Visit updates and School Lists in the Calm Before the Storm

6'5 Nequa Valley star Dwayne Evans is one of the more sought after kids in the Chicago area in the 2010 class. According to the Hoops Report (Sun Times Hendrickson blog) he is very high on Drake, St Louis, and Northwestern with Illinois State and Toledo staying involed as well. http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/ 6'10 Dekalb center Jordan Threloff enjoyed a recent visit to Drake as well. Hendrickson believes Illinois State is also strong with the big man and lists Western Michigan, Western Kentucky, Loyola, and Northern Illinois as the likely schools to watch for Threloff.

6'5 Demath (MD) senior Victor Oladipo seems to be favoring Indiana and Notre Dame. He visited Indiana this weekend and had some nice things to say about Indiana and said he could verbal at any time but appears a good bet to make the USC vs Notre Dame game later this month to visit with former Dematha coach Mike Brey. http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=4355 Indiana sits well with top 5 ranked Kyrie Irving so they might only have one grant available to use on either Oladipo or two other wings expected to visit in the next couple of weeks Stacey Poole and Moses Morgan. With Poole's recruitment appearing to favor Kentucky, look for Indiana to have a good chance to secure a commitment either from Oladipo sometime this week or Morgan sometime next week when he visits.

Poole is visiting Indiana and Kentucky the weekend of the 18/19 of September. He is talking like UK is his favorite in recent interviews but has listed several schools as favorites in the last month and Kentucky is also doing in-home visits with a few other elite 2010 big wings such as Tobias Harris, Cameron Clark, and Doron Lamb. Kentucky appears to have quite a few rides to use in 2010, but could be facing a shortage of big kids next year if Patterson and Cousins leave as expected. It is unclear if Kentucky will pursue Poole or if Poole will be scared away if Kentucky lands one of those other outstanding prospects in the next couple of weeks. It is nearly inconceivable that UK will pursue less than 2 big kids and 2 point/combo guards in this class looking at the kids they will likely lose after this season and the kids who seem enthralled with UK right now. They are still the talk of the college basketball world with Calipari and seemingly every point guard who watched Derek Rose on TV has Cal on speed dial, its hard to expect them to get less than two big time points in the 2010 class.

All summer long schools chase the recruits around the country but once official visits begin and kids start committing in September the recruiting landscape can shift suddenly and dramatically as kids who planned on doing five visits realize the school they were leaning to is probably going to get one of their buddies instead next week and might be out of rides for the foreseeable future at their position. Its a big game of dominoes and several kids will choose the school we all knew they would but a few will wait too long and see their favorite school move on someone else.

Rick Pitino called a press conference last week and announced that his sex scandal will not keep Louisville from being a destination for top ten kids. Boy he appears to be right. After losing some momentum the last few months with several commitments flaking out for Europe and other reasons Louisville is hosting a who's who of elite recruits this weekend including Marquis Teague, Mike Shaw, Wayne Blackshear, Rod Odom, Macari Brooks, Zach Price, and others. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html

Michigan State is visiting Jayvaughn Pinkston this month. Cincinnati is hosting Devon Collier for a visit. Pinkston and Collier are both 6'8 forwards from New Jersey who appear on several top 150 lists. Hoopsreport.com has updates on several recruits of note including Oladipo, Terrence Jones, and others. http://www.hoopsreport.com/news/hoopsnews/ontheroad2

Another Hoopsreport article of note includes an update on Indiana, Ohios State, and Louisville target Adonis Thomas. Louisville and Indiana also have both offered Angel Nunez, and they update the recruitment of Indianapolis superstar sophomore Jeremy Hollowell who already has offers from Ohio State, Cincinnati, Iowa, Tennessee, Xavier, and Illinois along with strong interest from Indiana and Purdue. That is quite an offer list for someone in the 2012 class that the national scouts seem to be just discovering. He outplayed top ten ranked Wisconsin superstar JP Tokoto head to head in a couple of championship games and has a silky smooth shot, great length, and is dripping with upside. The picture above of Hollowell is a little blurry (which of course means its one I took instead of one I linked from another article) and shows Hollowell from the USSSA Nationals in Ft Wayne where his Spiece Indy Stars club played well in the 16U division. http://www.hoopsreport.com/news/hoopsnews/thursdaybuzzerbeaters1

While we're doing our rounds with Hoopsreport.com, don't overlook this article on Stevie Taylor. He's got offers from Akron, Ball State, Ohio, and a few other mid-majors and will be switching to All-Ohio Red next year. http://www.hoopsreport.com/news/hoopsnews/stevietaylormakesdecisiontoswapprogramsforfamilyaswellashisgame

High Major Scoop is twittering that Penn State hosted Ohio stars Trey Burke and Aaron White this weekend.

