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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (7/14/2008)

Now that the camps are over and all the players have hit the AAU circuit, everyone is spread all over the country. Our team has spanned the Northeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic the last few days and following up on our coverage of the Lebron James Skills Academy and Reebok All-American camp, you can expect stories from the Reebok Summer East Classic, Joe Brown Memorial/Playaz Ball Tournament, Agent Zero tournament and others in the coming days.

For now, we run through a News and Notes post that has a galore of recruiting information on players such as Aaric Murray, Terrell Vinson, Kevin Parrom, Omari Lawrence, Jayvaughn Pinkston, Dante Taylor and recent WVU commit Storm Stanley.

Also, an update on the qualifying status of 2008 SU recruit James Southerland and a look at the basketball finances of Notre Dame. Also, a blog begins to take a look at the top 75 players in the Big East for the 2008-2009 season.

Much of the speculation surrounding Aaric Murray and his recruitment was that he had it tied down to a nice and tidy list of schools. According to Murray, who is being hotly pursued by the likes of West Virginia, Temple, Saint Joseph’s and Villanova, among others, he’s “wide open.”

The fact that the 6-foot-11, 256 lb big man is being recruited at all is remarkable after too many wrong turns led to A Blessing in Disguise (Evening Bulletin) when Murray was sentenced to 14 months at Glen Mills High School – a private, residential school for court adjudicated male delinquents. Murray simply found too many other things to do rather than go to school and his staggering truancy record led to the gates of Glen Mills.

Now, with the sentence over, Murray has opted to remain at the school and finish up high school and make the most of his opportunity and go to college.
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Adam Zagoria has been busy the past week hitting camps in Philadelphia and New Jersey as well as the Reebok Summer Classic. In Philadelphia at the Reebok All-American Camp, Zags caught up with former St. Raymond’s standout Kevin Parrom.

After a highly publicized altercation with coach Oliver Antigua at St. Ray’s this spring, Parrom has left the Bronx school and will enroll at South Kent in Connecticut. Parrom is Ready to Start Over (ZagsBlog.net) at a new school and might look to get away from home for college as well. Parrom told Zags that Marquette, Clemson and South Carolina are recruiting him the hardest and we all know that Xavier is also hot on his trail with the pre-existing relationship with current XU assistant ‘Book’ Richardson. St. John’s and Rutgers hopes he reconsiders and decides to come back to the NYC area for college.
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Also headed from St. Ray’s to South Kent is 6’4, 205 lb guard Omari Lawrence, who is also a AAU teammate of Parrom’s. Lawrence might give the local NYC fanbase a little more excitement as he is open to playing his college ball, apparently, VERY open as Lawrence Eyes St. John’s and Hopes to Resurrect the Program (NY Daily News).

This is news St. John’s fans have been desperately waiting for and Norm Roberts, their embattled coach, desperately needs.

However, the process is not finished yet as Lawrence hopes to visit Louisville, Connecticut and Florida later this summer and he also recently took a trip to Marquette (with Parrom). Lawrence will not see any time on the court as a shoulder injury will keep him out of action, possibly through September.

Parrom and Lawrence both play for the NY Panthers on the AAU circuit, being coached by Oswald Cross, who coached SJU power forward Justin Burrell in high school. There seems to be continuous rumors that Cross could join the Redstorm program following the summer AAU season.
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6’5 combo forward Jayvaughn Pinkston, who is still more power forward than small forward these days, of Bishop Loughlin High School will be in high demand in the class of 2010. Pinkston is coming off a solid week at the Reebok All-American Camp and lists schools such as Florida, USC, Memphis and Louisville as those he is highly interested in. His high school coach, Khalid Green, indicates the schools in the Big East are very interested in Pinkston, according to ZagsBlog.net’s Jayvaughn Pinkston Update:

“He has interest from a lot of teams in the Big East,” Green said. “St. John’s offered a while ago. Villanova offered. Seton Hall is interested. Rutgers is in the mix.”

Unfortunately for the NYC-area schools, Pinkston is another expressing a desire to leave the area.
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Dante Taylor is a Wanted Man (ZagsBlog.net) and the crowd lining up to see him at the Reebok Summer Classic certainly made that clear. The 6-foot-8, 225 lb power forward out of National Christian Academy had many staffs from the Big East watching him play. One staff seems to be making it VERY clear of their interest as Pittsburgh had all three of their coaches on the road watching Taylor, a group that includes head coach Jamie Dixon and assistants Brandin Knight and Tom Herrion.

Taylor said he’s looking at Pittsburgh, Memphis, Kansas, Connecticut and Syracuse.

Fans may have to wait a while for a decision from Taylor, who seems to be in no rush and could wait until the spring to make his choice.
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With AAU and Montrose Christian teammate Isaiah Armwood already committed to Villanova, could Terrell Vinson be next? Vinson is Considering Villanova as Recruiting War Heats Up (Evening Bulletin) for the 6-foot-7 forward. Georgetown, Duke, Memphis and Loyola of Marymount are also being mentioned.

Vinson took a visit to the Main Line on June 2nd to check out the campus and meet coach Jay Wright. Having long-time pal Armwood already committed it a strong pull for the Wildcats, it will be a nice daily double if Vinson joins his pal at Villanova next.

As reported last week, Storm Stanley committed to West Virginia and is the Mountaineer’s second commitment from the class of 2010, joining his Ohio Basketball Club AAU teammate Noah Cottril.

The Toledo Blade gives a little more insight into the 6’11, 230 lb big man as the St. Francis Junior Stanley Commits to West Virginia.

Stanley averaged 5 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks as a sophomore for Nick Lowe’s 14-7 squad. For more on the youngster, see our Introduction to Storm Stanley with additional insight from coach Lowe.
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Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard gives readers on his Orange blog an Update on James Southerland’s Status, a 2008 Syracuse recruit still trying to get eligible for the upcoming school year.

Reports have said it is likely that Southerland will return to Notre Dame Prep for another year of prep school. While the reports are not untrue, the key word is still likely as sources indicate to Waters it is still premature to announce anything at this point as Southerland is still awaiting word on his last attempt to gain clearance for 2008-2009.
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Card Hoops, a blog dedicated to following the Louisville Cardinals, is undergoing an interesting exercise for the summer: counting down their top 75 Big East players for the 2008-2009 season, here are their first two installments:

2008-2009 Preseason Big East Top 75: 75-71
2008-2009 Preseason Big East Top 75: 70-66
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In somewhat of a surprising revelation from the Journal-Gazette, Revenues from Men’s Hoop Merely Dribble at Notre Dame. In fact, in the 2006-2007 season, despite a run to the NCAA Tournament and top 4 conference finish, the Irish were just one of two Big East teams not to make a profit in men’s basketball. Seton Hall was the other.

Of course, in South Bend, football rules and the Irish football program had a profit of over $45 million!

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