Providence News, Rutgers Recruiting, Seton Hall Recruiting, St. John's News, Transfers, Villanova Recruiting, West Virginia News, West Virginia Recruiting

BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (5/7/2008)

Adam Zagoria sums up a few outstanding 2008 recruiting issues surrounding Rutgers and Seton Hall as both look to finalize their rosters for 2008. Seton Hall was hit by the NCAA with a penalty in regards to the latest APR numbers, but it will not impact their 2008-2009 roster.

Bob Huggins’ contract details have been released. Pretty good gig if you can get it! Players such as Wellington Smith, Joe Mazzulla and Alex Ruoff are working heard for next season.

Keno Davis is finding the Big East to be a tough task, getting started and facing the media! Norm Roberts has known this for several years and is looking at adding to his staff to keep things together.

Spring recruiting is winding down, but there are still some outstanding issues relating to Big East teams in regards to recruiting for the 2008 season. Adam Zagoria has updates at his Zagsblog on a few of these issues.

First, Maurice Sutton, the 6’11, 210 lb F/C from Largo (MD) High school has narrowed his focus down on perspective schools. Sutton Has a Final Four of Indiana, Seton Hall, Villanova and Kentucky. Sutton recently had a very good visit at Seton Hall and is expected to visit Villanova next week. Earlier, he made a quick visit to Kentucky when he played in the Derby Festival Classic. He scored 17 points in the contest.

This weekend Sutton will visit the Indiana campus while participating in the Adidas May Classic AAU tournament in Bloomington. Sutton will be playing with an AAU team based out of Indiana for the event as well. Strong indications are that IU and Tom Crean lead for Sutton’s services.

Seton Hall already picked up a verbal this spring when Melvyn Oliver committed to the Pirates. At this point, the 6’11, 340 lb Oliver is Waiting for LOI to officially sign on with the Pirates. Even though he visited the school last weekend, the Pirates had mailed the LOI to Mississippi Elite Christian Academy, but it never arrived, so they sent it again.

The big prize left on the board at this point is 6’8 Devin Ebanks out of St. Thomas More. The NYC native originally signed with Indiana last fall, but was let out of the letter of intent when IU and Kelvin Sampson parted ways amidst recruiting violations. Ebanks has visited Texas and West Virginia this spring, as well as Rutgers last weekend. Ebanks Enjoyed RU Visit so much that internet chatter had him committing to Rutgers any moment and canceling this weekend’s visit to Memphis. However, that seems a little premature as Ebanks will embark on his visit to Memphis and his prep coach, Jere Quinn, expects a decision following Ebanks’ May 17th graduation from St. Thomas More. It is clear, however, Rutgers is very much a player in his recruitment.

The NCAA released their APR numbers yesterday and Seton Hall Was Penalized by the NCAA (Star-Ledger) with the loss of one scholarship. The Pirates were the only Big East men’s basketball program penalized. Since the Pirates did not use the full allotment of 13 scholarships last season, the elected to apply the penalty for the 2007-2008 season (they were notified last summer), so they are back to the normal level of 13 for 2008-2009 and, in reality, only take the PR hit. Of course, Bobby Gonzalez was only the head coach for one year included in the report, so this data mostly covers the players recruited by Louis Orr. However, Manhattan, where Gonzalez was previously the head coach, was also on the list of programs docked a scholarship.
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West Virginia finally has the signature of Bob Huggins on a contract, and, it is a doozy! Huggins Could Make $1.5 Million Annually (Martinsburg Journal) and, in all, $20.5 million in guaranteed money for the life of the contract which carries the 54 year old to age 65.

The contract is also loaded with incentives, including some based on academic achievement of his players, includes a $4 million buyout and penalties for intentional NCAA violations or incidents of personal conduct.

Huggins New Contract Revealed (Daily Mail) additional perks such as a membership at Lakeview Resort, two courtesy cars, 20 tickets to every home men’s basketball game, 10 tickets to every postseason men’s basketball game and six tickets to every home football game.

Alex Ruoff and Joe Mazzulla will run the show next season. As one would expect, Ruoff’s main job is to shoot three’s and Mazzulla’s is to handle the ball, but this offseason each will be working on honing the skill possessed by the other. For next season, Ruoff and Mazzulla Hope to Change WVU Backcourt Concepts (Daily Mail) as each becomes a more well-rounded threat.

Any time coaching turnover happens a program goes through changes in personnel. The new coach is not always a fit for the returning players and as a new coach brings in his guys, there can be a divide. Bob Huggins has done a remarkable job keeping West Virginia together despite a coaching style and system nearly the polar opposite of his predecessor, John Beilein. However, since the end of the season, many wondered if Wellington Smith would be one that opts to leave for a situation that would more closely resemble the one he initially signed up for. However, even with the pain of the season-ending loss to Xavier, All’s Well with Wellington and WVU (Charleston Gazette). Smith, to me, seems like a player, much like Joe Alexander, that has the physical tools and potential to star in Huggins’ system and if he can adapt to the coaching style of coach Huggins he could be a much different player. He needs a little of that fire and, if a coach is going to put it into him, it probably would be Huggins.
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Keno Davis’ Transition to Providence Has Been a Challenge from the Start and kevin McNamara updates readers on the process Davis is undertaking while getting started at PC and preparing to uproot his family.

Davis is also learning that the Big East microscope is much stronger than that at Drake. Less than two weeks on the job, NY Daily News college basketball columnist took Davis to task on his Hoops on Hoops blog about not being visible at the Providence Jam Fest on the PC campus, an event with many of the top basketball players from the east coach and New England.
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Norm Roberts is looking to shore up St. John’s recruiting in New York City and keep star forward Justin Burrell from transferring, he might be doing so in one hire with Oswald Cross. Cross is the former coach at highly successful Our Saviour Lutheran High in the Bronx and is reportedly close to an administrative position with the Redstrorm. Oswald works with the Long Island Panthers and is a former coach of Burrell’s, who has been considering a transfer, according to reports. SJU May Cross Paths With Coach (NY Daily News) Cross and make their position stronger in NYC. Cross is also a mentor to St. Ray’s forward Kevin Parrom, one of Roberts’ top local prospects in the Class of 2009.

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