Gary Parrish

Tobias Harris, as expected, committed to Tennessee on Thursday.

"I really have a great relationship with Coach [Bruce] Pearl and his assistant coach [Tony] Jones," Harris said. "It's just a family atmosphere down there. I got along with the players real well, and it's just a great opportunity and fit for me."

MaxPreps.com ranks Harris No. 21 in the Class of 2010. The 6-foot-8 forward joins Trae Golden (No. 59) and Jordan McRae (No. 87) to comprise a three-player class that should be among the Top 15 classes nationally when team recruiting rankings are finalized.

Harris is from New York.

He also had offers from Syracuse, Kentucky, Maryland, Georgia Tech, Louisville and West Virginia.

Tobias Harris will announce his college decision Thursday at 6 p.m. ET.

The 6-foot-8 forward is No. 21 in MaxPreps.com's Class of 2010 rankings. He's officially still considering a host of schools, among them Louisville, Syracuse and Maryand. But an unannounced visit to Tennessee on Tuesday has most believing Harris will be a Vol considering he had previously visited the UT campus. In other words, there was no reason for Harris to stop by UT again on his way back from Georgia Tech if he didn't plan to commit to Bruce Pearl's program. But either way, the official announcement comes Thursday night.

Tennessee announced Wednesday that Josh Tabb has withdrawn from school. Officially, he did so to be closer to his mother, who is reportedly ill in Illinois. But it must be noted that Tabb had been serving an "indefinite suspension" for a "violation of team rules" since last month, and it's hard to imagine that didn't factor into his exit from the program.

Consider this quote from Bruce Pearl from last month: "We have tried to give Josh every opportunity to be a part of this program. He has been unable to meet the expectations that we have for our student-athletes. It’s my hope that he’ll learn from this, as everyone here at Tennessee wants to see Josh succeed."

This development means the Vols will now be down two players they expected to have in their rotation. In addition to Tabb, UT also lost Emmanuel Negedu for the season because of a heart condition. It's unlikely he'll ever play again.

Tabb averaged 17.2 minutes per game last season.

He started 11 games.

Tennessee sophomore Emmanuel Negedu had a sub-pectoral implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) implanted in his chest Tuesday and will not practice with or play for the Vols this season, the school has announced.

Negedu suffered a sudden cardiac arrest after a workout Sept. 28.

He had no pulse when medics arrived.

“Emmanuel is such a special young man,” said UT coach Bruce Pearl. “You don’t come across many like him. He’s faced a tremendously frightening obstacle with unbelievable courage. He is going to be an inspiration to many, and we all feel truly blessed that he’s still here with us.”

Negedu is expected to remain at the UT Medical Center overnight.

“I just want to say thanks to all those people that care about me and show me they care,” Negedu said. “I want to say I appreciate everything. God is going to see me through this. With God, all things are possible. God is always in control.”

Chris Crawford announced Thursday that he will remain home for college and play at Memphis.

"I just really didn't want to leave," said Crawford, a senior at Sheffield in Memphis. "I want to play in front of my family."

Crawford (ranked 66th nationally at Rivals.com) is the fourth prospect from the Class of 2010 to commit to Memphis. He joins Will Barton (ranked 11th nationally), Joe Jackson (ranked 12th nationally) and Antonio Barton, meaning Memphis now has three top 75 commitments.

Crawford and Jackson played summer ball together for the Memphis Magic Elite.

The 6-foot-4 guard hit the winning shot in the title game of the adidas Super 64 tournament in Las Vegas.

There have been some questions about whether Crawford will qualify academically to compete as a freshman. But a source who has seen the transcript told CBSSports.com this week that Crawford "will be fine" and added that there's no reason to think he won't be eligible. Crawford was also considering Tennessee and Mississippi State.

Tennessee sophomore Emmanuel Negedu -- who had to be revived with a defibrillator after collapsing Monday -- was still at the UT Medical Center resting and having tests run Tuesday morning, a source told CBSSports.com.

Negedu collapsed at the football practice facility after lifting weights.

A source said the forward had no pulse when members of the UT athletic training staff arrived.

Negedu averaged 7.2 minutes per game last season and appeared in all 33 contests. He originally signed with Arizona out of Brewster Academy but later enrolled at Tennessee after getting a release. Whether he'll ever be cleared to play again is now uncertain.

"We just spoke with E-Man and he is in great spirits," Griffin Guess, the Hollywood producer who is married to supermodel Marisa Miller, told CBSSports.com early Tuesday. Guess, like Negedu, is a Brewster Academy graduate. He and Miller befriended the Nigerian during a trip to Brewster two years ago. They have remained in contact ever since and even attended a UT game in Knoxville last season.

