Commitments, De-Commitments, Offers, and Favorites 7/17

July is not only the busiest recruiting month of the year with AAU tournaments galore and open evaluation periods for the coaches to get out and see and be seen but kids are committing, de-committing, and schools who have been aggressive on the recruiting trail are filling up their rides and moving on to evaluate younger players.

Yesterday's biggest commitment was Simeon's Brandon Spearman going ahead and pulling the trigger to join Dayton's loaded 2010 class. Berry is an extremely talented kid from Lafayette Jeff and early favorite to lead Indiana in scoring this year and Spearman and Staten are ranked among the nation's top 100 players by several evaluators. Brian Gregory is landing one of the finest recruiting classes in the country in 2010 and isn't done yet.

Zach McCabe of the All Iowa Attack Red squad committed to Todd Lickliter's Iowa Hawkeyes after outperforming many of the nation's top players at a few July events and drawing the attention of the rest of the big ten and many other schools.

Chicago Vocational stars Hollis Hill and Aaron Williams on the other hand de-committed from UW-Milwaukee. Their Illinois Old School squad was tracked heavily by several other good programs and plenty of high majors for Jay Price and some other players. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/uwm2.html Above photo of Hill is from Sun Times. The outlook isn't bleak for UW-M though, at the Triple S Mountan Slam Taevaunn Prince told Northstarblog UW-M was his favorite and has been showing him the most love to date. Prince is an outstanding player for Team Takeover (Canada) who has been one of the best travelling teams on the circuit this July and looked very good against Florida Future at the Kentucky Hoopfest in front of yours truly. http://blog.northstarbball.com/2009/07/16/triple-s-harley-davidson-hoop-group-jam-fest-days-one--two-news--notes.aspx

Commitment issues were not only the problems of the college coaches, AAU squads gearing up for Las Vegas have been harvesting players from other squads as well. Yesterday I mentioned the Eric Gordon All-Stars added Crishawn Hopkins to their roster for Vegas. Today word has tweeted out that Jeremy Hollowell of Spiece Indy Stars 2012 will be joining them as well. Hollowell unlike Hopkins was already on a team winning tournaments and drawing hordes of coaches and his improvement from May to July has seen him earn offers from Cincinnati, Indiana, Ohio State, and several others. Hollowell has not announced if he will be returning to the Stars after Vegas or playing with someone else next year.

Cameron Wright had been one of the high profile guards pursued by Brian Gregory of Dayton, but they might be focusing on a big kid such as Adreiene Payne or Jordan Manual for their last ride. Wright is having an enormous July after drawing great reviews at the King James Classic and NY2LA Summer Slam last week. He has added a Michigan State offer to his growing collection according to a Badgernation.com article from yesterday. Wisconsin, Indiana, Akron, and Cleveland State are the other schools listed as offers.

Chris Anderson of Reeths-Puffer, Michigan is an athletic 6'5 wing who made waves this spring when his Grand Rapids Storm team came up big in the Tulip Tree Classic and other tournaments. He has an offer on the table from Stoney Brook. http://www.westmiallstar.com/2009/07/11/whos-going-to-play-ball-in-college/#more-1301

The previous article mentions Kalamazoo's Jeff Hoskins of Camp Daryl All Stars has received a Moorehead State offer. I saw him at the Hoosier Shootout and he was very impressive making hustle plays to save the ball from going out of bounds and knocking down three pointers in rhythm while leading his team with poise at the point guard position. He has D1 athleticism.

The above link to Northstar blog has a few updates on offers to some outstanding players from local teams. Team Takeover's 6'10 300 pound center Maurice Walker is a 2010 prospect listing an offer from Depaul. And 2011 standout Grady Glaze is listing an offer from Xavier and Ohio State interest.

Northstar has updates on a few players of note as well. Ohio Basketball Club and Scott County (Kentucky) forward Dakota Euton (former UK commitment) has offers from Akron, Eastern Kentucky, Oregon State, and others. His AAU teammate Nick Kellogg from Columbus is also drawing a lot of interest this July. He lists Ohio as a favorite right now but said he has offers from Akron, Miami, and Wright State right now and is open to new interest in July before he decides. Several Big Ten programs are tracking him closely as he plans on visiting Northwestern and was at the recent Ohio State elite camp and has Iowa and Indiana keeping tabs on him.

Chicagohoops is also reporting that Sean McGonagill of the Illinois Kings has picked up an offer from North Dakota. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/kings2.html He plays school ball for Riversville-Brookside. You might recall McGonagill was co-mvp of the Hall of Fame Showdown in Chicago in April and he has continued his fine play into July. He also has interest in Eastern Michigan.