HOT RECRUITING INFORMATION FOR JULY 2001

Tuesday, July 31, 2001

Pool play and the first two rounds of the playoffs at the 2001 AAU Junior Boys' Basketball National Championship in Orlando, FL are over and, just when all the college coaches are heading home (the summer evalution period ends tonight at midnight), things are about to getting really interesting tomorrow morning, which is when the round of 16 in the winners bracket begins.  The games at 10:00 AM will feature the Tallahassee Wildcats versus the Spiece Pistols on Court #1, Wisconsin All-Stars versus Boo Williams on Court #2, Illinois Wildcats versus North Carolina Gators on Court #3, and the Charlotte Royals versus B.A.B.C. on Court #4.   The games at 11:30 AM will feature Athletes First versus Georgia Jazz on Court #1, Georgia Stars versus Memphis YOMAC on Court #2, Illinois Warriors versus Team Minnesota on Court #3, and the winner of New Hampshire Elevation versus Maryland-Mount Royal versus the winner of Team Illinois Hawks versus Team Hoopnuts, both of which were still in progress when we left the gym at 11:30 PM tonight.  Our gut feeling is that anything can happen, because these are the dog days of summer and everybody is tired and wants to go home.  However, we still like the winner of the B.A.B.C.-Charlotte Royals game to come out of that side of the bracket and Athletes First should be the heavy favorite on their side of the bracket. 

We are all still waiting for 6'3 Bracy Wright from The Colony (H.S.) TX to make it official for Indiana and we still think in the end that the Hoosiers will be tough to beat for 6'8 Sean May from Bloomington (H.S.) IN.  However, we also know that IU head coach Mike Davis is getting a head start on the future.  As a matter of fact, our Mississippi Editor Lavel Johnson tells us that Davis was in Jackson, MS today for a shootout at Lanier High School and the player he was watching was 6'9 Jr Travis Outlaw from Starkville (H.S.) MS.  This is especially important, because Davis, who already is one of the best recruiters in the Deep South, obviously is continuing to build on his already strong recruiting base.  As for May, we talked to his AAU coach Bob Pryor yesterday at the 2001 AAU Junior Boys' Basketball National Championship in Orlando, FL yesterday and he told us that Louisville, Ohio S tate, Indiana, Notre Dame, and North Carolina are all still on his list.  Speaking of North Carolina, the Tar Heels want to bring in two big men from among a group that includes May, 6'9 Sheldon Williams from Midwest City (H.S.) OK, 6'9 Torin Francis from Marion (Tabor Academy) MA, 6'10 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC, and 6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY. Another big man we talked with yesterday was 7'0 Julius Lamptey from Oklahoma City (Northeast) OK, who is one of the most improved players in the nation since we first saw him a year ago.  Lamptey's list includes Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Georgia, Virginia Tech, Purdue, Michigan, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Oregon, Georgetown, and Florida.  Connecticut is making a strong push for 6'4 Rashad Anderson from Lakeland (Kathleen) FL, but  N.C. State, Florida State, St. John's, Texas, and Miami-FL are also still in the hunt.   Arizona, Connecticut, Virginia, Miami-FL, and UCLA are among those showing the most interest in 6'7 Antoine Wright from Groton (Lawrence Academy) MA, who is the obvious candidate for Sleeper-of-the-Summer.  However, we have one source who is telling us that his may be over sooner than later for Texas A&M.  We also hear that 6'0 Todd Galloway from Middleburg (Notre Dame) VA might be closer than a lot of people think to announcing for Wake Forest.  But what happens if 6'1 Justin Gray from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA picks the Deamon Deacans first?   Another possibility for Galloway appears to be Xavier, but 6'0 Dedrick Finn from Newburgh (Castle) IN is also high on the Musketeers list.  We also believe that Xavier is the leader for 6'2 Robert Hite from Cincinnati (Winton Woods) OH, but Cincinnati, Ohio State, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Tennessee, Louisville, and numerous others are showing interest, especially after the way he played yesterday at the 2001 AAU Junior Boys' Basketball National Championship.  Also impressing us yesterday from the Queen City Team, which almost pulled off the upset against B.A.B.C. yesterday was 6'6 Brandon Williams from Cincinnati (Hughes) OH.  Williams is an excellent athlete and good rebounder for his size, but he needs to improve his outside shooting and perimeter skills in order to get recruited at the big time level.  As a result, schools like Eastern Kentucky, East Carolina, and Eastern Michigan are hoping to steal him.  The early list for 6'8 Jr Leon Powe from Oakland (Vocational Tech) CA includes Duke, California, Louisville, and North Carolina.   Louisiana-Lafayette has added one of the last pieces to their puzzle by landing 6'11 Chris Cameron from Australia, who will be eligible to play this fall.  St. John's is the leader, according to 6'1 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ, but he also says he's still considering Georgia Tech, Connecticut, and Boston College.  It appears that Virginia Commonwealth recently got a verbal commitment from 6'8 Jai Lewis from Pittsfield (Maine Central Institute) ME and Oklahoma State has landed 6'1 Nate Johnson from Penn Valley (JC) MO.  However, the Johnson commitment may not be as firm as it looks.  

Monday, July 30, 2001

There were 63 players named to the all-tournament team last night at the adidas Big Time Tournament (our guess is that anybody who got a vote made the team), but 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC was not one of them.  And he didn't deserve to be based on his performance in the tournament.  However, that doesn't mean Randolph is not still one of the better players in the class.  Remember, he's been playing hurt all summer and, as a result, we will hedge our bets and still include him among our the top 20 players in the class when we come out with our new national rankings in August.  In sharp contrast to Randolph, who currently lacks both mental and physical toughness, is 6'7 Mario Boggan from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, who was a big reason why the Tim Thomas Playaz advanced all the way into the championship game last night against the Long Island Panthers.  Here is a guy who played in two games on Saturday, three games on Sunday, including the championship game where he was the best player for his team, and then got a flight to Orlando, FL (he was on our flight) late last night to play in a 10:00 AM game today in the 2001 AAU 17-Under Boys Basketball National Championship.  And he did pretty well, as he finished with 11 points, a number of rebounds, and several assists.  In other words, Boggan has something a lot of the soft spoiled pampered players in the day and age don't have - the heart and desire necessary to become a great player.  Also interesting is that fact that the Long Island Panthers lost several games in pool play at the adidas Big Time Tournament, which meant they were the lower seeded team when they faced the Michigan Hurricane in the round of 32.  Not only did the Panthers win that game by two points in the final seconds, but that was the point in the tournament when they elevated their game to another level.  Not only did 6'9 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY become a lot more focused, but 6'9 Jr Charlie Villaneuva from Blairstown (Blair Academy) NJ also finally became a factor.  Speaking of Villaneuva, he should win the Kwame Brown award as the top stock market player.  Yes, he is that up and down.  However, when he's on like he was in the championship game (he was the leading scorer in the game), he's one of the best juniors in America.  As for the Panthers, head coach Gary Charles told us earlier in the month that one of the things motivating his team this summer was the letter published by the HOOP SCOOP in June by the guy connected with Riverside Church.  Apparently it worked, because the Long Island Panthers, which finished second at the Bob Gibbons' Tournament of Champions in Chapel Hill, NC during Memorial Day Weekend, won the Three Stripes Classic two-and-a-half weeks ago in Hempstead, NY, and won the adidas Big Time Tournament in Las Vegas, NV last night, almost have to be the HOOP SCOOP's Team-of-the-Summer.  Yes, with their victory in in the championship game the Long Island Panthers have edged out Team Texas, which won the NIKE Peach Jam a week-and-a-half ago in Augusta, GA and the AAU Super Showcase in Orlando, FL two days ago, as Team-of-the-Summer.  However, we still want to find a way to give the Team Texas program the recognition that they deserve and we can do that by naming Team Texas the Program-of-the-Summer.  Did you know that that 6'1 Soph Lendy Holmes from Dallas (South Oak Cliff) TX hit his third straight game winning shot, this time against Minnesota Magic Gold, in the championship game of the 15-Under BCI National Championship yesterday in Colorado Springs, CO?  And did you know that   Team Texas has done equally extremely well in a number of other age groups as well?.  Their 16-under team won the 16-Under BCI National Championship two weeks ago and advanced to the round of 32 in the adidas Big Time Tournament, where they lost to the Michigan Mustangs, 65-62.  Their 14-Under team finished third in the BCI Nationals and their 13-Under Team finished third in the 13-Under National AAU Tournament and fourth in the BCI Nationals.  Getting back to the adidas Big Time Tournament, going 63 players deep on the all-tournament was a little ridiculous, but, if you do go that deep, a number of other players should have been strongly considered for the all-tournament team, like 6'10 Matt Haryasz from Page (H.S.) AZ, 6'6 Kelanna Azubuike from Tulsa (Victory Christian) OK, 6'7 Soph Omari Israel from Wheaton (Good Counsel) MD, 5'11 Soph Eric Price from Parkdale (Riverdale Baptist) MD, 6'4 Tauren Minor from Houston (Washington) TX, 6'2 Jr Ryan Appleby from Stanwood (H.S.) WA, 6'5 Soph Dwayne Day from Vidalia (H.S.) GA, 6'9 Jr Travis Outlaw from Starkville (H.S.) MS, 6'7 Matt Trannon from Flint (Northern) MI, 6'11 Jr David Padgett from Reno (H.S.) NV, 6'2 Chadd Moore from Huntsville (Lee) AL, 6'9 Jr Jackie Butler from McComb (H.S.) MS, and 6'8 Soph Mike Williams from Camden (Wilcox Central) AL, 6'9 Jr Ekena Ibekwe from Carson (H.S.) CA, 6'4 Mike Cuffe from Pittsfield (Maine Central Institute) ME, 6'5 David Teague from Pittsfield (Maine Central Institute) ME, 6'6'10 Chris Bosh from Dallas (Lincoln) TX, 6'9 Ike Diogu from Garland (H.S.) TX, and 6'2 Jamar Nutter from East Orange (Seton Hall Prep) NJ.  We also really liked 6'8 Dante Milligan and 6'7 Marcel Momphaisir, both of whom played for the Student Athletes Broncos, but who weren't listed on the roster.  So we don't have any information about their class and school.  We didn't see many games outside the Open Division, but we were really impressed by team 7Up, which featured 6'9 Jr Ivan Harris from Springfield (South) OH, 6'6 Doug Scott from Reynoldsburg (H.S.) OH, 6'1 Jr Nick Dials from Williard (H.S.) OH,   6'9 Jr Mike Newman from Westerville (North) OH, and 6'11 Jr Mike Lefeld from Coldwater (H.S.) OH.  This team finished in the final four of the "A" Division this year and that could be a prelude of things to come next year, because most of these guys are just juniors.  Our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson also believes that an early commitment by Harris to Ohio State could be forthcoming very soon.  So could an early commitment by Lefeld, if the Buckeyes decide to offer.  Also impressing us in this division were 6'6 Josh Rhodes from Santa Cruz (H.S.) CA, who has already verbally committed to Iowa, 6'0 Soph Rajon Rondo from Louisville (Eastern) KY, and 6'2 Jonathan McClellan from Dalton (N.W. Whitfield) GA.

Sunday, July 29, 2001

For the second time in three years the Tim Thomas Playaz have lost in the championship game at the adidas Big Time Tournament.   This time it was to the Long Island Panthers and the final score was 84-73.   Actually the game was never in doubt as the Panthers jumped out to 17-7 lead early and answered every time the Playaz got within striking distance.  The tournament MVP was 6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY, but the best player in the championship game was 6'3 Taquan Dean from Neptune (H.S.) NJ, who finished with 18 points and made the big shot to break his opponents back on a number of occasions.  The leading scorer for the Long Island Panthers was 6'9 Jr Charlie Villaneuva from Blairstown (Blair Academy) NJ with 20 points.  Named to the all-tournament team were Darius Washington, Joshua Smith, and Sani Ibrahim from the Atlanta Celtics; Carmelo Anthony, Gary Neal, Kenny Minor, and Todd Galloway from Baltimore Select; Raymond Felton from Beach Ball Select; Trevor Ariza from Belmont Shore; Sean Mallon from Brewster Heights Packing; Antonio Lawrence and Richard Midgley from EBO/EO Sports; Deron Williams from the Fort Worth Lions; Dan Grunfeld from Friends of Hoop Black; Dan Oppland from Gateway Bball Club 14; Marcus Williams from H Squad; David Bell, Mike Cook, and Mustafa Shakar from Hunting Park Warriors; Sean Dockery from Illinois Fire; Delco Rowley from Indy Warriors; Antoine Wright and Lawrence Carrier from Inland I; Chris Rodgers and Curtis Lincoln from Inner City Players; Sebastian Telfair from Juice All-Stars; Daryl Pegram and Donald Wilson from L.A. Rockfish; Curtis Sumpter, Darryl Hill, Jason Fraser, and Taquan Dean from the Long Island Panthers; Anthony Roberson and Olumuyiwa Famutimi from the Michigan Hurriance; Drew Nietzel, Kevin Nelson, and Paul Davis from the Michigan Mustangs; LaBron James from NE Ohio Shooting Stars; Wes Wilkinson from Nebraska Bison-Runsa Red; Curtis Withers from New Orleans Jazz; Allan Ray, Daon Merritt, and Francisco Garcia from the New York Ravens; Leon Powe and Marquis Katley from Oakland Slam N Jam; Maurice Wade from Playground Running Rebels; Lenny Cook from Prep Stars International; Brad Buckman and C.J. Watson from Pump N Run; Matt Walsh and Michael Thompson from Raleigh; Lodrick Stewart and Rodrick Stewart from Seattle Friends of Hoop; Travis Smith from Southern California All-Stars; Devon Smith from Stormin's Classic; Sheldon Franklin from Student Athlete Broncos; Dez Willingham from Team Texas 16's; Daniel Horton from Texas Blue Chip; Elijah Ingram, John Winchester, and Mario Boggan from Tim Thomas Playaz; Sean Phaler from Villa Park Spartans; and Brandon Roy from Yes Red.   We'll have more tomorrow when we get to Orlando, FL, but right now we have to catch a plane.

They could have played the championship game of this year's adidas Big Time Tournament in New York City or North Jersey, because the Long Island Panthers knocked off Baltimore Select, 74-68, in the first semi-finals game and the Tim Thomas Playaz came back to beat the Hunting Park Warriors, 83-80, in overtime in the second semi-finals game earlier this afternoon at Green Valley High School in Las Vegas, NV.  In the first game 6'6 Curtis Sumpter from Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin) NY only scored seven points, but he did a great job defensively against 6'7 Carmelo Anthony from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, who hit only 9-22 field goals and 1-5 3-pointers en route to a 25-point/15 rebound effort.  And that was one of the two big differences in the game.  The other deciding factor was 6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY who had 27 points and 22 rebounds, and, as a result, will likely be the MVP of the Tournament, if the Panthers win, despite the fact he has been up and down in the tournament, as well as much of the summer.  In the other game the Tim Thomas Playaz were down by four points in overtime, but came back thanks primarily to the efforts of 6'7 Mario Boggan from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA and 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ, who combined for over half of Tim Thomas' points.  Boggan, who likely will be the tournament MVP if his team wins, also chipped in with 10 rebounds, including six offensive boards.  However, the game might not have been even close if Ingram hadn't been so quick to pull the trigger (8-27 field goals and 4-12 3-point shooting).  He also was only 1-5 from the foul line and, if this trend continues, the Long Island Panthers will clean their clock in the championship game, which is scheduled to tip-off in about 30 minutes.  Clearly the best player for the Hunting Park Warriors in the semi-finals was 6'4 Michael Cuffee from Pittsfield (Maine Central Institute) ME, who finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds, but 6'5 David Bell from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC and 6'3 Jr Mustafa Shakur from Wynnewood (Friends Central) PA both added 13 points apiece.  Later tonight we'll have the highlights from the championship game, as well as the official all-tournament team and any other notes of interest.  So stay tuned!. 

6'10 Paul Davis from Rochester (H.S.) MI scored 31 points to register his fourth 30-plus game at the adidas Big Time Tournament, but that wasn't enough to get the Michigan Mustangs past Baltimore Select, which won the second quarterfinals game, 76-69.  It also comes as no surprise that the other outstanding performance in the game was turned in by 6'7 Carmelo Anthony from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA with 28 points and seven rebounds.  Anthony reinforced what we've been saying throughout the tournament.  Not only is he the best player in the senior class nationally, but this incredible athlete has no weaknesses in his game. Everybody here seems to want to compare Anthony with Tracy McGrady, but really he's more like George Gervin, because he doesn't start the offense, like McGrady did at this level.  Sure, Anthony is a deadly 3-point shooter and an excellent passer and ball handler on the perimeter, but he also goes strong to the boards and uses his speed and quickness around the basket.  The Atlanta Celtics jumped out early and were up by four at half-time, 39-35, but it was all Tim Thomas in the second half of the third quarterfinals game, as they outscored the Celtics 41-20 in the second half.  The leading scorer for the Tim Thomas Playaz was 6'4 John Winchester from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC with 23 points and 6'7 Mario Boggan from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA chipped in with 16 points and 11 rebounds.  But what happened to 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ, who finished hit only 4-19 field goals and four turnovers.  The leading scorer for the Atlanta Celtics was 6'0 Soph Darius Washington from Orlando (Edgewater) FL, but he too was error prone, as he finished with five turnovers.  6'11 Sani Ibrahim from Winchendon (School) MA had 10 points and 13 rebounds, but he still doesn't work very hard away from the ball and doesn't appear to be in sync, as he hit only 3-12 field goals.  In the game currently in progess the Hunting Park Warriors are up by six points with two minutes left against the New Orleans Jazz.  Assuming that lead holds up, it will be an all Northeast Final Four at the adidas Big Time Tournament, as the Long Island Panthers are scheduled to meet Baltimore Select in a game that should begin in about 20 minutes and the Tim Thomas Playaz  from North Jersey will face the Philadelphia-based Hunting Park Warriors in about two hours.  We're still working on who we will vote for on our 25-man all tournament team (we're one of six or seven people who have been asked to pick the all-tournament team), but as things stand now we'd go with 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ, 6'7 Mario Boggan from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, 6'4 John Winchester from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC, 6'7 Carmelo Anthony from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, 6'6 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH, 6'10 Paul Davis from Rochester (H.S.) NY,  6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY, 6'6 Curtis Sumpter from Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin) NY, 6'9 Jr Sean Phaler from Villa Park (H.S.) CA, 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ, 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC, 6'7 Francisco Garcia from Cheshire (Academy) CT, 6'7 Antoine Wright from Groton (Lawrence Academy) MA, 6'8 Jr Leon Powe from Oakland (Vocational Tech) CA, 6'7 Curtis Withers from Charlotte (West Charlotte) NC, 6'5 David Bell from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC, 6'9 Wesley Wilkinson from Grand Island (H.S.) NC, 6'1 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL, 6'1 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, 5'11 Soph Sebastian Telfair from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY, 6'5 Olumuywa Famutimi from Flint (Northwestern) MI, 6'4 Mike Cuffee from Pittsfield (Maine Central Institute) ME, 6'8 Brad Buckman from Austin (Westlake) TX, 6'3 Taquan Dean from Neptune (H.S.) NJ, and 6'8 Jr Trevor Ariza from Los Angeles (Westchester) CA.  Especially noteworthy is that nobody from the Atlanta Celtics is listed above, because nobody has really distinguished himself above the rest.  Other big names who purposely purposely have been left off the team, because they didn't live up to their previous hype include 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI, 6'10 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC, and 6'1 Allan Ray from Bronx (St. Raymond's) NY.

