Offers, Updates, and Link-O-Rama! July 19, 2009.

I spoke with Chris Hawkins, the Spiece Indy *STARS* 2012 coach yesterday and he said Jeremy Hollowell has decided to stay with the Spiece Indy Stars through July. Hollowell has seen his game and his offer list grow rapidly this summer and appears to be one of the highest recruited kids in the 2012 class at this point if offers are used as a barometer. He has offers from Illinois, Tennessee, Ohio State, Indiana, Iowa, and others despite not even beginning his sophomore year.


New offers keep rolling in. According to Chicagohoops Jeff Johnson of the Peoria Irish has received offers from American University and SIU-Edwardsville. He has a nice mid range shot and plays physical at 6'8, when I saw him against Camp Daryl in Indianapolis he looked like a solid mid-major to me. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/jeffjohnson2.html

A couple of nice features by the Indy Star's recruiting blog. Spiece Select 2011 teammates Kendall Griffin (scout.com photo mug-shot above) and Zach Van DeWater are both big guards with D1 attention and at least mid-major futures. I've seen the play a little although Griffin was out this spring and they are both really impressive players. Griffin is a versatile guard who can play some point or off the ball and has good length at at least 6'4. He has an offer from IPFW on the table and interest from several schools including Xavier, Purdue, Michigan, and Dayton.
http://blogs.indystar.com/recruitingcentral/2009/07/avons-kendall-g.html Here is an interview posted on P-Hoops.blogspot.com which is a wonderful site for position player rankings in Indiana from somebody who gets to see them quite a bit. http://p-hoops.blogspot.com/2009/01/one-on-one-with-kendall-griffin.html The interview is from January but has some information on Kendall's recruitment.

Van DeWater plays for Whitko and has interest from Butler, Ball State, and Indiana State among others. http://blogs.indystar.com/recruitingcentral/2009/07/vandewater-hear.html They have several D1 teammates to watch including 6'7 brute Tony Springmann who is also getting recruited at the highest levels as a tackle in football.

Albany has offered 6'2 shooting guard Blake Justice from Peebles, Ohio. He plays for CBIZ. HighMajorscoop is one of our favorite twitter links to follow during aau tournaments and they have some new content on their website including this link on Justice and some other Ohio recruiting buzz. http://highmajorscoop.com/2009/07/weekend-scoop/

Also according to the above link Bowling Green, Wright State, and James Madison have offered 2010 small forward Craig Seeley from Brookhaven, Ohio.

Back to the Indianapolis Star's Kyle Neddenreip with another blog entry, this time on the Mount Vernon trio the good Mongrel has blogged about a few times. Daniel Turner has offers from Wright State, Lipscomb, Navy, and UW-Green Bay. He's the 6'5 all hustle jack of all trades small forward. PJ Hubert is the big time shooter. He has an offer from IUPUI. DeAndre Davis is a 6'6 forward with offers from UW-Green Bay, IUPUI, and IUPFW.

The good Mongrel linked several updates of the NY2LA Summer Jam and should've updated some wrap up reports a couple of days ago but dropped the ball. Here are a few links talking up the performances of Cameron Wright, Vander Blue, Moses Morgan, Dominique Fergeson, Percy Gibson, Chasson Randle, Trey Zeigler, Branden Dawson, and several other players of interest. Here are the 17U standouts
http://www.ny2lasports.com/SummerJam17UTopPerformers.htm. And here are the 16U standouts
http://www.ny2lasports.com/SummerJam17UTopPerformers.htm. NY2LA had similar coverage of the NY2LA Invitational from the first week of July if you click on their home page the links are on the side. It didn't have as much talent as the Summer Slam but it had quite a bit of the same people.

