St. John's Recruiting

BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (6/9/2009)

Here are the news and notes as the Big East players in the NBA draft that have not hired agents are heading towards the home stretch to make their final decisions. There are updates on Scottie Reynolds, Luke Harangody and Ater Majok for fans to check out. Also, roster attrition at West Virginia and Connecticut is in the news to day as well.

Also, updates on South Florida, an article on future St. John’s forward Justin Brownlee and an injury update and specialty camp update from Marquette, which hosted several top recruits from the 2011 and 2010 classes in the region, and beyond. Also, for your recruiting lists fix, Alex Schwartz has the goods from the recent Rasual Butler All-City Classic in Philly from last week.

Read on below for these updates…

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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (3/27/2008)

Late last night we had an Frank Ben-Eze and the DC Blue Devils as the spring recruiting and AAU period is about to get underway.

In today’s News & Notes section we have lists from Devin Ebanks and Terrell Holloway, a pair of Indiana de-commits that are both considering schools from the Big East. Connecticut continues to look for frontcourt help with the possibility of Hasheem Thabeet heading to the NBA, in addition to Ben-Eze, a couple other names are mentioned today. David Bruce of New Jersey has several Big East schools on his trail and one is among his two leaders. Tyreke Evans is uncommitted and showed those in pursuit how big of a get he would be as he was names East Squad MVP last night in the McDonald’s Game.

News from the coaching carousel which is cranking up is also included and Derrick Caracter, with his team still playing, announces his intentions to leave Louisville once their season is over. AJ Price will begin his road back from a knee injury this Friday and Joe Alexander has gone from unnoticed recruit to high on the NBA draft radar in a short period of time.

Best of luck to Big East teams tonight. West Virginia meets Xavier and Louisville takes on Tennessee in their Sweet 16 match-ups!

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BRIAN CROWNOVER ON THE PHILLY HS BEAT

Brian Crownover is the Lead Recruiting Analyst for CAAInsider.com. Based in Philadelphia, look for more contributions from Brian in the future on the Big East Basketball Report.

On Friday night, Brian headed over to Villanova for the opening games of the Primetime Shootout. Brian took in four games on Friday and will be on hand again this coming weekend when the action takes place at Rutgers on Friday and moves to Trenton on Saturday and Sunday. Here are the scores of the games Brian saw on Friday:

Scores:
Hotchkiss 72 Our Savior New American 58
Timber Creek 55 Plymouth-Whitemarsh 52
Chester 80 Jeannette 70
St. Benedict’s 77 American Christian 70

Read Brian’s individual player analysis on several Big East commitments and targets below:

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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (1/31/2008)

It was a busy Wednesday in the Big East and road teams continued to rebound as Syracuse, Georgetown, Cincinnati and Seton Hall brought wins back home with them. Pittsburgh was the only home team to be victories.

For tonight’s game, you can see all the links to the local media previews, our match-up analysis and a prediction from the NBE Blogger by either visiting our Providence Team Page or our Notre Dame Team Page.

We also have more news and notes on the suspensions in the Big East that are causing Connecticut and Syracuse to be short-handed currently. There are also several recruiting news and notes on several schools in the Big East.

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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (10/3/2007)

October 3, 2007

Only nine days left to March (oops!, MIDNIGHT) Madness, but the only updates new today are centered around recruiting. Updates on the Morris twins, who have set-up a couple visits and narrowed their focus and Willie Warren. Erik Murphy and Nate Lubick were the main attractions for a full house this past Sunday and their recruitment is looked at closely.

Other updates include a look at Quintrell Thomas, Jin Soo Kim, Isaiah Armwood, Wally Judge and Dante Taylor from an article in the Baltimore Sun.

USF could be on the verge of a commitment and Cincinnati looks to host a power forward this weekend out of Georgia. Kyle Rowley has received a lot of interest this fall, especially from the midwest schools, but the interest is expanding. Notre Dame lost out recently on a target that visited earlier this month and a quick update on Iman Shumpert can be found today.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports on the recruitment of Markief and Marcus Morris, as well as Willie Warren, by the Kansas Jayhawks. The Morris Twins Have Set a KU Visit Date for Late Night in the Phog on October 12th at Allen Fieldhouse. The pair have also scheduled a visit to Villanova for October 26th for Wildcats Hoop Mania. After eliminating LaSalle, Rutgers and West Virginia, St. John’s is the only other school currently under consideration, although no visit has been scheduled.

