Here's a Fine Collection of Signing Day Links

Purdue signed an underrated class in the opinion of the Good Mongrel. The highest I've seen them ranked is 14th by Maxxpreps but Terone Johnson and Travis Carrol are kids who can help a team early in their careers and Anthony Johnson and Donnie Hale both have what it takes to be good four year players in the Big Ten. This is the follow up to the 2007 class that Boiler fans have been waiting for.

Here's a link from the Louisville Courier-Journal which focuses mostly on Hale but also touches on some other Louisville area stars signing such as Curtis Washington, Ricardo Johnson, Sean Samsel, and Josh Sewell who checks in with the most mature quote of the day after acknowledging he had interest from bigger programs, “At the end of the day I feel like I made a great decision,” the 6-5 guard said. “I really feel comfortable with the staff and school and can grow on and off the court. Basketball will take care of itself. I'm not going to play in the NBA or anything, but I am going there for the business marketing program and let basketball take care of itself." I'm sure Sewell will be pleased with his basketball opportunities at Miami as well as his academic environment. The photo on the right is Sewell from a Louisville Courier-Journal shot. http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20091111/SPORTS11/911110428/1034/SPORTS06/New+Albany+s+Donnie+Hale+signs+with+Boilermakers

Indiana received an LOI from defensive specialist and Youtube Dunkmaster Victor Oladipo from Dematha, Maryland. Here are the obligatory quotes from the head coach on the signing. http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=5476

Here are a couple of Chicagohoops links on some signing day news. Patrick Miller of Chicago Hales-Franciscan committed to Tennessee State. Miller played for Old Gold over the summer. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/patrickmillertsu.html On the flip side, signing day also comes with a few decommitments and Illinois Warriors star Fabyon Harris who plays for Chicago Hyde Park pulled his pledge from Northern Colorado.

Brad Brownell's Wright State program added an infusion of talent yesterday. Brownell said Kegan Clark (Jeffersonville, IN) is the most prepared to play but all the Wright State signees have a chance to play early with four graduating seniors to replace. Kory Stanton, AJ Pacher (Vandalia, OH Butler), and Colt Darling (Holt, Michigan) are the other immediate signees while Matt Vest will redshirt a year before playing. http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/wright-state-university-raiders/wright-state-recruits-will-ease-seniors-exit-397261.html

Brian Gregory has signed a huge class for the Dayton Flyers. Juwan Staten, Jesse Berry, Brandon Spearman, Ralph Hill, and Devin Oliver constitute one of the deepest classes I can remember for a mid-major program. http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/university-of-dayton-flyers/what-does-uds-gregory-have-to-say-about-his-5-newest-recruits-397215.html Here is another article on local star Juwan Staten. http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/university-of-dayton-flyers/staten-sticks-to-his-word-signs-with-ud-397214.html Berry is my favorite player of the group in terms of on-court ability, but he has a reputation for being a scorer who doesn't think a lot about the rest of the game. This article from his hometown newspaper shows how hard Berry has been working on his passing and his defense, he sounds like he's got his stuff together. http://www.jconline.com/article/20091112/SPORTS01/911120328/1038/Lafayette-Jeff-senior-Berry-joins-talented-Dayton-group

2010 star Kyle Vinales committed to Grand Valley State yesterday. Ginales is a good shooter from North Farmington who played point for the Detroit Fire last summer. http://blog.mlive.com/highschoolbasketball/2009/11/grand_valley_gets_in_on_the_ac.html

Kentucky signed outstanding athlete and scorer Stacey Poole from Jacksonville, Florida. He played this summer for the Jacksonville Lee Bulls and his father was an all time great for conference rival Florida. That has to be painful for Florida fans, sure right now every fan base pretends their school didn't really want the kids they didn't get and none more so than UK media outlets, but soon enough the face of UK basketball might be a little too familiar for them. Here's a link with a few quotes from Coach Calipari on Poole. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/11/calipari-on-poole.html

Former Louisville Manual star Jacob Jenkins has inked a letter of intent to Bellarmine. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/11/remember-jacob-jenkins.html Here's the new class for Bellarmine. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html

