Kearney pulls the trigger for Izzo, other updates...

As expected, the 19th best player in Mongreltopia for the 2011 class pulled the trigger for Tom Izzo's Michigan State basketball powerhouse on Tuesday. Brandon Kearney is a solid athlete who is impressive going to the bucket and he also is a very competitive player. The Spartans beat out Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio State for Kearney. The Spartans have been on a roll after adding Adreian Payne to finish up their 2010 class. With two bigs from the '08, '09, and '10 recruiting classes who aren't exactly suited to guard a 3, look for Michigan State to focus on a point and another wing to finish out the 2011 class. Top candidates are Lucas-Perry, Jeremiah Davis, Anton Grady, and possibly Dwann Anderson if he keeps impressing and secures that coveted Spartans offer.

Kentucky:

Perhaps the biggest recruiting drama in the state of Kentucky right now surrounds 2011 forward Chane Behannon who is being targeted by Oklahoma State, Cincinnati, Kentucky, and Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers are not to be dismissed lightly as they landed a strong 09 class and have had Chane on campus for an elite camp and at least two unofficial visits. The Hilltoppers are also deeply involved with the second most intriguing recruiting battle in the state. Ge'lawn Guyn was close to verballing for WKU before originally choosing Charlotte. Two schools of thought around Guyn are floating out there. One is that he has blown up to a high major status and is close to offers from Texas, Georgia Tech, and Indiana. The other is that he still likes Western and might not wait to see who else offers.

Previously mentioned Kearney and Payne were notably UK targets. One of the quiet surprises across the country has been UK's difficulty in closing on most of their top 2010 targets after a near historic 2009 recruiting class. The Wildcats have secured one outstanding prospect in Stacey Poole from Jacksonville, Florida, but have missed on more than anyone could have imagined. I try not to comment much on UK recruiting because they have so many more fans than anyone else it overwhelms your inbox and everybody who follows recruiting has a half dozen good solid UK sources who seem to always think they are about to get whatever kid decides next no matter what the details are. But I keep hearing one theme reflected back from UK directions, several recruits UK goes after have the kind of potential to only play a couple of years in college before going pro and those kids will not choose UK over another good program if they are worried about getting on the floor. I believe several of UK's top targets have deliberately decided to wait until spring to get a feel for what John Wall, Orton, Liggins, and Cousins will look like under Calipari and if they will leave this year. How good Bledsoe looks at pg could be a factor as well. When you recruit kids who only want to play a year or two before going pro, you might have to continue going down the list like Calipari has done. If Bledsoe is human, Wall goes pro along with one of the freshman big kids, then expect UK to have their pick of the litter this spring and wind up with a Selby, Leslie, Poole, Jones type of class probably mixed in with a juco or two for stability since UK stands to lose so many seniors this year. However, if Bledsoe looks formidable for the next three years and UK returns both big freshmen UK might have a little more trouble getting a special class back to back than their fans expect.

Indiana:

Here is a look at five emerging prospects from Indiana from Indianapolis Star recruiting writer Kyle Neddenreip. http://www.indystar.com/article/20091101/SPORTS0615/91101014/1361/SPORTS0615/Under+the+recruiting+radar++but+ready+to+soar
Jared Drew, Nick Osbourne, Kellon Dunham, and Michael Ramey are four candidates to make Mongreltopia's exlusive top 50 list for 2012 prospects while Colin Hartman is a wonderful early bet for a nationally ranked top 50 player. The Good Mongrel likes VJ Beachum and Daryl Baker the most in Indiana in the 2013 class so far, but Hartman along with the Scott twins in Ft Wayne are among the highest profile kids in the class this early.

