Fergeson to FIU, and Dre Henley in Arkansas, other updates.

* Dre Henley is a 6'6 small forward and considered one of the top players in Illinois in 2011, the Hoops Report has him as the second best player in the state in 2011. According to the recruiting guy blog Henley is playing well at the Arkansas elite camp. The photo at the right is from NY2LA's web site. http://recruiting.arkansasonline.com/index.php/2009/08/07/late-night-camp-tidbits/



* Former Indianapolis Lawrence North forward Dominique Fergeson has committed to coach Zeke Thomas at Florida International. Fergeson should be one of the most talented recruits ever to go to the Sun Belt. If Thomas gets him to stay for a few years he could really pay dividends.

* Indianapolis native Deven Williams claims offers from Indiana, Marquette, Oregon State, IUPUI, Indiana State and Southern Miss. He played this summer with the Naptown Ballers but is going to a prep school. http://w3.nbebasketball.com/2009/08/08/illinois-wolves-16-u-team-has-big-east-targets/ Williams drew some great reviews in Merrillville at the End of Summer Slam when the Naptown Ballers made it to the championship game. Here is a description quoted from the link that follows from a report on him from an NC Tech game this February. "Devin Williams (NC Tech) - Led NC Tech to the victory. Williams is a 6' strong, athletic point guard. He handled the ball very well, and attacked the rim all game long. He was able to find open teammates off his dribble drives and was capable of knocking down three pointers (needs to improve consistency). Williams best asset was his combination of strength and breaking his defender down off the dribble; he displayed a nasty cross over and is a D-I lock.
" http://www.scoutsfocus.com/Articles/pattersontourney.html

* The above NBE blog link has video from several of the 16U Illinois Wolves including Nana Egwu, Jacob Williams, and Chasson Randle.

* The Nike Global Games are ongoing in Portland, Oregon and the Adidas Nations event is ongoing in Dallas, Texas. Both events have several players either from our neighborhood or being recruited by key schools. I haven't tried to keep up for the blog because most of those kids are top 50 national type of players and that isn't my focus here but check Oregonlive, Portland's wonderful newspaper the Oregonian has a web site and has box scores, updates, and video from several of the games. Kyrie Irving, Doron Lamb, and other players of local interest had big games yesterday at the Global Games.
http://highschoolsports.oregonlive.com/news/article/-1054256946684675396/the-nike-global-challenge-day-one-recap/ The Adidas Nations has its own website and will be posting the championship game live this evening at 6:30 PM. The semi-final game is at 3:30. http://www.eastbay.com/promotion/promoId:5003919/adidas-nations/?SID=6206&cm_mmc=Redirects-_-eastbay-_-adidasnations_-null/ USA 2010 will be playing Team Canada in the final. Several kids of interest to local schools and some local players are in the event including Marquis Teague (USA 2011), Devontes Smith-Rivera (Latin America), Cody Zeller (USA 2011), Mason Plumlee (USA 2011) and others.

* I have received word from someone that I normally trust that the above offers for Deven Williams to Marquette and Indiana might not be accurate, but unfortunately I still have no direct knowledge if they are accurate or not. The good Mongrel loves to dig up obscure links and rely on some regular sources such as NBE for hot off the presses updates on offers, school lists, visits, etc but just in case it isn't clear I want to underscore that when I say "so and so claims an offer" or "so and so tells so and so in this link they have an offer" I am not vouching for the accuracy of the information. Even if no kids exaggerated their offers, they are often so ambiguous that especially younger kids mix up "I want you to play for my school" and "I'm offering you a scholarship" and things like that. But when a kid claims an offer even if he is wrong you at least know that the school is recruiting him hard enough so that he thinks he has one and kids get offers all the time that the wisest observers didn't think they would so without direct knowledge to contradict a report I'll just pass them on and let people do what they want. If the Mongrel says "so and so has an offer" then the Mongrel believes they do. If the Mongrel says "so and so claims an offer" or "so and so told blog x he has an offer" then that's just what it is.

