UCLA's Joshua Smith poses for a photo at the Guanjude Roast Duck Restaurant (via UCLA athletics)

Since Los Angeles is home to numerous movie stars, pop singers and professional athletes, members of the UCLA basketball team typically don't draw much attention when they venture outside of Westwood.

Joshua Smith (left) and Norman Powell (right) pose with a tourist at the Great Wall (via UCLA Athletics)In basketball-crazed China, however, the reception has been a little bit different.

Wherever the UCLA traveling party has gone during the first two days of the Bruins' trip to China, they've become the attraction. Hundreds of Chinese, young and old, approached the UCLA players and coaches for autographs and pictures on Friday during their tours of the Great Wall and the Forbidden City and during their team lunch at the Guanjude Roast Duck Restaurant in Beijing.

The most popular Bruin has been center Joshua Smith, partially because of his 6-foot-10, 300-plus-pound frame and partially because of he wore a sedge hat he purchased earlier in the trip. A group of Chinese women even poked fun at how much of taller he was than them, standing on a nearby stage so they could be close to his height in the photo.

In Friday's UCLA in China diary entry, Smith shared his reaction to the attention he has received and his thoughts on seeing the Great Wall and the Forbidden City for the first time.

James Michael McAdoo and the Tar Heels will face a difficult ACC slate (Getty Images)

If North Carolina is going to out-duel Duke and NC State for the ACC title next season, the Tar Heels will have to overcome what appears to be a more difficult conference schedule.

Since there are 12 ACC schools and the league slate is 18 games, every team plays seven conference opponents twice and faces the remaining four only once. The imbalanced schedule released this week did North Carolina no favors because the four teams the Tar Heels see only once next season are Wake Forest, Boston College, Virginia Tech and Clemson, all of which are projected to finish in the bottom half of the ACC.

By contrast, NC State and Duke avoid playing one or more potential NCAA tournament teams twice.

The four teams NC State will only face once are Miami, Maryland, Virginia and Virginia Tech. Miami should finish in the upper half of the league, and Maryland has a chance to as well if Nick Faust emerges as a go-to scorer, Alex Len develops and the freshman class makes an immediate impact. And while Virginia Tech is in transition and Virginia will look very different without Mike Scott, neither figure to be among the league's worst teams.

Among the four teams Duke avoids playing twice is Florida State, perhaps the most worthy challenger to the Tobacco Road trio next season and a team that has given the Blue Devils fits in recent years. The other three teams Duke will only get once are Virginia, Clemson and Georgia Tech, hardly a murderer's row but also not Boston College or Wake Forest either.

Michael Snaer (Getty Images)

Say this for Florida State's Michael Snaer: He has never lacked for confidence.

He spurned established powers like UCLA in high school because he wanted to "make history" by turning Florida State into a winner. He said entering last season that the Seminoles shouldn't settle for anything less than a national title. And now, in an interview with ESPN.com on Thursday, he claimed he's out to prove he's the nation's best shooting guard.

"[At LeBron's camp], I think we did one-on-one drills one time. I just straight destroyed people," Snaer said in the interview. "So I mean, at that moment, I just knew, in my opinion, I'm the best guard in the country, the best two-guard in the country, in my opinion. Any guy would say that of course. But, like I said, you ask any of the guys that were down there [in] that drill with me and who laced up and went against me -- I can give you references if you want — but they'll tell you, 'Yeah, I couldn't guard him and nobody down there could.'"

Snaer's bravado may sometimes get him in trouble, but in this case he has every right to insist he should be in the running for the title of top shooting guard. He averaged 14 points per game last year, limited his turnovers, played his usual brand of fierce perimeter defense and shot much more comfortably from behind the arc, sinking 40 percent of his threes including a pair of buzzer-beaters against Duke and Virginia Tech.

Of the nation's returning shooting guards, only a handful are in Snaer's class.

Keith Clanton (US Presswire)At the end of an offseason in which more than 500 players have transferred in search of more playing time or greater exposure, Central Florida's Keith Clanton has proven loyalty in college basketball is not dead.

The one-year postseason ban the Knights received July 31 enabled Clanton and his fellow UCF seniors to transfer anywhere they wanted without having to sit out a year as is typically customary.

Kentucky expressed interest in Clanton via his high school coach. Ohio State, Florida State and numerous other high-profile programs did too. To the surprise of many in college basketball circles, however, Clanton spurned them all, announcing Saturday he intends to stay at UCF even though the Knights will not be eligible to compete in either the NCAA tournament or their conference tournament.

"UCF is where my heart was at," Clanton said. "At the end of the day, I felt like UCF was the best place for me. I felt like the coaching staff and the players, I can trust everybody. And then knowing what we have as a team still here, I still feel like we have a chance to accomplish a lot."

Keeping its leading returning scorer and rebounder was vital for a UCF program that has endured a very trying last few weeks.

The NCAA hammered UCF for various recruiting violations, handing down wide-ranging penalties that included the one-year postseason ban, a three-year show-cause penalty for coach Donnie Jones and reductions in scholarships and recruiting days. Three key seniors then left the program, with point guard C.J. Reed transferring to Georgia Southern, forward Josh Crittle leaving for Illinois-Chicago and shooting guard Marcus Jordan opting not to play at all this season. 