Another Neddenreip article updates Princeton, IN point guard Jalen Packer's recruitment. Packer is getting recruited by Butler, Southern Indiana, Purdue, and has offers from Evansville and others. The article also takes a look at mountainous Carmel center AJ Hammons' recruitment. Indiana and Purdue are among recent visitors to see the slimmed down Hammons. Avon is best known for Kendall Griffin and Austin Burgett, but Juan Sarver has his own following from area coaches including offers from Wright State and Morehead State.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20091030/SPORTS0615/910300376/1361/SPORTS0615/Its+2010+class+filled++Butler+looks+ahead

Purdue has already overcommitted for its 2012 class. With only 2 rides scheduled to come open, they have commitments from Kyle Molock (ESPN's 65th highest graded prospect), Raphael Davis (59th), and Jay Simpson (98th). Matt Painter has a well earned reputation for being a shrewd talent evaluator, and with the depth of talent available in Indiana for 2012 you can bet those three kids are going to be worth the gamble. It might leave Glenn Robinson Jr wandering what he's going to be doing with his college years however, the little dog had a big July for the 15U SYF players! Purdue has a lot of offers out in 2011, but seems to be best positioned with Chason Randle and Brandon Dawson right now. If Jujuan Johnson goes pro as expected Purdue should only have two rides available in 2011, and with overcommitments in 2010 and 2012 those two would be an ideal way for Purdue to finish their classes. Purdue basketball seems to be capturing its on the court momentum and finding the next wave of kids to compete for Big Ten Championships after Hummel, Johnson, and Kramer leave.

Ohio:

Thad Matta has wasted no time after landing a top 2010 class. OSU is always looking for a point guard to emerge, and the Good Mongrel expects William Buford and Walter Offut to help guarding that spot this year, but the future is currently in the hands of Aaron Craft, a 2010 commitment. OSU has hosted Chason Randle and Quinn Cook from the class of 2011, two kids who certainly would stop the bleeding at the point. Another point targeted by OSU is Yogi Ferrell, a 2012 star from Park Tudor, Indianapolis. OSU has also targeted Georgia guard Shannon Scott who seems to favor Clemson but lists OSU as his second favorite.

Many of the top prospects in Ohio participated in the Nike All-Ohio City Series in Columbus. The event was put on by All-Ohio's Jerry Watson and included top performances by 6'5 Bowling Green commitment Craig Seely from Columbus Brookhaven who won MVP (pictured above), as well as Dublin Coffman's Christian Heine and Michael Green, Columbus Beechcroft's Leo Delvin, Teays Valley's Nate Anderson, and Jake Forrest of Hilliard Bradley among others. The underclassman MVP was Harvest Prep pg Adam McCall (2012) and others on the all tournament team included Northland's 6'8 Devon Scott (2012) and 6'4 KeChuann Lewis, along with Brookhaven's 6'6 Kahlid King, Liberty's 6'6 Nick Archer, and Terry Hopewell of Independence. Previously mentioned recent Purdue commitment Kyle Molock was a participant. http://www.jjhuddle.com/news/articles/2009/11/2/first-annual-nike-all-ohio-city-series-top-40-a-success

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.

Recruiting Tidbits

The elite camp report inspired quite a bit of emails, so here is a follow up on the Indiana camp. http://www.insidethehall.com/2009/08/30/scouting-notes-from-saturdays-elite-camp/ My mind isn't slipping, this is a different link from the last story. Inside the Hall apparently had a mole in the Indiana Elite camp who gave them a great scouting report. I think the comments on Baker, Hicks, Hulls, and Tokoto are particularly right on. Tokoto is a phenomenal prospect and seems like a better kid but the scouts will turn their lists over a dozen times before he graduates and I don't think he'll wind up being higher than Baker or Hicks for sure and probably not better than some of the other kids mentioned in that report. That's sort of like criticizing Cindi Crawford for not being quite as sexy as Bridgett Bardot though, as the Good Mongrel reported from the Kentucky Hoopfest and Hoosier Shootout, Tokoto is the real deal and will be a wonderful player. I like Ron Patterson, Ken Kaminski, and Devontes Smith-Rivera more personally, but its early and these kids will be a lot of fun to watch the next couple of years as they drift up and down the various top 100 lists. Here is an update on Hicks. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/08/hicks-had-blast-in-bloomington.html

* Here is a link to an Insidethehall.com Muncie Central guard Jeremiah Davis interview after the elite camp where he says among other things that he could commit today, tomorow, or any time in the future (not to any specific school, but it is thought that Indiana and Ohio State are sitting pretty well with him right now). Davis is ranked #40 in the country by Rivals.com. He is an outstanding talent, a very physical guard who has the athleticism and aggressiveness to be a star in college if he continues to mature as a point guard. http://www.insidethehall.com/2009/08/31/q-a-jeremiah-davis-talks-elite-camp-recruiting/

HighMajorScoop.com had a nice IPS rundown from last week we missed. http://highmajorscoop.com/2009/08/weekend-scoop-2/ Here is a cut and paste from a few of the players with some school updates. Also check out the Scott County (KY) update on their site.

