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Friday, September 30, 2005

We are pleased to pass along that the Hoops For Hope Southern California High School Basketball Relief Benefit Game, which was held on Sunday, September 25th, at 6:00 PM at Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach, CA to benefit displaced children due to the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, was a big success.  Not only will Operation Blessing, which is the organization that helps displaced children, receive a check that is nearly $10,000 from Steve King and his family (Meg, Lindsay, Natalie, Jacquelyn, and Taylor), but this may turn out to be an important recruiting coup for USC head coach Tim Floyd down the road.  If you will recall, a week ago we told you that Floyd will be in attendance to discuss the effects the hurricane had on the city he loves as well as on himself and his family.  Well, Floyd not only did that, but he hung around the parking lot for an hour after the game was over to continue sharing his experiences.  And this is important, because we've thought for some time now that 6'7 Jr Taylor King from Santa Ana (Mater Dei) CA might end up at USC.  Not only would he be able to walk right and be the guy the build the program around right away, but it's just a short trip up the 405 from Huntington Beach, CA to campus of Southern Cal and this would give his family a chance to see most of his games.  We also think it's interesting that the Trojans have landed three of King's teammates on the Southern Cal All-Stars in the last two weeks.  Obviously we're talking about 6'8 Taj Gibson from Simi Valley (Stoneridge Prep) CA, 6'5 Jr Daniel Hackett from Bellflower (St. John Bosco) CA, and 6'5 Soph Malik Story from Lakewood (Artesia) CA and, while we're not predicting that King will go to USC, we do look for trends and, as a result, we think this is something to watch.  We also want to make people aware of the fact that there will be a New York  Coaches Clinic for Katrina Relief on Saturday, October 8th at St. Raymond's High School in the Bronx, NY.  The schedule will begin at 10:00 AM with Hofstra head coach Tom Pecora and the topic will be Defense, followed by N.C. State head coach Herb Sendek, who will be talking about N.C. State Basketball, at 11:20 AM; Marist head coach Matt Brady, who will be talking about Shooting, 12:35 AM; lunch at 1:50 PM; St. John's head coach Norm Roberts, who will be talking about Individual Improvement, at 3:00 PM; Fordham head coach Dereck Whittenburg, who will be talking about the Secondary Break at 4:20 PM, and Columbia University head coach Joe Jones, who will be talking about the Motion Offense at 5:35 PM.  Anybody who wants more information should call Oliver Antiqua at (646) 342-2201.  We also have gotten a email from Mike Byrnes, who is the head coach Winchendon (School) MA, and once again his team should be very good as his current roster includes 6'1 Soph Darius Gabriel from Brooklyn (Bishop Loughin) NY, 6'10 Greg Washington from Central Islip (H.S.) NY, 6'4 Kashif Waston from Las Vegas (Bishop Gorman) NV, 6'0 Lawrence Westbrook from Chandler (H.S.) AZ, 5'10 Brian Johnson from Baltimore (Mt. St. Joseph) MD, 6'8 Emmanuel (Manny) Adako from Decatur (Towers) GA, 6'1 Ricky Harris from Towson (Calvert Hall) MD, 6'4 Keith Cothran from New Haven (Hill House) CT, 5'10 Oppong Agyemang from Windsor (H.S.) CT, 6'5 Chuck Anakwenze from Rolling Hills, CA, and 6'5 Andre "P-Nut" Boutte from Beaumont (Ozen) TX.  Gabriel, who already is getting interest from schools like St. John's, Pittsburgh, and Iowa State, was the top junior point guard in New York City before reclassified and going the prep school route.  We're talking about somebody who is extremely quick, makes good decisions, and has savvy beyond his years, which means Gabriel probably will get the nod at point guard over Johnson, who also knows how to run a team and is good enough to be recruited by schools like George Mason, Akron, and Delaware and to have been ranked #218 nationally in our Final Rankings of the Top Players in the Class of 2005.  Winchendon also should be terrific out on the perimeter with Westbrook, who not only is a scoring machine (41.0 ppg), but also has 3.7 gpa and a tremendous upside once he learns to the difference between a good shot and a bad shot, and Watson, who is a slasher/athlete that signed with San Diego State a year ago and knows how to get to the basket and hit the 17-foot jumper.  However, Byrnes needs to find one more inside player to complement Washington, who is already verbally committed to Hofstra and is a long athletic shot blocker that can score around the basket with his jump hook and has the potential to become a force on the boards once he gets bigger and stronger.  Out guess is that it will be Adako, who, at 6'8, 235-pounds, has the potential to step right into the power forward spot and become a dominant force on the boards.  If you will recall, Adako originally signed with Eastern Kentucky a year ago, but when Travis Ford took the Massachusetts job last spring, Adako got a release from his National Letter-of-Intent and went the prep school route.  And now he's being recruited by schools in the Colonial Athletic Association and Atlantic-10.  Byrnes also should have some excellent depth on the perimeter, as Harris and Cothran were ranked #382 and #510, respectively, in our Final Ranking of the Top Players in the Class of 2005 and Agyeman, Anakwenze, and Boutte promise to be excellent role players.  Earlier Harris, who is a tough hardnosed competitor that can play either guard spot, made a verbal commitment to Loyola-Maryland.  However, more recently he backed of this commitment and is getting some Atlantic-10 and Colonial Athletic Association looks.  Cothran, who is an athletic wing player, has already been offered by Rhode Island, but will wait to see if schools like DePaul, Miami-FL, and UNLV will do likewise.  Agyemang has 1350 gpa and is getting some Ivy League looks.  Anakwenze is a slasher/athlete who can shots threes and defend.  Boutte is an excellent 3-point shooter and an American East level player (New Hampshire is leading).  Unfortunately 6'11 Hashim Bailey, who was at Winchendon a year ago, didn't return after summer school and, instead, is now at Patterson (The Patterson School) NC.  "If we rebound, we should have great year," says Brynes. "We will get after you defensively and will score a lot points." 

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Yesterday the University of Kentucky received bad news yesterday when 6'1 Willie Kemp from Bolivar (Central) TN, who has been a life long Kentucky fan, verbally committed to the University of Memphis.  However, today the Wildcats more than made up for this when they received a verbal commitment from 6'4 Derrick Jasper from Paso Robles (H.S.) CA.  And even more ironic is the fact that we have Kemp, who is ranked #45 and Jasper, who is ranked #46, right next to one another in our rankings of the top seniors nationally.  Both players need to improve their outside shooting, but they're both winners, know how to run a team, are extremely unselfish, very athletic, excellent defensively, and have excellent ball handling and passing skills.  So the fact Jasper is 6'4 and can post up smaller players is just an added bonus.  Jasper also was the glue that has held Darren Matsubara's EBO-EA Sports team together the last two years.  Remember, EBO-EA Sports, which also features 6'11 Robin Lopez from Fresno (San Joaquin Memorial) CA, 6'11 Brook Lopez from Fresno (San Joaquin Memorial) CA, 6'7 Qunicy Pondexter from Fresno (San Joaquin Memorial) CA, and 6'4 Derrick Jasper from Fresno (Washington Union) CA, has won the last two adidas Super 64 Tournament's in Las Vegas, NV and they also beat the Friends of Hoops from Seattle in the game that featured the winners of the adidas Super 64 Tournament and the Main Event en route to being the runner-up team for Team-of-the-Summer honors.  This also is important, because Jasper should be the ideal replacement for 6'1 Soph Rajon Rondo, who is expected to forego the rest of his college eligibility and enter the NBA Draft next spring.  In other words, Jasper is used to playing with great players and sacrificing his game to make his teammates better.  Jasper also becomes the second player from California in this recruiting class to have made a verbal commitment to the Wildcats.  If you will call, Kentucky also landed 6'4 Michael Porter from Modesto (Christian) CA in the spring.  And they also are still in the hunt for yet another player from California - 6'9 Deon Thompson from Torrance (H.S.) CA, who also is still considering UCLA, North Carolina, Connecticut, Gonzaga, Arizona State, Oregon State, and Wake Forest.  And they also are involved with players, like 6'10 Brandan Wright from Brentwood (Academy) TN, 6'8 Thaddeus Young from Memphis (Mitchell) TN, 6'4 Jodie Meeks from Norcross (H.S.) GA, and 6'9 Perry Stevenson from Lafayette (Northside) LA.  However, when it's all said and done, we think Thompson will end up UCLA; Wright will pick Duke over Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisville, and Vanderbilt; and Young will pick Memphis over North Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia Tech.  So, as things stand now, the two players that the Wildcats appear to have the best shot are Stevenson, whose list currently includes LSU, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Texas, Texas Tech, Miami-FL, and Wake Forest, and Meeks, who is still considering Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Auburn, Illinois, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma State.  Moral to the story, don't be surprised if the Wildcats once again go the junior college route.  Remember, Kentucky assistant coach Scott Rigot used to be the head coach at Spartanburg Methodist (JC) SC and, as a result, has strong junior college contacts.  Also throw in the fact that Kentucky assistant coach Reggie Hanson is both one of the hardest working guys and best recruiters in the business and it's easy to see why the Wildcats were able to land 6'8 Rekalin Sims from Salt Lake (JC) UT, who was the #1-ranked junior college player in the nation last spring.  We also have confirmed that 7'0 Toni Soda from Patterson (The Patterson School) NC has verbally committed to the University of Nebraska.  Yes, that's the same guy that Chris Chaney, who is the new head coach at the Patterson School, told us about a-month-and-a-half ago.  "Soda is potentially one of the top high school players in the nation this year, but right now he is a major sleeper, because nobody knows about him yet," is what we said about Soda at the time.  And reinforcing this statement even further is the fact that Soda, who is only 17-years-old and wants to attend college in the United State before pursuing a pro career, already is so good that his other option apparently was to remain in Croatia, play on a club team, and wait until he turns 18-years-old so that he can turn pro.  Soda has excellent skills and can score, rebound, and block shots, which means he should be able step in right away and make an immediate impact a year from now for the Cornhuskers.  Soda also will give Nebraska head coach Barry Collier one of the best one-two inside punches in the league, as, by the time Soda arrives in school, 6'11 Soph Aleks Maric, who averaged 8.3 ppg and 6.0 rpg last season, will have two years of college experience under his belt.  Speaking of Maric, did you know that he helped the Australian 21-Under National Team to a 4th Place Finish in the FIBA World Championships in Argentina, where he finished 10.5 ppg and 9.4 rpg, which placed him second in the entire tournament in rebounding?  And, if that isn't enough to get Nebraska fans excited, they also have one the best 2-guards in 6'5 Soph Joe McCray.  This is a guy who not only averaged 15.5 ppg and 5.0 rpg, but also broke the Big-12 record for a freshman with 80 3-pointers and was a member of the All-Rookie Team a year ago.  And, when you also remember all of the good new players - 6'9 B.J. Walker from Garden City (JC) KS, 6'0 Marcus Walker from Kansas City (O'Hara) MO, 6'3 Jamel White from Laurinburg (Institute) NC, 6'7 Chris Balham from Shawnee Mission (West) KS,  6'7 Kyle Marks from West Palm Beach (Dwyer) FL, and 6'2 Michael Smith from Bronx (Regional) NY - that the Cornhuskers landed a year ago in a recruiting class that finished ranked #33 in our Final Ranking of the Top Recruiting Classes for the Class of 2005, it looks like they are well on their way towards moving into the upper echelon of one of the toughest conferences in college basketball.  And a lot of the credit should go to Scott Spinelli, who is second to none as a recruiter and has more than his fair share of international ties.  Our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor Allen Rubin tells us that the University of Pennsylvania has landed 6'8 Justin Reilly from Dallas (Jesuit) TX and 6'2 Derek Young from Severn (Archbishop Spalding) MD has verbally committed to Navy.  Young is a good catch for the Midshipmen because he's a local kid who is ranked as the 9th best 2-guard in the state by marylandprephoops.com.  And Reilly, who will be ranked in the 200-300 range by the HOOP SCOOP when we publish our updated ranking of the top players nationally in the Class of 2005, is an even bigger catch.  He's a 6'8 power forward who is best known for his defensive intensity, toughness on the boards, and powerful frame.  He also has a soft shooting out to 15-feet and is an excellent leader, which makes us believe Reilly will step in and not only make an immediate impact, but also quickly become one of the better players in the league.  We also suspect the Quakers will land 6'3 Darren Smith from Hightstown (Peddie School) NJ, who visited Pennsylvania two weeks ago, along with Reilly, and we know they also are involved with 6'8 Andreas Schreiber from Los Angeles (Brentwood) CA, 5'11 Ojevwe Avworo from Alief (Alief-Elsik) TX, and 6'6 Tyrone Nash from Lawrence (Woodmere Academy) NY.  We also have confirmed that 6'1 Anthony Pigram from Southwest Tennessee (JC) TN has verbally committed to Tennessee State and 6'6 Michael Jones from Columbia (Lower Richland) SC has verbally committed to Syracuse. 

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

The race has been declared official for 6'1 Willie Kemp from Bolivar (Central) TN and the big winner is the University of Memphis.  We're talking about the quintessential point guard, as well as one of our Tennessee Correspondent Andre Whitehead's all-time favorite players.  "What Kemp does best is find a way to win," says Whitehead.  "He's also a tremendous leader, has that knack for finding a way to beat you, and has a great understanding of the game.  Kemp is an also extremely quick and athletic point guard with good ball handling and passing skills, the ability to lock you up defensively, and an excellent understanding of the game.  He does need to continue working on his outside shooting and physically get bigger and stronger, but Kemp is ideally suited to step right in right away a year from now and run the show for the Tigers.  And that's saying a lot, because Memphis already has several players - 6'5 Frosh Antonio Anderson from Laurinburg (Institute) NC and 6'5 Frosh Chris Douglas-Roberts from Detroit (Northwestern) MI - in this recruiting class who are capable of giving them some minutes at the point guard spot this season.  And our Mid-South Editor Jim Rothman appears to be just as high on Kemp as Whitehead is, because Kemp sacrifices personal adulation for winning.  As a matter of fact, Kemp and his high school team will be going for their third consecutive state championship this year and he is the heart and sole of the team.  Kemp also may help to be the deciding factor in Memphis' quest to get 6'8 Thaddeus Young from Memphis (Mitchell) TN, who is ranked #17 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP and appears to be the final piece to the puzzle, as the Tigers attempt to lock up all of the top players from Memphis, TN in this year's recruiting class.  If you will recall, Memphis already has landed 6'8 Pierre Niles from Lake Suzy (Florida Prep) FL, who is ranked #31 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP and won a state championship last year when he was still at Memphis (Ridgeway) TN.  So, with this tremendous infusion of talent, now all Memphis head coach John Calipari and his staff have to do is find a way to keep 6'0 Soph Darius Washington and 6'9 Shawne Williams around for not just one year, but two years.  We also have confirmed that 6'9 Ryan Anderson from El Dorado Hills (Oak Ridge) CA has verbally committed to the University of California.  And this too is an important catch, because Anderson can flat out shoot the lights out.  He also is a prolific scorer, as is evident by the fact that was the leading scorer at the Reebok Big-Time Tournament in Las Vegas, NV.  Anderson also led his team to the state championship last march when his team knocked off Santa Ana (Mater Dei) CA and he will be ranked in the 100-200 range nationally by the HOOP SCOOP when we publish our updated rankings of the top players in the Class of 2006.  This addition moves the Golden Bears' recruiting class, which also already includes 6'3 Patrick Christopher from Compton (Dominguez) CA and 6'10 Taylor Harrison from San Clemente (H.S.) CA, up to #17 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  We also understand that East Carolina has landed 6'8 Gabe Blair from Gastonia (Hope Christian) NC and he should fit in perfectly as the Pirates continue to stock up on inside players.  If you will recall, a lack of size was one of the things that did the previous regime in a year ago and, as a result, it came as no surprise when the Pirates landed 6'9 Tyrone Beal from Allegany (JC) MD, who was one of the better junior college players in the nation a year ago, 6'8 Quentin Goods from Goldsboro (Charis Prep) NC, and 6'10 Justin Ramsey from Chesapeake (Calvary Christian) VA last spring and 6'9 John Fields from Fayetteville (John Britt) NC in several months ago.  As for Blair, who was also getting attention from schools like Colorado State, Tennessee, and Tulsa, he's very skilled, as well as versatile enough to play both inside and outside.  It also appears that Western Illinois has landed 6'4 Mo Smith from Florissant (Hazelwood Central) MO, who reminds those who have seen him of former Saint Louis All-American Larry Hughes.  And just like Hughes, Smith can play either guard spot, although he's better at the point guard spot, because he's got a great feel for the game, has excellent size, and good ball handling and passing skills.  Smith also can beat you with his ability to get to the basket and outside shooting.  In other words, we're talking about one of the top players in the Saint Louis area this year, as well as a great sleeper nationally, because he didn't play any AAU ball this past season.  And making the story even more interesting is the fact that Western Illinois head coach Derek Thomas also was the guy who not only recruited Hughes to Saint Louis University, but also was Hughes' high school coach when he was a freshman and sophomore at St. Louis (Christian Brothers) MO.  Our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Allen Rubin provides us the scoop on 6'2 Jr Antonio "Scoop" Jardine from Philadelphia (St. John Neumann) PA, who has made an early verbal commitment to Syracuse.  Rubin also notes that Jardine, who is ranked #36 nationally in the junior class by the HOOP SCOOP, can play both guard spots, which means he will be ideally suited to complement 6'2 Soph Josh Wright, 6'4 Frosh Eric Devendorf, 6'4 Paul Harris from Niagara Falls (H.S.) NY, and 6'0 Jr Johnny Flynn from Niagara Falls (H.S.) NY in the backcourt two years from now.  And he's also probably good insurance in case either Devendorf and Harris attempts to jump to the NBA after one year of college.  Rubin also tells us that 7'0 Robbie Jackson from Pickens (Prince Avenue) SC has verbally committed to Marshall, which means the Thundering Herd have landed three players - Jackson, 7'1 Jeral Davis from St. Catharine (JC) KY and 6'0 Marcus Moses from St. Catharine (JC) KY - and two 7-footers in the last week.  We also understand that 6'6 Joevan Catron from Harvey (Thornton) IL has verbally committed to Oregon, 6'4 Lazar Heyward from Fitchburg (Notre Dame) MA has verbally committed to Marquette, 6'8 Daniel Deane from Salt Lake City (Judge Memorial) UT has verbally committed to Utah, 6'9 Othello Hunter from Hillsborough (JC) FL has verbally committed to Ohio State, 6'10 Brad Sheehan from Lathan (Shaker) NY has verbally committed to Georgia Tech, 6'2 Jay-R Strawbridge from Harvest (Sparkman) AL has verbally committed to Murray State, 6'6 T.J. Douglas from St. Albans (H.S.) WV verbally committed to Elon.  And, last but, not least, the final five for 6'9 Lance Thomas from Newark (St. Benedict's) NJ are Duke, Arizona, Florida, Connecticut, and Rutgers.  Our guess is that 6'10 Brandan Wright from Brentwood (Academy) TN will go to Duke, which would eliminate the Blue Devils from the Lance Thomas-sweepstakes and, as a result, we now believe Thomas will end up at Arizona.  And, if that happens, Arizona's recruiting class, which already includes 6'7 Chase Budinger from Carlsbad (La Cost Canyon) CA, 5'9 Nic Wise from Houston (Kingwood) TX, and 6'9 Jordan Hill from Atlanta (North Springs) GA, would move up to #4 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  However, the best is still yet to come for the Wildcats, because, as things stand now, they appear to be among the early favorites for 6'8 Jr Kevin Love from Lake Oswego (H.S.) OR, 6'7 Jr Gary Johnson from Houston (Aldine) TX, 6'7 Jr Taylor King from Santa Ana (Mater Dei) CA, 6'3 Jr Jarryd Bayless from Phoenix (St. Mary's) AZ, and 6'1 Soph Brandon Jennings from Compton (Dominguez) CA.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