Here is a similar rundown by ESPN Scouts.inc on the Triple S Mountain Slam last week. Western Kentucky commitment Derrick Gordon is mentioned along with Indiana target Tyrone Johnson and some updates on some mystery Canadians the good Mongrel was marvelling at in passing at the Kentucky Hoopfest. Kadeem Green was really impressive with his ability to handle the ball at 6'8 or so and the ability to drive consistently and shoot a pretty jumper. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/basketball/mens/news/story?id=4338300

Are you a little depressed about not having a budget to get to Vegas or Orlando to see hoops? The frugal Mongrel's hoops budget this month is going to be limited. I'll make a trip to Merrillville to see the End of Summer Classic put on by Chicagohoops and I'm also hoping to get a chance to peek in at the USSSA Championships put on in Fort Wayne about the same time. I'll be catching much of the Reebok Championship on the web for free on Wazoosports.com. It is the best quality you'll find and they have real Kentuckians doing the play by play so you get to hear the latest gossip on the kids playing the game as well as feel like you aren't drinking alone if you're sipping a little bourbon. The video is superior to what you find elsewhere and the games are pretty random. My other pursuit will be Grassrootstv.com. It is run in cahoots with Maxxathlete.com and hoopmasters.com and I am not sure how much of it will be free and how much will require a monthly subscription. I'll foot the bill for a month if I have to, but I think last year a lot of it was free. They are doing the Las Vegas Main Event from the 22nd to the 26th and the Double Pump Best of Summer Tournament from the 27th to the 31st. You can watch replays so it is wise for the married readers to wait till the kids are in bed and the wife turns on Trueblood before checking in there. I also hear Jody Demling will be doing a lot of live blogging from Vegas so get him with questions if he is watching something you're interested in.

Hoosier Shootout Preview (Part 2)

Yesterday we discussed some of the programs who will be in Indianapolis for the Hoosier Shootout July 6-9th. See yesterday's entry for updates on the Wisconsin Playground Warriors, Georgia Stars, Team Detroit, Illinois Titans, Randolph Boys Club, Illinois Old School, Peoria Irish, Tennessee Travelers, Shining Stars, Terry Porter Elite, Birmingham Storm, and Wisconsin Force squads. Today we'll feature a few more squads and report back after seeing some of them in action on Monday (the Mongrel will be celebrating nephew Eli's 3rd birthday on the 4th).

The Alabama Terriers are sending their 17U team. Look for Luke Cothron to lead the charge for Coach Wherry's athletic squad. Cothran is a 6'8 power forward rated #37 on Scout.com's new updated 2010 rankings who is a hot name on the recruiting trail for Louisville and several SEC schools.

Eric Gordon Indy All Stars 15U squad is led by Indianapolis Tech guard Momo Cross and Morristown's Dylan Lankabel who both project as future D1 players and should be fun to watch. Cathedral's Paul Bayt is another key player for this club. Here's a link to a blog post from someone close to the Eric Gordon program who talks in more depth about Bayt and Cross and some other Indianapolis area 15U players. http://p-hoops.blogspot.com/2009/04/pitt-jam-fest-report.html

Indiana Elite One Green 16U is not the most well known Indiana Elite team in this age group, but they won the 16U division at the Adidas May Classic and have several outstanding players including the Dontray Chavis and Rontray Chavis from Princeton and Brandon Dunnaway from Corydon. Hoosierscout has some video on Dontay Chavis if you scroll down. http://www.hoosierscout.net/ The Chavis twins are among the most explosive prospects in the country in this class but high majors are worry a bit that they might be undersized as 6'5 power forwards (for now). Both are getting plenty of D1 interest already however.


Parallel 45 has a 17U team at the event. Watch for 2 2011 players who play up with the program. Dwann Anderson is a 6'4 guard from Sutton Bay who has at least a mid-major future and Garrett Mortenson is a 6'0 pg from St Ignacius.


Spiece Indy Fastbreak is a star studded Indianapolis program who are sending a 16U team. Assuming these guys aren't playing up somewhere with a 17U team they have several can't miss prospects. The best is easily Michael Chandler, a 6'11 true center who committed to Louisville as a freshman. As did his high school classmate Ryan Taylor a 6'5 power forward who is also in the 16U age group. PJ Boutte is at least a mid-major point guard and keep an eye on Kenny Enoch, a 6'2 shooting guard who improved quite a bit this school year.

Ohio Gators have a 17U team in the event. They have a trio of seniors in their program who have been drawing good reviews this spring in 6'7 Mark Frilling and 6'0 combo guards Jay Springs and Anthony Henderson.



