Here's a Fine Collection of Signing Day Links

Purdue signed an underrated class in the opinion of the Good Mongrel. The highest I've seen them ranked is 14th by Maxxpreps but Terone Johnson and Travis Carrol are kids who can help a team early in their careers and Anthony Johnson and Donnie Hale both have what it takes to be good four year players in the Big Ten. This is the follow up to the 2007 class that Boiler fans have been waiting for.

Here's a link from the Louisville Courier-Journal which focuses mostly on Hale but also touches on some other Louisville area stars signing such as Curtis Washington, Ricardo Johnson, Sean Samsel, and Josh Sewell who checks in with the most mature quote of the day after acknowledging he had interest from bigger programs, “At the end of the day I feel like I made a great decision,” the 6-5 guard said. “I really feel comfortable with the staff and school and can grow on and off the court. Basketball will take care of itself. I'm not going to play in the NBA or anything, but I am going there for the business marketing program and let basketball take care of itself." I'm sure Sewell will be pleased with his basketball opportunities at Miami as well as his academic environment. The photo on the right is Sewell from a Louisville Courier-Journal shot. http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20091111/SPORTS11/911110428/1034/SPORTS06/New+Albany+s+Donnie+Hale+signs+with+Boilermakers

Indiana received an LOI from defensive specialist and Youtube Dunkmaster Victor Oladipo from Dematha, Maryland. Here are the obligatory quotes from the head coach on the signing. http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=5476

Here are a couple of Chicagohoops links on some signing day news. Patrick Miller of Chicago Hales-Franciscan committed to Tennessee State. Miller played for Old Gold over the summer. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/patrickmillertsu.html On the flip side, signing day also comes with a few decommitments and Illinois Warriors star Fabyon Harris who plays for Chicago Hyde Park pulled his pledge from Northern Colorado.

Brad Brownell's Wright State program added an infusion of talent yesterday. Brownell said Kegan Clark (Jeffersonville, IN) is the most prepared to play but all the Wright State signees have a chance to play early with four graduating seniors to replace. Kory Stanton, AJ Pacher (Vandalia, OH Butler), and Colt Darling (Holt, Michigan) are the other immediate signees while Matt Vest will redshirt a year before playing. http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/wright-state-university-raiders/wright-state-recruits-will-ease-seniors-exit-397261.html

Brian Gregory has signed a huge class for the Dayton Flyers. Juwan Staten, Jesse Berry, Brandon Spearman, Ralph Hill, and Devin Oliver constitute one of the deepest classes I can remember for a mid-major program. http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/university-of-dayton-flyers/what-does-uds-gregory-have-to-say-about-his-5-newest-recruits-397215.html Here is another article on local star Juwan Staten. http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/university-of-dayton-flyers/staten-sticks-to-his-word-signs-with-ud-397214.html Berry is my favorite player of the group in terms of on-court ability, but he has a reputation for being a scorer who doesn't think a lot about the rest of the game. This article from his hometown newspaper shows how hard Berry has been working on his passing and his defense, he sounds like he's got his stuff together. http://www.jconline.com/article/20091112/SPORTS01/911120328/1038/Lafayette-Jeff-senior-Berry-joins-talented-Dayton-group

2010 star Kyle Vinales committed to Grand Valley State yesterday. Ginales is a good shooter from North Farmington who played point for the Detroit Fire last summer. http://blog.mlive.com/highschoolbasketball/2009/11/grand_valley_gets_in_on_the_ac.html

Kentucky signed outstanding athlete and scorer Stacey Poole from Jacksonville, Florida. He played this summer for the Jacksonville Lee Bulls and his father was an all time great for conference rival Florida. That has to be painful for Florida fans, sure right now every fan base pretends their school didn't really want the kids they didn't get and none more so than UK media outlets, but soon enough the face of UK basketball might be a little too familiar for them. Here's a link with a few quotes from Coach Calipari on Poole. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/11/calipari-on-poole.html

Former Louisville Manual star Jacob Jenkins has inked a letter of intent to Bellarmine. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/11/remember-jacob-jenkins.html Here's the new class for Bellarmine. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html

