Eleven months after an oral commitment to Maryland, one-time Salem High School basketball standout Ken Belton Jr. signed a letter-of-intent with Cincinnati.

Belton, listed at 6-foot-8 and 245 pounds by Cincinnati in a news release, is in his second year at Dudley High School in Greensboro, N.C.

"Kenny is an unbelievable young man," said first-year Bearcats' coach Mick Cronin, noting that Belton has as 3.4 grade-point average. "He is everything you would want in a recruit as far as size, strength and attitude, to go along with a tremendous work ethic."

Cronin told the Cincinnati Enquirer, "He's not going to be afraid to go against the big bodies in the Big East."

Belton was overshadowed by North Carolina signee William Graves last season, when Dudley won the Class 3A state championship, but he has been more of an impact player this season.

Belton scored 22 points in an 84-63 loss to Oak Hill Academy, ranked No. 1 in the country.

When the Cincinnati staff was looking for players this fall, longtime recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons made the Bearcats aware of Belton's availability. It was apparent by the end of the 2005-2006 season that the relationship with Maryland had deteriorated, but it wasn't easy getting the word out.

"That's true," said Ken Belton Sr., who is a member of the Roanoke College sports hall of fame and ranks among the Maroons' top 10 all-time scorers.

Although the Terrapins later went in another direction, Belton Sr. is as convinced now as he ever was that an offer was made.

"There's absolutely no question of that and the individuals involved know it," he said. "There was a lot of politics involved."

On top of everything else, Ken Jr. played with a stress fracture in one of his legs during the latter part of the 2005-2006 season and rested for seven weeks once Dudley's championship run had ended. That, too, sent mixed signals to recruiters who otherwise would have been eyeballing him at spring tournaments.

It seems like an eternity since Belton was Sizzlin' Sophomore of the Year in 2005, but it's been less than two years since he left Salem -- if he actually left. Home is still the Roanoke Valley and he returns on weekends when his schedule allows.

"I know a lot of people second-guessed what we did," Ken Sr. said. "Thank God, it all worked out."

Politician sidelined

The Roanoke Valley basketball community, including Ken Belton Sr. and Roanoke Catholic boys' basketball coach Joe Gaither, was saddened by the news that Roanoke City councilman Alfred Dowe suffered a ruptured patella tendon in a pickup game Monday at the Kirk Family YMCA and will undergo surgery Friday.

Photos are available of Dowe in track attire during his college days at James Madison University, but his basketball exploits have not been well documented. Who knew he had game?

"I don't know if you could say 'he has game,'" Gaither said, "but he's a hustler. This is the second time this has happened to him. You would have thought he'd learned his lesson."

Dowe said the same people who question whether he should be playing pick-up basketball are the same people who tell him he's gotten chubby.

Finding a place

Former Blacksburg High School standout Paul Velander has turned into a 3-point specialist at Nebraska, where he has played in 11 games for the Cornhuskers (11-4). He has gone 14-of-31 from beyond the 3-point line and has not attempted a 2-point field goal in 140 minutes.

Velander is averaging 4.8 points per game as a sophomore after missing virtually the entire 2005-2006 season with an ankle injury that required surgery. After sitting out the 2004-2005 season as a redshirt, Velander played in two games and for a total of three minutes last year.

Velander accepted an invitation to join the Cornhuskers' roster as a non-scholarship player after his father, Bill, took a position on the faculty at Nebraska, where he chairs the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

She's back

The word from Tennessee is that former Lord Botetourt High School star Nicci Moats has returned to the Lady Vols' women's basketball team after receiving permission to take a leave of absence for personal reasons. Moats has played in nine games and for a total of 38 minutes. She has seven points and eight rebounds for the Lady Vols (16-1).