Saturday, July 28, 2001

We're down to 18 teams in the open Division of the adidas Big Time Tournament and we have seen nothing to change our mind about our comments this morning regarding the Atlanta Celtics.  However, the Celtics will have a tough challenge by the Inland Warriors, which features 6'7 Antoine Wright from Groton (Lawrence) MA and 6'8 Jr Lawrence Carrier from Salisbury (School) CT at 7:40 PM PST tonight at Green Valley High School.  And most of the games in the other seven pools promises to be just as interesting.  In Pool #1 it will be the Long Island Panthers with 6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S) NY, 6'6 Curtis Sumpter from Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin) NY, and 6'9 Jr Charlie Villaneuva from Blairstown (Blair Academy) NJ versus the Los Angeles Rockfish with 6'3 Tim Drisdom from Lynnwood (Calvary Christian) CA at 5:00 PM PST at Green Valley High School.  In Pool #2 it will be the New Ravens with 6'2 Allan Ray from Bronx (St. Raymond's) NY and 6'7 Francisco Garcia from Cheshire (Academy) CT versus Donyell Marshall I at 5:00 PM at Durango High School.  In Pool #3 it will be the Raleigh Heat with 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC versus the Michigan Mustangs with 6'10 Paul Davis from Rochester (H.S.) MI in the battle of the two top rated white big men in the Class of 2002 at 6:20 PM at Green Valley High School.  In Pool #4 it will be the Indy Warriors with 6'8 Delco Rowley from Indianapolis (Arlington) IN versus Baltimore Select with 6'7 Carmelo Anthony from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA at 6:20 PM at Durango High School.  In Pool #6 it will be the Tim Thomas Playaz with 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ and 6'11 Jr Darryl Watkins from Paterson (Catholic) NJ versus Oakland Slam N Jam with 6'8 Jr Leon Powe from Oakland (Vocational Tech) CA and 6'5 Soph Tim Pierce from Oakland (Fremont) CA at 7:40 PM at Durango High School.   In Pool #7 it will be the Hunting Park Warriors with 6'7 David Bell from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC versus the winner of H Squad I and the Southern California All-Stars, which is currently in progess, at 9:00 PM at Green Valley High School.  In Pool #8 it will be the Nebraska Bison-Runza Red with 6'9 Wes Wilkinson from Grand Island (H.S.) NE and 6'9 Roy Enright from Omaha (Burke) NE versus the winner of the New Orleans Jazz and Illinois Fire, which currently is progress, at 9:00 PM at Durango High School.  We also have received word that Team Texas has beaten B.A.B.C. for the second time in a week to win the championship of the AAU Super Showcase in Orlando, FL.  The final score was 75-65.

Yesterday in the first round and second round of the playoffs at the adidas Big Time Tournament, the Northeast Ohio Shooting Stars with 6'6 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH, who is the consensus #1-ranked player in the nation regardless of class, the Juice All-Stars with 5'11 Soph Sebastian Telfair from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY, who is the #1-ranked sophomore in the nation, and the Seattle Friends of Hoop with 6'4 Jr Roderick Stewart from Seattle (Rainier Beach) WA and 6'4 Jr Lodrick Stewart from Seattle (Rainier Beach) WA, were eliminated.  So were the loaded Pump N Run team and the Richmond Squires.  Also gone are most of the weaker teams in the tournament.  However, as of yet nobody has emerged as the overwhelming favorite to win the championship, which will be held at 6:20 PM PST tomorrow night.  But we'll go out on a limb and tell you that we think the Atlanic Celtics have a better chance than most people realize to repeat.  We saw the Celtics win big last night against Indy Red, but even more important, their great four sophomores - 6'0 Soph Darius Washington from Orlando (Edgewater) FL, 6'9 Soph Randolph Morris from Atlanta (Landmark Christian) GA, 6'7 Soph Joshua Smith from Smyrna (Whitfield) GA, and 6'5 Soph Dwayne Day from Vidalia (H.S.) GA - brought them back from an 18-point deficit yesterday afternoon to avoid a first round loss to the Monarchs.   6'11 Sani Ibrahim from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA is also playing better, plus they have 6'9 Jr Travis Outlaw from Starkville (H.S.) MS, 6'1 Michael Ford from Macon (Northeast) GA, 6'3 Chet Stachitas from Ponte Verde (Allen Nease) FL and a rapidly developing 6'8 Boubacar Coly from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA.  The only question mark is point guard, but 5'10 Terrence Whiter from Laurinburg (Institute) NC is solid.   In other words, the Celtics go 10 deep, they play extremely hard, and they're tournament tested.  Other teams who are still undefeated in the 344-team tournament heading into this morning were Baltimore Select, Cleveland Bball Club 16's, Hunting Park Warriors, Indy Warriors, Michigan Hurricanes, Nebraska Bison-Runza Red, New York Ravens, Oakland Slam N Jam I, Playground Running Rebels, Raleigh Heat,  Stormin's Classic, Team Reef, Team Texas 16's, Tim Thomas Playaz I, and Yes Red.  However, the Long Island Panther have already upset the Michigan Mustangs in the 9:00 AM game this morning. 

Friday, July 27, 2001

Our Texas Editor Wes Grandstaff tells us that it will be Team Texas and B.A.B.C (Boston Amateur Basketball Club) in the finals tomorrow at the AAU Super Showcase in Orlando, FL.  Team Texas knocked off the Grassroots Team from Canada in their semi-finals match-up and B.A.B.C. survived in overtime against Athletes First, which were the tournament's defending champions.  Our guess is that Team Texas will win their second championship in a week.  If you will recall, Team Texas also beat B.A.B.C. in the NIKE Peach Jam in Augusta, GA last Saturday.  And the big reason why we like Team Texas so well are their guards.  6'1 Bryan Hopkins from Dallas (Lincoln) TX has emerged as the leading scorer in the tournament averaging 29.7 ppg and 6'3 Bracy Wright from The Colony (H.S.) TX is the third leading scorer in the tournament averaging 26.8 ppg.  In other words, Team Texas' guards are averaging over 55 ppg and really that doesn't begin to tell the story of how dominant they've been, as they easily have been the two best players in the tournament from start to finish.  Assuming that our prediction holds, this would mean that the Team Texas program has finally arrived as one of the premier club team program in the nation.  It also would probably make them the heavy favorite to be named Team-of-the-Summer.  And win or lose, their head coach Rick Williams, who has done a great job with developing the chemistry on this team that also includes 6'5 Shelton Johnson from Arlington (Oak Ridge) TX, who is the unsung hero, as well as the clue that holds the team together, and 6'9 Alou Kane from Dyke (Blue Ridge School) VA, who has become a force inside.  That also should get Williams named Coach-of-the-Summer.  Also on the NIKE side of things, it appears that Russell Otis, who is the former head coach at Compton (Dominguez) CA, is in line to bcome the new head coach Lynwood (H.S.) CA and it makes sense that he will like bring most of his former players from Dominguez, including 6'4 Darius Sanders and 6'5 Bobby Jones, with him.  Making the story even more interesting is the fact that the former principal at Lakewood (Artesia) CA, who fired Wayne Merino, also is being hired at Lynwood in an administrative capacity.  In other words, she fired one trouble coach and is arriving at a new school, along with another coach,who has had more than his share of problems during the last year.  Remember, Otis had legal problems that prevented him from coaching last season and, as a result, he was denied the opportunity to coach 7'0 Tyson Chandler during his senior season, as well as having a shot at winning a high school national championship.

It comes as no surprise that 6'8 Mario Boggan from Chatham (Hargrave Military) VA has finally made it official for the University of Florida.  If you will recall, Bogan verbally committed to the Gators coaching staff several months ago, but, then people close to him encouraged him to hold off for a while.  However, we had no reason to think this one wasn't done all along.  As a result, Florida's recruiting class, which also includes 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI, 6'5 Matt Walsh from Ft. Washington (Germantown Academy) PA, and 6'4 Rashid Al-Kaleem from Charlestown (H.S) MA, should  be right up there with Duke in the battle for the top recruiting class.  And the icing the cake will be if Billy Donovan and his staff get 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC, 6'10 Chris Bosh from Dallas (Lincoln) TX, or 6'9 Torin Francis from Marion (Tabor Academy) MA.  Right now the smart money appears to be on Bosh, but we hear that Michigan and Georgia Tech are also very high on his list.  We have gotten an updated list of schools from Bosh's Team Texas teammate - 6'9 Ike Diogu from Garland (H.S.) TX, as well as 6'8 Brad Buckman from Austin (Westlake) TX and 6'7 Matt Trannon from Flint (Northern) MI.  Diogu likes Arizona State, Seton Hall, Louisville, Georgetown, Illinois, Arkansas, Texas Tech, and Miami-FL.   We still think Buckman is a near lock for Texas, but he also mentions Missouri, North Carolina, Illinois, and Louisville.  Trannon's list includes Michigan, Michigan State, Florida, Iowa State, and Missouri.  We also find it ironic that when Rick Pitino arrived in Louisville this spring, he was quoted as saying that he didn't plan to recruit players from New York City and New England.   Instead, he thought his recruiting base would be in the South and the Midwest.   However, the Cardinals already have two players from the New York City area in the fold in 6'3 Taquan Dean from Neptune (H.S.) NJ and 6'7 Francisco Garcia from Cheshire (Academy) CT and it appears the Cardinals will have a great shot at getting 5'11 Soph Sebastian Telfair from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY, who is ranked as the #1 sophomore in the nation and was absolutely sensational at the adidasd ABCD Camp earlier this month - in two years.  Our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor Allen Rubin tell us that 6'5 Kenell Sanchez from Pennsauken (Bishop Eustace) NJ has made a verbal commitment to Drexel and a reliable source here at the adidas Big Time Tournanent tells us that 6'4 Gary Neal from Towson (Calvert Hall) MI has picked La Salle.  It also appears that 6'3 Nathan Funk from Sioux City (Heelan) IA has picked Creighton, but our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson tells us that this one happened about a week ago.  However, as of yet none of the national media has picked up on it. 

Thursday, July 26, 2001

Well, it looks like 6'9 Amare Stoudemire from Orlando (Cypress Creek) FL and 6'9 DeAngelo Collins from Inglewood (H.S.) CA have already caught the disease (planning on going straight from high school into the NBA Draft), as both have elected to stay home and not play this week in either the adidas Big Time Tournament or the AAU Super Showcase.   Apparently they don't want to hurt the value of their stock.  If you will recall Stoudemire was the consensus #1-ranked player at the NIKE All-American Camp.   Collins was ranked #8 at the adidas ABCD Camp by the HOOP SCOOP.   Unfortunately they don't release that showing up and meeting all the challenges night in and night out is something we look at very seriously and, because they are missing in action, we plan to drop both players in our rankings.  At least Stoudemire has a realistic shot at getting drafted high in the NBA Draft.  However, for Collins to think about putting his name into the NBA Draft next spring is about as ridiculous as when 6'9 Tony Key from Compton (Centennial) CA actually did it last spring.  Another similarity is that Collins might have just as much off the court baggage as Key does.  And Collins isn't the only one who is talking about making the biggest mistake of his life.  Apparently the father of 6'6 Kelenna Azubuike from Tulsa (Victory Christian) OK thinks his son is ready for the NBA.  But I'm not sure Azubuike will ready for the NBA even after four years of college.  Azubuike is a great athlete, excellent defender, and terrific slasher, but doesn't he have the outside shooting and ball handling skills necessary to play at the highest level?  Nor is he that good a player right now!!  As a matter of fact, he's not any better than the fourth best player in his state behind 6'9 Sheldon Williams from Midwest City (H.S.) OK, 6'8 Kevin Bookout from Stroud (H.S.) OK, and 6'5 DeAngelo Alexander from Midwest City (H.S.) OK and 7'0 Julius Lamptey from Oklahoma City (Northeast) OK has a lot more long range potential.  Remember, only one player smaller than 6'8 was drafted among the top 20 picks in the NBA Draft last spring.  Getting back to Stoudemire, he's not as raw as a lot of people have been led to believe.  Stoudemire has incredible moves and quickness around the basket and he can shoot over you from 15-feet.  Plus, he appears to have the work ethic, heart, and desire necessary to continue to improve his outside shot and post moves.  However, there is another player in the senior class nationally who already is a lot closer to being a finished product than Stoudemire is and he's a lot more versatile.  We're talking about 6'7 Carmelo Anthony from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, who went for 33 points when we watched him lead Baltimore Select past the Southeast Raptors earlier today at the adidas Big Time Tournament.   Not only is Anthony one of the most improved players in the Class of 2002 during the last six months, but he also still has a lot of upside and he's a world-class athlete who reminds us of Tracy McGrady in a lot of ways.  However, he's even more multi-dimensional than McGrady was at the same stage, because he can shoot the lights out from 3-point range and he's better inside.  Also it appears that Anthony hasn't been corrupted by the process yet, which once again brings us back to Stoudemire and the recent public relations nightmare for NIKE.  Unfortunately most of the mainstream media still doesn't get it.   As Dick "Hoops" Weiss pointed out earlier today when I was talking to him at the adidas Big Time Tournament, the problem is not with shoe company war between NIKE and adidas.  Instead, it's all the street agents and shaddy people who are trying to influence these guys to do something that is not in their best interest and get a piece of the pie for themselves. And if something isn't done to stop this trend, it is going to ruin the game at every level. 

Upon arriving this morning at the adidas Big Time Tournamnent this morning we realized that the difference between this tournament and the NIKE Super Showcase was as big as the adidas and NIKE camps earlier this month.  In other words, the adidas Big Time Tournament is absolutely loaded!  And we got to see one of the premier match-ups of the entire tournament right off the bat, as the Northeast Shooting Stars battled Texas Blue Chip I in the 11:40 AM game in the Green Valley Auxillary gym.  We're talking about loaded Texas Blue Chip team, which features 6'10 Chris Bosh from Dallas (Lincoln) TX, 6'3 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, 6'9 Ike Diogu from Garland (H.S.) TX, and 6'0 Soph Jason Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, versus 6'6 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH, who is the best player in the nation regardless of class, as well as a player who really does have some business thinking about going straight out of high school into the NBA after he graduates from high school two years from now.  James is that good!  Not only is an amazing passer, but he can shoot the three, blocks shots, rebound, and defend.  In other words, he can play any position on the court, just like Magic Johnson.   However, we think James has more potential than Johnson at the same stage, because he shoots it so better than Johnson did.  But let's go one step further and really put the monkey on James' back.  We're talking about one of the best high school players I've eve seen, right up there along with guys like Clark Kellogg, Shawn Kemp, Alonzo Mourning, Lloyd Daniels, Glenn Robinson, Felipe Lopez, Kevin Garnett, Stephon Marbury, and Dajuan Wagner.  And, if 6'7 Carmelo Anthony from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, who went for 33 points when we watched him lead Baltimore Select past the Southeast Raptors earlier today at the adidas Big Time Tournament, and 5'11 Soph Sebastian Telfair from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY both continue to develop at their current pace, they too could get mentioned among that every elite group.  Another big story at the adidas Big Time Tournament was the emergence of several big men we'd never seen before and one them might be one of the biggest sleepers we've seen this summer.  Bob Gibbons does have 6'10 Matt Haryasz from Page (H.S.) AZ ranked among his top 500 nationally in his pre-summer player rankings in All-Star Sports, but most people in our business, including us, had never heard of Haryasz until earlier today when he scored 33 points and dominated the game for the Arizona Heat I against EBO/EO Sports.   Haryasz, who reminds us of Stanford's Curtis Borchardt, is a big white kid with surprising mobility and quickness for a guy his size.  Like most big men in high school, Haryasz needs to get bigger and stronger, but this guy still goes to war on every possession, as he uses his long wing span and quick hands to blocks shots, rebound, and defend.  He also has excellent post moves, good skills, and excellent grades (3.6 gpa and already over 1000 on the SAT).  Arizona, Arizona State, North Arizona, Oregon State, New Mexico, Santa Clara, San Diego, UTEP, Pepperdine, Boise State, Loyola-Marymount, Cal State-Fullerton, Gonzaga, Harvard, and Yale are among the schools that have been showing interest.  However, he says that he's still wide open.   So that list should get longer before it gets shorter.  The big man who came out of the woodwork was 6'11 Martin Iti from Australia.  You, remember him!  He first showed up on the radar screen as a young big man with a lot of potential in Florida three or four years ago, but transferred to Villa Park (H.S.) CA, where he was eventually ruled ineligible due to problems with his transcript.  So he returned home to Australia for a year, but now is back and looking for a prep school or junior college (we've heard it might be Vincennes JC).  Whatever his off-the-court issues might be, Iti is a aggressive shot-blocking athlete who is capable of dominating a game at the high school level.  He also provides the perfect complement on a front-line for the Pump N Run team that includes 6'8 Brad Buckman from Austin (Westlake) TX and 6'11 Jr David Padgett from Reno (H.S.) NV.   And when you also include 6'6 Nik Caner-Medley from Portland (Deering) ME, 6'4 Jr Omar Wilkes from Los Angeles (Loyola) CA, 6'2 C.J. Watson from Las Vegas (Bishop Gorman) NV, 6'3 Brandon Rohe from Rancho Santa Margarita (Santa Margarita) CA, it is easy to see why a lot of people are making Pump N Run one of the favoirtes to win the adidas Big Time Tournament, which will heat up even more tomorrow morning when the playoffs begin at 9:00 AM.

Wednesday, July 25, 2001

What a difference a year can make.  If you recall, a year ago at this time 6'1 Bryan Hopkins from Dallas (Lincoln) TX was a major disappointment, as he'd been slowed injuries and was often wild and out of control.  Well, now he's healthy, he doesn't have to compete with anybody else for playing time at the point guard spot, and he's learned to make better decisions, like getting 6'3 Bracy Wright from The Colony (H.S.) TX the ball.   And he was doing that pretty frequently at the AAU Super Showcase in Orlando, FL this morning, as Wright hit eight 3-pointers and scored 33 points against the Georgia Stars.  That also opened things up from Hopkins, who scored most of his 31 points going to the hole.  As a matter of fact, Hopkins, who had an electrifying dunk and a incredible block, both of which brought the house down, registered two of the most exciting plays of the entire day in that morning game.  Wright also had 20 points and 6'5 Shelton Johnson from Arlington (Oak Ridge) TX had 18 points in Team Texas' second game of the day, but once again it was Hopkins who stole the show with 27 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.  As a result, Hopkins is finally living up to the reputation that he established for himself at Spiece near the end of his freshman year.  If you recall, Hopkins was being mentioned as the #1 player in his class after he led Team Texas to the championship of the 15-Under Division of that tournament.  Team Texas also has inside presence needed to win the tournament in 6'9 Alou Kane from Dyke (Blue Ridge School) VA.  Sure, Kane is raw, but he's an excellent athlete and he plays extremely hard.  He's also a great kid, which is just an added bonus.  Kane, who is originally from Mauritamia, says he's totally wide open, but did give us a list that includes Clemson, UNC-Charlotte, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Virginia, James Madison, SMU, Kentucky, Michigan, and Mississippi.  So we're looking for Team Texas to be heavily favored to win the AAU Super Showcase.  And their main challenger should be B.A.B.C. (Boston Amateur Basketball Club), which lost to Team Texas in the finals of the NIKE Peach Jam last week.  Not only does B.A.B.C. have excellent guards in 6'2 Marshall Strickland from Sykes (South Carroll) MD, 6'0 Jr Steve Hailey from Worcester (Academy) MA, and 6'0 Jr Will Blaylock from Boston (East Boston) MA, but they have an excellent inside presence in 6'9 Torin Francis from Marion (Tabor Academy) MA and 7'0 Keith Butler from Winchendon (School) MA.  We were especially impressed yesterday with Butler, who not only played a lot harder than when we saw him at the NIKE All-American Camp two weeks ago, but also showed us he has a great feel for the game and is an outstanding passer.  Speaking of Butler and Francis, they both gave us a list of schools.  Butler says he's still open despite reports that Louisville is the favorite due to Rick Pitino's connections to B.A.B.C. head coach Leo Papile.  His list includes Illinois, Kansas, Wake Forest, Louisville, Cincinnati, Miami-FL, and Seton Hall.   Nothing has changes with Francis, as Duke, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Florida are all in the hunt.   Another team that is absolutely loaded and favored by many to win the tournament is Athletes First, which won this tournament a year ago.  However, we question whether they have good enough point guards to pull off a repeat.  However, Athletes First is absolutely loaded at the other four positions.  Inside they have 6'9 Sheldon Williams from Midwest City (H.S.) OK, 6'8 Kevin Bookout from Stroud (H.S.) OK, 7'0 Julius Lamptey from Oklahoma City (Northeast) OK, and 6'6 Marques Hayden from Putnam City (H.S.) OK and out on the perimeter, 6'5 DeAngelo Alexander from Midwest City (H.S.) OK, and 6'4 Richard Jones from Oklahoma City (Douglass) OK are pretty good as well.  Another team that has the horses, but probably not the right  chemistry to win the championship at the NIKE Peach Jam is Georiga Elite, which features 6'10 Alexander Johnson from Albany (Dougherty) GA, 6'10 Soph Mohamed Tangara from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC, 6'9 Almany Thiero from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC, and 6'3 Jarrett Jack from Worcester (Academy) MA.

