Tyler Hasnbrough has spent the offseason in Chapel Hill and has been impressed with freshman P.J. Hairston.

"I'm really high on him," said Hansbrough. "He's way more athletic than I thought. He can really shoot it and he's exactly what we need. If he can play defense ... I'm a little worried about his defense." 

While Hairston has been the most impressive incoming freshman, he also has liked what he has seen from James McAdoo.

"I really like him, I think he's got a chance to be really good. I want to see him develop a few moves. He needs to get a feel for the system. I don't think he's ever played in an up-and-down pace like what Coach Williams runs. I think he'll be a big-time player, but it may take until the middle of the season for him to break out." 

Bronson Koenig, a 6-foot-2 combo guard has committed to Wisconsin.

Koenig was also being pursued by North Carolina, Virginia and even Duke expressed interest in the summer. He is the No. 26 player in the class of 2013.

The pursuit of Koenig by Roy Williams made it more difficult for Wisconsin to convince Koenig to stay close to home. Koenig is frequently compared to Kirk Hinrich, who Williams coached at Kansas.

"Wisconsin has raised the bar a little bit and their program is really strong right now," Aquinas coach Rick Schneider said. "That's very attractive to an in-state recruit like Bronson. He feels like this is a great opportunity to play in front of people that know him really well." The Badgers are a formidable basketball team from a national perspective. They don't typically recruit nationally and like many of their Big Ten brethren rely on in-state and regional recruits. For that reason, a decision like Koenig's goes a long way in forming the recruiting perception for future recruits.

"Wisconsin's had a lot of success in the Big Ten, they're a staple in the NCAA Tournament," Schneider said. "Kids want to compete and play in the NCAA every year and Wisconsin's going to provide that for him."

Putting a college basketball game on an aircraft carrier sounds like a cool event, something unique to punctuate the start of the basketball season.

But this is much more than a gimmick on 11-11-11 -- much more than merely a game to showcase top-ranked North Carolina and perennial contender Michigan State.

Understand that this event would not have happened without the full cooperation of the United States Navy. The USS Carl Vinson was chosen as the host carrier, less than seven months removed from being the final resting place of the most sought-after war criminal since World War II, Osama Bin Laden, whose body was dumped into the sea off the deck of the Vinson.

Rashad McCants will soon turn 27 and still has enough talent to play professional basketball, but is not eager to continue his career.

“Basketball was an opportunity, a means to an end after college, and I planned not to solely depend on basketball, so the lockout doesn’t affect me - I have been locked out two years,’’ said McCants, who said he owns successful businesses. “I have been blackballed for two years, so these guys are making a big thing out of the lockout. They don’t know what locked out is.’’

McCants said he wants to be considered the “best player in the world not playing basketball’’ and is content if he doesn’t make an NBA return.

Jabari Parker had a workout at Simeon on Tuesday that was attended by representatives from Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, Texas A&M, DePaul, Ohio State and Iliinois.

One source told Evan Daniels of Scout.com that it was the most coaches he had ever seen watch a high school workout.

Mike Krzyzewski was one of the coaches in attendance.

Parker is widely considered the top player of the class of 2013.

The Sporting News announced their preseason All-American teams.

Harrison Barnes of North Carolina, Jared Sullinger of Ohio State, Perry Jones of Baylor, Anthony Davis of Kentucky and Jeremy Lamb of UConn were named to the first team.

The second team consists of Jordan Taylor of Wisconsin, John Shurna of Northwestern, Terrence Jones of Kentucky, Thomas Robinson of Kansas and Tyler Zeller of North Carolina.

Austin Rivers of Duke, John Jenkins of Vanderbilt, Tu Holloway of Xavier, Doug McDermott of Creighton and Ashton Gibbs of Pitt round out the third team.