Ricardo Ledo (Providence, R.I./ South Kent School) 2012, SG, 6-foot-5, 180 pounds | Team: Expressions Elite The long, athletic wing was aggressive right from the opening tip, rebounding and pushing the ball on the break. He attacked the rim with spin moves and terrific body control as he finished in traffic or drew the foul. Ledo displayed the ability to get the ball to an open teammate and hit deep jumpers in transition or when he received kick outs off dribble penetration. He must add strength, but Ledo is a lethal offensive threat from anywhere on the floor. When he gets into a scoring groove, he can make the defense seem invisible.

Keith Cothran scored 16 points, leading four Rhode Island players in double-figure scoring as the Rams ran past Brown to win their season opener 78-57 on Wednesday night.

The jump from Division II to Division I is not supposed to be an easy one, but the Bryant University basketball team certainly seems to be handling it well.

OK, here’s the question: If you were ranking the University of Rhode Island as a “basketball school,” where would it be in the Atlantic 10? We know it wouldn’t be in the top three, not with Xavier, Temple and Dayton.

Jimmy Baron, the decorated former University of Rhode Island guard, is one of six recipients of the ECAC Robbins Scholar-Athlete Award, the ECAC announced Tuesday.

With an eye toward trips to Notre Dame and the Carrier Dome, or perhaps a home showdown with Georgetown or Louisville, Keno Davis spent a large chunk of his afternoon Thursday putting a few of his Providence College basketball players through workouts at Alumni Hall.

There will be no added pressure on Stephanie Cardamone when the 2009-10 high school basketball season rolls around this winter. Cardamone, a Freehold Township High School senior, recently made a verbal commitment to attend and play basketball at Bryant University in Springfield, R.I.

PHILLY– Providence just missed out on being the eighth Big East team in the NCAA Tournament last year and ended up falling to Miami in the first round of the NIT. A year later, the Friars have lost eight seniors to graduation and return only five players from last year’s team. “I think we’re going to have a very talented team next year,” Providence coach Keno Davis said last month. “We’ve got a chance to be better in almost all areas of the game but where we are going to have some growing pains is going to be that we’re so young with seven new faces on the team and really nine when you count a couple guys who redshirted last year. Really we have three returning players with experience.” Those three are senior guards Brian McKenzie and Sharaud Curry and junior guard Marshon Brooks.

SPRINGFIELD - Which AAU basketball teams north of the mid-Atlantic are the best of the best? That will be decided by Sunday. The Best of the Best Boys & Girls Basketball Tournaments will be held throughout Springfield Saturday and Sunday, with 48 teams in nine divisions vying for championships at the elite first-year event. "Every team that's coming to the event this weekend either had to finish high in their state tournament, a super regional, or another very high-level type of tournament," said Colin Tabb, General Manager for BasketBull, LLC, which is coordinating the tournament. "All these teams have credentials that back up their invitation."

INDIANAPOLIS -- Instant replay has been approved starting next season for last-second shots in high school basketball championship games. The rule change by the National Federation of State High School Associations allows replay for review of a shot attempt at the end of the fourth quarter or overtime, and only when the last-second shot would affect the outcome of the game. The rule is not mandatory and leaves the decision whether to use it to each state association.

t was a team that won almost three times as many games as it lost, but for some people that lofty win-loss percentage wasn’t the most impressive feature of the Portsmouth High boys basketball team this season. “This was the kind of team I’d be happy to have my own two sons play on and a coach whom I’d be happy to have my sons play for,” wrote a basketball game official on in his nomination of the Patriots for the Dick Reynolds Team Sportsmanship award. It’s that combination of quality play in a sportsmanlike manner that earned the Mike Lunney-coached Patriots the 2009 boys winter sports Reynolds Award.