West Virginia junior Joe Alexander is one of many collegians who may opt to turn professional.

AP / Chris Carlson

While Providence College fans anxiously await news on a new coach (sorry, none this morning), many other basketball schools around the country are nervously waiting to see if their stars bolt for the NBA.

The early returns in this annual spring game weren’t good for college ball. Everyone of note, it seems, is jumping for the pros. There is an April 27 draft-declaration deadline but kids can return to college sometime in June if they don’t sign with an agent.

North Carolina has to be the heavy favorite to be picked number one next season because it seems like the Tar Heels will avoid the NBA rush. That’s assuming that national player of the year Tyler Hansbrough and guards Wayne Ellington and Tywon Lawson all return. Hansbrough is one of the stranger, great college players. Some NBA scouts simply don’t like him. Others see him as the ultimate garbage player who could blossom if he ever masters a 20-foot jumper. Right now no one has him as a lottery pick.

Among the other collegiate stars who will dramatically influence their team’s fortunes next season if they move on to the pros are Memphis frosh Derrick Rose and junior Chris Douglas-Roberts, Texas sophomore D.J. Augustin, Kansas’ Darrell Arthur and Brandon Rush, UConn’s Hasheem Thabeet, West Virginia junior Joe Alexander, UCLA’s Kevin Love and Darren Collison, Syracuse freshman Donte’ Green, Louisville’s Terrence Williams and Florida sophomore Marreese Speights.

College freshmen Michael Beasley (Kansas State), O.J. Mayo (USC), Eric Gordon (Indiana), Jerryd Bayless (Arizona) and DeAndre Jordan (Texas A&M) have all declared and are expected to be lottery picks.

Albany’s Brown never interviewed

Reports from all sorts of media swirl during a coaching search, and digging through it all and deciphering what’s true and what is not is a challenge. One piece of untruth that was reported in many circles as fact can now be shot down: Albany’s Will Brown was never interviewed by PC athletic director Bob Driscoll. That report originally came from a New York newspaper. It is untrue. That’s good news because Brown was the one name that never made much sense in PC’s search.

NCAA and NBA team up

Perhaps lost amid the flurry of the Final Four was an announcement by the NCAA’s Myles Brand and NBA Commissioner David Stern about an initiative aimed at enhancing youth basketball in America. The initiative is being funded by the NCAA and NBA and taking input from a host of interested parties including USA Basketball, the AAU and sneaker companies.

“Nothing speaks more strongly for the future of basketball in America than to have all the key stakeholders come together to help create that future. That is what this initiative means. The leadership in American basketball is coming together,” said Brand. “The NCAA is pleased to help in a leadership role in this historic effort and values the opportunity to collaborate with the NBA.”

The initiative will focus on educating youth coaches, summer camps and skills programs, and sanctioning tournaments. Both the NCAA and NBA have grown frustrated that they have little input into spring and summer tournaments where the best players are competing in 50-75 games.

In some cases they aren’t received good coaching or mentoring. How this initiative can solve those issues remains to be seen.

There is also talk of the NCAA and NBA cooperating in forming an entry plan for college stars into the pros that benefits both organizations. While any changes need to be approved by the NBA’s Player’s Association, the NCAA clearly wants its players to stick around at least two years and the NBA does not want its future stars until they’re at least 19 years old. The current union contract runs through 2011.

“We think it’s better that they stay two years. I would prefer they stay at least three and maybe four,” Brand said. “The NCAA has no role whatsoever in the age-limitation rule, because that is entirely a management/labor issue within the NBA.”

The simple solution is as follows: if you want to enter the NBA out of high school, go right ahead. If you choose to go to college, you must stay at least two years. Baseball has a similar plan except that college kids can’t be drafted until after their junior seasons.

JamFest coming to R.I.

We don’t even want to think that this is possible but let’s hope PC’s search for a coach is complete by the weekend of April 25-27. That’s when the Hoop Group’s annual JamFest invades the state with a host of recruitable players lacing them up at PC’s Alumni Hall and Peterson Center and Rhode Island College’s Murray Center.

Many of the elite high school juniors and sophomores in the Northeast will be here with their AAU clubs, including the R.I. Hawks, R.I. Breakers and Providence United, the Connecticut Basketball Club, the New Jersey Playaz, Albany City Rocks, Donyell Marshall Foundation, Juice All Stars, Long Island Lightning, Metro Hawks, New York Gauchos, New York Panthers, New York Ravens, Metro Boston and the New England Playaz.

kmcnamar@projo.com