Butler has landed a great recruiting class. Bloomington South's Eric Fromm is a solid 6'7 forward who is versatile enough to play away from the paint. Kyle Marshall is a nationally ranked forward from Penbrook Pines, Florida, and the big fish in the eyes of the Mongrel is Crishawn Hopkins from Indianapolis Manual. http://www.indystar.com/article/20091112/SPORTS0605/911120481/1004/SPORTS/Butler+s+2010+class
You don't have to be a superstar to get to play D1 basketball at a top notch institution. JR Reynolds of Chicago Whitney Young was one of several CPL kids who sign an LOI and he came off the bench for the state champs in high school. The link discusses the Rice commitment and also mentions some other CPL stars signing yesterday including some comments from his teammate Anthony Johnson. http://yourseason.suntimes.com/boys_basketball/1878181,111109-local-signing-day.article

Transfers have become so common for D1 basketball players that more and more teams now consider signing more players than they have spots for. The Akron Zips took a commitment from Dakotah Euton last week and received LOI's for all three of their signees so they will need to see a place open, but many coaches already know where the spot will come from or are otherwise willing to risk overcommitting because they see so many transfers. The Zips also signed Michael Green from Dublin Coffman High and 6-7 forward Josh Egner from Massillon Jackson.
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/index.ssf/2009/11/post_6.html

The same link also shows four signees for Coach Gino Ford's Kent State program. 6'8 Mark Henninger from Massillon Jackson, 6'4 Eric Gaines from Chicago Hillcrest, 6'6 Kenny Knight from Cincinnati Winton Woods and 6'4 juco guard Carlton Guyton form a very solid group. Gaines and Knight are two very dynamic wings who impressed the Mongrel in July, the future looks very bright for Kent State and they have one more open ride to fill in the spring if they choose.

Ernie Zeigler's Central Michigan program should have no problems developing chemistry. They brought in a recruiting class with two teammates from the same AAU program and a third expected to sign next year. Nate VanArendonk and Colin Voss signed yesterday, and junior Jordan Myrick is expected to sign next year. http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/article/-1359932882883707984/three-west-michigan-basketball-players-sign-with-central-michigan-fourth-on-way/

Murray State has inked Reynoldsburg HS (OH) standout Kevin Gray. Congrats to Kevin, his family, and the Racers! http://www.buckeyeprep.blogspot.com/

Roy Marble Jr (MI) faxed in his LOI to Iowa. http://scouthoops.scout.com/2/918418.html

Ben Brust (IL) has faxed in his LOI to Iowa as well per Telep's free signing day blog (linked above with Marble), all four of Iowa's outstanding commitments have signed.

Twitter Tuesday Summer League Tracker

Bittersweet technology simultaneously confounds and tempts the simple Mongrel and nowhere is the landscape quite so vague, yet rewarding as the Twitter fields. Twittatory can be confusing and often searches turn up more than one fish the Mongrel wishes he could throw back. But some good ball is being played, and gettin twitty wit' it is the only way the good Mongrel can come to terms.

GoldandBlack.com has a twitter page the Mongrel has been following for a while now. Purdue has hosted five team camps and several juicy droplets of update mana have flowed from their free twitter page http://twitter.com/GoldandBlackcom. Several links reveal even more detail, but the team camps at Purdue this June have included Whitko winning the small school tournament behind star junior Zach Van DeWater and coach's son Logan Irwin. Irwin is a 5'9 sophomore to be and is one of Indiana's top scoring returning sophomores. Van DeWater is a 6'5 athletic kid with good driving ability and quickness. Indianapolis Pike won Purdue's most recent team camp behind a strong effort from Khristian Smith who has an offer from IUPUI and strong interest other D1 schools including Brad Brownell's Wright State program and Chris Lowery's Southern Illinois machine. Recent Purdue 2010 commitment Donnie Hale from New Albany was up and down, but had a good game against elite 2011 forward Branden Dawson. Dawson is one of the best athletes in the class and has a little bit of a jump shot but will need to keep developing some wing skills or grow into power forward to keep his lofty position in the class of 2011. His upside is unlimited and he simply outclasses good athletes because he's on another level. Rock Island, Illinois star Chason Randle just made it back from the USA 16U team playing somewhere down where snakes get 50 feet long and they make gas out of sugar in time for some good performances as well.

