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.

New Offers, Interest, Happenings in AAU world

* Northstar Blog has done some great work getting word out on several tournaments this July as well as talking to several kids and getting quotes on their interest and offers. This link has breakdown for several kids from Ohio and Kentucky as well as several kids claiming offers and interest from area schools. Its from AAU Nationals Day Three: http://blog.northstarbball.com/2009/07/29/aau-super-showcase-day-three--u17-action-gets-underway-nyarsuk--reese-stand-out.aspx Some of the updates include:

* Northland, Ohio's JD Weatherspoon has offers from Xavier, Ohio State, and Maryland and seems to favor Xavier right now. You may recall he decommitted from Xavier after Miller left.

* Ball State has offered Devonte White from Centenial, Georgia.

* Indiana has offered 2011 Team Takeover's Michael Gbinijie.

* Xavier has offered Dezmine Wells of Word of God Academy.

* Westerville South and All-Ohio Red's 2011 Travaeon Jackson has offers from Ohio, Akron, Cleveland State, and Miami. He is Jimmy Jackson's son.

* Teays Valley and All Ohio Red 2011 player Nate Anderson has offers from Ohio and Penn State.

* And here's the day four http://blog.northstarbball.com/2009/07/31/aau-super-showcase-day-four-rundown-the-miracle-of-st-patricks.aspx with offers from Notre Dame to Jerrian Grant, from Wright State to Jordan Downing, Purdue, Illinois, and Minnesota offers out to Bradley Beal as well as Beal plans to go to Purdue and Illinois camps, some praise for Indiana, Kentucky, and Louisville target Stacey Poole's defense.

* Demling has been doing a great job as well, his latest update includes Scott County's Chad Jackson getting a James Madison offer, Princeton, Indiana point guard Jalen Packer getting offers from Tennessee Chattenooga and Southern Illinois. Demling is also looking for Austin Rivers to get Indiana involved in his re-recruitment. Hoopsreport's Coach Blevins spoke with Rivers and said he's going to visit "at least" Duke and North Carolina. http://www.hoopsreport.com/news/eventreports/austinriverstovisitdukeandnorthcarolina

* Another link on some Orlando Nationals tournament success for Illinois Old Gold and Rising Stars from Illinois Prep Bullseye has updates on several players recruitment including Dekalb 6'10 senior Jordan Threloff who wants to decide soon and might favor Illinois State according to the link. Brehm Prep 6'6 athlete James Siakhem has drawn Southern Illinois, Purdue, Illinois, Indiana, Northwestern, Dayton, and Vanderbilt coaches recently. His Illinois Titans teammate Bruce Barron has interest from Vanderbilt as well. Barron impressed me earlier this month at the Hoosier Shootout, few college level point guards play with the kind of strength and athleticism he commands at a young age. Purdue, Northern Iowa, Ohio, Illinois, and Notre Dame are also very interested in Barron. The photo above is Barron from an Endtoendscouts.com article discussing his cousin Justin Dentmon among other things. Finally, Jay Harris from Illinois Old School received an offer from Duquesne. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page33.html

* According to Demling the Derek Smith All-Stars made it to the semi-finals (final four) of the Double Pump tournament in Los Angeles and had to leave for travel arrangements. Indiana Elite (Fox) without Ge-lawn Guyn made it to the elite eight of that tournament.

* All Ohio Red beat Nike Team Florida to win the AAU National tournament in Orlando. Bowling Green's Elijah Macon had 16 points. All Ohio Red 17U are in the quarter finals in Orlando as well.

* Coach Weber, Illinois State assistant Paris Parham, and Purdue assistant Jack Ray were the only coaches present for the championship victory Mac Irvin Fire 15U team which had Jabari Parker and Travis Hamilton playing up on it. http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/2009/07/a_whole_lot_more_from_las_vega.html

* The Illinois Wolves beat the Mac Irvin Fire 17U team yesterday in Merrillville. Chicagohoops listed the following head coaches as being in Merrillville on Thursday; Weber, Painter, Beilein, Brey, Craig Robinson, Todd Lickliter, Greg McDurmott, Travis Ford, Jim Les, Rick Majerus, Jim Molinari (W Ill), Billy Taylor (Ball St), and Kevin McKenna (In St). http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/endseason5.html The playoff teams are listed in the link but it doesn't say who is in the gold, silver, and bronze brackets. I'll update later in the day.

* GoldandBlack.com twittered that North Central shooting guard Terone Johnson had a huge game in Merrillville today finishing with 45 points! I'd be pretty surprised if Terone doesn't end up ranked in the top 50 with an expert or two after this summer.

