Ray Allen, Kemba Walker, Andre Drummond, Ben Gordon and Rudy Gay are among the former UConn greats expected to participate in the seventh Jim Calhoun Charity All-Star Game on Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Other likely participants: Richard Hamilton, Caron Butler, DeAndre Daniels, Khalid El-Amin, Donyell Marshall, Donny Marshall, Charlie Villanueva, Scott Burrell, Taliek Brown, A.J. Price, Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, John Gwynn, Lyman DePriest and Rod Sellers. Shabazz Napier is a "hopeful" at this point, we're told.

Howie Dickenman will coach one team and Tom Moore will coach the other. Kevin Ollie won't play, but instead will help assist Dickenman's team. Jim Calhoun, of course, will be there, as well (provided he doesn't take any bike rides earlier in the day). Typically, he floats around to both benches during the game.

Players on all four of UConn's national championship teams will be represented. Also in the house will be the four national championship trophies, on display up on the concourse.

The game tips off at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Ticket are $12 to $25 and can be purchased at Ticketmaster at 800-345-7000, at Ticketmaster.com, or at the Mohegan Sun box office. All proceeds will benefit the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center at UConn Health. Since 1999, the game has raised more than $6.5 million for cardiology research and life-saving care.

Ray Allen, Kemba Walker, Rip Hamilton, Rudy Gay and Shabazz Napier are among the former UConn stars expected to play at this year's Jim Calhoun Charity Classic game on Aug. 8 at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Also expected to be in attendance are: Ben Gordon, DeAndre Daniels, Jeremy Lamb, Donyell Marshall, Donny Marshall, Charlie Villanueva, A.J. Price, Jeff Adrien, Taliek Brown and Scott Burrell.

Charlie Villanueva is still a free agent, and he's still chronicling his foray into free agency in a video blog series called "Crossroads."

In this, Part 3 of his eight-part series, Villanueva returns home to New York, works out at St. John's University, comments on his former teammate/NBA veteran Darrick Martin, meets with a nutritionist, visits the NIKE Pro City League and more (all from July 14-20).

Charlie Villanueva is at a crossroads in his NBA career. After nearly a decade in the league, he is currently a free agent.

The former UConn star has documented this period of his career in "Crossroads", an eight-part video blog series chronicling his free agent journey. Here's Part One (about five minutes), which includes a conversation with his agent, Cheshire's Jeff Schwartz; footage of his workouts; some personal thoughts, and more.

Crossroads, which has been created by Charlie and his brothers and shot on a Samsung phone, is produced by Tivity Social in partnership with SportsBlog, VISalus and WeVideo.

Couple of quick little nuggets this afternoon:

I must have missed this, having gone on vacation soon after the basketball season was over, but former UConn grad assistant/jack-of-all-trades Ben Wood has found a new home at the University of Rhode Island.

Wood, a graduate of Woodbury's Nonnewaug High School, is the director of player development at URI. He'll run the team's video operations, coordinate film exchange and opponent breakdowns and edits, as well as oversee the team's community relations program, staff of team managers, and serve as the staff liasion with the academic services office.

Wood, a 2007 UConn grad (and 2009 masters grad from UConn), was a well-respected part of the Huskies' program for the past several years. He started as a team manager as a freshman, became the head manager as a junior in 2007 and, after graduating with a geography degree, became graduate manager while working on his geography master's.

This year, he was slated to begin writing his dissertation and his professors told him he really had to fully commit to that for a year. Not wanting to get out of basketball, he looked for a job and, with a great deal of help from UConn associate head coach George Blaney (who shares Seton Hall bonds with new URI coach Danny Hurley), got the job despite never having met Hurley before the interview.

Everyone in the UConn program was happy for Wood, including Jim Calhoun.

“Before I had told anybody, he knew I had the job," Wood recalled. "He left me a voice mail that was very, very nice, thanked me for all I had helped with. He’s always encouraged me to want more, go for more.”

In his new position, Wood is basically like UConn's Kevin Freeman: can't coach on the floor, can't recruit, but can be in coaches' meetings, etc.

*** Meanwhile, the news isn't as good for ex-UConn star Charlie Villanueva, who was cut from the Dominican Republic national team and won't be with them at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The Dominican head coach, of course, is John Calipari.

"Charlie was not in good form when we saw him," Calipari said to Deportes en la Z, after Villanueva had a private workout for the team in New York. "He was overweight, and unfortunately, we could not slow down the entire team and it was a decision taken collectively."

UConn is exploring several avenues to free up a scholarship for top-rated recruit Andre Drummond, and it appears that having Michael Bradley give up his scholarship, at least for a year, is one of the more viable ones.

Bradley, a 6-foot-10 center, sat out last season as a redshirt. He is expected to vie for playing time this season, but may be doing so on his own dime.

“There are several options I know the school is helping him to explore, (like) how much financial aid he would be eligible for,” said Lynn Jordan, program director at the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home, where Bradley spent most of his high school years. “His circumstances are a little unique, so that may open the door up for financial aid.”

As I wrote in this feature story a little over a year ago, Bradley’s background certainly is unique. He moved into the children’s home – a facility that works with families of children who, for a variety of reasons, can’t live at home – when he was about 12, returned to live with his mother, Jacqueline Phinazee, about 18 months later, but soon returned to the home and spent the bulk of his high school years there. For a time, he lived with Jordan and her son, Blake, and maintains a close relationship with the family.

“As far as I know, he hasn’t signed anything yet, officially,” said Jordan. “They’re going to try to get the numbers together, let him see them, and if they think it will work out as far as the money, it’s something he’s willing to do.”

