Hawaii Recruiting

LAS VEGAS AAU DAY 4 NOTEBOOK: WILD, WILD WEST IN VEGAS

By Raphielle Johnson

By the end of the last college basketball season it was best to simply expect the unexpected. The same could be said for this weekend in Las Vegas, which has produced an unexpected champion in the Kansas City 76ers. The 76ers won the Las Vegas Fab 48 by beating Team Breakdown (Florida) in Monday night’s title game.

While the stands weren’t filled to brim as they were last summer (Oakland Soldiers tend to bring out the crowds), there were a few college programs represented in the coaches area with 2013 wing Ishmail Wainright the primary focus.

Ben Howland (UCLA) and Steve Lavin (St. John’s) were both there to watch Wainwright, who considers Earl Watson (who has connections to both as he played at UCLA under Lavin) to be an older brother and mentor. Other programs represented include Western Illinois, George Mason, Kansas, Missouri, UC Irvine, South Florida, Cal Poly, Nebraska, UM-KC and Creighton.

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A BIG EAST LEADER FOR RYAN RHOOMES?

Another unsigned 2011 prospect out of Alif Muhammad’s NIA School is 6-foot-8 C/BF Ryan Rhoomes. The former Bayside (NY) Cardozo star took an extra prep year to develop his body and game more to prepare for college. After an eye-opening performance last April in a very talented Jordan Brand Classic Regional game many programs were set to follow Rhoomes on the AAU circuit. However that never came to fruition as Rhoomes was not on the travel scene too often and he began the 2010-2011 school year at a prep school in Mississippi.

Now back closer to home at the New Jersey school led by Muhammad, Rhoomes’ recruitment is picking up steam again. In a conversation with NBE’s Matt Whitfield earlier this week, Alif Muhammad updated NBE on Rhoomes’ recruitment including which BIG EAST school is currently leading the way in the quest to sign him as part of the 2011 recruiting class this April.

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