Kentucky and Michigan squads win tournaments, more

Several teams of note made the semi-final round or more yesterday including a couple of championships worth mentioning.

* 17U Reebok Championships went to Dominique Fergeson and Ray McCallum and Team Detroit. Trey Zeigler had 16 points for the winners. They beat D-One Sports (Quincy Miller) 56-48 in the title game. (photo is Zeigler from Detroit News)

* The Ville won the Adidas Super 64 championship in the 14U division. Jody Demling has a nice rundown of some of their best players. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html When I got a chance to see them at the Kentucky Hoopfest I was pretty blown away by Daryl Hicks and Jason Hatcher. Demling said Hicks had 26 points in the championship game and Hatcher was the MVP with a boat load of rebounds. He and Hicks look about 20 years old, they're so much more mature than the other 14U players I saw. Hicks is the best player in the age group I've seen so far (2013). He has a nice three pointer to go with getting a layup whenever he wants. Hicks was also the leading scorer in the Top 150 camp held in Lexington in June for the country's top incoming freshmen. He'll play for Shelbyville. Hatcher is also pretty strong and a good athlete.

* 16U Indiana Elite/Team Indiana had to forfeit the championship game to Southern Kings Gold because they misunderstood when the game would be played if they made it that far. Jeremiah Davis and Austin Etherington continued picking up their games from many reports over the weekend.

* 16U Derek Smith All Stars lost in the final four to the Southern Kings Gold squad. Demling's link above has Remy Abel and George Fant continuing to have big months and more and more coaches trying to figure out if they are good mid major recruits or high major recruits. Demling said Fant added an Ohio offer to Western Kentucky and Oklahoma State. But those kids have a lot of good players. Elliot County's Tommy Knipp, Jordan Shanklin, Clark county's Robbie Stenzel, and Jeffersonville, Indiana's Evan Mashmeyer are all kids who can play.

* SYF Players have advanced to championship game in Center Stage event in Vegas, more on this one in the morning hopefully...

* Bloomington South made it to the final four of the Main Event. Hugh Kellenberger's Quick Hits blog has been all over this. http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/quickhits/ I also posted a link to Demling's story on them for the CJ on yesterday's tourney update.

AAU Tourney Update Friday

Here are a few Coach Tracking Tidbits (twitter unless otherwise mentioned):

* Setty1333 says UK watching Rakeem Christmas in Orlando.
* Dayton watching Clarkston Michigan's Matt Kaminiecki. http://dayton.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=968134
* Illinoishsbball says Oregon State watching Abdul Nader (Full Package), Jay Price also watching them (Ill asst), they also say Wainright and an assistant at a Mac Irving Fire game,

* Mike Brey all over Alex Dragecevich according to illhsbball twitters

* Ball St and Indiana St watching Iowa Barnstormers 6'11 Will Artino and others

* Rick Pitino watching JJ Moore and Quincy Miller per Demling twitter also says Crean in KC watching Teague

* Northstarbball says IPFW and Bowling Green at Ohio Prep Cavs/Showtime Ballers game

* CoachBlevins spoke to Sterling Gibbs from NYC who plans on visiting IU and UK

* rumbaughd1 says Dominique Fergeson to visit UK and AZ in August, also says Capel and Donovan watching him closely, UK, UL, and Duke watching Quincy Miller who plans on visiting UK and UL in August,

* Demling blog entry on day 1 http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html says UK and UL watching Damien Leonard, Joe Jackson says he is UK's #1 pg target, Pitino watching JJ Moore,

* The scores below show most of it, but 15U Indiana squads are fairing very well. Eric Gordon All Stars went undefeated in pool play at the Main Event, Spiece Select 2012 went undefeated in pool play in KC playing up a year, and Indiana Elite Team Indiana won their two matches yesterday (Devontes Smith-Rivera pictured above from a Courier-Journal shot).