We heard it was going to happen a week ago, but now our New York Editor Ron Naclerio is now confirming that 6'6 Tim Doyle from Oyster Bay (St. Dominic) NY has verbally committed to St. John's.   Doyle, who was ranked #231 nationally in the Class of 2002 prior to the start of the summer by the HOOP SCOOP, is best described as a point/forward, because he has excellent ball handling and passing skills.  However, he lacks speed and quickness and he doesn't shot it very well.  So he promises to be a good role player for the Red Storm, but he isn't a guy who will make or break their recruiting class.  However, 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ, who is ranked #20 nationally in the rising senior class, would be a player who would help make this a great recruiting class, especially St. John's can also land 6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY, 6'6 Curtis Sumpter from Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin) NY, 6'5 Rashad Anderson from Lakeland (Kathleen) FL, and/or 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ.   Ingram, who might be a lot closer to making a verbal commitment to St. John's than a lot of people realize, also would give head coach Mike Jarvis the point guard he needs to replace Omar Cook, who declared for the NBA Draft last spring.  Our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson also has a pair of commitments to pass along, as 6'8 Nicholas Kern from St. Louis (Vashon) MO, who is ranked #92 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP, has made it official for Saint Louis and 6'1 Mike Lesma from Burlington (Life Center) MA, who is ranked #80 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, has decided to attend the University of Massachuesetts.  We think Kern is a perfect fit for the Billikins.  Not only does he have a great upside due to his athleticism, ability to rebound and block shots, and toughness inside, but he also has the ability to step out and hit the open three.  However, he likely would have gotten recruited over if he signed with somebody like Missouri or Illinois.  We're not sold on the fact that Lesma can play point guard at the big time college level, but it may not matter, because he's one of the most explosive athletes, as well exciting players, in the class.  We also believe that Wake Forest may be close to getting a verbal commitment from 6'1 Justin Gray from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, who shot the lights out earlier today when we saw him in the AAU Super Showcase in Orlando, FL and Clemson may be on the verge of getting 6'3 Logan White from Cleveland (University) OH, who impressed us with athleticism and outside shooting, as he finished ranked as the #5 2-guard at the NIKE All-American Camp earlier this month.  It also appears to be a done deal for 6'3 Bracy Wright from The Colony (H.S.) TX, who is expected to pick Indiana University as soon as Hoosiers head coach Mike Davis is able to meet face-to-face with his mother (this will probably happen next week).  However, Anderson, who finished ranked #2 at the NIKE All-American Camp, would be a pretty good consolation prize for the Longhorns.  It also looks like Texas is in the lead, along with Missouri, for 6'8 Brad Buckman from Austin (Westlake) TX, who was both Most Valuable Player in the camp playoffs and the Most Outstanding Player for the Week at Five-Star's loaded Pitt III session last week, and we know that the Longhorns have always been the favorite school of 6'1 Bryan Hopkins from Dallas (Lincoln) TX, who, along with Wright, was the best player we saw the first day at the AAU Super Showcase.  But Hopkins says he's still open, as Arkansas, Georgia Tech, Okahoma State, Maryland, and Cincinnati are all still on his list.  Speaking of Cincinnati, Bearcats head coach Bobby Huggins was seen watching Hopkins both times he played today in the AAU Super Showcase and, if he can get Hopkins to commit first, he would probably have to pass on 6'2 Chadd Moore from Huntsville (Lee) AL, who recently has emerged as Cincinnati's #1 target at point guard.  And if that happens, don't be surprised if Ole Miss emerges as the new leader for Moore.  We also understand that Indiana is still involved with 6'1 Johnny Gilchrist from Virginia Beach (Salem) VA, but the smart money is on Maryland, St. John's, and Georgetown.

Tuesday, July 24, 2001

Yesterday we reported that Auburn assistant coach Mike Wilson had accepted an similar position at the University of Cincinnati and the source on that via our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson was the official University of Cincinnati Athletic Department Web Site.  Yes, they actually put out a press release saying that Wilson had taken the job.  However, it looks like Wilson changed his mind at the last minute and has decided to remain at Auburn.  And this isn't the first time we've been through all this.  If you will recall, in early June we were talking about how Wilson turned down head coach Bob Huggins and, as a result, UAB assistant coach Andy Kennedy was the leading candidate for the job.  And that's exactly what happened today.  Kenndy, who was responsible for landing an excellent recruiting class this spring that included 5'10 Eric Bush from Barton County (JC) KS, 6'5 Antonae Robinson from San Jose City (JC) CA, 6'8 Cedric Davis from Sinclair (JC) OH, and 6'4 Jeff Collins from Birmingham (Ramsay) AL and was ranked #33 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, is the new assistant coach for the Bearcats.  Kennedy, who is widely regarded as one of the best recruiters in the South, leaves the UAB program in the best shape it's been since Murry Bartow replaced his legendary father (Gene Bartow) as the head coach five years ago.  And his first big assignment will be the same one that Wilson would have had if he'd taken the job at Cincinnati.   We're talking about getting 6'2 Chadd Moore from Huntsville (Lee) AL, who currently is ranked #19 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP and is the highest ranked point guard still available.  If you will recall, Moore was a near lock for Auburn.  However, that fell through recently and, as a result, Huggins, who needs a good point guard in a big way, was visible in the stands more often than not whenever Moore played during the first evaluation period this summer.   

Over the weekend our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson told us that the University of Michigan has gotten a late commitment from 6'3 Marcus Bennett from Detroit (Renaissance) MI, who is academically qualified and eligible for the Wolverines this fall.  We bring this up again, because Bennett is the replacement for 6'5 JaQuan Hart from Flint (Northern) MI, who is only a partial qualifier and, as a result, ineligible to play for the Wolverines as a freshman next season.  Instead, Hart, who was ranked #31nationally in our final rankings of the Class of 2001, appears to have two options:  1) go to prep school; 2) go to a four-year school as a partial qualifier.  Yes, Michigan State and Ohio State, both of which were heavy involved in his recruitment a year ago, can take partial qualifiers.  However, we'd be shocked if the Wolverines released him to another Big-10 school, especially to a school which is one of their biggest rivals.  Johnson also us that another player - 6'8 Kelly Whitney from Chicago (Marshall) IL - in Michigan's recruiting class, which was ranked #24 nationally this spring, hasn't made it academically and, as a result, it bound for prep school.  However, like everybody else right now, Johnson doesn't seem to know at which prep school Whitney plans to enroll.  Johnson also has found several verbal commitments that occured a week ago, but apparently fell through the cracks.  He's talking about 6'6 Terrance Thomas from Lon Morris (JC) TX, who has committed to Baylor, and 6'7 Supo Jegede from Smoky Hill (Aurora) CO, who has committed to Wyoming.  We also have confirmed that 6'5 Shelton Johnson from Arlington (Oak Ridge) TX verbally committed to Colorado State yesterday.  I'm not sure what position Johnson plays?  But I sure like the way he uses his athleticism and great anticipation to get after it defensively and on the boards.  Which brings us to the only real newsworthy recruiting item of the day - 6'3 Tim Drisdom from  Redland (Calvary Chapel) UT to the University of Utah.  Obviously Andre Miller comparisons are in order.  If you will recall, Miller played for the L.A. Rockfish in high school and then took his game to another level while playing for Rick Majerus in the late 90's.  Drisdom, who is ranked #144 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP in the Class of 2002, also plays for L.A. Rockfish.   However, we still think Drisdom, who has a tendancy to over handle, has a long way to go to be as good someday as Miller, who now makes money playing the game for the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Upon arriving in Orlando, FL this morning we found out that people running the 2001 AAU Super Showcase think the first day of their tournament is a registration and check-in day.  In other words, it was a non-playing day and, as a result, we will only get one day (tomorrow) to cover this tournament.  So we plan to get there at 8:00 PM to see New York Riverside Church versus the C.I. Gibson High School -Rattles and  Coast to Coast versus the St. Louis Eagles.  Then, at 10:00 AM we will plan to focus on the Kentucky Hoop Stars versus Team Jax, but also will have plenty of other options, as it will be Charlotte Aces versus North Carolina Gaters, the DC Blue Devils versus World Wide Renegades, Alabama Select versus Martin Brothers Iowa Select, All-Ohio versus Tamarac Tarheels, and Baltimore Blue verus the Orlando Force.  Next, at 11:30 AM it will be the Tallahassee Wildcats versus YOMCA, the Challenge versus the Gulf Coast Stars II, Tennessee Travelers versus NIKE Team Florida, Colorado X-Press versus the New Jersey Celtics, Illinois Warriors versus Ohio Valley AAU, and the Spiece Pistols versus the Durham Disciples and at 1:00 PM it will be Athletes First versus the New York Jaguars, Arkansas Rockets versus Georgia Jazz, Howard Pulley Panthers versus Team Baltimore, Bloomington Red versus Gulf Coast Stars I, Team Texas versus Georgia Stars, and Team Memphis versus Central Florida PAL.   That will be followed at 2:30 PM by Hampton Roads versus the Georgia Hawks, Albany City Rocks versus Grass Roots Canada, Arkansas Wings versus Magnolia Stars, The Family versus New Jersey Rap, B.A.B.C, versus Shreveport Bossier Select, and Bray Center versus G-Rebs.  The final set of opening round game in pool play will feature the Houston Hoops versus the New Jersey Demons and Georgia Elite versus the SYF Players at 4:00 PM.   Also at 4:00 PM the teams in Pool M (Riverside Church, Coast to Coast, St. Louis Eagles, and C.I. Gibson High School - Rattles) and Pool J (Kentucky Hoop Stars, Charlotte Aces, North Carolina Gaters, and Team Jax) will play their second games of the day.   That will be followed at 5:30 PM by the teams in Pool I (DC Blue Devils, Alabama Select, Martin Brothers Iowa Select, and World Wide Renegades), Pool L (Illinois Warriors, Spiece Pistols, Durham Disciples, and Ohio Valley AAU), and Pool G (Tallahassee Wildcats, Challenge, Gulf Coast Stars II, and YOMCA).  Then, at 7:00 PM it will be the teams in Pool F (All Ohio, Baltimore Blue, Orlando Force, and Tamarac Tarheels), Pool H (Team Texas, Team Memphis, Central Florida PAL, and Georgia Stars), and Pool K (Tennessee Travelers, Colorado X-Press, New Jersey Celtics, and NIKE Team Florida) in their second games of the day.  We also plan to see some of the 8:30 PM games with teams in Pool E (Howard Pulley Panthers, Bloomington Red, Gulf Coast Stars I, and Team Baltimore), Pool A (Athletes First, Arkansas Rockets, Georgia Jazz, and New York City Jaguars), and Pool C (The Family, Arkansas Wings, Magnolia Stars, New Jersey City Rap).  However, we won't get to see any of the 10:00 PM games with teams in Pool B (Hampton Roads, Albany City Rocks, Grass Roots Canada, and the Georgia Hawks) and Pool D (B.A.B.C., Bray Center, G-Rebs, and Shreveport Bossier Select), because we'll already be at the airport getting ready to catch a flight to Las Vegas, NV, where we'll spend the next four days covering the adidas Big Time Tournament.  And after that's over, it will be back to Orlando, FL for the last four days of the 2001 AAU 17-Under Boys Basketball National Championship.  Nobody can provide you with the in-sight we can, but the AAU people will keep you on top of how both 2001 AAU Super Showcase and 2001 AAU 17-Under Boys Basketball National Championship are unfolding, if you click on http://www.aausports.org.

Monday, July 23, 2001

Well, it looks like we knew what we were talking about 10 days ago when we reported that Auburn assistant coach Mike Wilson was still the leading candidate for the top spot at the University of Cincinnati.   That's right!  Ohio Editor Chris Johnson is reporting that Wilson has been hired as Bob Huggins #1 assistant and, as a result, we look for the Bearcats' to continue be among the leaders in our recruiting rankings every year.  If you will recall, Wilson has been an overachiever on the recruiting trail dating all the way back to the days when we first knew him as an aspiring young assistant at Slippery Rock, which was at the Division II level, in the early '90.  Since that time Wilson has made stops at Penn State, McNeese State, UNC-Wilmington, Baylor, Rhode Island, and Auburn and in every case he has left the program in better shape than when he arrived.  What makes Wilson such a great recruiter?  Contacts, attention to detail, and hard work.  Wilson also is the perfect guy to step in at Cincinnati and hit the ground running, as the second live evaluation period in the month of July begins day after tomorrow.  In addition to knowing how to get done on the recruiting trail, Wilson also has been close to Huggins for years, which should help ensure a smooth transition.  And Wilson's #1 target promises to be 6'2 Chadd Moore from Huntsville (Lee) AL, who was supposed to be a near lock for Auburn until very recently when Tigers head coach Cliff Ellis decided that Moore wasn't the point guard he wanted.  We also understand that the verbal commitment by 6'7 Derek Burditt from Marrero (John Ehret) LA to the University of California isn't going to hold up.  Apparently he has decided that he wants to attend college closer to home.  So make Tulane the favorite and LSU a strong second.  Purdue also got a commitment over the weekend from 6'7 Melvin Buckley from South Holland (Thornwood) IL.  Otherwise it is surprisingly quiet as we get ready to go to Orlando, FL tomorrow morning for two days at the Super Showcase.  Then, it will be on to Las Vegas, NV for the adidas Big-Time Tournament and back to Orlando, FL for the National 17-Under AAU Tournament.

We are finally finished with our write-up in of the NIKE All-American Camp and, despite the fact the camp was down when compared to previous years, we found a number of positive things to write about the camp, like the effort given by a number of the top ranked players in camp, the number of excellent sophomores in camp, and the depth at both forward spots.  When we take an even closer look and compare the top players from the NIKE All-American Camp with the top 50 players from the adidas ABCD Camp, we that it's not as lopsided, at least near the top, as we originally expected.  It comes as no surprise that 6'9 Amare Stoudemire from Orlando (Cypress Creek) FL edges out 6'6 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH as the best player in either both camp.  If you will recall, Stoudemire was a dominant force all week at NIKE, while James was unable to get into the flow of things at adidas until they switched him to point guard mid-way through the week.  However, it may come as a surprise that we gave three other players - 6'9 Torin Francis from Marion (Tabor Academy) MA, 5'11 Dee Brown from Maywood (Proviso East) IL, and  6'10 Michael Thompson from New Lenox (Providence) IL - who rank among the top 10 from the NIKE-American Camp the edge over the player ranked in the same position at the adidas ABCD Camp.  Francis gets the nod over 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappin (H.S.) NJ due to consistency during the week.  Remember, Cooke's game fell way off after his match-up against James on the third day at the adidas Camp.  Brown gets the nod over 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI, because he did more to get his teammates involved during the camp.  In other words, if you're as selfish as Roberson was at adidas, you aren't going to get any breaks in our rankings.  Thompson, who made a verbal commit to Duke last winter, edges out Dockery, because he really elevated his game the last two days, which is when Blue Devils head coach Mike Krzyzewski was in attendance.  NIKE also wins four of the next five spots, as 6'3 Jarrett Jack from Worcester (Academy) MA edges out 6'7 Matt Trannon from Flint (Northwestern) MI, 6'8 Jr Ndudi Ebi from Houston (Westbury Christian) TX beats out 6'9 Ike Diogu from Garland (H.S.) TX, 6'4 Rashad McCants from Worcester (Academy) MA was better than 6'7 Francisco Garcia from Cheshire (Academy) CT, and 6'2 Marsahll Strickland from Sykes (South Carroll) MD was clearly better than 6'4 Maurice Ager from Detroit (Crockett) MI.  However, it's all up hill after that, as NIKE wins only 12 of the next 35 spots.  And three of those 12 spots are at #48 with 6'4 DeAngelo Alexander from Midwest City (H.S.) OK over 6'10 Jr Major Wingate from Florence (Wilson) SC, #49 with 6'2 Soph JamesOn Curry from Mebane (Eastern Alamance) NC over 6'6 Jr Marcus Sikes from Middleburg (Notre Dame) VA, and #50 with 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC over 5'11 Soph Eric Price from Rockville (Montrose Christian) MD.  And our guess is that it would be even more lopsided in favor of adidas if we went any deeper than #50. 

HOOP SCOOP'S EXCLUSIVE NIKE & adidas Camp Comparison

Rank

Top 50 Players from the adidas ABCD Camp

Winner

Top 50 Players from the NIKE All-American Camp

1.	LeBron James- Jr	NIKE	Amare Stoudemire
2.	Sebastian Telfair-Soph	adidas	Rashad Anderson
3.	Raymond Felton	adidas	Sheldon Williams
4.	Leon Powe-Jr	adidas	Chris Rogers
5.	Kendrick Perkins-Jr	adidas	Greg Brunner
6.	Leonard Cooke	NIKE	Torin Francis
7.	Chris Bosh	adidas	J.J. Redick
8.	DeAngelo Collins	adidas	Kennedy Winston
9.	Anthony Roberson	NIKE	Dee Brown
10.	Sean Dockery	NIKE	Michael Thompson
11.	Matt Trannon	NIKE	Jarrett Jack
12.	Ike Diogu	NIKE	Ndudi Ebi-Jr
13.	Elijah Ingram	adidas	Jimmy McKinney
14.	Francisco Garcia	NIKE	Rashad McCants
15.	Maurice Ager	NIKE	Marshall Strickland
16.	Mike Williams-Soph	adidas	Alou Kane
17.	Gerry McNamara	adidas	Kris Humphries-Jr
18.	Antonie Wright	adidas	Dion Harris-Jr
19.	Allan Ray	adidas	Brian Randle-Jr
20.	Charlie Villanueva-Jr	NIKE	Evan Burns
21.	Antonio Lawrence	adidas	Yusef Baker
22.	Travis Outlaw-Jr	adidas	Logan White
23.	Chadd Moore	NIKE	Ousmane Konate-Jr
24.	Daniel Horton	adidas	Marques Hayden
25.	Travis Garrison	NIKE	Michael Bush-Jr

26.	Charles Davis	adidas	Hassan Adams
27.	Derrick Byars	NIKE	Mario Moore
28.	Darius Washington-Soph	NIKE	Matt Walsh
29.	Jason Fraser	adidas	J.R. Morris
30.	Adam Haluska	adidas	Luol Deng-Jr
31.	Olu Famutini-Jr	NIKE	Julius Lamptey
32.	Trevor Ariza-Jr	adidas	Jeff Horner
33.	Chris Taft-Jr	adidas	Wes Wilkinson
34.	Deron Williams	adidas	Shannon Brown-Jr
35.	Marquis Webb-Jr	NIKE	Rashaun Freeman
36.	Paul Davis	adidas	Brian Johnson-Jr
37.	Maurice Petty	adidas	Devon Evertsen-Jr
38.	Jai Miller-Jr	adidas	Jeremey Ingram-Jr
39.	Omar Wilkes-Jr	adidas	Denham Brown
40.	Curtis Withers	adidas	Kenneth Harris-Jr
41.	Jason Horton-Soph	adidas	Almany Thiero
42.	Joshua Smith-Soph	NIKE	Corey Gibbs-Jr
43.	Darryl Watkins-Jr	adidas	J.R. Reynolds
44.	John Winchester	NIKE	Kelenna Azubuike
45.	Warren Scott-Jr	adidas	Chris Ellis
46.	Joey Cameron-Frosh	adidas	Chris McCray
47.	Brandon Stockton	adidas	Roy Enright
48.	Major Wingate-Jr	NIKE	DeAngelo Alexander
49.	Marcus Sikes-Jr	NIKE	JamesOn Curry-Soph
50	Eric Price-Soph	NIKE	Shavlik Randolph

Sunday, July 22, 2001

Allen Rubin was at Eastern Invitational at the College of New Jersey on Friday for the camp playoffs and all-star games and he tells us that the 6'7 Mani Messy from Winchendon (School) MA, who was ranked #12 at the power forward spot in our final adidas ABCD Camp rankings, continues to make a name for himself this summer.  Not only did he have 27 points in the Top 20 All-Star Game, bu he also was named MVP for week.   However, Messy was not the leading scorer in the Top 20 All-Star Game.   Instead, that honor went to 6'5 J.R. Smith from Lakewood (H.S.) NJ, who shot the lights out, as he eight 3-pointers en route to a 36-point game.  The best playmaker for the week was 5'11 Jr T. J. Banninster from Jacksonville (Arlington Country Day) FL and the player most likely to get overlooked is 6'8 Nana Mensah-Bensu from Richland (St. Augustine) NJ.   Mensah-Bensu was one of the best players in camp during the week, but he got hurt and, as a result, didn't play in the Top 20 All-Star Game.  Also ranked among the top players in camp were 6'10 Jr Grant Billmeier from Elizabeth (St. Patrick) NJ, 6'6 Willie Irick from Teaneck (H.S.) NJ, 6'7 Darcy Bonner from Wilmette (Loyola Academy) IL, 6'3 Kelvin Davis from Waterbury (Sacred Heart) CT, and 6'6 Reshaiwne Bowers from Bowers (Lovett) GA. The MVP in the Top 40 All-Star Game was 6'10 Andrew Morrison from New Haven (Wilbur Cross) CT with eight points, six rebounds, four blocks, and numerous alters and the MVP in the Top 60 All-Star Game was 6'0 Jr Donnell Henley from Hamilton (McCorriston) NJ.  The two best sophomores in camp, according to Rubin, were 6'0 Soph Emery Outland from Barrington (St. Andrews) RI and 6'4 Soph Brett Johnson from Medford (Shawnee) NJ.  However, 5'8 Soph Mai Spann-Wilson from Burlington (Life Center) NJ, who finished with 10 points and four assists, was named MVP in the Top 20 Underclassmen All-Star Game, which included 9th and 10th graders exclusively.  The MVP of the Top 40 Underclassmen All-Star Game was 5'8 Soph Darius Lane from Jacksonville (Robert E. Lee) VA.

