Former Kentucky guard and McDonald's All-American Rashaad Carruth checked into Oklahoma on Tuesday, registered for summer school and made his way to the newly expanded Loyd Noble Center practice courts to see if the Sooners were really as tough as their national rep.

The report from the players to the Sooners' staff: Carruth got pushed around a bit.

But, getting humbled during a little "rat ball'' is a good sign -- at least in Norman.

	Rashaad Carruth has a year to get with the Oklahoma program before he's eligible after transferring from Kentucky.

There were no fights, just some good old fashion Sooner ball. The kind of physical play that saw Arizona forward Luke Walton get shoved out of the lane and out of bounds by an elbow from much shorter Quannas White during OU's Sweet 16 victory in March. The kind of rugged, swarming defense that led Oklahoma all the way to Atlanta and the Final Four. The type of basketball Kelvin Sampson preaches and Carruth will certainly learn to play with a passion over the next few years.

"He had a hard time with discipline (at Kentucky). I sat him down and had some serious talks about this not being the easiest system,'' Sampson said about his decsion to accept Carruth's transfer request after a troublesome season at UK. "I'm not interested in his opinion on it, he's just got to go out and play. He's willing to buy into it. He's not a bad kid. He's made poor decisions."

Sampson said playing for the Sooners isn't about winning any kind of popularity contest. He said Carruth's star-studded past won't fly at the top with the head coach, or OU's pedestrian popular players like White, Hollis Price, Ebi Ere and Johnnie Gilbert -- none of whom came to Norman with high school credentials like Carruth.

Carruth, who was not available for comment, was thought to be an impact star with the Wildcats. But injuries forced him to sit the first four games of the season. Carruth (5.5 ppg, 35.1 percent on 3s) had a breakout game against Duke in the Jimmy V Classic, scoring 19 points in 21 minutes. But he scored in double figures only four more times the rest of his freshman season. He ultimately clashed with Kentucky head coach Tubby Smith and became part of a house cleaning by the 'Cats, as they tried to get rid of any more potential trouble.

How much Carruth improves between now and his sophomore season (in 2003-04) will be up to him. Sampson said he wouldn't put up with any back talk or pouting. And he said he expects Carruth to be a fullfledged member of the team while he redshirts this season. In come cases, players get a free pass when they redshirt, not always expected to be in every workout, or every practice. That won't be the case for Carruth or anyone else coming through Norman.

But taking in Carruth, or any transfer or JUCO talent, isn't new for Sampson. He has had a history of working in such players to the program in order to balance his classes. He took in transfer Jabahri Brown from Florida International at mid-semester two years ago. Brown ultimately became a contributing player at mid-year this past season. Still not a finished product, Brown will stay in Norman this summer rather than go home to the Virgin Islands. He needs to add some bulk on his thin 210-pound frame.

Meanwhile, Sampson is expecting impact play from redshirts Gilbert and freshman swing Matt Gipson. Sampson redshirted Gilbert after letting him play his freshman season, expecting the departure of senior Aaron McGhee this year.

"Johnnie developed a 10- to 12-foot jumper and a baseline move during the redshirt year,'' Sampson said. "Matt gained weight and is much stronger. Gilbert will make a huge impact and be our best rebounder."

	“	He had a hard time with discipline (at Kentucky). I sat him down and had some serious talks about this not being the easiest system. ... He's willing to buy into it. He's not a bad kid. He's made poor decisions. ”
		— Kelvin Sampson, Oklahoma head coach

The two former redshirts will be in a rotation with Brown, rising senior Jozsef Szendrei and incoming freshman Kevin Bookout. The backcourt is so loaded with Price, White, Ere, rising sophomore Blake Johnston and incoming freshman DeAngelo Alexander, that Sampson is considering redshirting junior Jason Detrick this season. That means Detrick and Carruth would work out together and join Alexander in 2003-04 in a three-guard rotation.

"I'm not afraid to redshirt these guys (once they're already here),'' Sampson said.

