Connecticut News, Marquette News, Notre Dame News, Pittsburgh News, Rutgers News, Seton Hall News, South Florida Recruiting, Transfers, USF News, West Virginia Recruiting

BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (4/28/2008)

Sam Young and Hasheem Thabeet reached definite decisions about their futures since we last checked in. Jerel McNeal will leave a couple options open as he moves along with spring. With most of the NBA Draft decisions in, next year’s Big East conference looks absolutely loaded and a couple teams could be strengthened more with late commits or players returning to school rather than staying in the NBA Draft.

Elsewhere, South Florida continues their quest to fill their roster for 2008-2009, could John Riek be on their expanding radar? Notre Dame looks to be in good position for a quality transfer out of the SEC. Another SEC transfer will head to the Big East, but which New Jersey school will be call home? Bob Huggins was back at the University of Akron this weekend and he definitely took notice of Carl ‘Tay’ Jones while in the stands.

We will have more from Akron as the week unfolds and the King James Shooting Stars Classic. Also, stories and interviews from the Providence Jam Fest will be on tap as well.

Sunday was the deadline for underclassmen to notify the NBA that they would enter their name into the 2008 NBA Draft. Of course, players who do not sign with an agent have the option to return to school. Several decisions were made by Big East players as the deadline approached:

Pitt’s Young to Return for Senior Season (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
MU’s McNeal to Test NBA Draft (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Thabeet Decides to Stay at UConn (Hartford Courant)

One has to assume that Marquette’s Jerel McNeal will test the NBA waters, work out for a few teams, shake a few hands and then return to Marquette and finish out his senior season with Dominic James and Wes Mathews. The Marquette trio definitely have some unfinished work to complete, registering just one NCAA victory in their three seasons as members of the Golden Eagles.

Sam Young will return to Pitt and team with fellow senior Levance Fields and sophomore DeJuan Blair to form one of the nation’s best trios. The Panthers should be a pre-season top 10 team and one of the league’s favorites heading into 2008-2009.

Hasheem Thabeet does the same for Connecticut, giving the Huskies that rare commodity of an experienced big man. At 7’3, Thabeet is an intimidating force in the paint on the defensive end of the court. His offense is still developing, but with AJ Price, Jerome Dyson and Jeff Adrien, offense should be taken care of by others.

Those three, along with Louisville, Notre Dame and Georgetown will likely be considered the cream of next year’s Big East crop. How tough is this league? Well, Syracuse will have Jonny Flynn, Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf returning and Villanova returns their entire squad that went to the Sweet 16 and, although both definitely deserve Top 25 consideration, they could be picked in the pre-season in the middle of the pack. West Virginia, also returns a large majority from their Sweet 16 club, but they will have to wait on the decision of Joe Alexander of whether he stays in the draft or goes.

The Big East will be L-O-A-D-E-D in 2008-2009!

Several teams are still scrambling late in the game to fill multiple open scholarships in the 2008 class. While many of the top schools in the Big East have been concentrating on the 2009 class for months, Stan Heath and South Florida have been trying to put together a competitive roster for this upcoming season on the fly. Multiple player transfers this spring have decimated the Bulls roster. Guards Dante Curry, Aaron Holmes and Solomon Bozeman, along with forwards Ade Saaka and Orane Chin have left the program since the beginning of the 2007-2008 season.

Greg Auman of the St. Petersburg Times has closely monitored the Bulls’ situation this spring and updated his readers this weekend in a post on his ASF Sports Bulletin Blog: OK, Here’s Your Basketball Update…

As reported last week, the Bulls received a 2009 commitment from Shaun Noriega of North Port (FL), a shooting guard. They are still hoping to add three more players for 2008, including IMG’s 6’11 Teeng Akol, however, his eligibility might not be settled until June, or even later. Another player seriously on the radar of the Bulls is Pratt Community College’s 6’10, 230 lb center Alejandro Rivas-Sanchez. West Virginia is a school that has also been mentioned with both Akol and Rivas-Sanchez lately.

The Bulls had been courting Mott CC guard Jeremie Simmons for months, but the scoring guard committed to Ohio State recently. South Florida has turned their attention to 6’3 Gaby Belardo, who will visit this next weekend and is likely to sign with USF shortly after.

Auman also reported on his USF Sports Bulletin that Akol’s good friend John Riek could be interested in playing for the Bulls if he does not follow through with the NBA Draft. Riek has made himself available to the NBA, but has yet to hire an agent.
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Older brother Tyler gets most of the attention, but Ben Hansbrough has had a pretty good career to this point with Mississippi State. As a sophomore, the 6’3 shooting guard from Poplar Bluff (MO) averaged 10.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 33.5 minutes a game while shooting 41.5% from the floor, 35.8% from 3-pt range and 75.9% from the foul line. While Tyler has decided to return to North Carolina, Ben has decided to take his game elsewhere and transfer. After a weekend visit to Notre Dame, Are The Irish in Hansbrough’s Future (South Bend Tribune)? It is looking likely…
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Over the weekend Bob Huggins was back on the University of Akron campus for the Applebees King James Shooting Star AAU Classic. Huggs was the head coach of the Zips from 1984-1989 and was back in his old stomping grounds looking for the future of West Virginia basketball. One player certainly catching his eye while sitting in Memorial Hall was 5’11 guard Carl ‘Tay’ Jones out of Cleveland’s Garfield Heights High School. Running with the Ohio Basketball Club, Jones Gets Notice With Display (Cleveland Plain Dealer) of his all-around game in a win over The Family AAU squad from Michigan. Jones scored 31 with Huggins and Ohio State’s Thad Matta watching closely.
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When Jonathan Mitchell was being recruited out of Mount Vernon High School, many Big East programs were interested. He ultimately spurned the Northeast for the beautiful weather and sites of the University of Florida. However, after two seasons of little playing time, Mitchell has decided to give the Northeast another try and it is a Two-Horse Race for Mitchell (Zagsblog) as he looks for a new home after leaving Florida.

The 6’7 forward will visit Seton Hall the weekend of May 2 and then trip over to Rutgers May 5th -7th. Mitchell will then decide between those two schools.

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