by Alex Schwartz

- One of the top 10 players in the class of 2011, 6'3 shooting guard Brad Beal of Chaminade (MO), has just announced his college decision. According to the Twitter account of The Shiver, the Show Me State stud is headed to Florida. Beal had narrowed his choices to Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri, with the Gators and Jayhawks considered the primary contenders. This is a major coup for Billy Donovan to get Beal out of the Midwest and into the fold for the SEC school. In addition, this is a tough blow to Bill Self and Co., who also just missed on arguably the best player in America, Harrison Barnes '10 of Ames (IA), who selected North Carolina.

- Vincent Robinson recently stepped down as the head coach at NIA Prep (NJ), but has wasted no time in getting a new job. Robinson's resignation, which was broken by Northstar Basketball via Twitter, seemingly came out of the blue, but he wished his players the best when we spoke. Now, he will have a chance to run his own program. "'The Robinson School Phoenix' is a new prep school coming to Newark for the 2010-11 season. The Robinson School will play a 40 game season against the top prep [schools] in the country! [The] coaching staff has over 500 college coaching connections and 30 years experience playing and coaching," stated Robinson via text message, adding, "Vincent Robinson is the Athletic Director/Head Coach and Frantz Pierre-Louis is the Assosciate Head Coach. Post grad and high school players welcome."

- PrepHoopsAssist has an article on the top five games in the 2009-2010 high school basketball season, and coming in at #1 is a matchup of the teams ranked #1 and #2 in Northstar Basketball's National Preseason High Top 100, St. Patrick's (NJ) and Findlay Prep (NV). The game will be played in Massachusetts on January 18th, which also happens to be my birthday! Of the five games, two are a part of the Spalding Hoophall Classic and two are a part of the Prime Time Shootout.

- Shannon Scott '11, a talented point guard from Milton (GA), took his name off the board last week. The son of former North Carolina star Charlie Scott, Scott committed to Ohio State according to multiple reports. Clemson and Northwestern were amongst the other schools under consideration. Scott was one of only about a dozen class of 2011 players at the 2009 NBAPA Top 100 Camp and is regarded as one of the top players in the class nationally.

- Dwayne Polee '10 is back on the board, as the 6'7 combo forward from Westchester (CA), has decommitted from USC according to an article on Rivals, after not signing with the Trojans during the early signing period. He is one of 17 unsigned players in Northstar Basketball's Class of 2010 Terrific 125, just 15 of whom are uncommitted seniors (Shaq Thomas is now in the class of 2011 and Luke Cothron is committed to North Carolina State, but did not sign with the Wolfpack).