After a couple of years at Waterbury's Crosby High, the Greater Hartford Pro-Am officially returns to ... well ... Hartford on Wednesday night. Games will be played at the Sport & Medical Sciences Academy at 208 Huyshope Ave. in Hartford.

The GHPA's 2015 season kicks off at 6:30 p.m., with Attorney Deron Freeman (led by Tobin Carberry and a host of players from Central Connecticut) facing Pauly Chute Slamm (which will be led by a pair of terrific New Haven guards past and present -- Bobby Moore and Tremont Waters. Waters, a UConn target, won't be at Wednesday night's game. Stanley Robinson is also on the team).

At 8:15 p.m., New York's Hot 93.7 (last year's scoring champ Doug Herring, Anthony Cox) will face two-time defending champion BJM Law Firm (Ryan Gomes, Keith Cothran, Lamonte Ulmer, Kelvin Davis).

Other top players expected to compete in the 11-team league include Jerome Dyson, Doug Wiggins and A.J. Price. The league could get some special guest appearances: on Aug. 1-2, Nate Robinson is expected to play. Other possible players throughout the summer could include Andre Drummond, Rudy Gay, Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb and Wes Matthews.

And, as always, several current UConn players are expected to play throughout the summer.

The Greater Hartford Pro-Am kicks will have a new look to it when it begins play on July 10.

For one, the league -- for a variety of reasons -- will be based at Crosby High in Waterbury this year.

There will be a few new teams in the league, as well, including one entered by Andre Drummond. The former UConn and current Detroit Piston standout will be put in his own team, according to league co-founder/CEO Peter Higgins, and Higgins is hoping Drummond may bring some of his new NBA friends (like Brandon Knight, etc.) to play from time to time.

Also, the perennial powerhouse team from Waterbury run by Ryan Gomes and Wayne Simone will be split up. Gomes will run with his New Haven buddies, Keith Cothran and Lamonte Ulmer, while Simone will coach a team with some younger players.

Higgins is also trying to get a Bridgeport team in the league, though that's not a done deal yet. There will be three Hartford-based teams, as well as Cambyland and the Springfield Slamm. The Slamm has Jeremy Lamb on its roster and hopes to have two or three of UConn's incoming freshmen (Amida Brimah, Kentan Facey and Terrence Samuel) as well. The frosh are only likely to play on weekends, however, since UConn's freshman summer program has 7 p.m. study halls Monday through Friday.

The league is slated to begin July 10 (though there may be a game or two before that date).

Here's a feature I wrote on Tharon Mayes, the former New Haven high school star who went on to a successful career at Florida State, then Europe.

Why am I putting a story on Mayes on a UConn blog, you ask? Well, a quick look at his surname and you may be able to surmise that UConn fans may be very interested to hear what Mayes has to say.

Mayes is the father of Xavier Rathan-Mayes, the highly-touted Class of 2013 shooting guard who is a big-time UConn target. (Actually, Mayes is Xavier's stepfather -- he met Xavier's mom, Marilyn, when Xavier was about five).



According to Mayes, Xavier attended Cheshire Academy four years ago, as detailed in a nice story by the late, great Dave Solomon, but is now at Huntington Prep in West Virginia). Among the six schools he's "fond of", according to his dad: Florida State (Mayes's alma mater), UConn, Baylor, Alabama, Memphis and UCLA. There are others, as well. I apologize if I made it sound earlier like he had pared his list down to just those six.

Rathan-Mayes, who has made unofficials to both UConn and UCLA already, plans another unofficial to FSU sometime over the next couple of weeks. He'll narrow down his visits after taking the SAT's in September, according to Mayes. Xavier would like to commit early in November.

Tharon Mayes said that Jim Calhoun's coaching future is "a concern. He likes Kevin Ollie. Kevin’s been speaking to him, it’s definitely a school of interest. But that is something that’s a little scary.”

Here's what Tharon says about his son's game: "He can definitely stroke it. But I think, with him, what makes him tough is he plays both guard spots very well. It adds more to his game than him being a pure point guard or two-guard."

*** Meanwhile, Joey Natale of UConnBall.com caught up with Reggie Cameron after his visit to UConn on Tuesday. Guess what? The visit went "great."

*** Oh, and in the GHPA playoffs: Doug Wiggins had a triple-double (40 points, 10 boards, 10 assists) to lead Recycle Kings to a 152-145 win over Harte Nissan in Game 2 of the championship series. The decisive Game 3 will be tonight (Thursday) at 7 p.m. at Classical Magnet School.

UConn target Kuran Iverson added 36 points and eight rebounds and Jerome Dyson 30 and 11 for Recycle Kings.