We stayed at Five-Star yesterday to attend the award ceremony for their loaded Pitt III session and the top player in camp was 6'8 Brad Buckman from Austin (Westlake) TX.  Not only was Buckman named the Most Outstanding Player of the Week and the Most Valuable Player in the NBA Playoffs, but he also was the leading scorer (19 points) for his team in the Orange-White All-Star Game and almost was named MVP in the game, despite the fact he was playing on the losing team.   Also having a big week was 6'6 Curtis Sumpter from Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin) NY, who was the leading scorer in the NBA averaging 15.6 ppg, MVP in the Orange-White All-Star Classic with 16 points and nine rebounds, and the winner of the Best Rebounder Award in camp.  The winner of the Best Playmaker, as well as the Sportsmanship Award, was 6'3 Jarrett Jack from Worcester (Academy) MA.   The Best Defender Award went to 6'1 Ray Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC.  The Most Promising Prospect is 6'9 Jr Nick Stafford from Worcester (Academy) MA, who is eligible for this award, because he is a repeat junior.   The Mr. Hustle Award went to 6'5 Andre Vanterpool from Manhasset (H.S.) NY, who also was the biggest sleeper in camp.  Vanterpool also was one of three winners of the Mr. Station 13 Award, along with 6'0 Josh Burr from Peachtree City (McIntosh) GA and 6'4 Michael Lang from Chicago (Gordon Tech) IL.  The Role Player of the Week was 6'7 Matt Fannin from Lakewood (H.S.) OH, 6'4 Robby Bostain from Snellville (Brookville) GA was the Most Improved Player for the Week, and Mr. Stations was 6'4 Raheem Moss from Columbus (Brookhaven) OH.  Sixth Man Award went to 6'5 Jr Romeo Travis from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH.  Especially noteworthy was the fact that 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappin (H.S.) NJ and 6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY, both of whom were among the most talented players in camp, didn't win any awards.  And they didn't deserve to, unless you count Fraser's second half performance in the Orange-White All-Star Game.  Hopefully this will serve as the same time of wake-up call that Sumpter received when he didn't make the Senior All-Star Game a week and a half ago at the adidas ABCD Camp.  The leading scorer in the Developmental League, which featured all the outstanding young players in camp was 6'1 Soph DeMarcus Nelson from Vallejo (H.S.) CA with 24.0 ppg.  That alone is very impressive, because only two players in the history of the camp have scored more points in the Developmental League.  Nelson also hit the trifecta by being named MVP in the Playoffs, Most Outstanding Player for the Week in the Developmental League, and MVP in the All-Star Game with 20 points.  Comparisons to North Carolina's Ronald Curry may also be in order, as Nelson also is a tremendous quarterback on the gridiron.  And North Carolina already is right at the top of his list of favorite schools, along with Arizona, California, Duke, and UCLA.  Other major award winners in the Developmental League were 5'10 Soph Pat  Doherty from Scranton (Prep) PA, who was named Best Defender; 5'9 Soph Justin Dick from Cheshire (Academy) CT, who was named Best Playmaker; 6'0 Soph Brandon Johnson from Orlando (Edgewater) FL, who was Mr. Hustle; and 6'4 Frosh Jamelle Cornley from Columbus (Brookhaven) OH, who the Best Rebounder.  Cornley also was the only freshman named to the player in the Developmental All-Star Game and was one of the better players in the game.  The Role Player of the Week was 6'0 Soph D.J. Fritz from Forestville (Bishop McNamara) MD, Mr. Stations went to 5'8 Soph Jeremy Jones from Galena Park (H.S.) TX, and 6'9 Soph Jeffrey Salovski from Bristol (Central) CT was the Most Improved.  Two other players from the Developmental League who have to be mentioned are 6'9 Soph Peter Prowitt from McLean (Potomac) VA and 6'2 Soph Dwight O'Neil from Fresno (Washington Union) CA.  As a matter of fact, after Nelson we thought Prowitt and O'Neil were the two best players in the league.  Prowitt is a skilled white kid with good hands, surprisingly shot blocking ability, and great post moves for somebody so big and so young.  O'Neil is a big-time athlete who looks and plays a lot like former UCLA player Toby Bailey and current UCLA player Ray Young.  The leading scorer in the NCAA, which the league primarily for juniors, was a tie between 6'5 Mike Duncan from Cleveland (Catholic) OH and 6'1 Jr Joel Whymer from Port Huron (North) MI, both of whom averaged 16.1 ppg.  The MVP in NCAA All-Star Game was 6'3 Ben Rhoda from Centerville (H.S.) OH with 20 points, 11 rebounds, and four blocks.   Rhoda also was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Week in the NCAA.  The Playoff MVP was 6'5 Jr Luke Owings from Washington (Gonzaga) DC.   The Best Defender was 5'9 Mike Mott from Sto-rox (McKees Rocks) PA, the Best Playmaker was 5'11 Jr Grant Urbanski from Brecksville (H.S.) OH, and the Best Rebounder was 6'4 Jr Eric Hart from Westchester (St. Joseph's) IL.  Mr. Hustle went to 5'10 Jr Kenny Burke from St. Louis (Cardinal Ritter) MO, the Role Player of the Week was 6'1 Jr Eric Earnhart from West Liberty (H.S.) OH, the Most Improved was 6'2 Sean Fine from Milburn (H.S.) NJ, and 5'9 Jr Jim Tucker from Johnstown (Richland) PA took home Mr. Stations. 

Saturday, July 21, 2001

After a last ditch effort failed to lure 6'4 Ricardo Billings from Detroit (Rogers) MI away from Ohio State a week ago, it looks like Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo has landed two players that were leaning towards other schools right up until the 11th hour.  If you will recall, early in week 6'7 Delco Rowley from Indianapolis (Arlington) IN picked the Spartans over Ohio State and Iowa.   Then, two days ago 6'4 Maurice Ager from Detroit (Crockett) MI followed suit.  Ager is an especially important commitment for Michigan State, because his commitment helps stop the flow of Michigan talent to the University of Missouri.  Remember, two years ago the Tigers stole 6'9 Arthur Johnson from Detroit (Pershing) MI and 6'4 Rickey Paulding from Detroit (Renaissance) MI.  Then, a year ago Missouri also landed 6'9 Robert Whaley from Benton Harbor (H.S.) MI and 6'9 Jeff Ferguson from Benton Harbor (H.S.) MI.  Speaking of Whaley, who has had more than his share of off the court problems in the last year, he now appears to be heading to West Virginia.  Two other late additions from the Class of 2002 that our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson has made us aware of are 6'2 Marcus Bennett from Detroit (Renaissance) MI to the University of Michigan and 6'9 Thomas Soltau from Denmark to Northwestern.  Bennett promises to be a role player, but Johnson likes Soltau's potential.  "He's the perfect fit for the Northwestern system," says Johnson, who saw Soltau last July at Five-Star.  "He's a 6'9 power forward who can step out and stroke the three."  Johnson also tells us that Penn State has added another commitment from 6'10 Robert Summers from Gahanna (Lincoln) OH and it will be especially interesting to see will be right on this one.   Bob Gibbons of All-Stars Sports has gone on record saying that Summers has Terrence Morris-like skills.  However, Johnson thinks Summers is more of project, who is at least two or three years away from contributing at the Big-10 level.  And apparently a lot of big time schools agree with Johnson, as Robert Morris and Hampton were the only other schools to offers Summers to-date.  Penn State also recently landed 6'1 Brandon Cameron from Gary (West Side) IN about a week ago and, as a result, are believed to be one of the favorites for 6'10 Chris Hunter from Gary (West Side) IN.  We also have confirmed that Marquette has gotten a verbal commitment from 6'9 Steve Novak from Brown Deer (H.S.) WI, who is one of the best 3-point shooters nationally in class and, as a result, a top 100 senior nationally after his performance at the adidas ABCD Camp, and 6'2 Travis Smith from Rancho Santa Margarita (Santa Margarita) CA has picked the University of San Diego.  We're also still waiting on 6'3 Bracy Wright from The Colony (H.S.) TX to make it official for Indiana University.

6'7 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH and 6'10 Michael Thompson from New Lenox (Providence) IL both failed to show up at Five Star Pitt III this week, but thanks to a lot of hard work put in by Stu Lash, who is the marketing and recruiting director for the Five-Star Basketball Camp, during the last year, this session turned out to be the most talented Pittsburgh-session since the mid-90's.   The two biggest names in camp were 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC and 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ, but both were slowed by injuries in the Orange-White All-Star Game last night.  Instead, 6'6 Curtis Sumpter from Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin) NY, 6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY, 6'8 Brad Buckman from Austin (Westlake) TX, and 6'9 Jr Nick Stafford from Worcester (Academy) MA were last night's heroes.  Sumpter, who has played extremely well since the adidas ABCD Camp, where was played so poorly that he wasn't named to play in the Senior All-Star Game, was named the MVP in the Orange-White Classic last night.   However, he was not the leading scorer or the best player in the game for our money.  Instead, Stafford was the high scorer with 20 points and Buckman was the best player.  However, Buckman, who brought the house down with earthshattering dunk after earthshattering dunk, played on the losing team.  Buckman didn't play well earlier in the summer at the adidas ABCD Camp, but he convinced us last night that he's a legitimate top 100 senior nationally.  He also reminds our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson of Troy Murphy, although Buckman doesn't have the outside shooting touch that Murphy possesses.  Fraser didn't do much earlier in the week or in the first half of the game last night, but after he got dunked on by Buckman a number times, he apparently woke up and scored all but four of his 17 points in the second half.  Fraser also had nine rebounds and four blocked shots.  Speaking of rebounding, the leading rebounder in the game was 6'5 Alex Carmona from Troy (H.S.) OH.  However, Carmona, who is best described as a great athlete and relentless warrior, grabbed most of his 11 boards and scored most of his 11 points early in game.  The biggest sleeper in game was 6'5 Andre Vanterpool from Manhasset (H.S.) NY, who prior to coming to camp had only on serious scholarship offer from St. Francis-NY.  Vanterpool is an incredible athlete, tenacious defender, and terrific slasher.  This was especially evident in the all-star when he executed a dazzling 360-degree dunk in the all-star, which brought the house down.  Vanterpool also is an incredible shot blocker for his size and is extremely active inside.   However, his lack of size, strength, and outside shooting are question marks.   Also showing improvement during the week were 6'7 Jr Omari Israel from Wheaton (Good Counsel) MD and 5'7 Andrew Lavender from Columbus (Brookhaven) OH.  The impressive thing about Lavender, besides being an excellent ball handler, was that all week his team increased its lead whenever he entered the game and decreased it when he was on the bench.  Israel, who had 14 points and nine rebounds in the Orange-White All-Star Game, finally is starting to become more aggressive and comfortable playing inside.  The biggest disappointment in the All-Star Game was 6'3 Jarrett Jack from Worcester (Academy) MA, who had 11 points, four assists, and nine turnovers.  Enough said!

Wednesday, July 18, 2001, Thursday, July 19, 2001, and Friday, July 20, 2001

I was just about finished with our write-up on the NIKE All-American Camp on Wednesday afternoon and looking forward to making my appearance at Eastern Invitational at the College of New Jersey.   I was right down to the last line of the last paragraph when my computer screen went blank.  The same thing had happened two days earlier, but it appeared to be only a temporary problem after taking it to Best Buy on Monday evening.  However, this time the computer technican informed me that my computer was dead.  Fortunately the computer still had 11 months remaining on a three-year warranty, but unfortunately to fix it they would have to send it back to the company that made the computer.  In other words, they were going to hold my computer hostage for three weeks while it was being repaired.  Obviously this was totally unacceptable.  It also was becoming obviously that it was time to buy a new computer.  And since nothing I have ever done in terms of setting up computers has been easy, I purchased the new labtop in New Jersey on Thursday morning and, then, made an 11-hour drive home.  The plan was to give the new labtop to Dennis Branson, who is the person who had set up everything on my last computer and, as a result, speed up the process.  By noon today we were up, operational, and heading to Five-Star's loaded Pitt III session.  All this important to tell you, because we now have a 3-1/2 year history of providing updating our web site on a daily basis.  As a matter of fact, this is only the third time we've experience computer problems that have caused us to be down for more than a day.   And hopefully the potential for this happening in the future will be reduced even further once we get my old labtop, which will serve as a very reliable back-up, back in early August.  Obviously we won't count the three days we've been down towards the time on your subscription.  We also will have to wait until August to get basic things like email operational.  Speaking of email, I am not the greatest at looking at email.  Eventually I see most of it, but if you need to get ahold of me and it is important, don't send me an email.  Instead, call me at 1-502-493-0043.  My calls are usually always forwarded when I'm on the road to my digit phone, so I'm usually never out of the loop, unless I'm totally occupied with a computer disaster, like the one we experienced the last three days.  Thanks for you patience and understanding with regards to this matter.  Normal operations will begin again tomorrow, which is when we provide you with highlights from the Five-Star Basketball Camp, as well as catch-up on any signings and commitments that have occured within the last several days.   We also will have the highlights from Eastern Invitational, which is being covered by our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor Allen Rubin, and re-write our NIKE All-American Camp Report this weekend.  So stay tuned! 

Tuesday, July 17, 2001

Our Texas Editor Wes Grandstaff wanted to make sure I knew that Team Texas had won the NIKE Peach Jam in Augusta, GA and right now he looks like a genius, because he's the guy who told us last winter how strong the Dallas, TX area was in the Class of 2002.  If you will recall, the Texas Blue Chip All-Stars also finished second over the weekend in the Three Stripes Classic at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.  In other words, two teams for Dallas, TX were playing for the champion in two of the premier tournaments of the summer over the weekend.   And two other Dallas-area teams - the Ft. Worth Lions and the Team Texas Select - were also in the final four of the Great American Shootout.  Getting back to the NIKE Peach Jam, apparently 6'3 Bracy Wright from The Colony (H.S.) TX was as good in Augusta, GA as he was bad a week earlier at the NIKE All-American Camp in Indianapolis, IN.  Not only did Wright take home tournament honors, but he scored 17 points in the championship game, as Team Texas knocked off B.A.B.C.(Boston Amateur Basketball Club) in the championship game.  Ironically these two teams featured two players who likely will be teammates next year at Indiana University.  If you will recall, 6'2 Marshall Strickland from Sykes (South Carroll) MD, who was ranked #15 by the HOOP SCOOP at the NIKE All-American Camp, committed to Indiana on the final day of camp last week.  And Wright is expected to make it official for the Hoosiers any day now.  Getting back to Team Texas' impressive 57-55 victory in the championship at the NIKE Peach Jam, the other big hero was 5'11 Bryan Hopkins from Dallas (Lincoln) TX, who played great defense, run the show and dished the ball, and shot the heck out of it.  As a matter of fact, he hit six 3-pointers in one game.  As a result, his list, which currently has Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, SMU, and Texas being mentioned as the leader, promises to get longer before it gets shorter.  Also playing extremely well for Team Texas were 6'10 Alou Kane from Dyke (Blue Ridge School) TX, 6'5 Shelton Johnson from Arlington (Oak Ridge) TX, and 6'4 Josh Washington from Lubbuck (Monterey) TX.   Right now Texas Tech appears to be the leader for Washington, but this athletic wing forward still appears to be wide open, as a lot of other schools making a strong push.  Johnson, who does all the dirty work inside, but down the road should be able to develop into a wing forward, has Tulsa, SMU, New Mexico, Boston College, and Colorado all high on his list.  Kane, who finished ranked #4 among centers at the NIKE All-American Camp, is getting the most interest from schools like Clemson, Boston College, and SMU. 

It looks like Ohio State and Michigan State are both 1-1 for players they were recruiting who made verbal commitments yesterday.  It comes as no surprise that 6'4 Ricardo Billings from Detroit (Rogers) MI, who is ranked #57 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, has picked Ohio State over Michgian State.  Not only have the Buckeyes been there the longest, but sources close to Billings tell us that this one has been done for some time.  Reggie Tisdale, the editor and publisher of Indiana Basketball News, informs us that 6'7 Delco Rowley from Indianapolis (Arlington) IN, who is ranked #99 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, has picked Michigan State over Iowa and Ohio State.   Rowley is a physical specimen and a good athlete for his size. But he's no Zach Randolph.  Not only does he not have the offensive skills and agility around the basket that Randolph showed in high school, but he also is not as tough as Randolph.   And that's the key for Rowley.  If the light ever clicks on and he ever takes his game to a higher intensity level, the sky could be the limit.  Our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson tells us that the University of Maryland has added another verbal commitment in 6'7 Nik Caner-Medley from Cape Elizabeth (Deering) ME, who is ranked #97 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP.   Actually that might be too high based on Caner-Medley's peformance at the adidas ABCD Camp, but down the road it might turn out to be too low based on head coach Gary Williams past history of taking players that were underrecruited in high school and developing them into great college players (i.e. Juan Dixon).  Donnie Wilkie, who is the Tournament Director for the City of Palms Classic, knows where 6'5 Antonio Lawrence from Jacksonville (Jackson) FL is heading next.  We say that, because Fresno (San Joaquin) CA will be Lawrence's third high school in four years.   It also will be the 14th different school he's attended during the last 14 years.

Monday, July 16, 2001

Throughout the week during the adidas ABCD Camp we provided you with our updated player rankings on a daily basis, but only in the last day have been able to find the time to add the box scores from both the Senior and Underclassmen All-Star Games, the top 10 statistical leaders in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, blocks, field goal percentage, 3-point field percentage, and free throw percentage, and  some of thoughts and comments about the camp, including insight into why particular players were ranked a certain way.  You can get all this by clicking on adidas ABCD Camp and you might want to make a copy of it for your personal use for future reference.   Also noteworthy is the fact that our rankings are based primarily on camp performance and not college and/or pro potential.  As a matter of fact, in most cases we don't need to attend the camp to know where the top players should be rated and/or what their potential is down the road.  In other words, what you do in camp is important.   However, this is not the case with many of the rankings provided by our competitors.  The best example is by Frank Burlison of www.foxsports.com, who ranked 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC as the #2 player in camp.  Burlison, who is regarded as one of the top people in the field, could have done that before the camp ever started or if Randolph had never played a minute all week.  But there is no way Burlison's ranking is based on what Randolph did at the NIKE All-American Camp.   First of all, Randolph was slowed by a nagging injury and, as a result, had no shot at being one of the best players in camp no matter how hard he tried.  Second, Randolph wanted no part of 6'9 Amare Stoudemire from Orlando (Cypress Creek) FL in their head-to-head match-up.  Therefore, it is obvious that Burlison's rankings are not reflective of what happened at camp.  However, most people don't understand this, which must be why there has been so much confusion regarding how players like Randolph, 6'8 Sean May from Bloomington (North) IN, and 6'3 Bracy Wright from The Colony (H.S.) TX all played last week at NIKE.  The party line is that they all played well, but May got worse as the week wore on and Wright had several games where he hardly even scored.  Certainly Randolph, May, and Wright all should be ranked among the top players in their class nationally.  But to rank them among the top players at the NIKE All-Amercian Camp not only is very inaccurate, but it also sends a terrible message to these kids.  It also was a big part of the problem a year ago with 7'0 Tyson Chandler from Compton (Dominguez) CA, 6'11 Kwame Brown from Brunswick (Glynn Academy) GA, and 6'11 Eddy Curry from South Holland (Thornwood) IL.  The message being no matter how bad you play, it's alright, because you're one of the very elite players nationally and, as a result, likely to go high in the NBA Draft sometime in the not too distant future.  We'll have more on the NIKE All-American Camp, as well as some comparisons between the top players at both camps in another day or so.   However, our rankings of the NIKE All-American Camp are final and worth comparing to our competitors.  Remember, we rank the players the old-fashioned way.  We make them earn it!

