In the category of “nothing surprises us anymore,” because nothing surprises us anymore, news out of LA is that Lil Romeo, aka Romeo Miller, aka Master P’s son, has committed to USC for the Class of 08. He’s a two-star prospect, so we don’t expect that he’ll contribute much immediately, but what the hell kind of three-ring circus is Tim Floyd building over there? We shouldn’t assume that Floyd will be able to contact his new prospect, but it’s safe to say that UCLA was never in the running for the basketball services of Little P, given his father’s recent troubles in Westwood.

The charges against the 38-year-old P (real name Percy Miller), and 30-year-old Vyshonne King Miller — better known by his professional moniker, Silkk the Shocker — stem from their arrests more than a year ago by campus police at the University of California at Los Angeles. The police stopped Master P’s car on January 27, 2005, after noticing the rapper’s vehicle was missing both its license plates. UCLA police say they subsequently spotted a gun peeking out from under the driver’s seat and a subsequent search of the car turned up another gun under the front passenger seat.

The late signing period began Wednesday with little fanfare, as only five of the top 150 players on Rivals were listed as still available. Top names such as Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas are still unsigned, with Florida, Kentucky and others in the mix for their services. It got us at RTC wondering, why are there two signing periods in college basketball? The early signing period in November is typically when most players sign, but there is no analagous “early” period in college football.

College football has only one signing period in early February, scheduled after the prospects’ seasons are finished. “National Signing Day” is the first day college football seniors can sign, and ESPN and the sports world in general makes a fairly large deal out of it. Analysts chatter away for most of that day about which programs got themselves into good shape for the years to come; and who will be the hot players to watch for as freshmen next fall. Colllege basketball seems to be doing itself a bit of disservice, from a public relations and media standpoint, by splitting its recruiting into early/late signing periods. It seems that by having one signing period it puts you in a better position to maximize media attention during the offseason. We’d love to hear reasons that justify the split process from anyone.

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