Forgive the Mongrel some map-bending, but excellent and frequent updates of the (deep breath) Hoop Group Metro Summer Showcase provided by NorthStarBball at http://twitter.com/NorthstarBball deserves a special mention. Kids today. Tisk, tisk, tisk. Ok, now that the authoritative Mongrel has spoken he feels better. Several national level stars who are being recruited by Ohio State, Indiana, Kentucky, Marquette, Louisville, and several other areas closer to the Mongrel's lair participated. This year a brawl broke out between Patterson Catholic and Neumann-Garetti in the semi-final. The Hoops Gods are throwing some moving screens and leading with their elbows this morning after being robbed of a showdown between Patterson Catholic and Saint Benedicts. The aging Mongrel has been kicking around thoughts of spinning a yarn for the blog on the fights which have become an epidemic at Chicago Public League games between players in some cases and fans in other cases. Last year games were cancelled, spectators killed, and some games games were played with no spectators at all. Come on fellas, this is a game. If the other guy is better than you or a little meaner than you, you don't get to win by fighting. In fact it kind of makes you look like a wuss when you can't handle getting slapped around a little by somebody who is better or is willing to work a little harder, you gotta prove it the right way boys. Hoops is hoops, non-hoops is non-hoops. The worried Mongrel will keep a close eye on how CPL officials address this problem, but it is not limited to Chicago unfortunately.

OK, this section is where the tricky Mongrel will confuse you with alliteration aplenty and some words that just sort of sound a little funny which might tell similar stories. Bark bark no shell games please. An outstanding blog the Mongrel peruses from time to time is now twitting away. Hoosier Hills Hoops can be found at http://twitter.com/hoosierhills. They reported that defending 4A Indiana state champion Bloomington South crushed New Albany who ended the season #2 in the state in the same class before the tournament. The score was 94-34, but it was the USSFA runner up game. Bloomington South finished the season undefeated last year but lost Indiana Mr Basketball Jordan Hulls. Butler University 2010 commitment Eric Fromm, Xavier University 2011 commitment Dee Davis, and high major 2011 prospect Spencer Turner return along with newcomers first team All-State (AZ) and 2011 Indiana University commitment Matt Carlino and 2012 Illinois import TJ Bell. Turner was fresh back from the Michigan elite camp and the keen Mongrel believes he has gotten in much better shape than he was last summer. The USSFA championship was won by Mount Vernon, which has benefited from the play of a trio of 2010 stars that Hoosier Hoops Report (different from Hoosier Hills Report, see the tricky Mongrel wasn't pulling your leg) says look to be mid majors. Hoosier Hoops Report's twitter page is http://twitter.com/HHReport and they provided some excellent coverage of the event including 3A Mount Vernon's double digit wins over 4A favorites Bloomington South and Carmel. PJ Hubert was lighting it up behind the arch again and Daniel Turner and DeArmond Davis had big tournaments as well. The good Mongrel has been fond of Daniel Turner's game for a while and is looking forward to seeing the trio play this year. Turner is a scrappy fighter and plays strong and is a pretty good athlete at 6'5.

The good Mongrel retreated from the Twitter fronteir to the blogsphere which his mind has finally embraced, and the relieved Mongrel spent some time just looking at some web sites for some other summer league and team camp news. As always, Chicago Hoops and their e-rival Illinois Prep Bullseye both present a wealth of good free information, not to mention Chicago Hoops' premium content. This time we'll site the good work of the Bullseye http://ilprepbullseye.com/page50.html which reported that at the satellite University of Illinois team camp Foreman HS teammates 2010 LeVonte Dority and 2010 Mike McCall were outstanding once again. McCall has recently returned from the Texas AM elite camp and Dority returned from Indiana University's elite camp and both appear to be on a roll this summer. The good Mongrel loves his Chicago point guards. Dority seems to get a bit more national buzz than McCall but the Chicago media seem to see it the other way.