Guyn recruitment heats up, Kamieniecki winding down, other updates...

Mongrel favorite Ge'Lawn Guyn (pictured here from an Examiner.com article) has decommitted from Charlotte and has heard from Northwestern, Indiana, Georgia Tech, and Mississippi State already. The article also mentions Chane Behanan has a new offer from Oklahoma State and Daryl Hicks visited Behanan's former school of choice University of Cincinnati this weekend. Here's the link... http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-9504-Louisville-High-School-Sports-Examiner~y2009m9d26-News-and-Notes

Devontes Smith-Rivera is visiting Purdue this weekend.

Jake Kitchell has committed to Indiana State, he also had an offer from Oregon State and had been one of the most productive kids in Indiana in his class as well as a standout on the SYF Players AAU team this summer.

According to Jeff Goodman, one of the country's top seniors has cut his list to seven. Tobias Harris has included Kentucky and Louisville in his final seven and will do officials at both schools.

Wisconsin landed Port Washington shooting guard John Gasser. It'll be interesting to see how his college career works out compared to Vander Blue who withdrew his commitment from Wisconsin this spring. Blue is a much higher ranked prospect but he is not more productive than Gasser who had an enormous summer. As usual, the good Mongrel will predict that Bo knows best.

Brandon Kearney is visiting Kentucky this weekend along with fellow Detroit star Percy Gibson. Marc Maggard has a nice breakdown of each in this blog entry. http://www.truebluekentucky.com/index.php/basketball/926-guest-basketball/1990-two-qmystery-visitorsq-will-be-at-uk-today.html

Rick Bolus has been releasing his scouting reports the last several days.
* According to Bolus, the top twelve seniors in Indiana are Deshawn Thomas, Jordan Manual, Xavier Jones, Russell Byrd, Terone Johnson, Travis Carrol, Donnie Hale, Jesse Berry, Eric Fromm, Jake Kitchell, Khristian Smith, and Kennis White.
* According to Bolus the top twelve underclassmen in Indiana are Marquis Teague, Matt Carlino, Ryan Taylor, Jeremiah Davis, Michael Chandler, Cody Zeller, Justin Gant, Dee Davis, Rafael Davis, Kendal Griffin, Evan Blackmon, and PJ Boutte.
* Bolus says the top twelve seniors in Kentucky are Curtis Washington, Ricardo Johnson, Elijah Pittman, Chad Jackson, Ge'lawn Guyn, Donovan Gibbs, Elijah Justice, Josh Sewell, Aaron Watts, Dakota Euton, Matt St John, and Jomari Bradshaw.
* Bolus says the best underclassmen in Kentucky are Chane Behanan, George Fant, Jaylen Beckham, Vinnie Zollo, Remy Abel, Desmond Dorsey, Robbie Stenzel, Trey Williams, Jordan Shanklin, Josh Stroud, and Josh Forrest.

Several Ohio updates from Ohio/National Preps Scouting Service on their twitter account http://twitter.com/ONPSS. If you follow Ohio hoops you have to check this guy out, he's always cranking out non-stop hoops lore from Ohio and around the country. Here's a sample from the last few days only.
* Clarkston, Michigan forward Matt Kamieniecki is deciding between Ball St and Western Michigan this weekend.
* Peebles, Ohio junior Blake Justice is a 6'2 guard received an offer from Akron after a Wednesday visit. Akron also offered 6'7 sophomore Eric Troug from Kenton, Ohio.
* Ranks top 10 unsigned Ohio kids as 1) Adriean Payne, 2) Nick Kellog, 3) Garon Johnson, 4) Allen Payne, 5) Antone Hutchins, 6) Kennis White (South Bend, IN transfer), 7) Nick Harney, 8) Storm Sanders, 9) Angelo Gonzalez, 10) Kevin Gray
* Will Sheeley from Florida is visiting Northwestern this weekend.
* Strongville, OH junior Aaron White is a 6'7 forward who visited Butler this weekend. Butler, West Virginia, and Penn State visited last week among other schools.
* Akron St V/St M junior Jakar Sampson, Alpharetta, GA junior Shannon Scott, Indianapolis Broad Ripple sophomore Ron Patterson, and Indianapolis sophomore Jeremy Hollowell, and Merrillville, IN sophomore Dejuan Marrero are visiting Ohio State this weekend for the Illini game.
* Dayton, OH senior Adriean Payne is on an official visit to UK this weekend.
* Cincinnati, OH senior Allen Payne is visiting VCU this weekend.
* Dayton, Oakland, and Kansas State all visited Grand Ledge HS to see Jon Horford Friday.
* Westerville, OH junior Traevon Jackson has offers from Miami, Akron, Cleveland State, and Ohio.
* Trey Burke is a junior from Northland, OH with offers from Butler, Ohio, Miami, and James Madison.
* Dublin, OH sophomore Kyle Molock has offers from Akron, Florida International, Georgia State, Ohio, and St Joes.
* 6'2 senior shooting guard and South Bend transplant Kennis White has offers from Drake, Bradley, and Indiana State.
* 6'4 senior Matt Vest from Dayton, OH committed to Wright State last week.