Willie Warren, a 6′3 guard from Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., will visit KU on Oct. 19-20. He will attend Oklahoma’s season-opening practice on Oct. 12. Warren also is considering UConn, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Texas, Louisville and Marquette.
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Matt Bracken of the Baltimore Sun has one of our favorite features today on his Recruiting Report as he goes through 5 Questions with Jeff Ermann of TurtleSportsReport.com. Here are a few points of interest for Big East readers:

Quintrell Thomas still seems to have Maryland as his favorite. But he did like Kansas. He wants to get out of New Jersey, so that would mean no Rutgers despite the immense pressure being applied on him locally.

South Kent (Conn.) Prep small foward Jin Soo Kim is a 6′9 forward who can really shoot. Maryland has made a quick impression on him and may battle with Georgetown and Cal for his commitment.

Isaiah Armwood can go virtually anywhere in the country and is getting the full-court press from Villanova and Lousiville.

Wally Judge is a 6′8 kid from Bladensburg who the Maryland has been after, though West Virginia and Georgetown may have the lead. Another local big kid is Dante Taylor from National Christian Academy in Fort Washington, but he could be a Big East type.
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The Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest has an update on the Iman Shumpert Watch following his visit to Georgia Tech last weekend. Shumpert is planning an official visit to Marquette, which will be his final recruiting trip.
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South Florida head coach Stan Heath could pick up his first oral commitment early next week from junior college forward Billy Rush. Rush, a 6′8 forward from suburban Chicago, visited USF last week and said he was close to committing but first wanted to visit Northern Illinois (St. Petersburg Times: Scroll Down to ‘This And That’).
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The Boston Globe reports on the Private Showing held last Sunday at St. Mark’s in New England that attracted some of the elite names in the coaching ranks to check out Erik Murphy, class of 2009, and his sophomore teammate Nate Lubick. Tom Crean of Marquette, Tim Welsh of Providence as well as top assistants from Notre Dame, Louisville, and Villanova were all in the gym as St. Mark’s responded to intense national interest in Murphy by permitting the coaches to watch him play pickup ball with the 6′8 Lubick and other schoolmates during an “open gym” session on the leafy campus 25 miles west of Boston.

Florida has offered Murphy a scholarship, as have BC, Connecticut, Georgia Tech, Marquette, Ohio State, Syracuse, and Virginia. Others are certain to follow.

Lubick, a sophomore who turned 16 in June, has received scholarship offers from Georgia Tech, Louisville, Marquette, UMass, Rhode Island, Rutgers, UCLA, Michigan, Georgetown, UConn, and Virginia. Florida has expressed serious interest as well.
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Notre Dame lost out on a key target that visited the South Bend campus earlier this fall as Washington State coach Tony Bennett got the word that 6′6 small forward Klay Thompson out of Santa Margarita, Calif., chose the Cougars over Notre Dame, Michigan and Nevada (College Hoop Blog: Good N’ Plenty.
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The Post & Courier of Charleston (scroll down to ‘Basketball News’) reports that 6′8 Darius Morrow of Decatur, Ga., made an official visit to South Carolina last weekend. He also has visited Fordham and will visit Cincinnati this weekend. He also has offers from Toledo, Providence, UAB and the College of Charleston.
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Illinois Prep Bulls-eye has a 2009 Player Watch on Kyle Rowley, 6′10 junior center from Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest, IL. Rowley has already been offered scholarships by Baylor, Northwestern and Southern Illinois, while attracting considerable attention from a long list of other schools including Georgetown, DePaul and Marquette. Rowley has already taken campus visits to both Wisconsin and Northwestern.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (10/2/2007) PM EDITION

Ocotber 2, 2007

Since we rushed through our first installment earlier today, here are a couple additional items of note from today around the league.

Charges Dropped Against Pitt Basketball Player Levance Fields (The Pittsburgh Channel), a junior point guard charged with disarming a police officer, public drunkenness and aggravated assault, stemming from Fields’ alleged scuffle with an off-duty police officer working security at at Pure Nightclub. The officer said Fields punched him in the chest, grabbed his belt and reached for his gun. Another club security guard used a Taser gun to subdue and arrest Fields, 20, was arguing with an unknown man and using obscene language outside the club early on the morning of Sept. 16.