We have confirmed that 6'9 Earl Clark from Rahway (H.S.) NJ did indeed verbally commit to the University of Louisville earlier today and, as result, the Cardinals' recruiting class moves up to #2, behind Ohio State and ahead of Connecticut, North Carolina, Duke, Oklahoma, Georgetown, Villanova, Arizona, and Wake Forest, on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  However, even more important, the Cardinals have landed four players - Clark, 6'9 Derrick Caracter from Elizabeth (St. Patrick) NJ, 6'2 Jerry Smith from Wauwatosa (East) WI, and 6'3 Edgar Sosa from New York (Rice) NY, who are better than anybody they signed a year ago, except for 6'9 Amir Johnson from Los Angeles (Westchester) CA, who did not count in our Final Ranking of the Top Recruiting Classes for the Class of 2005, because he by-passed college and entered his name into the NBA Draft last spring.  Sure, 6'5 Bryan Harvey from Compton (Dominguez) CA and 5'10 Andre McGee from Canyon Springs (Moreno Valley) CA, who finished ranked #31 and #34, respectively, in our Final Ranking of the Top Players in the Class of 2005, were both ranked higher than Sosa, who is currently ranked #38 in the senior class nationally by the HOOP SCOOP, and about the same as Clark, who is ranked #30 in the same rankings.  But the Class of 2006 is a lot better than the Class of 2005 and, as result, it is almost like comparing apples and oranges when one only goes by the rankings.  Clark thinks he's a point guard, but he really doesn't have a true position and, as a result, is like a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none.  And to illustrate this point even further, Clark was named the Role Player of the Week at Five-Star's loaded Honesdale session a month ago.  However, this means that Clark should fit in perfectly to Louisville head coach Rick Pitino's system, whereby, everybody is capable of doing a lot different things.  And this should be the case a year from now, as Pitino will be able to call upon Clark, 6'3 Sr Brandon Jenkins, 5'10 Soph Andre McGee, 6'2 Frosh Jerry Smith, and 6'3 Frosh Edgar Sosa, all of whom should be interchangeable at the point guard and wing spots; 6'4 Frosh Bryan Harvey and 6'5 Frosh Terrance Williams, who are interchangeable at both wing spots; 6'9 Frosh Derrick Caracater, 6'8 Soph Juan Diego Palacios, 6'11 Soph David Padgett, who are versatile enough to play both inside and outside; and 6'9 Brian Johnson, who can play both the center and power forward spot.  And 6'9 Frosh Chad Millard, 7'0 Frosh Jonathan Huffman, and 6'10 Soph Terrance Farley have the potential to add even more valuable depth.  We also think it's important to point out that three of the four players (Caracater, Clark, and Sosa) in Louisville's current recruiting class are from the New York City Metropolitan area, which means that Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino looks like a genius for hiring former Manhattan assistant coach Steve Masiello, who deserves a lot of credit for helping the Cardinals get all this done.  This also means that Louisville may now be right up there, along with Pittsburgh, as the school that can best recruit the top players in and around New York City.  We also have confirmed that 6'6 Jourdan Morris from Greenbelt (Eleanor Roosevelt) MD has picked St. Bonventure over schools like Marshall, Virginia Commonwealth, James Madison, and Toledo.  And this exactly what the Bonnies need.  Not only are we talking about the #10-ranked senior in state by marylandprephoops.com, but Morris also is a physical specimen who is capable of stepping in immediately and contributing in the Atlantic-10 Conference.  Morris also can shoot the 3-point shot, but he's so physical and good at getting the basket that we'd have to describe him as more of a slasher than a shooter.  It also looks like 6'0 Ricky Harris from Winchendon (School) MA, who was verbally committed to Loyola-Maryland, is back on the board and that 6'0 Lawrence Westbrook from Winchendon (School) MA was the one who changed his mind about going to the University of Memphis.  As a matter of fact, Westbrook's coach,  Mike Brynes, tells us that Westbrook still has an offer on the table from the Tigers.  However, it's our guess that Westbrook will go someplace where he can step in and play right away.  Remember, Memphis John Calipari is going after bigger fish, as is evident by the fact that we expect 6'1 Willie Kemp from Bolivar (Central) TN to pick Memphis, Kentucky, or Tennessee any day now.  We also have confirmed that 6'8 Anthony Harris from Ft. Worth (Wyatt) TX has conmitted to Prairie View A&M.  And this is a huge get, because Harris not is a legitimate top 30 senior in the state, but he also has a huge upside and, as a result, promises to be one of the best players in the history of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. 

Monday, September 26, 2005

The word on the street is that 6'9 Earl Clark from Rahway (H.S.) NJ has a press conference scheduled for tomorrow and that he will announce that he is verbally committed to the University of Louisville.  And this comes as a major surprise to us, because a month ago Clark told me at Five-Star's loaded Honesdale session that Villanova was the heavy favorite and, then, nothing happened after his visit to Louisville, KY just over a week ago.  However, all of our sources are now telling us that Villanova has faded in recent days and, as a result, it almost has to be Louisville, which appears to be the only school still standing.  So, assuming that everybody is guessing correctly, this will be another important catch for the Cardinals, which already have 6'9 Derrick Caracter from Elizabeth (St. Patrick) NJ, 6'2 Jerry Smith from Wauwatosa (East) WI, and 6'3 Edgar Sosa from New York (Rice) NY in a recruiting class that is ranked #4 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  And, if indeed it is Louisville, the addition of Clark would move the Cardinals' recruiting class up to a tie at #2, along with Connecticut, on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  Clark is ranked #30 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP, but we're still not sure what position he plays, because he is not big and strong and mean and tough enough to play inside, he is an average 3-point shooter, and he is not a pure point guard, although he is an excellent ball handler and passer.  He also is a great athlete with excellent hands, good timing, and a tremendous amount of potential.  This also means that Louisville head coach Rick Pitino can now turn his focus onto 6'2 Jr Nolan Smith from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, who is ranked #6 nationally in the junior class by the HOOP SCOOP and also is believed to be a done deal for the Cardinals.  However, they can pretty much forget about recruiting 6'10 Brandan Wright from Brentwood (Academy) TN and anybody else who might pop up in the senior class, because the Cardinals are already one over on scholarships, as their current list of scholarship players includes 6'2 Sr Taquan Dean, 6'3 Jr Brandon Jenkins, 6'8 Soph Juan Diego Palacios, 6'10 Soph David Padgett, 6'10 Terrance Farley, 6'9 Frosh Brian Johnson, 5'10 Frosh Andre McGee, 6'5 Frosh Bryan Harvey, 6'5 Frosh Terrance Williams, 6'9 Frosh Chad Millard, and 7'0 Frosh Jonathan Huffman.  So, as with the addition of Clark next year, somebody will have to either transfer or file for early entry in the NBA next spring.  Our guess is that Palacios will be the player jumps ship early, but we've also heard people say that Padgett could leave early and it also wouldn't surprise us if Farley or Huffman ended up transferring due to a lack of playing time.  We also are waiting to see what is going to happen with 6'1 Willie Kemp from Bolivar (Central) TN, who is ranked #45 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP.  Originally Kemp had a press conference scheduled for today, but the word we've gotten is that it's been cancelled, because he's still not sure what he wants to do.  And we say good for him, because he's only making one of the most important decisions of his life.  The smart money appears to be Memphis, but we also don't think you should count out Kentucky, which is the school that he's been a fan of while growing up, and Tennessee, which earlier this fall landed Kemp's high school teammate - 6'9 Wayne Chism from Bolivar (Central) TN.  If Memphis wins the race for Kemp, it would move the Tigers' recruiting class, which also already includes 6'8 Pierre Niles from Lake Suzy (Florida Prep) FL and 6'10 Hashim Bailey from Patterson (The Patterson School) MA, into a tie at #12, along with Washington, on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  And, if Memphis gets both Kemp and 6'8 Thaddeus Young from Memphis (Mitchell) TN, who is also still considering North Carolina, Arkansas, Duke, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and Kentucky, then the Tigers will have their third consecutive top-five ranked recruiting class.  If you will recall, Memphis' class was ranked #3 in our Final Ranking of the Top Recruiting Class for the Class of 2004 when they landed 6'0 Darius Washington from Orlando (Edgewater) FL, 6'9 Shawne Williams from Laurinburg (Charter) NC, 6'9 Waki Williams from Mt. San Jacinto (JC) CA, 6'7 Richard Dorsey from Laurinburg (Institute) NC, 7'0 Kareem Cooper from Laurinburg (Institute) NC, 5'10 Andre Allen from Memphis (Hamilton) TN, and 6'1 Tanqueray Beavers from Athens (H.S.) AL.  And their class was tied at #5, along with North Carolina, when they landed Williams and Cooper again, 6'5 Chris Douglas-Roberts from Detroit (Renaissance) MI, 6'5 Antonio Anderson from Laurinburg (Institute) NC, and 6'9 Robert Dozier from Laurinburg (Institute) NC last spring.  If you Kemp picks Kentucky, that would give Wildcats head coach Tubby Smith the ideal replacement from 6'1 Soph Rajon Rondo, who arguably will be the best point guard in the nation this year and, as a result, will probably enter his name into the NBA Draft next spring.  And, if Kemp picks Tennessee, then first-year Volunteers head coach Bruce Pearl will have to figure out a way to play both Kemp and 6'6 Marques Johnson from Ft. Wayne (Snider) IN, who also is a point guard, together in the back-court at the same time.  We also have confirmed that 6'7 Darryl Monroe from Central Florida (JC) FL has verbally committed to George Mason.  And this big for the Patriots, because Monroe, who is an undersized inside player is the perfect replacement for 6'7 Sr Jai Lewis.  Monroe also is expected to be one of the top junior college players in the nation this year, so he should be able to walk in and start right away a year from now.  And, if you don't believe it, just check out what we wrote about Monroe the last time we saw him, which was the NIKE Peach Jam in July of 2004.  "Boo Williams was led by 6'7 Darryl Monroe from Virginia Beach (First Colonial) VA, who finished with 20 points and nine rebounds and has to be one of the biggest sleepers to have emerged in the entire tournament.  We're talking about an undersized athletic blue collar power forward who just takes care of business around the basket and, as a result, would be a steal for anybody at the mid-major level.  But Monroe would be an even bigger steal for Longwood, which had him on campus last fall and apparently recently received a verbal commitment.  However, we'd be surprised if that commitment holds up if Monroe goes the prep school route.  Instead, our guess is that Longwood head coach Mike Gillian will try and take Monroe, who was a senior in high school this past season, as a partial qualifier this fall."  Monroe, instead, went the junior college route a year ago, but the connection is important, because Gillian is a former George Mason assistant and he still has close ties with the program.  Our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor Allen Rubin tells us that Virginia Commonwealth has landed 6'6 James Eversley from Chatham (Hargrave Military) VA and our West Coast Editor Dinos Trigonis tells us that 6'5 Soph Malik Story from Lakewood (Artesia) CA has made a very early verbal commitment to USC.  Story is ranked #30 nationally in the sophomore class by the HOOP SCOOP, but he probably will end up being ranked higher than that down the road.  The key will for him to become more a consistent 3-point shooter and get out of the shadow of all the great players who play on the Southern Cal All-Stars.  Speaking the Southern Cal All-Stars, Story appears to be following in the footsteps of 6'8 Taj Gibson from Simi Valley (Stoneridge Prep) CA and 6'5 Jr Daniel Hackett from Bellflower (St. John Bosco) CA, both of whom verbally committed to USC two weeks ago.  And this connection is important, because in the past Pat Barrett, who runs the Southern Cal All-Star club team program, was thought to be a UCLA guy.  And, if this weren't enough, the Trojans also got a verbal commitment last week from 6'7 Kevin Galloway from Sacramento (H.S.) CA.  In other words, the new regime is getting it done in a big way.  Remember, last spring their recruiting class, which included 6'11 Abdoulaye Ndiayne from Southern Idaho (JC) ID, 6'9 Jeremy Barr from Houston (Westbury Christian) TX, 5'10 Shaun Davis from Southern Idaho (JC) ID, 6'3 Sead Odzic from Skokie (Niles West) IL, 6''8 Keith Wilkerson from Capistrano Valley (JC) CA, 6'9 Rousean Cromwell from Bradenton (Pendleton School) FL, 6'0 Ryan Francis from Baton Rouge (Glen Oaks) LA, and 6'2 Collin Robinson from Diamond Bar (H.S.) CA, finished ranked #10 in our Final Ranking of the Top Recruiting Classes for the Class of 2005.  And they also have two players in the current recruiting class, as well as a player in the junior and sophomore class already verbally committed. 

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Dick Weiss of the New York Daily News has told me on more than one occasion that our web site is read on a daily basis by more people in the business than any other source.  However, if that's true, we should have a far greater number of subscriptions than we do, which leads me to believe that a lot of people are sharing the same user name and password to our web site.  To correct this problem I am going to make everybody change their password and this will take effect beginning on Wednesday, September 28th.  I have no doubt that this will create a flood of phone calls, especially among people who I have personally given a user name and password to in recent years.  But I feel like this is a step that is necessary to take at this time.  And every three or four months we'll change it again.  That way the sharing of user names and passwords will go down considerably.  I do think it's fair to assume that everybody in the same basketball office or the same family will continue to share their user name and password.  But be careful not to give your user name and password to somebody that you don't see on a daily basis.  If you do, you may find that sometime in the future that you may not be able to get onto the web site as this process continues to be repeated periodically.  So, if you are somebody who I have personally given a user name and password to and you can no longer get onto the web site, feel free to call me at 1-502-500-4667.  Also don't hesitate to call me this time if you have paid for a subscription and somebody else has beaten you to the punch and changed your password.  But to keep it from happening again, also tell your friends who have been reading the hoop scoop for free up until this point that it's time to ante up and subscribe.  I also want to mention that I will be sending out second notices via both fax and regular mail to all college coaches, except those who have been directly effected the two hurricanes, who have not yet renewed their subscriptions for the current year to the web site.  And, if you get one of these notices, I encourage you to take care of it immediately, because all of these subscriptions will run out on October 31st. 

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson tells us that 6'5 Jr Jon Diebler from Upper Sandusky (H.S.) OH, who is one of the best 3-point shooters in the junior class nationally, has verbally committed to Ohio State.  And this comes as no surprise, as we told you earlier in the week that Diebler had narrowed his list Valparaiso and Ohio State.  It also is no surprise because Diebler's commitment comes two weeks after he made an unofficial to Ohio State, along with 6'9 Jr Dallas Lauderdale from Solon (H.S.) OH, 7'1 Jr Kosta Koufas from North Canton (H.S.) OH, 6'9 Soph Yancy Gates from Cincinnati (Hughes) OH, and 6'9 Jr Aaron Pogue from Dayton (Dunbar) OH and the five players - 7'0 Greg Oden from Indianapolis (North Central) IN, 6'1 Michael Conley from Indianapolis (North Central) IN, 6'5 Daequan Cook from Dayton (Dunbar) OH, and 6'4 Dave Lighty from Cleveland (St. Joseph) OH, and 6'11 Soph B.J. Mullens from Canal Winchester (World Harvest) OH - who are already verbally committed to the Buckeyes.  And it appears they all got along so well that Johnson thinks verbal commitments from Lauderdale and Koufas also could be forthcoming to the Buckeyes sometime in the future.  However, as things stand now, the list for Koufas also includes Maryland and Arizona and Lauderdale's top five include Ohio State, Syracuse, Michigan, Michigan State, North Carolina.  Johnson also tells us that Ohio State has a legitimate shot, along with schools like UCLA, Arizona, North Carolina, Duke, and Kansas, for 6'9 Jr Kevin Love from Lake Oswego (H.S.) OH, and 7'1 Jr Solomon Alabi from Montverde (Academy) FL, who, according to John Stovall of Michigan Prep Spotlight, is a legitimate top 50 junior nationally and reminds him of former Georgetown All-American and current NBA Player Dikembe Mutembo.  And Stovall should know, because he's the only person in our business who has seen Alabi play.  Yes, it looks like Stovall was in the right place at the right time, because he saw Alabi score 27 points, grab 15 rebounds, and blocks eight shots in the only game in which he played at the Super Showcase in Orlando, FL in July.  Johnson also tells us that it looks like it's a four-horse race among Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Connecticut for 6'7 Raymar Morgan from Canton (McKinley) OH and Akron has verbal commitments from 5'11 Darrell Roberts from Toledo (St. Francis) OH, 6'6 Chris McKnight from Akron (Lancaster) OH, and 6'9 Mike Bardo from Cincinnati (Hughes) OH, who were ranked #16, #17, and #106, respectively, in the state the last time Johnson updated his Ohio rankings.  However, that last one is deceptive, because Johnson tells us that no big man in the state has improved as much as Bardo, which means he could end up being a steal at the mid-major level.   Johnson also tells us that 7'1 Jeral Davis from St. Catharine (JC) KY and 6'0 Marcus Moses from St. Catharine (JC) KY both have verbally committed to Marshall.  And there are several interesting connections here that are worth mentioning.  First, Wade O'Connor, who is the head coach St. Catharine (JC) KY and is one of the bright up-and-coming guys in the business, was previously on the staff at Marshall during the Billy Donovan era.  Second, current Marshall player 6'2 Soph Mark Dorris, who was a late addition to last year's recruiting class, played last year at St. Catharine (JC) KY, where he averaged 13.6 ppg on a team that finished 21-6.  Third, Davis was at Daytona Beach (JC) FL and Moses was at North Platte (JC) NE a year ago, but they both also were together at Virginia Beach (Coastal Christian) VA year before last.  Davis, who checks in at 7'1, 215-pounds, didn't play high school or AAU basketball and, as a result, not only is still somewhat of a sleeper, but also is long, athletic, and oozing with potential.  Moses, who averaged 8.4 ppg and 5.8 apg a year ago, is a strong athletic tough-hardnosed competitor with point guard skills and good leadership qualities.  We also have confirmed that Illinois State gotten a pair of verbal commitments from 6'5 Bobby Hill from St. Louis (Vashon) IL and 6'3 Osiris Eldridge from Chicago (Phillips) IL and 6'7 Kevin Galloway from Sacramento (H.S.) CA has verbally committed to USC.  That last one comes right on the heels of the two verbal commitments that Trojans got last week from 6'8 Taj Gibson from Simi Valley (Stoneridge Prep) CA and 6'5 Jr Daniel Hackett from Bellflower (St. John Bosco) CA.  And we think Galloway, who is a borderline top 100 senior nationally, is exactly what USC needs to complement Gibson in this recruiting class, as well as all of the good young players in the program, including 6'4 Soph Gabriel Pruitt, 6'6 Soph Nick Young, 6'11 Frosh Abdoulaye Ndiayne from Southern Idaho (JC) ID, 6'9 Frosh Jeremy Barr from Houston (Westbury Christian) TX, 6'3 Frosh Sead Odzic from Skokie (Niles West) IL, 6'8 Keith Wilkinson, from Mission Viejo (Capistrano Valley) CA, 6'9 Rousean Cromwell from Bradenton (Pendleton School) FL, 6'0 Ryan Francis from Baton Rouge (Glen Oaks) LA, and 6'2 Collin Robinson from Diamond Bar (H.S.) CA.  We're talking about a multi-dimensional athlete who is versatile enough to play four different positions, as is evident by the fact that Galloway averaged a triple-double last season with 11.9 ppg, 10.0 rpg, and 10.7 apg.  The verbal commitments by Eldridge and Hill are also big, because they're both big time athletes and are ranked in the 100-200 range nationally, as well as the best players in Chicago, IL and St. Louis, MO, respectively, this year.  They also should complement one another extremely well, because Eldridge can also step out and shoot the three, while Hill is more of a slasher/finisher.  Our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor Allen Rubin tells us that 6'8 Ricky Crews from Deptford (H.S.) NJ has verbally committed to Monmouth and 6'1 Jr Sam Zeglinski from Philadelphia (Penn Charter) PA has made an early verbal commitment to Virginia.  And Rubin thinks this is an excellent catch for the Cavaliers, because Zeglinski is a smart player who knows how to run a team and can shoot the 3-point shot. 