* Mark Miller of Wishoops.net says Paul Jesperson has received an offer from Loyola and UW Green Bay and Port Wahington's John Gasser has added Maryland and Airzona State offers to his Northwestern, St Louis, Bradley, Butler, and several other existing offers.

* ESPN has a great review on Xavier Jones from Gary, Indiana from the Desert Duel.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/basketball/mens/news/story?id=4365943

* Another ESPN link, former Majerus assistant Paul Biancardi really likes the Rising Stars team from Illinois and gets the dirt, all four Rising Star senior to be studs have great academics. Ohio State bound Lenzelle Smith, Iowa bound Ben Brust, Cal bound Alex Rossi, and William and Mary bound Fred Heldring all have 3.0 or higher and the link also a review of Trey Lewis from Garfield, Ohio. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/basketball/mens/news/story?id=4363230

More Offers, Commitments, Visits Planned

Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal reported yesterday that Mongrel favorite Ricardo Johnson received an offer from Ohio University. He has an offer on the table from Bradley as well and is being watched by several high major programs. Johnson is a big wing and a very underrated athlete. He outplayed Vee Sanford in their much anticipated Sweet 16 match up and really gave Sanford fits on defense. Sanford is an 09 star who is committed to Georgetown. Johnson and his Covington Holmes squad went on to win the state championship and Johnson was named MVP of the tournament. (Johnson is pictured in this CJ photo) Here's a link to Demling's update yesterday, might have to scroll down to "Friday Night Nuggets". http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html

6'9 Wheaton Academy star Tim Rusthoven has verbally committed to William and Mary. He joins New Trier's Fred Helding and Bloomington North star combo guard Julian Boatner in Willam and Mary's 2010 recruiting class. The good Mongrel wasn't blogging back when William and Mary landed Boatner or you would all know him by now. He is one of the best guards in Indiana and is an absolute steal for William and Mary with the athleticism and poise to play against kids at any level in college. "Absolute steal" is about the same language used by the Bulleye to describe Rusthoven who plays for Velocity. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page32.html I'm smelling a string of tourney appearances for William and Mary early next decade. Also according to the Bullseye Jacob Williams has an offer from Loyola.

Chicagohoops is reporting Deandre McCamey has an offer from Ball State and Wayne Simon received an offer from Niagra. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/wolves1.html I'm looking forward to spending a day or two at the End of Season Showdown in Merillville toward the end of the month put on by Chicagohoops. USSSA championships in Fort Wayne are the same time so I hope to get in a day or two at each one.

Offers continue to pile up for Dekalb, Illinois 6'10 center Jordan Threloff. He now has 12 offers, including Northern Illinois, Indiana State, SIU, Detroit, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Loyola (Chicago), Illinois State, DePaul, Bradley, Drake, Ball State and Elon. http://www.daily-chronicle.com/blogs/entries/2009/07/16/50537595/index.xml

Everyone has been abuzz about the Dayton Flyers recruiting class. The Flyers are working on starting some momentum early with 2011 and have offered Vinny Zollo who is playing this summer for Indiana Elite Team Indiana. Here is an article on Zollo from a Notre Dame site detailing his visit and his approach to recruiting since he is no officially not a UK verbal. http://www.irishsportsdaily.com/recruiting/basketball/219-mature-zollo-moves-on He sounds very interested in Notre Dame as well but right now there are a lot of BCS schools who are hoping that Brian Gregory doesn't steal away another gem! I like Zollo's game. He is a pure hustle guy and when I've seen him he has been active on the glass and is a solid player. His real height might be about 6'7, but he is very well rounded at the power forward position.

Another great article on Irish Sports Daily details Irish interest in nationally ranked Ralston Turner from Alabama. Notre Dame has only been recruiting Turner since May but he sounds interested in leaving the south from the article and has an offer from Butler and several SEC schools and plans to visit Indiana. He was mentioned with Indiana quite a bit last fall but that seemed to have died down. Turner is ranked #33 on ESPN Scouts.inc top 100 list. http://www.irishsportsdaily.com/recruiting/basketball/221-turner-hears-from-notre-dame

I think my links to Wisconson Hoops on the sidebar weren't working, but here's a link to Mark Miller's blog. The first (long) entry is about an exciting team camp with several players we've been following. But scroll down to the second entry for more on offers from UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwuakee for Wally Ellenson. He joined Morris and Tokoto for a pre-game dunk show for Tom Crean and I at the Kentucky Hoopfest. Ok, ok they probably didn't know the Mongrel was crawling around the Hoops facility that day with all the coaches in the building. http://www.wissports.net/sports/hoopsb/blog/blog.aspx?f=123 The entry also discusses offers new offers from Iowa, Minnesota, and Tennessee for Tokoto. UW-Milwuakee also has an offer out to 7'1 Ben Mills for the Playground Warriors 17U squad. Mills also has offers from Indiana State, Ball State, and Loyola along with interest from Iowa and Indiana. Sweet shooting 6'8 Nick Arenz for the 15U squad also has an offer from UW-Milwuakee.