A witness who did not want to be identified told WTAE Channel 4 Action News that Fields never reached for the police officer’s gun, and that the altercation between Fields and another person at the club was just friends fooling around. Prosecutors droppes all charges, in exchange, Fields must spend nine months in the Accelerated Rehabilitation Disposition program and serve 50 hours of community service for a lesser charge of Simple Assault.

Pitt has not commented yet on what, if any discipline will await Fields on the basketball team.
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Adam Zagoria Updates Mookie Jones‘ Recruiting (zagsblog) after Jones returned from a ‘great visit’, according to his high school coach Lou Panzanaro, from Marquette. Up next for the 6′6 Jones out of Peekskill (N.Y.) High are visits to DePaul, Syracuse, Rutgers and St. John’s and then a decision.

As noted yesterday at Hoops Haven, Seton Hall is evaluating Chris Turner. Seton Hall assistant Scott Adubato was down last week to the Patterson School (NC) to check out the 6′5 shooting guard. Turner could visit SHU this month.
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Here are some of Van Coleman’s tidbits from his Chat at CSTV.com today:

Mike Louisville: Where do you think Tyreke Evans will end up?

Van Coleman: I think right now he’s pretty open at this point, not really narrowing it to one or two schools in the five he’s giving. Louisville, Memphis, Texas, Villanova, UConn and Texas have all made the cut for him. It’s more of a question of will he sign early or will he wait. Watch out for Villanova if it goes to the spring.

Scott (Salem,IL): Will he Terrelle Pryor take a football scholarship and play basketball as a walk on and is OSU still the leader?

Van Coleman: He is looking at that as an opportunity still. At least an opportunity. West Virginia is also a leader according to our football man Tom Lemming.

troy md: is Maryland the leader for Isiah Armwood?

Van Coleman: They are one of the leaders, but not the leader I would say. I know recruiting’s getting earlier, but being the leader this early doesn’t mean everything. He wants to play with big men inside so he can get out on the perimeter. Louisville, Georgetown, Syracuse, and Texas are all in there already with him. Did hear that he might be visiting the Hoyas on Midnight Madness, though.

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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (10/1/2007)

October 1, 2007

The calendar flips from September to October and ‘Midnight Madness’ is less than two weeks away! That can only mean it is time to begin shifting our focus a little bit from the recruiting aspect to this coming season. We have already begun our preview of the 2007-2008 Big East teams as we count down from #16 to #1, this past weekend previewing #13 Cincinnati and #12 DePaul.

Marquette still awaits word on the eligibility of their most highly touted freshman. Rick Pitino wants his players to spend the next two weeks concentrating more on conditioning and less on scrimmaging.

Still a lot of recruiting news out there. Quintrell Thomas is back from a visit to the midwest and the Jersey native surprisingly enjoyed his time out there. Seton Hall is creating a lot of buzz with who visits the Pirate campus, but will the visits turn to commits? SHU, Rutgers and St. John’s are in similar predicaments as they work their way back up the Big East ladder.

Greg Monroe has a final five as he moves on to the official visit protion of his recruitment. Pittsburgh and Marquette are among the leaders for a top 2009 target and are also involved with a 2008 underrated forward. The open gym workout at St. Mark’s was, as expected, impressively attended by many of the biggest coaching names today. Syracuse and West Virginia are involved with a new name in the DC-area. Dick Weiss also has a few thoughts on where St. John’s will turn to after losing out on their top target.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

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Marquette freshman forward Trevor Mbakwe has yet to be declared eligible by the NCAA Clearinghouse. Tom Crean sounded less than enthused about the situation as Mbakwe’s Wait Continues (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) as he updated the situation for Todd Rosiak. Mbakwe is not allowed to participate in any team functions at this point, a situation similar to last year when Lazar Hayward went through a similar delay in being cleared by the NCAA. Hayward’s freshman year never seemed to get fully into gear as he started out behind his teammates. The Golden Eagles really could use Mbakwe’s size and athletic ability in their frontcourt, so they are holding their breathe that he will be cleared in the near future.
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The coach, Rick Pitino himself, gives the rundown on This Last week’s Practice at www.rickpitino.com as the Cardinals had both an encouraging and disappointing 1 hr and 15 minute workout. In order to play fast, Pitino wants his team to be inpeak physical condition and at this point the Cards are not ready for October 12 when full practice sessions begin.