Saturday, July 14, 2001, and Sunday, July 15, 2001

The Texas Blue Chip All-Stars jumped out to a 13-0 lead against the Long Island Panthers earlier today in the championship at the Three Stripes Classic at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.  But thanks to the efforts of 6'6 Curtis Sumpter from Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin) NY, who finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, 6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY, who had 18 points and nine points, 6'9 Jr Charlie Villanueva from Blairstown (Blair Academy) NJ, who had 18 points and 10 points, and 6'3 Taquan Dean from Neptune (H.S.) NJ, who chipped in with 15 points, the Panthers came back and to emerge with a 68-63 victory in the championship game.   For their efforts Sumpter, Fraser, and Villanueva were named tri-MVP of the tournament.  Also named to the all-tournament team were 6'3 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, 6'10 Chris Bosh from Dallas (Lincoln) TX, 6'9 Ike Diogu from Garland (H.S.) TX, 6'7 Allen Morill from Arlington (Sam Houston) TX, 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC, 6'10 Major Wingate from Florence (Wilson) SC, 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ, 6'1 Allan Ray from Bronx (St. Raymond's) NY, 6'7 Francisco Garcia from Cheshire (Academy) CT, 6'9 Travis Outlaw from Starkville (H.S.) MS, 6'10 Paul Davis from Rochester (H.S.) MI, 6'8 Antione Wright from Groton (Lawrence Academy) MA, 6'8 Chris Taft from Brooklyn (Xaverian) NY, 6'8 Jackie Butler from McComb (H.S.) MS, 6'0 Tre Kelly from Washington (Dunbar) DC, 6'3 Donald Wilson from Los Angeles (Dorsey) CA, 6'6 Spencer Ford from Scotlandville (H.S.) LA, 6'1 Dan Oglesby from Hamden (Hall) CT, 6'2 Eric Wilkins from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA.  Especially noteworthy is the fact that Sumpter and Wingate, both of whom didn't play well enough to make the all-star game at the adidas ABCD Camp earlier this week, more than redeemed themselves in this tournament.  So did Butler, who edged out 6'8 Soph Mike Williams from Camden (Wilcox Central) AL as the selection from the Southeast Raptors on the all-tournament team, and 6'9 James Augustine from New Lenox (Lincoln Way) IL.  Unfortunately the same thing can't be said about 6'11 Sani Ibrahim from Winchendon (School) MA, 6'2 Chadd Moore from Huntsville (Lee) AL, and 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ, all of whom have not lived up to their press clippings so far this summer.  As a matter of fact, Cooke, who missed both the first and last day of the tournament, hasn't been the same since he got out played by 6'6 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary's) OH on Tuesday at the adidas ABCD Camp.  One of the best 3-point shooters in the tournament was 6'4 Britton Thomas from Gastonia (Ashbrook) NC, who is currently ranked #169 overall and #32 at the 2-guard spot nationally by the HOOP SCOOP.  But he might be better than that, especially if he gets bigger and stronger and continues to gain confidence while playing against the top high school players in the nation this summer.  Right now Furman, East Carolina, and Virginia Tech are the only ones showing a lot of interest in Thomas.   Looking back on it, we probably should have had 6'5 Shawn Harris from Fork Union (Military) VA a little higher on our list from the adidas ABCD Camp.   Not only is an excellent athlete and defender who is like a jack-of-all-trades, but he also impressed us with his outside shooting.  As a result, we think he will have a big year in prep school next season.  We also really liked 6'3 Jason Olive from Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin) NY.  Not only is Olive a big time athlete, but he's a pretty good outside shooter and very active in the open court.  He also is an excellent rebounder for his size.  Unfortunately academics may be a question and, as a result, junior college and/or prep school may be in his future.  And what about 6'0 Jamo Belfor from Mt. Vernon (H.S.) NY, who stepped in at point guard to replace 6'1 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL, who was a no-show for the Illinois Fire?  He should be a steal for Hofstra, Iona, or Dayton, all of whom are showing a lot of interest.  Our favorite player from a well-balanced Baltimore Select Team was 6'4 Gary Neal from Towson (Calvert Hall) MD.  He too is a big time athlete and an excellent 3-point shooter.  Speaking of well-balanced teams without a great player, the Illinois Fire advanced all the way to the championship game in the American Tournament, which featured all the teams that finished in the middle of the tournament.   Also falling into this category were the Los Angeles Rockfish and DC Assault, both of whom advanced all the way into the semi-finals before losing to the Long Island Panthers and Texas Blue Chip, respectively, in the winner's bracket.  A special thanks to Three Stripes Classic Tournament director Gary DeCesare, who in his first attempt has made this one of the premier events of the entire summer, as well as the #1 place to be right after the adidas ABCD and NIKE All-American Camps.

Both our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson and Michigan Editor Steve Bell have informed me that 6'4 Ricardo Billings from Detroit (Rogers) MI, who was ranked #57 nationally in the rsing senior class prior to the start of the summer camp season, has a press conference scheduled for Monday and is expected to pick either Ohio State of Michigan State.   Neither seems to know for sure which school will win out, but Bell thinks the odds are in favor of the Buckeyes, because they've been there the longest and the strongest.   However, the fact that Billings and 6'4 Maurice Ager from Detroit (Crockett) MI are close friends and, as a result, have expressed a desire to attend the same school, seems to favor the Spartans.  If you will recall, Michigan State is the only school that appears to have a realistic chance at getting both players. Reggie Tisdale, the editor and publisher of Indiana Basketball News, as well as a former legendary AAU coach in the state of Indiana, called to make us aware of the fact that 6'0 Brandon Cameron from Gary (West Side) IN has made a verbal commitment to Penn State.  This is an interesting commitment, because Cameron could be the carot that helps get his teammate - 6'9 Chris Hunter from Gary (West Side) IN - to also pick the Nittany Lions.  However, we're not sure Cameron is good enough to tie up a scholarship in order to help land Hunter.  And after the disappointing spring and summer Hunter has had to-date, we also have to question whether Hunter is ready to make an immediate impact in the Big-10.  Several other verbal commitments may be forthcoming in the not too distant future.  We're talking about 6'6 Curtis Sumpter from Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin) NY and 6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY, both of whom may be a lot closer to picking the University of North Carolina than a lot of people realize.  And if this does indeed happen, the Tar Heels would be right up there along with Duke and Florida with four players already in the fold.  If you will recall, Duke already has commitments from 6'4 J.J. Redick from Roanoke (Cave Spring) VA, 6'10 Michael Thompson from Providence (New Lenox) IL, 6'7 Lee Melchionni from Ft. Washington (Germantown Academy) PA, and 6'1 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL and Florida has landed 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI, 6'4 Rashid Al-Kaleem from Charlestown (H.S.) MA, 6'5 Matt Walsh from Ft. Washington (Germantown Academy) PA, and 6'8 Mario Boggan from Chatham (Hargrave Military) VA.  Yes, we are counting Boggan, because he's told the Florida coaching staff that he plans to become a Gator.  However, there is still some confusion whether this commitment is official, as some of the people around Boggan want him to go through the recruiting process.  North Carolina also has two other players already in the fold in 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC and 6'4 Rashad McCants from New Hampton (Prep) NH.  According to Gary Charles, who is the head coach of the Long Island Panthers, North Carolina is the favorite, Villanova is second, and Connecticut, St. John's, and Virginia are also still in the hunt for Sumpter.  Charles also tells us that North Carolina and St. John's are the co-favorites for Fraser, but he also mentions Connecticut, Villanova, and Syracuse.   Charles also says North Carolina and St. John's as the leaders for 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ.  But he also doesn't rule out the possibility that Cooke will go straight to the NBA out of high school next year.  The leader for 6'4 Tim Doyle from Oyster Bay (St. Dominic) NY is Northwestern, but Auburn, Drexel, Northeastern, Hartford, and Princeton are also showing interest.  Central Connecticut State, Hartford, Niagara, and Coppin State are involved with 6'3 Aubin Scott from Hempstead (H.S.) NY.  La Salle appears to be the leader over Iona, Siena, and Coppin State for 5'9 Marvin McCullough from Bronx (All Hallows) NY.  The early list for 6'9 Jr Charlie Villanueva from Blairstown (Blair Academy) NJ includes St. John's, North Carolina, Seton Hall, Syracuse, UCLA, Georgetown, and Illinois.  Michigan, Miami-FL, and Georgia Tech are all in the hunt for 6'10 Chris Bosh from Dallas (Lincoln) TX, whose value went through the roof at the adidas ABCD Camp earlier this week.  But the smart money appears to be on Florida.  Arizona State is still way out in front for 6'9 Ike Diogu from Garland (H.S.) TX, but Mitch Malone, the director of the Texas Bluechip All-Stars, tells us that Seton Hall, Miami-FL, and Baylor are also still in the hunt.  Arizona State, New Mexico State, Houston, Miami-FL, Baylor, Seton Hall are involved with 6'7 Allen Morill from Arlington (Sam Houston) TX.  Our Georgia Editor Linzy Davis tells us that Michigan head coach Tommy Amaker and assistant coach Charles Ramsay were at the Team Georgia practice this afternoon to see 6'8 Almany Thiero from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC, who finished ranked #41 overall and #8 at the power forward position at the NIKE All-American Camp earlier this week.   So was the entire Memphis coaching staff and, as a result, it appears safe to say Michigan and Memphis are the leaders for this athletic power forward who is quickly become a high major recruiting priority.

Friday, July 13, 2001

Auburn has been the heavy favorite for 6'1 Chadd Moore from Huntsville (Lee) AL for almost a year now, but it looks like the Tigers are suddenly out of the picture and, as a result, Georgia, Cincinnati, and Georgetown are all making a strong push.  The smart money might be on Cincinnati.   Remember, when Bearcats head coach Bobby Huggins, who made sure he watched all of Moore's games when he was at both the adidas ABDC Camp and the Three Stripes Classic at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, focuses on a particular player, he has a history of getting his man.  Huggins also may be on the verge of getting the assistant coach he really wants, despite the fact that Auburn assistant Mike Wilson has already turned down the job twice.  As a matter of fact, Huggins and Wilson were seen sitting by themselves last night watching the 8:00 PM game on Court #1 between the Southeast Raptors and the Juice All-Stars.  They also appeared to be having a serious conversation last night after the evening session was over in the bar at the Marriott.   Although we can only speculate on what might have been said, we're guessing that this time Huggins has made Wilson an offer that he can't refuse.   Remember, Huggins has not hired an assistant coach since Mick Cronin left to become the associate head coach at Louisville in April and, as a result, the speculation regarding who Huggins might hire has been a hot topic of conversation this spring.  Also don't forget that Wilson is one of the best recruiters in the business and he had done most of the work on Moore during the last year.  Another interesting twist to the story involves Wilson's relationship with Cronin.  They've been best friends for years, which is especially interesting after Cronin's surprising exit from Cincinnati.  If you will recall, Huggins was less than thrilled when Cronin left.   We also have confirmed that UNC-Charlotte has gotten a verbal commitment from 6'6 Vincent Grier, who will be a 5th year player at Raleigh (Bonner) NC and 6'9 Eric Williams from Wake Forest (Rolesville) NC has made it official for Wake Forest.   It also looks like there are also several bogus verbal commitments that have been reported on the internet, like 6'1 Michael Ford from Macon (Northeast) GA picking Connecticut and 6'9 Sani Ibrahim from Winchendon (School) MA going to Memphis.  Atlanta Celtics head coach Wallace Prather was especially surprised when we asked him about Ibrahim, but he seemed to like the thought of Ibrahim and Stoudemire, who committed to Memphis five months ago, playing together down the road.   But he thought it would more likely happen again someday in the NBA.   If you will recall, Stoudemire played for the Celtics in a tournament in June in Atlanta.   Speakingof Stoudemire, we also have heard that his commitment to Memphis may not be as solid as everybody thinks.  However, even if that is true, it may not matter, as Stoudemire is expected to go straight from high school into the NBA Draft next spring.   And he may have to, especially if the rumors are true about the nature of show that HBO is supposed to air on Monday, July 16th, featuring Stoudemire.

Thursday, July 12, 2001

The verbal commitments just seem to keep coming in at a record pace and now one of the top junior college players - 6'9 Jaime Lloreda from Dixie (JC) UT - has gotten into the act.  That's right!  You can write it down for LSU.  Lloreda, who helped lead Dixie Junior College to a #1 ranking most of last season, as well as a final four finish in the National Junior College Tournament in March, has picked the Tigers.  Not only is Lloreda a physical specimen and dominant force inside, but he also is the perfect complement to LSU's most recent recruiting class, which was ranked #8 nationally this spring and featured 6'9 Shawnson Johsnon from Lee (JC) TX, 6'8 Thomas Davis from Kilgore (JC) TX, 6'4 Marcus Spears from Baton Rouge (Southern Lab) LA, 6'5 Antonio Hudson from Grambling (Lab) LA, 6'4 Michael Clayton from Baton Rouge (Christian Life) LA, and 6'2 Xavier Whipple from Irwinton (Wilkinson County) GA.  And it would have been ranked even higher, if 6'7 Kedrick Brown from Okaloosa-Walton (JC) FL, who was one of the top two or three junior college players in the nation last season, hadn't opted to put his name into the NBA draft this spring.  Remember, Brown signed with the Tigers last fall.  This also could prove to be significant, because LSU also is in the hunt for 6'10 Kevin Young from Berkshire (Academy) FL, which is where Lloredo attended high school before he went the junior college route.  Also Lloreda and Young are good friends, so the possibility of a package has to exist.  Young isn't currently ranked among our top 100 nationally, but he is a physical specimen with a tremendous upside.  So that could change real fast, as he continues to get excellent coaching and plays in more of a team setting.  We also have confirmed that the rumor about 6'4 Jr Rodrick Stewart from Seattle (Rainier Beach) WA and 6'4 Jr Lodrick Stewart from Seattle (Rainier Beach) WA both committing to North Carolina was exactly that - a great rumor.  As a matter of fact, Adam Gorney, a college student at Penn State who has emerged into one of the HOOP SCOOP's most valuable contributors at the adidas ABCD Camp during the last several summer, talked with one of the Stewart twins and he confirms the fact that they both like the Tar Heels.  But as of yet a scholarship offer by North Carolina head coach Matt Doherty has not been forthcoming.  And even if Doherty does offer them both a scholarship, it's still a little early to be picking a college.   If you will recall, the Stewart's a only rising juniors. 

What 5'11 Sebastian Telfair from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY did last night in the Underclassmen All-Star Game at the adidas ABCD Camp was the nothing short of spectacular.  Telfair was ranked #5 overall in camp going into the final day and he had already either outplayed or more than held his own against all the top guards in camp, including 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC, 6'2 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL, 6'3 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI, 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ, and 6'2 Allan Ray from Bronx (St. Raymond's) NY.   As a matter of fact, the only player in camp who got the better of him was 6'6 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St.  Vincent-St. Mary) OH, who finished ranked as the consensus #1 player in camp.  However, Telfair even stole the show from James in the all-star game.  And after facing the best collection of players at one position that we've seen in any superstar oriented camp during the 18 years we've been in the business, it is easy to see why playing in the Underclassmen All-Star Game was like a stroll in the park for Telfair.  He didn't get into the game until two-thirds way through the first half, but by intermission Telfair had 20 points.  Not only was he using his incredible crossover dribble, tremendous speed and quickness, and explosive moves to shake his man and bury four out of five 3-pointers, but he also made more than his share of incredible moves to the basket and had several amazing passes that went for assists.  Further evidence of how well Telfair was playing comes from the fact that he kept getting the ball back after he'd bring the ball up the court and start the offense.  In other words, the college coaches, scouts, and fans in attendence weren't the only people who knew they were watching something great happen right before their eyes.  Yes, Telfair's own teammates were more than willing to take a backseat and let him be the star, which is rare in an all-star game.  Telfair cooled off in the second half, but he still finished with 29 points, seven assists, and 12-15 field goals.  He also played his way into the #2 spot in our rankings behind James, who took home MVP honors for his team.  James also had seven assists, as he showed why he is the best high school player in the nation regardless of class.  The third best player in the Underclassmen All-Star Game was either 6'8 Jr Leon Powe from Oakland (Vocational Tech) CA or 6'9 Jr Charlie Villanueva from Blairstown (Blair Academy) NJ.  Powe, who finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, also was the leading scorer (21.3 ppg) and leading rebounder (9.9 rpg) in camp, and, as a result, moves into our top five in camp in our final rankings from the adidas ABCD Camp.   Villanueva didn't play well when we saw him on the first day of camp.  As a matter, he didn't even make our list of the top players at his position.  However, Villanueva, who finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds in the Underclassmen All-Star Game, just got better and better as the week went on and, as a result, finished ranked #20 in camp, as well as #3 at the power forward position.  In contrast, the Senior All-Star Game was anti-climatic, but we still have to mention how well 6'9 DeAngelo Collins from Inglewood (H.S.) CA, 6'5 Antonio Lawrence from Jacksonville (Jackson) FL, 6'10 Chris Bosh from Dallas (Lincoln) TX, 6'7 Francisco Garcia from Cheshire (Academy) CT and 6'8 Antoine Wright from Groton (Lawrence Academy) MA all played.  Collins, who was named MVP for the winning Red Squad, finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds.  He also is ranked #8 overall in camp.  Lawrence, who was named MVP for the losing White Team, finished with 24 points, five rebounds, and five assists.  Speaking of Lawrence, we've confirmed that he will be transferring this fall to a small private school in the Fresno, CA area this fall, but nobody seems to be able to provide us with the name of the school, including his AAU coach Darren Matsubara.  Garcia, who verbally committed to Louisville several days ago, is another guy who just got better as he continued to gain confidence and the week wore on.  As a result, Garcia, who had 12 points and five rebounds in the Senior All-Star Game, finished ranked #14 in camp.  Wright scored 16 points in the Senior All-Star Game and finished ranked #18 in camp.  However, he wasn't ranked by the HOOP SCOOP prior to the summer, because he simply got lost in the shuffle due to the fact that he is a California kid at a prep school in the East.   However, he reinforced what we already thought when we saw Wright play last fall.   We're talking about a multi-dimensional athlete who will likely make money playing the game someday.  We also have published our final ranking of the top players from the NIKE All-American Camp, but are out of time, because we have to go to the gym for the start of the Three Striples Classic at Hoftstra University in Hempstead, NY.  So we will write more about both the NIKE and adidas Camps as time permits this weekend. 

Wednesday, July 11, 2001

Tip-off time for the Underclassmen All-Star Game is less than an hour away at the adidas ABCD Camp in Teaneck and this game promises to be just as good as the Senior All-Star Game, which will immediately follow.  The White Squad includes 5'11 Soph Sebastian Telfair from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY, 6'8 Soph Mike Williams from Camden (Wilcox Central) AL, 6'9 Jr Travis Outlaw from Starkville (H.S.) MS, 6'9 Jr Charlie Villanueva from Blairstown (Blair Academy) NJ, 6'10 Jackie Butler from McComb (H.S.) MS, 6'3 Jr Omar Wilkes from Los Angeles (Loyola) CA, 6'0 Soph Jason Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, 6'11 Jr Darryl Watkins from Paterson (Catholic) NJ, 6'2 Soph Earl Rigsby from Ft. Washington (National Christian) MD, 6'7 Soph Joshua Smith from Smyrna (Whitfield) GA, 6'3 Jr John Winston from Richmond (Salesian) CA, 6'0 Jr Vernon Hamilton from Chester (Thomas Dale) VA, and 6'3 Jr Arthur Bowers from Newark (Hodgson Vocational Tech) DE.  The Red Squad has 6'7 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH, 6'8 Jr Leon Powe from Oakland (Vocational Tech) CA, 6'9 Jr Chris Taft from Brooklyn (Xaverian) NY, 6'7 Jr Trevor Ariza from Los Angeles (Westchester) CA, 6'7 Jr Marcus Sikes from Middleburg (Notre Dame) VA, 6'4 Jr Marquis Webb from Paterson (Catholic) NJ, 6'0 Jr Darius Washington from Orlando (Edgewater) FL, 6'0 Soph Eric Price from Rockville (Montrose Christian) MD, 6'8 Soph Joey Cameron from Portland (Deering) ME, 6'0 Jr Dwayne Green from Creedmore (Faith Christian) NC, 6'3 Jr Jamarcus Ellis from Chicago (Westinghouse) IL, 6'2 Soph Jay Thomas from Aurora (West Aurora) IL, 6'6 Jr Richard Cobbs from Merino Valley (Canyon Springs) CA, and 6'8 Jr Will Sheridan from Hockessin Sanford) DE.  In the senior game the White Squad includes 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ, 6'10 Chris Bosh from Lancaster (H.S.) TX, 6'2 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL, 6'2 Chadd Moore from Huntsville (Lee) AL, 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ, 6'3 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, 6'5 Antonio Lawrence from Jacksonville (Jackson) FL,  6'11 Sani Ibrahim from Winchendon (School) MA, 6'7 Derek Burditt from Marrero (John Ehret) LA, 6'3 TaQuan Dean from Neptune (H.S.) NJ, 6'9 Steve Novak from Brown Deer (H.S.) WI, and 6'7 Nik Caner-Medley from Portland (Deering) ME.  The Red Squad has 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC, 6'9 DeAngelo Collins from Inglewood (H.S.) CA, 6'10 Ike Diogu from Garland (H.S.) TX, 6'7 Francisco Garcia from Cheshire (Academy) CT, 6'8 Antonie Wright from Groton (Lawrence Academy) MA, 6'8 Charles Davis from Selma (Southside) AL, 6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY, 6'2 Allan Ray from Bronx (St. Raymond's) NY, 6'2 Donnie McGrath from Somers (John F. Kennedy) NY, 6'5 Adam Haluska from Carroll (Community) IA, and 6'4 Shawn Harris from Fork Union (Military) VA.