UCLA buses to practice with Tsinghua University on Thursday hours after arriving in Beijing (via @UCLAMBB)

The absence of top freshman Shabazz Muhammad has received so much attention leading up to UCLA's week-long exhibition tour of China that it's easy to forget there's still plenty to learn about the Bruins this week.

Travis Wear gets some rest before UCLA's 13-hour flight to Beijing takes off (via @UCLAMBB)The three games UCLA will play in China figure to provide preliminary answers to some of the questions that will determine whether UCLA regains its place among college basketball's elite this year or continues to struggle.

How much has point guard Larry Drew II improved since his abrupt midseason departure from North Carolina almost two years ago? Is hefty center Joshua Smith in good enough shape to play more than 20 minutes a game without getting fatigued or fouling out? Can this team defend in anywhere close to the manner Ben Howland's teams did during their run of three straight Final Fours? And how big of an impact can the other elite recruit, Kyle Anderson, make right away?

To provide insight into UCLA's trip, Yahoo! Sports will be running a daily update on the Bruins featuring a diary entry from one of the players and other tidbits. Up first is highly touted freshman forward Tony Parker, who is unlikely to play in China because of a hamstring injury but traveled with the team anyway.

Parker's entry focuses on UCLA's daunting trip to China, which began when the team left campus at about 10:15 p.m. on Tuesday (PST) and ended at 8:45 a.m. in Beijing on Thursday morning when the Bruins arrived at their hotel. Squeezing a 6-foot-9, 280-pound frame into an airplane seat for 13 hours could not have been easy, but Parker took it in stride and is looking forward to Friday's visits to the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.

Kentucky freshman Nerlens Noel remains under investigation by the NCAA (Getty Images)

We already knew the NCAA was looking into the recruitment of Kentucky freshman Nerlens Noel. Now we have an idea that the investigation has extended beyond the point of a routine inquiry.

Two NCAA enforcement officials traveled to Noel's New Hampshire prep school for a three-hour meeting earlier this month, SI.com's Pete Thamel reported Wednesday. Adding to the intrigue, Kentucky chief compliance officer Sandy Bell accompanied NCAA investigators for the meeting, a rarity were this merely basic fact-checking.

At issue, according to the story, is how Noel paid for his unofficial visits and why he associated himself with certain people. The two most likely to raise questions are ex-Providence assistant Chris Driscoll and former Everett High School substitute teacher Errol Randolph, both of whom have served as advisers to the 6-foot-11 center.

A previous New York Times investigative piece detailed how Driscoll was banned from Tilton Prep School's campus after coaches alleged he was attempting to steer Noel to certain schools and did not have the player's best interest at heart. Randolph, until earlier this summer, had a link on his LinkedIn page to the website of a prominent sports agency.

The obvious question in the wake of this latest report is the same as it has been for months: Will this lead anywhere? At this point, the answer remains unclear.

For this to jeopardize Noel's eligibility at Kentucky, the NCAA will probably have to find concrete evidence he has accepted extra benefits.

Instead of sifting through scholarship offers, selecting a school and launching his college basketball career as he originally planned, an Ohio high school standout will have to put his dreams on hold.

Tony Farmer, an 18-year-old senior at Garfield Heights High School, received a three-year prison sentence on Tuesday as a result of pleading guilty to kidnapping, felonious assault and other crimes.

The 6-foot-7 forward had been hoping to receive probation after teachers, coaches and family members testified on his behalf. When he learned he'd be going to prison as the judge read his sentence, he crumpled into the arms of a sheriff's deputy and collapsed to the ground in anguish.

In an odd twist, among those in the gallery sobbing in reaction to the judge's decision was the victim herself, Farmer's ex-girlfriend Andrea Lane. Even though the two remain separated since Farmer attacked Lane last April after she didn't want to reconcile their relationship, Lane had previously asked Judge Pamela Barker not to put Farmer in prison.

"I know he was a good person," she said, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "I hope he still is."

Norvel Pelle (Rivals.com)Iona's hopes of returning to the NCAA tournament next March received a boost Tuesday night with the addition of an unusually high-profile recruit.

Norvel Pelle, a consensus top 50 Class of 2012 prospect, committed to the Gaels, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed. The 6-foot-11 big man originally signed with St. John's last year before reopening his recruitment after failing to qualify academically.

The only caveat to Pelle's decision for Iona is that it's still not a sure thing he'll be able to suit up for the Gaels this season. Two sources confirmed the NCAA has not yet declared Pelle academically eligible but also said they're hopeful he'll be able to play.

If Pelle does play for Iona this season, the Gaels will get a big man coveted by programs from leagues with greater pedigree than the MAAC. San Diego State and Iowa State initially pursued Pelle after he parted ways with St. John's and DePaul and Auburn were among the programs still interested at the end.

Pelle is an athletic big man who blocks shots, runs the floor well and has expanded his offensive repertoire. Surround him with talented perimeter players like MoMo Jones, Sean Arnand and Toledo transfer Curtis Dennis, and suddenly Iona looks like the class of the MAAC once again.

When Iona graduated point guard Scott Machado and forward Mike Glover, it appeared a dropoff from last season was all but inevitable. Replacing the pass-happy Machado as the catalyst for an up-tempo attack won't be easy, but don't expect the Gaels to fade from the national spotlight either.