Friday, September 23, 2005

To complement our Pre-Season Ranking of the Top 30 College Basketball Teams for the 2005-2006 Season, which we published yesterday exclusively in the Members Section, we have published an updated report Tracking The Top Division I Head Coaches.  And we're especially intrigued by the race that is going on among Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, Connecticut's Jim Calhoun, Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Texas Texas' Bob Knight, Arizona's Lute Olson, Louisville's Rick Pitino, Oklahoma State's Eddie Sutton, and North Carolina's Roy Williams.  Right now we have Knight ranked #5, behind John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, and Adolph Rupp, in our Ranking of the Top  16 Head Coaches in the History of the Game, which includes six coaches who are retired and 10 coaches who are currently active.  Knight gets the nod, not just because he's needs only 26 wins to surpass Dean Smith as the game's all-time winningest head coach, but also because he's won three NCAA Championships and taken teams to the NCAA Final Four five different times.  And this is reflected on our list of the Winningest All Time Division I Head Coaches, where Knight is #2 on the list with 876 wins, Sutton is #6 on the list with 781 wins, Olson is #12 on the list with 741 wins, Temple's John Chaney is #14 on the list with 724 wins, Krzyzewski is #16 on the list with 721 wins, Boeheim is #18 on the list with 703 wins, and Calhoun is #19 on the list with 703 wins.  It's also reflected on our list of the Active NCAA Final Four Head Coaches, where Krzyzewski is ranked #1 with 10 NCAA Final Four appearances; Knight, Olson, Roy Williams, and Pitino are tied at #2 with five NCAA Final Four appearances; Izzo is ranked #6 with four NCAA Final Four appearances; Boeheim, Sutton and Steve Fisher are tied at #7 with three NCAA Final Four appearances; and Calhoun and Gary Williams are tied at #10 with two NCAA Final Four appearances.  Also very interesting are our lists of All Time Most NCAA Final Four Appearances, which shows that Krzyzewski is ranked #3 with 10 NCAA Final Four appearances, Knight, Olson, Roy Williams, and Pitino are tied at #6 with five NCAA Final Four appearances, and Izzo is ranked #11 with four NCAA Final Four appearances, and Most All Time NCAA Championships, which shows that Krzyzewski and Knight are tied at #3 with three NCAA Championships and Calhoun is tied at #5 with two NCAA Championships.  In other words, a couple of more NCAA Final Four appearances and/or another NCAA Championship or two would go a long way towards elevating any one of these coaches towards the top of the list.  Especially interesting is the race between Boeheim and Calhoun, who are tied at 703 wins apiece for most wins on our list of the Winningest All Time Division I Head Coaches.  However, we rank Boeheim one spot ahead of Calhoun, because it's taken him four fewer years to win the same number of games.  We also would be surprised if Krzyzewski doesn't pass up Ray Meyer and John Chaney, both of whom have 724 career wins, Norm Stewart, who had 731 career wins, and Phog Allen, who had 746 career wins; if Lute Olson doesn't pass up Phog Allen, who has 746 career wins, Ed Diddle, who has 759 career wins, and Henry Iba, who has 767 career wins; and if Eddie Sutton doesn't pass up Lefty Driesell, who had 786 career wins; on our list of the Winningest All Time Division I Head Coaches.  That would put Sutton at #5, Olson # 9, and Krzyzewski at #12 on our list of the list of the Winningest All Time Division I Head Coaches.  And, if Arizona, North Carolina, Louisville and/or Michigan State, get back to the NCAA Final Four at anytime during the next several years, then Lute Olson, Roy Williams, and/or Rick Pitino would move up to #2 on the list, behind Mike Krzyzewski, and/or Izzo would move into a tie at #2, along with Bob Knight, Lute Olson, Roy Williams, and Rick Pitino, on our list of Active NCAA Final Four Head Coaches.  And Izzo will have done it a lot sooner the all the rest, as he's only been a Division I head coach for 10 years compared to 39 years for Knight, 32 years for Olson, 19 years for Pitino, and 17 years.  We also have a Ranking of the Top 11 Programs in College Basketball, which take into consideration both tradition and where the program is today.  That list includes in order Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Connecticut, Louisville, Arizona, Indiana, UCLA, Michigan State, and Syracuse.  We also have updated our NCAA Tournament Information (Past, Present, & Future). which includes the results from the 68 NCAA Final Fours ever played, along how the four teams finished, the head coach of each championship team, each tournament's Most Outstanding Player, the score of each NCAA Championship Game, and the location of where each NCAA Final Four was held.  We also highlight the 33 NCAA Final Fours that I have personally attended.  Not only is that an incredible record in itself, especially when one finds out that I am only 46-years old, but, when I arrive in Indianapolis, IN next March, I will have attended exactly half of the NCAA Final Fours ever played.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

When doing our pre-season prognostications, it's always fun to come up with something different and original and, as a result, I really don't want to rank Duke as our  pre-season #1-ranked team.  But I have to.  They really are that much better than everybody else, as is evident by the fact that they clearly have the highest talent rating, they have Mike Krzyzewski, they have two of the best players in the nation (Sheldon Williams and J.J. Reddick), they have the best freshman in the nation (Josh McRoberts), and they have a great freshmen class that includes McRoberts, 6'1 Frosh Greg Paulus, 6'7 Jamal Boykin, 6'10 Eric Boateng, and Martynas Pocius, which provides valuable depth.  Instead, I will go out on a limb with my #2-ranked team, which is the University of Kentucky.  And, while most people seem to be surprised that I have the Wildcats this high, I think they have all of the ingredients necessary to win the NCAA Championship next March.  Remember, they have four great guards in 6'1 Soph Rajon Rondo, 6'0 Sr Patrick Sparks, 6'1 Soph Ramel Bradley, and 6'3 Soph Joe Crawford.  They also have 6'8 Jr Rekalin Sims, who was one of the top junior college players in the nation a year ago, to plug into either forward spot and they should have four players 6'10 or bigger in 6'10 Soph Randolph Morris, 7'3 Jr Shagari Alleyne, 7'0 Jr Lukasz Obrzut, and 7'2 Frosh Jared Carter.  And nobody has more depth, as Wildcats head coach Tubby Smith also can get quality minutes from players like 6'7 Jr Sheray Thomas, 6'6 Jr Bobby Perry, and 6'2 Sr Ravi Moss.  However, all this is based on the fact that we think Morris will be suspended for a certain number of games, but will be back for the stretch drive in the Southeastern Conference and NCAA Tournament.  In other words, we think it's hard to pick against a team that returns most of its players from a team that came with a double-overtime of advancing to the NCAA Final Four last March.  And this experience factor is the primary reason why we give Kentucky the nod over Texas in our Pre-Season Ranking of the Top 30 College Basketball Teams for the 2005-2006 Season, which we published exclusively in the Members Section earlier today.  These rankings also include the number of starters each team has returning, last year's conference and overall records, the conference to which each team currently belongs, each team's current talent rating, and some short comments about each team.  Speaking of our Exclusive Talent Ratings, which ranks each player based on where he was ranked coming out of high school, but also incorporates important things like experience, depth, and improvement at the college level, they were very important when it came to helping us determine where some of the teams should be ranked in our pre-season Top 30.  And this also is one of the reasons why we think our pre-season rankings are better than the competition's rankings.  As a matter of fact, a quick check back to 2004-2005 Pre-Season College Basketball Ranking Comparisons shows that only the HOOP SCOOP and the Lindy's Pre Pre-Season Basketball Magazine had as many as three of the four teams in last March's NCAA Final Four ranked among the top 10 in last year's pre-season rankings.  And the big reason why we had Michigan State ranked #2 in our pre-season rankings was the fact the Spartans had the best talent in college basketball, at least according to the Exclusive HOOP SCOOP Talent Ratings.  We also think it is interesting to note that the only one that had North Carolina ranked higher than us was Dick Vitale and that the only two publications that had Illinois ranked considerably higher than us were Lindy's and Street & Smith, which had the Fighting Illinois ranked #1 and #2.  And we also were on the high end of the spectrum with Louisville, Kentucky, and Arizona, which were ranked #3, #5, and #6 in the final ESPN/USA Today College Rankings and advanced to the NCAA Final Four and the Elite Eight, respectively.  Getting back to our our Exclusive Talent Ratings, we've already come up with a talent rating for each team that was considered for our ranking of Top 30 Pre-Season College Team and here's sneak preview of our top 20 college teams based on talent.  We've already told you that Duke is #1 with an 80.0 talent rating, but the rest of includes 2) Arizona with a 76.8 talent rating, 3) Villanova with a 75.3 talent rating, 4) Texas with a 74.0 talent rating, 5) Louisville with a 71.8 talent rating, 6) Indiana with a 69.1 talent rating, 7) Maryland with a 68.9 talent rating, 8) Connecticut with a 68.6 talent rating, 9) Kentucky with a 67.4 talent rating, 10) Michigan State with a 66.9 talent rating, 11) Syracuse with a 66.6 talent rating, 12) Memphis with a 65.7 talent rating, 13) UCLA with 65.1 talent rating, 14) Charlotte with a 65.1 talent rating, 15) LSU with 63.4 talent rating, 16) Michigan with a 64.4 talent rating, 17) Missouri with a 63.3 talent rating, 18) Iowa with a 63.2 talent rating, 19) Oklahoma with a 62.1 talent rating, and 20) Iowa State with 61.9 talent rating.  We also find it interesting that we have Gonzaga ranked #7, Boston College ranked #14, Alabama ranked #16, Washington ranked #17, and Georgetown ranked #19 in our pre-season rankings, but none of these teams we listed above are ranked among the top 20 teams based on talent.  In other words, other things like coaching, chemistry, past performance, and depth also go into our pre-season ranking of the top college teams.  We also find it interesting that the two conferences with the most teams ranked among our Pre-Season Ranking of the Top College Basketball Teams for the 2005-2006 Season are the Big East with Villanova, Connecticut, Louisville, Georgetown, and Syracuse and the Big-10 with Indiana, Michigan State, Iowa, Michigan, and Illinois.  The Southeastern Conference with Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, and LSU, the Big-12 with Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa State, and Missouri, and the Pacific10 with Arizona, Washington, UCLA, and California all have four teams and the Atlantic Coast Conference with Duke, Maryland, and Boston College and the Atlantic-10 with George Washington, Charlotte, and Temple with three teams apiece ranked among our Pre-Season Ranking of the Top College Basketball Teams for the 2005-2006 Season also illustrates just how much parity we think there is this year among the major conferences in college basketball.  In sharp contrast, a year ago the Atlantic Coast Conference had eight teams ranked among our HOOP SCOOP's Pre-Season Ranking Top 40 College Basketball Teams. 

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

It looks like 6'8 Ivan Johnson from Los Angeles Southwest (JC) CA, who recently asked for and received his release from the University of Cincinnati, has decided to enroll this fall at the University of Oregon.  And it looks like he has found the right loophole, whereby, he will be eligible to play right away.  Remember, when a player is released by a school, it means that he only has to sit out one year.  If a release is not granted, a player who transfers has to sit out two years.  In other words, the only way Johnson would be eligible after he signed a binding National Letter-of-Intent last spring would be if the school denied him admission or if he had grounds for an appeal (the coach leaving is not normally considered to be grounds for an appeal).  So obviously this is big for the Ducks, because Johnson, who averaged 22.3 ppg, 12.2 rpg, and 2.4 bpg, which ranked him first in rebounding and 8th in scoring among all junior college players in California, was one of the best inside players in the junior college ranks a year ago.  Johnson also is exactly what Oregon needs, as the Ducks are loaded at the guard and wing spots with 6'0 Aaron Brooks, 6'6 Soph Malik Hairston, 6'5 Soph Bryce Taylor, 6'5 Soph Chamberlain Oguchi, and 6'6 Soph Churchill Odia, who is sitting out this after transferring from Xavier, but are extremely thin inside.  Remember, Oregon's returning front court players - 6'10 Jr Matt Platt (3.1 ppg and 2.1 rpg), 6'9 Soph Marty Leunen (5.6 ppg and 4.3 rpg), 7'0 Soph Ray Schafer (2.6 ppg and 2.3 rpg), 7'0 Matt Short (0.8 ppg and 12. rpg) - did not set the world on fire a year ago.  And, while this great news for Oregon head coach Ernie Kent and his staff, it's not good news for Cincinnati interim head coach Andy Kennedy, who now must find somebody to step in immediately and replace 6'7 Jason Maxiell.  The only two candidates are 6'7 Cedric McGowan from Kilgore (JC) TX, 6'10 Abdul Herrera from Miami (South Miami) FL, and 6'10 Ronald Allen from Los Angeles, CA, but, if any one of the three are up to the task, then the Bearcats still could be pretty good, as four starters - 6'6 Sr Eric Hicks, 5'11 Sr Jihad Muhammad, 6'8 Sr Armein Kirkland, and 6'7 Sr James White - are back from a team that went 25-8 overall and 11-4 in the league a year ago.  And when you also add McGowan, Herrera, Allen, 5'10 Devan Downey from Chester (H.S.) SC, 6'7 DeAndre Coleman from Stone Mountain (Stephenson) GA, and 6'0 Dominic Tilford from Jeffersontown (H.S.) KY, it's obvious that they'll be young, but talented off the bench.  It also appears that Notre Dame has landed 5'11 Tory Jackson from Saginaw (Buena Vista) CA, who, in our opinion, is one of the hardest players to rank in the senior class nationally.  Jackson doesn't shoot the three well enough and isn't big enough to be a 2-guard nor does he make good enough decisions and have a good enough feel for the game to run the point.  However, Jackson is super quick, is excellent defensively, thrives in transition, and has a good mid-range game.  So, while we don't rank Jackson any higher than among the top 100 seniors nationally, we do think he will be a great piece to the puzzle, as Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey continues to land players who will thrive in his system and should complement one another.  Remember, they landed 6'11 Luke Zeller from Washington (H.S.) IN, 6'6 Ryan Ayers from Washington (H.S.) IN, 6'2 Kyle McAlarney from Staten Island (Moore Catholic) NY, and 6'7 Zach Hillesland from Toledo (St. John's) OH in last year's recruiting class and 6'8 Like Harangody from Gary (Andrean) IN already counts as part of this year's recruiting class.  So obviously one of the next things the Irish needed was a jet quick guard who could create havoc and make things happen.  And in Jackson it looks like they have found their man!  It also appears that 6'7 Shane Hanson from Canyon Lake (Temescel Canyon) CA has verbally committed to UC-Davis, 6'1 Scott Brooks from Raleigh (Wakefield) NC has verbally committed to Navy, and 6'6 Joe Mbang from Monroe (JC) NY has verbally committed to Rhode Island.  That last one is huge, because Mbang, who is a originally from Cameroon, is a big time athlete, a killer on the boards, and very effective from 15-feet and in.  In other words, Mbang is out of the same mold as Jason Maxiell, Eric Hicks, and Curtis Withers.  He also is one of the leading candidates for National Division II Player-of-the-Year honors and, once he gets to Rhode Island a year from now, not only should start immediately, but also has a chance be one of the best players in the league.  It's also a good thing that Rhode Island got this one done when they did, because the word was starting to get out as big time schools like Georgia and Maryland were making a strong a push.  We also want to make people aware of the Hoops For Hope Southern California High School Basketball Relief Benefit Game, which will be held on Sunday, September 25th, at 6:00 PM at Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach, CA and will benefit displaced children due to the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina.  All of the proceeds from the game will go to Operation Blessing, a non-profit humanitarian charity, and this is a great way to give back to those people who have lost everything, while at the same time watching great basketball.  And one of these people, 6'6 Dwight Lewis from Metairie (Archbishop Rummel) LA, will be playing in the game and USC head coach Tim Floyd will be in attendance to discuss the effects the hurricane had on the city he loves as well as on himself and his family.  Among the players who will be participating in the game will be Lewis, 6'7 Chase Budinger from Carlsbad (La Costa Canyon) CA, 6'1 Soph Brandon Jennings from Compton (Dominguez) CA, 6'7 Jr Taylor King from Santa Ana (Mater Dei) CA, 6'9 James Keefe from Rancho Santa Margarita (Santa Margarita) CA, 6'9 Alex Stepheson from North Hollywood (Harvard-Westlake) CA, 6'3 Patrick Christopher from Compton (Dominguez) CA, 6'6 Jr Tyrone Shelly from San Diego (Crawford) CA, 6'5 Soph Malik Story from Lakewood (Artesia) CA, 6'2 Jr Kamyron Brown from Santa Ana (Mater Dei) CA, 7'1 Jr Alex Jacobson from Santa Ana (Mater Dei) CA, 6'10 Jr Clint Amberry from Los Alamitos (H.S.) CA, 6'3 Tyree Thompson from Compton (Centennial) CA, 6'6 Jervaughn Johnson from Compton (Centennial) CA, 6'0 Jr Jesse Woodard from Compton (Centennial) CA, 6'4 Jr Quentin Watkins from Compton (Dominguez) CA, 6'7 Jr Pierce Brooks from Woodland Hills (Taft) CA, 6'8 Blake Wallace from Anaheim (Servite) CA, 6'1 Derrick Glasser from Lakewood (Artesia) CA, 6'5 Jr James Hardin from Lakewood (Artesia) CA, 6'8 Matt Shaw from Los Angeles (Verbum Dei) CA, 6'2 Dezon Otis from Compton (Dominguez) CA, 6'2 Jr Perry Webster from Mission Viejo (H.S.) CA, 6'5 Mychel Thompson from Rancho Santa Margarita (Santa Margarita) CA, and 6'6 Brad Sweezey from Huntington Beach (Ocean View) CA.  It also is important to note that 100% of the proceeds will go to Operation Blessing and the cost of admission will be $10 per person.  There also will be a raffle of memorabilia supplied by professionals from around the sports community.  And we plan to do our part, as we will provide three one-year subscriptions to Members Section of our web site for the raffle.  For more information contact on the game or how you can help, please contact Meg King at (714) 926-3885 or (714) 962-7672.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