*Trey Lewis, 6-foot-1,2011, Shooting Guard, Garfield Heights, Ohio holds offers from Akron, Kent, Cleveland State, Ohio University and St. Joes. He is also getting interest from Penn State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Nevada, Michigan, Alabama, West Virginia and Xavier
* Trey Burke, 5-foot-11, 2011, Point Guard, Columbus (Northland H/S), Ohio holds offers from Butler, Akron, Kent, Ohio, James Madison, Miami-Ohio and Kent State. He visited Cincinnati and Ohio over this past wee and plans on taking visits to Penn State, Dayton, Baylor, Miami-Ohio among others.
* Treavon Jackson, 6-foot-2, 2011, Wing-Guard, Westerville (South H/S), Ohio visited Akron and Miami-Ohio this weekend. Jackson holds offers from both programs as well as Cleveland State and Ohio University. Jackson is the son of former Ohio State and NBA player Jimmy Jackson.
* Adreian Payne, 6-foot-9, 2010, PF, Dayton (Jefferson H/S), Ohio is reportedly down to four programs; West Virginia, Arizona, Michigan State and Kansas. Many still feel it’s a wild card race for Payne, but sources close say WVU and MSU are neck and neck. This should be a interesting one.
* Griffin McKenzie, 6-foot-8, 2010, SF, Cincinnati (Moeller H/S), Ohio visited Northwestern this week. Griffin is down to four programs, Xavier, Wake Forest, Northwestern and Vanderbilt.
* Rob Brandenberg, 6-foot-2, 2010, SG, Gahanna (Lincoln HS), Ohio took a unofficial visit to Ohio University this weekend. His top five are VCU, Ohio University, Wright State , Akron and Marshall. (update, Brandenberg has since committed to VCU)
* Kyle Molock, 6-foot-1, 2012, PG, from Dublin (Coffman H/S), Ohio holds offers from Ohio University, Akron, Georgia State and St. Joes. He is also getting strong interest from Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Florida International, Illinois and Purdue.

Mark Miller's Courtside blog is reporting that Vander Blue is down to five schools. Arizona (you know where you've heard that one before...vbg), UCLA, Marquette, Florida, and Wisconsin are the final five. http://www.wissports.net/sports/hoopsb/blog/blog.aspx?f=123

Jim Reamer's outstanding web site Hoosierhoopsreport.com has been redone and has been cranking out some excellent material of late. Most recently they reported that 2012 5'9 Park Tudor point guard Yogi Ferrell has received an offer from Purdue to go along with the previous offers from Butler and Ohio State. Yogi is one of the Mongrel's favorite players to watch this summer, most recently I got to see him in Ft Wayne playing on the same team as Marquis Teague and he may not be the kind of NBA prospect Teague is on track to be, but he runs the team at least as well in my opinion. You have to check Yogi out, he's got pretty long arms for a smaller player and is really intense, the wide open eyes kind of make me think of a Mike Singletary who wasn't much taller than Yogi who is seen above in an Indy Star photo. Here is a link to get to know Yogi better if you haven't had the chance. http://www.indy.com/posts/college-coaches-finally-catch-highly-touted-yogi

Here is another outstanding link from Hoosierhoopsreport.com. It has a scholarship chart for the D1 colleges in Indiana. Wish we could get one of those for Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois it makes it a lot easier to figure out when your competition is going to drop off for a player after they receive another commitment. I see these on team websites all the time but they are rarely as efficient and easy to read as this one and he gets several schools together on it.
http://hoosierhoopsreport.com/2009/08/30/scholarship-grids/

Back to High Major Scoop for some more scoops, they are twittering that Notre Dame hosted Marcus Crider and Travis Trice this weekend and they expect Trey Burke soon as well. Notre Dame recruiting is picking up steam right now with visits expected soon from many wonderful players such as Ralston Turner, Jabari Brown, and Victor Oladipo.