Ryan Gomes had 34 and 10, Lamonte Ulmer 28 and 12 and Keith Cothran 27 and seven for Harte Nissan.

I always assume readers of this blog are interested in local basketball stories that extend beyond solely UConn. With that in mind, I present to you my story on New Haven's Keith Cothran, the former URI star who was shot in the head less than two months ago. Cothran is already back playing basketball, and looking pretty good in the Greater Hartford Pro-Am.



Anyway, it's somewhat of a cautionary tale about the violence of New Haven's inner-city -- something Cothran knows all too much about.

Keith Cothran, the New Haven native who starred at Hillhouse High, then URI, was shot in the head Wednesday night in Hamden. As of Thursday evening, no one could confirm Cothran's condition, as he was not listed at any area hospitals.

One thing is certain: the inner-city violence in the New Haven area is completely out of control. Will it ever end?

This is getting ridiculous: incoming UConn freshman Jeremy Lamb poured in 44 points, to go with 13 boards, in Club Palace Slamm's 124-123 loss to Sparks Motor All-Stars in Greater Hartford Pro-Am action Sunday night.

Randy Hite led the winners with 39 points, 10 assists and eight boards.

Now, some of these stats have to be taken with a grain of salt, given the wide-open nature of the league. Still, anyone who can score 44 points in ANY league has got some game. Looking forward to see Lamb play.

Also, Ater Majok had 25 points, eight boards and six blocks for Club Palace in the loss.

Moving from UConn's future to its past, Jerome Dyson trumped Lamb with a 48-point performance on Sunday for Little Caesar's. It came in a 128-125 loss, however, to Harte Nissan, which was led by T.J. Mathis (25 points), Ryan Gomes (22) and Keith Cothran (18). Ex-PC Friar Kyle Wright had 22 points for Little Caesar's and Danny Lawhorn (no, he's not going to UConn) added 21.

Is 50 the coolest number in sports? Think about it: 50 home runs in a season, 50 goals in a season, 50 touchdown passes in a season (Tom Brady), 50 points in a game. It's definitely one of those milestone numbers in sports statistics.

Anyway, Keith Cothran of New Haven/URI became the first Greater Hartford Pro-Am player to notch 50 in a game Sunday night, hitting that number in Harte Nissan's 118-117 loss to the Doc Hurley All-Stars. Leading the way for Doc Hurley: Jerome Dyson (33 points) and Shabazz Napier (23).

I understand this is a UConn blog, but things are pretty slow in Husky territory right now (I know you want updates, folks, but I can't make up news out of thin air).

Anyway, thought you might be interested in this story I wrote for today's Register on Keith Cothran, a New Haven kid who overcame a lot to star at URI and, today, receive his degree in sociology. Cothran was arrested at age 15 after being wrapped up with the wrong crowd and remanded to Mount Saint John in Deep River, a facility that tries to rehabilitate young men and send them back into their community as better people.

Cothran returned to Mount Saint John yesterday to talk to some kids and show that he's an example that, if they really want, they can turn their lives around.

Anyway, it's a nice story about a Connecticut kid I thought you might want to read. I know we hear all the time about athletes who have changed and are better people and want to help their community, and many times we continue to be disappointed by those athletes. But trust me, Keith Cothran is the real deal.

While UConn is at its scholarship limit of 13, don’t be shocked to see another slot or two open up over the coming weeks via transfer, etc. The Huskies are still in pursuit of some of the top Class of 2010 recruits in the country, but like their competitors on the recruiting trail (Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, Syracuse, Florida, etc.) they are at the whim of the decisions of a bunch of 17, 18-year-old kids. Once one major recruit (Brandon Knight?) makes his decision, the dominos will all start to fall over the next month.

So what’s UConn’s sales pitch to elite recruits? Well, here’s a good one: since Ray Allen in 1993-94, there have been (by my count) 17 players who started right off the bat as freshmen at UConn. Of those 17, 11 wound up being NBA draft picks, and many emerged as NBA stars. And that list doesn’t even include Ben Gordon, who didn’t start for most of his freshman season despite being the team’s second-leading scorer (12.6 per game). The others not on the list: Kevin Freeman, Ajou Deng, Taliek Brown, Rashad Anderson and Jeff Adrien.

Translation: if you come to UConn and play immediately, there’s a great chance you’ll wind up making lots of money in the NBA one day.

And there are definitely minutes to be had next season for the Huskies. Starter’s minutes. Incoming frosh Roscoe Smith could certainly be one. Can UConn land another?

***Totally unrelated, but here’s a feature from today’s Register about New Haven’s Keith Cothran, who’ll lead URI into action against North Carolina tomorrow night in the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden. Nice story (whether well-written or not) about a nice kid who’s overcome a lot and has truly used college basketball as a ticket to an education and a better life.