Updates and Commitments: August 24

Indianapolis Lawrence North's Justin Martin (Rivals #87) will return for his senior year at Lawrence North where he averaged 11 points per game as a junior. Martin has ended his recruitment with a commitment to Xavier. Martin is a very good shooter and can be a very good defender and is a very talented kid whom the good Mongrel looks forward to seeing in the A10. The Mongrel is a few days late on this story but here is some of the praise out there for Martin. http://www.ny2lasports.com/NY2LA%20Sports%20Articles/MartintoXavier.htm

Kurt Stubbs from JJHuddle.com has several interesting things to say in his Ohio hoops recruiting rundown from the 21st. http://www.jjhuddle.com/blog/post-detail.php?p=3246

* 2011 big man Zach Price (Rivals #66) from St Edwards (Lakewood) has offers from Louisville, Miami (Fl), Michigan State, Ohio State, Wake Forest, and Wisconsin.
* Jakarr Sampson (Rivals #100) is a 6'8 small forward in the 2011 class from Akron St Vincent-St Mary's. He lists offers from Cincinnati, Xavier, Akron, and Dayton and plans visits to Ohio State and Michigan State this summer.
* Trey Burke (Rivals #105) is a point guard from Columbus Northland. He has offers from Ohio, Cleveland State, Akron, James Madison, Kent State, Butler, Miami, and Stephen F Austin and visited Cincinnati on the 21st.
* 5'7 point guard Stevie Taylor (Rivals #150) also has offers from Ohio, Akron, James Madison, Miami, and others. Taylor is one of those little guys who always comes out on top but people tend to try to temper their expectations because one day the competition will be too big, but so far he's still impossible for anyone to guard. Picture above is Taylor from 4.bp.blogspot.com.

Milwuakee Hamilton's Elgin Cook has accepted a scholarship to play for Iowa State. He is a very athletic 6'6 kid in the 2011 class. Scroll down to the second article on the blog for more. http://www.wissports.net/sports/hoopsb/blog/blog.aspx?f=123

Pittsburgh commitment Cameron Wright has a nice profile in a new article on the best players not included in the top 100 by ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/basketball/mens/news/story?id=4411749

Chicagohoops has a nice piece on Ben Brackney from Lincoln HS. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/benbrackney2.html Brackney is a 6'5 shooting wing forward with offers from Eastern Illinois, Bucknell, Murray State, SIU-Edwardsville, and other schools. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/benbrackney2.html

Lots of news coming from Demling's blog as always. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html

* Chane Behanan (Rivals #95) (notice corrected and wise spelling) has received an offer from Western Kentucky.
* Marquis Teague (Rivals #2) seems to be rushing in Indiana, Purdue, and Kentucky visits before his season starts. He was on Kentucky's campus this weekend and will be at Purdue and Indiana's elite camps this coming weekend. This part is the Mongrel editorializing but the kid has all but spelled out his preference to Louisville the last couple of weeks, looks like he's trying to give a last look to all comers before pulling the trigger. Let me know if I turn out to be wrong about that one loyal readers...
* Dematha (Maryland) athlete Victor Oladipo is expected to visit Indiana September 3rd and 4th.
Carlton Brundidge praise from NBE Blog. http://w3.nbebasketball.com/2009/08/24/recruiting-notebook-rod-odom-carlton-brundidge-carson-desrosiers/ Michigan, Michigan State, Wake Forest, Oklahoma, Syracuse, and Providence are interested in him.