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Tatum a free agent heading into NBA summer leagues

By Todd Hefferman, The Southern

Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:43 PM CDT

CARBONDALE - Jamaal Tatum still dreams of playing in the NBA, but is without a team two years after taking Southern Illinois University's men's basketball team to the brink of the Elite Eight.

Tatum helped SIU to a record 29 wins in 2006-07 before the Salukis fell to Kansas, 61-58. Tatum scored 19 points in that Sweet 16 game in San Jose, Calif., but returns to Carbondale this weekend for his pro basketball clinic.

Tatum and a few special guests, including former players Josh Warren, Stetson Hairston and Tony Young, will hold a two-session camp Saturday at the SIU Rec Center. The cost is $50 per child and runs from noon-2:15 p.m. and 3-5:15 p.m. There will be a meet and greet at 11 a.m.

The 23-year-old hopes to come back for the basketball clinic every year as he pursues a professional career, but, hopefully, a little later.

"If my schedule permits, I'd love to get back to Carbondale," Tatum said. "Hopefully it'll be later in the year, because it would mean I'd be in the NBA playoffs."

Tatum participated in the Atlanta Hawks' veteran camp in 2007 but did not make the final roster. He played for the New Jersey Nets' summer league team last year, and could land with that franchise again this summer. Minicamp begins in June, Tatum said, with the summer league to begin in July.

He's had talks with San Antonio, Cleveland New Jersey to play in one of the summer leagues to be held in Las Vegas, Orlando or Utah.

Tatum was the Missouri Valley Conference's player of the year in 2007. The 6-foot-2 guard scored more points in the NCAA tournament than anyone in Saluki history (99) and left as the school's seventh all-time scorer with 1,667 career points.

The 2006-07 squad finished 29-7 and earned the school's highest-ever final national ranking in the coaches' poll (11th). The Salukis' No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament was the highest in SIU history and the best in the MVC since Tulsa had the same seed in the 1984 tournament.

todd.hefferman@thesouthern.com / 351-5087