Karl Towns Jr.'s towering size and diverse skill set makes it easy to forget he's still a high school freshman, but the 6-foot-11, 225-pound Piscataway, N.J., resident still occasionally has moments when he shows his youth.

When his father informed him after a workout Monday that he'd made the Dominican national team, which will compete for the country's first-ever Olympic berth this summer, Towns initially didn't recognize the gravity of what he'd accomplished.

"It was so funny when I told him," his father, Karl Towns Sr., said. "He said, 'Oh, that's nice, but daddy, I'm so hungry you wouldn't believe it.' He'd just got done working out and he was tired, so I told him at the wrong point."

Only after a flood of calls from reporters and congratulatory texts and tweets from friends did the 16-year-old Towns finally understand the opportunity he now has. Towns, whose mother is Dominican, will play alongside the likes of NBA veterans Al Horford, Francisco Garcia and Charlie Villanueva in pool play of the Olympic qualifying tournament July 2-8 in Caracas, Venezuela.

[Mike Krzyzewski coaching U.S. Olympic hoops team despite downside]

The addition of Towns to the Dominican team will undoubtedly raise questions since Kentucky's John Calipari will be his coach this summer. As a result, Kentucky will have an advantage over the dozens of high-profile schools recruiting Towns since Calipari will coach the Class of 2015 standout directly this summer during training in Lexington and during the qualifying tournament.

Karl Towns Sr. acknowledged it certainly gives Kentucky a leg up in the recruitment of his son, but he insisted the younger Towns earned his place on the Dominican national team on merit rather than because of Calipari's interest in recruiting him.

John Calipari and Anthony Davis (Getty Images)

Just because Indiana opted not to play Kentucky at off-campus venues for the foreseeable future doesn't mean the Wildcats can't find other high-profile opponents willing to schedule a game at a neutral site.

John Calipari announced a handful of big-event games for upcoming seasons Wednesday including a multi-year series with Duke, a resumption of the North Carolina rivalry and a matchup in Cowboys Stadium against Baylor.

"When we schedule, I want to create experiences, not just games," Calipari wrote on his website. "The thing about Kentucky basketball is it's passed down from father to son. I want to schedule events that grandfathers and grandsons will be talking about 25 years from now. That's part of what Kentucky basketball is about; part of what has made this place so unique."

There's still no excuse for Kentucky and Indiana not reaching a compromise to preserve one of college basketball's most significant regional rivalries, but nobody can accuse the Wildcats of ducking top competition.

Following a one-year hiatus next season in the series with North Carolina, Kentucky will once again play the Tar Heels and Louisville either at home or on the road in alternating years. The next two seasons, the Wildcats will also participate in the Champions Classic, next season against Duke in Atlanta and the following season against Michigan State in Chicago.

The potential series against Duke is welcome news considering the two schools have built a rivalry based on their five NCAA tournament matchups yet have only faced one another sporadically in the regular season.

Reeves Nelson and Drew Gordon (Getty Images)

Two of the players who came off worst in last February's Sports Illustrated exposé about disciplinary issues in the UCLA basketball program are seeking to repair their reputations in entirely different ways.

Reeves Nelson is suing the magazine. Drew Gordon is embracing the chance to let NBA teams see he has matured.

According to TMZ, Nelson hired entertainment lawyer Keith A. Fink and will file a $10 million lawsuit against Sports Illustrated and writer George Dohrmann. The suit claims the magazine "recklessly and negligently failed to investigate" claims in the story that Nelson started fights, intentionally injured teammates and urinated on a pile of teammate Tyler Honeycutt's clothes on his bed.

Nelson, a 6-foot-9 forward from Modesto, was expected to be UCLA's best player last season after averaging 13.9 points and 9.1 rebounds as a sophomore and making the All-Pac-10 team. Instead, he was suspended multiple times for conduct detrimental to the team before being dismissed after only six games, contributing to the Bruins missing the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years.