Butler has landed a great recruiting class. Bloomington South's Eric Fromm is a solid 6'7 forward who is versatile enough to play away from the paint. Kyle Marshall is a nationally ranked forward from Penbrook Pines, Florida, and the big fish in the eyes of the Mongrel is Crishawn Hopkins from Indianapolis Manual. http://www.indystar.com/article/20091112/SPORTS0605/911120481/1004/SPORTS/Butler+s+2010+class
You don't have to be a superstar to get to play D1 basketball at a top notch institution. JR Reynolds of Chicago Whitney Young was one of several CPL kids who sign an LOI and he came off the bench for the state champs in high school. The link discusses the Rice commitment and also mentions some other CPL stars signing yesterday including some comments from his teammate Anthony Johnson. http://yourseason.suntimes.com/boys_basketball/1878181,111109-local-signing-day.article

Transfers have become so common for D1 basketball players that more and more teams now consider signing more players than they have spots for. The Akron Zips took a commitment from Dakotah Euton last week and received LOI's for all three of their signees so they will need to see a place open, but many coaches already know where the spot will come from or are otherwise willing to risk overcommitting because they see so many transfers. The Zips also signed Michael Green from Dublin Coffman High and 6-7 forward Josh Egner from Massillon Jackson.
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/index.ssf/2009/11/post_6.html

The same link also shows four signees for Coach Gino Ford's Kent State program. 6'8 Mark Henninger from Massillon Jackson, 6'4 Eric Gaines from Chicago Hillcrest, 6'6 Kenny Knight from Cincinnati Winton Woods and 6'4 juco guard Carlton Guyton form a very solid group. Gaines and Knight are two very dynamic wings who impressed the Mongrel in July, the future looks very bright for Kent State and they have one more open ride to fill in the spring if they choose.

Ernie Zeigler's Central Michigan program should have no problems developing chemistry. They brought in a recruiting class with two teammates from the same AAU program and a third expected to sign next year. Nate VanArendonk and Colin Voss signed yesterday, and junior Jordan Myrick is expected to sign next year. http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/article/-1359932882883707984/three-west-michigan-basketball-players-sign-with-central-michigan-fourth-on-way/

Murray State has inked Reynoldsburg HS (OH) standout Kevin Gray. Congrats to Kevin, his family, and the Racers! http://www.buckeyeprep.blogspot.com/

Roy Marble Jr (MI) faxed in his LOI to Iowa. http://scouthoops.scout.com/2/918418.html

Ben Brust (IL) has faxed in his LOI to Iowa as well per Telep's free signing day blog (linked above with Marble), all four of Iowa's outstanding commitments have signed.

Cincinnati Bearcats and Dayton Flyers recruiting update.

The ambitious Mongrel will try to tie a mid-major and a high-major school together in most of the target area states once a week and take a look at some of the recruiting hubub. Today we start in Ohio where all the action has been this week.

Cincinnati Bearcats

The biggest news? I'm sure you've heard, Lance "Born Exploited" Stephenson has committed to the Bearcats as hoops blogger guru Adam Zagoria suggested would happen last week. The Bearcats return almost their entire team from last year and will be a force. The Bearcats will lean on All-Big East Deonte Vaughn to run the show and have a big man to work with in Yancey Gates so the imaginary and totally pretend addition of the young Mr. Stephenson would make them a top 10 team nationally most likely.

But in the real world we all know Stephenson was not shunned by every college he looked at in recent weeks just because of a probable misdemeanor charge for allegedly groping a girl in school. Tyreke Evans can be a hot commodity after much more serious concerns last year. The real concern the colleges who took a close look at Lance had was that coaches believe he has almost no chance of ever being eligible to play college basketball. Any games he plays in will be subject to forfeit because he has so many dollars running through and over him. See the great Pat Forde's ESPN column on Stephenson from earlier this month for a rundown, but reality shows and shoe shenanigans are the most obvious but not complete set of concerns with Stephenson.

Still, its a big splash and that is what Coach Cronin probably wants. And who knows, a year of winning with ineligible kids will come back to hurt the kids who stay but you never know when you will wind up coaching one of the elite programs in the sport and out of harms way as a result (cough, cough no real life similarities will be admitted to). And Cronin is doing a masterful job of building his recently struggling program into a Big East contender without Stephenson. Vaughn and Gates will be joined by Sean Kilpatrick and the Bearcats continue to recruit top talent. The Bearcats are in good shape with Atlanta Celtics 6'8 shot blocker Brandon Mobley of Savannah, Goergia and Mongrel favorite Ricardo Johnson of Covington Holmes, KY in the 2010 class. Coach Cronin and staff continue to track in-state stud Adreian Payne as well as Ronald Ross of Indianapolis Washington and several others. One other instant impact soring guard to keep an eye on is Jesse Berry of Lafayette, Indiana who appears to favor Dayton right now.

