Some Thursday thoughts and tidbits:
--Wonder how much former Georgia football commitment Nickell Robey from Frostproof, Fla., is thinking twice about his decision to sign with Southern California last February? The Trojans and Lane Kiffin are facing a two-year postseason ban and the loss of more than 20 scholarships. USC also has another former Georgia target on their roster in safety Jawanza Starling, who is entering his sophomore season. The NCAA has scheduled a news conference for 3 p.m. today about its decision.

Nick Marshall’s decision to play college ball at Georgia can be viewed as reason to celebrate for two Bulldogs' programs.

The Wilcox County football standout accepted a scholarship offer Tuesday night to play for Mark Richt, reversing course after telling Georgia Tech coaches privately a couple of weeks ago that he planed to play football for the Yellow Jackets.

The 6-2, 190-pound rising senior also plans to play basketball for coach Mark Fox’s Bulldogs basketball team, according to Wilcox County football coach Mark Ledford who said Richt “has been completely supportive of Nick playing both sports."

Rivals.com rates Marshall as a four-star football prospect and the nation’s No. 31 athlete and the nation’s No. 118 basketball prospect, ranking eighth in the state of Georgia.

Quick moving developments on the expansion front in the last week.

That includes Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott getting approval Sunday to pursue expansion.

What, if any, impact all this has on the SEC remains to be seen.

"I think one of the reasons we've said as little as we've said to your utter frustration is because, in effect, there may be some other leagues that may have some needs they're trying to fill," SEC commissioner Mike Slive said Friday after the league’s spring meetings ended. "The inference from that is we're pretty comfortable."

Florida coach Urban Meyer isn’t eager for the SEC to grow beyond its current 12.

DESTIN, Fla.—On the drive down here for the Southeastern Conference spring meetings, I passed Northwest Florida State College. That’s the junior college about 16 miles from here where Sherrard Brantley hit 3-pointers at a rapid pace lase season.

Brantley, a Dublin product who sank more than 100 3s last season, might just make the most immediate impact this season of the Bulldogs’ four 2010 recruits with his ability to score from the perimeter, but when it comes to sending a message to future in-state targets, Marcus Thornton’s decision to become a Bulldog could have a lasting impact.

“Marcus gives us great momentum,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “He had enough courage to say `Hey, this is where I want to go. It’s a great school and we’re going to build a program that we all want to be a part of and my basketball dreams can come true there as well as my academic dreams.’”

Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox, who was recognized for his tweets last season, is putting limits on his players' use of their Twitter accounts.

Fox wants his players “to focus on the team,” anytime they post tweets on the popular social network and microblogging service that limits up to 140 characters per post, according to team spokesman Tim Hix.

Hix said that Georgia players won't be tweeting much in the future because Fox has instructed them not to. He believes that recent tweets from Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie had been “about themselves and just a bunch of nonsense.”

Blogger Andy Pawlokski named Fox during this past season as “Twitterer of the Year” in the SEC on his “Digital Hoops Blast, saying that Fox “posts on his team in an authentic voice, has fun with it (even talking about snowball fights with the players), and is active. He even posts about always dunking on his birthday. Great leader, and very personal.”

Any Georgia basketball fans waiting for a big announcement tonight from recruiting target Dwayne Polee from California can relax.

The 6-foot-7 Polee told Eric Sondheimer of the Los Angeles Times that he won’t announce the school he will sign with tonight because he now plans to visit Oregon.

Here are the details from his blog:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/varsitytimesinsider/

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Mark Fox is losing a member of his Georgia basketball staff.

Wake Forest is expected to name Mark Pope as an assistant coach next week, multiple sources told the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal.

Pope, a former player in the NBA and in college at Kentucky and Washington, served as Georgia's basketball operations coordinator after leaving medical school at Columbia University.

Pope did not attend Georgia's season ending banquet Thursday night when Fox would not comment on Pope's possible hire at Wake Forest.

Wake Forest recently hired Jeff Bzdelik as head coach. Bzdelik coached Pope with the Denver Nuggets for two seasons.

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Georgia forward Trey Thompkins is returning for his junior season, bypassing this year's NBA draft.

“Don’t worry, coach. I’m coming back,” Thompkins said when he announced his decision Thursday night at the UGA Tipoff Club’s end of season banquet.

The revelation set off a rousing ovation from the crowd of about 200 at the Athens Country Club and surprised even coach Mark Fox, who had made mention of the big decision facing him.

“God bless you, Trey,” Fox responded.

Later, Thompkins said he wasn’t sure if he was going to announce the decision that he made late Wednesday night.

“I figured it might be nice to announce it,” Thompkins said. “Coach just made it so easy for me to announce it.”

Fox had reminded Thompkins that assistant coach Stacey Palmore earlier in the banquet had said that he was looking forward to having Thompkins back next year. "Coach Palmore was calling you out about next year," Fox said. "I'm not going to do that."

Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox said Wednesday that he was hoping to add scoring on the perimeter to the Bulldogs’ 2010 recruiting class.

A day later, Northwest Florida State junior college guard Sherrard Brantley committed to Georgia.

The 6-foot-2 Brantley averaged 13.7 points per game and connected on 42.9 percent of his shots from 3-point range this past season, making more than 100 3-pointers.

“He can stroke it,” said Marvin Latham, who coached Brantley at Dublin High School. “They had a need for a shooter. That was a big concern of theirs. They’re going to play him at the two spot or the wing and let him do what he does best and that’s shoot the basketball.”

Brantley committed to Georgia Thursday afternoon over LSU and Creighton. He became the third member of this class. The late signing period begins on April 14.

Two reserves on Georgia’s basketball team are planning to transfer.

Guard Demario Mayfield and forward Drazen Zlovaric requested and have been granted a release from their scholarships, according to Georgia.

Mayfield “just really felt like he wanted to go somewhere that he could get some more playing time,” said his mother Tina, who spoke to Georgia coach Mark Fox by phone today.

She said she did not know what schools are possible destinations of her son.
Clemson, Florida State and South Alabama were schools he considered out of Franklin County High School in Carnesville.

In a statement released by the university Mayfield said that he “wanted to seek a better opportunity for my career,” after discussions with his family.

Both Mayfield and Zlovaric played sparingly this past season, and both averaged 0.9 points per game.