Shabazz Muhammad was named the MVP of the 35th annual McDonald's All-American Game in Chicago. (GETTY IMAGES)

Heading into national signing day, there were five high school All-Americans who have yet to decide on which college to attend in the fall, and one of them was Shabazz Muhammad.

The 6-foot-6 forward from Las Vegas Bishop Gorman was named the MVP of the 35th annual McDonald’s High School All-American Game in Chicago, scoring a game-high 21 points in leading his West team to a 106-102 victory. He was easily the best player on the court, and his good friend Kyle Anderson (who is headed to UCLA) was the only player close enough to challenge that claim.

Muhammad put on a show for his three college suitors: Duke, Kentucky, and UCLA. He displayed a skill level that is already tailor-made for the NBA and his approach was very business-like. He recently put on an impressive show at the Nike Hoop Summit in Oregon, and one NBA scout said “he’s the only one who can play in the NBA tomorrow.”

On April 11, Muhammad told the college basketball world that he is going to be a Bruin, instantly making UCLA one of the favorites to make it to the 2013 Final Four.

Muhammad is the No. 1 rated high school senior by almost all of the prominent recruiting services, with the exception of ESPN. The Worldwide Leader inexplicably has center Noel Nerlens of Everett, Mass. as the top college prospect. Why? Not quite sure, especially after watching Muhammad clearly distance himself from the field with his performance at the McDonald’s game. Not too long ago the Worldwide Leader had Xavier Henry as the nation’s No. 1 recruit. Where is Henry now? He’s currently struggling to keep a job in the NBA. We’ll forgive the Worldwide Leader for putting Muhammad at No. 2 . . . for now.

The three schools on Muhammad’s wish list were three of the most storied programs in the nation. Under John Calipari, Kentucky has become a landing spot for blue chippers looking to rent space for seven months until they become draft eligible. Duke is in the running because, let’s face it, it has living legend Mike Krzyzewski. How can you say “no” when Coach K calls your cell! And then there is UCLA headed by a coach who badly needs a hug after a recent Sports Illustrated article painted his program as an out-of-control institution.

If you go by recent performance, it seems the choice is clear: Kentucky or Duke. But why take the easy route. If Muhammad really wanted to make a big splash in what appears to be his one and only season in college basketball, he should choose a school that needs him more than he needs it. Here are five reasons Muhammad chose UCLA:

1– Location, location, location: Shabazz’s parents are from Los Angeles and it would make for an easy transition to move from Las Vegas to L.A. if the Bishop Gorman High star decides to enroll in Westwood. The only drawback would be the simple fact that Shabazz’s dad, Ron Holmes, went to rival USC. But that’s a minor hurdle given the state of USC’s basketball program.

2– Pipeline to the NBA: Howland has sent more players to the NBA than any college coach in the last 10 years, more than Coach K and Coach Cal. Just take a quick glance at the who’s who of Bruin alums in the NBA: Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, Darren Collison, Arron Afflalo, Jordan Farmar, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Trevor Ariza, Ryan Hollins, Malcolm Lee, and Jrue Holiday. All the players mentioned transitioned well into the Association mainly because of Howland, whose defensive techniques and principles are in line with the pro game. If you play for Howland, you’ll become a very good two-way player.

3– New digs at Westwood: Pauley Pavilion will no longer have the feel of an old gym for 2012-13 season. And from all the blueprints that have been shown so far new Pauley Pavilion is well on its way to becoming one of the hottest tickets in L.A., maybe ever hotter than The Standard hotel. What better way to christen the hottest college gym in the country with the hottest incoming freshman in the nation. And in Hollywood, it’s all about who’s hot and what’s hot.

4–Head of the class: The Bruins already have commitments from St. Anthony’s (N.J.) Kyle Anderson and Oak Hill Academy’s (Va.) Jordan Adams, and they’re also in the running for Miller Grove (Ga.) center Tony Parker. The Bruins already have a boatload of returning players next season, starting with Travis and David Wear and North Carolina transfer Larry Drew III takes over for the inconsistent Lazeric Jones.  If Parker and Muhammad take their talents to Westwood, the Bruins instantly turn into Final Four contenders.

