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
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.