We've got a 7:00 AM flight from Indianapolis, IN back to Newark, NJ, so we've been up all night in order to get the final rankings from the NIKE All-American Camp, as well as the rankings after Day III at adidas ABCD Camp, into your hands.  We also plan to have more on both camps as the day progresses, plus we will provide you with the highlights from the two all-star games tonight at the adidas ABCD Camp.  However, we do have to mention two things that happened yesterday.  We're talking about the knockouts that occured in the two big match-ups, as 6'9 Amare Stoudemire from Orlando (Cypress Creek) FL clearly got the best of 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC at NIKE, and 6'6 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH was far superior to 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ at adidas.  James had 24 points versus only nine for Cooke, but the icing on the cake came when James hit the game winning 25-footer.  As a result, James has done what great players are expected to do when they are challenged by the best.  He stepped and took his game to another level and, as a result, he clearly is the best high school player in the nation regardless of class.

Tuesday, July 10, 2001

This morning we told you that 6'7 Francisco Garcia from Cheshire (Academy) CT was the on the verge of making it official for the University of Louisville.  Well, write it down!  Also write it down for 6'2 Marshall Strickland from Sykes (South Carroll) MD for Indiana University.  We assume that the commitment by Strickland, who picked the Hoosiers over Maryland, Wake Forest, and Tennessee, will take the Hoosiers out of the picture for 6'1 Johnny Gilchrist from Virginia Beach (Salem) VA.  But, either way, Strickland is exactly what the doctor ordered for IU head coach Mike Davis.  We're talking about a great point guard, who can run the show, make his teammates better, and shot the three.   Strickland is also an excellent athlete, good ball handler and passer, and extremely smart both on and off the court.  And it appears to run in the family, as his older sister is an All-American at the University of Maryland and his younger sister is a 5'10, 13-year-old with tremendous potential.  Strickland, who is ranked #16 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, was the highest ranked point guard still available.   As a matter of fact, it is amazing how few of the top ranked point guards are still on the board.  If you will recall, 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC is already gone to North Carolina, 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI is already gone to Florida, 6'2 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL is already gone to Duke, 6'3 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX is already gone to Michigan, 5'11 Dee Brown from Maywood (Proviso East) IL is already gone to Illinois, 6'2 Gerry McNamara from Scranton (Bishop Hannan) PA is already gone to Syracuse, and now Strickland is gone to Indiana.  And if that weren't enough, 6'2 Jeff Horner from Mason City (H.S.) IA, who is committed to Iowa, 5'11 Mario Moore from Nashville (Antioch) TN, who is committed to Vanderbilt, 6'1 Chris Quinn from Dublin (Coffman) OH, who is committed to Notre Dame, and 5'9 Brandon Stockton from Glasgow (H.S.) KY, are also no longer available.  In other words, 11 of the 23 point gaurds listed among our top 100 are already off the board.  However, the depth at this position does help some, as 6'2 Chadd Moore from Huntsville (Lee) AL, 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ, 6'3 Randy Foye from Newark (East Side) NJ, 6'4 Jarrett Jack from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC, 6'4 Deron Williams from The Colony (H.S.) TX, 5'10 Bryan Hopkins from Dallas (Lincoln) TX, 6'1 Johnny Gilchrist from Virginia Beach (Salem) VA, 6'1 Chase Griffin from Redmond (Eastlake) WA, 6'1 Mike Lesma from Burlington (Life) NY, 6'1 C.J. Watson from Las Vegas (Bishop Gorman) NV, 6'0 Brandon Worthy from San Jose (Mitty) CA, and 6'0 Dedrick Finn from Newburgh (Castle) IN are all ranked among our top 100 and are all still available.  However, the most interesting thing we've heard today involves 6'4 Jr Rodrick Stewart from Seattle (Rainier Beach) WA and 6'4 Jr Lodrick Stewart from Seattle (Rainier Beach) WA, who are both rumored to be close to verbally committing to North Carolina.  We also expect 6'9 Kevin Cates from Marion (H.S.) IN, who is ranked #129 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, to verbally commit to Ball State in the near future.

Our New York City Editor Ron Naclerio was the first person to call and tip us off about the verbal commitment yesterday by 6'2 Allan Ray from Bronx (St. Raymond's) NY.  Ray, who is ranked #22 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, picked Villanova.  This should come as no surprise, because Ray's high school coach Gary DeCesare has strong ties to new Villanova head coach Jay Wright.  As a matter of fact, Wright offered DeCesare an administrative assistant position at Villanova this spring.   However, DeCesare turned it down.  Ray doesn't have the mentality of a pure point guard and isn't big enough to be the ideal 2-guard, but he's a scoring machine and, as a result, the next in a long line of great players produced by DeCesare at St. Raymond's.  This also is important, because Ray's verbal commitment brings the number of players in the Class of 2002 who have verbally committed to 37.  And several more appear to be just around the corner.  Yes, we're still waiting on 6'9 Eric Williams from Wake Forest (Rolesville) NC to make it official for N.C. State and a verbal commitment by 6'7 Francisco Garcia from Cheshire (Academy) CT to the University of Louisville is expected to happen as soon as today.  The Garcia commitment is very important, because he would give the Cardinals two players already in the fold in this recruiting class and, as a result, allow head coach Rick Pitino and his staff the opportunity to focus exclusively on big men.  In other words, the Cardinals are no longer looking at any perimeter players and, as a result, 6'4 Frosh Antwain Barbour from Wabash Valley (JC) IL, who led Elizabethtown (H.S.) KY to the Kentucky State High School Championship a year ago and Wabash Valley (JC) IL to the National Junior College Championship three-and-a-half months ago, will now have to look elsewhere.  Like either to the University of Kentucky, which had been the heavy favorite, until Pitino got the Louisville job, or perhaps even the NBA. 

We are finished with our ranking of the top players after Day II from both the adidas ABCD Camp and the NIKE All-American Camp and it appears that the cream is rising to the top in both camps, as our #1-ranked player at the adidas Camp is 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ, who is the #1-ranked player in the rising senior class by the HOOP SCOOP, and our #1-ranked player at the NIKE Camp is 6'9 Amare Stoudemire from Orlando (Cypress Creek) FL, who is ranked a close second on our national list of the top players in the Class of 2002 right behind Cook.  However, both will have serious challenges this afternoon.  That's right!  Cook will go head-to-head against 6'6 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH, who is ranked as the #1 rising junior nationally, as well as the consensus #1-ranked high school player in the nation regardless of class, and Stoudemire will face 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC, who is the #1-ranked senior All-Star Sports and Dave Telep, formerly of Rivals.com and now with Blue Chip Hoops.  And both James and Randolph have a lot to prove, because James has been up and down at adidas and Randolph still appears to be slowed down by his injuries.  Therefore, expect both James and Randolph to raise their level of intensity this afternoon or take a serious take a serious drop in our camp rankings.  The biggest story yesterday at the adidas ABCD Camp was the sensational effort turned in by 5'11 Soph Sebastian Telfair from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY, who outplayed both 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI and 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ yesterday and played 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC to a near draw the night before.  By far and away the deepest position at the NIKE Camp is was the overwhelming number of outstanding power forwards who are present in camp.  No, the power forward spot at NIKE isn't as strong the point guard position at adidas, but 6'9 Sheldon Williams from Midwest City (H.S.) OK, 6'7 Greg Brunner from Charles City (H.S.) IA, 6'8 Jr Ndudi Ebi from Houston (Westbury Christian) TX, 6'8 Yusef Baker from Orlando (Evans) FL, 6'9 Jr Ousmane Konate from Senegal, 6'8 Sean May from Bloomington (North) IN, 6'7 Delco Rowley from Indianapolis (Arlington) IN, 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC, 6'6 Elliott Poole from Chicago (Farragut) IL, and 6'8 Nicholas Kern from St. Louis (Vashon) MO all are ranked among our top 35 in camp.

Monday, July 9, 2001

At the conclusion of the first day at the adidas ABCD Camp there were two major stories.  The point guard play was even better than expected and the sophomore class appears to be far superior to the junior class.  Let's look first at the point guards.  5'11 Soph Sebastian Telfair from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY was sensational last night in his head-to-head match-up against 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC, but he still can't get rated any higher than #7 at his position.  However, he does check in at #11 overall camp.  And that really tells the tale, as this appears to be the deepest we can ever in our 18-years of covering the NIKE and adidas superstar oriented camps.  Felton is the #1 player in camp based on performance, but 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI was the scorer after the first day with 21.5 ppg.  He also was unstoppable against 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ in the evening session, although Ingram also got 20 points of his own.  We also thought 6'1 Gerry McNamara from Scranton (Bishop Hannan) PA was tremendous when we saw him in afternoon session, but he got edged out in his head-to-head encounter in the evening against 6'2 Chadd Moore from Huntsville (Lee) AL, who is the third leading scorer in camp with 20.0 ppg.  6'1 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL showed why he is the perfect fit for Duke, as he made his teammates better and was the best passer camp.   6'0 Soph Darius Washington from Orlando (Edgewater) FL was also sensational in the evening session, as he hit just about everything in sight and 6'3 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX did a great job of both passing and scoring.   As for the top sophomores in camp, can you believe that Telfair, Washington, and 6'8 Soph Mike Williams all are ranked among the top 20 players after the day?  Williams also checks tied as the #2 scorer in camp, as well as the #4-ranked rebounder with 9.0 rpg.  Also dominating the camp statistically after the first day was 6'10 Jr Kendrick Perkins from Beaumont (Ozen) TX, who was tied for second in scoring with Williams and Moore with 20.0 ppg and the leading rebounder in camp with 12.5 rpg.  However, Perkins was the only top ranked junior who wasn't a major disappointment on the first day.  Where were the Stewart twins?  Neither 6'4 Jr Rodrick and 6'4 Lodrick Stewart, both from Seattle (Rainier Beach) WA, did anything to distinguish themselves and 6'6 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH, who did play well in the afternoon, put it on cruise control in the evening session.  Maybe they've been reading their press clippings just like all the soft spoiled pampered big guys who went straight out of high school into the lottery of the NBA Draft this spring.  However, this doesn't seem to be the case for the rising senior class, as most of these guys still play hard and enjoy the competition.   The best example came after 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ totally abused 6'6 Curtis Sumpter from Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin) NY in the evening session, but wouldn't go home.  Instead, he went to court #1, which wasn't being used, and schoolled Duke's Chris Duhon and Dahntey Jones in separate one-on-one battles.  For our complete rankings of the top players at each position, as well as the top 50 players in camp after the first day, click on adidas ABCD Camp 2001.

Sunday, July 8, 2001

There were potentially three great match-ups this afternoon at the adidas ABCD Camp in Teaneck, NJ.  The first one would have been between 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI and 6'2 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL.  However, they weren't matched up against one another and for at least part of the game they weren't even in the game at the same time, as they were playing on opposite units.  The second big match-up was between 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ and 6'7 Carmelo Anthony from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA.  The first half went to Anthony, but in the second half Cooke took over, as his outside shot started dropping.   However, in the final analysis, it was almost too close to call.  And the same can be said about the match-up between 6'10 Sani Ibrahim from Winchendon (School) MA and 6'8 Jason Fraser from Amityville (H.S.) NY, as both players played fairly well, but neither seemed to be able to get an advantage.   Instead, the big story of the afternoon was the performance turned in by 6'6 Jr LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH, who hit 8-12 field goals en route to a 20-point performance.  In addition to the players already mentioned above, some of the other players who stood out and/or impressed us this afternoon were 6'4 Marcus Watkins from College Station (A&M Consolidated) TX, 6'3 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, 6'7 Matt Trannon from Flint (Northern) MI,   6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC, 6'8 Jr Travis Outlaw from Starkville (H.S.) MS, 6'2 Gerry McNamara from Scranton (Bishop Hannon) PA, 6'9 DeAngelo Collins from Inglewood (H.S.) CA, 6'9 Ike Diogu from Garland (H.S.) TX, 6'8 Charles Davis from Selma (Southside) AL, 6'3 Jr Omar Wilkes from Los Angeles (Loyola) CA, 5'9 Brandon Stockton from Glasgow (H.S.) KY, 6'2 Jamar Nutter from West Orange (Seton Hall Prep) NJ, 6'5 Soph Dwayne Day from Vidalia (H.S.) GA, 6'5 Maurice Perry from Shelby (Crest) NC, 6'0 Darius Washington from Orlando (Edgewater) FL, 6'5 Antonio Lawrence from Jacksonville (Andrew Jackson) FL, 6'10 David Padgett from Reno (H.S.) NV, 6'5 Shawn Witherspoon from Ovieda (H.S.) FL, and 6'4 John Winchester from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC.  

Our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson has the scoop on two more verbal commitments, both of which occured last night.  We talking about 6'5 J.R. Morris from Milwaukee (Washington) WI, who, as expected, announced that he plans to attend the University of Illinois, and 6'4 Rashid Al-Kaleem from Charlestown (H.S.) MA, who has made it official for the University of Florida.  Johnson also tells us to be watching for another verbal commitment by a top 100 player within the next 24 hours, but he has yet to tell us who it is.   However, if another verbal commitment is forthcoming, that would bring the number of rising seniors ranked among our top 100 nationally who have already verbally committed to 37.  If you will recall, 6'2 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL committed to Duke on Thursday.  That made the number 34.  The commitments by Morris and Al-Kaleem increase the number to 36.  Ironically, Morris is ranked #78 and Al-Kaleem is ranked #79 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP.

We won't get an official roster for the adidas ABCD Camp until right before the start of games at 2:00 PM today, but after watching the practices last night, it is easy to see that this camp is absolutely loaded at the top.  In attendance are 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ, 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC, 6'3 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI, 6'10 Sani Ibrahim from Winchendon (School) MA, 6'7 Carmelo Anthony from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, and 6'2 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL.  In other words, six of our top nine rising seniors are here.  Also present are all five of our top five rising juniors - 6'6 LaBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH, 6'11 Kendrick Perkins from Beaumont (Ozen) TX, 6'4 Jr Lodrick Stewart from Seattle (Rainier Beach) WA, 6'4 Jr Rodrick Stewart from Seattle (Rainier Beach) WA, and 6'10 Jr Jackie Butler from McComb (H.S.) MS - and our top three rising sophomores - 5'11 Soph Sebastian Telfair from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY, 6'8 Soph Mike Williams from Camden (Wilcox Central) AL, and 6'0 Soph Darius Washington from Orlando (Edgewater) FL.  The adidas ABCD Camp is especially loaded at the point guard position.  As a matter of fact, the six teams in one of the pools features Felton, Roberson, Dockery, 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ, 6'2 Allan Ray from Bronx (St. Raymond's) NY, and 5'11 Soph Sebastian Telfair from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY as their point guards.  So they will all get a chance to go head-to-head throughout the week. And that doesn't even include 6'2 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, 6'2 Chadd Moore from Huntsville (Lee) AL, and 6'3 Gerry McNamara from Scranton (Bishop Hannan) PA, all of whom are ranked among our top 20 rising seniors nationally and also are in the camp.  Especially noteworthy will be the Felton versus Roberson match-up on Tuesday afternoon.  Also Tuesday afternoon Cook and James will go head-to-head in a battle that might just determine who is the #1 player camp, as well as who will be the #1 player in the nation regardless of class.  

Our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor Allen Rubin continues to talk to players at the adidas ABCD Camp and some of the lists he's gotten are very interesting.  Villanova, Florida, Cincinnati, Tennessee, DePaul, Seton Hall, and Rutgers are all showing early interest in 6'3 Randy Foye from Newark (East Side) NJ.  Illinois, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and Maryland were all mentioned by 6'3 Deron Williams from The Colony (H.S.) TX.  Florida, Georgia Tech, Miami-FL, and Michigan are the leaders for 6'10 Chris Boch from Dallas (Lincoln) TX.  LSU, Mississippi, and Mississippi State make up the early list for 6'10 Jr Jackie Butler from McComb (H.S.) MS.  Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Georgia Tech, and UNC-Charlotte are the favorites for 6'8 Travis Garrison from Hyattsville (DeMatha) MD.  Showing the most early interest in 6'0 Jr Rayshawn Reed from Inglewood (H.S.) CA are UCLA, Syracuse, North Carolina, and Kansas.  Seton Hall, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Rutgers, Michigan, Tennessee, and Cincinnati are all in the hunt for 6'4 John Winchester from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC via Bayonne (Marist) NJ.  Duke, Florida, Cincinnati, and Texas are already being mentioned by 5'11 Soph Darius Washington from Orlando (Edgewater) FL, who currently is ranked as the #3 rising sophomore in the nation by the HOOP SCOOP.  Ranked just ahead of Washington in the sophomore class by the HOOP SCOOP is 6'8 Soph Michael Williams from Camden (Wilcox Central) AL.  His early list includes Alabama, North Carolina, Auburn, and Duke.  6'3 Jr Jamar Nutter from West Orange (Seton Hall) Prep) NJ likes North Carolina, Syracuse, Connecticut, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Clemson.  UNC-Charlotte, Maryland, Connecticut, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Wake Forest, and Clemson are all after 6'5 Vincent Grier, who will be a 5th year player next year at Durham (Bonner Academy) NC.  Also going the 5th year route at Fork Union (Military) VA will be 6'3 Shawn Harris.   His list includes East Carolina, Virginia Tech, Connecticut, and Virginia.   Kansas, Stanford, UCLA, Oregon State, St. Louis, New Mexico, Massachusetts and some Ivy League schools are interested in 6'5 Nate Carter from San Diego (Horizon) CA, who has 3.7 gpa.  Showing the most interest in 6'3 Quincy Douby from Brooklyn (Grady) NY are Hofstra, Villanova, Seton Hall, Massachusetts, and South Florida.  Michigan, Miami-FL, Massachusetts, Memphis, Seton Hall, Temple, Wake Forest, and Georgia Tech are all involved with 6'9 Eric Davis from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) VA via Camden (H.S.) NJ.  Marquette, Florida, Illinois, and North Carolina are the leaders for 6'9 Steve Novak from Brown Deer (H.S.) WI.  6'6 Seneca Collins form Duncanville (H.S.) TX likes Arizona, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.  The early favorites for 6'8 Jr Ivan Harris from Springfield (North) OH are Ohio State, Michigan State, North Carolina, and Cincinnati. 5'11 Jason McKinney from Inglewood (H.S.) CA likes UCLA, Southern Cal, Arizona, and St. John's.  Villanova, Stanford, Penn State, Vanderbilt, St. Joseph's are all showing interest in 6'11 Ted Skuchas from Ft. Washington (Germantown Academy) PA.  Oregon State, Oregon, Eastern Washington, and Nevada-Reno are showing the most interest in 6'0 Curtis Lincoln from Portland (Jefferson) OR.  The list for 6'8 Dan Oppland from St. Louis (Whitfield) MO includes Iowa State, Northwestern, Marquette, Yale, Valparaiso, and Columbia.  Maryland, Virginia, and Syracuse are the early favorites for 6'8 Jr Omari Isreal from Wheaton (Counsel) MD.  At the top of the list for 6'2 Charles Easterling from Hartford (Buckley) CT are Massachusetts, Cincinnati and Providence.  Michigan State, Florida State, Iowa State, Xavier, and Dayton are showing the most interest in 6'8 Alassane Koutate from Cuyahoga Falls (H.S.) OH. 

Saturday, July 7, 2001

It is amazing how many phone calls I have gotten recently from people in the mainstream media wanting to know about the ranking of young players.   Usually I give them the song and dance about how it's corrupting the game even further, but at the same time it's a lot of fun trying to project players two, three, and even four years before they will go through the recruiting process for college.  And that's exactly what we've done on our report, which includes our ranking of the Top 100 Players in the Class 2004, Top 14 Players in the Class 2005, and Top 10 Players in the Class 2006.   I want to also emphasize that I don't believe in going into too much depth with regards to players who are in the 7th and 8th and, as a result, our lists of the Classes of 2005 and 2006 are very short.  But rest assured every player mentioned can flat out play.  And if we don't know about somebody you think should be listed among one of these very elite groups, don't sweat about it, because we've got three or four to get it right.  As for the Class of 2004, it is very similar to the Class of 2002 in that there isn't much depth at the center position and it's very top heavy with point guards.  As a matter of fact, 10 of the top 20 players in this class play the one-spot.  Obviously 5'11 Soph Sebastian Telfair from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY is in a class by himself, but 6'0 Soph Darius Washington from Orlando (Edgewater) FL, 6'0 Soph Eric Price from Washington (Gonzaga) DC, 5'9 Soph Andre Allen from Memphis (Booker T. Washington) TN, 6'1 Jason Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, 6'0 Soph Sundiata Gaines from Briarwood (Archbishop Molloy) NY, 6'0 Soph Jay Thomas from Aurora (West) IL, 6'1 Soph Isaiah Swann from Rockville (Magruder) MD, 6'2 Soph Shawn Livingston from Peoria (Richwoods) IL, and 6'3 Soph Marques Cook from Sulfolk (Nansmooth River) VA are all outstanding players.  In contrast, the Class of 2005 and the Class of 2006 are starting off more like the Class of 2003, which is top heavy inside.  This is evident by the fact that four of the top six players - 6'10 Frosh Kendrick Johnson from Morton (H.S.) TX, 6'8 Frosh Luke Zeiller from Washington (Middle) IN, 6'7 Frosh Julius Powell from Hickory, NC, and 6'6 Frosh Fendi Onobum from Houston (O'Donnell) TX - in the Class of 2005 are either power forwards or centers and 6'7 Derrick Character from Scotch Plains, NJ and 7'0 Jason Bennett from Jacksonville (Arlington Country Day) FL, who ranks #1 and #2 in the Class of 2006, are already ridiculous for their size and age. 