Ere and Price will work the Nike camp this summer in Indianapolis, while Bookout just got back from a tour of France, and along with Alexander, is trying to make the U.S. Junior National Team this weekend in Colorado Springs. White is going on a Big 12 all-star tour to Norway and Sweden and Gilbert is going on a tour of Australia on a team coached by Lamar's Mike Deane. Meanwhile, Sampson will join Stanford's Mike Montgomery as assistants with the Spurs Greg Popovich for U.S. World Championship coach George Karl of the Bucks in Indianapolis in August and early September.

They may be spread out this summer, but the Sooners -- from the practice players like Carruth, to the returnees like Price and Ere -- are on track to contend for a return trip to the 2003 Final Four.

"I feel good about our chances about (maintaining this recent run),'' Sampson said.

No regrets for Dakich
Bowling Green head coach Dan Dakich has no regrets about taking the West Virginia job for a week and then returning to the Falcons. Dakich doesn't have loads of advice for coaches who find themselves in a similar situation, but his two main points are: don't burn bridges on your departure and try to find out as much information as possible about the new job.

It's not easy to do the latter. Dakich said he received a number of phone calls from coaches who told him if they could have done the same thing they would have after discovering problems at a new gig.

"There were a number of factors in my decision," Dakich said. "For me it's not about the money, but where I want to be in my life. I don't need to be on TV or have everyone talk about me. I just want to do the right thing for me and my family."

West Virginia is still investigating whether or not a violation occurred with freshman point Jonathan Hargett. The potential violation was uncovered during a conversation between Dakich and Hargett. Dakich said he isn't thinking about whether or not this will hurt him in the future. His most pressing concern is getting five more games on his schedule. The Falcons are in the market for a road game, a home-and-home series, and some teams to fill their final few games.

Bowling Green is in favor of the "Bracket Buster Saturday" plan featuring 10 games between 20 teams from five mid-major conferences. The plan, as unveiled on ESPN.com last week, would call for four teams from the MAC, Big West, WAC, MVC and Horizon to be predetermined and play one game on either Feb. 15 or 22 to help boost their power rating. An example would be a Tulsa-Utah State matchup to help the teams get another RPI game during a conference season that might not provide enough of them as they move toward getting an at-large berth.

Meanwhile, Dakich tried to drum up support to no avail for a 16-game MAC schedule. The two extra games could be used to get at least one more quality non-conference game and maybe another win. But he agreed that the MAC would continue to get only one team in the tournament if teams lose more than four league games, even though it's very tough to win on the road in the MAC.

Another lawsuit for the NCAA
A lawyer for the Eastern Invitational and the Five-Star Basketball camp filed an injunction in a federal court in Philadelphia this week to get rid of the NCAA's 100-mile rule for prep players on summer league teams.

In order for a camp or tournament to be certified, the participating teams and coaches have to meet certain guidelines and one of them is the 100-mile radius rule for players. The rule says players can't be on teams unless they live within 100 miles of the team's home base. According to attorney Richard Meltzer, the suit is being brought by the summer league team the Dakota Schoolers, based out of Sioux City, S.D., who have a few team members from Fargo, N.D.

Now, the majority of teams do abide by this rule. But a number of high-profile players have traveled across the country to play in the summer. EBO, a team based in Fresno, Calif., once had a roster with Carlos Boozer of Alaska and Brett Nelson of West Virginia. A number of California-based teams have had one or two players from out of the state, or even another part of the state more than 100 miles away. But the Basketball Issues Committee had discussed this as a possibility to curtail players from being recruited to play on teams from all over the country.

Meltzer said he's hoping for a quick decision on the injunction, possibly as early as next week, with the evaluation period for the NCAA beginning July 8. The two camps have an existing anti-trust lawsuit over rules that govern private camps that differ from Division I-sponsored camps, such as which coaches can work at the camps. The camps are also fighting a deadline to have all of their coaches certified before the evaluation period begins or the NCAA won't allow coaches to attend these camps during the 20 days they're allowed to watch players in July.

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