It looks like 6'3 Patrick Christopher from Compton (Dominguez) CA, who is ranked #65 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP, has reaffirmed his verbal commitment to the University of California.  If you will recall, Christopher originally picked the Golden Bears back in early January, but re-opened his recruiting several months ago and as a result, schools like Washington, Texas, Kentucky, and USC entered into the picture.  However, now it appears that Christopher figured out that he had it right the first time, as this appears to be a perfect fit both on and off the court.  In other words, Christopher is a smart kid, as well as a good basketball player who has excellent 3-point shooting range and big time athleticism.  Christopher also is good enough to come in battle 6'4 Soph Omar Wilkes for a starting spot at the 2-guard position a year from now and he should be an excellent complement to 6'10 Taylor Harrison from San Clemente (H.S.) CA in a recruiting class that is now ranked #30 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  We also have confirmed that USC has landed 6'8 Taj Gibson from Simi Valley (Stoneridge Prep) CA and 6'5 Jr Daniel Hackett from Bellflower (St. John Bosco) CA.  And it also looks like Hackett's father, former Syracuse player Rudy Hackett, was part of the package, as he's been hired as an assistant coach at USC and will replace Jim Saia, who was the interim head coach last season, but left the program a month ago to pursue other opportunities.  Gibson not only is ranked #5 on our List of the Top 5th Year Players, but he also is one of the fastest rising players in the nation.  Gibson has always combined athleticism and size with an ability to score around the basket, block shots, and rebound, but his confidence and intensity levels have dramatically improved.  So he is exactly what the doctor ordered to complement all of the inside players - 6'11 Abdoulaye Ndiayne from Southern Idaho (JC) ID, 6'9 Jeremy Barr from Houston (Westbury Christian) TX, 6'8 Keith Wilkinson from Mission Viejo (Capistrano Valley) CA, and 6'9 Rousean Cromwell from Bradenton (Pendleton School) FL - that the new regime signed this past spring.  Hackett is not a great athlete, but he is an extremely skilled player who is capable of putting up prolific numbers with his excellent 3-point shooting and moves to the basket.  Hackett also was did well each of the past two years in the Underclassmen All-Star Game at the Reebok ABCD Camp in Teaneck, NJ and, as a result, is ranked now ranked #30 nationally in the junior class by the HOOP SCOOP.  So obviously getting two players of this caliber right in their own backyard is huge for the Trojans, as they attempt to lock up their fair share of one of most fertile recruiting areas in the nation.  We also find it interesting that 6'0 Lawrence Westbrook from Winchendon (School) MA changed his mind so quickly about going to the University of Memphis.  If you will recall, when Westbrook verbally committed to the Tigers a week ago, he was quoted as saying that he always wanted to play for Memphis head coach John Calipari.  So you have to wonder whether he is having second thoughts or whether Memphis actually ever offered him a scholarship.  Other verbal commitments that we found out about today include 6'7 Eric Meister from State College (H.S.) PA to Holy Cross, 6'11 Jamie Vanderbeeken from Belleville (Quinte Secondary) ON to Iowa, and 6'9 Jr Jeremy Price from Decatur (Columbia) GA to Georgia.  Price, who is ranked #99 nationally in the junior class by the HOOP SCOOP, is a 6'9, 260-pound physical specimen with good athleticism and huge upside.  So obviously he'll be an important piece to puzzle as Bulldogs head coach Dennis Felton continues to build a program, which went 8-20 overall and only 2-14 in the league, but started two sophomores and three freshmen a year ago, from the ground up.  But unfortunately Felton will have to wait two years before Price gets a chance to make an impact, because he's currently only just a junior in high school.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that by that time Price arrives he should be able to step right in and challenge for the starting spot at power forward.  Vanderbeeken did not play well when I saw him at the Main Event in Las Vegas, NV in July.  But Vanderbeeken is still intriguing, because he's long, fairly athletic, good on the boards, and has a lot of potential.  And Vanderbeeken doesn't have to be make much of an impact right away for the Hawkeyes, because, when he's a freshmen, 6'10 Jr Kurt Looby, 6'9 Soph Alex Thompson, 7'0 Soph Seth Gorney, and 6'8 Cyrus Tate from Vincennes (JC) IN will be vying for most of the playing time inside.  Speaking of Tate, he's the only other player that Iowa currently has in this year's recruiting class, but he's grown several inches and has dramatically improved since we saw him in high school and, as a result, is expected to be one of the top junior college players in the nation this season.  Meister is a good rebounder and is good in the high post, which means he should be an excellent complement to 6'7 Andy Keister from Galloway (Absegami) NJ, who verbally committed to the Crusaders a week ago.  And making the story even more interesting is the fact that Meister's father, Randy Meister, not only was one of the better players in Penn State basketball history, but he was the 7th pick in the ABA Draft by the Kentucky Colonels in 1975.  Remember, Hubie Brown, who was the head coach of the Kentucky Colonels at the time, later would have a great up-and-coming assistant coach named Rick Pitino working for him when he was the head coach of the New York Knicks.  And that's an important connection, because Holy Cross head coach Ralph Willard not only was one of Pitino's assistants with both the New York Knicks and at the University of Kentucky, but he also is one of Pitino's best friends.  The commitment by Keister is the fourth verbal commitment that Holy Cross has received in the two weeks, as the Crusaders also already have landed Keister, 6'8 Adam May from Mentor (H.S.) OH, and 6'2 Zach Paterick from St. Augustine (Nease) FL.  It also appears that IUPU-Ft. Wayne and IUPUI have added some excellent transfers.  Did you know that 6'4 Austin Montgomery, who played two years at Bowling Green, and 5'10 Gary Patterson, who played a year at Butler, both transferred to IUPUI last spring and that 6'9 Jeremy Holland, who signed with Bowling Green last spring also recently followed in their footsteps?  And, according to Indiana Basketball News, this last addition is important for a number reasons.  First, Holland is the best of the three transfers.  Second, Holland is a pure shooter with deep 3-point shooting range.  Third, Holland will have four years of eligibility after sitting out this season.  Fourth, Holland becomes the 15th Indiana native to fill the Jaguars' roster this season.  And equally impressive are the two transfers that first-year head coach Dane Fife has landed at IUPU-Ft. Wayne.  Last spring 6'4 Demetrius Johnson, who was one of the top seniors in Ohio two years ago, along with LaBron James, Andrew Lavender, Brandon Foust, C.J. Anderson, Monty St. Clair, and Reggie Harwell, transferred from Kent State to IUPU-Ft. Wayne.  And now they also have 6'3 Sr Kevin Nelson, who was the leading scorer (17.0 ppg) last year at Central Michigan, enrolled into school and sitting out this year.

Monday, September 19, 2005

With 6'11 Spencer Hawes from Seattle (Prep) WA, 6'8 Thaddeus Young from Memphis (Mitchell) TN, 6'9 Alex Stepheson from North (Harvard-Westlake) CA, and 6'10 Jr Julian Vaughn from Reston (South Lakes) VA all having made official visits to North Carolina over the weekend and 6'9 Earl Clark from Rahway (H.S.) NJ having made an official visit to Louisville, we thought some verbal commitments might be forthcoming yesterday or today.  But so far nothing has happened and we also think in each case the longer it goes the more it favors the school local school.  And the perfect example is Earl Clark, who has been saying for some time now that Villanova was the heavy favorite.  So, assuming that Earl Clark does pick the Wildcats, that would move their recruiting class up to #3 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  And, if Villanova also ends up with either 6'9 Lance Thomas from Newark (St. Benedict's) NJ or 6'7 Shane Clark, who signed with Maryland last spring, but was recently denied admission into school, then their class would move up to #2 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  And, if they totally hit the jackpot and get all three of the above mentioned players, then their recruiting class would move up to #1 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  However, if this happens, then Villanova head coach Jay Wright will have a scholarship problem.  Remember, as things stand now, the Wildcats have 13 players on scholarship - 6'9 Sr Jason Frasor, 6'7 Sr Curtis Sumpter, 6'2 Sr Allan Ray, 6'3 Sr Randy Foye, 6'9 Sr Marcus Allen, 7'0 Sr Chris Charles, 6'1 Jr Michael Nardi, 6'8 Jr Will Sheridan, 6'0 Kyle Lowry, 6'6 Frosh Dwayne Anderson, 6'5 Frosh Bilal Benn, 6'9 Frosh Dante Cunningham, and 6'9 Frank Tchuisi, and five more players - 6'4 Reggie Redding from Philadelphia (St. Joseph's Prep) PA, 6'7 Antonio Pena from Oakdale (St. Thomas More) CT, 6'8 Kraidon Woods from Swiftwater (Pocono Mountain East) PA, 6'9 Andrew Ott from Ft. Washington (Germantown Academy) PA, and 6'10 Caisem Drummond from Bloomfield (Tech) NJ - in their current recruiting class.  So, if they do land both the Clark's and Thomas, they would 15 player on scholarship a year from now.  One option would be to get 6'8 Kraidon Woods from Swiftwater (Pocono Mountain East) PA, who is young for his age, to go the prep school route.  But that would still mean that a second player would have to transfer or go the prep school route.  In contrast, North Carolina, which already has 6'0 Tywon Lawson from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, 6'4 Wayne Ellington from Merion Station (Episcopal Academy) PA, and 6'6 William Graves from Greensboro (Dudley) NC, in the fold doesn't have any scholarship problems.  As a matter of fact, the Tar Heels only have 10 players - 6'6 Sr David Noel, 6'11 Sr Damion Grant, 6'9 Sr Byron Sanders, 6'8 Jr Reyshawn Terry, 6'3 Soph Quentin Thomas, 6'9 Frosh Tyler Hansbrough, 6'5 Frosh Marcus Ginyard, 6'5 Frosh Danny Green, 6'3 Frosh Bobby Frasor, and 6'7 Frosh Mike Copeland - on scholarship right now and, as a result, can sign as many as six players in their current recruiting class or as many as eight players in the Class of 2006, Class of 2007, and Class of 2008.  In addition to Hawes, Young and Stepheson, The Tar Heels also are actively pursuing players like 6'10 Brandan Wright from Brentwood (Academy) TN, 6'9 Durrell Arthur from Dallas (South Oak Cliff) TX, 6'6 Duke Crews from Hampton (Bethel) VA, 6'8 Lance Thomas from Newark (St. Benedict's) NJ, and 6'8 Deon Thompson from Torrance (H.S.) CA.  And, if they get any three of this group, then they would be tough to beat for the best recruiting class.  We also have confirmed that 6'2 Todd Lowenthal from Poway (H.S.) CA has verbally committed to San Diego.  And we think this is huge for the Toreros, because we're talking about a tough hardnosed competitor who has the court savvy, smarts, and ball handling and passing skills necessary to run a team and the outside shooting necessary to also get some playing time at the 2-guard spot.  Lowenthal also has deceptive speed and quickness, which means his only weakness is that he needs to get bigger and stronger.  In other words, we think Lowenthal, who is a legitimate top 150 senior nationally, could emerge into one of the best players in the league before he's through.  Our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson tells us that 6'5 Jr Jon Diebler from Upper Sandusky (H.S.) OH, who verbally committed to Valparaiso last winter, has recently taken visits to Ohio State, Michigan, and N.C. State.  Not only does this lead us to believe that Deibler has reneged on the Crusaders, but we also have to wonder what the status of his older brother might be.  If you will recall, 6'2 Jacob Diebler from Upper Sandusky (H.S.) OH verbally committed at the same time as his younger brother and later signed with Valparaiso in the spring.  But this isn't the first time that one of the Diebler brothers has reneged on a verbal commitment.  Did you know that the older brother originally had committed to Army prior to joining his younger brother in what at the time looked like a package deal for Valparaiso?  As things stand now, Keith Diebler, who is both the father  and high school coach of both players, says that they will announce in the near future whether his younger son will honor his original commitment to Valparaiso or whether he will pick Ohio State.  Apparently that's what it's come down to right now.  However, with over a year before he has to sign binding National Letter-of-Intent and a family history like this, it wouldn't surprise us if Diebler changed his mind several more times.  We also have confirmed that 6'4 Jermaine Beal from De Soto (H.S.) TX has verbally committed to Vanderbilt and we think this is a great catch for the Commodores.  Not only are we talking about somebody who is ranked #73 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP, but he has a strong upper body, is excellent in transition, shoot the three, plays good defense, and has good enough ball handling and passing skills to also play some point guard. 

Saturday, September 17, 2005, & Sunday, September 18, 2005

Our West Coast Editor Dinos Trigonis confirms that 6'7 Quincy Pondexter from Fresno (San Joaquin Memorial) CA did have the press conference several days ago and did indeed verbally commitment to the University of Washington.  If you will recall, on Monday, Septemeber12th, we told you that this was going to happen.  Trigonis also tells us that 6'9 Jr Clint Amberry has transferred from Huntington Beach (Ocean View) CA to Los Alamitos (H.S.) CA, 5'9 Soph Percy Miller has transferred from Los Angeles (Windward) CA to Beverly Hills (H.S.) CA, and 6'9 Soph Auri Allen, who was at Los Angeles (Verbum Dei) CA, has yet to surface anywhere.  Trigonis also confirms the fact that 6'10 Jr Anthony Randolph, who was rumored to be transferring to a school on the West Coast, has turned home and is still attending North Little Rock (H.S.) AR.  However, the most interesting thing that Triginos has to pass along involves Ron Slater, who was the coach at Simi Valley (Stoneridge Prep) CA.  And "was" is the key word, because Slater, who had done an excellent job of recruiting top level talent, like 6'8 Taj Gibson, 6'1 Jonathan Gibson, 6'7 Darrington Hobson, 6'8 Rashad Austin, and 6'11 Soph Beas Hagma, apparently has been fired for what has been reported to be corruption in the program.  As things now, we're not sure whether these players will remain at the school or transfer elsewhere, but we will keep you apprised as more details become available.  Now also seems like a good time to tell you what happened at the 2005 Fullcourt Press Fall Showcase, which was held at Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach, CA on Sunday, September 11th and included seven all-star game ranging from a Top 24 Freshman Game at 10:30 AM to a Top 20 Senior Game at 6:00 PM.  But the highlight of the day came in the Top 20 Junior All-Star Game when 6'1 Soph Brandon Jennings from Compton (Dominguez) CA, who was playing up a year and his ranked by the HOOP SCOOP as the best sophomore in America, scored 44 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and dished out seven assists.  Jennings also had hit 17-30 field goals and had seven 3-pointers, including the one with 0.5 second left that sent the game into overtime.  Other stellar performances were turned in by 6'4 Patrick Christopher from Compton (Dominguez) CA, who had 34 points in the Top 20 Senior Game; 6'9 Frosh Aaron Moore from Compton (Dominguez) CA, who finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds and scored the game winning shot in the Top 20 Freshman Game; 6'7 Jr Jamelle Horne from San Diego (H.S.) CA, who had 23 points and had 15 rebounds in the Top 20 Junior Game; 6'7 Soph Troy Gillenwater from Los Angeles (Fremont) CA, who had 25 points and 20 rebounds in the Top 20 Sophomore Game; 6'1 Jr Jordan Block from Claremont (H.S.) CA, who had 20 points, six rebounds, and seven steals in the Top 20 Junior Game; 6'3 Tyree Thompson from Compton (Centennial) CA, who had 22 points, three rebounds, three assists, and four steals in the Top 20 Senior Game.; 6'2 Russell Westbrook from Lawndale (Leuzinger) CA, who had 22 points in the Top 20 Senior Game; 6'10 Jr Clint Amberry from Los Alamitos (H.S.) CA, who had 16 points and 17 rebounds in the Top 20 Junior Game; 6'6 Jervaughn Johnson from Compton (Centennial) CA, who had 21 points and hit 9-15 field goals in the Top 20 Senior Game; 6'6 Jr Tyrone Shelley from San Diego (Crawford) CA, who had 19 points in the Top 20 Junior Game; 6'4 Soph Zach Zaragoza from Irvine (Northwood) CA, who had 19 points, 14 rebounds, and four assists in the Top 20 Sophomore Game; and 6'5 Jonathan Malloy from Compton (Centennial) CA, who had 17 points in the Top 40 Senior Game.  Jim Hicks of the Cheat Sheat and rcssports.com tells us that 6'9 Soph Greg Monroe from Marrero (John Ehret) LA, who is one of the top-five ranked sophomores in the nation by the HOOP SCOOP, is now at Spring (H.S.) TX, but is expected to move back to South Louisiana next month.  Hicks also reports that 6'0 Jr Biko Paris from River Ridge (John Curtis) LA and 6'6 Dwight Lewis from Metairie (Archbishop Rummel) LA have both  transferred to Cypress (Community Christian) TX.  Hicks also wants us to pass along information about the Spring Ice Breaker, which will be held in Houston, TX, March 18th-19th, and should give anybody in attendance a head start on seeing all of the top young players in the Houston area, as well as covering the Houston Kingwood Classic, which will be held a month later.  At the Spring Ice Breaker, each team play only three games (mainly against cross sneaker rivals).  This way the teams get chance to get stress off their chests because many won't be able to face each other during the Spring or Summer.  Last year pretty much all of the State's Top Teams supported the event (80 teams including - Team Texas, Houston Hoops, Houston Select, Houston Swoosh, Houston Elite, Houston Superstars, Houston No Limit, Junior Hardballers, Westside All Stars, Dallas Showtyme, TJ Ford All Stars, Texas Ambassadors, ATX Boys, and more).  Plus, everyone has already recommitted to play again and last month they received commitments from T-Mac All Stars and New Jersey Playaz.  We also have received work that 6'9 Jr Herb Pope from Aliquippa (H.S.) PA has reneged on his verbal commitment to Pittsburgh and it appears that 6'8 Jason Love from Jenkintown (Abington Friends) PA has verbally committed to Xavier.  However, the big story this weekend involves the fact that 6'3 Jerome Dyson from Andover (Proctor Academy) NH and 6'11 Jonathan Mandeldove from Chatham (Hargrave Military) VA, both of whom made official visits to Storrs, CT this weekend, have verbally committed to the University of Connecticut.  Dyson, who is a big time athlete and one of the best 3-point shooters in the country, is ranked #40 on our list of the top seniors nationally, and Mandeldove, who is best described as a project, but has incredible wing span, good hands and feet, and an incredible upside, is ranked #84 on our list of the Top 5th Year Players.  In other words, it looks like Mandeldove will be the project that 6'11 Andrew Bynum from Metuchen (St. Joseph) NJ, who signed with the Huskies last fall, but entered his name into the NBA Draft this spring, was originally supposed to be, while 6'9 Curtis Kelly from New York (Rice) NY is expected to step in inside and help replace 6'8 Sr Ed Nelson and 6'10 Hilton Armstrong, both of whom will graduate after this season.  Speaking of Connecticut's recruiting class, which also includes Kelly, 6'3 Ramar Smith from Detroit (Martin Luther King) MI and 6'6 Will Harris from Wolfeboro (Brewster Academy) NH, the addition of Dyson and Mandeldove moves the Huskies recruiting class up to #2 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  Yes, it looks like the Huskies are reloading!  But this comes as no surprise after seeing Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun seemingly every place we went during the entire month of July.  However, a lot the credit also has to go to Connecticut assistant coaches Tom Moore and Andre LaFleur and Director of Basketball Operations Pat Sellers, as their recruiting class is now ranked only behind Ohio State and ahead of North Carolina, Louisville, Duke, Oklahoma, Georgetown, Villanova, Arizona, and Wake Forest on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.

