According to West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong, Bob Huggins is in a Charlotte Hospital (Daily Mail) as a precautionary measure after falling at the Charlotte airport this afternoon. Huggins, in town for an alumni event at Charlotte’s Carmel Country Club, apparently tripped over a cone after exiting the plane while checking his messages on his cell phone. After the fall, Huggins apparently felt dizzy and as a precaution was taken to the Carolinas Medical Center in downtown Charlotte.

This weekend at the fabulous Hoop Magic Sports Academy in Chantilly (VA) will the be inaugural DC Assault ‘Take Your Best Shot’ AAU Tournament. Ron Bailey of i95ballerz.com previews the event as DC Assault’s Take Your Best Shot is a Sign of Things to Come for area hoops. Here is the Tournament Schedule and Information for those interested. Anthony Jaskulski will be covering the action Friday night and Saturday for the NBE Basketball Report and we will also have a correspondent (or two) at the Hoop Group’s Southern Jam Fest on the University of Virginia campus.

Here are some Big East news and notes, including an update on another Georgetown transfer. The selection of a new home for former Florida player Jonathan Mitchell is nearing after a couple Big East visits. St. John’s lost out on the chase of a JUCO guard and the Hartford Courant has an excellent story on the earliest commitments ever accepted by Jim Calhoun as they continue their path to Storrs.

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2008 Speice Run ‘N Slam Bill Hensley Memorial
By Doug Ferguson

America’s basketball heartland was at a fever pitch this past weekend as the city of Fort Wayne, IN hosted the 2008 Bill Hensley Memorial Run N Slam AAU Tournament. While games were strewn in gyms all across the hub of Northeast Indiana, a majority of the action was held in the tradition-rich Spiece Fieldhouse. This museum disguised as a collage of eight courts is littered with memorabilia that is enough to keep basketball lovers in awe for days. Indiana legends from Larry Bird to Greg Oden and John Wooden to Bob Knight just begin to account for the jerseys hanging from the rafters.

Fans got to see all of this, and that was before a whistle blew or a buzzer sounded. The action overall was outstanding, however slightly disappointing for fans of the Big East. A few late scratches for various reasons left many of the conferences followers doing a lot of scratching in their own right. Only they were scratching their heads instead of a lineup card as two of the conferences top early recruits were unfortunately absent from action this weekend.

Center DaShonte Riley (high interest in Georgetown) did not travel with his team (Detroit’s “The Family). His team fared fairly well without him, going 3-0 in pool play before eventually falling in the elimination tournament leaving many to wonder if they are beatable with him in the lineup.

Team Philly, led by point guard Maalik Wayans (verbal commit to Villanova) was set to play as early as a week ago but ended up not making the trip to the Hoosier State. The show went on however, despite the absentees and there was still an extremely high level of basketball being played on the holy ground of the sport. Here are some of the highlights.

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Adam Zagoria sums up a few outstanding 2008 recruiting issues surrounding Rutgers and Seton Hall as both look to finalize their rosters for 2008. Seton Hall was hit by the NCAA with a penalty in regards to the latest APR numbers, but it will not impact their 2008-2009 roster.

Bob Huggins’ contract details have been released. Pretty good gig if you can get it! Players such as Wellington Smith, Joe Mazzulla and Alex Ruoff are working heard for next season.

Keno Davis is finding the Big East to be a tough task, getting started and facing the media! Norm Roberts has known this for several years and is looking at adding to his staff to keep things together.

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The NCAA has released the 2008 APR Reports By School (NCAA.org) as part of their Academic Performance Reform initiative. Once again, the NCAA Hits Men’s Basketball Hardest in the APR Results (SportingNews.com). The only Big East school hit with a penalty was Seton Hall, however, since they were notified last summer, the Pirates already served their penalty of one scholarship. Here are the multiyear APR averages of the Big East programs: