Maalik Wayns

MAALIK WAYNS is well aware of the various projections. For what they're worth, most NBA mock drafts have the former Villanova point guard going somewhere in the bottom half of the second round on June 28. If they have him getting taken at all. He doesn't care. Nor should he. Because it only takes one team. And then it's going to be up to him to make something happen. "I look at a couple of people they have [rated] in front of me, and I feel as though I'm as good or better than them," said the Roman Catholic product, who left college a year early to pursue his lifelong dream.

When the Sixers convene training camp in October, Villanova and Roman Catholic point guard Maalik Wayns will be among the hopefuls vying for a spot on the roster. While terms of the deal were not announced, Wayns' agent, Andy Miller, confirmed that Wayns had indeed signed the contract Monday morning. Wayns, a 6-foot-11/2 point guard who left school after his junior season, averaged 17.4 points per game on 41.4 percent shooting. He also averaged 4.6 assists per game. While the Sixers signed veteran point guard Royal Ivey to back up starting point guard Jrue Holiday, Wayns conceivably could make the team as a third point guard.

Villanova junior guard Maalik Wayns, who injured his left knee during Tuesday night's 74-72 win over Providence, underwent an MRI yesterday morning and he is scheduled to be fully evaluated today by Villanova team orthopedist Dr. Rob Good, of the Main Line Health System. The Wildcats play again next Wednesday at South Florida. - Mike Kern  

Amile Jefferson, a 6-foot-8 junior forward who led Friends' Central to the Pennsylvania Independent Schools championship this season, was named Thursday as the Gatorade boys' basketball player of the year for Pennsylvania. Jefferson averaged 18.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks for the Phoenix (23-4). ESPNU ranks him as the No. 9 junior basketball player in the country. Jefferson is the third consecutive player from Southeastern Pennsylvania to receive the Gatorade honor. Maalik Wayns, of Roman Catholic, now with Villanova, won it in 2009.

Amile Jefferson, a 6-foot-8 junior forward who led Friends' Central to the Pennsylvania Independent Schools championship this season, was named Thursday as the Gatorade boys' basketball player of the year for Pennsylvania. Jefferson averaged 18.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks for the Phoenix (23-4). ESPNU ranks him as the No. 9 junior basketball player in the country. Jefferson is the third consecutive player from Southeastern Pennsylvania to receive the Gatorade honor.

  As expected, Villanova junior guard Maalik Wayns will not be returning for his final season of eligibility. University sources have confirmed that the Roman Catholic product, who put his name into consideration for the NBA draft, plans to hire an agent. That would make it impossible for him to remove his name by the April 10 deadline. Villanova will release a formal statement Thursday morning. Everything Wayns said last week strongly indicated that this was the direction in which he was leaning.

Sophomore point guard Ty Johnson will transfer from Villanova, coach Jay Wright announced Wednesday. The 6-foot-3 Johnson, of Plainfield, N.J., played in all 32 games last season for the Wildcats, making nine starts but mostly backing up Maalik Wayns. He averaged 3.3 points, 1.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 17.7 minutes. His 65 assists were second on the team to Wayns. Johnson was expected to challenge for the starting point guard position. But the Wildcats added two players who play there - junior transfer Tony Chennault and freshman Ryan Arcidiacono - and Johnson chose to go elsewhere.

With players such as Andre Iguodala and Lou Williams gone, the 76ers will put the ball in Jrue Holiday's hands a lot more than they did last season. "Last year we had three or four guys who could handle the ball," Sixers coach Doug Collins said after the team's practice Friday afternoon at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. "In many instances, Jrue would give the ball up and get off the ball. Then maybe Lou might handle it, or 'Dre, or Evan [Turner] might handle it. " But Collins wants Holiday, who scored 27 points in the Sixers' preseason-opening, 102-95 victory in Orlando on Thursday, to be the primary ball handler this season because he believes the Sixers are better when he has the ball.

TY JOHNSON, a 6-3 sophomore point guard, is transferring from Villanova. Last season, he averaged 3.3 points in 17.7 minutes a game, making nine starts after breaking his foot in the summer. He also had 65 assists, which was second on the team. But it was becoming apparent that playing time might be an issue. Promising freshman Ryan Arcidiacono (Neshaminy High) looks as if he will start at one backcourt spot, and steady Wake Forest-transfer Anthony Chennault (Neumann-Goretti)

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The final score won't suggest as much, but Villanova's young basketball team probably played its best game Wednesday night at the West Virginia Coliseum. Trouble was, it still wasn't enough. The Wildcats (7-6), who have five first-year players and no seniors, lost their Big East opener, 83-69, to a Mountaineers club that is actually younger overall. But they only trailed by three points with a little more than 4 minutes to go, before the hosts went on a 9-0 spurt.

LOS ANGELES - For the first time in his life, Maalik Wayns is playing for a basketball team that isn't rooted in the Philadelphia area. The Roman Catholic and Villanova product signed his second 10-day contract on Tuesday with the Los Angeles Clippers after starting his NBA career this season as an undrafted free agent with the 76ers. Wayns played 21 games for the Sixers, including one start, and averaged 2.7 points. He scored a career-high 10 in a win over the Dallas Mavericks in November and dealt nine assists in a loss at Dallas in December.

When Dexter Strickland was trying to decide on a college, he knew he could always count on his friends from Villanova to give him the good word about the Wildcats. If it wasn't Maalik Wayns, it was Dominic Cheek, two players who would commit to Villanova's incoming freshman Class of 2009. There also was 2007 Villanova commit Corey Fisher, a high school teammate of Strickland's at St. Patrick in Elizabeth, N.J. "They did a lot," Strickland said Tuesday. "They kept talking about it each and every day. Me and Maalik were very close.

TO APPRECIATE THE depth of Jay Wright's accomplishment this season, first consider this: Villanova lost its point guard, Maalik Wayns, as an early entrant to the NBA, after a 13-win season overall, with five wins in the Big East. Wayns' replacement, true freshman Ryan Arcidiacono, will never play in the NBA; in fact, Arch, as he is called, missed his senior season at Neshaminy High last season due to back surgery, so playing in college never was a guarantee. And, while Arch might possess 2 percent of the team's cumulative athletic ability, he possesses about 50 percent of the team's cumulative basketball IQ. Nevertheless, the chief marionette guided by Wright's masterful hand, Arch, as true freshman, led the Wildcats to a 20-win regular season, 10 Big East wins, a win in the Big East Tournament . . . And, Sunday, a berth in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed against No. 8 North Carolina.

Ty Lawson scored 25 points, Andre Miller had 20 points and nine assists and the Denver Nuggets beat the host Oklahoma City Thunder, 114-104, Tuesday night to win a 13th straight game for the first time since joining the NBA. The Nuggets trailed by one at halftime but took control in the third quarter and never let Oklahoma City reclaim the lead. Denver moved within 31/2 games of the Thunder in the Northwest Division and became the first team this season to beat Oklahoma City three times.

Very little has gone right for a 76ers team that took a 15-20 record into Tuesday's game against Brooklyn at the Wells Fargo Center. One of the bright spots has been the play of point guard Jrue Holiday, who entered the game averaging 18.4 points and 8.9 assists per game. On the team's 2-6 road trip that ended last week, Holiday averaged 19.4 points and 9.4 assists. He has been mentioned as a potential all-star, but Holiday said such thoughts did not overhwelm him. "Not really," he said after the team's morning shootaround.

The 76ers released former Roman Catholic and Villanova star Maalik Wayns on Sunday. The team also recalled rookie forward Arnett Moultrie from its NBA Development League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. The Sixers roster stands at 13 players. Wayns was signed as a free agent this summer after impressing the Sixers during the Orlando summer league, and his release was somewhat of a surprise. He was scheduled to be paid $473,604 this season and $762,195 next season. However, the full payout was contingent on his being on the roster.

MAALIK WAYNS was back at his former basketball home on Villanova's campus on Wednesday, watching the team he still could be playing for losing to the Temple Owls. Wayns was sitting with his new 76ers teammate, Evan Turner, while teammate and former Owl Lavoy Allen took in the game from near the Temple bench. While he watched, you had to wonder if it crossed Wayns' mind whether he had made the right decision to forgo his senior season at 'Nova to try his luck in the NBA. When you're a rookie in the league, unless you are finding a tremendous amount of success from the get-go, questions are as plentiful as minutes riding the bench and observing.

A COUPLE OF years ago, it was Phil Martelli who had lost his fastball, who was a bad coach whose great streak of luck had ended, a guy who would be gone soon, you just wait. Now Phil is coaching arguably the best and deepest college basketball team in town, a team with at least one more season of shelf life past this one, a team that was the preseason favorite of the Atlantic 10. And if not Saint Joe's, Temple is poised to win that league, too, and for similar reasons. Both are deep teams with a lot of nice, unselfish players, teams easy to root for, easy to like.

IT'S ALL STILL so much of a learning process for 76ers point guard Maalik Wayns, but one he clearly enjoys. While he would crave to be on the floor more, it appears his playing time might be on the rise, as coach Doug Collins has started calling the Philadelphia product's name more often. In Tuesday's win over Dallas, Collins called Wayns' name early, and in close to 8 minutes of play in the first half, Wayns hoisted six shots, scored eight points and was paired in the backcourt with Jrue Holiday.

MAALIK WAYNS was all the talk during 76ers training camp as he opened coaches', players' and fans' eyes with his lightning-quick speed that led to successful forays to the basket. The Villanova product also proved to be a good shooter from deep and gave the team an extra gear that few others could provide. But the preseason is a time when veterans are still finding their legs, when the game is a bit slower than during the 82-game real season, and seeing much more than a dummy-downed version of the game is rare.