Friday, September 16, 2005

One of the things that separates the HOOP SCOOP from the rest of the competition is our ability accurately forecast what's going to happen and where most of the top high school players in the nation are going to go to school well in advance of when they make their college decision.  As a matter of fact, with the exception of 6'10 Kevin Durant form Rockville (Montrose Christian) MD,  who shocked everybody when he picked Texas over North Carolina in June, we've been right on the money with all of our predictions for the top players in the Class of 2006.  If you will recall, we told you six months in advance that 6'5 Jonathan Scheyer from Northbrook (Glenbrook North) IL, 6'5 Gerald Henderson from Merion Station (Episcopal Academy) PA, and 7'0 Brian Zoubek from Haddonfield (Memorial) NJ were all locks for Duke; that 6'0 Tywon Lawson from Rockville (Montrose Christian) MD, 6'4 Wayne Ellington from Merion Station (Episcopal Academy) PA would probably end up at North Carolina (also months in advance); that 6'7 Chase Budinger from Carlsbad (La Costa Canyon) CA was done for Arizona two weeks before anybody else know it for sure; that it was only a matter of time before 6'9 Vernon Macklin from Chatham (Hargrave Military) VA picked Georgetown; that 7'0 Greg Oden from Indianapolis (Lawrence North) IN and 6'0 Michael Conley from Indianapolis (Lawrence North) IN would be a package deal and that ultimately Ohio State would win; that 6'9 Derrick Caracter from Elizabeth (St. Patrick) NJ, 6'2 Jerry Smith from Wauwatosa (East) WI, and 6'3 Edgar Sosa from New York (Rice) NY would all pick Louisville; and that 6'11 Brook Lopez from Fresno (San Joaquin Memorial) CA and 6'11 Robin Lopez from Fresno (San Joaquin Memorial) CA would both pick Stanford.  And on that one we missed the month by only a week (we said last fall that the Lopez twins would pick Stanford in January and it happened the first week in February).  We also were right on the money on Monday, September 12th, when we said that 6'7 Quincy Pondexter from Fresno (San Joaquin Memorial) CA would pick the University of Washington by the end of the week and 6'6 Isaiah Dahlman from Braham (H.S.) MN finally did what we thought he would do last spring and picked Michigan State.  So, with this in mind, let's attempt to do something a little bit harder, like predict where some of the top juniors in the nation will go to college a full 14 months in advance of when they can sign a binding National Letter-of-Intent.  And right at the top of our updated Ranking of the Top Players in the Class of 2007 are 6'5 Jr O.J. Mayo from Cincinnati (North College Hill) OH and 6'6 Jr Billy Walker from North College Hill) OH, who we still think will end up playing for former Cincinnati head coach Bobby Huggins year after next.  Did you know that Mayo and Walker both told Huggins that they would have gone to West Virginia with him, if he hadn't turned that job down three years ago?  We also suspect that neither Mayo or Walker ended up in Cincinnati by chance and know for a fact Huggins had made them both prime recruiting targets in July.  We also have heard that all of the players that Huggins was recruiting prior to when the school president pulled the trigger a month ago have been encouraged to delay making their decision in order to see where Huggins lands next spring.  Charlotte already has a verbal commitment from 6'8 Jr Michael Beasley from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA and, despite speculation to the contrary, the smart money says that Beasley will honor his commitment to the 49ers, unless UNCC assistant coach Dalonte Hill, gets a similar job at another school.  In other words, just like Huggins with Mayo and Walker, we think Hill, who both played and coached for the same DC Assault club team program that Beasley plays for now, is the key to getting this one done.  Normally we'd think 6'9 Jr Kevin Love from Lake Oswego (H.S.) OR would be a lock for the University of Oregon, because his father Stan Love was one of the leading scorers in the history of the school.  But, the last time we checked, the Ducks weren't even mentioned by Love.  Instead, UCLA, Duke, Arizona, Connecticut, North Carolina, Washington, and Kansas appear to be the favorites and the possibility of package that involves 6'7 Jr Kyle Singler from Medford (South Medford) OR and/or 6'7 Jr Taylor King from Santa Ana (Mater Dei) CA does exist.  And this makes even more sense when one finds out that Singler and Love have been best friends for years and the main reason why Love ended up playing for the Southern California All-Stars in the Reebok Big Time Tournament in Las Vegas, NV in late July was the close friendship that Love and King have developed over the years.  We also think 6'3 Jr Jerryd Bayless from Phoenix (St. Mary's) AR is already a near lock for Arizona and, if the Wildcats also follow this up with a verbal commitment from 6'1 Soph Brandon Jennings from Compton (Dominguez) CA in the next recruiting class, you can bet that Bayless, who is just as good off the ball, will move to the 2-guard spot.  And, if the Wildcats pull this off, we'd be talking about the best backcourt that Arizona head coach Lute Olson has ever had.  And that's saying a lot when one remembers that the Wildcats had Mike Bibby and Miles Simon in the backcourt when they won the NCAA Championship in 1997.  We also think Arizona will be tough to beat, for 6'7 Jr Gary Johnson from Houston (Aldine) TX, thanks, at least in part to Wildcats' assistant coach Josh Pastner's Houston Hoops connection (Pastner's father, Hal Pastner, runs the program).  We also be would shocked if 6'2 Jr Nolan Smith from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA doesn't pick the University of Louisville.  Remember, his late father (Derek Smith) is a former Louisville All-American and his older sister is currently a student at the school.  The list for 6'2 Jr Derrick Rose from Chicago (Simeon) IL includes Illinois, Kansas, Arizona, DePaul, Marquette, and North Carolina, but, when it's all said and done, we think it will be one of the first two.  And, when in doubt, always bet on the local school, especially when they've just been to the NCAA Final Four, even though the Fighting Illini have lost out on prime recruiting targets like 6'8 Julian Wright from Flossmoor (Homewood-Flossmoor) IL to Kansas and 6'5 Jonathan Scheyer from Northbrook (Glenbrook North) IL to Duke in the last year.  Maryland appears to have their hands full, as they attempt to beat N.C. State and Duke, which right now appear to be the two leaders, for 6'1 Jr Chris Wright from Washington (St. John's) DC.  We also think it only a matter of time before 6'0 Jr Johnny Flynn from Niagara Falls (H.S.) NY makes it official for Syracuse and it's going to be tough to beat St. John's for 6'0 Jr Corey Fisher from Elizabeth (St. Patrick) NJ, Syracuse for 6'5 Jr Daniel Hackett from Bellflower (St. John Bosco) CA, and Rutgers for 6'5 Jr Corey Raji from Township of Washington (Westwood) NJ, 6'5 Jr Corey Stokes from Newark (St. Benedict's) NJ, and  6'3 Jr Miles Beatty from Jersey City (St. Anthony's) NJ.  And, if you don't believe Rutgers assistant coaches Fred Hill and Jim Carr can get the top juniors in their backyard to stay at home, the verbal commitment that they've already received from 6'2 Jr Corey Chandler from Newark (East Side) NJ says they can.  We also find it interesting that eight of our top 100-ranked juniors are already off the board, as Beasley is already verbally committed to Charlotte, Chandler is already verbally committed to Rutgers, 6'0 Jr Edwin Rios from Miami (Senior) FL is already verbally committed to Miami-FL, 6'9 Jr Herb Pope from Aliquippa (H.S.) PA is already verbally committed to Pittsburgh, 6'4 Jr Nick Calathes from Winter Park (Lake Howell) FL and 6'4 Jr Gary Clark from Sarasota (Booker) FL are both already verbally committed to Florida, 6'9 Jr Laron Dendy is already verbally committed to Clemson, and 6'6 Jr Nate Miles from Toledo (Libbey) OH is already verbally committed to Xavier. 

Thursday, September 15, 2005

The word on the street is that 6'0 Lawrence Westbrook from Winchendon (School) MA has verbally committed to Memphis and we find this extremely interesting, because we're talking about one of the most over hyped high school players in the nation.  Sure, Westbrook is a prolific scorer and an excellent athletic who thrives in an up tempo setting, but his next pass might be his first and every time he plays against top notch competition his game gets exposed.  However, the fact that Westbrook has transferred from Chandler (H.S.) AZ to Winchendon (School) MA and will be playing this year for Mike Byrnes, who is one of the best high school/prep school coaches in the nation and is a genius when it comes to player development and the most out of his players, may mean the final chapter has not been written on this one yet.  Westbrook is best described as a scoring point guard, because he's best with the ball in his hands, but he doesn't make good enough decisions to run the show and he's not big enough to play the two at the big time college level.  In other words, Westbrook is a true combo guard, which means he should be an excellent complement a year from now to 6'5 Frosh Antonio Anderson and 6'5 Frosh Chris Douglas-Roberts, both of whom can play multiple positions and have good enough ball handling and passing skills to play some point guard.  But even more important is the fact Westbrook is not good enough to scare off 6'1 Willie Kemp from Bolivar (Central) TN, who is one of Memphis' top recruiting priorities, along with 6'8 Thaddeus Young from Memphis (Mitchell) TN.  And, if the Tigers do hit the jackpot and add both Young and Kemp to a recruiting class that is currently ranked #15 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006 and also already includes 6'8 Pierre Niles from Lake Suzy (Florida Prep) FL and 6'10 Hashim Bailey from Patterson (The Patterson School) MA, then we'd be talking about the #2-ranked recruiting class in the nation on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  And, even more impressive is the fact that getting Young, Kemp, and Niles, who recently transferred from Memphis (Ridgeway) TN to Lake Suzy (Florida Prep) FL, all to stay home might be Memphis head coach John Calipari's biggest recruiting coup ever.  And that's saying a lot when one remembers that Calipari landed Dajuan Wagner from Camden (H.S.) NJ, who, at the time was the #1-ranked high school player in the nation, soon after getting the job in 2000.  And, if that weren't enough, Calipari also got a verbal commitment that failed to hold up a year later from 6'9 Amare Stoudemire from Orlando (Cypress Creek) FL; signed 6'9 Kendrick Perkins from Beaumont (Ozen) TX, who, instead, decided to by-pass college and enter the NBA Draft, in 2003; and landed 6'0 Darius Washington from Orlando (Edgewater) FL, who was one of the top 10 players in the Class of 2004.  Our West Coast Editor Dinos Trigonis also tells us that 5'7 Tajuan Porter from Detroit (Renaissance) MI has verbally committed to the University of Oregon and this comes as no surprise for several reasons.  First. the Ducks been believed to the leader all along over schools like Oregon is the leader over Dayton, Detroit, Eastern Michigan, Tennessee, Cleveland State and Wyoming.  Second, Porter was a sophomore at Detroit (Renaissance) MI when 6'7 Soph Malik Hairston, who is now Oregon's best player, was a senior and, as a result,  the pipeline from the Motor City to the Pacific Northwest had already been established.  Third, Porter will be a freshman when 6'0 Jr Aaron Brooks is a senior a year from now, which means that Porter will be the heir apparent at point guard, but, at the same time, will have year to come in and learn the system and gain valuable experience.  Porter also has jet-like speed and quickness, isn't afraid to pull the trigger from beyond the arc, and has excellent ball handling and passing skills, excellent vision, and good court awareness.  However, Porter's lack of size not only scares us, but prevents us from ranking him among our top 100 nationally.  It also appears that 6'4 Todd Brown from Canton (McKinley) OH has picked Wright State over schools like Kent State, Toledo, Duquesne, and Western Carolina.  And this is big for the Raiders, because their biggest need in this recruiting class was an outside shooter who can flat out fill it up.  Not only does Brown have deep range and is prolific scorer, but he was Wright State's top priority in this year's recruiting class and he will team with 6'7 Raymar Morgan and 6'6 Ricky Jackson this season at Canton (McKinley) OH, where they will form one of the best 1-2-3 punches in the nation this season.  We also have confirmed that 6'6 William Archambault from Montreal (Champlain-St. Lambert) QU has picked Davidson over Richmond and Rice and 6'9 Curtis Nickson from Eutaw (Green County) AL and 6'4 Taurus Dortch from Birmingham (Ramsey) AL both appear to be heading to UAB.  Our Alabama Editor Mark Komara thinks that last one is a major steal, because Dortch not only is a stereotypical Blazers-like athlete, but he's an excellent scorer, a hard worker, and a terrific kid.  As a matter of fact, Komara likes Dortch so well that he ranks him among the top seniors in the state, along 6'9 Stanley Robinson from Birmingham (Huffman) AL, 6'2 Justin Tubbs from Birmingham (Hewitt Trussville) AL, 6'7 Demetrius Johnson from Birmingham (Huffman) AL, 6'6 Xavier Keeling from Huntsville (Johnson) AL, 6'7 Cordell Pope from Birmingham (Parker) AL, and 5'11 J.R. Strawbridge from Huntsville (Starkman) AL.  Nickson is more of a project, because right now he's slow afoot, but you have to like his upside and potential. 