2011 recruiting is off to a big start with Bowling Green, Kentucky import Chane Behanan locked up and other targets include point guards Marques Teague and Jeremiah Davis from Indianapolis and Tyrone Johnson of Plainfield, New Jersey as well as big man Robert Goff who is a junior college kid who just transferred and will redshirt a year moving him into the 2011 class. The Bearcats will be spending a lot of time in Bowling Green keeping tabs on Behanan but also working on George Fant who is a top priority in the class of 2011 as well. Prying Fant away from the hometown Hilltoppers will be a chore considering they are on a bit of a roll themselves.

2012 recruiting is continuing to take off with recent offers extended to Speice Indy Stars teammates Ron Patterson, Austin Burgett, and Jeremy Hollowell from Indianapolis. All in all, its a great time to be a Bearcat as long as Born Ready only rocks the boat and doesn't run it ashore.

Dayton Flyers

The Flyers are also making big waves in the recruiting world. The Flyers 2010 class should be among the nation's best once all is said and done. Hometown star Adriean Payne appears ready to wait it out to see who else he would be surrounding himself with, but he is the name floating around just beneath the surface. The Flyers are in great shape with several guards who are arguably almost as good or better, but Payne is the combination of size and athlete rarely seen in mid-major leagues and would be a huge get for the Flyers.

The 2010 class is already off to a big start with 5'11 point guard Juwan Staten already locked up. ESPN's ScoutsInc has Staten as the 43rd ranked prospect in the country. Other key targets for 2010 include Indiana's second leading scorer Jesse Berry of Laffayette, Indiana. Berry had 6 games over 40 points last season and according to Dayton Daily News staff writer Doug Harris is favoring the Flyers. http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/university-of-dayton-flyers/flyers-going-after-guards-181266.html Look for Berry to continue to continue to blow up in July, he is an elite level scorer and has great range. The Mongrel watched him help lead SYF Players to the 17U championship at the Adidas May Classic and he looked a cut above some other talented kids on his team such as 2010 stars Jake Kitchell (Union Co) and Xavier Jones (Gary). Berry's camp has said Kentucky called to check in on him and he is supposed to visit Arizona in August so keep an eye on this situation.

The Flyers are looking to bring in several guards in this class and one of the hottest prospects they are in good shape with is Brandon Spearman from Chicago. He is a 6'3 shooting guard who has been great for the Illinois Warriors this year and is ranked #71 by rivals.com. With the exception of the Ohio Basketball Club, the Warriors have probably had the best spring on the 17U AAU circuit and Spearman has received a lion's share of that credit. The Harris article linked above claims Berry, Spearman, and Jalen Steel of Knoxville have offers and have called the Flyers their favorite. He also mentions an offer to Cameron Wright of Cleveland St Benedictine. Wright is no longer committed to Ohio State after Coach Matta looked to replace him with a higher ranked prospect. This has not deterred the Flyers or Big Ten heavyweights Wisconsin and Indiana. Wright has offers from all three and was heavily recruited by Bo Ryan before his original OSU verbal and was thought to be a natural fit to replace Vander Blue when he first opened things up. But the Flyers and Hoosiers are making strong pushes to land Wright. Wright recently made a second visit to Indiana and took his family with him per a story on Peegs.com, Indiana's excellent Rivals site. In the Harris article mentioned above, veteran hoops scout Van Coleman says Wright's "quickness and explosion in the open court make him a dangerous player." Wright will be playing this July for the King James All-Stars and will probably draw more attention as he missed most of last year with an injury and was not evaluated as heavily as some of his peers in the class.

With four graduating guards the Flyers look to reshape the future of their program by landing a few of these excellent prospects. Keep a close eye on the Flyers, they are recruiting like a Big Ten or Big East program. The Flyers have excellent prospects lined up behind these elite guards already with reported offers out to Josh Sewell of Louisville, Trinity and Jordan Manual of TC Howe in Indianapolis. Other key recruits such as Nick Kellog (Columbus, OH) and Roy Marble Jr (Southerfield, MI) have visited and the Flyers already have in-state power forward Ralph Hill verbally committed so missing out on Payne might only be a speed bump to a brighter future which is already taking shape.