Isiah Thomas-led Florida International wants to avoid playing defending champion North Carolina in the season-opening 2K Sports Classic.

Matt Pilgrim will be able to join his Oklahoma State teammates for the 2009-10 season after the NCAA granted him a waiver Aug. 21.

Grambling State junior Henry White passed away on Wednesday at the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. White had been hospitalized since Aug. 14 after a workout at Grambling.

Kentucky senior Michael Krebs finally got a scholarship, the 13th and last available one for the 2009-10 Wildcats.

The Eagles have a late addition to the team: guard Sherwood Brown, an A-student who averaged 11.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game at Olympia High School in Orlando.

Hawaii has two new Rainbow Warriors in Arizona’s Zane Johnson and Duquesne’s Aleksandar Milovic.

Former Odessa College assistant coach Mike Scutero has been named Middle Tennessee State’s new director of basketball operations.

Junior Corey Chandler was kicked off the Rutgers basketball team for violating athletic department policies. Coach Fred Hill also announced a couple of staff changes.

Mississippi State freshman Renardo Sidney was cleared by the NCAA Eligiblity Center and enrolled in classes on Monday but has yet to be allowed to play for the Bulldogs.

Former Duke guard Elliot Williams was granted a waiver by the NCAA and won’t have to sit out the 2009-10 season following his transfer to Memphis.