Today is the check-in and practice day at the adidas ABCD Camp, so our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor Allen Rubin has been doing what he always does on this day - talk to the players and find out whatever he can about their recruiting.  The for 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (Anthony) NJ includes St. John's, Georgia Tech, Villanova, Connecticut, Boston College, Florida State, Seton Hall, Rutgers, and Mississippi State.  Louisville Auburn, Connecticut, UCLA, Miami-Fl, Michigan State, and St. John's are all high on the list of 6'6 Antonio Lawrence from Jacksonville (Jackson) FL.  UCLA, North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisville, and the NBA were mentioned by 6'11 DeAngelo Collins from Inglewood (H.S.) CA.   The favorites for 6'8 Jr Travis Outlaw from Starkville (H.S.) MS include Mississippi State, LSU, Iowa State, and Memphis.  Among those showing the most interest in 6'6 Derrick Byars from Memphis (Ridgeway) TN are Purdue, Miami-Fl, Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Kansas.  Florida State, Providence, Temple, St. Joseph, La Salle, Drexel, Villanova, Siena, and  Western Kentucky are all in the hunt for 6'3 Jr Mustafa Shakur from Wynnewood (Frirends Central) PA.   However, they all will have to wait an extra year, because he has been reclassified as a junior and, as a result, will be ranked on our 5th Year list a year from now.   Hawaii, North Carolina, UCLA, Miami-FL, and Connecticut are the early favorites for 6'6 Jr Bobby Nash from Honolulu (Iolani) HI.  Arizona State is the leader over Seton Hall, Baylor, Miami-FL, Texas Tech, and St. Louis for 6'9 Ike Diodu from Garland (H.S.) TX.  The schools mentioned by 6'7 Allen Morrill from Dallas (Sam Houston) TX are Seton Hall, Miami-FL, Arizona State, New Mexico State, Michigan, Texas, Texas Tech, and Connecticut.  6'9 John Ofoegby from San Antonio (Taft) TX has a wide variety of schools on his list., which includes UNC-Wilmington, Arkansas-Little Rock, Tulane, Southwest Texas State, Colorado, and Baylor.   Dayton, Boston College, Maryland, St. John's, Seton Hall, Stanford, and Texas are all in the hunt for 6'0 Mikail Malik from Washington (Spingarn) DC.   Southern Cal, Utah, Georgia Tech, Marquette, and a number of Ivy League schools are showing the most interest in 6'3 Tim Drisdom from Downey (Calvery Chapel) CA.  Among the schools that 6'10 James Lang from Mobile (South) AL likes are Alabama, Mississippi, Stanford, Duke, Cincinnati, but he says he's still open.   Seton Hall, Tulsa, St. John's, Southern Cal, UCLA, New Mexico, Oregon, and Boston College all appear to be interesting in 6'3 Ashanti Cook from Los Angeles (Westchester) CA.  Florida, Seton Hall, Syracuse, and North Carolina are already in the hunt for 6'7 Jr Demetrius Nichols from Barrington (St. Andrews) RI.   An extremely early list for 6'0 Soph Jason Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX includes Texas, Kansas, Michigan, North Caroina, and Seton Hall.  The schools mentioned by 6'5 Maurice Petty from Shelby (Crest) NC, who is an excellent student, as is evident by his 3.5 gpa, include Clemson, UCLA, Stanford, Harvard, and Yale.  Stanford, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Providence, Indiana, Ohio State, and Pennsylvania are recruiting 6'5' Dan Grunfeld from Glendale (Nicolet) WI.   The schools showing the most interest in 6'7 Antoine Wright from Groton (Lawrence Academy) MA are Connecticut, Tennessee, Virginia, Miami-FL, Texas A&M, Arizona State, and Missouri.  6'7 Melvin Buckley from South Holland (Thornwood) IL likes Michigan State, Arizona, Stanford, Marquette, and Purdue.   Arkansas, Cincinnati, Tennessee, LSU, Tulane, Louisiana Tech, Georgia State, and Northwestern make up a very interesting list for 5'11 Darrel Mitchell from St. Martinville (H.S.) LA.  Florida, Southern Cal, UCLA, Syracuse, Oregon, Seton Hall, and North Carolina are already involved with 6'7 Soph Trevor Ariza from Los Angeles (Westchester) CA.  Seton Hall, St. John's, Virginia Tech, Drexel, Rutgers, Georgia Tech, La Salle, Villanova, and Penn State were all mentioned by 6'3 Dominic Mejia from Voorhees (Eastern) NJ.  Providence, Temple, Georgia Tech, Michigan State, Southern Cal, and Minnesota have all showed interest in 6'4 Keon Kindred from Compton (Dominguez) CA.  Notre Dame and Connecticut are the two early favorites for 6'9 Soph Hassan Fofana, who has transferred from Ayer (H.S.) MA to Wooster (Holy Name) MA.  Rice, LSU, and Tennessee are recruiting 6'4 Marcus Watkins from College Station (A&M Consolidated) TX, but we think he's a near lock for Texas Tech.  Remember, Watkins' father is the head coach of the Aggies.   Detroit, Kent State, and Central Florida appear to be the leaders for 6'2 Jonathan Kelly from Detroit (Finney) MI.  The early list for 6'9 Jr Ekene Ibekwe from Carson (H.S.) CA includes USC, UCLA, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Stanford.  6'6 Richard Law from Houston (Clear Lake) TX likes New Mexico, Colorado State, Houston, Tulsa, New Mexico State, and Marquette.  Houston, Texas A&M, Baylor, and SMU were all mentioned by 6'2 Dwight Jones from Houston (Klein) TX.  Maryland, Duke, Villanova, and Seton Hall are the early favorites for 6'1 Jr Mike Nardi from Elizabeth (St. Patrick) NJ.   Right at the top of the list for 6'4 Donald Wilson from Los Angeles (Dorsey) CA are Pepperdine, UTEP, and Southern California.  George Washington, Penn State, Vanderbilt, South Florida, and St. Louis are among the schools showing the most interest in 6'10 Jon Clark from Toronto (St. Michael's) ON.  Oregon, Massachusetts, UTEP, Loyola-Marymount, Wyoming, and Pepperdine were mentioned by 6'6 John Haywood from LaPuente (Bishop Amat) CA.  5'8 Charles Small from Detroit (Martin Luther King) MI has a 3.7 gpa, so Ivy League schools, like Cornell, Princeton, and Dartmouth, are showing interest.  So are Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan.  Buffalo, Bowling Green, Oakland, and Akron are all interested in 6'0 John Floyd from Toledo (St. John's) OH.  Iowa State, Akron, Bradley, Dayton, Liberty, and Brown were all mentioned by 6'1 Chris Stevens from Akron (Central-Hower) OH.  6'4 Marcelus Kemp from Seattle (Garfield) WA likes UNLV, Oregon, Gonzaga, and Oregon State. 

We have the list of players who are supposed to be at the NIKE All-American Camp in Indianapolis, IN, but unfortunately it only has the player's name, city and state.   So that's how we're going to give it to you.  The list is as follows:  Lester Abram from Pontiac, MI, Hassan Adams from Los Angeles, CA, Akini Adkins from Tallahassee, FL, DeAngelo Alexander from Midwest City, OK, Brandon Allen from Hollywood, FL, Shagari Alleyne from New York, NY, Tyler Alten from West Long Branch, NJ, C.J. Anderson from Cincinnati, OH, Matt Anderson from Lenior, NC, Rashad Anderson from Lakeland, FL, Kelenna Azubuike from Tulsa, OK, Yusuf Baker from Orlando, FL, T.J. Banninster from Jacksonville, FL, Sam Barber from Lake Worth, FL, Charles Bass from University Park, IL, Michael Beal from Brooklyn, NY, Patrick Beilein from Midlothian, VA, Brandon Bell from Flint, MI, Tyler Best from Lafayette, IN, Ricardo Billings from Detroit, MI, Grant Billmeier from Pennington, NJ, Brandon Bowman from Santa Monica, CA, Dane Bradshaw from Memphis, TN, Derrick Broom from Cartersville, GA, Dee Brown from Maywood, IL, Denham Brown from Toronto, ON, Graham Brown from Mio, MI, Greg Brown from Milwaukee, WI, Shannon Brown from Maywood, IL, Greg Brunner from Charles City, IA, Rashun Bryant from Rome, GA, Evan Burns from Los Angeles, CA, Michael Bush from Louisville, KY, Keith Butler from Medford, MA, LeVar Carter from Louisville, KY, Matthew Causey from Gainesville, GA, Richard Chaney from Compton, CA, Derrick Chew from Memphis, TN, Keydren Clark from New York, NY, Ricky Cornette from Country Club Hills, IL, Bernard Cote from St. Lambert, QU, Steve Cowherd from Coral Springs, FL, James Curry from Burlington, NC, Catavious Davis from Montgomery, AL, Charlie Davis from Selma, AL, Cortez Davis from Washington, DC, Luol Deng from Blairstown, NJ, Wade Dunston from Ft. Washington, MD, Ndudi Ebi from Houston, TX, Chris Ellis from Roswell, GA, Roy Enright from Omaha, NE, Devon Evertsen from Phoenix, AZ, Kevin Field from Firecrest, WA, Brandon Fouts from Detroit, MI, Torin Francis from Roslindale, MA, Rashaun Freeman from Schenectady, NY, Donte Gennie from Tallahassee, Fl, Corey Gibbs from Lithonia, GA, Daniel Gibbs from Lithonia, GA, John Gilchrist from Virginia Beach, VA, Mitch Gilfillan from Morton, IL, E.J. Gordon from Deland, FL, Derrick Graham from South Bend, IN, Justin Gray from Charlotte, NC, Kalen Grimes from Florissant, MO, Steve Hailey from Brighton, MA, Mike Hall from Calumet Park, IL, Dion Harris from Detroit, MI, Kenneth Harris from Gary, IN, Levi Harris from Tulsa, OK, Marques Hayden from Oklahoma City, OK, Brandon Heath from Inglewood, CA, Todd Hendley from Sanford, NC, Matt Henry from Cresskill, NJ, Cedrick Hensley from Texas City, TX, Roy Hibbert from Adelphi, MD, Eric Hicks from Greensboro, NC, Jeff Horner from Mason City, IA, Kris Humphries from Chaska, MN, Jeremy Hunt from Memphis, Aaron Hutchinson from Creedmore, NC, Brian Hutt from Wheat Ridge, CO, Andre Iguodala from Springfield, IL, Jeremy Ingram from Kinston, NC, Jarrett Jack from Fort Washington, MD, Jarrius Jackson from Monroe, LA, Johnnie Jackson from Memphis, TN, Alexander Johnson from Albany, GA, Brian Johnson from Glenarden, MD, Justin Johnson from Merrillville, IN, Bobby Jones from Compton, CA, Michael Jones from Dorchester, MA, Alou Kane from Dyke, VA, Jordan Kent from Eugene, OR, Nicholas Kern from St. Louis, MO, Ousmane Konate from Senegal, Julius Lamptey from Oklahoma City, OK, Michael Lasme from Willingboro, NJ, Andrew Lavender from Columbus, OH, Steve Leven from Manchester, MD, Ron Lewis from Columbus, OH, Brandon Lincoln from Portland, OR, Jim Maley from Western Springs, IL, Sean Mallon from Spokane, WA, Steve Marcetic from Toronto, ON, Tristan Martin from Toronto, ON, Sean May from Bloomington, IN, Richard McBride from Springfield, IL, Rashad McCants from Asheville, IL, Chris McCray from Landover, MD, Marcetteaus McGee from Chicago, IL, Jimmy McKinney from St. Louis, MO, Raymond Metcalf from Detroit, MI, Taurean Minor from Houston, TX, Tangara Mohamed from Durham, NC, Mario Moore from Nashville, TN, J.R. Morris from Milwaukee, WI, Tim Morris from Mableton, GA, Quentin Moses from Athens, GA, Kelvin Nelson from Brooklyn, NY, Moulaye Niang from El Cajon, CA, Brad Nuckles from Vansant, VA, Tanner Odgen from Seminole, TX, David Paris from Riverbank, CA, Mark Patton from Barboursville, WV, Sean Phaler from Anaheim, CA, Kevin Pittsnogle from Martinsville, WV, Norman Plummer from Cincinnati,OH, Elliott Poole from Chicago, IL, William Price from High Point, NC, Ben Rand from Rochelle, IL, Brian Randle from East Peoria, IL, Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh, NC, J.J. Redick from Roanoke, VA, J.R. Reynolds from Roanoke, VA, DeForrest Riley from Cincinnati, OH, Antywane Robinson from Charlotte, NC, Chris Rodgers from Portland, OR, Delco Rowley from Indianapolis, IN, Brandon Roy from Seattle, WA, Byron Sanders from Gulfport, MS, Bobby Santiago from New York, NY, Harrison Schaen from Huntington Beach, CA, Blake Schoen from Oxford, IN, Doug Scott from Reynoldsburg, OH, Evan Seacat from Paoli, IN, Troy Slaten from Chesterfield, MO, Marlon Smith from Bronx, NY, Richardo Soliver from New York, NY, Aaron Spears from Chicago, IL, Tim Stoops from Ames, IA, Amare Stoudemire from Orlando, FL, Mike Strawberry from Corona, CA, Marshall Strickland from Mt. Airy, MD, Rashard Sullivan from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Theodis Tarver from Monroe, LA, Almamy Thiero from Durham, NC, Jermaine Thomas from Frederick, MD, Lorenzo Thompson from Chicago, IL, Michael Thompson from Joliet, IL, Maurice Wade from Milwaukee, WI, Matt Walsh from Holland, PA, Josh Washington from Lubbock, TX, D.J. White from Moundville, AL, Logan White from Cleveland, OH, Wendall White from Lawndale, CA, Eric Wilkins from Piscataway, NJ, Wes Wilkinson from Grand Island, NE, Eric Williams from Wake Forest, NC, J.R. Williams from Orlando, FL, Omar Williams from Philadelphia, PA, Sheldon Williams from Midwest City, OK, Kyle Wilson from Plano, TX, Jason Wingate from New York, NY, Mike Woodard from College Park, GA, Keith Wooden from Lawrence, KS, Eric Woods from Leesville, LA, Calvin Wooten from Detroit, MI, Bracy Wright from Carrollton, TX, Dwan Youman from Jacksonvile, FL, and Adam Zahn from Hermosa Beach, CA.

Friday, July 6, 2001

During the last 48 hours we've been doing our best to ignore everything else and finish our national player rankings for the Class of 2003 and the Class of 2004, but we do have three verbal commitments to pass along.  The first occured on Wednesday when the University of Michigan landed 6'8 Graham Brown from Mio (Mio-Ausable) MI, who is ranked #189 nationally and #43 at the power forward position by the HOOP SCOOP.   What makes this even more interesting is the fact that Brown was one of the last players added to our list, as our Michigan Editor Steve Bell told us on Monday that Brown was the only player we might not know about who had made a major jump in this spring.  Apparently Brown made his national debut at the Boo Williams Invitational Tournament in Hampton, VA in early April, but he hasn't been seen many places since.  As a result, Bell has never seen Brown play, but he has talked to some of his teammates who say he has a good post-up game and likes to bang inside.  Our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson, who has seen Brown play, echoes those thoughts and adds that Brown is a lefty, as well as an excellent football player.  Johnson also thinks we've got Brown ranked about right, but he could move up, if he proves himself night-in and night-out this summer on the camp trail.   Brown also was getting interest from Villanova, Notre Dame, Boston College, Northwestern, Michigan State, and Marquette.  Yesterday 6'2 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL didn't surprise anybody when he made it official for Duke at his evening press conference.  However, a lot of Duke fans must be surprised by the fact that Dockery's academic situation is still very much in doubt, as his lastest SAT score was a 15 and his current grade point average in core classes is only a 2.3 (he needs a 17 on the ACT and a 2.5 gpa to be eligible).  Apparently a lot of Duke fans have been giving Roy and Harv Schmidt of the Illinois Prep Bulls-eye Report a hard time, because they didn't tell 'em what they wanted to hear.  Well, it looks like the Schmidt's are right on the money with this one.  Sure, Dockery has a chance to make it, but it may take a while (like maybe next spring).  So I encourage the Duke fans to get off the Schmidt's case and, instead, if they want to pick on somebody, try me.  I've said about the same thing, but unlike the Schimdt's, I like the controversy.  The Dockery commitment is also important, because he becomes the 34th rising senior ranked among our top 100 nationally to have committed prior to the start of the summer camp season, which tip-off this weekend.   He also makes it six-for-six in terms of the top point guards already being committed.  Remember, 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI picked Florida earlier this week and 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC committed to North Carolina in March, 6'3 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX picked Michigan two weeks ago, 5'11 Dee Brown from Maywood (Proviso East) IL is already gone to Illinois, and 6'2 Gerry McNamara from Scranton (Bishop Hannan) PA made it official for Syracuse in the early spring.   So the top ranked point guard still available is 6'2 Marshall Strickland from Sykesville (South Carroll) MD.  Speaking of Strickland, he was at Indiana University on an unofficial visit yesterday en route to the NIKE All-American Camp.   The third commitment was reported today by the Memphis Commercial-Appeal and was relayed to us by our Mid-South Editor Jim Rothman.  We're talking about 6'3 Jeremy Hunt from Memphis (Craigmont) TN, who has verbally committed to the University of Memphis.  Hunt is ranked #171 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, as well as #2 in the Mid-South by Rothman.  "He's a big-time athlete with long arms and excellent 3-point shooting skills," says Rothman.   "But still, he needs to get bigger and stronger and prove himself against top level competition."  However, time is on Hunt's side, because Memphis is already loaded at both guard spots in the foreseeable future.  We also are looking for N.C.State to possibly get a verbal commitment from 6'9 Eric Williams from Wake Forest (Roseville) NC.  But we're not as excited about Williams, who currently is ranked #132 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP in the Class of 2002, as are most people.  He is a space-eater, but he didn't accomplish much when we saw him at the Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions a month ago.  But maybe that will change this summer, so stay tuned!

Thursday, July 5, 2001

We continue to fight the clock in attempt to get our pre-summer rankings done, as the two most important events of the entire year - the adidas ABCD Camp and the NIKE All-American Camp - are only a couple of days away.  We wrapped up the Class of 2001 last week and the Class of 2002 several days ago.  And now we're completely finished with our ranking of the top 150 players in order in the Class of 2003.  One of the most interesting things about the class is how deep it is at the center position, as a dozen players - 6'11 Jr Kendrick Perkins from Beaumont (Ozen) TX, 6'10 Jr Jackie Butler from McComb (H.S.) MS, 6'11 Jr David Padget from Reno (H.S.) NV, 6'7 Jr Jarelle Scott from New Orleans (Abramson) LA, 6'9 Jr Chris Taft from Brooklyn (Xaverian) NY, 6'10 Jr Stefan Zimmerman from Orem (Mountain View) UT, 6'9 Jr Kenneth Harris from Hammond (Bishop Noll) IN, 6'9 Jr Walter Waters from Detroit (Southeastern) MI, 6'11 Jr Brian Butch from Appleton (West) WI, 7'2 Jr Shagari Alleyne from New York (Rice) NY, 6'11 Jr Darryl Watkins from Paterson (Catholic) NJ, and 6'10 Jr Major Wingate from Florence (Wilson) SC - rrank among the top 50 players in the clsss.  And that doesn't even include the next in a line of great players at Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA via the Senegal.  We're talking about 6'11 Jr Maliak Badiame and, if we did include him in our pre-summer rankings, he'd probably be right up at the top of the list, along with Perkins and Butler. We haven't seen him yet, but Oak Hill head coach Steve Smith recently told us that he's been told Badiame is better than any of the previous three players - Kentucky's Jules Camara, Auburn's Abdou Diame, and 7'0 DeSagana Diop, who was a lottery pick in the NBA draft last week - that he's gotten from his Senegal-connection.  However, just like Smith, we haven't seen him play yet, so we're a little hesitant to rank him until he gets his feet wet this summer against American competition.  And that should happen early next week at the NIKE American Camp.  Speaking of who will be at both the NIKE-American Camp and the adidas ABCD Camp, we may be able to provide you with a sneak preview of who is officially at both camps on Saturday  However, we already know of one major trade.  Yes, we have confirmed that 6'9 Amare Stoudemire from Orlando (Cypress Creek) FL is a NIKE and 6'11 Jr Kendrick Perkins from Beaumont (Ozen) TX is not at NIKE.  So we suspect that Perkins, along with a player-to-be-named-later, will be at the adidas camp.  Obviously we're just kidding about the trade and player-to-be-named-later, but in both cases this is huge, because Stoudemire is ranked as the #2 rising senior nationally and Perkins is ranked as the #2 rising junior nationally by the HOOP SCOOP. 

