick Pitino, I inquired of Marra whether or not he is worried about the recent scandal involving the coach, to which he replied, "No, not at all." On another note, I asked Marra who he compares his game to: "Well, I love to compare myself to Ray Allen because he is a pure shooter, but that's not all he does. I love to shoot, but I like to run the floor and dunk too." Marra had to go to bed—he was courteous though, and told me I could ask some more questions if I wanted—as he said he has "6:00am workouts everyday." Clearly Marra is a dedicated player with a bright future. If you can shoot the rock, there's always going to be a spot for you.

Note- photo is from http://scouthoops.scout.com/