Tony Mitchell (AP)

Eager to show Tony Mitchell what he's capable of accomplishing before he leaves college, North Texas coach Tony Benford set up a meeting last month between the sophomore forward and the best athlete the school has ever produced.

Benford had Mitchell meet with Pittsburgh Steelers legend Mean Joe Greene because he wanted his young star to realize he could make a similar impact on North Texas basketball as the Hall of Fame defensive tackle made on the football program. Greene led North Texas to a 23-5-1 record during his three seasons, earned All-American honors and became the fourth pick in the 1968 NFL draft.

"Joe has a legacy," Mitchell said. "He made it to the league and he made an impact. His name is still remembered at North Texas. That's the same thing I'm trying to do."

Championship rings, Hall of Fame speeches and Coca-Cola commercials certainly aren't guaranteed to be part of Mitchell's future, but he has as good a chance to achieve those goals as any basketball player at North Texas has before. The 6-foot-8 forward likely would have been a first-round pick had he left school after his freshman year and has a chance to solidify himself as a lottery pick next June if he showcases improved perimeter skills as a sophomore.

Mitchell's return gives North Texas a chance to not only win the Sun Belt Conference but also emerge as one of the elite mid-major programs in the nation next season. He'll be the centerpiece of a talented roster that also includes promising sophomore point guard Chris Jones, high-scoring perimeter shooter Jordan Williams and former Oklahoma State transfer Roger Franklin Jr.

"Tony is one of the best athletes I've ever been around," Benford said. "He has a great motor, plays with great energy and I think he has the ability to lead the country in rebounding.

Middle Tennessee State returns four starters but must replace LaRon Dendy (AP)

Yahoo! Sports is breaking down each league for the upcoming college basketball season working backward from No. 31 to No. 1. Here's a look at our No. 21 league, the Sun Belt.

Middle Tennessee State won 27 games last season, toppled UCLA, Ole Miss and Belmont in non-league play and dominated the Sun Belt from start to finish.

It was a near-perfect season for the Blue Raiders with one noteworthy exception: They fell in the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt tournament and had to settle for an NIT bid rather than an appearance in the NCAA tournament.

The sting of that shocking loss to ninth-seeded Arkansas State will still be fresh for Middle Tennessee State when it begins the 2012-13 season next month. The graduation of top scorer and rebounder LaRon Dendy leaves a huge hole in the paint for the Blue Raiders, but four other starters return from last year's 27-7 squad.

No Sun Belt team besides perhaps North Texas has more perimeter depth than Middle Tennessee State, which returns three starting guards and several key backups. Marcos Knight is a slashing off guard, Raymond Cintron is the team's best shooter and Bruce Massey is a distributing point guard and dogged defender.

In the froncourt, the Blue Raiders will try to replace Dendy's 14.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game by committee.

For a kid whose school is best known for half-court defense, Wisconsin's Zach Bohannon puts on one heck of a full-court press.

Bohannon, who transferred from Air Force last year, launched a Twitter campaign Wednesday in hopes of persuading President Obama to play a pick-up game against Wisconsin players during his visit to the campus the following day.

Tyler Hansbrough was one of six basketball players enrolled in the Naval Weapons System class (Getty)Like many college students who wanted to boost their GPAs and still have enough time to work and have a social life, I sought out a few classes considered easy A's with the urgency of a pirate seeking buried treasure.

A "History of the Beatles" class I took my sophomore year is one that stands out. A "Sports Culture" class from my junior year is another.

Stories like that make it difficult for me to get too preachy and judgmental about Tuesday night's news that many athletes at North Carolina enrolled in a relatively stress-free class called "Naval Weapons Systems."

According to the Raleigh News & Observer, 30 of the 38 North Carolina students enrolled in the class in spring 2007 were athletes, including six members of the men's basketball team. The class did meet but it had no mandatory exams, quizzes or research papers — only a brief midterm paper and a 20-minute oral presentation split among five students.

The class comes under scrutiny now because of an academical scandal that began with "no-show" classes in North Carolina's Department of African and Afro-American Studies and involved mostly football players. The scandal has sparked multiple investigations this year and led to the resignation of Chancellor Holden Thorp last month.

If the North Carolina athletes in this naval sciences class received special treatment from the professor or received a grade without doing the requisite work, then this is an issue that could and should prompt further NCAA punishment. If this is merely a group of students taking a class they heard wouldn't be too difficult, then it's no different than what goes on among athletes and non-athletes at every campus across the country.

