Hoop World Recruiting Update!

Congrats to Dakotah Euton (seen in this CJ photo) who committed to the Akron Zips today! Euton is a hard working forward who plays with some strength, has some post moves, and is one of those rare big men who excels with the outlet pass. I'm thrilled for Euton because the Good Mongrel hears Euton is a great kid and by not being stuck in the commitment he made to Billy Clyde Gillespie a few years ago Euton finds a program where his substantial talents will be taken advantage of. What a great ending for Euton and the Zips who have an excellent recruiting class in 2010. Coach Dambrot will love this blue collar warrior! http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/11/euton-picks-akron.html

High Major Scoop has a nice summary of the top players in Ohio from 2010 and what college they settled on. They list the top players at each position plus some NAIA talent, and include several unsigned kids on their position lists including: Nick Kellogg from Columbus De Sales, Geron Johnson from Dunbar, Anton Hutchins from Lima Sr, Darnell Tubbs from Trotwood Madison, Anthony Jackson from Gahanna Lincoln, and one of the stars of the Kentucky Hoopfest, Allen Payne from Winton Woods. http://highmajorscoop.com/2009/11/national-sigining-day-nearing/

Russ Smith of Sout Kent (Conn) has given embattled Rick Pitino his fourth commitment in the 2010 class, problem is the first three are no longer on board. Justin Martin left for Xavier, Josh Langford stopped hearing from UL and decommitted, and the big man went to Europe. Kent is a 6'8 forward who had a breakout game at the Jordan Brand Classic. http://www.zagsblog.com/2009/11/05/collier-to-oregon-state/

Here's a name I've heard a few times but haven't got to see yet. Sometimes kids who don't play AAU come in and make a splash like Gordon Hayward did at Butler. Here's a kid who has been reputed to be a high major talent by some who've seen the action at the South Suburban Fall League in Chicago. He is 6'3 Adonis Bailey and he plays for Richards (Chicago area). http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/2009/11/no_myth_about_it_adonis_can_pl.html

Two of the most unheralded kids I got to see this summer were Kadeem Green and Christian Kabongo. They are much more talented than many of the big wings who are ranked ahead of them on the big lists. Green committed to Missouri last week with almost no fan fare, Tiger fans will love the kid. He's long at 6'7ish and moves like a guard and has a nose for the basket. Kabongo is a really tough one for me to judge, he inked with East Carolina. The kid was a basketball version of a one man band when I got to see him this summer, he can handle, play defense, shoot, and makes highlight play after highlight play. He was a bit unrefined in his style, and I'm not sure the roll academics played in his recruitment, but East Carolina absolutely got a steal. He'll put up some big time stats for East Carolina, he's a stunning talent. According to the link, he'll be joining the Pirates in January. http://www.hoopstarscanada.com/news.pl?nid=55 Here's a link on Green. http://www.hoopstarscanada.com/news.pl?nid=54

Columbus North's 6'8 center Tyler Greathouse is getting recruited heavily by several mid-major programs and has offers from IUPUI, Indiana Wesleyan, UW-Milwuakee, and others. The kid can really shoot and busts his butt, it'll be fun to see how good he can be as he puts on more strength. http://www.hoosierhillshoops.com/2009/11/01/columbus-norths-greathouse-has-college-interest/

Another 2010 center off the boards recently was Dave Dudzinski of Kaneland HS (Winter Park, IL) committed to Holy Cross of the Patriot League. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page45.html

News is a week old, but the thorough Mongrel wants to make sure everyone heard Shining Stars shooting guard Donovan Gibbs committed to Shoeless Ron Hunter and the IUPUI Jaguars. http://shiningstarsports.blogspot.com/2009/10/shining-star-player-donovan-gibbs.html

Some of the best big kids left in Michigan in the 2010 class are Shane Tiemeyer, Jerel Pratt, Colin DeHann, Christian Beechum, and Brandon Crane. http://blog.mlive.com/highschoolbasketball/2009/11/still_some_size_out_there.html

Super Showcase under way, other recruiting buzz 7/21

I'll be monitoring twitter and combing a few online resources during the next week so check Hoopsmongrel for updates. Grassroots TV and Wazoosports are two ways to watch some Vegas AAU action if you are desperate. I won't go live until End of Summer Classic next week so I'll try to find different angles to cover as it goes on and get back to work on updating the coach tracker post from last week. I have a lot more in my notes for that and haven't gotten to it beyond what I originally posted but promise to warm that puppy back up with non-premium information, in fact I'll probably stop procrastinating tomorrow. vbg

Summer Showcase (Orlando):

The geeky Mongrel will be Twitter mining for AAU updates warms up today with Team Pride 15U (Ken Kaminski and others) defeating Birmingham Storm! 15U action underway and the rest starts Wednesday, I am fired up!!