Coach Pitino did single out Juan Palacios and Terrence Williams, among the regulars, as a pair in excellent condition. He broke down Derrick Caracter’s play as the first 20 minutes- unbelievable; Second 20 minutes- average; third 20 minutes- below average. If Caracter ever gets into peak condition…Watch Out!

A couple other items of note:
Edgar Sosa – Back from his ankle injury. Looked surprisingly good for his first day. He picks up things quickly. Should be in the groove by October 12th.

George Goode – Still has not been cleared to play. Should be cleared this week.
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As a native of Newark (NJ), Quintrell Thomas did not know what to expect when he travelled to the midwest to visit Kansas. Much to his surprise, the Recruit Finds KU is not like a Farm (Lawrence Journal-World) and ‘loved’ his official visit to Kansas. Thomas, a 6′8, 225 lb forward from St. Patrick High in Elizabeth (NJ), has now visited three of his four finalists with previous trips completed to Rutgers and Maryland. Thomas is scheduled to visit UNLV the weekend of October 12th and will look to decide soon after. Although, as his AAU coach Derrick Bobbitt told Adam Zagoria (Thomas Enjoyed KU Visit), anything can still happen:

“Anything can change at any time,” Bobbitt said. “He could pull the trigger and decide at any time.”

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Lance Stephenson, one of the top players in the Class of 2009, took an unofficial visit to Seton Hall Saturday. Making the visit with his Dad, Lance Sr., the Stephensons are High on Seton Hall with Indiana up Next (zagsblog). The elder Stephenson was very impressed with coach Bobby Gonzalez and the entire visit:

It was a great visit,” Lance Sr. said Sunday evening. “From a parent’s point of view, Seton Hall is definitely on the rise and Coach Gonzalez, he’s really enthusiastic and real passionate about what he’s trying to do.

“At first, Seton Hall wasn’t high on the list, but after talking to Coach Gonzalez and Coach Derm (Player) and visiting the players, they definitely made it a place where I would definitely consider sending him. It’s definitely on his list now.”

Stephenson is the second elite player to visit the campus in recent weeks, following senior guard Tyreke Evans of American Christian (Pa.).

Next up for Stephenson is an Oct. 12 unofficial visit to Indiana. Mount Vernon forward Kevin Jones is also slated to visit Hoosier Country that weekend.
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You can’t really argue with the results of the past five seasons (two combined NCAA appearances, both by Louie Orr’s SHU clubs, and one NIT each) when a statment by ESPN’s Andy Katz is presented that St. John’s, Rutgers and Seton Hall Getting Left Behind in the mega-New Big East. All three schools are surrounded by more local talent than any of their conference bretheren, however the local talent of New Jersey and New York City is being poached by schools far and near.

Obviously, Bobby Gonzalez is shooting for the top by getting visits from Tyreke Evans and Lance Stephenson, but turning visits into commitments is the toughest step to take. St. John’s had recent disappointment when Sylven Landesbery opted for the ACC, Rutgers went through the disappointment when Lance Thomas spurned the Scarlet Knights for Duke. They are in the mix for the locals, but the locals have been deciding to leave the area all too often. Norm Roberts, Fred Hill and Gonzalez are working VERY hard to change that. It is a tough road to climb in this new conference set-up, and I think many fans do not understand how tough it is and patience in today’s age is at a premium.

Mike DeCourcy of the SportingNews.com also broaches the subject in regards to St. John’s as St. John’s Still Isn’t Scoring NYC’s Top Talent.
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The top player in the class of 2008 is widely regarded as Helen Cox 6-foot-10, 225-pound center Greg Monroe. His recruitment has been very close to the vest between his mother, Norma, and himself, but the picture is becoming clearer as Monroe Narrows Choices to Five Schools (The Times-Picayune). The Monroes have chosen LSU, Georgetown, Duke, Texas and Connecticut as the five schools to which he will make official visits. Monroe will travel to Washington, D.C., October 12-13 visit to visit Georgetown. He still has to set up his visit to UConn.