5–Follow the Pyramid of Success: Duke is always near the top 10 in the national rankings and they’re on ESPN almost as often as Tim Tebow. Kentucky just won the national championship so they’ve already reached the pinnacle. Meanwhile, the Bruins are coming off a disappointing 19-14 season and wasn’t even invited to the NIT. Ouch! Compounding things was the damaging SI piece that put the program in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Last year, coveted high school recruit Cody Zeller chose Indiana because he wanted to help bring a once proud program back to the top. Muhammad should follow the same path. The Bruins are in hibernation right now, and all it takes is a little Shabazz to awaken a sleeping giant and help raise a 12th national championship banner at Pauley Pavilion.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Arizona forward Derrick Williams posted eye-popping numbers against top-seeded Duke in the Sweet 16. (GETTY IMAGES)

NBA studio analyst Kenny Smith, who is moonlighting as a college basketball expert this month, admitted an oversight on Thursday night. Smith said he owes Arizona’s Derrick Williams an apology for underestimating his talents. “Derrick Williams is a man,” Smith said.

After the 6-foot-8, 240-pound sophomore forward put together the most impressive game of the 2011 NCAA Tournament when he single-handedly destroyed defending tournament champion Duke in Arizona’s 93-77 victory in the Sweet 16, Smith may have to change Williams’ status from “The Man” to “The Beast.” Williams’ stat line against the top-seeded Blue Devils was very LeBron-like: 32 points, 13 rebounds, 5-for-6 from behind the 3-point line and two jaw-dropping dunks.

Smith certainly wasn’t alone in praising Williams. Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski raved about him during the postgame news conference.

“He’s just a superb player. He is as good as anybody we’ve played. I should say better than anybody we played,” Krzyzewski said of the Pac-10 Player of the Year, whose 25 first-half points kept the Wildcats in the game. In the end, Williams and the Wildcats were too much for the defending NCAA Tournament champions, whose reign ended on Thursday night in Anaheim.

Coach K added, “He kept his team in the game in the first half. The rest of their team responded in the second half. He just gives you a presence all the time, that kid. He looks like he never gets tired. He can handle the ball. I think he’s actually their second best-ball handler. He is unique. He’s a very unusual player to guard. He’s a great player. A great kid. I told him afterward he is special . . . He gives you confidence. You always know you have that guy on the court. There is a physicality to this game. Clean, beautiful. He’s a beautiful player.”

Williams’ performance in the Sweet 16 against Duke is by far the signature moment of a fabulous tournament for the former La Mirada (Calif.) High School standout. It has been one big play after another for Williams, who has certainly raised his NBA draft stock the last two weeks and should be a sure-fire lottery pick come June. He made the key block against Memphis in the opening round, and then his three-point play lifted Arizona over Texas in the second round.

While Connecticut’s Kemba Walker, Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger, BYU’s Jimmer Fredette and, to a certain extent, Duke’s Kyrie Irving grabbed all the main headlines prior to March Madness, Arizona’s Derrick Williams is currently shining the brightest in the Big Dance.

Former NBA player and Michigan standout Jalen Rose, right, arrive at the Nokia Theatre with Terrell Owens during the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles. (GETTY IMAGES)

First of, I like Jalen Rose. He’s very well-spoken and honest. Not enough athletes today spew opinions with brutal honesty, and Rose is in the minority. However, Rose went a little too far with his raw, uncensored commentary regarding the black players on Duke University in ESPN’s documentary feature on “The Fab Five” that aired on Selection Sunday.

In describing his hatred for Duke, the outspoken leader of University of Michigan’s famous freshman class in 1991 revealed that he thought Duke’s black athletes, specifically Grant Hill, were subservient to the white establishment and called them an “Uncle Tom.”

To borrow a line from my good friend Jason Reid, who is a columnist for the Washington Post, the term “Uncle Tom” is the worst thing one black man can direct at another black man. Reid later wrote that Rose’s “Uncle Tom” reference, misguided as it is, asserts that academic achievement and professional accomplishment affluence somehow reduces or eliminates a person’s “blackness.”

