Lost in the epic tragedy of the heinous terrorist acts earlier this week that continue to impact all America, a recruiting announcement was made on Wednesday. Evan Burns, one of the nation's top players, committed to UCLA.

While other schools were listed with Burns, it has been a foregone conclusion for some time that his decision was more likely between UCLA and the NBA rather than between the Bruins and other schools. Burns, a , a 6-foot-7 talent out of Fairfax H.S. in Los Angeles, has not yet taken the SAT or the ACT, and is therefore not a full qualifier at this time.

Once eligible, Burns will be an impact freshman player for UCLA. He is both athletic and skilled and is perfect for their preferred style of play.

Since our last column in which we ranked the early classes, Duke has received a commitment from one of the nation's top big men, 6-9 Shelden Williams (Midwest City, Okla.). Williams impressed us with his aggressiveness, competitiveness and work ethic during games we viewed in July and should be a very good fit at Duke.

And yes, enraged "Dookies", the commitment of Williams means that Duke will likely be either number one or number two when we do the final fall rankings. It's hard to imagine any program being able to pull in more players who will be asked to contribute right away. That is, unless, programs like Indiana continue to pull in a number of high-ranking recruits.

Indiana already had highly underrated 6-2 point guard Marshall Strickland in the fold and recently added one of the nation's top shooting guards in 6-3 Bracey Wright (The Colony, Texas). All of which means the Hoosiers will be cracking our Top 10 list since they now have what is likely to be the top backcourt among the nation's recruiting classes.

Forward Derek Burditt (Ehret H.S./Marrero, La.), who had made an early commitment to California only to later renege on his verbal, made another verbal commitment to Tulane. In that the 6-7 Burditt is a local talent deemed an SEC-caliber prospect, this is a significant recruit for the Green Wave. Burditt played hurt all summer, which may have lowered his stock with a lot of recruiters. But of course, that only helped Tulane -- although it was certainly far from being the reason Tulane was able to nab him.

Combo-guard Ernest Turner (Sterling H.S./Somerdale, N.J.) has seen the NCAA grant his appeal for full eligibility. The 6-1 Turner was a partial qualifier, but appealed to be immediately eligible. Turner is a prodigious scorer who should see good minutes as a freshman for UNLV this year. Wth all that has happened to the UNLV program recently, this certainly has to be a huge bright spot for new heed coach Charlie Spoonhour.

Turner is enrolled as a full-time student, unlike California's top recruit, 6-8½ Julian Sensley (St. Thomas More/Oakdale, Ct.). Cal does not accept partial qualifiers. Sensley's first appeal was denied by the NCAA and he is therefore not enrolled at Cal and obviously not taking classes. He has since undergone a battery of tests by a professional to determine his learning disability, documents of which are on file at the schools Sensley attended in Hawaii, although it appears that nobody thought it was important to get that information prior to Sensley's first appeal.

Sensley now has a lawyer and is currently "appealing the denial of his first appeal" if you will, with the NCAA. It is expected a decision will be reached by the end of September, if not sooner. If successful, Sensley would be eligible to practice and play on or around Dec. 21 of this year.

David Benezra and Mark Mayemura cover the national college basketball recruiting scene, both high school and junior college recruiting, at their Recruiting USA (www.recruitingusa.com) website. Call (818)783-2244 for subscription information or e-mail them at hoopsusa@mindspring.com.