If you have not heard, Craig Brackins is spending part of his summer competing for USA in the World University Games. The competition is being held in Belgrade, Serbia, and it's a great chance for elite college basketball players to compete with some of the world's best at their age group.

Here's a rundown of USA's Roster:

The squad is coached by Wisconsin Coach, Bo Ryan.

The team has already arrived in Serbia, and played won an exhibition game against Canada 85-81. Brackins came off the bench, getting 4 points, 1 rebound, and 1 assist in 18 minutes. Brackins went 1-4 from the field, and 2-2 from the charity stripe.

USA will play Serbia on Sunday at 2pm CST, and Russia on Monday at 11:30am CST. All of these, are an exhibition round-robin tournament prior to the World University Game.

The World University Games for the USA will start on July 3rd. The USA will play Finland on July 3rd at 1pm CST and will also play South Korea on July 4th at 1pm CST. Assuming the USA will advance (and that's a pretty safe bet), the 2nd round is July 6th and 7th, quarterfinals July 9th, semifinals July 10th, and the finals on July 11th.

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I know this was a guy who signed late this spring, that sort of flew under the radar. We didn't hear anything about him prior to his signing, and when he did, he was completely off the radar. I know for many it raised some concern.

Well, Oliver is now "on" the radar so to say as ESPN has finally graded him. He's rated an 86 out of 100 and sounds like a very athletic guy. You can read the writeup here.

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ISU Men's Basketball coach Greg McDermott is now on Twitter. His username is @isucoachmac .

Initially I was a bit skeptical it was actually him, but he's confirmed it in a different interview. At the moment he'll be doing the updating, but I'm curious as to whether a GA or Manager will be doing it during the busy times of year.

Nonetheless, we'll be monitoring coach Mac's status. You can be assured that if he's writing anything entertaining, you'll know about it here. We might even do a regular segment on his updates, but that's to be determined...

Rock Island Forward Jordan Dykstra has decommitted from Iowa State. This apparently was a mutual decision. He was supposed to join the class of 2010.

From the sounds of it, it didn't appear that Dykstra had been coming along in his development how McDermott had hoped.

This is the risk coaches run into when offering someone when they're a freshmen. There's a long way to go developmentally, and you don't know exactly what may happen the during the 4 years they play in high school.

I don't have any word on who we're looking at to fill the spot for the 2010 class, but as we learn more, we'll report here. The scholarship chart has been updated yet again.

Just wanted to update all the readers on some old news, but want to be sure we're all on the same page:

• We signed a high school guard Antwon Oliver for the 2009 class.
• Lucca Staiger and Charles Boozer have decided to stay at ISU
• Cam Lee has transferred to D-II School University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota and we wish him well

The Basketball Scholarship Chart has been updated. See the link at the side of the page.  Hopefully the changes we talk about more is adding players instead of subtracting some. This summer has had a good trend and I hope it continues!

Lucca Staiger called Gregg McDermott Thursday and told him that he's coming back for his junior year. TThe Des Moines Register says Staiger will return in September, after playing for the German junior and national team. Whew! Another bit of good news for ISU's men's basketball team. What's going on?

A week after Craig Brackins announced that he'll return to Iowa State for his junior season comes news that Lucca Staiger is mulling an offer to play pro basketball in Germany.

“I think he’s on the fence right now,” coach Greg McDermott told The Des Moines Register. “I talked to him (Saturday). We’ll talk (today), and we’ll talk on a daily basis until he comes to grips on his decision.”

Staiger, a sophomore shooting guard from Blaustein, Germany, has an offer to play on Germany's junior national and national basketball teams. Last season, Staiger was the Cyclones best outside threat, hitting 74 three-pointers. Staiger started 27 of 32 games and averaged 8.2 points per game.

The potential loss of Staiger would be a big blow to the Cyclones, who would have finally had a returning guard court in the McDermott era.

Staiger isn't the only one considering leaving Iowa State. Guard Charles Boozer is thinking about transferring. Boozer averaged 2.5 points per game. Also, walk-on Cameron Lee is leaving the program to play in a lower-division.

Boozer provided a spark off the bench last year, and Lee played intense defense in spurts. But the loss of Boozer and Lee wouldn't hurt as much as losing Staiger. Boozer apparently saw the writing ont he wall. Minutes would be scarce in a crowded backcourt with Diante Garrett, Domique Buckley, Chris Colvin, Scott Christopherson and Staiger, if he returns.

The Men's Basketball Team just signed Antown Oliver, a high school Senior, out of Racine Wisconsin. He's listed as 6'5 and 175 lbs and sounds like he could play the 2 or the 3.

He sounds a bit undersized and early indications are he might redshirt his Freshman Year, so I wouldn't put him as an immediate impact type of a player. He's a bit under the radar, and some of the recruiting sites had him going the JUCO route initially.

It will be interesting to see how it turns out. The BB recruiting and Scholarship Chart will be updated in the near future, but I believe he is filling the Scholarship opened up by Eikmeier's departure.