"Marisa and I are going to go see him," Griffin added. "We're just happy he is feeling well."

The father of Tennessee associate head coach Tony Jones was found dead this week in Detroit, the victim of an apparent murder.

He was 86.

According to police, Clarence Jones was gathering mail for an 84-year-old friend who had been hospitalized. While at the friend's home, he was robbed and ultimately beaten to death. Police discovered the body Tuesday afternoon.

No arrest has been made.

"Tony is distraught," said UT assistant Steve Forbes. "He and his Dad were really tight. They had just spent a whole week together. So this is tough, and it's been tough on all of us here lately."

To that point, consider that Forbes said those words while preparing to board a flight to Milwaukee, where he will attend Thursday's funeral for Lavelle Felton, the 29-year-old  former Louisiana Tech player who died last week from a gunshot wound to the head. According to police, Felton was driving away from a gas station when he was shot. He died two days later at a Milwaukee hospital.

No arrest has been made.

Forbes recruited Felton while an assistant at Louisiana Tech.

LAS VEGAS -- Josh Selby came out dunking.

And then he dunked again.

And then again.

And it became pretty clear pretty quickly why his decommitment from Tennessee is considered a big deal in recruiting circles. Simply put, the 6-foot-3 point guard is a special talent -- just a unique combination of size, strength, speed and toughness, all of which made Bill Self (Kansas), John Calipari (Kentucky), Jim Calhoun (Connecticut), Billy Donovan (Florida), Josh Pastner (Memphis) and Rick Stansbury (Mississippi State) drive to a small high school auxiliary gym in the middle of a painfully hot July afternoon.

They were each there Wednesday (as were assistants from Louisville and Tennessee). What they witnessed was Selby's initial game since reopening his recruitment, and it was a dominant performance against an obviously overmatched team on the first day of the Adidas Super 64 -- one of four major summer tournaments being held this week in Las Vegas.

Selby spoke about his decommitment after the win.

He said it wasn't his decision as much as it was a "family decision."

"We just want to make sure that Tennessee is the right fit," Selby said. "It might not be."

Selby said Calipari, Calhoun, Self and Ohio State's Thad Matta have each called his mother, Maeshon Witherspoon, since word of his decommitment surfaced Sunday. Still, the consensus top 10 national recruit described himself as "wide-open" and declined to offer a list of potential destinations, although it should be noted that multiple industry sources have labeled Kentucky the leader.

Why?

The main reason, it seems, is because Witherspoon acknowledged to CBSSports.com that she met with Calipari's close friend William Wesley during the LeBron James Skills Academy earlier this month, roughly two weeks before Selby decommitted from Tennessee. In fairness, Witherspoon has downplayed the significance of the meeting and insisted that it had nothing to do with the decommitment. But most coaches familiar with the business of recruiting are skeptical that this is all just a big coincidence. And then there's Tennessee assistant Tony Jones, who supplied a vague but telling quote to the Knoxville News Sentinel .

"I'm not going to comment on any specific player, because I am not allowed to do that," Jones told the paper. "I'll just say something smells right now."

On Wednesday, Selby was asked specifically about Wesley.

His response?

"I've never met him," Selby said. "I don't know who he is."

LAS VEGAS -- Whether I was at the Villa 7 Consortium at the Venetian on Tuesday night or a gym around town this morning, pretty much all any coach wants to talk about is Josh Selby's decommitment from Tennessee and the circumstances surrounding it. As I reported Sunday , Selby ended a 10-month commitment to the Vols this weekend -- less than two weeks after attending the Nike-funded LeBron James Skills Academy and King City Classic, where his mother told me she met with basketball powerbroker William Wesley .

As you probably know, Wesley -- more commonly referred to as "Worldwide Wes" or "Fresh Wes" or simply "Wes" -- has long been unofficially tied to Nike Basketball and certain prospects, most notably Dajuan Wagner, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans, all of whom played for John Calipari at Memphis.

Now Calipari is at Kentucky.

And industry sources believe UK is the new leader for Selby.

And, well, you know.

"That kid was committed to Tennessee for almost a year, then he goes to a Nike event, the mom talks with Wes, the kid decommits from an 'Adidas' school, and now he's looking at Kentucky," said one high-major coach, noting the timeline of the developments as well as UT's apparel contract with Adidas. "Come on, man. That's messed up. I mean, that's just messed up."

