The Big East will meet the Big 10 when Pittsburgh and Indiana face off Dec. 8 in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden.
“We’re planning to play them in the Jimmy V,” an Indiana source said.
The news was first reported by Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com.
Pitt is losing DeJuan Blair, Levance Fields and Sam Young, but returns guards Jermaine Dixon, Ashton Gibbs, Brad Wanamaker and Travon Woodall, and is bringing in McDonald’s All-American big man Dante Taylor. Both Gibbs and Taylor were invited to try out for the USA U19 National Team that will compete in the FIBA World Championships next month in Auckland, New Zealand.
Indiana is still pulling itself out of the Kelvin Sampson recruiting scandal but head coach Tom Crean is making recruiting inroads in the metropolitan area.
Kyrie Irving, one of the top combo guards in the Class of 2010, has Indiana near the top of his list.
Speaking of Irving, he visited Texas A&M this week and told AggieYell.com that he enjoyed his visit, thought highly of the facilities there and that the school was a real possibility for him.
The family has a connection to the school because Drederick and Aggie assistant coach Scott Spinelli played together and roomed together at Boston University.
Irving also visited UConn unofficially recently and now lists UConn, Georgia Tech, Duke, Indiana, Seton Hall, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Florida, Marquette and Kentucky.
He plans to cut his list to five later this summer and then take all five official visits.
Irving will play this week in the NBA Players Camp in Virginia.
RIGOGLIOSO TO RUTGERS
Former Rutgers walk-on Charlie Rigoglioso has transferred back to the school from Moravian College, according to ScarletNation.com and confirmed by sources.
Rigoglioso, a native of Wayne, N.J. who was a three-sport star at Wayne Valley High School, left Rutgers before last year and played at Division 3 Moravian (Pa.) College.
“The last time that I saw him he said that that was the one of the possibilities, that he would go back to Rutgers,” Wayne Valley coach Joe Leicht said. “When he was there, he liked it. The only problem was he wasn’t playing in the games. But he played in all the practices and they liked him very much.”
He will have to sit out a year before becoming eligible again in 2010-11.
Rutgers is still searching for a point guard for the future and will likely go with Corey Chandler this year if James Beatty of Miami Dade doesn’t commit.PRINCE TO EUROPE Speaking of Rutgers, Epiphanny Prince, a star on the Rutgers women’s team, is skipping her senior year of college to play in Europe. “I just wanted to start my pro career,” Prince told The Associated Press by phone. “I feel it was the right move for me and my family. I’ve always dreamed of playing in the WNBA.” Several male players have gone or will go to Europe, including Brandon Jennings, who spent a year in Italy and is about to become an NBA lottery pick, and Jeremy Tyler, a 6-10 high school junior from San Diego who plans to spend two years in Europe before entering the 2011 NBA Draft.