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Earlier today 6'5 Matt Bouldin from Highlands Ranch (Thunder Ridge) CO picked Gonzaga over schools like California, Notre Dame, and N.C. State and we think this is a great catch for the Zags.  Not only is Bouldin is ranked #81 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP, but he is your stereotypical Gonzaga-like player, as he gets the most out of his ability, can shoot the lights out, is a tough hardnosed competitor, and has the ball handling and passing skills, court vision, savvy, and leadership qualities necessary to play point guard.  He also has the potential to get a lot better and, as a result, should be ideally suited to step in and be the heir apparent to 6'3 Jr Derek Raivio at point guard year after next.  Bouldin also should be the perfect complement to all the other good players, including Raivio, 6'8 Jr Adam Morrison, 6'9 Jr Sean Mallon, 6'6 Soph David Pendergraft, 6'0 Soph Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes, 6'11 Frosh Josh Heytvelt, 6'5 Frosh Larry Gurganiouis, 6'9 Jr Mamery Diallo, and 6'2 Frosh Jeremy Pargo, that Gonzaga head coach Mark Few will have in the program a year from now.  Speaking of Gonzaga, the only key player they lost from a team that went 26-5 a year ago is 6'10 Ronny Turiaf and Heytvelt, who red-shirted a year ago, and Diallo, who is one of the best big men in the junior college ranks ago, both are expected to step up and complement Morrison, Raivio, Mallon, and 6'6 Sr Erroll Knight, all of whom started a year ago.  And, except for Knight and 6'9 Sr J.P. Batista, who also will be counted upon to pick up some of the slack inside this season, they all will be back a year from now, which is when we think Few might have his best team ever.  And that's saying a lot when one remembers that Few has gone 159-37 over the last six years and Gonzaga will be ranked among our top five teams when we publish our Pre-Season College Rankings later this month.  The other big story involves 6'9 Theo Davis from Toronto, ON, who according to Darryl Schofield, has surfaced at Philadelphia (Lutheran) PA.  And Schofield should know, because he is the head coach at Philadelphia (Lutheran) PA.  We also hope that things work out this time for Davis, who first was on our radar screen when he was a freshman at Toronto (Westhill) ON.  He also attended Bayside (Cardozo) NY, where he was ineligible to play last year prior to returning to Toronto, ON and he also has already made verbal commitments to Texas and Iowa State.  However, Davis reneged on the Longhorns a year ago July and apparently was denied admission into school this fall by the Cyclones.  Schofield also tells us that his roster currently includes 6'10 Phil Jones from New York, NY, 6'3 Vernon Teal from Flushing (H.S.) NY, 6'3 Jamal Jackson from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY, 6'0 Kevin White from Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY, 6'5 Kashief Carr from Philadelphia (South Philadelphia) PA, 6'4 Amir Ali from Philadelphia (Simon Gratz) PA, 6'8 Erving Spruel from Philadelphia (South Philadelphia) PA, 6'5 Malik Perry from Philadelphia (Roman Catholic) PA, 5'10 Mike Scott from Philadelphia (Franklin Learning Center) PA, 6'4 Matt Robertson from Malvern (Great Valley) PA, 5'9 Darrell Mosley from Chester (H.S.) PA, and 6'4 Steve Hassell from Philadelphia (Lincoln) PA, but we're also getting reports about Jones possibly enrolling at Laurinburg (Institute) NC.  And this would make perfect sense, because there are always players coming and going at Philadelphia (Lutheran) PA.  Our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor Allen Rubin also tells us that 6'5 Rain Rickards from Lake Suzy (Florida Prep) FL has verbally committed to St. Francis-NY, 6'7 Andy Keister from Galloway (Absegami) NJ has verbally committed to Holy Cross, 6'1 Nick Vier from Oradell (Bergen Catholic) NJ has verbally committed to Vermont, 6'0 Marquis Hall from Portland (Jefferson) OR has verbally committed to Lehigh, and 6'5 Blake Wilson from Haddonfield (Memorial) NJ has verbally committed to Princeton.  The commitment by Keister is the third verbal commitment that Holy Cross has received in the last week, as the Crusaders also already have 6'8 Adam May from Mentor (H.S.) OH and 6'2 Zach Paterick from St. Augustine (Nease) FL in the fold.  And we think Keister, who will be ranked #20 when in the senior class in the Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor when Rubin updates his report either later this month or early next month, is the best of bunch.  Not only is he a good rebounder and hard worker inside, but he also has the ability to step out and hit the 17-footer.  The addition of Keister also moves Holy Cross' recruiting class up to #47 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  However, even more important, the Crusaders now have the best recruiting class to-date in the Patriot League.  The same also can be said about St. Francis-NY, which has received verbal commitments from Rickards, 6'6 Robert Mitchell from Philadelphia (International Christian) PA, and 6'5 David Burton from Fitchburg (Notre Dame) MA all within the last week.  We also think Vier, who is a tough hardnosed point guard who can shoot the three, has good leadership qualities, and knack for making things happen, is an excellent point guard around which new Vermont head coach Mike Lonergan can build the program.  Remember, Vermont lost four of its top six players, including 6'9 Taylor Coppenrath and 5'11 T.J. Sorrentine, who combined to average 43.8 ppg and 12.2 rpg, from a team that went 25-7 and knocked off Syracuse in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last March.  And we think Hall, who also had received interest from schools like Oregon State, Portland, Portland State, DePaul, Texas, Stanford, and San Diego, is a steal for Lehigh.  Not only is he one of the top five seniors in the state, along with 6'5 Seth Tarver from Portland (Jesuit) OR, 6'7 Phil Nelson from Salem (McNary) OR, 6'7 Bryson Hampton from Portland (Benson) OR, and 6'3 Lathan Wallace from Portland (Jefferson) OR, but he was the starting point guard for the Portland Legends, which won the championship in the Houston Kingwood Classic in Houston, TX last spring.  Hall also is an excellent ball handler and passer, makes good decisions, and knows how to run a team.  Wilson, who is Mr. Outside, while 7'0 Brian Zoubek is Mr. Inside on their high school team, is on one of the best 3-point shooters in South Jersey.  We also understand that 6'2 Pat Foley from South Huntington (St. Anthony) NJ has picked Columbia, 6'2 Sanchez Hughley from Longwood (Lyman) FL has committed to Florida Atlantic, and 6'7 Andy Polka from Oshkosh (West) WI is heading to Loyola-Illinois. 

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Our New York City Editor Ron Naclerio tells us that 6'6 Rob Thomas from South Kent (Prep) CT has verbally committed to South Florida and this is huge, because Thomas has the natural talent, athleticism, versatility, and potential to become the best player in the history of the program, as well as a NBA player down the road.  Right now we have Thomas ranked #6 in our Ranking of the Top 5th Year Players for the Class of 2006, which means he's the equivalent of a top 30-ranked senior nationally, and he's ideally suited to build the program around, as he can play multiple positions and has the potential to develop into an excellent 3-shooter.  Thomas also should be an excellent complement to 6'2 David Sills from Bunker Hill (JC) MA, 6'3 Chris Howard from Middleburg (Notre Dame) VA, 6'7 McHugh Mathis from St. Petersburg (JC) FL, 6'7 Melvyn Richardson from Lon Morris (JC) TX, and 6'6 Zarron Cann from Brandon (H.S.) FL, all of whom were apart of South Florida's recruiting class, which finished tied at #33, along with Nebraska, South Carolina, Louisiana Tech, and College of Charleston, on our Final Ranking of the Top Recruiting Classes for the Class of 2005.  As a matter of fact, South Florida should be dramatically improved a year from now once all the new faces mentioned above get a year of experience under their belt and Thomas, 6'4 Dante Curry from Kissimmee (Poinciana) FL, and anybody else that the Bulls land in this year's recruiting class arrive a year from now.  And this isn't the first time that South Florida assistant coach Julius Allen, who was hired a year ago to take advantage of all his New York City ties, has come through in a big way.  If you will recall, Sills, who is originally from Bronx (Regional) NY, was a playground legend when he played in the Rucker League and is as strong, as physical, and as tough as they come.  Sills originally signed with Northeastern, but failed to make it academically and, as a result, went the junior college route where he was named to First Team All-Conference as a freshman at Odessa (JC) TX two years ago.  He also made a stops at Southern Idaho (JC) ID and Bunker Hill (JC) MA and verbally committed to the University of Houston last winter, but later changed his mind and signed with Bulls during the Spring Signing Period.  Naclerio also tells us that 6'4 Frosh Lance Stephenson, who was supposed to enroll at Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin) NY this fall, has instead turned up at Brooklyn (Lincoln) NY.  And this may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Stephenson, because Lincoln head coach Tiny Morton also had Sebastian Telfair and, as a result, is already well versed in handling all the pressure and problems that go along with coaching one of the top high school players in the nation.  If you will recall, Stephenson has already left little doubt about the fact that he will be the next great player to come out of New York City, but, without going into all the details, often off the court still often acts like he's the 14-year-old immature freshman that he is.  We also have confirmed that 6'6 Tyler Smith from Chatham (Hargrave Military) VA has been cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse.  And this is important, because the National Letter-of-Intent that Smith, who is a partial qualifier, signed with Tennessee a year ago is now null-and-void.  So this means he is free and clear to go anywhere he wants after he attends a year of prep school this year.  Smith's early list already includes Miami-FL, Arkansas, Nebraska, Virginia, Pittsburgh, and Murray State, but, once the word gets out, you can bet that his list will get longer before it gets shorter.  Our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor Allen Rubin tells us that 6'5 David Burton from Fitchburg (Notre Dame) MA has verbally committed to St. Francis-NY, 6'8 Mike Yocum from Merion Station (Episcopal Academy) PA has verbally committed to Albany, 6'5 Josh Daniel from South Charleston (H.S.) WV has verbally committed to Eastern Kentucky, 6'8 Dan Geriot from Springfield (H.S.) PA has verbally committed to Richmond, 6'11 Rockwell Moody from Arlington (Bishop O'Connell) VA has verbally committed to St. Joseph's, and 6'6 Edwin Ubiles from Oakdale (St. Thomas More) CT has verbally committed to Siena.  What a steal for the Saints!  We're talking about an athletic combo forward who is excellent in transition, is extremely active around the basket, and is ranked #41 in our Ranking of the Top 5th Year Players for the Class of 2006.  Ubiles does need to work on his outside shooting and perimeter skills, but where better to refine those skills than at St. Thomas More, where he will play this season for Jere Quinn, who is the #2-ranked high school/prep school coach in the nation by the HOOP SCOOP?  Moody needs to get bigger and stronger and become meaner and tougher, but he has nice moves around the basket, rebounds, block shots, and has a huge upside.  In other words, Moody is not a finished product, but he is the stereotypical player that St. Joseph's has taken and developed in recent years.  And, when one also remembers that the Hawks already have 6'2 Darrin Govens from Chester (H.S.) PA, 6'0 Jawan Carter from Wilmington (Tatnall) DE, and 6'2 Derrick Rivera from  Philadelphia (St. John Neumann) PA in their current recruiting class, it's clear that the St. Joseph's coaching staff has done a great job of building upon the success that they had year before last when the Hawks went 30-2 and advanced all the way into the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament.  It's also easy to see why their recruiting class is tied at #15, along with Texas A&M, on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  What Geriot lacks in terms of speed, quickness, and athleticism, he more than makes up for with his intelligence and ability to score both inside and outside.  His range extends out beyond the arc, but Rubin also is impressed with his drop step, ability to post-up, willingness to play hard, and ability to rebound.  So obviously Geriot is ideally suited to fit right in a year from now with the Princeton-like offensive that new Richmond head coach Chris Mooney helped perfect during his days at both Princeton and Air Force.  It also looks like new Eastern Kentucky head coach Jeff Neubeuer was able to take advantage of his West Virginia ties (he was an assistant coach for the Mountaineers the last two years) when it came to landing Daniel.  However, we also have to give EKU assistant coach Ted Hotaling, who previously held a similar position at Yale and is one of the top up-and-coming guys in the business, some of the credit helping the Colonels land the other three recruits - 6'2 Adam Leonard from Lees Summitt (H.S.) MO, 6'1 Ryan Dillmany from Evansville (Central) IN, and 6'7 Josh Taylor from Pittsburgh (Brentwood) PA - that are currently in Eastern Kentucky's recruiting class, which now is the highest ranked recruiting class in the Ohio Valley Conference on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  Yocum is a good rebounder, can score around the basket, and can step out to 15 feet, as he averages close to a double-double and is the unsung hero on his high school team.  But, then again, this should come as no surprise when one remembers that two of his teammates - 6'5 Gerald Henderson from Merion Station (Episcopal Academy) PA and 6'4 Wayne Ellington from Merion Station (Episcopal Academy) PA - are two of the top seniors in nation.  The commitment by Burton also is important, because we're talking about a 5th Year Player who was ranked #19 in the senior class in the Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey by Rubin a year ago.  Burton's got a good mid-range game and rebounds, defends, can post-up, and plays big for his size.  So this makes him an excellent complement to 6'6 Robert Mitchell from Philadelphia (International Christian) PA, who also verbally committed to St. Francis-NY a week ago and is much better than this level.  We also understand that 6'8 Adam May from Mentor (H.S.) OH has verbally committed to Holy Cross.  May needs strength and quickness, but he's got size and is an excellent 3-point shooter, which makes him an excellent complement to 6'2 Zach Paterick from St. Augustine (Nease) FL, who also recently picked the Crusaders and can shoot the lights out.  We also have confirmed that 6'8 Jonas Jerebko from Sweden, 6'4 Calvin Betts from Rochester (Rush-Henrietta) NY, 6'7 Max Boudreaux from Montreal (Champlain-St. Lambert) QU, and 6'9 Kambi Laleye from Montreal (Champlain-St. Lambert) QU have verbally committed to Buffalo.  Betts knows how to get the basket and shoot the three, Boudreaux knows how to the score in the low post, and Laleye provides a defensive presence, but getting Jerebko is a major coup, because we're talking about somebody who played for the Swedish 18-Under National Team and has also considered turning pro in Europe.  Jerebko also has more than his share of American ties, as his father was an All-Western New York State Player and played college basketball at Syracuse and his uncle played at LeMoyne for West Virginia head coach John Beilein.  And these connections are important, because Jerebko picked Buffalo over West Virginia.  It also appears that Kent State has landed 6'3 Rodriguez Sherman from Indianapolis (Ben Davis) IN, who is ranked #379 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP.  However, people in Indiana think he might be a lot better than that.  As a matter of fact, Sherman was getting big time interest up until a year ago when he blew his knee out.  We're talking about a 6'3 long athletic combo guard who has drawn comparisons to former Bowling Green All-American Antonio Daniels.  And, just like Daniels in the mid-90's, Sherman has the potential to be come out of nowhere and end up being one of the best players in the league in three or four years.  Sherman also should provide an excellent complement to the two outstanding transfers - 6'7 Jr Haminn Quaintance, who was the rookie of the year in the Atlantic Sun Conference two years ago and was a First Team All-Conference Player each of the last two years at Jacksonville, and 6'6 Chris Berry, who averaged 8.0 ppg and 4.0 rpg as a freshman last season at Fresno State - that plan to enroll at Kent State this fall.  We also have confirmed that 6'3 Will Veasley from Freeport (H.S.) IL has verbally committed to Butler and it appears that the deciding factors were "his relationship with the Butler coaching staff, their persistence in recruiting him, and the team's hard-nosed style of play suited him very well."  Veasley's final choices were Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois, Bradley, and Western Michigan.  We also think it is interesting to note that Butler assistant coach LaVall Jordan was present at nearly every AAU game this spring and made Veasley a high priority.  Speaking of the Illinois Wolves club team program, Veasley's teammate - 6'7 Elliott Engelmann from Downers Grove (South) IL - also cast his lot with Butler a week ago. 

Saturday, September 10, 2005, Sunday, September 11, 2005, & Monday, September 12, 2005

The press conference won't be held until Thursday, September 15th, but the HOOP SCOOP has learned that 6'7 Quincy Pondexter from Fresno (San Joaquin Memorial) CA has already made the decision and he intends to inform University of Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar today that he plans to sign with the Huskies this fall.  And this is big for a number of reasons.  First, Pondexter is ranked #27 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP, which makes him one of the fastest rising players in the nation.  Second, Pondexter is an incredible athlete, which means he is ideally suited to step in a year from now and not only complement 6'7 Frosh Jon Brockman, but also help replace 6'6 Sr Brandon Roy, 6'6 Sr Bobby Jones, 6'5 Sr Jamaal Williams, and 6'8 Sr Mike Jensen, all of whom will graduate after this season.  Third, the addition of Pondexter will move the Huskies' recruiting class, which also already includes 6'6 Roburt Sallie from Patterson (The Patterson School) NC, and 6'3 Adrian Oliver from Modesto (Christian) CA, up to #12 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  Fourth, getting Pondexter will give Romar and his staff just one more selling point, as they attempt to convince 6'11 Spencer Hawes from Seattle (Prep) WA, who will be ranked #9 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP when we publish our updated rankings of the top players nationally in the Class of 2006 later this week, that he is the final piece to the puzzle.  Remember, Hawes has narrowed his list of schools to Washington, North Carolina, and Stanford.  However, it would be a major surprise, if Hawes picked Stanford due to the fact that The Cardinal already has three excellent inside players in this recruiting class in 6'11 Brook Lopez from Fresno (San Joaquin Memorial) CA, 6'11 Robin Lopez from Fresno (San Joaquin Memorial) CA, and 6'9 Will Paul from Corpus Christi (Calallen) TX.  Instead, we think it's going to be tough to beat the Huskies and, assuming that we're right, then their recruiting class will move up #3, behind Ohio State and North Carolina and ahead of Louisville, Duke, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Georgetown, Villanova, Arizona, Wake Forest, and Stanford, on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  And, if 6'7 Martell Webster from Seattle (Prep) WA hadn't by-passed college and entered his name into the NBA Draft last spring, and 6'6 Roburt Sallie from Patterson (The Patterson School) NC hadn't needed another year of prep school, then Washington's recruiting class, which also included 6'7 Jon Brockman from Snohomish (H.S.) WA, 7'0 Joe Wolfinger from Northfield (Northfield-Mt. Hermon) MA, 6'4 Harvey Perry from Wolfeboro (Brewster Academy) NH, 6'0 Justin Dentmon from Winchendon (School) MA, and 6'8 Artem Wallace from Toledo (H.S.) WA, would have been ranked #3 in our Final Ranking of the Top Recruiting Classes for the Class of 2005.  And, when you also add 6'5 Soph Joel Smith and 6'2 Soph Ryan Appleby, who sat out last season after transferring from Florida, into the equation, it's easy to see why we think the Huskies are on the verge of joining Arizona year-in and year-out as the dominant power on the West Coast.  And, history says that they can hold off a heavy-hitter like North Carolina for a top player in their backyard.  As a matter of fact, no school in the nation a year ago landed two better players a year ago when Washington signed Webster, who finished ranked #1, and Brockman, who finished ranked #12 in our Final Ranking of the Top Players in the Class of 2005.  But, if we're wrong and North Carolina hits the jackpot, then they would be well on their way towards landing the #1-ranked recruiting class on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  And, we think that could happen, even if the Tar Heels don't get Hawes, because they also are one of the leaders for 6'9 Durrell Arthur from Dallas (South Oak Cliff) TX, 6'10 Brandan Wright from Brentwood (Academy) TN, 6'6 Willard "Duke Crews from Hampton (Bethel) VA, and 6'8 Thaddeus Young from Memphis (Mitchell) TN.  We also understand that 6'0 D.J. Augustine, who is currently ranked #24 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP, has transferred from New Orleans (Brother Martin) LA to Sugar Land (Hightower) TX.  And this is important, because this means Augustine will participate in the Academy National Invitational in Houston, TX, December 26th-28th, in what already is loaded field.  And this enhances what already should be an incredible field, as the list of teams in the National Division includes Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, Philadelphia (St John Neumann) PA, Los Angeles (Fairfax) CA, Houston (Kingwood) TX, Marietta (Wheeler) GA, Alexandria (Peabody) LA, Houston (Bellaire) TX, Mobile (LeFlore) AL; the list of teams in the Texas Division includes Houston (Aldine) TX, Alief (Alief-Hasting) TX, Sugar Land (Hightower) TX, Houston (Jones) TX, Houston (Wheatley) TX, Houston (Westfield) TX, Houston (Eisenhower) TX, and San Antonio (Cornerstone) TX; and the list of top players who will be in attendance includes 6'0 Tywon Lawson from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, 6'8 Jr Michael Beasley from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, 6'2 Nolan Smith from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, 6'7 Jr Gary Johnson from Houston (Aldine) TX, 6'5 Earl Pettis from Philadelphia (St. John Neumann) PA, 6'1 Derrick Rivera from Philadelphia (St. John Neumann) PA, 6'2 Jr Antonio Jardine from Philadelphia (St. John Neumann) PA, 6'8 Jr Rich Jackson from from Philadelphia (St. John Neumann) PA, 5'9 Nic Wise from Houston (Kingwood) TX, 6'6 Jr Mike Singletary from Houston (Kingwood) TX, 6'1 Dewayne Reed from Houston (Wheatley) TX, 6'7 Jr Isaiah Rusher from Houston (Bellaire) TX, 5'10 Jr Jai Lucas from Houston (Bellaire) TX, 6'6 Dale Van Wright from Houston (Bellaire) TX, 6'6 Jr Chase Stanback from Los Angeles (Fairfax) CA, 6'5 Jerren Shipp from Los Angeles (Fairfax) CA, 6'0 Soph Chris Solomon from Los Angeles (Fairfax) CA, 6'3 Harrison Smith from Houston (Jones) TX, 5'9 Jr B.J. Holmes from Alief (Hasting) TX, 6'5 Soph DeEverett Williams from Alief (Hasting) TX, 6'5 Anthony Wright from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, 6'3 John Tiller from Marietta (Wheeler) GA, 6'3 Jr Dominique Nixon from Marietta (Wheeler) GA, and 6'1 Brandon Hollinger from Mobile (LeFlore) AL. 

