Brian Crownover, Connecticut Recruiting, Georgetown Recruiting, Matt Whitfield, Notre Dame Recruiting, Pittsburgh Recruiting, Providence Recruiting, Seton Hall Recruiting, Syracuse Recruiting, USF Recruiting, Villanova Recruiting, West Virginia Recruiting

HOOP GROUP SUMMER CLASSIC: DAY ONE (AM)

Matt Whitfield is back on his home state and at The Hoop Group headquarters in Neptune (NJ) for the 2009 Summer Classic East.

As usual, there is a solid field put together by the Hoop Group fellas and the main early attraction was St. Patrick’s point guard Kyrie Irving who had many of the schools on his list represented by staffers watching his opening game and Irving spent some time with NBE talking about the live evaluation period and ‘the dunk’ by Jordan Crawford at the LJSA that is taking the internet world by storm. You can ready Irvings thoughts from this morning HERE!

Here are some news and notes, and a nugget or two from Brian Crownover, from the morning portion of the Summer Classic East opening day…

- Cleveland Melvin was a key cog in the Lake Clifton state championship club of 2008-2009, playing for former SU Orange forward Herman Harried along with Will Barton and company. Melvin, who currently stands 6-foot-8 and weighs about 230 pounds, will take his game to Notre Dame Prep next season and has offers from Missouri, Maryland, VCU, Towson St., George Mason and Xavier with Syracuse and Pittsburgh showing interest. He also hoped to visit Connecticut.

- Waverly Austin is coming off a solid performance at the Reebok All-American camp. Austin told NBE he is projected to grow to 7-foot-1 and is likely to head to prep school for the 2009-2010 season and is looking at Maine Central Institute, South Kent (CT) and others.

As for recruiting, he has offers from FIU and TCU and now that his academics are looking to be in order, more schools are calling. He took an unofficial to Georgetown earlier this summer and has West Virginia trying to set up an unofficial visit as well. Maryland, Virginia, South Florida and Florida State are among the others calling on him.

- Here is a new name to watch, courtesy of Brian Crownover, Jon Arledge out of KIMA in the DC-area. Arledge is here with Mid-Atlantic Select AAU and put on an early show, easily looking like a Big East prospect. Providence is ahead of the curve on this one, offering the 6-foot-8 power forward in the class of 2010. Siena, Fairfield and George Washington are among his other early offers with Temple and Xavier showing interest and this list will likely change with a continued strong July.

- Another relatively new name on the NBE radar is Anthony Myles a 6-foot-4 class of 2010 player from Poly Tech in Delaware. Myles has offers from South Florida and Central Florida with interest coming from Temple, Nebraska and Villanova.

- Crownover with a simple message: ‘Kyrie unstoppable again.’

- Head coaches such as Josh Pastner (Memphis), Paul Hewitt (Georgia Tech) and Bob McKillop (Davidson) have been spotted. Brandin Knight from Pittsburgh is here as well as assistants from Notre Dame and Seton Hall from the Big East. Other schools represented by assistants include Indiana, Kentucky, Duke and Michigan this morning.