Wednesday, July 4, 2001

Rob Matera of All-Star Sports is now confirming what a lot of people, including us, have thought for some time.  We're talking about the scheduled press conference at 6:00 PM tomorrow when 6'2 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL, who is ranked #9 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, will make it official for Duke.  This is huge, because Dockery will become the 34th player who is ranked among our top 100 nationally to have made an early commitment.  And even more important, Dockery will become the fourth player in the Class of 2002 to make an early commitment to the Blue Devils.  If you will recall, 6'4 J.J. Redick from Roanoke (Cave Springs) VA, who is ranked #10 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, picked Duke over Virginia last fall.   During the winter they also got 6'10 Michael Thompson from New Lenox (Providence) IL, who is ranked #39 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, and this spring 6'7 Lee Melchionni from Ft. Washington (Germantown Academy) PA, who is ranked #82 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, also picked the Blue Devils.  That alone would be enough to give Duke the 6th ranked recruiting class this past spring.  However, they also are still the heavy favorite for 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC and the leader 6'9 Sheldon Williams from Midwest City (H.S.) OK.  Stranger things have happened, like when Chris Duhon, who was the #1 point guard in the high school ranks, picked Duke, despite the fact Jason Williams, who also was the #1-ranked point guard in high school the previous year, was a year ahead of him already in the program.  So let's assume that it will happen.  We'd be talking about one of the top two or three recruiting classes in the 18 years we've been ranking recruiting classes.  Normally that could be a problem in this day and age, due to the five-and-three rule.  Remember, you can only sign five players one year and only three the next.  However, that's not a problem, because Melchionni has already agreed to pay his own way as a walk-on next year, if Duke needs the scholarship.  As for Dockery, we're also getting reports that he has gotten the necessary score in the ACT.  This is especially important, because Dockery told one of our competitors what the score was when he took the SAT a year ago and it wasn't even close to what he would need to be eligible to play as a freshman under NCAA guidelines.   Thus, explains why so many people have thought all along that it would be next to impossible for Dockery to go to Duke, much less be eligible to play as a freshman at any Division I school.  However, Roy Schmidt of the Illinois Bulls-eye Report isn't convinced that the final chapter to this story have been written yet.  As a matter of fact, we talked to Schmidt about this earlier today and, although he isn't saying that it won't eventually happen (anything is possible when you're dealing with the Chicago Public School System), he's still not convinced that Dockery will be able to get the necessary number of core classes necessary to obtain freshmen eligibility next year.  And, if he does, it probably won't happen until next spring.    So stay tuned!

Matt Denison is one of the bright young guys in the business, as well as one of the leading authorities on high school basketball in the state of Indiana and the editor and publisher of Matt's Stats INHOOPS.com.  So it comes as no surprise that he would have the scoop on 6'7 Angelo Smith from Indianapolis (Lawrence North) IN, who is ranked #44 among power forwards, as well as #192 regardless of position, nationally by the HOOP SCOOP.  Denison tells us that Smith has made a verbal commitment to Xavier University and truly this is a perfect fit, because he's a blue collar warrior who gets it done inside.  He might be a tad undersized, but Pete Gillen and Skip Prosser both made a living at Xavier with guys just like Smith, who also happens to be an excellent athlete and a very good student.   So it appears that new head coach Thad Matta and his staff have just picked up where the old one left off.  Matta probably did have an added advantage on this one due to the fact that Smith was right in his backyard when he was the head coach at Butler.   Remember, Matta, who guided the Bulldogs to a first round upset against Wake Forest in the NCAA Tournament in March, left Butler to take the Xavier job this spring.   Smith impressed us when we saw him at the NIKE Memorial Day Classic in Bloomington, IN.  As a matter of fact, he got more accomplished than his two more highly touted teammates - 6'7 Delco Rowley from Indianapolis (Arlington) IN and 6'2 Antwan Alexander from Indianapolis (Arlington) IN for the Indy Warriors AAU team.  As a result, we think Smith might be one of the biggest sleepers in the nation at the power forward spot.  And he's not the only player from the state of Indiana that Butler may be on the verge of getting to make an early commitment.   Denison has heard that a commitment by 6'0 Dedrick Finn from Newburgh (Castle) IN could be forthcoming to the Musketeers in the immediate future.   He's checking it out further, but if Finn, who is ranked #96 nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, commits to Butler, it would be absolutely huge.  However, Finn isn't a big secret anymore, especially after he led his Warrick County AAU team all the way to the championship game against Martin Brothers Select in the Spiece Tournament in Ft. Wayne, IN two months ago.  Denison also would like to get a pug in for the Kentucky Hoops Stars Web Site, which he set up this spring.  You can get there by clicking on http://www.eddiefordhoops.com and it is important to look at, especially for college coaches, because he has posted the schedule for all three Divisions of the Kentucky HoopFest, which will tip-off on July 10th in Louisville, KY.

Tuesday, July 3, 2001

We are finally finished with our Pre-Summer Ranking of the Nation's Top Rising Seniors (Class of 2002) and the thing that stands out the most is the overwhelming number of players who have already made verbal commitments.  Already three of the top five players - 6'9 Amare Stoudemire from Orlando (Cypress Creek) FL, who picked Memphis last winter, 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC, who picked North Carolina in March, and 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI, who committed to Florida on Sunday, in the class are gone.  So are two more in the top 10 - 6'7 Carmelo Anthony from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA to Syracuse via Towson (Catholic) MD and 6'4 J.J. Redick from Roanoke (Cave Spring) VA to Duke - and four more in the top 15 - 6'2 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX to Michigan, 5'11 Dee Brown from Proviso (East) IL to Illinois, 6'3 Gerry McNamara from Scranton (Bishop Hannan) PA to Syracuse, and 6'4 Jimmy McKinney from St. Louis (Vashon) IL to Missouri.  That's nine of the top 15 players in the Class of 2002 who have made early verbal commitments prior to the start of the Summer Evaluation Period.  And as we dig a little deeper, we find that 12 of the top 30 are gone, as 6'4 Rashad McCants from New Hamption (Prep) NH to North Carolina, 6'10 Alexander Johnson from Albany (Dougherty) GA to Georgia, and 6'10 Paul Davis from Rochester (H.S.) MI to Michigan State also have already made early verbal commitments.  Also gone are five players - 6'5 Matt Walsh from Ft. Washington (Germantown Academy) PA to Florida, 6'6 Lester Abram from Pontiac (Northern) MI to Michigan, 6'7 Greg Brunner from Charles City (H.S.) IA to Iowa, 6'10 Michael Thompson from New Lenox (Providence) IL to Duke, and 6'3 Taquan Dean from Neptune (H.S.) NJ to Louisville - who rank in the 31-40 range and two more - 6'3 Chris Rodgers from Portland (Wilson) OR to Arizona, and 6'1 Jeff Horner from Mason City (H.S.) IA to Iowa - who rank in the 41-50 range.  That's 19 of the top 50 who are already verbally committed.  And it doesn't stop there, as 14 more players - 5'11 Mario Moore from Nashville (Antioch) TN to Vanderbilt, 6'7 Derek Burditt from Marrero (John Ehret) LA to California, 6'5 Trent Strickland from Hendersonville (East Henderson) NC to Wake Forest, 6'7 Cedric Davis from Chatham (Hargrave Military) VA via North Bridgton (Bridgton Academy) ME to Maryland, 6'6 Josh Rhodes from Santa Cruz (H.S.) CA to Iowa, 6'4 Chris McCray from Seat Pleasant (Fairmont Heights) MD to Maryland, 6'9 Matt Keifer from Evansville (Mater Dei) IN to Purdue, 6'1 Chris Quinn from Dublin (Coffman) OH to Notre Dame, 6'7 Lee Melchionni from Ft. Washington (Germantown Academy) PA to Duke, 6'8 Roy Enright from Omaha (Burke) NE to Nebraska, 5'9 Brandon Stockton from Glasgow (H.S.) KY to Kentucky, 6'8 Wes Wilkinson from Grand Island (H.S.) NE to Nebraska, 6'5 Adam Haluska from Carroll (Community) IA to Iowa State, and 6'7 Sean Mallon from Spokane (Farris) WA to Gonzaga - who rank in the 51-100 range are gone.  Which means a total of 33 of our top 100 are already off the board and, as a result, no longer available to college coaches.  And it's not like we don't know where many of the other top players in the Class of 2002 are leaning.  Our guess is that 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ will either go to St. John's or the NBA.  Duke is the leader for 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC, 6'9 Sheldon Williams from Midwest City (H.S.) OK, and 6'2 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL.  Speaking of Dockery, he's supposed to make it official any day now for the Blue Devils.   If 6'7 Evan Burns from Los Angeles (Fairfax) CA makes it academically, he likely will pick UCLA.  All the Atlanta Celtics guys go early to the NBA and 6'10 Sani Ibrahim from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA via Winchendon (School) MA is Wallace Prather's best player ever.   So you can almost bet the range that Ibrahim will put his name into the NBA Draft next spring.  The smart money is Maryland for 6'2 Marshall Strickland from Sykesville (South Carroll) MD.  Indiana now appears to be the favorite for 6'3 Bracy Wright from The Colony (H.S.) TX.  6'2 Chadd Moore from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA via Huntsville (Lee) AL is expected to pick Auburn.  In other words, there is only one player - 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ - ranked among our top 20 nationally who is still wide open. 

Monday, July 2, 2001

Our Michigan Editor Steve Bell was at the 16-Under National AAU Tournament in Detroit, MI over the weekend and he tells us the best player in the tournament was clearly 6'10 Jr Kendrick Perkins from Beaumont (Ozen) TX.   Perkins, who will be ranked as the #2 rising junior by the HOOP SCOOP when we publish our rankings of the top juniors later this week, has both the physical presence and the offensive skills to score whenever he wants to inside.  Perkins also has the perfect complement in 6'9 Jr Ndubi Ebi from Houston (Westbury Christian) TX.  Bell thinks Ebi could eventually become a wing forward or even a two guard, as he already shows signs of being able to play out on the perimeter.  However, right now Ebi is the ultimate power forward.  Sure he's needs to get bigger and stronger, but this lean and mean athlete doesn't take any prisoners inside.  Also he plays extremely hard, plus he's one of the best rebounders in his class nationally.  Also impressing Bell for the Houston Hoops were their two guards - 5'11 Jr D'Kyran Nix from Bryan (H.S.) TX and 6'2 Jr Michael Rose from Houston (Spring Woods) TX, both of whom created all kinds of havoc with their speed and quickness.  The other team that was head-and-shoulders above everybody else in the tournament was the Arkansas Hawks, which featured 6'4 Jr Ronnie Brewer from Fayetteville (H.S.) AR.  Yes, this is the son of former Arkanas All-American Ron Brewer and he might turn out to be just as good.   We're talking about the next great player from the state Arkansas who at 6'4 runs the point, defends, and scores seemingly at will.  And Brewer has a good supporting cast, which includes 6'2 Jr Sam Gammel from Dermott (H.S.) AR and 6'5 Jr Anthony Gray from Dumas (H.S.) AR.  Also impressing Bell were 6'3 Jr Jeremy Ingram from Kinston (H.S.) NC, 6'10 Jr Jermaine Bell from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, 6'8 Jr Brenton Petway from Eagles Landing (McDonough) GA, 6'1 Jr Michael Nardi from Elizabeth (St. Patrick) NJ, 6'0 Jr Brandon Colton from Detroit (St. Martin DePorres) MI, 6'6 Jr Ija Nwankwo from Birmingham (Detroit Country Day) MI, and 6'11 Jr James Davis from Minneapolis, MN.  Ingram was one of the best athletes in the entire tournament.  Bell shots the jumper extremely well for somebody 6'10, but he needs still needs to get bigger and stronger.  Petway, who has grown three inches in the last year-and-a-half, is a lefty who is extremely tough on the boards.  Nardi has been drawing Bobby Hurley comparisons since he was in 8th grade, but he's a better outside shooter than Hurley at the same stage.  Colton never seems to have any problem getting his shot and, as a result, was the best purer scorer in the tournament.  Nwankwo has excellent foot work and outstanding post moves, which is why he was the best post scorer, along with Perkins, in the tournament.  Davis is a strong athletic shot blocker who reminds you of Missouri's Arthur Johnson.   Also playing well enough for Bell to mention were 6'3 Jr Jeremy Nicholson from Ash Grove, MO,  6'8 Jr Anthony King from Durham (Southern) NC, 6'0 Jr Corey Johnson from Anderson, IN, 6'7 Jr Sam Pharr from Rockville (H.S.) IN, and 6'6 Jr DeAndre Payton from Indianapolis, IN.

We told you week ago that a verbal commitment by 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI, who is ranked as the #4 rising senior nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, to the University of Florida was imminent.   However, we thought it would happen sooner than last night.  Apparently the hold-up was that he was at Michigan State's team camp last Wednesday and Thursday.   So obviously he had to play at little politics and make it sound like the Spartans were still involved - at least while he was in East Lansing, MI.  This is absolutely huge for Gators head coach Billy Donovan, not just because Roberson is the best player Donovan has landed to-date at the University of Florida, but also because it shows that Donovan can go just about anywhere and get one of the very elite players in the nation.  And that's saying a lot, because Donnell Harvey, Brett Nelson, Mike Miller, David Lee, James White, and Kwame Brown are all outstanding players.  And don't rule out the possibility of Donovan also stealing 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC, who is ranked as the #5 rising senior by the HOOP SCOOP.   Sure, just like everybody else, we expect Randolph to go to Duke or possibly North Carolina, but the Gators could be the perfect compromise choice, if Randolph finds that it's impossible to pick one local school over the other.  Our Michigan Editor Steve Bell also tells us that all is not lost for Michigan State, because two of the other top players in the state - 6'4 Ricardo Billings from Detroit (Rogers) MI and 6'4 Maurice Ager from Detroit (Crockett) MI - both are expected to pick the Spartans.  Ohio State and Michigan State are the leaders for Billings, while Michigan State, Michigan, Missouri, and Marquette are the primary schools in the hunt for Ager.  The key appears to be Billings and Ager are close friends and they want to go to the same school.  Bell also thinks the University of Michigan could also get one of the top power forward prospects in the nation and they may not even have to tie up a scholarship to do it.  He's talking about 6'7 Matt Trannon from Flint (Northern) MI, who is ranked as the #5 power forward prospect nationally in our Pre-Summer Ranking of the Class of 2002 by Position.  The catch is that Trannon will sign to play football, but, like so many of the great athletes in this day and age, he also wants to play basketball. And this might work well, especially during his freshman year, because he'll likely sit out as a redshirt in football.  Also the basketball program needs immediate help inside, but down the road will probably be able to recruit somebody just as good and perhaps an inch or two bigger than Trannon.  If does Trannon pick the Wolverines, he'd join 6'3 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX and 6'6 Lester Abram from Pontiac (Northern) MI, both of whom are already verbally committed to the Wolverines, to form the nucleus of the same type of recruiting class that new Michigan head coach Tommy Amaker brought in a year ago at Seton Hall when he landed Eddie Griffin, Andre Barrrett, and Marcus Toney-El. 

Sunday, July 1, 2001

It is the editor policy of the HOOP SCOOP to move every player up in class a year on July 1st.  That's today!  So from here on out everybody in the Class of 2002 will be listed as a senior, except 5th year players who will be listed separately after we finish our pre-summer rankings.  Actually we are done with our rankings of the top players in the class by both position and you can get this list by clicking on Pre-Summer Ranking of the Class of 2002 by Position.  Please note that we have listed the school where each player has graduated from this spring or summer.   We will also do so on our Pre-Summer Ranking of the Top 300 Players in the Class, which will be completed either tomorrow or Tuesday.  However, once these lists are complete, we will list each player at the school we expect him to be at next year in all future evaluations and rankings.  Especially noteworthy is the fact that the center position in the Class of 2002 is extremely weak.  Sure, 6'9 Amare Stoudemire from Orlando (Cypress Creek) FL and 6'10 Sani Ibrahim from Winchendon (School) MA are just as good as the three big men from the graduating senior class (Class of 2001) - 6'11 Eddy Curry from South Holland (Thornwood) IL, 7'0 Tyson Chandler from Compton (Dominguez) CA, and 6'11 Kwame Brown from Brunswick (Glynn Academy) GA - all of whom were all drafted among the top four in the NBA draft last week - and 6'8 Kevin Bookout from Stroud (H.S.) OK, 6'8 Sean May from Bloomington (North) IN, 6'9 DeAngelo Collins from Inglewood (H.S.) CA, 6'10 Alexander Johnson from Albany (Dougherty) GA, 6'10 Michael Thompson from New Lenox (Providence) IL, and 6'9 Torin Francis from Marion (Tabor Academy) MA are all good enough to make an immediate at the high major level.  But after that there is a big dropoff, as there isn't much depth at this position.  The power forward spot with 6'9 Shavlik Randolph from Raleigh (Broughton) NC and 6'9 Sheldon Williams from Midwest City (H.S.) OK, wing forward spot with 6'7 Carmelo Anthony from Towson (Catholic) MD and 6'7 Evan Burns from Los Angeles (Fairfax) CA, and the second guard spot with 6'6 Leonard Cooke from Old Tappan (H.S.) NJ and 6'4 J.J. Redick from Roanoke (Cave Spring) VA leading the way are all pretty good.  However, the real strength of the class is at the point guard spot.  As a matter of fact, 6'1 Raymond Felton from Latta (H.S.) SC, 6'2 Anthony Roberson from Saginaw (H.S.) MI, 6'2 Sean Dockery from Chicago (Julian) IL, 6'3 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, 5'11 Dee Brown from Maywood (Proviso East) IL, 6'3 Gerry McNamara from Scranton (Bishop Hannan) PA, 6'3 Marshall Strickland from Sykesville (South Carroll) MD, 6'2 Chadd Moore from Huntsville (Lee) AL, and 6'0 Elijah Ingram from Jersey City (St. Anthony) NJ are all good enough to be ranked among our top 20 nationally.

If 6'3 Marshall Strickland was a stock, now would be a great time to buy!  Part of the reason is that he was out of sight and, as a result, out of mind for the last six months.  If you will recall, Strickland transferred from Hyattsville (DeMatha) MD to Sykesville (South Carroll) MD last December, plus his club team, which is the Boston Amateur Basketball Club, hasn't been at any of the major events we've attended this spring.  Another reason why Strickland is currently under valued (i.e. he's currently no higher than #49 in the latest attention of the Recruiter's Handbook) is that he doesn't do anything flashy.  Instead, he just quietly goes about his business - plays good defense, runs the show, gets his teammates involved, and takes whatever the opposition gives him.  And that's what happened the last several days at the NBA Players Association Camp,which concluded yesterday at American University.  Strickland scored 10 points and had three assists in the championship game, as he led the Kings to the title in a 64-52 victory over the Lakers.  But even more important he made everybody around him - 6'3 Taquan Dean from Neptune (H.S.) NJ, 6'6 Lester Abram from Flint (Northern) MI, 6'8 Jaz Cowan from Severn (McDonough) MD, and 6'4 Jason Douriseau from Omaha (Burke) NE - better.  He also provided the perfect balance in terms of scoring, as Dean had 13 points, Cowan had 12 points, Strickland and Abram has 10 points a piece, and Douriseau had nine points in the championship game.  Another player who seemed to just get better and better as the camp wore on was 6'9 Paul Davis from Rochester (H.S.) MI.  Sure, Davis needs to develop his upper body strength, but he is very skilled, he has great hands, and he's got a nice touch out to 3-point land.  Our MIA (Missing in Action) Award on the final day of camp has to go to 6'4 Hassan Adams from Los Angeles (Westchester) CA.  It was like watching different player.  Remember, on Friday Adams was the best player in camp.  As a result, he drops out of our top five players in camp based on performance, because consistency counts.  Instead, 6'7 Evan Burns from Los Angeles (Fairfax) CA, 6'3 Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, and 6'7 David Bell from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC join Strickland join Strickland and Davis as our top five players in camp.  Another one of the interesting stories from the camp involves 6'10 Ousmane Konate from France via Africa.  Apparently Konate, who just turned 16-years-old, had only been in the United States three days before attending the camp.   As a result, where he will end up in school next year is still anybody's guess.  

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