Rose had an opportunity to soften his stance and recant his statement on ESPN’s First Take a day later, but he wasn’t exactly apologetic.

Rose said, “As a 17-year-old recruit, that’s exactly how I felt. At that time, I felt like I was not good enough for certain stages. That’s just a fact. But also that’s something I used as motivation. Now, I understand what their program represents because I’m a mature adult. I know that it’s a private school. I know that do recruit from well-to-do, affluent families. But also understand some of the reason why so they do see some of their players selling their goods for money. Also, they want to get kids that would represent the program the right way. I get all of that. But, that’s the minority. I was speaking for the majority. That’s exactly how I felt then. It wasn’t an individual, it wasn’t somebody 20 years later.”

When Rose was asked if Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski would recruit him now, Rose said “I think would recruit my kids.”

“I don’t think they would have recruited me. I never seen Coach K in Detroit. But that’s just me,” Rose said.

Rose was an honor roll student in high school and is clearly well versed in cultural issues. But, he’s way off base in his assessment of Hill or any of Duke’s black athletes. Just because Hill grew up in affluence doesn’t reduce his level ethnicity or his standing in the black community. To call Hill an “Uncle Tom” is absolutely absurd.

Rose explains that his comment had nothing to do with being a racist. Basically, Rose said “it’s being somebody who is socially conscience and you’re paying attention to what’s going on around you.”

Certain schools recruit a certain kind of guy. That is a fact. But, again, a black player shouldn’t be called an “Uncle Tom” just because he joined a private school in Durham, N.C. It’s undeserving. When I was 17, I may not have been smartest kid on the block but I was smart enough to know that you don’t call a black kid an “Uncle Tom.”

The bottom line is this, Duke should be allowed to recruit its type of players as well as Michigan should be able to recruit its type of players. As much as Rose was correct in saying that Duke would not consider a player like him because of his background, he was wrong in bringing up the term “Uncle Tom.” Rose could have made his point just as clearly had he just said Duke recruited a bunch of rich kids.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/onemanfastbreak.

U.S. senior men's national coach Mike Krzyzewki (middle) became the first American coach to win gold at the World Championship and Olympics. (GETTY IMAGES)

Coach Mike Krzyzewski recently visited with ESPN’s Mike & Mike Show and talked about 21-year-old phenom Kevin Durant and
the significance of winning a world championship.

Krzyzewski says winning a gold medal at the FIBA World Championships is a greater accomplishment than winning Olympic gold simply because of the competition. “It’s actually bigger because it’s worldwide and there are 24 countries instead of 12,” explained the Duke University head coach, who now holds the distinction of being the first coach in USA Basketball history to win gold at the FIBA Worlds (2010) and the Olympics (2008).

As for the star player of the 2010 World Championship team who carried the United States to an undefeated mark in Turkey, Coach K had nothing but high praise for the Oklahoma City Thunder superstar.

“I’m not sure a U.S. player in the last quarter century maybe performed better under pressure,” Krzyzewski said. “Usually you have two, three, four scorers that you depend on. For us, he was the guy that we depended on. For him to come up with almost 70 points in the final two games, what a magnificent performance from a great kid who is pure. And he’s really humble.

“He’s as good as anybody in the world right now as a basketball player.”

Durant broke Carmelo Anthony’s single-game scoring record set in 2006 with 38 points against Lithuania in the semifinals. Durant also established a new American record for most points for an entire tournament. His 205 points shattered Luther Burden’s mark of 182, which stood for 36 years.

Coack K firmly believes that the United States can remain the dominant team in FIBA play as long as defense is the focus.

“We are the most athletic team, and if we use that and our depth then we have an advantage,” he said. “The defense has got to be the calling card. Nobody in the world can play the defense that we can play if we put our minds to it. [Other countries] can shoot as well and they can run offense as well, but they can’t play defense as well.”

Unfortunately, real life did not imitate art.