Illinois Prospects: New Offers andRecruiting Buzz Link-O-Rama

Bowling Green has extended an offer to 6'8 2010 forward Chris Oliver. Oliver played recently for Meanstreets in a tournament but is normally with First Step. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page45.html I posted a link yesterday confirming an Akron offer for Oliver as well.

The above link also mentions Jacob Williams getting an offer from Jim Les' Bradley Braves.

According to Chicagohoops, Dekalb's Jordan Threloff received new offers from Ball State and Elon to add to his collection (Southern Illinois, Drake, Illinois State, Depaul, etc) and has drawn interest this July from Minnesota. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/jthreloff1.html This photo is from the Chronicle's Eric Sunberg.

Duje Dukan keeps getting rave reviews. He plays for Full Package Elite and is one of the best shooters in the country. The Sun-Times' Hendrickson blog says he raised his stock more than anyone else in Chicago this July. Chicago media tend to have a few favorites that get overlooked for other guys by national scouts. Dre Henley, Mike McCall, and Dukan are three guys that immediately come to mind who I consistently see treated like big time prospects by local media who have so much more exposure, but are usually overlooked by national scouts. This link to the City/Suburban Hoops Report mentions Dukan as well as other stock risers from recent AAU play including Illinois Kings standouts Sean McGonagill and Justin Phipps as well as 2011's Abdul Nader from Maine East, 2012's Nate Brooks (Whitney Young), Charles Harris of Lake Forest, and Malcolm Hill-Brey who Hendrickson says might have the best handle in the state. 2013 Whitney Young star Tommy "Big Ham" Hamilton. http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/

On the other hand Mike Shaw and Wayne Blackshear and some of the Mac Irvin Fire guys get the opposite treatment. Here's a quote from Clark Francis and a link to where I found it. I went ahead and provided a link because I haven't found it elsewhere (but have no reason to doubt it and no editor who gets nervous about my reputation). "We're still trying to figure what's happened to 6'8 Jr Mike Shaw from Chicago (De La Salle) IL, who had only two points and three rebounds in a game and was schooled by many less talented players and 6'5 Jr Wayne Blackshear from Chicago (Morgan Park) IL, didn't even play in today's games? Remember, we're talking about two of the top 10-ranked juniors in the nation. And even worse than the undisciplined and lethargic way the Mac Irvin Fire has been playing lately is the fact that this was the only team in the tournament that didn't have a roster in the book. This isn't the Chicago Public League, where they don't have programs or rosters. It's the premier NIKE tournament of the entire year and it's kind of hard for your players to get exposure when nobody can identify them. We asked the organizers why no roster for the Fire and were told that is business as usual for these guys they never meet deadlines or submit the paperwork. The only one's the are hurting are the other player's on the team who need the exposure. " The link is to a Chicagohoops forum where the Fire are critiqued pretty harshly. It has some really incisive comments, but please keep in mind it is a message board thread where the title invites people who typically already had their mind made up to come there to criticize the Fire and their perceived under-performance this year at the 17U level. Another thread on the same forum raves about the same Mac Irvin Fire and has equally convincing praise for the talented and exciting squad from its considerable population of admirers. http://forums.chicagohoops.com/viewtopic.php?t=20769

Sometimes all a kid needs is time to turn it on, the scouts know that and anticipate it and get used to looking for kids who have a certain athleticism that is sought by the coaches they talk to. But lots of times the kids who underperformed at 16 are underperforming at 22. As Coach Bill Parcels is fond of saying, "If they don't bite as pups, they usually don't bite at all." That's where being a local media member who sees the prospects a lot more and is aware of what they look like day in and day out and how hard they work and how much pride they have in their performances, etc can have a big advantage over the national guys who are more in tune with athletic potential and you see a divide open between local and national perspective on prospects. Both sides of the coin can be important and often come together so its not an either-or situation usually, just part of the picture. And in the end, its all up to these kids. The ones getting D1 scholarship offers are almost all good enough to do well. They have to work hard and get it done.