Thank you for your patience as the Good Mongrel has spent time away from Hoops the last couple of weeks. The top 50 lists were a hoot and I'd love to do one for 2012 soon but I really feel underexposed to the younger kids in parts of Michigan and Ohio from that class so I wouldn't do it justice. Perhaps we can do an interactive one soon and I'll suggest some kids and have a few days for input from readers before we put it together. But it'll be even more interactive. The Mongrel sees a lot of hoops, but doesn't want to fall into the trap of pretending I see them all.
Lets take a state by state look at what's been going on in the last days before hoops gets going again.
Illinois:
Congrats to Levonte Dority who won't be cold for a long, long time after leaving high school. That is a kid understanding what is important about life, but don't forget to hit the books before the bikinis young man! Dority is joining Stan Heath's South Florida club, they are quickly building a very strong program and Dority should help. He's a dynamic scoring point guard who has a nice feel for the game as a point but can put up buckets in a hurry. We'll check in on Foreman and his other three D1 teammates as much as we can this year! Imagine playing in the best league in America but not living in the snow zone! http://ilprepbullseye.com/page9.html
Chicagohoops has been busy puting out some great previews. They put out a preview of their all CPL team which includes Ahmad Starks, Mike McCall, Wayne Blackshear, Brandon Spearman, and Jermaine Winfield. The only junior is Blackshear, the rest are seniors. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/earlyallcpl.html Chicagohoops also took a look recently at six of the top scoring seniors still unsigned for college and named Jay Harris, Hollis Hill (pictured above in a ST shot), Kyle Clevenger, Kashune McKinney, Gerald Dorsey, and Luke Labedzki. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/buckets.html
Depaul is in a major rebuilding mode after going 0-18 in the Big East last year, but they seem to be scaring UI and other area schools in recruiting. Jabari Parker, Mike Shaw, and Wayne Blackshear were just three of the several recruits who decided to spend the opening night of practice with Coach Wainright and his new dynamic coaching staff. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page39.html
Summer leagues are a great place to see how kids used that AAU time and summer to develop. The South Suburban Exposure League was a big success and several kids used it to show they have great years ahead of them. Rajhan Muhammad, Darius Draper, and Dominique Jackson were just a few of the stars who stepped forward. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page4.html
IllinoisHSBasketball.com is puting out some great stuff, here is a link to some updates from Week 6 of the Full Package Exposure League. Dig through their archives for some older stuff, its well worth it. http://illinoishsbasketball.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1054&Itemid=1
Michigan:
Coach Tom Izzo has outdone himself in recruiting, he already had one of the best guards in the country lined up for 2010 in Appleton and now he is adding one of the most talented power forwards in the country in Adreian Payne. Until the last couple of days it was hard to read where Payne would end up, but he's on his way to East Lansing. West Virginia and Kentucky seemed to have a lot of momentum with Payne, but he chose the program that has been to 5 final fours in 11 years. Wise young man!
Central Michigan has been on fire! Coach Zeigler's squad has landed several top kids for 2010 and the most recent additions were a couple of big kids. Coach Buscemi at Loyola HS is seeing his 6'8 big man go big time as Jevon Harden joined recent commit 6'10 Nate VanArendonk from Grand Haven HS. Both kids had several good offers and VanArendonk joins recent commit Colin Voss and Derek Jackson for Central Michigan.
The Styles 3 Elite Showcase was one of the many good internal events going on in Michigan the last few weeks. Dwann Anderson perhaps made the biggest splash as several reports had him continuing to play his way into one of the elite prospects in the 2011 class in the country as he showed his high major athleticism and kept hitting shots. Anderson has offers from Central Michigan, Utah, and Oakland and has strong interest from Wisconsin, Michigan State, Michigan, and more. He was a star for Parallel 45 over the summer. Tommie McCune and Matt Costello were two of the other standouts.
I'll take a look around Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio in an upcoming post and perhaps lay the groundwork for a collaborative effort with you the Good Mongrel's readers for a dynamic 2012 top 50 list as well. Don't let me just put all the kids I've seen on there, I'll be looking for people to convince me I have to put on somebody I have not seen a lot of yet because its a blog and lists are always a little arbitrary at least and I couldn't do it otherwise.