Friday, September 9, 2005

Rob Matera of Rivals.com was the first person to tip us off about the fact that 6'6 Shane Clark from Chatham (Hargrave Military) VA had been denied admission into the University of Maryland, because he failed to meet the academic requirements necessary to enroll in school and, as a result, will not play for the Terrapins this season.  And this raises all kinds of questions, including whether Clark will return to prep school and attempt to become eligible in December or next spring or whether he will just go the junior college route.  We also aren't sure whether Clark, who originally is from Philadelphia, PA and previously had verbally committed to Villanova, but later changed his mind, will honor is commitment to the University of Maryland or re-open his recruitment.  However, one thing is for sure.  Clark, who was ranked #6 in our Final Ranking of the Top 5th Year Players for the Class of 2005, which would have made him the equivalent of a top 30 high school senior, if we didn't rank 5th Year Players separately, would be exactly what the doctored ordered for any school that has an immediate need for the best available player a year from now.  And both Maryland, which will lose 6'8 Sr Nik Caner-Medley, 6'8 Sr Travis Garrison, and  6'5 Sr Chris McCray, and Villanova, which will lose 6'7 Sr Curtis Sumpter, 6'3 Sr Randy Foye, 6'2 Allan Ray, and 6'9 Jason Frasor after the upcoming season, certainly fit that description.  It also appears that 6'4 Keaton Grant from Kissimmee (Gateway) FL, who signed with Missouri a year ago, is back on the board and will attend prep school at North Bridgton (Bridgton Academy) ME.  However, don't worry about Missouri head coach Quin Snyder, because we think Missouri could be a major surprise this season.  Not only should 6'3 Sr Jimmy McKinney, 6'5 Jr Thomas Gardner, and 6'9 Sr Kevin Young provide the necessary experience and leadership and 6'0 Soph Jason Horton, 6'7 Soph Marshall Brown, 6'8 Soph Kalen Grimes, and 6'6 Soph Glen Dandridge will now have an added year of experience, but 6'8 Leo Criswell from Virginia Beach (Coastal Christian) VA, 6'3 James Douglas from Schoolcraft (JC) MI, and 6'8 DeAndre Thomas from Chicago (Westinghouse) IL are good enough to step in and provide immediate help this season.  We also think it is important to note that Snyder has hired Lance Irvin as an assistant coach to replace Marcus Perez, who recently resigned in order to return to the Southeast, where he could be closer to his family.  And this is important, because Irvin, who also has held similar positions at DePaul, Texas A&M, Loyola-Illinois, Illinois State, and Iowa State, should give Missouri an important pipeline into Chicago, IL.  Remember, Irvin, who is the brother of former Missouri star Byron Irvin and the son of the legendary Illinois Fire AAU program director Mac Irvin, played high school basketball at Chicago (Julian) IL and has more than his share of contacts in the Windy City.  We also have confirmed that 6'5 Andre McFarland from Las Vegas (Durango) NV has reneged on the verbal commitment that he previously made to USC and, as a result, is back on the board.  McFarland isn't ranked among our top 100 seniors nationally, but, after showing dramatic improvement during the spring and summer, he could be.  We're talking about a good athlete who can beat you with his ability to get to the basket and hit the outside shot.  He also rebounds well for his size and knows how to compete, which is why schools like California, UNLV, Arizona State, Baylor, Oregon State, and Tennessee were also recruiting him prior to when he made a verbal commitment to USC last spring.  At one point we thought Oregon State might be the leader, but UNLV's recent commitment from 6'0 Marcus Lawrence from Las Vegas (Bishop Gorman) NV also might prove to be a factor in McFarland's future decision.  Remember, last spring we believed that the possibility of a package involving McFarland, Lawrence, and 6'3 P. Allen Stinnett from Las Vegas (Palos Verdes) NV, who is verbally committed to Iowa State, did exist.  It also appears that 6'7 Elliott Engelmann from Downers Grove (South) IL has picked Butler over Eastern Kentucky, Northern Illinois, Albany, and Northern Illinois and our West Coast Editor Dinos Trigonis confirms that 6'7 Aaron Moore is at Compton (Dominguez) CA.  If you will recall, earlier this summer Moore told the HOOP SCOOP that he planned to enroll at Dominguez.  However, Joe Keller, who runs the adidas Junior Phenom Camp and coached Moore in the Team California AAU program, was telling us in early August that he thought Moore would still enroll at Fontana (H.S.) CA.  We also understand that 6'9 Ray Hall, who was supposed to transfer from Colorado (Mullen) CO to Lakewood (Artesia) CA, has returned back to Denver, CO.  But, as of yet, we have no word as to whether Hall will return to his old school or enroll someplace else.  And this may be explained by the fact that the Artesia boys' basketball program is being investigated again.  Dan Arritt and Eric Sondheimer are reporting in an article in today's Los Angeles Times that "the investigation by the ABC Unified School District centers on an apartment near campus that has been housing players and serving as their official address.  Student-athletes who transfer must change residence with a parent or guardian to be eligible, according to section rules.  Artesia Coach Scott Pera, who moved from Pennsylvania five years ago to replace fired coach Wayne Merino, said Wednesday evening that he had not been fired.  He referred further questions to Sergio Garcia, Artesia's new principal.  Garcia did not return calls seeking comment."

Thursday, September 8, 2005

Anybody who questions whether first-year New Mexico State head coach Reggie Theus is going to get it done obviously hasn't been paying attention.  As a matter of fact, just today, when my most recent issue of Basketball Times arrived, Theus' picture was on the cover.  But, even more important, before coaching a single game Theus and his staff already have added 10 new faces to a program that only won six games a year ago.  If you will recall, last spring New Mexico State landed four transfers in 6'5 Soph Justin Hawkins, who transferred from Utah, 6'4 Soph Fred Peete, who transferred from Kansas State, 7'0 Soph Martin Iti, who transferred from Charlotte, and 6'7 Soph Trei Steward, who transferred from Northern Colorado, and three recruits in 6'8 Supo Jegede from Northeastern Colorado (JC) CO, 6'8 Kevin Ford from Portland (Jefferson) OR, and 6'6 David Fisher from Arkansas-Ft. Smith (JC) AR.  And the Aggies also have recently landed 5'9 Shaun Davis from Southern Idaho (JC) ID, 6'5 Shon Caston from L.A. Trade Tech (JC) CA, and 6'10 Hatila Passos from Arkansas-Ft. Smith(JC) AR.  Davis, who played his freshman year at Pepperdine and was previously set to go to Indiana last winter and USC this spring prior to enrolling at New Mexico State, and Caston, who is an excellent mid-range shooter and is like a jack-of-all-trades, both will be eligible to play right away.  However, New Mexico State will have to wait a year to get Passos, who has transferred from Dixie (JC) UT, where he averaged 11.1 ppg and 7.0 rpg a year ago, to Arkansas-Ft. Smith (JC) AR, where he is expected to be one of the top big men in the junior college ranks this year.  In other words, it looks like New Mexico State will take it's lumps again this year as inexperience appears to be the order of the day.  But a year from now this could be one of the best teams in the Sun Belt Conference, if Theus can put all the right pieces together and find the right chemistry.  Our Georgia Editor Linzy Davis, who also is the head coach at Stockbridge (Community Christian) GA, just continues to add players, as he appears to be well on his way towards building one of the premier high school basketball programs in the nation.  His latest edition is 5'9 Baptiste Bataille from France, who is a Ted Dupay-like scoring point guard who is the hardest working player on the team.  And Bataille also might be the best player on the team!  And that's saying a lot, because 6'7 Soph Olu Ashaolu is one of the top five-ranked sophomores in the nation; 6'5 Solomon Tat will sign with either Virginia or Georgia this fall; 6'0 Frosh Junior Cadougan, who decided to transfer from Toronto (Eastern School of Commerce) ON to Stockbridge (Community Christian) GA a month ago, is already one of the better point guards in the nation, as well as a top five player nationally in his class; 6'7 Ousmane Cisse, who is originally from the Ivory Coast, and 6'4 Carlos Morias, who is originally from Angola, are both already verbally committed to Kansas State; and 6'7 Soph Vincent Rodgers, who played last year at Lithonia (Martin Luther King) GA, but originally is from Brooklyn, NY, is ranked #36 nationally in the sophomore class by the HOOP SCOOP.  And, if that weren't enough, Davis also has five more Division I players in 6'11 Krostoff Janiszewski, 6'8 Jakeb Gadomski, 6'7 Alek Mrozik, and 6'8 Petras Balozak, all of whom are from Poland, and 6'6 C.J. Johnson, who is 6'10 Alexander Johnson's younger brother, and he expects to get a 7-foot center from Russia who also happens to be a terrific volleyball player sometime in the immediate future.

Wednesday, September 7, 2005

The only surprise with today's verbal commitment by 6'6 Isaiah Dahlman from Braham (H.S.) MN to Michigan State was that it took as long as it did to get done.  If you will recall, we thought it was a done deal last spring, but everything was put on hold until Dahlman could finally make his official visit to East Lansing last weekend.  And this is an important catch for the Spartans, because Dahlman is ranked #41 nationally in the senior class and, as a result, appears to be ideally suited to step in a year from now and fill one of the wing spots that will likely be vacated when 6'4 Sr. Maurice Ager graduates and if 6'3 Jr Shannon Brown decides to forgo his final year of eligibility and enter his named into the NBA Draft next spring.  Dahlman not only is extremely skilled, but he's a prolific scoring wing forward with excellent court savvy and tremendous versatility.  However, Michigan State's gain is Iowa's and Minnesota's loss.  However, the Golden Gophers did manage to get one of the three highly touted players - Dahlman, 6'7 Corey Johnson from Duluth (East) MN, and 6'9 Bryce Webster from St Paul (St. Thomas) MN - in their backyard in this year's senior class to stay home as a week ago they got a verbal commitment from Webster.  Webster had a lousy spring and summer, but he still passes the look test and has a huge upside, if he ever learns to play hard and become a dominant force around the basket.  And we suspect that will happen, because Minnesota head coach Dan Monson has a history of getting the most out of his players.  And, if you don't believe, just look at what the Golden Gophers did a year ago when they were picked to finish 10th in the Big-10 Conference, but finished with a 21-11 overall record and 10-6 conference record. We also are very intrigued by the fact that 6'11 Mohamed Kone from Southern Idaho (JC) ID, who signed with Baylor last spring, but apparently was denied admission into school at Baylor, has instead enrolled at Valparaiso.  And this makes perfect sense, because Baylor head coach Scott Drew originally recruited Kone when he was an assistant coach and then the head coach at Valparaiso.  So, if Drew can't get Kone himself, where better to send him than the school where his father (Homer Drew) is once again the head coach and his younger brother (Bryce Drew) is now an assistant coach.  And this is major coup, because we're talking about an athletic shot blocking 6'11 center who was one of top junior college players in the nation a year ago and he will be able to step in and play right away this year at Valparaiso.  Our New York City Editor Ron Naclerio tells us that Stony Brook has landed 6'3 Marcus Robinson from Pittsburgh (Allderdice) PA and 6'0 Marques Cox from Bayside (Cardozo) NY.  And we think Robinson may be a steal, as he flew under the radar screen this summer by not playing any AAU ball.  Cox originally was supposed to be going the prep school route, but when Stony Brook offered, he accepted and, as a result, will be eligible to play right away.  Robinson, on the other hand, will count with Stony Brook's current recruiting class, which already includes 6'1 Chris Martin from Pittsfield (Maine Central Institute) ME.  We also have confirmed that Eastern Kentucky has landed 6'1 Ryan Dillman from Evansville (Central) IN, 6'2 Adam Leonard from Lees Summit (H.S.) MO, and 6'7 Josh Taylor from Pittsburgh (Brentwood) PA and Mt. St. Mary's has gotten a verbal commitment from 5'9 Jeremy Goode from Charlotte (Providence Day) NC.  That last one is especially interesting, because this lefty point guard has jet-like speed and quickness, is an excellent defender, is good at pushing the ball and getting into the lane, and can also put up prolific numbers, as is evident by the fact that he averaged 26.0 ppg last season.  And how about Liberty getting 6'6 Ricky Jackson from Canton (McKinley) OH, who is ranked #227 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP and teams with 6'7 Raymar Morgan from Canton (McKinley) OH to form one of the best one-two punches in the state?  Jackson also is a big time athlete who attacks the rim, plays excellent defense, is versatile enough to play both inside and outside, and has the potential to become one of the best players to ever play at Liberty.  And that's saying a lot when one remembers that 6'1 Jr Larry Blair averaged just over 16.0 ppg last season and is one of the best players in the league; 6'7 Soph Rell Porter finished ranked #182 our Final Ranking of the Top Players in the Class of 2004 and has a tremendous upside; and 6'8 Tyler Baker from Albuquerque (Temple Baptist) NM and 6'4 Anthony Smith from Plano (East) TX are good enough to step in and make an immediate impact on a team that should be dramatically improved from a year ago when they finished 13-15 overall and 11-5 in the Big South Conference.  In other words, it looks like Liberty head coach Randy Dunton has the Flames perfectly positioned not only to challenge for the league championship for years to come, but Liberty also is only one inside player away from becoming one of the best teams in the nation at the mid-to-low Division I level.  It also appears that 6'2 Zach Paterick from St. Augustine (Nease) FL, who is one of the better 3-point shooters in the state, has verbally committed to Holy Cross and we're getting reports about 5'10 Edwin Rios transferring from Miami (Senior) FL to Hollywood (Chaminade) FL.  We also got an email today from Eastern Invitational Director Andy Toole and he provides us with a list of dates for the Fall 2005 Top 100 Tour, which includes the Metro 100 at Seton Hall University on September 17th-18th; the Philly Top 100 at La Salle University on September 27th-28th; the New England Top 100 at Loyola on October 1st-2nd; the Mid-Atlantic Top on October 8th-9th; and the Northeast PA Top 100 at Hoop City in Scranton, PA on October 12th.  They also will run a Metro Sweatshop for 7th, 8th, & 9th Graders on October 7th at Rebounds in Neptune, NJ.  For more information about any of these events call (732) 502-2255 or email atoole@hoopgroup.com.

Tuesday, September 6, 2005

Did you know that 6'8 A.J. Taylor from Palm Harbor (University) FL and 6'9 Jr LaRon Dendy from Greer (H.S.) SC have both verbally committed to Clemson?  And, if you did, do realize what a steal both of these guys are?  Tyler, who is ranked #7 in the senior class in state by our Florida Editor Rick Staudt, is a skilled power forward who plays hard, knows how to score, plays excellent defense, can block shots, and has above average speed and quickness for a white kid.  He also plays extremely hard and had schools like Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, South Florida, and Princeton showing interest.  Dendy finished ranked #12 by the HOOP SCOOP at the NIKE All-American Camp, but I liked him better than that, as he displayed big time athleticism, a soft touch around the basket, good moves in the lane, and the talent and potential to be even better than 6'7 Jr Mike Holmes from Bishopville (Lee Central) SC, 6'7 Jr Marshall Moses from Kernerville (Robert Glenn) NC, and 6'6 Jr Eric Wallace from Kernersville (Robert Glenn) NC, who are the top three ranked juniors in that part of the country.  In other words, we may talking about a potential top 20 junior nationally, as well as a great sleeper for the McDonald's All-American Game a-year-and-a-half from now.  Right now Dendy is more of a power forward than a wing forward, but with his long frame and ability to run the court and play facing the basket, he likely will develop into a wing forward down the road.  But for that to happen, he needs to improve his outside shooting.  The addition of Taylor and Dendy also means that Clemson should be well stocked at both forward spots for years to come.  Remember, the Tigers also have verbal commitments from both 6'5 David Potter from Bradenton (Pendleton School) FL and 6'7 Trevor Booker from Union (H.S.) SC in their current recruiting class and also have a plethora of  young forwards already in the program, including 6'5 Soph Sam Perry, 6'9 Soph James Mays, 6'7 Frosh Julius Powell, and 6'9 Frosh Robert Sykes.  They also have an excellent array of good guards in the program, including 6'0 Jr Vernon Hamilton, 6'3 Soph Cliff Hammonds, 6'0 Frosh Tony Mathis, and 6'5 K.C. Rivers, and this obviously is a testament to the great recruiting job that Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell and his assistant coaches Kevin Nickleberry, Ron Bradley, and Frank Smith have done during the last two-and-a-half years.  However, this comes as no surprise to us, because Nickleberry is one of the top assistant coaches in the nation, Bradley has had 11 years of head coaching experience at the Division I level dating back to when he succeeded Purnell at Radford in 1991-92, and Smith has been one of Purnell's right hand men for 14 of his 16 years as a head coach at Radford, Old Dominion, Dayton, and Clemson.  Our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor Allen Rubin tells us that Navy has a verbal commitment from 6'9 Trey Stanton from Houston (Friendswood) TX and this too appears to be an excellent catch.  Stanton, who is ranked #98 in the senior class in state by TexasHoops.com, is a mobile face-up four-man who can also rebound and score around the basket and also was receiving interest from schools like Air Force, Colgate, Rice, San Diego, Western Illinois, Centenary, and UC-Sacramento.  Rubin also tells us that 6'8 Dennis Horner from Absecon (Holy Spirit) NJ, who is the #2-ranked senior in South Jersey, has verbally committed to N.C. State.  Horner gets to the basket, puts it on the floor, is a good outside shooter, and has the ability to post-up.  Horner also is excellent in a system, which means he should be the perfect complement to 6'3 Larry  Davis from Middle Village (Christ the King) NY and 6'7 Dan Warner from Lincroft (Christian Brothers) NJ in N.C. State's current recruiting classes.  Rubin also tells us that 6'9 Andrew Jones from Jenkintown (Abington Friends) PA is being recruited by Iowa, Penn State, La Salle, Florida Atlantic, Rhode Island, and Albany.  Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Providence, George Mason, Rhode Island, Florida State, and Miami-FL are all showing interest in 6'2 Jamal Barney from Baltimore (Southwestern) MD.  The list for 6'5 Jr Jamar Abrams from Highland Springs (H.S.) VA includes Virginia Tech, Virginia, Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth, Colorado State, and American University.  6'8 Dan Geriot from Springfield (H.S.) PA likes Richmond, La Salle, Toledo, Vermont, Siena, Drexel, and UNC-Wilmington.  Among those showing the most interest in 5'9 Frank Turner from Atlantic City (H.S.) NJ are College of Charleston, Manhattan, Seton Hall, Western Carolina, UTEP, Delaware, and James Madison.  The leaders for 6'4 Ryan Brooks from Ardmore (Lower Merion) PA are Binghamton, Boston University, Fairleigh Dickinson, and Navy.  The early list for 6'11 Jr Todd O'Brien from New Holland (Garden Spot) PA includes Penn State, Virginia, St. John's Villanova, Northwestern, Stanford, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Siena, and St. Joseph's.  Rubin also still thinks 6'5 Rodney Green from Philadelphia (Prep Charter) PA is a done deal for La Salle and 6'5 Earl Pettis from Philadelphia (St. John Neumann) PA will end up at either Temple or La Salle.  Pettis is really a 2-guard, but he's also good with the ball, makes good decisions, and is an excellent passer, which means he might be able to develop into a point guard at the college level. 

