We have been following the recruitment of 6-foot-9 Jason Fraser (Amityville H.S./Amityville, N.Y.), a shot-blocking force with good upside for quite some time now. In our last column we speculated that Villanova was the leader, but that there were mixed signals coming from the various "Fraser camps," regarding the fact that Fraser may wait until spring.

Then Fraser himself dabbled in some further misdirection (he must love drama, is Hamlet in his future?). He reportedly stated that Louisville coach Rick Pitino was the coach that could help him realize his potential the best and get him to the next level, or words to that effect. He cancelled a press conference, then rescheduled it, and invited a close friend who had committed to St. John's to join him at the press conference, making many believe that the darkhorse would be the choice.

	Jason Fraser chose to join a strong New York contingency headed to Villanova next season.

He also signed three Letters of Intent, but in the end wound up mailing only one.

The envelope please: The winner is: VILLANOVA!

Head coach Jay Wright has now established that 'Nova is back! And more importantly, they are going to recruit New York, city and state, and take their share of the top players, opening up a key area for a school looking to become a powerhouse again.

Fraser's commitment combined with those of lead guard Allan Ray (St. Raymond's/Bronx, N.Y.); forward Curtis Sumpter (Bishop Loughlin H.S./Brooklyn, N.Y.); and scoring guard Randy Foye (Eastside HS/Newark, N.J.), gives Villanova a strong base of talented players, most of whom figure to be around for four years as well.

Perception is very important in recruiting and this class makes Villanova "hot," in recruiting circles among the nation's top prospects.

Another New Yorker is also worth watching -- 5-10 point guard Darryl "Showtime" Hill (nickname courtesy of his former coach and guru, Cardozo High School head coach Ronnie Naclerio) -- is currently taking a postgraduate year at Milford Academy in Milford, Conn.

Hill dazzled us in the summer as he led the Long Island Panthers to the championship of the adidas Big Time Tournament; the nation's biggest and strongest, to the championship. Hill had verbally committed to West Virginia, but that is no longer the status quo. West Virginia is still recruiting Hill, but Hill is no longer committed to the Mountaineers. According to Naclerio, Hill has visited Fresno State and is tentatively scheduled to visit Southern California in the coming week.

Seton Hall, Memphis, Providence and others are all inquiring after Hill, whom we believed to be the best penetrate-and-kick point guard we saw all summer and a definite Top 100 player -- whom we rated higher than that.

Naclerio is very high on Hill, just as he was on another former player, Royal Ivey, whom he touted to several disbelievers. As of this column, Ivey just happens to be leading the University of Texas in scoring. Naclerio has a good eye and believes that Hill is a big-time point guard.

Other interesting news has Michigan State taking out insurance in the form of a juco guard. Rashi Johnson, a 6-2 guard out of Mott CC in Michigan, is an insurance policy in case sophomore guard Marcus Taylor decides to come out early for the draft after this season.

This all ties in to what seems to be the burning question this winter: "Why all the huge upsets in college basketball?"

Well, we have a recipe more interesting than John Madden's Thanksgiving Day turducken (a boneless chicken stuffed inside a boneless duck stuffed inside a turkey for the un-initiated).

Mix in two less scholarships, tougher academic standards, some high school players skipping college for the NBA, and a lot of freshmen and sophomores coming out early for the NBA and it all adds up to a still tasty pecan pie, but one with less filling, less pecans, and not quite as sweet.

In other words, other people have been sampling from the ingredients before that pie can be put in the oven, and the quality and depth of quality is no longer there in the college game. We could also talk about too many media and team timeouts taking all the flow out of the game, in addition to the fact that the 3-point line means just watching a lot of teams jacking it up, leading to a sameness of style.

But that's another rant for another story.

There are a dearth of big men, and therefore, many big men who are playing at the high-major level who would have been on the bench backing up a truly talented big man 10 years ago or so. There are plenty of athletes however, and with more and more teams taking junior college transfers, the better mid-major programs are a lot closer to the quality high major programs than ever before.

Thus, this late in the year, Michigan State has chosen to take a junior college player to protect themselves. It's too late to find a great point guard still available to them, and/or one good enough they can get.

And of course, with Taylor being just a sophomore, it would have been difficult to convince one of the better point guards to commit this fall.

If Taylor leaves they are covered, if not, they have a more mature player behind him for depth and they can recruit their next starting point guard out of the junior class. Out West, the Washington Huskies received a significant commitment from 6-5Brandon Roy (Garfield H.S./Seattle), a Top 100 player. Roy had been strongly considered by Arizona, among other high majors, but has some academic issues that made a lot of schools hold off.

Due to that, it was no surprise that Washington was able to keep him.

Forward Ivan Harris (Springfield South H.S./Springfield, Ohio), arguably the second-best junior (class of 2003) prospect in the state of Ohio, behind the best high school player in America period, Lebron James. He has made an early verbal commitment to Ohio State.

David Benezra and Mark Mayemura cover the national college basketball recruiting scene at their Recruiting USA (www.recruitingusa.com) website. E-mail at: hoopsusa@mindspring.com or call 818/ 783 - 2244 or 818/ 783 - 2212 for subscription information.