Van Coleman Analyzes Monroe’s Five Finalists for CSTV.com to see how each option fits for him.
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Matt Bracken’s Recruiting Report in the Baltimore Sun has a blurb that South Kent (Conn.) Prep 2009 shooting guard Maurice Creek has Marquette, Pittsburgh and Texas as an early top three on his recruiting list.
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Creek is not the only common target of Pittsburgh and Marquette as Dominique Rutledge, a 6′7+, 230-pound 2008 forward from Edison (N.J.) Jobs Corps Academy, has narrowed his college choices to Marquette, St. Joe’s, Pittsburgh and Auburn, according to Adam Zagoria’s Rutledge Update. Rutledge will make an official visit Tuesday to Marquette, but that no other officals have been set up. Marquette is also involved with Mookie Jones of Peekskill (N.Y.) HIgh and Tyshawn Taylor of St. Anthony (N.J.). Galen Smith, Rutledge’s AAU coach is very high on his game, as he described it to Zagoria:

“He’s very, very athletic,” Smith said of Rutledge. “He’s a four and he has a lot of three skills. He’s a mismatch as a power forward because there aren’t too many big guys who can defend him off the dribble. He can (also) shoot with both hands. He’s ambidextrous.”

“The sky’s the limit,” Smith said. “I’ve coached a lot of kids in the last 20 years. He has a full body right now. He’s strong. He’s athletic. His wingspan is 7 feet and he has a 40-plus vertical. He can get up over the rim.”

One scout confided to us a few weeks ago that he felt Rutledge was on par with New London BF Allan Chaney, a Florida commit, with a higher upside, but did not have a ‘wow’ week this summer that got the attention of the high majors all at once. Whoever lands Rutledge, might be getting a rare steal.

Jerry Carino is his Hoops Haven blog reports that Rutledge is also on the Seton Hall radar for the 2008 class. With Two Weeks to Midnight Madness the buzz with SHU is who has been visiting (Evans, Stephenson) and the Pirates are also involved with Chris Turner, a 6′5 wing player from North Carolina, who is now doing a postgrad year at The Patterson School. Turner was closely linked to Maryland previously.
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The New England Recruiting Report Recaps the St. Mark’s Open Gym from yesterday. The main attractions were the duo of 6’10” junior forward Erik Murphy and 6’8” sophomore forward Nate Lubick. The turnout was definitely not a disappointment as head coaches in attendance included Billy Donovan (Florida), Roy Williams (North Carolina), Ben Howland (UCLA), John Beilein (Michigan), Dave Leitao (Virginia), Paul Hewitt (Georgia Tech), Mike Brey (Notre Dame), Al Skinner (Boston College), Tom Creen (Marquette), Tim Welsch (Providence), and Jim Baron (Rhode Island). Assistant coaches were also present from UConn, Duke, Ohio State, Villanova, Louisville, Georgetown, and many more as over 50 division I coaches were accounted for.
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Dick Weiss updates his Hoops on Hoops blog with thoughts that St. John’s will now focus on 6-foot-2 guard Devoe Joseph, one of the best prospects in Canada; and both 6′5 Mookie Jones from Peekskill and 6′8 forward Kevin Jones of Mt. Vernon, the two best prospects in Westchester County. Mookie Jones will visit Marquette this weekend – the first of his five official visits. Hoops also believes that Providence may have gotten a steal in 6′8 Bilal Dixon from Queen of Peace in Jersey, who showed at the LeBron James Nike camp he could score on put backs and rebound well.
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i95Ballerz.com introduces us to a new name on the recruiting radar of a couple Big East teams in their Snapshots, Pt. 9. Derek Washington, junior point guard, 6’0”, 150 pounds, has high major interest from the likes of Kansas State, George Washington, West Virginia, and Syracuse, while solid mid-major George Mason has also inquired. Playing for the DC Assault this past summer, Washington showed to be a PG who is lightening quick that can penetrate, dish, defend, and hit the midrange jumper, according to Ron Bailey.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (9/27/2007)

September 27, 2007

Tough evening for Big East schools along the recruiting trail as Olek Czyz, Eloy Vargas and Sylven Landesberg. Virginia is matched up against a couple Big East teams in their pursuit of Assane Sene. Tyshawn Taylor is also looking at ACC schools as well as Marquette. Van Coleman updates readers on the recruitment of Xavier Gibson, Michael Haynes, Tyler Zeller and Angel Santiago.