Saturday, September 3, 2005, Sunday, September 4, 2005, Monday, September 5, 2005

It comes as no surprise that 6'1 Willie Walker from Bolingbrook (H.S.) IL has verbally committed to DePaul, but this is still an important catch for the Blue Demons for several reasons.  First, Walker is very talented, as is evident by the fact that he ranked #64 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP.  Second, Walker also is ranked #3 in the senior class in Illinois, behind 6'5 Jonathan Scheyer from Northbrook (Glenbrook North) IL and 5'11 Sherron Collins from Chicago (Crane) IL, and getting him to stay at home shows that the new regime can get their share of the top players in their backyard.  Third, getting Walker should also enhance DePaul's chances of getting 6'5 Devan Bawinkel from Winnebago (H.S.) IL, who is ranked #91 nationally and among the top five seniors in the state by the HOOP SCOOP.  As a matter of fact, the possibility of a package deal that would involve both Walker and Bawinkel, who also is still considering West Virginia, Georgetown, and Michigan State, has been talked about some time.  And this would make perfect sense, because Walker and Bawinkel have played together on the same club team for the last several years and are very close friends.  Fourth, Walker is ideally suited to set in and complement 6'1 Soph Cliff Clinkscales and 6'6 Jr Sammy Mejia in the backcourt a year from now.  Remember, Walker, who has excellent athleticism and thrives in a fast pace setting, is capable of playing either guard spot, as he can make those around him better and put up prolific numbers both in transition and with his outside shooting.  Walker also was one DePaul's top recruiting priorities and this was especially obvious in July, because every time we saw him play somebody from the Blue Demons' coach staff  (usually Gary DeCesare) was sitting the first row.  We also have confirmed that 6'7 Jr Haminn Quaintance, who was the rookie of the year in the Atlantic Sun Conference two years ago and was a First Team All-Conference Player each of the last two years, has transferred from Jacksonville to Kent State.  However, even that doesn't illustrate just how important a catch this is, as Quaintance, who averaged 13.6 ppg and 8.9 rpg last season, will likely be the best athlete in the league next year and has a chance to be the best player in the Mid-American Conference the year after.  In other words, this is a major coup, as there appears to be no end in sight for Kent State head coach Jim Christian, who has gone 64-30 in three years as head coach of the Golden Flashes!  And it's not the first time that Kent State has hit the jackpot since former DePaul assistant coach Josh Opopenheimer joined the staff last spring.  If you will recall, a month ago the Golden Flashes also landed 6'6 Chris Berry, who announced that he is transferring from Fresno State to Kent State.  Berry is more of a slasher than a shooter, but he still averaged 8.0 ppg and 4.0 rpg as a freshman last season at Fresno State and, along with Quaintance, should give Kent State one of the most athletic forward duos in the league a year from now.  Our Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey Editor Allen Rubin tells us that 6'1 Matt McFadden from Medford (Shawnee) NJ has verbally committed to William & Mary and 6'5 Robert Mitchell from Philadelphia (International Christian) PA has verbally committed to St. Francis-NY.  Yes, it looks like new Terriers head coach Brian Nash has a major steal of his own, because Mitchell was the biggest sleeper to emerge at Five-Star's loaded Honesdale session last week and, if he continues to improve his outside shooting, might just be good enough to step in and make an impact at Seton Hall, which is where Nash was before taking over at St. Francis-NY last spring.  If you will recall, Mitchell, scored 15 points in the Orange-White All-Star Game and was named MVP in the camp playoffs, as he led a team that also included 6'6 Jr Corey Raji from Township of Washington (Westwood) NJ, 6'4 Larry Davis from Middle Village (Christ the King) NY, and 5'10 Demond Carter from LaPlace (Reserve Christian) LA to the camp championship.  But, instead of possibly stepping in and contributing right away in the Big East, it looks like Mitchell has decided to be a big fish in a small pond, as he should immediately be one of the better players in the Northeast Conference from day one, as well as a great player to build the program around.  However, this doesn't come as that much of a surprise, because Mitchell, who played last year at Mendenhall (Genesis One) MS and also has been recruited by schools like Nebraska, Wichita State, and Siena, is originally from Brooklyn, NY and he played at Brooklyn (Grand Street Campus) NY prior to going the prep school route a year ago.  Rubin also thinks McFadden, who was ranked #17 in the area in the Class of 2006 and is the third best player in South Jersey, behind 7'0 Brian Zoubek and 6'8 Dennis Horner from Absecon (Holy Spirit) NJ, is a great catch.  We're talking about an athletic point guard with excellent leadership skills and the ability to get everybody involved, defend, get to the basket, and hit the outside jumpshot.  The fact that McFadden also was receiving interest from schools like Pennsylvania, Davidson, Lehigh, Lafayette illustrates the fact that he's also a heck of a student and we suspect that he'll be a terrific complement in the backcourt to 6'1 Calvin Baker from Newport News (Woodside) VA, who William & Mary signed in last year's recruiting class, and 6'2 David Schneider from Phoenix (Brophy Prep) AZ, who already counts in this year's recruiting class, along with 6'7 Danny Sumner from Fairfax (Paul VI) VA and 6'10 Stephen Hess from Gastonia (Day School) MA.  In other words, it looks like the Tribe should have one of the best backcourts in the league for year's to come and they also should be pretty good inside, as they also landed 6'6 Alex Smith from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, 6'9 Peter Stein from Houston (Westbury Christian) TX, and 6'8 Chris Darnell from Stafford (North Stafford) VA in last year's recruiting class.  And when one also remembers that William & Mary head coach Tony Shaver is second to none on the bench, it should be only a matter of time before the Tribe starts to make major noise in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Friday, September 2, 2005

We've been anticipating that this would happen for several weeks now, but it's finally official for 6'6 Brandon Rush from Durham (Mt. Zion Christian) NC, who was cleared earlier today by the NCAA Clearinghouse to play college basketball this season and, as a result, is now officially heading to the University of Kansas.  And this is big for the Jayhawks for a number of reasons.  First, Rush has tremendous natural talent and athleticism, as well as a great bloodline, which is evident by the fact that his two older brothers - JaRon Rush and Kareem Rush - both were stars at the college level at UCLA and Missouri, respectively, and Kareem is now in the NBA with the Charlotte Bobcats.  Second, Rush is exactly what the doctor ordered, because the Jayhawks needed a replacement at the wing forward spot for 6'5 Soph J.R. Giddens, who has transferred to New Mexico, and, up until now, the only other options were 6'8 Julian Wright from Flossmoor (Homewood-Flossmoor) IL and 6'8 Micah Downs from Anchorage (Bartlett) AK.  Third, the addition of Rush would move Kansas' recruiting class up to #3 in our Final Rankings of the Top Recruiting Classes for the Class of 2005, if we were to go back and change the rankings.  However, Rush has always been an underachiever who more often than not has been content to live off his athleticism and natural talent.  In other words, it appears that Rush, who was ranked no higher than #11 in our Final Ranking of the Top 5th Year Players for the Class of 2005, has been spoiled, pampered, and told how good he is, instead of pushed to become the best player that he can be.  So obviously it will be interesting to see how Kansas head coach Bill Self deals with this problem.  Moral to the story, it wouldn't surprise us if Rush turned out to be one of the best players in the Big-12 Conference or was a total bust.  We also have confirmed that 5'11 Carl Marshall from Indian Hills (JC) IA has decided to attend Seton Hall.  And this is big for the Pirates, because Marshall, who originally is from Chicago (Crane) IL and played his freshman year at Baylor, where he started 22 games, is strong, athletic, and can play either guard spot.  And that is important for the Pirates, because we expect him to provide the perfect complement to 5'10 Sr Donald Copeland, 6'5 Sr. J.R. Morris, and 5'10 Frosh Paul Gause this year and do the same things next year, along with Gause and 6'1 Malcolm Grant from Brooklyn (Paul Robeson) NY, who recently verbally committed to the Pirates.  We also believe the University of Virginia is now the school to beat for 6'7 Jonathan Mitchell from Mt. Vernon (H.S.) NY.  If you will recall, we thought a verbal commitment by Mitchell might be forthcoming to Marquette in July.  But it didn't happen and, as a result, Cavaliers head coach Dave Leitao has been given the time that he needs to take advantage of all his Mt. Vernon contacts.  Remember, Leitao was the guy primarily responsible for getting Ben Gordon, who was played at Mt. Vernon (H.S.) NY, to go to Connecticut.  Now also seems like a good time to catch up on a number of verbal commitments from the state of Texas that have slipped past us, as 6'8 Nic Mosley from Bellville (H.S.) TX has verbally committed to Houston, 5'11 Shaun Reynolds from Navarro (JC) TX has verbally committed to the College of Charleston; 6'4 Collin Mangrum from Howe (H.S.) TX has verbally committed to North Texas, 6'2 Jason Ebie from Cleveland (Heritage Christian) TX has verbally committed to Texas Christian; 6'3 Brandon Fields from Arlington (Bowie) TX has verbally committed to Nevada, 6'0 Terrance Perkins from Austin (Lyndon B. Johnson) TX has verbally committed to Nicholls State; 6'6 Adron Tennell from Irving (H.S.) TX has verbally committed to Oklahoma for football; 6'9 Jeremy Wilson from San Antonio (O'Connor) TX has verbally committed to Texas State; 6'3 Dwight Thorne from Arlington (Martin) TX has verbally committed to Colorado; and 6'3 Donuald Bell from Arlington (Sam Houston) TX, 6'4 Tommy Moffitt from Irving (H.S.) TX, 6'8 Trey Parker from Terrell (H.S.) TX, and 6'7 Matt Reed from Weatherford (H.S.) TX have all verbally committed to UT-Arlington.  UT-Arlington also has already had a verbal commitment from 5'11 Roger Guignard from Mesquite (Horn) TX and, as a result, their recruiting class moves up to #41 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  However, except for the addition of Bell, who is ranked #404 nationally in the senior class by the HOOP SCOOP, this really is not as impressive as it looks, because Moffitt, Parker, and Reed are not ranked among the top 100 seniors in the state by TexasHoops.com.  We also think it is noteworthy that with the addition of Reynolds, the College of Charleston's recruiting class, which also already includes 6'7 Terrell Baines from Patterson (The Patterson School) NC, moves into a tie at #45, along with Dayton, Illinois, N.C. State, Clemson, Houston, Colorado, and Alabama, on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.  And that doesn't even include 6'5 Jose Garcia from Charlottesville (St. Annes-Belfield) VA, who was ranked #121 nationally in our Final Ranking of the Top 800 Players in the Class of 2005.  If you will recall, we reported several weeks ago that Garcia, who originally signed with Richmond a year ago, will be enrolling at the College of Charleston this fall.  The verbal commitment by Thorne to Colorado is interesting, because this gives the Buffaloes not one, but two players from the state of Texas who are ranked in the 100-300 range nationally.  If you will recall, Colorado also already has a verbal commitment from 6'6 Dale Van Wright from Houston (Bellaire) TX. 

Thursday, September 1, 2005

With 31 of our top-50 ranked juniors nationally already having verbally committed and nothing new and exciting happening this week in terms of verbal commitments, now seems like the perfect time to take a step back and make some predictions in terms of where the top high school players who are left will end up going going to school.  We start with 6'10 Brandan Wright from Brentwood (Academy) TN, whose final five appear to be Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisville, and Vanderbilt.  And we think that this is the order in which we think they will finish.  And, if we are correct, that would give Duke four players who are ranked among our top 25 seniors nationally and it would move Duke's recruiting class, which also includes 6'5 Jonathan Scheyer from Northbrook (Glenbrook North) IL, 6'5 Gerald Henderson from Merion Station (Episcopal Academy) PA, and 7'0 Brian Zoubek from Haddonfield (Memorial) NJ - back up to up to #2, behind Ohio State and ahead of North Carolina and Louisville, on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2006.   The second highest ranked senior who is still available is 6'9 Stanley Robinson from Birmingham (Huffman) AL and when it's all said and done, we think you can write this one down for Alabama.  Remember, the Crimson Tide don't lose many in their backyard and, if they pull this one off, it would give them one of the best one-two punches in college basketball a year from now with 6'9 Richard Hendrix anchoring the front-line and Robinson playing both inside and outside.  The final six for 6'9 Durrell Arthur from Dallas (South Oak Cliff) TX appear to be are North Carolina, Texas, Indiana, Oklahoma, Baylor, and SMU, but when it is all said and done we think he's going to pick the Tar Heels, which would be ironic in light of the fact that Texas already has landed 6'10 Kevin Durant from Rockville (Montrose Christian) NC, who earlier was believed to have been a near lock for North Carolina.  Washington, North Carolina, UCLA, Stanford, and Connecticut are battling it out for 6'11 Spencer Hawes from Seattle (Prep) WA, but we think it's going to be extremely tough to beat the Huskies.  Remember, Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar proved that he can keep the top players in his backyard at home a year ago when he landed 6'7 Jon Brockman from Snohomish (H.S.) WA and 6'7 Martell Webster from Seattle (Prep) WA and he worked just as hard this summer recruiting Hawes, as is evident by the fact that he won the HOOP SCOOP's Most Visible Head Coach of the Summer Award.  North Carolina, Georgetown, Wake Forest, Xavier, and Wake Forest appear to be the final five for 6'6 Willard "Duke" Crews from Hampton (Bethel) VA, but we think it will probably come down the the first two.  And we're not going to bet against Georgetown, which also already has 6'9 Vernon Macklin from Chatham (Hargrave Military) VA and 6'8 Dajuan Summers from Owings Mills (McDonough) MD in the fold.  In other words, second year Hoyas head coach John Thompson III may be a year away from having one of the best front-lines in all of college basketball.  The top three for 6'9 Lance Thomas from Newark (St. Benedict's) NJ are still Duke, Villanova, and Arizona, but we think Duke's final scholarship will go to Wright before Thomas is ready to make a decision and Arizona isn't going to let him drag out forever either.  Besides, Villanova has a great engineering school, which, in the end, is what may tip this one over the top, and it's a lot closer to home.  North Carolina, Memphis, Arkansas, Duke, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and Kentucky are the final seven for 6'8 Thaddeus Young from Memphis (Mitchell) TN, but, in the end, we think the smart money says he'll pick the Tigers.  Remember, Memphis also received a verbal commitment earlier this week from 6'8 Pierre Niles from Memphis (Ridgeway) TN and the Tigers are extremely tough to beat in their own backyard.  Illinois and Iowa are still the leaders for 5'11 Sherron Collins from Chicago (Crane) IL and right now we think it's too close call.  But, when it doubt, always bet on the local school and, if the Fighting Illini pull this off, Collins, who is ranked #19 nationally and #3-point guard, behind 6'0 Tywon Lawson from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA and 6'5 Javaris Crittenton from Atlanta (Southwest Atlanta Christian) GA, at the point guard spot by the HOOP SCOOP, would become the best player that Bruce Weber and his staff have signed since Weber took over as head coach of the Fighting Illinois two-and-a-half years ago.  LSU and Texas are battling it out for 6'0 D.J. Augustine from New Orleans (Brother Martin) LA.  But you have to remember that Tigers assistant coach Butch Pierre is extremely tough to beat in his backyard, so we'll give the nod to LSU.  Arizona would be the team to beat for 6'7 Quincy Pondexter from Fresno (San Joaquin Memorial) CA, but the Wildcats dropped out of the race when they landed 6'7 Chase Budinger from Carlsbad (La Costa Canyon) CA and, as result, Washington and Connecticut are #1 and #2 on his list.  Villanova now appears to be the heavy favorite for 6'9 Earl Clark from Rahway (H.S.) NJ, but that could change if he has a great visit to Louisville in two weeks.  The final five for 6'5 Obi Muonelo from Edmund (Santa Fe) OK appear to be Kansas, Oklahoma State, Texas, Oklahoma, and Illinois, but right now the Jayhawks are believed to be the leader.  Connecticut now appears to be the leader over Maryland for 6'3 Jerome Dyson from Andover (Proctor Academy) NH, but Boston College and Providence are still on his list.  Iowa continues to make things interesting in the race for 6'6 Isaih Dahlman from Braham (H.S.) MN, but we're still not willing to bet against Michigan State.  The top three for 6'7 Raymar Morgan from Canton (McKinley) OH are Michigan State, Ohio State, and Connecticut, but we think this one is too close to call.  Kentucky is believed to be the favorite over Memphis and Tennessee for 6'1 Willie Kemp from Bolivar (Central) TN.  Washington, Kansas, Kentucky, USC, and Miami-FL are among the favorites for 6'4 Derrick Jasper from Paso Robles (H.S.) CA.  Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, Miami-FL, Wake Forest, and Washington appear to be the leaders for 6'3 Tre'Von Willis from Fresno (Washington Union) CA.  Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, LSU, Texas, Texas Tech, and Georgia Tech are all in the running for 6'9 Perry Stevenson from Lafayette (Northside) LA.