Recently in College basketball Category

--Joe Henricksen has an interesting blog post up on the Illinois Warriors, an elite AAU program that helped Naperville Central's Drew Crawford gain national exposure. Neuqua Valley forward Dwayne Evans currently plays for the Warriors.

--We didn't get a chance to link to this last week: Mike O'Toole, the former head coach at Joliet Catholic, will return to Neuqua as an assistant to Todd Sutton. A spot opened up on Sutton's staff with Bob Vozza's move to Metea Valley.

For some time now, Joe Henricksen has given Drew Crawford the benefit of the doubt. In a final installment for the City/Suburban Hoops Report, Henricksen ranks the state's top college prospects in the class of 2009, slotting the Naperville Central senior third.

Northwestern coach Bill Carmody has said that he thinks Evanston will be a good place for a guard to be over the next few years - the Wildcats have already recruited the interior players. Assistant Tavaras Hardy, who was instrumental in signing Crawford, told us: "We want to recruit kids that have a chance to make an immediate impact."

The departure of senior guard Craig Moore will open up a spot in the starting five next season, and Henricksen wasn't subtle in his prediction:

3. Drew Crawford, 6-5, 2G, Naperville (Central) ... There weren't enough people who were able to see just how good Crawford was during his high school career. Look for Crawford to start from day one at Northwestern and truly blossom in college.

UPDATE: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/sports/highschools/1536455,6_2_NA21_BHOOPS_S1.article

Benet senior center Joe Meyerhoff has signed with Utah Valley University, an independent Division I basketball program that will begin play in the Great West Conference next season.

The 6-foot-8-inch Meyerhoff averaged 12.7 points and 6.7 rebounds per game for the Redwings last season.

There's a column in here somewhere, and we'll soon explore the topic more in-depth, but did you see these two stories?

Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports absolutely crushed it with this explanatory piece about how NFL teams are doing due diligence on prospects. Show them an attractive woman's profile, get on to their Facebook page and then sift through all the friends, pictures and comments:

"It works like magic," said a personnel source that was familiar with his team's tactic of using counterfeit profiles to link to Facebook and Myspace pages of potential draft picks. The source directed Yahoo! Sports to one of the team's "ghost profiles" - a term he coined because "once the draft is over, they disappear. It's like they were never there."

Elsewhere in cyberspace, John Calipari's daughter Megan changed the status update on her Facebook page and broke a major college basketball story in the process. Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com details the scoop:

JOSH PASTNER IS THE NEW COACH AT MEMPHIS!! YAY!!

Chances are you won't be drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs this month, or be named the head coach of a Conference USA program anytime soon, but these types of stories raise a whole new set of issues for students, reporters, employers and anyone who has a Facebook account.

What's your reaction?

Marcus Jordan - Michael's kid - has made a verbal commitment to Central Florida.

Warren senior guard Brandon Paul edged out fellow Illinois recruit Jereme Richmond of Waukegan to win the 2009 Mr. Basketball of Illinois award.

Naperville Central senior swingman Drew Crawford received 20 first-place votes in ballots submitted by the state's coaches and media members. The Northwestern signee finished third in the voting with 137 points, behind Paul (337) and Richmond (321).

How would you have voted?

Naperville Central senior swingman and Northwestern signee Drew Crawford is scheduled to be part of the Chicago High School Classic, an all-star game that will take place Friday night at Niles North.

Marshall's Darius Smith - Crawford's AAU teammate who just verbally committed to Connecticut - is also expected at the event. Other players to watch that night include Illinois recruits Joe Bertrand (Sterling) and Brandon Paul (Warren).

Danny Crawford's first NBA season was 1985-86, and he will turn 56 in November. Retirement is an open question, and the referee takes it a year at a time now, working about 75 games per season plus the playoffs. That's the standard union contract.

With his son Drew about to leave Naperville Central to play at Northwestern, Danny is trying to make arrangements that will fill his schedule and strike a balance.

"I'm hoping that the NBA's gonna work with me," Danny said. "I know I'm asking a lot but (looking) at the Big Ten schedule, if Northwestern's playing Michigan or Michigan State, give me a game in Detroit."

There's probably a good compromise somewhere in that plan, but Drew's uncle Gene, a Big Ten official, won't have that flexibility. Gene was told he can't work any Northwestern games until Drew leaves Evanston.

Derek Raridon had a big night Tuesday at the Oswego East Sectional, as the 6-foot-6-inch Neuqua Valley forward exploded for 25 points to key a 69-49 victory over Plainfield North. Raridon is a coach's son, but sometimes that's a euphemism for "not athletic." Make no mistake, Raridon can play - the senior was the Upstate Eight Conference player of the year.

For background on this basketball family, be sure to check out Matt Bailey's piece, which details the father-son/coach-player relationship between Todd and Mitch Raridon at North Central College.

"It gets emotional when you see your kid come in as a freshman, those four years go by so quick," Todd said. "I always told my (players) that, but until you experience it with your own son, you don't quite realize just how fast it is."

It will start all over again next season, when Derek goes to play for his father at North Central.

Neuqua Valley graduate Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton scored all of her 15 points in the second half, but it wasn't enough as Purdue fell 67-66 to Ohio State in the Big Ten women's basketball tournament championship in Indianapolis, Ind.

Wisdom-Hylton, who was named to the all-tournament team, missed nearly 14 minutes in the first half after picking up two fouls. Purdue, which lost in the tournament final for the first time in three years, now awaits a possible at-large bid for the upcoming NCAA women's tournament.

Neuqua Valley graduate Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton, a Purdue senior, has made a successful return this season from an ACL injury, as evidenced by her Big Ten awards Monday night.

Wisdom-Hylton was one of two unanimous choices on the All-Big Ten first team, while also being named to the All-Defensive Team for the third time.

From Purdue's news release:

For the second time in her career, Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton was named first team All-Big Ten by the coaches and the media and for the third time is a member of the All-Defensive team. Wisdom-Hylton was one of two unanimous selections by the coaches to the first team. The senior forward finished the regular season ranked second in the Big Ten in both rebounding and steals, averaging 9.1 boards and 2.6 steals per game. Wisdom-Hylton also ranked in the top-10 in scoring and field goal percentage, averaging 12.8 points per game on 49.2 percent shooting. She leads the team in scoring and rebounding, is tied for the team lead in blocks averaging 1.6 per game, and is second in assists and steals.