Las Vegas senior Moses Morgan committed to Depaul last week. Morgan is a high scoring 6'5 wing guard who considered Indiana, Utah, Oklahoma, and UNLV among others. http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/2009/09/depaul_lands_a_good_one.html

Chicago Foreman point guard Levonte Dority hosted visits from New Mexico's Steve Alford and South Florida's Stan Heath last week. He is expected to choose between those two programs and Baylor soon. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/dorityusf.html

Dority's Foreman teammate Eddie Denard committed to UI-Chicago. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page30.html Denard is a 6'5 wing.

Illinois Prep Bullseye has several updates in this link http://ilprepbullseye.com/page43.html , including...
* Justin Threloff is visiting Western Michigan this weekend and is expected to decide between WMU, Drake, Illinois State, and Northern Illinois after the visit.
* Levonte Dority and former UNLV and Valpo center Beas Hamga are taking official visits to New Mexico this weekend.
* Jarod Oldham is visiting Southern Methodist this weekend and has offers from SMU, Bradley, Indiana State, Eastern Illinois, and Buffalo.
* Kourtney Darby visited Bradley this weekend.
* Jacob Williams has offers from Bradley, Xavier, Southern Illinois, and Loyola.
* Chason Randle is visiting Iowa State again this weekend. I continue to hear the Cyclones and Purdue are strongest here but Ohio State made a huge impression and is closing fast.

More commitments!

The recruiting period is heating up quickly with in-home visits. Covington Holmes senior Ricardo Johnson was the MVP of the Sweet 16 in Kentucky and has committed to former Buckeye assistant John Groce and his Ohio program. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/09/swete-16-mvp-makes-his-pick.html The photo on the right shows him from a Courier Journal photo (believe from Demling's blog).

Champaign Centennial had the luxury of seeing two of its stars commit to outstanding mid-major programs. Senior guard Rayvonte Rice has committed to Drake. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/rayvontedrake.html Meanwhile Eastern Kentucky has secured a commitment from Jeff Johnson, a 6'8 forward who has excellent footwork and is solid shooting the ball, I got to see him this summer for the Peoria Irish 17U squad and he was really impressive. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/johnsoneku.html

Kentucky head coach John Calipari did in-home visits with Doron Lamb, Kyrie Irving, and Tobias Harris in just one busy day this week doing in-home visits. This Zagsblog article has updates on several of Calipari's targets including Doron Lamb who they visited with tonight. The article also mentions Indiana coach Tom Crean was at Mountain State Academy to see Turkish star Enes Katner and Obij Ajet, a seven foot sophomore prospect who played with Indiana Elite Team Indiana this summer. http://www.zagsblog.com/2009/09/10/contact-period-opens-amid-recruiting-frenzy/ Ajet is an outstanding shot blocker but is very skinny which currently limits his effectiveness against some players who play with some strength underneath. But he's a wonderful athlete with unbelievable reach and he also has a very nice jump shot out to 18 feet.

Chane Behannan and George Fant did unofficials with WKU this week. http://nationalhoopsreport.blogspot.com/2009/09/fastbreak-friday-sept-11.html

Chicago Foreman star point guard Levonte Dority has cut his list to three schools. Baylor, New Mexico, and South Florida are all still in the running for the high scoring point. He was considering Marquette, Indiana, and several other schools before cutting down his list. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page9.html

As the above link to nationalhoopsreport.blogspot.com indicates, Thad Matta is hosting quite a collection of talent this weekend for the USC football game at the Horseshoe. The Buckeyes will host their top ranked 2010 recruiting class along with 2011 stars Quinn Cook, Bradley Beal, Cody Zeller, Chason Randle, Amir Williams, and several other key recruits along with star alums Greg Oden and Mike Conley. http://w3.nbebasketball.com/2009/09/11/quinn-cook-on-ohio-state-visit-this-weekend/