Some Results and Scoring Numbers:

Adidas Super 64:
* 17U Chicago Elite won their final pool game, beating Bay Area Hoosiers 61-58. Dukan had 18 points.* 17U Full Package Elite beat LA Stars 74-53. Dragecevich had 28. 17U Full Package Elite beat Belmont Shores 62-47. Mikalous had 13.* 17U Detroit Stars beat Pump N Run 77 -52. Long had 18. 17U Mass Rivals beat Detroit Stars 74-49.* 17U Derek Smith All Stars West beat Los Angelas Rockfish 90-64. 17U Derek Smith All Stars lost to Gateway Bball Club 86-59.* 17U Playaz beat Michigan Mustangs 77-65. 17U Michigan Mustangs beat Dallas Mustangs Blue 70-68. Appling had 26 points.* 17U LV Prospects beat In Elite Red 87-80.* 17U Ohio Basketball Club beat Compton Magic Black 78-67. Parker had 19.* 17U Eric Gordon All Stars beat Houston Select Black 60-50. Terone Johnson had 15.* 17U Indiana Elite (fox) 74-65 over Colorado Select Blue. Guyn had 19. 17U Indiana Elite (Fox) beat IEBP All Stars 65-59. Hubert had 16.

* 16U Michigan Mustangs beat Grassroots Canada 63-58. Mustangs also beat Arizona Premier Black 61-42.* 16U DC Assault White beat Full Package (Preston) 70-60.* 16U Ohio Basketball Club beat Houston Hoops 61-54.* 16U Indiana Elite One beat Nashville Celtics 65-60. KC Pump N Run beat In Elite One 76-42.* 16U Derek Smith All Stars beat D Harris All Stars 69-65. DS All Stars beat Omaha Crusaters 64-49.* 16U Indiana Elite/Team Indiana beat Utah Pump N Run Red 68-57.* 16U Southern Kings Gold beat Aim High 79-35.* 16U Indiana Elite (Garland) beat Southern Kings Red 46-44.

* 15U Eric Gordon All Stars 65-49 over Valley Stars Pump N Run. Ingram had 21. EG All Stars then beat Utah Pump N Run 52-31. R Johnson had 10.* 15U In Elite/Team Indiana 53-30 over IEPB White. Devontes Smith-Rivera with 14. IE Team Indiana then beat Southern Kings 54-44. Smith-Rivera with 20.* 15U Ohio Basketball Club 76-52 over Idaho Select. Crays with 18. OBC over DC Assault White 65-50. Cuzzini with 26 points.

Hoops City Classic (KC):

* 17U Illinois Wolves, Spiece Indy Heat (Downs), Mean Streets, Common Bond, Spiece Indy Stars (Betts), King James Shooting Stars, and The Family are all alive in the top 20 bracket. Queen City Prophets are alive in the gold.* 16U Queen City Prophets are alive and will face Spiece Gym Rats (Matura) on Friday in gold bracket.* 16U King James Shooting Stars, NW Ohio Basketball, Illinois Wolves, Spiece Indy Heat (Felder), Spiece Indy Heat (says so on bracket, might mean stars) are also alive in the gold bracket on Friday.* 15U Derek Smith over Xplosion 46-43. Foster with 13.* 15U D Rose All Stars 59-56 over Conn Elite. Reacher with 20.* 16U Chicago Elite lost to Bay Area Hoosiers 64-34.

