9 A.M. — SI Weighs In On the Basketball Battle For D.C.

Luke Winn's Sports Illustrated blog on the deep-rooted basketball roots of D.C. and how its changing — http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_blogs/basketball/ncaa/2006/08/battle-for-dc.html

This blog post is nearly two years old, which makes it a nice time to reflect with the recent area college verbals. Just look at how stacked the Class of 2007 was for the area.

"Its Class of 2007 crop includes three 5-star prospects -- PF Michael Beasley (headed to Kansas State), SG Austin Freeman (Georgetown) and PG Chris Wright (uncommitted) -- and four with 4-star grades -- PF Jeff Allen (Virginia Tech), center Anthony McClain (uncommitted), SG Nolan Smith (Duke) and PF Julian Vaughn (uncommitted). From that group, all but Wright and Allen play for the D.C. Assault, an adidas outfit that may be the East Coast's top AAU team. "

The Assault, one of the premier AAU teams had a down crop this past season, but should be better in the years to come. It didn't help that Boo Williams is starting to raid some of the area's players (Kendall Marshall and Tristan Spurlock to name a few).

The story listed "Pipelines" for each hotbed; for D.C., it read, "Maryland and Georgetown have divided the city's spoils in recent years, but North Carolina's Roy Williams has muscled in to sign freshman Marcus Ginyard and '06 freshman Tywon Lawson."

Maryland's pipeline is all but dried up, while Georgetown's is overflowing.

11 A.M. — Thomas Robinson Sifting Through Offers

i95ballerz.com on Thomas Robinson's Recruiting Road: http://www.i95ballerz.com/story%20-%20thomas%20robinson%20first%20three%20visits.html

Thomas Robinson spent last season at Riverdale Baptist and will spend this coming year (his senior season) at New Hampshire's Brewster Academy. Basically, the 6-foot-8, 217-pound forward has his list of colleges, ranging from Kansas to Memphis to the University of Miami. Not to mention that Duke and Georgetown have expressed interest.

According to the article (it's a decent Web site despite the non-professional name), Robinson, who averaged 18 points and 12 rebounds last season, will visit Memphis, Kansas and USC. He'll use his official visit when USC hosts Ohio State. It's going to be hard to turn down the beautiful California skies when the top two teams in the nation (Georgia will lose by then) will face each other. Consider it a down deal for the D.C. native.