2010 Illinois HS recruit updates, other news and rumblings.

The Hoops Report blog in the Sun Times has a wonderful article updating several key players who are being heavily recruited by high majors and mid majors from the Chicago area in the class of 2010. Here is the link for more of a breakdown and scouting report on them, but the most likely schools according to the Hoops Report are as follows... http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/

* Phillip Jackson 6'8 pf from Providence St Mel are Illinois State and Southern Illinois. He also says Jackson is considering Depaul, Marquette, Iowa State, and Providence.
* Mike McCall 6'1 combo guard from Foreman is most likely to go to Indiana State, Illinois State, Saint Louis, or Detroit. McCall enjoyed a recent visit to Illinois State.
* Jordan Threloff is a 6'9 forward from Dekalb is listed with a bunch of schools and no favorite including Depaul, Southern Illinois, Bradley, Western Michigan, Illinois State, and some others.
* Duje Dukan is a 6'8 forward from Deerfield who the Hoops Report thinks is high major quality but is slipping through the cracks and the schools best positioned to get him are Miami, UW Green Bay, William and Mary, George Washington, Evansville, Loyola, and Valparaiso.
* Reggie Smith is a 6'0 point guard from Harvey (Thornton) who had a huge July. Hoops Report says the five schools recruiting him hardest are UCLA, USC, Marquette, Depaul, and Indiana. Smith has no leaders and plans to take all his visits and then decide.
* Levonte Dority is a 6'1 point guard from Foreman who says Baylor, Indiana, New Mexico, South Florida, and Marquette are recruiting him the hardest.
* Dwayne Evans is a 6'5 wing from Nequa Valley who is rumored to be close to a Northwestern verbal. Hoops Report says the schools best positioned for Evans if that doesn't work out are Loyola, Drake, Toledo, Western Michigan, and Fairfield.

Jody Demling has some great "nuggets" to pass along today. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html

* Indiana and Ohio State made the cut down to Rakeem Christmas' final 8 schools.
* Michigan has offered 6'8 forward Rod Odom who is being pursued by UConn and UL as well.
* Michigan hosted a visit from 6'11 class of 2011 center Marshall Plumlee of Warsaw, Indiana. Plumlee is going to prep school in North Carolina but visited Michigan recently. He has been on campus before and is being pursued hard by Notre Dame, Indiana, Purdue, and other schools of interest.
* Lawrence North forward and former Louisville commitment Justin Martin is hearing from Marquette, Kentucky, Xavier, Depaul, and other schools.
* Ricardo Johnson's offer list keeps expanding. He now has offers from Western Kentucky, Bradley, Ohio, Central Michigan, Drake, Duquesne, and Marshall.

* JD Weatherspoon committed to Ohio State. He played with the dominant All-Ohio Red squad this summer with several other OSU commitments. They disproved the silly notions around some other loaded AAU squads that too much talent makes it hard to win as they won almost every tournament they played in. http://bucknuts.com/index.php/Basketball-Recruiting-Article/buckeyes-land-basketball-commitment-from-jd-weatherspoon/menu-id-1346.html This Bucknuts article has some links to some video on "Air Spoon". Weatherspoon was committed to Xavier until Sean Miller left and opened up and has been pursued hard by several programs since then. Weatherspoon ironically will take the spot of a kid OSU gave the cold shoulder too to force open the spot. Cameron Wright has since had a much bigger summer and drawn scholarship offers from Michigan State, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Wisconsin, and finally landed at Pittsburgh. It will be interesting to follow the careers of the two Ohio natives.

* Michigan hosted Marshall Plumlee and he told Sam Webb in a scout.com article he will be visiting Virginia later in the month and has already visited Florida and Indiana. The picture above is Plumlee taken in May by the Indinapolis Star's Rod Goebel.

* There is no such person as Dead Snow. This message will self destruct immediately after mentioning Dead Snow. Dead Snow is always watching.

* Future mega huge 2013 prospect Daryl Hicks has enrolled at North Oldham and says he is being recruited by Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Xavier, Missouri, and Butler already.

Indiana Talent on display in Cincinnati and Indianapolis.

Adidas It Takes 5 is still going strong with only 8 teams left in each division set to tip off in a few hours. NBE Basketball blog as been keeping close tabs on several teams and players of interest. http://w3.nbebasketball.com/2009/07/07/nbe-live-evaluation-period-blog-day-ii/

One of the fastest rising prospects in Michigan is 6'9 forward Jon Horford for the Michigan Mustings. The Mustangs are still alive in the 17U division. Keith Appling has been getting great reviews as always and Jon Horford is drawing more attention. His latest list given to the NBE Blog was MSU, Florida, Alabama, Wake Forrest, and Miami. Izzo was watching intently but might be full in 2010 with Horford's teammates Guana and Appling locked up already.

