After verbally committing to Sydney Johnson’s program, Chris O’Brien will attend San Francisco instead. The San Francisco Chronicle reports O’Brien did not gain admission to Princeton this spring. The 2007 graduate of Northwood High School in Irvine, California, currently is taking a gap year.

Joe Jones has picked up a commitment from Ohio two-sport star Chris Crockett of Columbus Academy. Crockett was drawing high-level recruiting interest as both a basketball and football prospect prior to sustaining a knee injury this past fall on the football field. He returned for the final five regular season contests and the playoffs, averaging 14.8 points in those games. Crockett chose the Lions over basketball interest from Boston University and a football offer from Dartmouth. He is the sixth high schooler to commit to Columbia this year, giving Jones an infusion of youth after graduating six seniors, four of whom started this past season.

Dartmouth announced its 2008 men’s basketball recruiting class, and Herve Kouna Metsam from the Caterbury School in Connecticut was among the five names. The 6-8 power forward came to the United States from Cameroon two years ago after taking part in Basketball without Borders in Africa in 2006, along with the other Top 100 players on the contintent. He joins two guards (Jabari Trotter and Kirk Crecco), a wing (David Rufful), and another post player (Josh Riddle) in Terry Dunn’s fourth recruiting class.

Mike Szostak of The Providence Journal reports Brown has trimmed a field of 80 applicants to roughly 10, and will be looking to have a new coach in place by June. The article states as many as five applicants will be brought to Providence for in-person interviews, and that there is currently no leading candidate in the search.

The Tulsa World reports Blaise Staab of Memorial High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has announced his intention to attend Columbia this fall. The 6-6, 210-pound Staab averaged 15.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game for Memorial and was named First Team All-Metro by the Tulsa World. He is the fifth incoming freshman to go public with his commitment to the Lions, joining transfer Brian Grimes in a class that now numbers six.