Commitments, Visits, and School Lists Update: 8/5

6'6 Glenbrook North swingman Alex Dragecevich has had a big July for Full Package and seen his interest list and offers expand quickly. Dragecevich was second team all-state by the Sun Times last year and Chicagohoops has him ranked 12th in the class of 2010 in Illinois. He committed to Coach Mike Brey and joins point guard Eric Atkins in Notre Dame's 2010 recruiting class. Dragecevich is still a shooter first but has worked hard to be a legitimate high major wing and has developed an all around game this summer. It will be a blast seeing how he develops in South Bend and Notre Dame landed a deadly shooter. http://w3.nbebasketball.com/2009/08/05/notre-dame-adds-dragicevich-to-2010-class/ Notre Dame is pursuing several elite targets still in the 2010 class including Ralston Turner, Tobias Harris, Kyrie Irving, and Jerian Grant among others.

Kentucky is expecting 6'7 Long Island wing forward Tobias Harris today on campus according to RumbaughD1 on twitter. Harris is being pursued by many of the top programs in the country including Notre Dame and Syracuse among others. Syracuse just beat out Louisville and Kentucky for 7'0 Florida Rams project Fab Mello. Since he was a bit of a new arrival and a novelty I think a lot of people nationally fawned over Mello excessively. He is talented and is going to be a wonderful pro in four or five years in my opinion but I see no reason to expect anything special out of him during his one or two college years. He was outplayed by younger and less talented kids in July including 2011 Louisville commitment Michael Chandler. If you do your player rankings by who is going to be high in the draft in two years he's your guy but if you're a college basketball fan he probably shouldn't be mentioned with the other five star type of guys in my never humble enough opinion.

Avon, Indiana 2012 big man Austin Burgett received offers from Iowa and Northwestern. He already had an offer on the table from Cincinnati and his recruitment is early but he has interest from Indiana, Purdue, Butler, Louisville, and others. Burgett is already 6'7 and growing and has reliable range to the three point line to go with several post moves and a good handle. He will be a hot commodity this time next year!

Burgett's Spiece Rising Star teammate Kellon Thomas received a Butler offer according to P-hoop.blogspot.com. http://www.p-hoops.blogspot.com/ Kellon is an outstanding point guard who is being pursued by several high major programs as well. He's about 5'9 and has a nice outside shot and gets to the hole at will. He also has the kind of handle and floor vision you hope to get from a point guard. Photo is from the USSSA Nationals last week.

Here's an outstanding rundown of stock raisers and post-July awards for Illinois kids from the Hendrickson Blog in the Sun Times (hoopsreport). http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/ He has nice comments on several 2012 Chicago area point guards, the 16U Illinois Wolves, the 17U Rising Stars team, UI recruits Leonard, Robinson, and Abrams as well as the talented 2013 trio of Parker/Hamilton/Foster who he says are not as good as Peter Jok of Des Moines! Good stuff as always from Hendrickson.

Here's a couple of links from chicagohoops. The first talks about Bolingbrook's Antwain Cox and his recent visit to Eastern Illinois. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/acox1.html The second talks about the top uncommitted point guards in Chicago in the 2010 class. Mike McCall, Levonte Dority, Jay Harris, Reggie Smith, Hoopy Jones, and Karl Madison are the ones focused in on. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/availbackcourt.html Several of these guys are going to high majors and will be among the "how did they get away" file from local schools.

Here's an Illinois Prep Bullseye link with a ton of nuggets. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page33.html They mention Evansville making Hayden Hoerdemann top priority, Peoria Irish 17U Jeff Johnson possibly favoring Eastern Kentucky, Walter Lemon from Chicago Fenger being pursued by Wright State, and Sean McGonagill being pursued by several programs. Also notice Hollis Hill and Aaron Williams drawing quite a crowd of head coaches from Bradley, Chicago State, Illinois State, Murray State and other schools after decommitting from UW Milwuakee. James Siakem was being watched by several schools including Notre Dame and Illinois while Threloff and Revonte Rice drew a big crowd including Evansville, Illinois State, Indiana State, and several others.

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.