Zach Price, Karl Madison, Cole Darling off the boards, more updates.

Rick Pitino appears to be on the cusp of landing one of his best recruiting classes in years with the 2011 class. Indianapolis Lawrence North stars Michael Chandler and Ryan Taylor are quite a recruiting class by themselves, but this week Pitino added another big kid in the class when Lakewood St Edwards big man Zach Price committed to Louisville on his third visit http://highmajorscoop.com/2009/09/pitino-finds-the-price-he-likes/. St Edwards has been on quite a roll producing big men recently with Price joining recent Big Ten power forwards Delvin Roe and Tom Pritchard as products from the school. In Louisville's recruiting class, Taylor is more of a small forward (I got to see how much progress he was making at that at the USSSA Nationals in July), Chandler is a true center with skills that should put him in the McDonalds All American game if he has the fire to take over games, and Zach Price is slated to be more of a power forward. Pitino is expected to have an excellent chance to add Marquis Teague at point, Wayne Blackshear at shooting guard, and perhaps even Mike Shaw at small forward in the coming days.

Springfield Laphier's Karl Madison has committed to play for Drake University. According to Brian Stinnete Drake is visiting Champaign Central's Rayvonte Rice on the first day of the contact period. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/brianstinnette603.html Madison is seen in his St Louis Eagles uniform in this scout.com photo.

Brad Brownell has landed one of the top players from the state of Michigan to add to his class of 2010. Holt HS's Cole Darling has pulled the trigger for the Wright State Raiders. http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/recruiting/tracker/school?schoolId=2750&page=briefingroom&season=2010&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncb%2frecruiting%2ftracker%2fschool%3fschoolId%3d2750%26page%3dbriefingroom%26season%3d2010


According to the above Chicagohoops link, Eastern Illinois is hosting some important visitors in the coming days as well. Jared Oldham, Ben Brackney, and jucos Lazeric Jones and Al Rapier are expected to have visits with Eastern Illinois staff. The article also mentions Chicago Hales Franciscan senior Patrick Miller had a good visit to Tennessee State this last weekend.

Macari Brooks was on campus at Louisville over the weekend and has updated his recruiting list. He says Louisville, Depaul, Xavier, and Southern Illinois are among the many schools involved. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/macaribrooks2.html

Hoosierhoopsreport.com has an outstanding update on some underclassmen in Indiana expecting important visitors now that the contact period is opening. The article discusses the thin pickings left in Indiana's 2010 class after the massive prep school defections throughout the state and puts a focus on some D1 prospects from the younger classes that might benefit from the exposure of having big crowds there looking at higher profile teammates. http://hoosierhoopsreport.com/2009/09/08/let-the-visits-begin/

Ray MacCallum Jr has a top seven which includes his dad's squad Detroit. http://blog.northstarbball.com/2009/09/09/justin-coleman-tarik-black-and-ray-mccallum-on-where-they-stand.aspx Ray Jr is a treat to watch, he's a very heady player with good athleticism and skill. He'll be a star wherever he goes. The link also updates Justin Coleman's recruiting. He is still listing Xavier, Marquette, Florida, UConn, Arkansas, and Virginia as his top six schools.



Jody Demling has an update on who Kentucky and Louisville plan on doing in-home visits with from the senior class. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/09/in-home-visits-on-tap.html


Dematha (MD) shooting guard Victor Oladipo has joined Indiana's 2010 recruiting class. Sportspress has him ranked #58
in the class and rivals and Gibbons have him ranked around 135. http://www.insidethehall.com/2009/09/07/victor-oladipo-joins-indianas-2010-class/

Late update, just got off Twitter and Dematha's high school coach is saying Jerian Grant has committed to Notre Dame also! Grant is going to play for another Dematha alumn in Coach Brey.

Shiningstarsports.com has a new feature up on Tregg Setty. He is receiving interest from Xavier, Virginia, Old Miss, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Wright State, Tennessee, and others including an offer from Southern Illinois.
http://www.shiningstarsports.blogspot.com/

Lots of rumors have been swirling recently about Kentucky facing another hit with the NCAA, although I haven't heard anything that is huge on the surface at least. UK blogger Marc maggard weighs in defending Bilel Batley from what Maggard calls "unfair" rumors about his dismisal. The mature Mongrel does not want to start sharing whispers when they are potentially harmful to people (you'll find the rare rumor mongering I participate in is pretty neutral or positive stuff), but I'll throw this defense by Maggard out there for now until more becomes known. Batley followed Kelvin Sampson from OU and was at OU during Sampson's phone scandal part one, then was at Indiana with Sampson for a year prior to phone scandal part two, then went to Memphis under Calipari for the Derek Rose saga, and had followed Cal to UK until recently at least. http://www.truebluekentucky.com/index.php/basketball/926-guest-basketball/1910-bilal-bately-and-unfair-assumptions.html

