Trae Golden (Getty Images)

Even though his shooting percentage was miserable and he sometimes struggled to get the ball to the team's best players where they needed it to score, Trae Golden was the lone true point guard on Tennessee's roster.

As a result, it's a gut punch to the Vols that the junior will transfer at the end of spring semester.

Golden produced an erratic junior season, averaging 12.1 points and 3.9 assists this past season even though his shooting percentage plummeted to 38.3 percent and his percentage from behind the arc dropped below 30 percent. He also wasn't reticent to call his own number despite the poor shooting, attempting 95 threes and taking more shots than promising big man Jarnell Stokes.

A pass-first point guard with a more consistent jump shot would be a better fit for a Tennessee team that returns Stokes and Jeronne Maymon in the frontcourt and emerging perimeter scorer Jordan McRae in the backcourt. The trouble is the Vols don't have a scholarship point guard of any kind on their roster and would probably start McRae and talented incoming freshman shooting guard Robert Hubbs in the backcourt if the season started today.

The best option for Tennessee might be trying to find a transfer point guard who is on track to graduate this spring and would be eligible to play his final season at Tennessee immediately. The Vols should be an attractive destination for a playmaking point guard who fits that description since playing time certainly will be available.

Andrew Wiggins (Getty Images)

Most recruits don't have the luxury of waiting until mid-May to reveal their college choice out of fear a scholarship at their chosen school will no longer be available by then.

Andrew Wiggins has no such concerns.

The nation's most coveted high school basketball player will choose between Florida State, Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina sometime in the next week or so, his host mother Lesley Thomas told the Louisville Courier-Journal on Monday. The deadline to sign a letter of intent in the spring signing period is May 15, but Wiggins could merely sign scholarship papers instead if his decision dragged on further.

An explosive athlete and gifted scorer with ideal size and length for the small forward position, the 6-foot-8 Wiggins would be a season-changing addition for whichever one of the four schools he selects. Here's a look at the impact he could make at each of them:

FLORIDA STATE
Projected starting five with Wiggins: G Devon Bookert, G Aaron Thomas, F Andrew Wiggins, F Okaro White, C Kiel Turpin
Outlook: There's no school with more at stake in the chase for Wiggins than Florida State, the alma mater of both his parents. Florida State projects as a middle-of-the-pack ACC program with a chance to return to the NCAA tournament without Wiggins, but the Seminoles would probably start the season in the preseason Top 15 with him. Every key player is back for Florida State from last year's 18-win team with the exception of Michael Snaer, the team's leading scorer and top perimeter defender. With perimeter scoring punch from Wiggins, interior scoring from White, development from a young backcourt and improved defense from the whole roster after another year in Leonard Hamilton's system, Florida State would have as high a ceiling as it has had in recent history.

DaJuan Coleman and JayVaughn Pinkston (Getty Images)

The fate of the rivalry between Syracuse and Georgetown remains uncertain as a result of the Big East's breakup, but the ACC-bound Orange will still be playing several former league foes the next few years.

In February, Syracuse announced a home-and-home series with in-state rival St. John's featuring a game at Madison Square Garden next December and the return matchup at the Carrier Dome the following season. And on Monday, the Syracuse-themed site, The Juice, reported the Orange have also agreed to a three-year series with Villanova.

Syracuse will host Villanova at the Carrier Dome during the upcoming season and will visit Villanova for a return game the following season. Then, the two longtime Big East rivals will meet at Madison Square Garden in a neutral-court matchup during the 2015-16 season.

Extending the series seems like a shrewd decision by both parties.

For Villanova, it's the chance to sustain a historic rivalry against an elite opponent, one that will also provide a neutral-court game in a city that's an alumni hotbed and at an arena that will host the new Big East tournament. For Syracuse, it's the opportunity to keep a longtime rivalry going and to maintain a recruiting presence in Philadelphia, the city that produced recent stars Dion Waiters and Scoop Jardine and current big man Rakeem Christmas.  

Frank Haith (Getty Images)

Already under fire as a result of its unscrupulous tactics in recent high-profile cases, the NCAA's enforcement arm may have made yet another damaging misstep.

Missouri coach Frank Haith has filed a petition with a Florida federal court in hopes that a judge will help him determine if the NCAA accessed his bank records by improper and possibly illegal means, CBSSports.com reported Monday afternoon. The NCAA obtained Haith's bank records while investigating former Miami booster Nevin Shapiro's claims that the ex-Hurricanes coach provided money to help recruit top prospect DeQuan Jones.

