Sylven Landesberg isn’t officially announcing his decision until tomorrow afternoon, but message boards across the country are quickly spreading the news that the guard will be playing ball for the Virginia Cavaliers. The quoted sources claim that tonight Landesberg called coaches at St. John’s, Georgia Tech, and Virginia to inform them of his decision.

LRT regulars will remember that on Monday night we posted a reader tip that Sylven had joined a St. John’s Facebook group encouraging him to play for the Johnnies. Coupled with tonight’s news, it’s now painfully clear that I’m the only asshole who actually declines group and friend requests. Now stop sending me invitations for your Zombie Chomp application.

Sylven Landesberg, a 6-foot, 6-inch guard from Queens had been on Texas’ recruiting radar for much of the summer. In early August, whispers from sources on campus said that the Horns had backed off of Landesberg and were looking harder at other ’08 targets.

In recent weeks, Sylven trimmed Billy Gillispie’s Kentucky Wildcats from consideration, leaving only UVA, G-Tech and the hometown Red Storm of St. John’s in the running. But this weekend, LRT reader JCole hooked us up with a tip from the ever-evolving world of social networking that seems to confirm Landesberg is staying home.

Students at St. John’s started a group on Facebook to urge the young star to play for the Johnnies. Titled “Sylven Landesberg…Stay home, and bring the city’s game back to St. Johns!,” the group has 187 members, including Landesberg himself.

In the grand scheme of things, this could mean absolutely nothing. But in a world where every high school athlete has a MySpace page or a Friendster account, it’s certainly an interesting bit of news.

The University of Texas announced today that Dogus Balbay finally signed his LOI and will be playing on the 40 Acres next season. The coaching staff had been forced to wait and see if Balbay would qualify for the 2007-08 season, as the Turkish guard had to score acceptable marks on the TOEFL exam. The signing closes out the current Longhorn class at four members, including another foreign-born player in Alexis Wangmene.

Getting Balbay on the court for 07-08 is huge for a Texas team struggling with depth in its backcourt. Last year’s team would often grind to a halt on offense when D.J. Augustin needed a breather or was in foul trouble. The ability to bring in Balbay to spell the overworked Augustin will provide immediate help for the Horns.

Checking in at 6’1″, Balbay will also add a slight bit of height at the guard position. A.J. Abrams is listed at a generous 5-foot, 10-inches, while Augustin stands at 5’11”. And, according to Coach Barnes, Balbay is also going to provide a lift defensively.

“Dogus is an important pickup for our program, as he will provide us quality depth at the point guard position,” Barnes said. “He has a clever international game and good athleticism. Dogus is a strong perimeter defender and a good playmaker who has the ability to score in the lane.”

Fans of last year’s Texas squad know that perimeter defense was a huge liability. Hopefully the signing of this young guard will begin to turn that tide when the new-look Horns step on the court in just over five months.