It's funny.

Bruce Pearl has spent his four years at Tennessee rubbing a good portion of the coaching community the wrong way, and yet across the board people appear sympathetic toward him and the rest of UT 's staff in light of Selby's decommitment. Regardless of what's real and what isn't, seemingly everybody in the coaching profession believes Wesley influenced Selby's decision, and Selby's mother publicly acknowledging she met with Wesley before her son decommitted has only enhanced that perception.

Either way, it's the talk of Vegas, I assure you.

And it'll be interesting to see which coaches are at El Dorado High today at 5:20 p.m. ET when Selby plays his opening game with the Baltimore Assault in the Adidas Super 64. I'm unfamiliar with the Assault's roster and the team they're playing (Team Credo). But one college coach told me Selby will be the only high-major prospect on the court, meaning any high-major coach in the building will be in the building to see Selby.

I'll let you know what I see when I see it.

So which schools are now in play for former Tennessee recruit Josh Selby?

"We're just going to get together as a family and figure it out," Selby's mother, Maeshon Witherspoon, told CBSSports.com by phone on Sunday. "Right now we don't even know. We haven't compiled a list or anything."

Still, industry sources told CBSSports.com two schools that will almost certainly be involved are Kentucky and Oregon -- both of which have obvious connections to William Wesley, a major person of influence in the sport. Wesley (more commonly known as "Worldwide Wes" or simply as "Wes") has a close and very public relationship with Kentucky coach John Calipari, Oregon assistant Kenny Payne, and Nike Basketball.

Kentucky and Oregon are both Nike schools.

Tennessee is an Adidas school.

When asked, Witherspoon acknowledged meeting Wesley at the LeBron James Skills Academy/King City Classic events in Akron/Cleveland earlier this month. But she discounted the significance of that encounter and emphasized that this is merely a case of her son committing too early.

Selby, a consensus top 10 national recruit in the Class of 2010, committed to UT last September.

"I met Wes, but we really didn't talk; that's not a connection like everybody thinks," Witherspoon said. "It's just that we only looked at one other school before we committed to Tennessee, and it was Louisville. It was a fast decision because we were so overwhelmed with the atmosphere at Tennessee [during a visit for the UT-Florida football game], and we just want to make sure it's right. Tennessee is still an option. It's up to Tennessee if they still want to recruit him. But on our list, Tennessee is still an option."

There is speculation that Memphis might also be involved because Selby's cousins -- Will and Antonio Barton -- have committed to the Tigers, but sources told CBSSports.com that the relationship between the cousins isn't as strong as most believe. In fact, Selby didn't even really know the Bartons until they were around 9 years-old, one source said. Another source added that if it wasn't for basketball there would be little-to-no relationship between the cousins because the connection is on Selby's father's side, and Selby has been primarily raised by his mother.

Turns out, this really isn't an ideal time for Bruce Pearl to be in Israel.

"I ... just decommitted from Tennessee," Josh Selby, a top 10 national recruit, announced to the world via his Facebook page this weekend. A source close to Selby confirmed to CBSSports.com that the "status update" is legitimate. The source said Selby's mother informed the Tennessee staff of her son's decision early Sunday.

Selby had been committed to UT since last September, but rumors about a possible decommitment began circulating earlier this month at the LeBron James Skills Academy. Asked about the speculation by CBSSports.com on July 7, Selby acknowledged that people were "trying to get him to decommit" but swore "it's not going to happen."

Apparently, that wasn't true.

Selby has now decommitted and changed his cell phone number.

Meantime, Pearl remains in Israel as Team USA's coach in the Maccabiah Games; he isn't scheduled to return to the United States until the middle of this week. CBSSports.com spoke to Pearl by phone late Thursday . When asked about the possibility of rivals using his absence on the recruiting trail against him, Pearl responded, "It happens, and it's just the way it is. It's part of it."

Duke transfer Elliot Williams plans to move "closer to home" and ask the NCAA for a waiver to play next season because his mother is battling cancer. He will reportedly choose between Memphis, Tennessee, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. But the problem with those two statements is that they don't seem to jibe, because there's no chance the Memphis native would get a waiver to play at Tennessee or Kentucky, and even Vanderbilt is a stretch.

At least that's what one Division I coach told CBSSports.com.

According to a Division I coach who has dealt with transfers, the NCAA has "tightened up" the criteria for waivers since allowing Tyler Smith to transfer from Iowa to Tennessee without penalty when Smith's father was battling cancer. Smith wanted to "be closer to home" because of his father's illness, so he picked Tennessee, which is 248 miles from his home in Pulaski, Tenn. The NCAA granted the waiver. But the source said the guidelines are now stricter (even if they aren't clearly defined).