Teague, Kearney, and Other Updates

Marquis Teague is visiting UK this weekend per Jody Demling. He will then attend the Indiana University and Purdue elite camps next weekend. His father says pay no attention to internet rumors about where he will attend school and says all six schools are still involved including Wake, Louisville, and Cincinnati. Marquis a few weeks ago was quoted in one article saying he was close to committing and in another article the day before saying Louisville was his favorite so I'm not real sure how much that has changed aside from his father's denials that Pitino's sex scandal has impacted their opinion of Louisville. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html



Detroit Southeastern guard Brandon Kearney says he will likely decide next summer but his early leaders are Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Florida International is well in the mix as well. He lists several other schools including Kentucky and several other national powers are interested including Florida and Oklahoma. http://www.detnews.com/article/20090820/SPORTS0201/908200427/1004/SPORTS/U-M++MSU++OSU+are+early+leaders+for+Detroit+Southeastern+s+Brandan+Kearney The photo of Kearney is from Sam Webb's Detroit News column previously linked.



Lincoln Park (Illinois) 6'7 power forward Mike Gabriel is considering Brown and Penn who have offered as well as Northern Illinois and Detroit. He also has interest from Yale, Marquette, and Depaul. Gabriel played for the Mac Irvin Fire program this summer, usually for their 16U squad because he is young for a 2010 kid. http://w3.nbebasketball.com/2009/08/20/class-of-2010-intro-mike-gabriel/



Decatur Eisenhower guard Jarod Oldham has picked up an offer from Buffalo to go with his previous offer from Eastern Illinois. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/joldham2.html

Here is an IndyStar article on five stock raisers from July. They mention Cody Zeller, Jeremy Hollowell, Nic Moore, Marquis Teague, and Ron Patterson. http://www.indystar.com/article/20090820/SPORTS0615/90820059/1361/SPORTS0615/Zeller++Teague++Hollowell+among+big+July+jumpers

Bowling Green, Loyola, and North Dakota have offered Wisconsin Lutheran's Flavien Davis. Davis gets pretty polarizing reviews including some who have ranked him in the top 100 nationally and some who don't like his game even at the mid-major level. He got some good reviews at Indiana University's elite camp in June and had a huge 38 point game including a half court game winner at the Adidas May Classic which drew him some great reviews and a couple of quite games in front of national scouts including Evan Daniels which drew more bad ones. Davis is still being recruited by Xavier, Ball State, Oregon State, and other programs and might wait till spring to try to prove he can be consistent. http://www.wissports.net/sports/hoopsb/blog/blog.aspx?f=123

Colt Darling (Ohio) is on the campus of Wright State today according to National Preps' twitter (ONPSS).

Wright State and IUPUI land commitments.

Mount Vernon (Indiana) has three prospects who have been drawing attention from most of the mid-majors coaches in the mid-west. On Wednesday PJ Hubert committed to Shoeless Ron Hunter and his IUPUI Jaguars. Hubert is a 6'5 wing forward with what Hoosier Hoops Report called the best shot in Indiana in the class of 2010 earlier this summer. Here is the Indy star link on his commitment (photo on right is Hubert from that story). http://www.indystar.com/article/20090812/SPORTS0615/90812054/1361/Mount%20Vernon%20guard%20commits%20to%20IUPUI?GID=ul9/gu66RjQzNB1XTyw0WxINuEg30ueOhD858bKmzoQ%3D Daniel Turner and DeAndre Davis are also mid-major prospects from Mount Vernon, good luck to Hubert and teammates it'll be a treat to follow their progress.

Here is another link from the Indianapolis Star with an update on Jack Isenberger from Zionsville. He has offers from Western Michigan and Miami and interest from Davidson, Butler, and Northwestern. http://blogs.indystar.com/recruitingcentral/2009/08/isenbarger-deci.html

Brad Brownell is one of the best coaches in the business, and he's off to a strong start for Wright State's 2010 recriuting class. After already securing a commitment from Jeffersonville's Kegan Clark, Brownell stayed local this time around and received a commitment from Vandalia Butler's AJ Pacher. Pacher is a 6'9 forward with a nice stroke from three point range. He hit 43% from deep as a junior.

Here is a link to a recruiting rundown of top 2010 prospects in the mid-west. Some of the players mentioned include Trey Zeigler, Ray MacCallum Jr, Xavier Jones, Reggie Smith, Flavien Davis, Maurice Jones, Justin Martin, Mike McCall, Adriean Payne, Walter Pitchford, Storm Sanders, Colin Voss, and several others from Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, and elsewhere. http://www.ny2lasports.com/Midwest2010prospectsontheboard.htm

Duke is getting involved in the Chasson Randle recruitment. They plan on evaluating him this fall at school. No offer has been extended yet but Duke is pretty stingy with offers to younger players so kids often let them in late. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page24.html

Decatur Eisenhower (Il) guard Jarod Oldham has been offered by Eastern Illinois. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/joldham1.html

Demling has a nice update on Taylor Wischmeier, a 6'7 forward from Brownstown. He was excellent for Team Southern Indiana 17U this summer and is drawing interest from rising Ivy League power Cornell, Tennessee Martin, Austin Peay, Belmont, and others.

http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/08/interest-grows-for-so-indiana-star.html