Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal reported yesterday that Mongrel favorite Ricardo Johnson received an offer from Ohio University. He has an offer on the table from Bradley as well and is being watched by several high major programs. Johnson is a big wing and a very underrated athlete. He outplayed Vee Sanford in their much anticipated Sweet 16 match up and really gave Sanford fits on defense. Sanford is an 09 star who is committed to Georgetown. Johnson and his Covington Holmes squad went on to win the state championship and Johnson was named MVP of the tournament. (Johnson is pictured in this CJ photo) Here's a link to Demling's update yesterday, might have to scroll down to "Friday Night Nuggets". http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html
6'9 Wheaton Academy star Tim Rusthoven has verbally committed to William and Mary. He joins New Trier's Fred Helding and Bloomington North star combo guard Julian Boatner in Willam and Mary's 2010 recruiting class. The good Mongrel wasn't blogging back when William and Mary landed Boatner or you would all know him by now. He is one of the best guards in Indiana and is an absolute steal for William and Mary with the athleticism and poise to play against kids at any level in college. "Absolute steal" is about the same language used by the Bulleye to describe Rusthoven who plays for Velocity. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page32.html I'm smelling a string of tourney appearances for William and Mary early next decade. Also according to the Bullseye Jacob Williams has an offer from Loyola.
Chicagohoops is reporting Deandre McCamey has an offer from Ball State and Wayne Simon received an offer from Niagra. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/wolves1.html I'm looking forward to spending a day or two at the End of Season Showdown in Merillville toward the end of the month put on by Chicagohoops. USSSA championships in Fort Wayne are the same time so I hope to get in a day or two at each one.
Offers continue to pile up for Dekalb, Illinois 6'10 center Jordan Threloff. He now has 12 offers, including Northern Illinois, Indiana State, SIU, Detroit, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Loyola (Chicago), Illinois State, DePaul, Bradley, Drake, Ball State and Elon. http://www.daily-chronicle.com/blogs/entries/2009/07/16/50537595/index.xml
Everyone has been abuzz about the Dayton Flyers recruiting class. The Flyers are working on starting some momentum early with 2011 and have offered Vinny Zollo who is playing this summer for Indiana Elite Team Indiana. Here is an article on Zollo from a Notre Dame site detailing his visit and his approach to recruiting since he is no officially not a UK verbal. http://www.irishsportsdaily.com/recruiting/basketball/219-mature-zollo-moves-on He sounds very interested in Notre Dame as well but right now there are a lot of BCS schools who are hoping that Brian Gregory doesn't steal away another gem! I like Zollo's game. He is a pure hustle guy and when I've seen him he has been active on the glass and is a solid player. His real height might be about 6'7, but he is very well rounded at the power forward position.
Another great article on Irish Sports Daily details Irish interest in nationally ranked Ralston Turner from Alabama. Notre Dame has only been recruiting Turner since May but he sounds interested in leaving the south from the article and has an offer from Butler and several SEC schools and plans to visit Indiana. He was mentioned with Indiana quite a bit last fall but that seemed to have died down. Turner is ranked #33 on ESPN Scouts.inc top 100 list. http://www.irishsportsdaily.com/recruiting/basketball/221-turner-hears-from-notre-dame
I think my links to Wisconson Hoops on the sidebar weren't working, but here's a link to Mark Miller's blog. The first (long) entry is about an exciting team camp with several players we've been following. But scroll down to the second entry for more on offers from UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwuakee for Wally Ellenson. He joined Morris and Tokoto for a pre-game dunk show for Tom Crean and I at the Kentucky Hoopfest. Ok, ok they probably didn't know the Mongrel was crawling around the Hoops facility that day with all the coaches in the building. http://www.wissports.net/sports/hoopsb/blog/blog.aspx?f=123 The entry also discusses offers new offers from Iowa, Minnesota, and Tennessee for Tokoto. UW-Milwuakee also has an offer out to 7'1 Ben Mills for the Playground Warriors 17U squad. Mills also has offers from Indiana State, Ball State, and Loyola along with interest from Iowa and Indiana. Sweet shooting 6'8 Nick Arenz for the 15U squad also has an offer from UW-Milwuakee.