Reebok Summer Championships:

* Team Detroit 70 NY Panthers 52, MI Hurricanes 57-40 over Idaho Select Black, MI Hurricanes 80-74 over Wi Playground Warriors, Grand Rapids Storm 76 over Idaho Select White 52, Gr Rapids Storm 55-56 losers to IAD Select in 2 overtimes, Gr Rapids Storm (Whymer) 67-62 over Salt Lake Metro Prospects, Gr Storm (Whymer) 72-60 over Hawks, Dallas Mustangs 74-44 over Camp Daryl White, W Mich Lakers 66-40 over E Wash Elite Blue, W Mich Lakers 83-50 over Houston Cougars,

July 17 Recruiting Buzz aau re-shuffling for Vegas (Fergeson, Hopkins)

The Eric Gordon All-Stars are coming off their first tournament title at the Best of the Midwest Tournament. Indianapolis North Central and Purdue bound 6'2 shooting guard Terone Johnson was MVP of the tournament and continues to display a toughness and consistency that spells great things for Matt Painter. But Johnson is not the only star on this club.

6'10 Cincinnati Moeller forward Griffin McKenzie is fully recovered from his back injury and drawing offers left and right. I posted a link on his recruiting a couple of days ago, but since then the offers keep rolling in. Ohio State has offered and Indiana's head coach Tom Crean was at two of McKenzie's games at Best of the Midwest so don't be surprised if the offers keep rolling in for McKenzie. Peegs.com's Matt Weaver spoke with him on Thursday and he said he now has offers from Xavier, Cincinnati, Northwestern, Tennessee, and Providence. http://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=965279 The article is a premium article from the excellent Indiana rivals site run by Mike Pegram. Yesterday Moeller HS coach Carl Kremer told the Cincinnati Enquirer that McKenzie now has offers from Ohio State and Vanderbilt as well. We'll be watching to see where McKenzie visits before the Eric Gordon All Stars hit Vegas later in the month.

And when they do hit vegas, they will have a significant new addition. Indianapolis Manual's Crishawn Hopkins has been playing with the Bloomington Blaze but will be playing for the Eric Gordon All Stars in Vegas. Hopkins will be a huge addition for them. He is a 6'1 skinny point guard who can jump out of the gym. I saw the Blaze Select get waxed by Atlanta All Stars a couple of weeks ago and Hopkins was the best player on the floor and scored about 25 of his teams 32 points. Hopkins also is an impressive shooter with a nice three point shot. I haven't had the chance to see him play on a team where you'd want him setting up his teammates a great deal but he has a good handle and if he has the kind of feel for the team's offense that you want out of a point its hard to see how Hopkins won't wind up playing for a high major program. He already has good offers including Miami (Oh) and interest from Virginia, Indiana, and Arizona among others. The Eric Gordon All Stars will give him that opportunity for both exposure and to show how well he can play point when he isn't the only high level player on his squad. Johnson is a strong off guard with range and McKenzie and Indianapolis Howe forward Jordan Manual are big kids who can stroke the three. If Hopkins is a point guard he should have plenty of shooters to kick the ball out to. I know he can drive, dunk, and shoot. The Mongrel will be at the edge of his seat to see if Hopkins leaves Vegas with some new attention. He's got his grades back on track and believes he will qualify as a freshman if he has a good year in the classroom. And yes, he can dunk. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuhoC8C5LEw

The SYF Players will be losing Dominique Fergeson for a while at least (indystar photo of Fergeson trying to swat the Juice). http://twitter.com/Dferg23 He's going to be playing for Team Detroit in Vegas next week. SYF had a nice showing in the NY2LA Summer Jam last week. 17U Lafayette Jeff star Jesse Berry is committed to Dayton and he joins an already loaded back court with mid-major or better prospects Gary point guard Xavier Jones, East Chicago Central's Michael Harris, and Indianapolis combo guard Andre Hampton who really impressed me in May. The big kids for SYF are going to play D1 ball too. Jake Kitchell is a 6'9 forward who has offers from Oregon State and California and is being tracked by several Big Ten schools including Iowa, Minnesota, and Indiana where he attended an elite camp in June. He is a very prolific scorer and one of Indiana's leading rebounders and led the state in blocked shots. For SYF he takes a vocal leadership role and does the dirty work. It will be fun to see where he ends up. Enique Mason from Brownsburg is a 6'9 kid with a very strong developed body ready for trench warfare in college. He looked vastly improved this spring as well and really got after it on the boards and showed good hands finishing inside. With his size and coordination I expect to start hearing soon about some D1 schools knocking on his door, he should have a breakout year for Brownsburg.

