Connecticut Recruiting, DePaul Recruiting, Georgetown Recruiting, Marquette Recruiting, Pittsburgh Recruiting, Providence Recruiting, Rutgers Recruiting, Seton Hall Recruiting, Syracuse Recruiting, Villanova Recruiting, West Virginia Recruiting

DESERT DUEL RECRUITING NOTES

Big East staffs very visible in the Desert this week

by Doug Ferguson

The Desert Duel Memorial AAU tournament on the outskirts of Phoenix attracted hoards of college college coaches during the past couple days. Around 100 Division-One schools sent a representative (including eight from the Big East) in search of players that will improve their teams in future seasons. The Big East representatives were watching many teams closely, but three of the teams in the field garnered looks at several players on their roster.

For DC Triple Threat, their games were a popular meeting place for high-major college coaches Sunday, Monday and even into Tuesday. In fact, while the tournament final four was taking place on the main court, many coaches were tucked away on another court watching a consolation bracket finale between Triple Threat and the City Rocks program out of Albany (NY).

The center of attention for the DC Triple Threat club was Chris Braswell, who had already given a soft verbal to Georgetown in what seemed like a lifetime (in recruiting years) ago. Recently, with another year of prep school ahead of him, the 6-foot-8 center has since rescinded that commitment and re-opened his recruitment. Connecticut, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, and Villanova were all mentioned by the Triple Threat staff as schools VERY interested in Braswell.

Another recruitable 2009 post player for Triple Threat, Talib Zanna, is reportedly being pursued heavily by the Pennsylvania chapter of the Big East as Pittsburgh and Villanova were said to be high on Zanna, a rapidly improving 6-foot-9 African import who attends Bishop McNamara High School.

In a look ahead to the future, 2011 swingman Michael Gbinije is starting to look like he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with on the national scene. Perennial powerhouses Georgetown, Connecticut, and Pittsburgh seem to be the preliminary names who are strongly coveting Gbinije.

Every Big East school who attended (Connecticut, Rutgers, Pitt, Seton Hall, Providence, Syracuse, Marquette, DePaul) the Desert Duel was present to watch at least one Triple Threat game

In the aforementioned City Rocks/Triple Threat match-up it featured an interesting matchup between James Southerland (Verbal to Syracuse) and Gbinije. Gbinije won the head to head matchup, but the interesting part was that Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins was present at every game the City Rocks played and seemed to be watching Southerland quite exclusively. Whispers throughout the gym over the three days point towards Southerland taking a similar route as Chris Braswell and re-opening his recruitment while heading for another year of prep school, but to this point, Southerland has remained publicly firm in the commitment to wear Orange. Time will tell…

Finally, the tournament’s eventual champion Chicago-based Mac Irvin Fire, had all the big schools fighting for a seat to watch their games. Mac Irvin coach Nick Irvin spoke of 2011 forwards Mike Shaw and Wayne Blackshear when he said “Those guys can go wherever they want. As far as the Big East goes, Georgetown and UConn both like them a whole lot.” He went on to say “DePaul is interested in everyone,” which was evident by head coach Jerry Wainwright’s presence at their games earlier. Shaw a 6-foot-8 forward who can play the wing or the post (which he plays almost exclusively for guard heavy Mac Irvin) is starting to induce words like blue-chipper and Top 20 with his increasingly impressive play over the past year.

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