DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — Bill Edwards Jr. and Matt Kavanaugh have been playing AAU basketball together since fourth grade, and the University of Dayton hopes the pair wants to extend that bond past high school.

Edwards, a 6-foot-6 junior from Middletown, and Kavanaugh, a 6-9 junior from Centerville, have received scholarship offers from the Flyers and made some trips to the campus this summer for pickup games with current players.

"I like the coaching staff. And I got to spend some time with the players, and they seem cool," Edwards said. "This fall, I'm going to go up there and see how it is and see the campus more."

Edwards, the son of former Wright State star Bill Edwards Sr., led the Nike All-Ohio Force to a pair of 16-and-under AAU tourney titles this summer.

"He has the ability to take over a game," All-Ohio Force coach Gregg Brown said. "He can do almost anything he wants on a basketball court."

Edwards also has offers from Miami University, Massachusetts and Miami (Fla.), and he's begun to hear from Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference schools.

Kavanaugh, a lifelong UD fan, is being recruited by Pittsburgh, Purdue and West Virginia.

Both players said they plan to wait until after their junior seasons before making a decision. But as for hooking up again in college, Edwards said: "He's a good teammate, and we're pretty close. I could see that."

Rankin moving on

After spending two years as an assistant coach at UD, Reggie Rankin has taken a job as a high school, college and NBA scout for ESPN. He'll provide behind-the-scenes analysis of players and teams for the network.

"This gives me an opportunity to work with coaches I don't know and learn how they run their system," said Rankin, 40. "It takes my 13 years as a Division I assistant and my experience as a player (at Ohio University), and adds that piece that will help make me more complete.

"ESPN is so big and special, when you get an opportunity to be part of that, you have to explore it."

But Rankin will miss working in a program with such a rabid fan base.

"Dayton is basketball-crazed and hungry," he said. "I was excited about this upcoming season because I think we can have a special year, but one thing you can't control is the timing when opportunities come. It was a tough decision."

One more spot open

The Flyers have filled three of their four scholarships in the senior class and were expecting a visit this weekend from 6-9 Luke Fabrizius, who attended the same high school as UD coach Brian Gregory in Arlington Heights, Ill.

Fabrizius, a pure shooter who needs to develop upper-body strength, has gotten offers from Notre Dame, Marquette and DePaul.