Indiana State appears close to landing a commitment from Jake Kitchell. The link has Kitchell saying he played "ok" this summer. Its a very poignant comment imo. This is a kid who led the state of Indiana in blocked shots and put up huge numbers in scoring and rebounding. Sure a 2A schedule can give a good player a chance to pad his stats but the kid wasn't just productive he was phenomenally productive. So when I first had a chance to see him this summer I expected to see the kind of skill that is required to put up such incredible numbers but he was playing with the SYF Players. They were absolutely loaded with stars such as Jesse Berry, Xavier Jones, and bigs like Dominique Ferguson, Enique Mason, and Kitchell. Kitchell was solid on the boards, played solid defense, and was among the most vocal leaders on the floor I'd seen for a big man on the summer circuit. But he didn't try to shoot much either time I got a chance to see him. He would get a rebound, and try to initiate offense on the break, communicate well with his teammates and play unselfishly. These were not qualities I expected to see out of a kid who was among the state leaders in points, rebounds, and blocked shots. If that skill is there which you have to almost assume when a kid puts up numbers, then he could be a special player with his unselfishness and leadership. I wish I'd seen enough of him to weigh in on how productive he can be against good competition, but he's got everything else and has been so productive its tempting to give him the benefit of the doubt. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090911/SPORTS0615/909110356

The above link to the outstanding Indy Star article also has updates on Bowman Academy's sophomore sensation Dujuan Marrero as well as his less heralded senior teammate Tyrae Robinson. Marrero has offers from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Purdue, and Valparaiso. He's a 6'5 rebounding and defensive machine with a non stop motor and worth the price of admission himself. Robinson is a 6'1 guard with offers from Ball State and Dane Fife's IPFW program. Christopher Bond is a 6'4 forward for Bowman with an offer from SIU Edwardsville.

The Indy Star article also mentioned Pike senior Khristian Smith wants to decide before his senior season. So far he has offers from Drake, Evansville, Morehead State, Indiana State, and Ron Hunter's IUPUI program. Smith has the size and athleticism of a high major prospect, and he is a versatile player who looks the part of a big time player for a mid-major program imo. He played very well leading Pike to a team camp victory at Purdue this summer without the help of Marquis Teague. He also looked very good in summer play alongside Teague, Deshawn Thomas, and company. He has several wonderful college options now which may be the best fit for him, but he's the type of athlete and talent that you find among the seniors who have breakout seasons and get high major attention in the spring if he chose to ride out the process and pursue that option. Smith will be visiting Eastern Illinois this weekend.

MILive.com has another great update courtesy of Stephen Bell. Bell has some good stuff on Kalamazoo Central's 6'6 forward Darius Norman. Bell says Norman was making big plays last year but might be ready to be consistent this year. http://blog.mlive.com/highschoolbasketball/

Shiningstarsports.com has updates on many of their players. Tregg Setty and Jordan Gilbert of Mason County hosted Wright State, Vanderbilt, and Miami at an open gym. http://shiningstarsports.blogspot.com/2009/09/recruiting-update-gilbert-and-setty.html

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.

More July updates from Cincy, Milwaukee, Indy, and Lebron

Lebron James Skills Academy

Here are some helpful links to keep up with the action as the evaluation period heats up. The Mongrel reported on several of these kids already, but here are many more in a nice blog entry from Jody Demling updating day 1 from around the country especially Lebron James Skills Academy. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html

Hugh Kellenberger of the Herald Times in Bloomington, Indiana is at the Lebron James event and is providing some great twitter updates. http://twitter.com/HWKellenberger Hugh does a great blog called quickhits you should check out as well if you are interested in prep hoops or other sports in central Indiana.

NBE basketblog has updates on Mac Irvin Fire and Marquette and Indiana target Reggie Smith and others at the event. http://w3.nbebasketball.com/2009/07/07/lebron-james-skills-academy-day-i/

NY2LA Milwuakee

New York 2 LA is underway with several Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin teams represented.

The 2010 field includes Vander Blue, Jesse Berry, Chad Calcuterra, Flavien Davis, Xavier Jones, Mike McCall, Zach McCabe, Lucas Holt, Jake Kitchell, Mario Redmond, Colin Voss and others. http://ny2lasports.com/2009NextLevelInvitational2010Prospectslook.htm

The 2011 field includes Marcus Crider, Mitch McGary, Darrell Longstreet, Josh Oglesby, Donivine Stewart, Travis Trice, Quevyn Winters, Leavon Head, Jeremiah Jones, Ryan Majerle, Tavien Pomlee, Jason Pretzer, and others. http://ny2lasports.com/09NextLevel2011ProspectsPreview.htm

Day one saw many stars having big days including...