The lawsuit is Nelson's latest attempt to combat the damage the SI story did to his already battered image. He previously gave his side of the story in an emotional TV interview. And in a Feb. 29 letter to SI also forwarded to members of the media, Nelson's lawyer refuted many of the claims levied against him.

Gordon's response to the SI article, by contrast, has been far more understated. The New Mexico big man told the San Jose Mercury News he looks forward to the opportunity to meet with NBA teams personally and prove he's no longer the hot-headed, uncoachable personality he was portrayed to be during his year plus at UCLA.

Chester Frazier (AP)It's understandable that recently hired Kansas State assistant Chester Frazier would want to get started in his new role as soon as possible.

Nonetheless, the timing of his departure from his previous job probably could have been better.

Frazier, the starting point guard for s.Oliver Baskets of the German Bundesliga, flew back to the United States on Wednesday on the eve of the second game of his team's semifinal matchup against Ratiopharm Ulm in the league playoffs. S.Oliver Baskets lost the first game of the series on Sunday 77-65 despite 14 points and five rebounds from Frazier.

"We are disappointed that Chester Frazier has decided to leave the s.Oliver Baskets at this crucial stage of the season," managing director Jochen Bähr said in a statement later translated into English. "At the time of his commitment, it was not clear that we would get this far in the playoffs. We had agreed with Chester that he will remain at least until the end of the semifinal series against Ulm. Why he has decided to go back now already to the U.S., he has not informed us."

Frazier averaged 7.7 points and 2.1 assists in 24.4 minutes per game this season for s.Oliver Baskets and played the same rugged defense he was known for throughout his college career at Illinois. It's unclear why he'd leave the team now rather than wait until the end of the playoffs, but DraftExpress.com's Jonathan Givony reported Tuesday that new Kansas State coach Bruce Weber encouraged him to stay.

Frazier initially put his coaching aspirations on hold for the chance to play professionally in Germany, leaving a video coordinator position under Weber at Illinois in November to sign with s.Oliver Baskets. It was tough for him to leave Illinois and to say goodbye to his fiance for a few months, but he told RidiculousUpside.com in March that he missed playing too much not to give it a shot.

DePaul and UConn battle in an opening-round Big East tournament game last season (AP)

If Big East coaches and administrators manage to persuade league officials to allow all 18 teams to participate in the conference tournament in 2014, then here's my suggestion for what to call the play-in round.

Cruel and unusual punishment.

What else would you call an evening of basketball featuring four miserable teams with no postseason hopes playing in an arena so empty instructions from the bench are audible in the nose-bleed seats?

Nobody needs that scenario, and yet it's one of the options Big East officials will weigh this week at their annual meeting as they decide how to reformat the conference tournament once five new teams join the league in 2013. Expansion and the impending defections of Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia already will water down the nation's premier conference tournament, but the early rounds could become an even bigger snooze if the league adds an extra day to remain all-inclusive.

Imagine a Monday night doubleheader at Madison Square Garden featuring 15th-seeded DePaul versus 18th-seeded Central Florida and No. 16 South Florida facing No. 17 SMU. Anyone scrambling to buy tickets to those matchups? The league might not fill 2,500 seats if it let fans in free and handed out 99-cent hotdogs and beers.

The motivation of the coaches and athletic directors to add an additional round to the tournament is mostly selfish. They believe an all-inclusive tournament doesn't give impatient administrators an extra excuse to clean house, but the costs of that decision would outweigh the benefits.

In Little League or youth soccer, every kid gets a participation trophy so they feel included at the end of the season. Let's not try to pretend big-time college basketball should be governed by the same set of principles.

The Cincinnati-Xavier series will go on despite last year's brawl (AP)The ugly brawl in the final seconds of last year's Cincinnati-Xavier game won't force the Crosstown Shootout to take a hiatus, but it has led to a change of venue.

For at least the next two seasons, the site of the game will be off campus at the U.S. Bank Arena in downtown Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Tuesday. Both sides will reevaluate the behavior of the players and fans after that two-year trial period and decide whether the series should continue.