Other early tweets from the event: Charlotte Storm 15U beat Tidewater. Martin Brothers 15U Jerel Moore impressing in his opening pool game. Hot 2012 prospect Marcus Paige is also impressing in that game according to a Kansas writer who is doing a few updates.


Other Recruiting Notes:

Usually I am all over the Demling blog but I missed a couple of good entries from the last few days on kids of note. Donovan Gibbs from Iriquois HS in Louisville is having a great summer for Shining Stars Sports. He is 6'6 and has offers from IUPUI, Bellarmine, and Easter Kentucky. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/07/update-donovan-gibbs.html

Chicagohoops is saying Chicago media sweetheart Mike McCall of Foreman has picked up an offer from Drake. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/mccall5.html Photo is from cicbasketball.com. He plays school ball for Foreman alongside the talented Marquette and Indiana target Levonte Dority.

NWI Times confirms UCLA and Arizona offers for SYF Players 16U super athlete Branden Dawson from Gary. He already had offers from Purdue, Indiana, Minnesota, and Georgetown. Dawson is incredibly talented but is about 6'5 and will need to sharpen up the handle quite a bit or speed up his improving jump shot a little to be able to dominate when he gets to the next level. He is a gifted rebounder and a treat to watch. He plays with some talented teammates in Mitch McGary and Markus Crider but in May he stood head and shoulders above them. He was the show. UCLA had coaches in Milwuakee for the NY2LA Summer Jam to watch him and he made his way out to UCLA for an elite camp earlier this summer so the offer is not a big surprise. He has a lot of Purdue people around him and they are the early favorite from most accounts so it'll be interesting to see how his recruitment shakes out if Ben Howland starts showing up at SYF games. http://www.post-trib.com/sports/highschools/1675885,bkb-dawson-0721.highschool

NBE blog has a reveiw on Suttons Bay, Michigan star Dwann Anderson and also says Kentucky, Xavier, Marquette, and Cincinnati are among the schools in the running for NY Gaucho Shane Southwell. http://w3.nbebasketball.com/2009/07/21/lookback-at-hoop-group-elite-camp/

Marquette, Indiana, and Xavier have offered Virginia wing Justin Coleman.
http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/recruiting/tracker/school?schoolId=120&page=briefingroom&season=2010&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncb%2frecruiting%2ftracker%2fschool%3fschoolId%3d120%26page%3dbriefingroom%26season%3d2010 Apologize for the wacky link, it goes to the espn "on the trail" feature so if you aren't clicking near the time I linked it you might have to scroll down a little. He is the guy who went from unranked to five star with a couple of recruiting services after having a huge top 100 NBA camp a few weeks ago.

Hoosier Shootout to Kick off July (Part 1).

The Hoosier Shootout begins at 8 AM sharp on Monday, July 6. Much of the national spotlight will be on Cincinnati this week for the Adidas Take Five tournament which is loaded. But the nearby Hoosier Shootout will draw the Mongrel out of his June cave. Every national scout worth his salt will be in Cincinnati telling the Mongrel the same news, meanwhile a deep and impressive field will be on hand in Indianapolis and the Mongrel will be there with about a million college coaches.

Indiana is a known hotbed of hoops talent and the Hoosier state will be well represented as usual with several Speice, Indiana Elite, Team Southern Indiana, and other programs well represented. Part 2 of the Mongrel's Hoosier Shootout preview will discuss some of the Indiana talent. For now, lets look at just a sample of some of the talent descending on Indianapolis with out of state plates.

Wisconsin Playground Warriors are one of the top AAU programs in the midwest and this year is no different. The 17U team is filled with D1 talent. Evan Anderson (UW), Noah Cotrill (WVU), and Kameron Cerroni (UW-GB) have committed to D1 programs and rugged Dakota Euton was committed to UK before Billy Gillespie was ousted. The Warriors boast one of the most formidable front courts on the circuit with Euton and twin 7'0 towers Anderson and Ben Mills. Mills has offers from Indiana State, Ball State, and UW-GB along with interest from Marquette, Indiana, and Minnesota.

