Mike Montgomery, the winningest coach in Stanford men's basketball history, will return to the school as an assistant to the athletic director.

Montgomery, who won 393 games in his 18 years with the Cardinal, will begin his new job Sept. 4. He will be responsible fund raising and public relations while also serving as a mentor to Stanford's coaching staff.

On Tuesday afternoon when O.J. Mayo met with the media at Heritage Hall he said that he intended to return for a second year of college unless he was guaranteed to become a lottery pick in the NBA draft -- a proposition that for now is considered likely.

"Right now, I plan on staying more than one year unless my situation changes and I have an opportunity to make a living for my family," Mayo said. "Right now, I'm focusing on my education, and I'm hoping next year if I do return -- which I plan on -- I'd like to go into business management and real estate investments."

Robert Mitchell, a 6-foot-6 forward who was the Atlantic 10 rookie of the year last season, has left Duquesne's basketball team and plans to transfer to another school.

One of a dozen new players brought in by Dukes coach Ron Everhart last season, Mitchell averaged 16.4 points and 5.1 rebounds as a freshman on a team that finished 10-19. He was chosen as the Atlantic 10's rookie of the week five times and was only the second player in school history to be selected as the conference's top first-year player. He was the ninth leading scorer among NCAA Division I freshmen last season.

Indiana will have a hole to fill in the backcourt over the first nine games of the season.

Hoosiers guard A.J. Ratliff has been ruled academically ineligible for the first semester, according to a report by the Indianapolis Star on Sunday.

The 6-3 senior will miss the first nine games, including the clash with ACC squad Georgia Tech on November 27. He will not be eligible to return to the team until December 15.

Capitalizing on an NCAA rule that lets teams compete internationally once every four years, the Trojans are tentatively scheduled to play two teams from Mexico's Professional National Basketball League in Mazatlan over Labor Day.

Even a highly touted recruiting class that includes guard O.J. Mayo and forward Davon Jefferson will be hard-pressed to offset the loss of Nick Young, Gabe Pruitt and Lodrick Stewart, who averaged a combined 43.8 points.

The Trojans opened practice Wednesday in preparation for their trip to the resort town along Mexico's central Pacific coast. Coach Tim Floyd had to bring back former walk-on Chris Penrose to conduct five-on-five drills because the team's six-man freshman class can't begin practicing until the first day of school on Monday.

Illinois guard Jamar Smith will sit out next season following a drunken-driving conviction.

Coach Bruce Weber said Wednesday Smith will redshirt and rejoin the team next fall as a junior if he meets unspecified obligations.

"He's in the process of meeting his legal obligations while continuing to work on his personal issues," Weber said in a statement. "We feel at this time it's in Jamar's best interest that he sit out the 2007-08 season."

The University of Oregon's plan to build a new basketball arena moved a giant step forward Monday when Nike co-founder Phil Knight, and his wife, Penny, pledged $100 million to the university, the largest philanthropic gift in school history.

The money is not targeted specifically for an arena, university officials said. Rather, it will create the Oregon Athletics Legacy Fund, which will help support all athletic programs.

But indirectly, officials said, the donation will boost the university's effort to replace aging McArthur Court with a new arena near the eastern edge of campus.

"This extraordinary gift will set Oregon athletics on a course toward certain self sufficiency and create the flexibility and financial capacity for the university to move forward with the new athletic arena," Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny said. "Now we can roll up our sleeves and get to work on making the arena a reality."

Georgia Tech will play the first part of the season without senior center Ra'Sean Dickey, who was ruled academically ineligible for the fall semester.

Dickey will have to get his grades up if he hopes to rejoin the team after the end of the semester in mid-December, coach Paul Hewitt said Saturday.

Dashan Harris, a four-star basketball recruit as rated by Rivals.com, put Texas A&M at the head of a long line of unofficial campus visits this summer.

Apparently, his final visit Tuesday left the right impression because the 6-1 junior point guard from Montverde Academy in Orlando, Fla., committed to first-year A&M coach Mark Turgeon on Friday.

This one was interesting because among the schools Harris turned down was Kentucky, where former A&M coach Billy Gillispie went in April.

"When I was there on campus, I just felt like that was the right place for me," Harris said. "I had a great connection with coach Turgeon; he's a great coach and a great person.

"It just felt like the right thing for me."

Harris averaged 12.6 points and 10.1 assists as a junior. He chose the Aggies over Indiana, Kentucky, California, Florida State, Cincinnati and Oklahoma.

Pokey Chatman, who resigned last March as LSU's women's basketball coach amid allegations of improper relationships with a former player, plans to take a job coaching a professional women's club in Russia, WAFB-TV reported Thursday night.

The station reported that Chatman would join the Spartak Moscow Region team.

Chatman's California-based agent, Eric Weisel, did not return a phone message left at his office. Reached by phone at his home, Chatman's father, Douglas Chatman, said he could not confirm that his daughter had agreed to join Spartak.