Haith voluntarily turned over some bank statements to the NCAA during its investigation according to the CBS report, but the petition alleges other information may have been obtained improperly by accessing microfiche copies of Haith's checks without permission. Haith apparently became aware of the possible improprieties when he tried to obtain the microfiche copies of those checks at the NCAA's request only to find out they already had been viewed by another party.

A judge will determine the merits of the petition and whether Haith will be able to issue subpoenas to the bank and speak with witnesses who can confirm how the NCAA got the information in question.

If it turns out, the NCAA acted wrongly here, it will represent another gut punch to the credibility of an organization that has sustained too many of those recently.

Nerlens Noel and Kelly Melton (via @NerlensNoel3)

Just about anyone would have agreed to be Nerlens Noel's guest at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday evening.

That's why it's so awesome that the former Kentucky star and future lottery pick chose a seven-year-old leukemia patient.

Kelly Melton, who was diagnosed with leukemia in November and has undergone intense chemotherapy since then, accepted an invitation to the Derby from Noel during a hospital visit the 6-foot-11 big man made earlier last week. The above video from the Louisville Courier-Journal shows Noel taking Melton on the red carpet and this heartwarming photo from the Lexington Herald-Leader shows Noel lifting him over puddles so he wouldn't wreck his three-piece suit.

Noel is one of a handful of Kentucky athletes who have gotten to know Melton during the seven-year-old's stay at Kentucky Children's Hospital. New Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops has also made frequent visits, recently inviting Melton to the Wildcats' spring game and awarding him the game ball in the

Ben McLemore (Getty Images)

When Ben McLemore's former AAU coach revealed to USA Today he accepted $10,000 cash and other gifts to steer the Kansas guard toward certain agents, he didn't just create a headache for one of his former players.

He also put the NCAA in a very difficult spot.

Unless evidence emerges proving either McLemore or Kansas coach Bill Self knew about the payments, it doesn't seem fair to punish the Jayhawks for something they neither were part of nor benefited from in the slightest. The money St. Louis-based AAU coach Darius Cobb acknowledged taking from a man trying to worm his way into position to serve as a runner for high-profile agents had nothing to do with McLemore choosing Kansas two years prior.

At the same time, if the NCAA were to follow its rulebook, it would seem to have little choice but to punish Kansas and perhaps even vacate the victories the Jayhawks achieved after Cobb and McLemore's cousin allegedly began accepting cash and gifts. NCAA rules state a player becomes ineligible if he, his relatives or friends accept transportation or other benefits from an agent or representative of an agent.

Acquiring information not already in the USA Today story will not be easy for the NCAA since most of the key figures in the case are under no obligation to cooperate with investigators. Kansas will have questions to answer because would-be runner Rodney Blackstock's name appears on McLemore's pass list for multiple games, but Blackstock's connections to agents don't seem concrete enough to fault school officials for not being aware of them.

That the NCAA isn't facing this quandary more frequently is somewhat surprising because deals like the one would-be runner Rodney Blackstock tried to foster with Cobb are likely pretty common.

Agents, runners and financial advisers often try to cultivate relationships with NBA draft prospects and their families long before the college season ends, a process that often includes payments to family members or former coaches in exchange for their influence. As CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish correctly pointed out Sunday, it's no coincidence many future lottery picks select an agent days after declaring for the draft if not sooner.

(USA Today Sports Images)

Nebraska football is no longer the toughest ticket in town in Lincoln.

Nebraska basketball finished 15-18 last season and in 10th place in the Big Ten Conference, but a sparkling new arena in downtown Lincoln has helped the program sell out the public allotment of tickets for the 2013-14 season despite those results and has started a wait list.

Nebraska announced Friday the 15,147-seat Pinnacle Bank Arena is sold out aside from tickets the school is required to reserve for visiting teams and approximately 100 student tickets.

(USA Today Sports Images)The NCAA gave men's college basketball programs some needed flexibility this week when it approved a rule change allowing preseason practices to begin six weeks before the first game of the season.

That means fans can count on some programs holding Midnight Madness, which traditionally starts the build up to the season, as early as Oct. 1.

It also could mean we'll see more of those events in the future with the proliferation of conference networks and the need for programming. The earlier date would give more programs a chance to be in the spotlight, though that obviously had nothing to do with the rule change.