Spiece Indy Heat has two excellent 17U teams in the event as well as a 14U team playing in the 15U division. This is arguably the strongest arm of one of the premier AAU programs in the country and as always they are loaded with talent. Recent Wright State commitment Kegan Clark is joined by Purdue commitments Donnie Hale and Travis Carrol to lead the 17U Downs team. The Quarles 17U squad has the amazing Deshawn Thomas who is the favorite for Mr Basketball in Indiana and an OSU commit. He is joined by 2011 rivals #2 player Marques Teague and some hidden gems such as Broad Ripple's 2011 6'5 rangy Steve Jamison and other stars. They will also have a 2013 team playing up a year with the 15U and a 16U team (Felding).

Team Detroit has a 16U team in action at the Shootout. Percy Gibson is a 6'8 kid from Detroit Southeastern and along with Country Day's Urban Bigham and Lee Bailey they are going to be a force to be reckoned with at the 16U age group. Watch for 6'2 Ray Lee who has been playing up a year with this team but is 2012.

Spiece Indy Stars 15U team is one of the hottest teams on the recruiting circuit in the 2012 age group. Broad Ripple's Ron Patterson already has several high major offers including Ohio State, Indiana, Purdue, Tennessee, Illinois, and Cincinnati. The Bearcats have also offered sweet shooting 6'7 forward Austin Burgett and 6'6 wing Jeremy Hollowell. Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State, and other area schools are all over this bunch early. Also keep a watch for 5'9 point guard Kellon Thomas who has a wonderful feel for the game and has drawn interest from many of the same teams. 6'6 Rhett Smith from Sullivan who also will be mid major or high major targets before all is said and done.

Spiece Select 2011 is going to be playing up with the 17U squads. They have made deep runs in almost every tournament since the group has been together and have probably had more head to head success than any other Indiana AAU programs in the 2011 age group. They feature 6'7 Notre Dame football target Tony Springmann. He is a strong, dominant power forward and has high major suitors in both sports. Kendall Griffin and Zach Van DeWater are two big guards to watch as well.

There are too many teams and players for the out-matched Mongrel to keep up with, and when the Mongrel shows up and gets his program half of them will be replaced by other interesting players as the summer teams tend to shuffle a bit between May and July. The Mongrel will keep his eyes open and let his faithful readers (or reader perhaps) in on the low down from the event Monday night at the latest. More kids keep coming to mind but we'll have to stop the preview before the event itself begins, see you out there!

10 Most Underrated Kids in Indiana

10 best D1 prospects in Indiana who the deep digging Mongrel has not seen on a top 100 list, its getting hard because old secrets like Dee Davis, Jeremy Hollowell, Ron Patterson, are gettin out and showing up already.

1) Jesse Berry 2010
2) Tony Springmann 2011
3) Austin Burgett 2012
4) Zach Van DeWater 2011
5) Edward Seay 2012
6) Gary Harris 2012
7) Justin Gant 2011
8) Kendall Griffin 2011
9) Jake Kitchell 2010
10) Xavier Jones 2010

Indiana is so deep in talent in the 2011 and 2012 classes the overwhelmed Mongrel figures there are at least a dozen kids who'll show up on top 100 lists in those classes that have yet to prove themselves to the right people, it'll be a constant update/edit task because the Hoosier state is well scouted and wonderful web sites (many are linked at the bottom of the Mongrel's home page) like Hoosier Hoops Report and the Indiana and Purdue rivals sites as well as Indiana's Scout site do spectacular jobs of covering local talent. * Edit one 6/30/09 my #1 on the list was Cody Zeller and he showed up #57 on Scout.com's top 75 list for 2011. Austin Etherington was on the list too removing him from future consideration of our 10 Snubbed Hoosiers.

There are more AAU programs in Indiana than stars in the sky and the school coaches there entertain in front of the biggest crowds in the country. The nomadic Mongrel has roots all around, but nowhere is basketball so beloved and so organized and efficient as you see in the Hoosier state. Kentucky is a good comparison but its more a religion in Kentucky and an probably more of an art in the Hoosier state. The well traveled Mongrel grew up in Rex Chapman country and had a lot of years in Damon Bailey country as well. Hoosiers love their hoops and the maters are pret near heavenly right time of year in Indiana too. And there's good basketball year round. The conflicted Mongrel included Seay and Harris in 2012 going blind for now but the wisest owls in the barn consistently say they are big time so the Mongrel is going to err on the side of caution for now.