But the big ticket for SYF's 17U squad this year has been Dominique Fergeson. Fergeson is a top 20 ranked prospect nationally and is being pursued by Kentucky, Arizona, Indiana, UCLA, and a virtual who is who in the college basketball world. Persistent rumors about his transferring have been brushed off as ridiculous all year by Fergeson and his father but he finally confirmed what all the Indiana coaches I talk to have been saying for a while. Fergeson will be leaving Lawrence North High School to attend prestigious Hargrave Military Academy in Massachusetts. Naturally his high school coach Jack Keefer is irate about this news. He says (publicly and yes Fergeson is a minor) Fergeson is not on track to qualify and is being used by Dye and his SYF program. http://www.insidethehall.com/2009/07/17/jack-keefer-sounds-off-on-dominique-ferguson/ This Inside the Hall article sums up some of my feelings about hearing Lawrence North's Jack Keefer sound off on Fergeson (originally a Franklin Central player) transferring away from Lawrence North on radio shows. I do not have the pleasure of knowing the coaches from SYF or Keefer himself so I will try to assume everyone has a good point here, but it is a shocker to hear a high school coach going after a player publicly like this, especially one he was getting criticized for recruiting from Franklin Central just a short while ago. And keep in mind that 09 Lawrence North big man Jeff Robinson did not get accepted into Purdue after staying eligible for Coach Keefer and playing and knowing ahead of time what he needed to get done in the class room. And 2010 Justin Martin is transferring away and like Fergeson is said to be in dire academic shape and in need of stronger academic structure to get ready to be accepted to college. And remember that 2010 6'10 center Jan Maehlen is a highly touted Lawrence North big man who plays for Dye's SYF program and is also transferring away from Lawrence North.

In other words, a pattern is forming for Lawrence North that will become downright ugly if 2011 prospects Michael Chandler and Ryan Taylor play ball all year for Lawrence North but end up not having the grades they need for college. Lets hope for a happy ending all around. Fergeson, Martin, and Maehlen can have good years and get into the schools they want to attend now that they chose stronger academic institutions (at least in Hargrave's case) that have a budget and expectations to monitor and pressure the kids into getting it done in the classroom. Hopefully Robinson fits in as well at Xavier as he thought he would at Purdue. And hopefully Chandler and Taylor lead Lawrence North to a huge season for the Wildcats and get it done in the class room vindicating Keefer's "addition by subtraction" stab. Meanwhile the Mongrel will keep an eye on the relationship between the powerful SYF Players program and Indianapolis school coaches and pass on what is fit to e-print.

Updates from Summer Jam, Best of Mid-West, Summer Classic

Chicago Summer Classic
Chicagohoops stock risers report with nice notes on Brandon Spearman and other Illinois talent. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/classicprofiles.html

Best of Midwest:

Daryl Baker is the 2013 wonder-kid playing for Sherron Wilkerson's 16U Team Southern Indiana. He had 30 in his early game and 27 in the nightcap which was a loss to the Spiece Indy Stars who are also playing up a level and coming off two straight 15U tournament wins. Jeremy Hollowell and Ron Patterson have been red hot on both sides of the ball, but Austin Burgett continues his hot play as well scoring in double figures in both games and getting almost double figure boards in both games. He is at least 6'7 and has a sweet three point shot and a wonderful handle and his game offensively is often compared to Robbie Hummel. Here is a video taken by the Herald Times with some clips of Baker who is interested in Indiana, UConn, and North Carolina. http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=3917 Here is a monster jam by Ron Patterson who has several high major offers already including Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio State, Purdue, and Illinois. http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=cjimmersiveplayer01&videoID=1181379332

Shining Star Sports - Jackson went 1-1 on the first day of pool play losing to Spiece Select 2011 who are also playing up a year. Vance Hall had 21 for Shining Star Sports after posting a 30 point game in an earlier blowout against Fieldhouse Elite.