Butler had a chance to bring to life the unforgettable scene from the movie “Hoosiers” in which Jimmy Chitwood swishes a shot at the buzzer to give Hickory the Indiana high school state title.

Butler’s sophomore forward Gordon Hayward played the role of Jimmy Chitwood and he had two takes to complete the greatest upset in college basketball tournament history.

The first shot came with 13 seconds when Hayward drove the lane and shot a fadeaway near the baseline over Duke’s 7-foot center Brian Zoubek. The shot banged off the rim into Zoubek’s arms.

The second shot came with 3 seconds left after Zoubek intentionally missed his second free throw. Down 61-59, Hayward grabbed the missed free throw, dribbled to midcourt and launched a desperation shot that would have won the game. The shot banged off the backboard and bounced off the front of the rim.

Duke players and coaches began to celebrate the school’s fourth national championship while the Butler players realized that their title hopes were dashed and Hayward was left reliving his two missed opportunities.

It could have been a storybook ending to a storybook tournament for the Bulldogs, a mid-major school from Indiana located six miles from the site of the 2010 Final Four in Indianapolis. Butler winning the national championship would have been a bigger upset than N.C. State defeating Houston in 1983 or Villanova slaying Georgetown in 1985.

However, it wasn’t meant to be.

“We were one shot away from winning the national championship,” said Butler coach Brad Stevens, whose team had won 25 games in row prior to Monday’s title game.

“We caught lightning in a bottle and rode it as far as we could,” Stevens added. “I’m proud of our guys. We just came one possession short.”

The game was well played and it was very physical. Duke benefited from some favorable calls by the refs in the first half, but the officials made up for it with some favorable calls for Butler in the second half.

In the end, the bigger and stronger Blue Devils wore down the underdog Bulldogs. Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler, who was named the tournament’s most outstanding player, made enough big shots to carry the Blue Devils on offense. On the other hand, Butler’s two best scorers, Shelvin Mack and Hayward, struggled offensively and the Bulldogs’ defense was just not enough to overcome Duke’s talent and depth.

It was fitting that the huge sign above the court at Lucas Oil Stadium read: “The Road Ends Here.” For Butler, the ending wasn’t what they hoped for.

Behind a rock-solid defense, the No. 5-seeded team from Indiana reached the championship game after overcoming Michigan State, 52-50, in one of the national semifinal games at Lucas Oil Stadium in – where else – Indianapolis.

Next up for underdog Butler is mighty Duke University – the last remaining No. 1-seeded team in the tournament.

The people who were responsible for bringing the movie “Hoosiers” to the big screen couldn’t have scripted this any better. Heck, the NCAA Tournament Committee couldn’t have scripted this any better.

Does Butler feel lucky to be in Final Four? Not at all. This is a squad that has won 25 in a row and was a preseason top-25 team.

“It doesn’t really matter. All that stuff is for debate,” said Butler’s thirtysomething head coach Brad Stevens, who will go up against the great Mike Krzyzewski in the final game. “It’s special to share this with the community and it’s special to share this with the city.”

“This team and this program has been built on guys ready to come in and contribute for the good of the team. It makes me proud to be their coach,” Stevens said after the win over Michigan State.

Duke against Butler is a matchup straight from the pages of Hollywood. The gap between the two schools when it comes to notoriety and accomplishments are about as long as a film strip.

However, the daunting task placed in front of them is met with quiet confidence. “I think our biggest strength is that we don’t know any better,” said Bulldogs guard Ronald Nored.

Duke has won three national championship banners since 1990 while Butler has none.

Duke has a roster filled with McDonald’s High School All-Americans while Butler’s players frequents McDonald’s during the season.

Duke’s campus is known for its Cameron Crazies while Butler is known for being the location of the movie “Hoosiers.”

It’s David vs. Goliath . It’s Georgetown vs. Villanova. It’s Milan vs. Muncie Central.

Jimmy, Buddy and Ollie…they’ve been replaced with Gordon, Shelvin and Ronald.

Can’t wait see how this story ends.