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

New Offers and Recruiting buzz

The good Mongrel buzzed a bit about Hillcrest star Eric Gaines after watching him at the Hoosier Shootout. His standout play for Orange Crush continues and he picked up an offer yesterday from Kent State University. There are an awful lot of kids who could play at a high major and maybe be good but would for sure be good at mid-majors and he is one of them. He's got the athleticism and length to keep improving his already impressive game no matter what level he plays at. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/egaines.html Gaines has also been targeted by Wright State and Indiana State among others.

Ohio guard Travis Trice plays for the 2011 SYF Players and Blackandgold.com reports he has offers from Akron, Butler, Wright State, Dayton, and Cleveland State and interest from his dad's old school Purdue, Indiana, Ohio State, and West Virginia. http://purdue.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=964671

Butler is also interested in Clark County Kentucky guard Robbie Stenzel who is having a great July. Demling blog (no permalink, try sidebar) says he has offers from Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State and is being watched by Butler, Wright State (Brownell was also after Gaines and Trice), West Virginia and Oklahoma State.

Tea Leaf Prediction #1, Vander Blue might be on track to wind up an Arizona Wildcat. Today a few interesting articles went up on Blue who is having an enormous week at the Summer Jam in Milwaukee. First Peegs.com (Indiana rivals site) put up an article telling of Blue's relationship with Tom Crean from Marquette and indicating he might do an official at Indiana. Since that article is a pay site (linked at the sidebar) I'll go ahead and link the article done by IndyStar reporter Jeff Rabjohns http://blogs.indystar.com/recruitingcentral/2009/07/a-point-guard-c.html which is free. But Peegs and the Star were outdone this time around by Mongrel favorite Mike Miller of Wishoops.net (linked on the sidebar). Miller has an interview with Blue's coach which indicates he is almost ready to commit and likely will do so toward the end of July after they go to Vegas (or during). He lists a few schools which are high on the radar and one of which is Arizona which has offered and happens to be reasonably proximate to a UA visit. The article mentions he likely won't do any visits this fall unless he gets offers from some of the schools who are interested but not offered which included Indiana, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and others. I think what fell through the cracks between these three stories was that Blue was offered by Marquette under Crean, and contacted when Crean got the IU job and re-upped. The assumption that the offer is fresh and being pursued seems to be unsupported by anything I've seen published at this time. And it looks to the Mongrel from the wording of the article in Wishoops.net that Blue is Zona bound unless IU, UCLA, or one of the other fine programs sniffing around jump all the way in bed with him. UCLA has been at the Summer Slam watching Branden Dawson, probably were kicking round Blue's stall as well. Tom Crean was watching Jay Harris of Illinois Old School in the same gym at the same time as a Milwaukee Spartans game, so forgive the Tea Leaf reading but double down on Arizona and Blue happening sometime in the next month.


According to bballreport Matt Painter is back in town and watching the SYF Players in Milwaukee on Tuesday and the next morning watched Illinois Wolves 15U vs NBU.


Hoopsreport.com's Coach Blevins is twittering that UK has offered a second Lamb a scholarship offer, this time Jeremy Lamb of the Georgia Stars 16U squad. Lamb also has an offer from UConn.
http://twitter.com/coachblevins

Chicagohoops is also reporting Steton Academy's Chris Oliver (2010) picked up an offer from Akron and Jacob Williams (2011) picked up an offer from coach Jim Les and Bradley.