Indeed, she added that Bradley didn’t at all feel forced into sacrificing his scholarship for Drummond, the 6-11 center who’s rated as one of the top big men recruits in America.

If Bradley’s situation doesn’t work out, there are several other options that UConn is exploring, according to a source close to the program.

Drummond surprised everyone – including the UConn hoops staff – by Tweeting his commitment to the program on Friday evening. While the Huskies had been working behind the scenes for a while to make this happen, they were caught off-guard by Drummond’s abrupt announcement.

UConn has just 10 scholarships to give this year due, down from the maximum 13, due to recruiting and academic violations. All 10 are accounted for, so the only way for Drummond to join this year’s team is for one of them to be vacated. Drummond, a Middletown resident who attended St. Thomas More Prep the past three years, can’t pay his own way as a walk-on because he is considered a recruited athlete.

*** Oh, and this: Charlie Villanueva has been named to the Dominican Republic squad for teh FIBA Americas tournament.

We're always looking for local angles these days, so a story on Jeff Schwartz, the New Haven native and 1982 Cheshire High grad who is the agent to numerous NBA stars -- not to mention Jim Calhoun -- was a natural.

Jeff's an interesting guy. He focuses on taking clients who are good people, and in return really tries to foster a family-type atmosphere with them. Guys like Emeka Okafor, Jason Kidd, Lamar Odom, even Calhoun, look at Schwartz as more than just an agent. He's been to Calhoun family weddings, once lived for a short time at Kidd's California home, and, yes, he was in the wedding party at the famous Odom-Kardashian nuptials last September (no comment on whether Lamar signed a pre-nup!).

And while Schwartz represents Calhoun, it's important to note that the coach doesn't steer his ex-players to him. Yes, Okafor, Hilton Armstrong, Charlie Villanueva and A.J. Price are Schwartz clients. But the dozen or so other ex-UConn players playing professionally right now chose other routes.

"Sometimes it works against me," Scwartz admitted. "Coach is tough on those guys, and at the end of year, when they're all done, sometimes they want to run as far from him as possible. The shackles are off."

Here's Schwartz's take on a couple of other subjects that didn't make the story:

(On the proliferation of street runners and dirty agents who have had too much influence on some amateur players in recent years)

"I wish that there was tighter scrutiny with it. You’ve got some really good agents out there who do things right way, but then you've got a lot of people who put kids in harm’s way. We talk to our union a lot about it, trying to keep things at a professional level and allow college kids to enljoy college experience. I think it’s an issue across sports. I don’t know how it gets solved."

(On the rule that a player must be at least one year out of high school to be drafted by the NBA)

"I think the more mature someone is, in general, the better chance they have at success at anything. However, I represented Martina Hingis when she was 16 years old and No. 1 in the world, so I've seen it from all sides. I really think it’s on a case-by-case basis. Do I think, overall, it’s helpful to have a year or two of college? It never hurt anybody. I think it’s good thing."

The UConn athletic department would like to get the word out that seven of the 13 former UConn players currently in the NBA are on this year's NBA All-Star ballot: Rudy Gay (Memphis), Ray Allen (Boston), Emeka Okafor (New Orleans), Charlie Villanueva (Detroit), Richard Hamilton (Detroit), Caron Butler (Washington) and Ben Gordon (Detroit).

Fans can vote for all-stars at NBA.com until Jan. 18. The rosters will be announced on Jan. 22.

***Speaking of the NBA, we're hoping we don't run across Gilbert Arenas's personal arsenal on Saturday at the Verizon Center, when UConn faces Georgetown in what should be a good one. Guns among NBA players (and basketball players in general) is a topic on people's minds these days, including some clown on today's Big East coaches conference call.

A guy identifying himself as an Associated Press writer (who was apparently from a radio show out in Portland) asked Jim Calhoun if his players "still have guns in the locker room." Calhoun appeared flustered, perhaps not understanding what the guy said or whether he was serious or not, and eventually the caller was cut off.

***Not a terribly lot of information on the call. Calhoun was asked about Georgetown.

"It's a little different kind of Georgetown team. You're not going to see a lot of bodies, they're basically playing seven people. Greg Monroe is incredibly skilled. He's unselfish, he can score, rebound, block shots. I know they lost a tough one to Marquette (on Wednesday), but we're going to say that, I think, all throught he league season."

***Georgetown coach John Thompson III also spoke:

(on UConn)

"They still are big and imposing on the boards. At the end of day, between Jerome and Kemba, they kind of make the team go It's easy to say, 'let's stop UConn's transition,' that's something they stress. 'Let's keep them off the boards, try to limit their easy baskets.'"

(on the Hoyas' success vs. UConn in recent years)

"I think we’ve been lucky. I don’t know that there’s any one particular thing. We've probably caught them at some times when they’ve been off. You know it’s going to be an extremely intense, physical game. If you can make them work at both ends of the floor, that’s what we try to do."

(on Georgetown's season thus far)

"We’ve gotten a lot better since the season began, but I think we still have a long way to go. I think our guys have done a great job supporting each other at both ends of the floor. That has to be a premium for us. The thing I like, that’s a positive, is that we’ve seen growth."

(on Monroe's development)

"His biggest growth is something the casual fan doesn’t get an opportunity to see. Last year he's gone from a freshman that came in under a lot of scrutiny and performed well, and now he's a leader on this team. He's a leader, he's vocal in the locker room, at the dorm, on campus, in practice every day. He’s standing out with our team."