The future of the Crosstown Shootout had been in doubt since last year's Dec. 10 matchup when players from both sides embarrassed themselves with their actions on the floor and their comments afterward.

Four players from both sides were suspended including Cincinnati's Yancy Gates, who missed six games as a result of his right cross that bloodied an unsuspecting Kenny Frease. Xavier guards Mark Lyons and Tu Holloway both received two-game suspensions in part for failing to express remorse in their postgame news conferences.

It's good news both for the city of Cincinnati and college basketball as a whole that school officials didn't overreact and cancel the series because of one hot-headed incident. The brawl was a black mark for both programs, but an isolated incident shouldn't terminate one of the most cherished non-conference rivalries in the sport.

While moving the game to a neutral site will drain some of the atmosphere from the matchup and make it more difficult for students to attend, it's an acceptable temporary compromise under the circumstances.

Bob Thomason (AP)The man who has been the face of Pacific basketball for the past quarter century has opted to step aside and let someone else lead the Tigers into their new era.

Bob Thomason, who has led Pacific to four NCAA tournament appearances and six Big West championships in his 24-year coaching tenure, announced Monday he will retire after the 2012-13 season. That season will be the Tigers' last in the Big West before they move to the West Coast Conference.

"With us going to the WCC, I just think it's the right time to let a new coach lead the team," Thomason said Monday night. "I'll have 25 years of coaching here. I've really enjoyed every moment. I love the university. I have a team next season I think can compete for the Big West. We have nine guys back the following year, so I'll leave the new coach a team. I just think it's the right time."

That Thomason is ready to turn over the keys to the program to another coach is a good for both sides because the timing truly couldn't be better.

Pacific contended for the Big West crown consistently for more than a decade in the 1990s and 2000s, but the program slipped toward the middle of the league in recent years. The Tigers suffered through a 19-loss season a year ago after the top 10 scorers from the previous team departed, sparking criticism about Thomason's commitment to recruiting and ability to retain players.

Thomason's contract was up at the end of next season, but he insists that did not impact his decision to retire. He did acknowledge, however, that he made the announcement now rather than after next season to ensure his status did not become a distraction.

"I didn't want people asking, 'Is coach going to be back next year? Are they renewing his contract?' Thomason said. "That had nothing to do with anything. It's not like I told (athletic director Ted Leland) I wanted a couple more years. I didn't want that. I wanted to let people know, let the players know and then let's go play basketball."

photo via Naismithhome.com

In the market for a new home? Unafraid of some chilly winters? Interested in owning a one-of-a-kind piece of basketball history?

Well, this may be the house for you.

via Naismithhome.comThe Georgian-style three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Almonte, Ontario, where James Naismith grew up is on the market for $1,195,000 Canadian ($1,170,000 USD). Built in 1850 but renovated to meet modern standards, the stone house sits on 45 acres of sprawling farmland replete with three barns.

Naismith left Canada to enroll in YMCA training school in Springfield, Mass., one year before he invented basketball in December 1891, but the farm house in Almonte is where he cultivated his interest in teaching physical education.

According to his biography on the Naismith Museum's website, Naismith excelled in all forms of physical activity as a kid, from chores to sports. He spent long hours every week chopping trees, sawing logs and driving horses on the farm at the request of his uncle. Then when the work was done, he spent the summer swimming, the fall hunting squirrel or partridge and his winter tobogganing and playing ice hockey.

One of Naismith's favorite childhood sports was known as "Duck on a Rock,"  a medieval game which combined tag and throwing. The high-arcing method of throwing a baseball-sized stone to dislodge the rock atop the base rock influenced Naismith years later when he incorporated that same idea into basketball.

If the seven-figure price tag of Naismith's childhood home seems expensive, consider what the two-page document on which he wrote the original 13 rules of basketball sold for in December 2010. A Kansas alum paid $4.3 million in an auction to ensure that document finds a permanent home on the Kansas campus.