Today in the Morning Rumble, a Memphis forward is off to Virginia, Harry Giles continues to light up the summer's live recruiting period and Roy Williams writes a letter to a fan battling melanoma.
It wasn't an easy process but Austin Nichols has finally announced that he will be transferring to Virginia, a school that finished second to Memphis when the forward was coming out of high school.
Nichols initial was blocked from attending any AAC schools, Tennessee and any teams on the Tigers' non-conference schedule. Once his family decided to hire a lawyer, Memphis backed down, freeing the former top-25 recruit to choose his own home without any restrictions.
5-star prospect Harry Giles has blown up this summer on the grassroots circuit and the big man is currently the number one player in the 2016 ESPN recruiting rankings. Just check out some of the highlights from a player that helped lead the USA U19 team to a gold medal at the World Championships.
Giles recently cut his list down to five teams, North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Kentucky and Kansas, and has talked about teaming up with Jayson Tatum (Duke).
Charlie Humphries is a lifelong Tar Heels fan and was shocked by the gift.
"It was totally out of the blue," Humphries told ESPN. "I know he's extremely busy this time of year. It really surprised me and meant a lot to me."
This is truly what sports are all about.
2016 4-star recruit from Philadelphia, PA, Lamar Stevens, cut his list to eight schools this past week, including Temple, Pittsburgh, Indiana, SMU, Marquette, Villanova, Penn State and Maryland. Stevens could still add and subtract schools as the offers flood in, but for now it seems as if he is looking to stay close to home.
The Haverford School talent is an undersized four with toughness, great footwork, the ability to score around the rim and a knack for finding the ball.
This very well may be the best performance of the July live recruiting period: Zach Norvell, a 4-star recruit out of Chicago, dropped 53 points (!) on 14 three-pointers in Las Vegas. Norvell, who led Mac Irvin Fire to a win over the Castle Knights, was hitting jumpers from all over the court (11 of his three pointers came in the first half) and was attacking the basket on an injured ankle.
Norvell is only ranked 85th in ESPN's top 100 for the class of 2016, but he does have offers from multiple high-quality schools, including Memphis, Illinois, Oklahoma and Florida State. Bradley and Loyola (IL) also remain involved.
Norvell also attended high school with Jabari Parker at Simeon Career Academy.
Do you want to know more about new DePaul head coach Dave Leitao? Sports Illustrated put together an outstanding piece on Leitao's second stint in Chicago. The article talks about how the new head coach needs to recruit to the highest level in order to bring the Blue Demons to contender status in the Big East and have the chance at making their third NCAA Tournament in almost 25 years.