Spiece Select started the day 2-0 and has been getting good play from Zach Van DeWater and Kendal Griffin as well as burly 6'7 forward Tony Springmann.

Eric Gordon All-Stars had big games from Terone Johnson, Jordan Manuel, Griffen McKenzie, and Trip McFall. I love watching this group play. Johnson is one of the most underrated guys in the country because the national guys sometimes get too caught up in a kids' pro prospects. Johnson is too short to be a shooting guard NBA prospect and not quite quick enough or enough of a point to play the one at the next level but the kid is tough as nails and is a good outside shooter. He can also get to the rack and plays with a lot of strength. I watched him physically handle Dominique Fergeson and guard him effectively in their first matchup at the Adidas May Classic. Johnson is a leader and a warrior and will be one of the most productive freshmen in the country in my guess and will get better and better in college. He plays hard on defense and with purpose. Matt Painter really hit the ball out of the park with his 2010 class. I love Johnson and Carrol. I need to see more of Anthony Johnson he's been hurt when I wanted to see him this summer and last year he didn't stand out to me but he has a wonderful reputation as well. Jordan Manual is a very vocal kid and can shoot the lights out at about 6'8 but he is rail thin so I think he'd play a lot more if he ends up at a mid-major. It can be a treat to listen to him needle opposition in his deep bass voice and he can be really funnywhen picking on the fragile psyche of an opponent.

NY2LA Summer Jam

SYF Players off to a great start including Dominique Fergeson getting physical which coming off reports he was being worked as a power forward at the LeBron camp might be a really good sign. http://www.ny2lasports.com/SummerJamDay1recap.htm Speaking of Fergeson, WeareDepaul.com has a premium story in which Fergeson confirms the fact that he will leave the state of Indiana for a yet to be determined prep school. He visited DePaul with his family and still has a long list but indicated he likes the Big 12 and Big East because he wants to go pro after a year if he has a big year and they produce lottery picks according to Fergeson. http://indiana.scout.com/a.z?s=170&p=2&c=878950

Fergeson's teammate Xavier Jones from Gary has been having a good July as well. The Summer Jam is loaded with talent. This day one report has updates on 6'10 Walter Pitchford from Team Detroit, Milwuakee Spartans star Vander Blue, and Illinois Wolves 15U Jay Simpson among others. http://www.ny2lasports.com/SummerJamDay1recap.htm

Peach Jam

Here are some whispers that Sam Thompson and Oregon State might be getting cozy as well as other updates on the recruiting trail from the Bullseye. The top spot is up for debate in Illinois class of 2011 but Thompson certainly has his supporters... http://ilprepbullseye.com/page46.html Bruce Weber and an assistant, and two Depaul assistants watched every game the 16U and 17U Mac Irvin Fire played. The 17U squad went 1-3 and probably won't be playing much longer if that is any indication. They have a lot of guys who can jump, but don't seem to win many games at the 17U level. Fortunately for the Fire, recruiting media types are not known for their leaping ability and they will continue to be talked about as a super team even with several other Chicago area teams playing much better ball this summer. Bill Carmody, Tom Crean, Thad Matta, Craig Robinson, Buzz Peterson, and other coaches were on hand for at least one Mac Irvin Fire game as well. The 17U group features fast rising senior Reggie Smith who had some great reviews at the Lebron Camp last week as well as the current king of Chicago high school basketball Jereome Richmond and seven foot Meyers Leonard. Smith is one of the top unsigned guards in the 2010 class and is a 6'1 kid with great leaping ability but has quietly added some range to his game and has improved his handle and distributing skills. He is being pursued by Marquette, Indiana, and some west coast schools but might see his options increase with a few wins for the Fire.