A blast from the past

From Court Side:

Darnell Williams (202 cm, San Jose State´01) will continue to wear the jersey of San Quentin in the French ProB after extending his contract with the club. The American has become one of the mainstays of the San Quentin roster since joining the club in 2011 and is now in his third season with the outfit. This campaign the power forward has featured in 41 games and has collected averages of 10.1 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Before linking with San Quentin, Darnell Williams has played exclusively in France during his pro career. He has hit the court with the likes of Rouen Basket and Beauvais.

More recruiting for the future news

From Brandon Tatera/California Preps:

"...El Cerrito's Tyrell Alcorn and Salesian's Bernard Ward are two of the least heralded players on the Soldiers' roster but they saved them against Cal Supreme, as each made huge plays. Alcorn's on-ball defense and passing ability, Ward's exceptional outside shooting should make each targets at the Mountain West and West Coast Conference level with, among others, San Jose State assistant coach Chris Brazelton and San Francisco/Portland head coaches Rex Walters and Eric Reveno courtside..."

Lepore on the road recruiting

On April 25,new SJSU Assistant Coach Mike Lepore tweeted: "Day 1 of the gauntlet is in the books, see ya tomorrow Dallas"

This past weekend, Adidas held the Dallas Gauntlet in which a large number of Adidas sponsored teams from around the country were involved in a tournament. Per NCAA regulations, it was an open period so college coaches were allowed to be present. So Lepore jumped right into the new role of assistant coach.

Gustys has eliminated SJSU

Adam Zagoria reports that Rokas Gustys is down to four schools -- SJSU isn't one of them --  and will be making his decision next week.

Hence the signing of Ryan Singer by the Spartans.

Katz on the MWC

Andy Katz/ESPN takes a look at the Mountain West Conference this past season and next year. Two takewaways:

"...But to maintain its status as an alternative to the traditional five, much like the Atlantic 10, the MWC has to get its bottom in gear..."

and

"...The problem was that the MWC was only those two [San Diego State and New Mexico] teams..." 

Ojanen joins the coaching staff

Now it's Tyler Ojanen who will be joining Coach Wojcik's staff at San Jose State University and that is a good move. It brings in someone with excellent California contacts since he was last assisting Gus Argenal at Cal State East Bay and worked under Randy Bennett prior to that.

Ed Boyce must have gotten sticker shock from the booming Bay Area housing market.

Here's an article I did on Ojanen back in September of last year.

A big to Washington Square

Ryan Singer tweeted: "After deciding to reopen my recruitment, I have committed to San José State to play basketball next year!"

Singer earlier committed to Penn but decided not to pursue that direction.

Here's a Q-and-A he participated in prior to changing his mind.

Singer's self assessment of his game:

I’m a 6-foot-11, 220- pound forward. I play inside and outside. I’m more of a versatile four-five. I don’t post up the entire time. I like to go outside. I like to shoot outside shots because a lot of bigs won’t guard other bigs outside and I have taken advantage of that. I have a good jump shot as well as skills inside.

My strongest attributes are my ability to run the floor faster than most big guys and my defense. I think [defense] is the strongest part of my game and I can shut down some big players.

He did a prep season this year at Massanutten Military Academy:

...Among the extensive group of newcomers is 6-11 center Ryan Singer from Littleton, Colo. Singer, who drew plenty of interest as a high school player at Littleton's Heritage High School, decided he wanted the extra year a postgraduate program provides to improve his game and possibly his options.

"I had offers. Whether or not they were right for me or not, it's my decision and my parents' decision," Singer said. "We saw Massanutten as an opportunity to get an extra year to get bigger and stronger, and get more play and hopefully bring in more looks from college."

"... I found out about Massanutten because of the reputation. Obviously, it's a great basketball program and they did very well last year and drew a bunch of attraction...

How New Mexico's top talents are projecting in the NBA draft

New Mexico had three of the top players in the Mountain West Conference this season and Geoff Grammer has rounded up projections for each in the NBA draft. Remember that Cameron Bairstow was named the Most Valuable Player.

Yes, it's a mighty step up.

More on Mahoney

Nathan Mollat writes about Serra High's Danny Mahoney coming to San Jose State University.

MWC bigs in small numbers

With UNLV's Khem Birch announcing he will enter the NBA drafr, Geoff Grammer tweeted: "Not a proven true center in entire Mountain West right now. Maybe you can call Skylar Spencer and/or AJ West true centers I suppose."

Plus: "Mountain West has just 7 players returning for 2014-15 who are 6-8 or taller & played 20-plus minutes per game this season"

Thanks and have a wonderful future (but it doesn't include us)

Dave Southern writes about an aspect of the business side of college athletics. Don't ever forget that this is first and foremost a big business.

SJSU women land a JC backcourter

Ellie Stevens, a 6-foot sophomore guard out of Lamar Community College in Colorado and a native of Australia, has signed with SJSU. In 2011-12, she was at Idaho State but apparently either redshirted or departed without losing any eligiblity because she played two years at Lamar.

From SJSU athletics.

Nessman moving on to Justin-Sienna

Marty James reports that former SJSU Coach George Nessman has been hired as the athletic director at Justin-Sienna High in Napa.

Former Spartan assistant in at Houston

Via Mark Berman: "College basketball sources: UH coach Kelvin Sampson hires Texas State assistant coach Talvin Hester as a new Cougars assistant coach."

Duruisseau back playing AAU ball

Denevir Duruisseau is going back on the circuit for further exposure which is unusual for a senior of his caliber: "I will be playing AAU this weekend in Anaheim this weekend with Double Pump"