Joining the Mustings in the final 8 teams at Cincinnati in the 17U field are the D1Elite (Derek Rose). Justin Martin has been playing well and is drawing attention from Xavier. Michael Chandler has had some good reveiws and the Mongrel believes he is playing with the 17U D1E right now.

The Illinois warriors will play Indiana Elite (Fox) in the 17U division. The Warriors have been extremely strong this summer and boast some of the best talent on the circuit. Dwayne Evans from Nequa Valley (Chicago burbs) has been having a good tournament for the Warriors. Indiana Elite's 17U team has the Mount Vernon Trio of Daniel Turner, DeArmond Davis, and shooter extraordinaire PJ Hubert along with Ge'Lawn Guyn, Butler commit Eric Fromm and other good players.

Two of the 16U division's final 8 teams are from Indiana as well. Indiana Elite Orange has been playing to a who is who of college coaches with Matt Carlino, Cody Zeller, and Marshall Plumlee leading the way and Indiana Elite/Team Indiana has been outstanding with Xavier commit Dee Davis and Muncie's Jeremiah Davis leading the way in final 8 of 16U division.

All-Ohio Red is the other area team still alive in the 16U field. Tom Crean has been spotted at a NJ Playaz vs Team Takeover 2:00 PM game according to the above link as well, no word on which prospects he is watching there yet.

The Derek Smith All-Stars West 16U squad has been on fire. Louisville's Remy Abel and George Fant and Chad Jackson have led the way for the Kentucky based squad which has drawn coaches from mid and high majors including Indiana and Louisville. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html Indiana was out in force to see the 16U Derek Smith All Stars for an earlier game, the 17 U Derek Smith All Stars boast among other good players 6'9 Curtis Washington who is fresh off his MVP performance at the Rick Bolus Blue Chip camp.

Indiana Elite/Team Indiana 15U is in the final of the winner's bracket against the Eric Gordon All-Stars. The EG all-stars are being led by Patrick Irving and Ronnie Johnson at guard and they will face off against Devontes Smith-Rivera and his Indiana Elite squad in the final four of the tournament.

Hoosier Shootout Developing Hoosier and Illinois Flavor

The Spiece Indy Stars 15U squad is still undefeated in the tournament and they face an excellent Atlanta Express squad in the 10:30 AM game. Austin Burgette and Jeremy Hollowell will have their hands full keeping tabs on 6'7 Denzel Council from Macon as well as 6'5 Jack Shanks. The Stars have played multiple games in front of Bruce Weber, Tom Crean, Brad Stevens, John Belien, Tubby Smith, Jack Owens, and assistants from Ohio State, Liberty, Cornell, and many other coaches.

The Spiece Indy Heat 17U Quarles squad has been unbeaten as well. 2010 Ohio commit Ethan Jacobs has been strong inside in the absence of 2012 behemoth AJ Hammons and Raphael Davis and Khristian Smith keep getting the ball to the hoop and it goes in or DeJuan Marrero is there to clean up. Point guards Steven Jamison and Brad Elam have been strong but for the Mongrel's money the best player for the Heat so far has been Yogi Ferrel the little point guard. Indianapolis Pike's Khristian Smith was outstanding on Monday at least.

Spiece Indy Heat (Felding) is without Travis Carrol but Purdue commit Donnie Hale is picking up the slack and they are still alive in the 17U division as well.

Team Southern Indiana has had a good start to the tournament. Day one updates are provided, I got to check in on a couple of their games but can't add a whole lot beyond what is in this Hoosier Hills Report blog. 6'7 Taylor Wischmeier is playing well and seeing Eastern Kentucky, Evansville, and IPFW interest.

The Chicago area is well represented in the round of 16 as well. Illinois Old Gold, Velocity Red, Illinois Titans, and Illinois Old School are all still alive.
http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/hoosier.html

Other notes:

I'm hearing SYF players combo guard Xavier Jones from Gary, Indiana is having a good start up in Milwaukee at the NY2LA tournament. I hope to have more on that this afternoon. Here is the updated brackets for the tournament. http://www.ny2lasports.com/events/NextLevelInvitational/Next_Level_Brackets-July7-1.pdf

Morning update, as expected Tom Crean and Rick Pitino are taking in Marques Teauge's first game in Cleveland.