Connecticut Recruiting, Georgetown Recruiting, Jeff Borzello, Louisville Recruiting, Marquette Recruiting, Notre Dame Recruiting, Providence Recruiting, Rutgers Recruiting, Seton Hall Recruiting, Syracuse Recruiting, Villanova Recruiting

RUMBLE IN THE BRONX: FIRST NIGHT

Jeff Borzello was stationed at Fordham University on Friday night and passed on several notes from the opening evening of the Rumble in the Bronx, including recruiting updates on Michael Gilchrist, Kyrie Irving and Tyrone Gardner and some information on impressive performances from Carson Desrosiers and Keala King, who NBE hopes to see much more of this weekend.

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A couple startling upsets have marked the opening night with New Heights falling to Youth Interlock and another of the local area favorites, the NJ Playaz, fell to the NH Student Athletes in one of the late games that was just completed.

Also in the pool with the Playaz was the Mass Rivals. Led by Carson Desrosiers, they avoided the upset theme and got past the BC Eagles, 76-74, in overtime to avoid being upset. The BC Eagles missed a potential winning free throw in the last seconds of regulation.

Desrosiers lived up to his previous hype with a very strong performance, finishing well inside and stepping out with a strong face-up game for a 6’10 player. Has the ability to lead a fast break handling the ball and dishing off for a lay-up. Very versatile for a young big man.

Earlier this week in anticipation of the Rumble, Desrosiers updated NBE on his recruitment, including filling us in about a couple visits from last month.

“I visited Purdue about a month and a half back and Marquette the day after,” said Desrosiers. “I enjoyed both. The campuses were at the opposite ends of the spectrum, with Purdue being in a college town and Marquette being in the city.”

The Boilermakers and Golden Eagles join Arizona State, UNLV, Stanford, Georgia Tech and Big East schools Syracuse and Providence to form his top eight schools, but he indicated more schools are still coming after him.

Fuquan Edwin had a strong game for the Playaz. After being dressed down for about 20 minutes following their loss by coach/director Jimmy Salmons, the Playaz exited quietly. Look for a stronger performance tomorrow. With the Mass Rivals in their pool, getting into the championship rounds might be tough with the hole they dug themselves.

Cali Supreme looks like a contender this weekend and Keala King out of Compton-Dominguez was one of the most impressive players on the first night. His stock has been rising and with a recent strong showing at the Pangos AA Camp, NBE will likely watch him again tomorrow.

Shouldn’t come as a surprise that the best player seen tonight by Jeff was Kyrie Irving. Playing with the Roadrunners, who will have their work cut out for them in pool play tomorrow with Team Florida standing in their way. The boys from down south were cruising past Team Albany tonight, leading 46-11 at one look.

On the recruiting front, Irving mentioned his recent visits to Connecticut and Indiana and he is very interested in visiting Notre Dame and Texas A&M in the near future when he can. In all, Irving said he is considering 10 schools and also mentioned Duke, Virginia, Kentucky and Florida by name tonight.

Team Final did not have recent Villanova-commit Markus Kennedy dressed for the contest. However, being able to trot out Michael Gilchrist, who continues to impress playing against older competition, and Rakeem Christmas, another top 2011 prospect, they hardly missed a beat, even with Trevor Cooney not hitting at his normal clip from the perimeter in a win over Middlesex Magic.

Gilchrist rattled off a school list of Villanova, Memphis, Indiana, Georgetown, Kentucky, Syracuse, Louisville and Seton Hall tonight.

Tyrone Garland, the Philadelphia guard from Bartram High School, provided a school list that included offers from Temple, LaSalle, Nebraska, St. Bonaventure and Drexel. Many high-majors are paying attention, including Seton Hall and Rutgers from the Big East, Maryland, Virginia Tech and Virginia out of the ACC as well as Memphis and Western Kentucky.

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