Ricky Clemmons is a "hot" name among college recruiters looking for a point guard. Currently at the College of Southern Idaho, Clemmons is a native of North Carolina and led the nation in scoring as a high school senior.

The 6-foot-1 point guard visited San Diego State on Sunday, but Louisville, Missouri, West Virginia, George Washington, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and North Carolina State are all currently showing good interest in Clemmons.

Rumor also has it that San Diego State has a great shot at landing 6-8 Evan Burns (Fairfax H.S./Los Angeles), who committed to UCLA, should Burns not become a full qualifier.

We have talked about 6-9, 240-pound senior Aaron Spears (Dunbar H.S./Chicago) in this column before. Spears is one of the last remaining big men on the board who is a highly sought after commodity.

Spears has been working on his body and once he gets into shape under the guidance of a good collegiate strength coach, he will be a very tough low post presence. Looking at his long arms, prominent posterior and propensity for scoring in the block, he should start to impact more as a sophomore.

Spears has been making plans to visit schools. We are hearing that Connecticut, Illinois and Oregon will all receive visits. Apparently, Louisville, which started strong, may be fading. We use the term "apparently", since we have not been able to confirm Spears' plans, but received some information from a source that has provided us with good information in the past.

Marvin Stone's transfer to Louisville and reportedly, the current style of play, seem to have scared off Spears. Meanwhile, Connecticut has built a very good relationship with Spears and is a much stronger contender for his services than originally thought.

David Patten, a 6-8 senior at El Dorado H.S. in Placentia, Calif., has verbally committed to Pepperdine, which is seeing no dip in its recruiting with former NBA star and coach Paul Westphal at the helm. Patten had taken a visit to Colorado in the fall and had long been monitored by Utah. Other high majors had also shown serious interest in Patten, whom is best described as a face up forward with a very accurate jump shot and also athletic enough to take it down the baseline and flush it on opponents.

Patten had gone through a lot of interesting options on his future due to his religion. Patten is a Mormon, and as such, was intent on taking his two-year mission. The problem for Patten, however, was that he wanted to take his mission immediately after graduating high school and then come back to an uninterrupted college career. That was not impossible, as we have found out, but was unlikely because of his age (too young). It was more likely that he would have to play a year of basketball and then take his two-year mission before returning to play again.

Patten considered just "sitting out" next year, getting stronger in the weight room, working on his game, and then taking his mission so as not to start at a school and have to leave after one year.

Pepperdine assistant coach Gib Arnold is also of the Mormon faith and was able to persuade Patten that he could take his mission at just about any time, and after considering that advice, Patten decided not to sit out and to select a college and take his mission later in life.

After realizing he could do that, Patten liked the style of play and felt that he would fit in well at Pepperdine.

As they say in Malibu, "everything is fine at the 'Dine."

In the Feb. 1 column we told you about Dez Willingham's verbal commitment to Tennessee and also the apparent controversy surrounding it. That "controversy" has apparently not gone away since Willingham has re-opened his recruitment. At 5-9, Willingham (DeSoto H.S./DeSoto, Texas) is considered one of the better point guards in the junior class (class of 2003).

To backtrack, 6-3 off guard Dane Bradshaw (White Station H.S./Memphis, Tenn.) and Willingham were each told that Tennessee was going to take one guard and would take whomever committed first. Since the two players play different positions, that not only doesn't make much sense, but if both wanted to come, it wouldn't make any difference. Bradshaw beat Willingham to the punch by committing first. Then, after Willingham deliberated and decided to commit anyway -- with Tennessee accepting that commitment of course, Bradshaw's mother allegedly was upset, as she again, allegedly, was under the impression that her son was coming to Tennessee to play the point.

At that point, rumors were rampant that Willingham was going to back away from his verbal commitment.

We reported that things had seemingly been worked out and both players' verbal commitments were still secure. "Seemingly," being the operative word. Now it appears that Tennessee will have to re-fight the good fight for Willingham, as the door is open for other schools to make their pitch.

Many people e-mail us wanting to know certain "stats." That brings us to the "number." The number in question being how many juniors (class of 2003) have made verbal commitments at this time.

By our very unofficial count, the number is 14. In respect to the Willingham story, we must give you the "number" with a wink and a grin.

David Benezra and Mark Mayemura cover the national college basketball recruiting scene at their Recruiting USA (www.recruitingusa.com) website. E-mail at: hoopsusa@mindspring.com or call (818) 783-2244 or (818) 783-2212 for subscription information.