And finally one of the Mongrel's original favorites was visiting Bradley recently. Coach Blevins from Hoopsreport.com tells it like it is when he says Ricardo Johnson is a top 150 talent. He shut down and put away Georgetown commitment Vee Sanford in the 2009 class in the Sweet 16 matchup in Kentucky's state tournament last year on his way to earning tournament MVP honors and leading Covington Holmes to the state title along with his trusty and jumpy sidekick Elijah Pittman. The good Mongrel is very high on Josh Sewell and Ge'lawn Guyn also, all three of those kids would appear in any version of a top 150 the Mongrel would be foolhardy enough to produce. I'll be weighing in soon enough on which of those three overlooked kids is the best but it is not an easy task and you will all be hearing from them next year in a big way from Miami, Charlotte, and wherever Johnson winds up. Anyway, enough editorializing here is the link. http://www.hoopsreport.com/news/hoopsnews/ricardojohnsonvisitingbradley

Recruiting Round-up

In case you missed it, the Louisville Courier Journal's Jody Demling did a wonderful hoops recruiting chat. He covers Kentucky high school basketball as well as recruiting for Kentucky, Louisville, and Indiana. The "golden triangle" schools own 14 NCAA titles between them and all have been in the final four this decade. So he has quite a horde of fans beating his door down and got to answer quite a few questions today. Here is the link. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/08/recruiting-live-chat.html Some highlights include...

* Marquis Teague has some mixed signals out there for all three top schools but most indicators lead to UL being his final choice.
* Says in 2010 class he thinks IU will most likely end up with Kyrie Irving and still has a chance with Victor Oladipo, Jalen Kendrick, Moses Morgan, Michael Cobbins, and Jeremy Lamb. (hoopsreport.com article linked below has Cobbins' five visits already scheduled and no IU)
* 2013 superstar Daryl Hicks has the attention of UL and UK and IU has been to several of his games already.
* Said Michael Gilchrist is supposed to make the IU elite camp this weekend.
* Said UL is expecting Rod Odom and Zach Price to visit Sep 5th and JJ Moore October 2nd and UL has a good chance at all three.
* Mentioned he really likes Rakeem Christmas (IU and OSU in his final 8).
* UK in 2010 is in good shape with CJ Leslie, Terrence Jones, Doron Lamb, Josh Selby, Brandon Knight, Roscoe Smith, Cameron Clark, Tobias Harris, and Adriean Payne.
* IU in 2011 is in good shape with Marshall Plumlee, Rakeem Christmas, Jeremiah Davis, Cody Zeller, Deng Leek, Sam Thompson (Demling might be right about Leek if he recently reclassified, but last I knew Leek was 2010).
* UL and IU are expecting visits from Angel Nunez in late September.
* Cincinnati's Griffin McKenzie likes Xavier and Wake and could decide soon (not from demling but he is also considering Northwestern and Vanderbilt).
* When asked about Chane Behanon he said it was strange with the kid telling some people he was still committed and his uncle and hs coach saying he was open, but pointed out since he's letting people recruit him he's not really committed (mentioned Oklahoma State and WKU offers).
* Former UK commit Dakotah Euton is being recruited by EKU, High Point, Wofford, Coastal Carolina.
* Xavier likes Remy Abel from Eastern (Louisville).

Here are a few other tidbits the last couple of days from twitter mining...

* Duke has offered Marshall Plumlee (Bluedevilnation) and JP Tokoto (Evan Daniels).
* Dublin Coffman (Ohio) point guard Kyle Molock visited Duke, North Carolina, and Wake Forest (ONPSS).

Hoopsreport's Dustin Rumbaugh has a nice rundown on several top national targets and includes an update on Xavier Jones from Gary, Indiana. The 2010 tough as nails point guard has offers from Marquette, Indiana State, and Dayton and will be transferring to Ohio for his senior year. Also Dematha (Maryland) guard Jerrian Grant has Depaul and Notre Dame as two of his final four schools. Rumbaugh also says Macari Brooks (photo above is from a Midstatehoops.com article) will be visiting Louisville with Wayne Blackshear on September 5th. http://www.hoopsreport.com/news/hoopsnews/wednesdaybuzzerbeaters
*