Ben Brackney from Chicago Lincoln (2010) lit it up from three on day one at the NY2LA event in Milwaukee for the Illinois Warriors.
http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/july1.html

NY2LA recap from day one talks about big games from Vander Blue, Jake Kitchell, former Iowa commit Chase Creekmur, Diovine Stewart, Marcus Crider, Purdue and Marquette target Quevyn Winters, Tyrone Sherman and some incoming freshmen including their #1 prospect nationally Peter Jok and the Grand Rapids Storm's Drake Harris. http://ny2lasports.com/NextLevelDay1recap.htm

Hoosier Shootout Info

Illinois Old Gold went 2-0 Monday and got good games out of Lane Barlow, Patrick Miller, and Desmond Marks. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/july1.html

Eric Gaines from Hillcrest and Roy Lester from Crete-Monee had good games for Orange Crush (which the Mongrel can confirm and mentioned in the last recap) and Chicagohoops is on top of it as well.

Chicagohoops also mentions the 17U Peoria Irish who had good games from not only Jeff Johnson and Josh Piper mentioned in an earlier update but also Victor Davis from Galesburg. The good Mongrel did not get a chance to see the Irish's 16U team which is playing up a grade but they got good games from Mongrel favorite Hayden Hordeman and others as well.

Chris Hawkins' 2012 Spiece Indy Stars went 3-0 in pool play including today's 79-46 win with Jeremy Hollowell scoring 16, Kellon Thomas with 14, Ron Patterson 10, and Austin Burgett tallying 8.

Hoosierhoopsreport's Jim Reamer is at the Hoosier Shootout today and giving some twitter updates. Kendal Griffin, Zach Van DeWater, and others played well yesterday for the Spiece Select 2011who are playing up a year and finished 2nd in their pool and are still alive. http://www.hoosierhoopsreport.com/

Adidas It Takes 5 updates

Eric Gordon All Stars 17U lost their elimination game on day 2 at the Adidas It Takes 5 classic. Josh Humphrey of Chicago Crete-Monee was hot from deep on day one. The Mongrel saw him this spring and was impressed. Purdue commitment Terone Johnson got great reviews from rivals'com analyst Jerry Meyer in this pay article from day one at the event. http://purdue.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=962668

Blackandgold.com's Brian Neubert has been giving twitter updates and the Eric Gordon All Stars lost with Terone Johnson bouncing back for a strong second half scoring 12 of his 14 in the half as well as getting 6 assists.
http://twitter.com/GoldandBlackcom

10 Most Underrated Kids in Indiana

10 best D1 prospects in Indiana who the deep digging Mongrel has not seen on a top 100 list, its getting hard because old secrets like Dee Davis, Jeremy Hollowell, Ron Patterson, are gettin out and showing up already.

1) Jesse Berry 2010
2) Tony Springmann 2011
3) Austin Burgett 2012
4) Zach Van DeWater 2011
5) Edward Seay 2012
6) Gary Harris 2012
7) Justin Gant 2011
8) Kendall Griffin 2011
9) Jake Kitchell 2010
10) Xavier Jones 2010

Indiana is so deep in talent in the 2011 and 2012 classes the overwhelmed Mongrel figures there are at least a dozen kids who'll show up on top 100 lists in those classes that have yet to prove themselves to the right people, it'll be a constant update/edit task because the Hoosier state is well scouted and wonderful web sites (many are linked at the bottom of the Mongrel's home page) like Hoosier Hoops Report and the Indiana and Purdue rivals sites as well as Indiana's Scout site do spectacular jobs of covering local talent. * Edit one 6/30/09 my #1 on the list was Cody Zeller and he showed up #57 on Scout.com's top 75 list for 2011. Austin Etherington was on the list too removing him from future consideration of our 10 Snubbed Hoosiers.

There are more AAU programs in Indiana than stars in the sky and the school coaches there entertain in front of the biggest crowds in the country. The nomadic Mongrel has roots all around, but nowhere is basketball so beloved and so organized and efficient as you see in the Hoosier state. Kentucky is a good comparison but its more a religion in Kentucky and an probably more of an art in the Hoosier state. The well traveled Mongrel grew up in Rex Chapman country and had a lot of years in Damon Bailey country as well. Hoosiers love their hoops and the maters are pret near heavenly right time of year in Indiana too. And there's good basketball year round. The conflicted Mongrel included Seay and Harris in 2012 going blind for now but the wisest owls in the barn consistently say they are big time so the Mongrel is going to err on the side of caution for now.