SYRACUSE, N.Y. — In a trend that has some coaches concerned, the ultra-competitive world of college basketball recruiting has come to include scholarship offers to and verbal commitments from players as young as 15, well before anyone knows for sure who will be a five-star recruit.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — “I went to dunk the ball like I usually did, grab the hoop and swing on the rim,” Syracuse center Arinze Onuaku said. “And when I was swinging on the way down, I heard the rim crack, and it came down with me.”

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The most famous walk-on in the nation is handling the start of his college basketball career with aplumb. “Jeffrey Jordan gets a lot of hype and everybody’s always asking about him,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.

While fielding questions regarding the future of his young and inexperienced team, UF men’s basketball coach Billy Donovan was left looking for answers. When asked about Marreese Speights, the most talked about player on the roster, Donovan summed up his confusion.

After finishing the regular season with a tough loss at Villanova before crashing out of the Big East tournament two games later against Georgetown, Syracuse was left with credentials still gave the Orange a more-than-respectable claim to an NCAA Tournament selection. Yet, as the history books read, SU was snubbed and played out the season in the National Invitational Tournament as a national afterthought. With two more Big East games, Syracuse could have possibly scrapped out two more resume-building wins and left even less doubt about its selection.

LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Kansas basketball team might have to get used to sharing the limelight and the headlines with the Jayhawks football team.