Kansas University’s basketball coaches will have to travel almost twice the distance in recruiting 6-foot-4 senior-to-be Willie Warren next season.

Warren told Rivals.com he’s decided to transfer from North Crowley High in suburban Fort Worth, Texas, to Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va.

Warren, the No. 1-ranked shooting guard in the Class of 2008 and No. 8-rated player overall, has a lengthy list of schools including KU, Arizona, Arkansas, Baylor, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Marquette, Maryland, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and UCLA.

“Everybody is an option for me and everybody has a chance. I am probably going to cut my list of schools during my time at Oak Hill Academy, but I don’t know when that will take place,” Warren told Rivals.com.

Of his reason for leaving Texas, he said: “I can stay at North Crowley and face the same type of teams every night, or I can transfer to Oak Hill and play against the best competition every night. Playing against the best competition night in and night out will make me much better.”

North Crowley High is the alma mater of former KU player Keith Langford.

¢ Family matters: KU has one definite advantage in the recruitment of Travis Releford, a 6-4 senior-to-be from Roeland Park Miege.

“My mom does want me to attend Kansas, and it’s something I think (attending Kansas) a lot about,” Releford told Rivals.com.

He still has KU, North Carolina, Missouri, Texas, Kansas State, Louisville and others on his list.

“I have a bunch of schools recruiting me, but I really like Kansas because they were the first school to recruit me and the first school to offer me,” Releford said.

¢ NBA talk: Three former KU players remain alive in the NBA playoffs.

Reserve point guard Jacque Vaughn plays for the San Antonio Spurs, who hold a 1-0 lead over Utah in the Western Conference Finals. Starting power forward Drew Gooden and reserve forward Scot Pollard play for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are down 1-0 to Detroit in the Eastern Conference finals.

“I’d like to win a ring before I die,” Pollard told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Now in his 10th season, he played in conference finals for Sacramento and Indiana, losing both times.

“I’ve been on teams that were the favorite to win it all in high school and in college and we didn’t. We’re playing great right now. We’ve got a good path and we need to take care of business.”

Pollard has entered just one playoff game this postseason.

Now in his fifth year in the NBA, Gooden recently was named winner of the Austin Carr Good Guy Award, presented by the Cleveland chapter of the Pro Basketball Writers Association.

The award, named after former Cavs’ standout Carr, recognizes the Cleveland player “most cooperative and understanding of the media, the community and the public.”

Gooden, who arrived in Cleveland prior to the 2004-05 season, opened the Drew Gooden Reading and Learning Center at Cleveland’s East End Neighborhood House in September 2005. He won the NBA Community Assist Award for the month of October 2005, was named the Al Lerner Community Service Award winner at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards in February 2006 and has been named to the Good Guys in Sports list by The Sporting News three times.

Gooden again showed his outgoing personality recently when asked about hitting six straight shots in a game.

“Me and a few guys on the team have a thing, if I make four in a row that means I’m feeling it and it’s ‘raining,”’ Gooden told the Plain Dealer. “Four jump shots in a row means you got to make it rain. I had to make it rain.”

Vaughn, who is in his 10th year in the league, reached the NBA Finals with Utah in his rookie season, losing to Chicago.

“He steps on the court and he takes over in the sense that everybody knows where they’re supposed to be,” coach Gregg Popovich told the San Antonio Express-News. “He’ll help other people with what defense we are in, with the play call. His aggressiveness defensively – all those things just up the level of competitiveness when he’s on the court.”

Vaughn, who filled in for Tony Parker in March when Parker went down with injury, has averaged nine minutes per game in 12 playoff games this postseason.