Nate Wolters hopes to lead South Dakota State back to the NCAA tournament (US Presswire)

At the height of Nate Wolters' transformation from overlooked recruit to blossoming star, South Dakota State engineering student Nick Hofer hatched an idea to capitalize on the high-scoring guard's rapidly increasing popularity.

Hofer began selling T-shirts last winter with a caricature of Wolters' face underneath the words "Naters Gonna Nate," a motto a CBSSports.com writer had given the perpetually underrated guard. All 200 T-shirts Hofer initially ordered sold out within days.

"There was a ton of interest," Hofer said. "I didn't make enough shirts. I still had people contacting me for weeks after I sold out — students, alums, teachers, fans, everybody."

Those T-shirts popping up on campus and at Frost Arena last winter is just one example of the affection South Dakota State fans have for Wolters as a result of the impact he has made at the school. The 6-foot-4 Minnesota native emerged as a potential NBA draft pick by averaging 21.2 points and 5.9 assists as a junior and leading the Jackrabbits to 27 wins and the school's first NCAA tournament bid.

Fans approach Wolters at restaurants to shake hands and pose for photos. Kids swarm him for autographs at clinics or after games. Heck, there's even a fake Twitter account in his name devoted to "The real Summit League Player of the Year."

"He's like an icon around here," South Dakota State coach Scott Nagy said. "Everyone talks about Nate. I have daughters in the fourth and fifth grade, and their friends all want to meet Nate. We'll go to a volleyball game, they'll see Nate and they'll want me to introduce them to him."

South Dakota State fans celebrate last season's Summit League tournament title (AP)

Yahoo! Sports is breaking down each league for the upcoming college basketball season working backward from No. 31 to No. 1. Here's a look at our No. 22 league, the Summit League.

South Dakota State's surprise NCAA tournament appearance last March had one unintended consequence: It sent expectations for the Jackrabbits this season through the roof.

With four starters back from the team that finished second in the Summit League in the regular season and won the conference tournament, South Dakota State enters the new season as a clear-cut favorite. No other Summit League program has as much proven talent returning as the Jackrabbits, especially with perennial contender Oral Roberts moving to the Southland Conference.

The primary reason for optimism at South Dakota State is the return of senior point guard Nate Wolters, an NBA prospect who averaged 21.2 points and 5.9 assists per game last season. Wolters could be even more lethal as a senior if an offseason tweak to the mechanics of his jump shot helps him do better than the meager 24.1 percent he shot from behind the arc last season.

Besides Wolters, South Dakota State has a bevy of 3-point shooters including 6-foot-8 forward Jordan Dykstra. The sophomore sank 47.3 percent of his attempts from behind the arc and hit 11 in a row during one three-game stretch.

It would be a surprise if any other team overtook South Dakota State in the league race, but Oakland and North Dakota State are the biggest threats.

To measure the impact of ESPN's 30-for-30 "Broke," all it took was a quick glance at the Twitter timelines of the next generation of NBA prospects.

College basketball players from schools across the nation spent 90 minutes Tuesday night watching the tales of oversized entourages, money-hungry gold diggers and squandered fortunes with keen interest.

Some were shocked so many highly paid professional athletes could blow all their money. Others were less naive. To a man, however, they all vowed not to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors. Here's a sampling of their reaction below:

Mike Brey (Getty Images)When I covered high school sports my first year out of college, I remember asking former Arizona coach John Mackovic about the trend of college football coaches still pursuing prospects who had already verbally committed to other schools.

"Coaches are great gentlemen except two weeks out of the year: the last two weeks of the recruiting period," Mackovic said. "In those two weeks, we ruin our reputations."

What has been common in football for years is becoming more prevalent in hoops.

Earlier this offseason, Tom Crean took to Twitter to complain that "more and more people never stop recruiting other school's pledges" soon after top Indiana target Trey Lyles announced he was reopening his recruitment. Kansas commit Brannen Greene told SI.com last week he's still being recruited with the fervor by other staffs as if he were still undecided. Then Tuesday, via CBSports.com's Jeff Borzello, comes the story of Austin Torres, a 6-foot-6 Indiana native who committed to Central Michigan last week only to renege on that pledge when Notre Dame coach Mike Brey offered a scholarship four days later.

"I told coach Brey on Thursday that this was a dream and something I wanted to pursue," Torres told CBSSports.com. "I was sure I wanted this to happen. And then I decommitted on Friday."

Brey didn't violate any NCAA rules wooing an unsigned recruit, nor is he even close to the first basketball coach to keep chasing another school's commit. But the fact that an established and respected coach like Brey wouldn't hesitate to pursue Torres days after he chose Central Michigan suggests college basketball recruiting is starting to resemble football more and more.