The Warriors younger squads are strong as well. According to Wishoops.net, the two best players in the Warriors system are 2011 Quevyn Winters and JP Tokoto. Winters is a 2011 6'4 wing who has offers from Marquette and Wisconsin and is considering Purdue University and plans to attend the late August elite camp there http://www.wissports.net/sports/hoopsb/blog/blog.aspx?f=123. Tokoto has offers from Kansas, Marquette, and Wisconsin and has been spotted at the Marquette elite camp recently by the JS Online Golden Eagles blog. Both Tokoto and Winters have played up before so check your program the Warriors brought teams in all three divisions. Brett Vandenburgh is another fine 2012 player but he is listed on rosters for both the Wisconsin Playground Warriors and the Wisconsin Blazers.

Georgia Stars are yet another of the country's elite travelling teams, the Georgia Stars are sending their premier 17U team but not the rest of their fleet. The 17U team will be one of the favorites at the Shootout and have several of their own D1 players. Marcus Thornton has already committed to Clemson. According to their Rivals.com profiles, 6'7 power forward Adrian Hubbard has a Clemson offer and is looking at ACC and SEC programs, 6'0 pg Devonte White is looking at ACC and SEC programs, 6'5 Jeremy Burgess is looking at Minnesota, Indiana, Georgia and others, and 6'4 Chris Grier is looking at SEC and ACC programs as well.

Illinois Titans are only sending their 17U team, but they have two outstanding younger players who have been playing up. Watch for 2011's 6'7 power forward James Siakham or even 2012's 6'9 Emanual Ochenje who Chicagohoops has #1 in the class of 2012 in Illinois. Siakham already has offers from Depaul and Southern Illinois and Ochenje has already landed an Illinois offer.

Randolph Boys Club are sending 15, 16, and 17U teams. Look for 2010's 6'3 gritty combo guard Austin Armga and 6'0 Kevin Hurd from Portage to lead the way. Sam Mader and Avery Hinz lead the way for their 15U team but watch out for Duke Vander Galien if he makes the trip. He's been playing up 3! years with this team. They keep getting younger, but its like a car wreck and the Mongrel can't look away!!

Peoria Irish are sending 3 teams although their 16U and 17U teams will both compete at the 17U division. One of the Irish's top 17U players is James Johnson, a 6'8 forward whom Chicagohoops gave good reviews to at the Chicago Tip Off classic. The 16U team beat the Mac Irvin Fire to win the title in the same event and will compete up with the 17U teams this time around. Jordan Nelson from Lincoln and Hayden Hordeman pair up to make for a deadly shooting duo. Hordeman is a 6'3 shooting guard from Bloomington Central Catholic who has offers from Northern Illinois and Eastern Illinois and jumped on the radar screen for several Big Ten programs after his MVP performance in the Tip Off classic including Illinois, Iowa, Penn State, and Indiana.

Illinois Old School is sending four teams to the tournament. 6'1 Oswego East guard Jay Harris is ranked #53 in the class of 2010 by ESPN and he will be leading the Old School's 17U team. He teams with 6'0 point guard Hollis Hill who recently committed to UW-Milwuakee.

Other players of note: The Tennessee Travelers 17U team will feature Jalen Steele, who is a 6'2 highly recruited guard from Knoxville the Mongrel blogged about in some recent Dayton entries. The Shining Stars have five teams in the field so once again check your program, but watch for 17U point guard Chad Jackson from Scott County who claims offers from Xavier and West Virginia. The Mongrel has watched a couple of Jackson's games and likes his ability to get to the rim but he might need a little tweak or two to be a high major point guard. His shooting is ok and he's not super quick but has great length if he can be a point guard. Donovan Gibbs from Iriquois is a good point guard as well. On the 16U squad Austin Flannery can light it up from deep quickly. Terry Porter Elite has 3 teams at the event. Their most anticipated prospect might be Deonte Burton who some have called a top 20 player nationally in the class of 2013 but he'll be playing with TP Elite's 15U team. 15U Birmingham Storm made the trip but not the older teams. 6'6 JaCorey Williams is one of the players to watch for them. 17U Wisconsin Force will feature 6'1 Josh Cameron who is a fine scorer and getting mid-major looks from schools such as Akron. Waterloo's 6'6 Sam Gage is also getting mid-major interest, hearing from Old Dominion and Northern Iowa among others.

This is only a small sample of the talent at the Hoosier Shootout. The website for the tournament is http://www.hoosiershootout.com/ and the Mongrel will provide some updates from some of the most impressive talent in the building and a second part of the preview focusing on the many Indiana squads at the tourney and a few out of state teams we overlooked the first time around.