"I know a player who transferred to a school 106 miles from his home, and the NCAA denied the waiver," the source said. "They wanted to know that the player was going to have 'day-to-day responsibilities' with the family member before granting the waiver, and they said that you can't have 'day-to-day responsibilities' if you're 106 miles away."

Assuming that ruling is consistent with the NCAA's current way of thinking, it appears unlikely that Williams could get a waiver to play at any of the schools he's considering except for Memphis. Consider:

• Vanderbilt is 212 miles from Memphis.
• Tennessee is 391 miles from Memphis.
• Kentucky is 423 miles from Memphis.

In conclusion, best I can tell, unless Elliot Williams wants to sit out a year, he must transfer to Memphis.

And that's why it seems to be a near certainty that he'll play for the Tigers next season.

Tennessee forward Tyler Smith is holding a Thursday afternoon press conference to announce that he is withdrawing from the NBA Draft, a source close to the Vols program told CBSSports.com.

Smith averaged 17.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last season.

This development means the Vols will return every relevant player from a 21-win team.

Martavious Newby is one of the better young prospects in the city of Memphis.

He had an interesting quote in Monday's newspaper about Memphis' Elite Camp.

"I was about to go to Tennessee's camp up there, but I changed my mind," Newby told The Commercial Appeal . "I mean, I like Tennessee, but I had to come over here and see how it is, because I like Memphis. That's where I might be going. So I told my high school coach I changed my mind."

Changed his mind?

"I love him to death," Newby's AAU coach, Keith Easterwood, told CBSSports.com on Monday. "But he never had a mind to change."

Before you can understand this story -- and, specifically, how Memphis ended up with most of the top local players on campus last Friday and Saturday -- you need to understand the back story, that Easterwood coaches the best Class of 2011 and 2012 prospects in the area. You also need to know that his team is funded by Nike. And that Memphis is a "Nike" school. And that Tennessee is an "Adidas" school. And that both schools held Elite Camps this past weekend.

OK, you got all that?

Good.

Now I'll let Easterwood tell the story.

"I polled my kids after a game," Easterwood said. "I asked 12 kids: 'Do you want to go to the Memphis Elite Camp or the Tennessee Elite Camp?' ... And all of them, to a man, said they wanted to go to Knoxville. Well, that was good for me. So we did what we had to do to get prepared to get them up there, talked to parents, one thing and another."

And then ...

"I got some calls, some were shoe-affiliated," Easterwood said. "Nike, Adidas, you can connect the dots. ... Memphis is Nike. I'm with a Nike AAU program. And it was expressed to me that it would be in my best interests to stay home and not make the trip to Knoxville, which is what we ultimately did."

Easterwood declined to name the person who called him, but promised it was a "person of influence" with Nike ties. He said he was also told that one of his players, Andre Hollins, might not get an invitation to this week's prestigious Nike Hoop Jamboree in St. Louis if he attended UT's Elite Camp instead of Memphis' Elite Camp.

"The kids didn't know the behind-the-scenes stuff," Easterwood said. "But I had to let [Hollins'] parents know what was at stake if they made that trip."

Once Easterwood told them, they didn't make that trip.

And Hollins' invitation to the Nike Hoop Jamboree subsequently arrived, as expected.

Oddly, I was wondering just the other day about whatever happened to former Tennessee guard Ramar Smith.

Turns out, he's still in Knoxville.

Allegedly robbing and stealing everything from cash to guns to marijuana.

Sounds fun.

But in all seriousness, Thursday night's news that Smith had surrendered to police for his alleged role in a home invasion earlier this week is sad, yet a reminder that many of the student-athletes (and I use that word loosely) you cheer for every season are actually troubled souls who just happen to dribble a basketball fairly well. Or in Smith's case, not well enough. That's why he never landed on solid ground after Bruce Pearl dismissed him following the 2008 NCAA tournament, because he wasn't all that good. Had he been, some coach would've explained that the multiple failed drug tests Smith possessed at UT were merely the result of a young man still trying to grow up, more a part of his past than his future. But because Smith was just an average prospect, he mostly disappeared until he was charged with aggravated robbery.

The lesson?

If you want to be an idiot, it's best to average 15 points per game.

Or maybe the lesson is to stay away from drugs and guns.

Either way, say goodbye to Ramar Smith -- the former top 100 recruit now on his way to prison.