Marcaccini Chooses Indiana : Recruiting: Notre Dame swingman decides after Knight tells him he will not redshirt. Jones signs with North Carolina.

Notre Dame High swingman Monte Marcaccini, considered the top high school basketball player in the area, said Thursday that he will sign a letter of intent to play at Indiana.

Five other high school seniors from the region, including track and field standout Marion Jones of Thousand Oaks, also announced their college choices. Jones, a national-caliber sprinter, has signed a letter of intent to run track and play basketball at North Carolina. In addition, Notre Dame infielders Glen Carson and Ryan Stromsborg said they will play baseball at USC. Softball pitchers Nancy Evans of Hoover and La Reina’s Michelle St. Pierre both signed letters of intent Wednesday. Evans committed to Arizona, St. Pierre to Ohio State.

The Notre Dame trio are close friends and spent Wednesday evening helping each other sort out their college choices. They plan to sign their letters of intent today, the third day of the NCAA’s weeklong early-signing period.

Marcaccini, a 6-foot-6 swingman, spent the evening at Stromsborg’s home, watching Indiana game films until nearly midnight. Marcaccini also considered offers from UCLA, USC, UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State. He chose Indiana because of its tradition and because Coach Bob Knight said that he would not be redshirted as a freshman.

“I don’t think I could go to Indiana if I was going to redshirt,” Marcaccini said. “When I talked to Coach Knight (Wednesday) night, he said he wasn’t recruiting me to redshirt, he was recruiting me to play.”

Marcaccini averaged 21.4 points and 11.5 rebounds a game as a junior, earning first-team All-Mission League and second-team Times All-Valley honors. His stock rose significantly based on his play in summer all-star tournaments.

Marcaccini, who visited the Bloomington, Ind., campus last week, said he was looking forward to working with Knight, despite the coach’s fiery reputation.

“He didn’t throw anything at me yet, but I’m sure he will,” Marcaccini said. “I think the guy is a basketball genius.”

Jones, who finished fourth in the 200 meters and fifth in the 100 at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in June, had narrowed her choices to North Carolina and Florida before signing with the Atlantic Coast Conference school. She will join a Tar Heel track and field team that has won four of the past five ACC titles, and a basketball program that was 22-9 last season and advanced to the second round of the NCAA women’s tournament.

Jones is the national junior (age 19 and under) and high school record-holder in the girls’ 200 meters (22.58 seconds) and her personal best in the 100 (11.14) is only .01 seconds shy of the national high school record set by Chandra Cheeseborough of Ribault High in Jacksonville, Fla. Jones is the three-time defending state champion in the 100 and 200, and a two-time All-Ventura County selection in basketball.

She averaged 17.1 points and 10.1 rebounds a game to help Thousand Oaks to its second consecutive Southern Section Division I-A title last season.

Stromsborg, a shortstop, took recruiting trips to Nevada, UC Santa Barbara and Texas A & M. Carson, a first baseman, took trips to Stanford and UC Santa Barbara. Though both players said they received better scholarship offers from other schools, they considered USC’s offer of a partial scholarship “very fair.”

Carson (6-4, 195) selected USC over Stanford because he thought he would have a better opportunity to play for the Trojans. Carson was admitted to Stanford and scored 1,210 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

“Playing time was the biggest thing,” said Carson, whose older brother, Charlie, attends USC.

The slick-fielding Stromsborg (6-3, 175) batted .338 last spring for Notre Dame and had 11 stolen bases. Stromsborg and Carson gained exposure last summer playing for the Van Nuys-Notre Dame American Legion team that won the District 20 title.

Evans, who earned Southern Section 4-A Division player-of-the-year honors as a junior, is 55-15 with an 0.30 earned-run average at Hoover. The right-hander canceled a recruiting trip to top-ranked UCLA after visiting Arizona. She has recorded 11 perfect games, 18 no-hitters and 875 strikeouts in 495 innings. Last season she batted .411 with five home runs.

St. Pierre, a two-time 1-A player of the year, pitched La Reina to the 1-A title in 1991 and ’92. Last season she posted an 0.65 earned-run average.

Staff writers Paige A. Leech and John Ortega contributed to this story.