Carmelo returned to Syracuse to help break ground on the future of SU basketball, whoch he got rolling with a large donation himself. Connecticut’s reported refusal to play Holy Cross is not sitting too well with Ralph Willard as UConn’s new opening opponents have been identified. ESPN previews the Big East and Syracuse is the team up next on the SNY.TV 2007-2008 Big East preview.

Check back later as another new contributor will update the recruiting situation of one of the team’s that suffered a tough loss on the recruiting trail yesterday…

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

A tough day on the recruiting trail for Louisville last night as they got the news that Olek Czyz and Eloy Vargas had committed elsewhere. With Czyz Headed to Duke and Vargas to Florida (Louisville Courier-Journal) the Cardinals are likely to turn up the heat on other targets such as Terrence Jennings, Murphy Holloway, Tyreke Evans and others. The news of Vargas to Florida also hit Pittsburgh pretty hard as the Panthers, especially assistant Orlando Antigua, had been on Vargas longer than anyone and seemed to be placing all of their efforts on Vargas to close their recruiting class out. We will have more on the Panther’s recruiting efforts later today.
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Like Pittsburgh, St. John’s also looks to have lost out on the target they coveted the most when Sylven Landesberg officially makes his decision at a press conference later today. The Times Ledger is reporting Sylven to Virginia as the 2007 TimesLedger CHSAA All-Queens Player of the Year chose Virginia over St. John’s and Georgia Tech, according to TimeLedger.com sources. St. John’s went with a full-court press, bringing back former coaches Lou Carnesecca, Brian Mahoney and Ron Rutledge, as well as university President Fr. Donald J. Harrington to woo Landesberg Tuesday, sources said. However, not helping SJU’s chances was yesterday’s incident of a student wearing a mask and carrying a rifle being arrested on St. John’s campus Wednesday afternoon with the school was locked down for hours.

This is the local recruit that Norm Roberts and staff hoped would turn the tide with their local recruiting of elite players, so the news that St. John’s Can’t Land Prized Recruit Landesberg (NY Daily News) will be tough to take.
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Virginia is also battling several Big East programs for Center Assane Sene, a 6′11, 220-pound recruit from South Kent, CT. In the DailyPress.com’s Recruiting Corner (scroll down) is is reported that Sene will visit Virginia this weekend and has scholarship offers from the Caviliers as well as Syracuse and Connecticut, and he’s getting a lot of interest from Maryland, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Kansas and UCLA. Sene is a native of Senegal.

Virginia Tech’s men’s basketball recruiting efforts are also heating up. Tyshawn Taylor, a 6′3 guard from St. Anthony’s in Jersey City, N.J., will visit Tech this weekend. He also has October visits planned for Marquette, Georgia Tech and Virginia (the weekend of Oct. 19).
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Van Coleman once again held his weekly CSTV Chat Session. Let’s take a look at the Big East items discussed:

Marcus (Cincy): Where do you think Xavier Gibson will end up? I know Bobby Huggins had Gibson in for a visit last weekend and he did coach his Uncle Terrance at UC so I would think there is a pretty good chance of him going to WV.

Van Coleman: West Virginia is very strong, there is no doubt about that. I do think the family makes a difference. The battle will be with Alabama and Florida State because of their proximity to his home. But yes, West Virginia will be right there, because of that connection with the family. He had home visits to seven or eight schools. Kentucky, Georgia, Florida and Cincinnati are also involved.

Scott (Salem,IL): What do you think about Michael Haynes from Washington High School in Chi-town? What high majors are considering him despite his size as a PF?

Van Coleman: The situation right now is, he realizes he’s going to make a transition in college to the wing. He’s a tremendous talent who can explode to the basket from 15 feet. He gets it done against a very high level of player. Marquette, DePaul, Illinois and Kentucky have all shown serious interest in him at this point. Others are taking a little wait-and-see approach. Liggins, his former teammate, is already going to Kentucky and they have shown a lot of interest in him for a while. He will get the looks. The quicker he can make the move to the perimeter, the better his chances. But he will be recruited by seven or eight top teams before this is all done.

Brett (Indianapolis): Whats the latest on tyler zeller?

Van Coleman: The latest is that Tyler Zeller will take a couple more visits. He’s been set in his pattern. This isn’t going to happen quickly. He had a good visit to Indiana, he had a really good visit to North Carolina. He’ll take a breather and then go to Notre Dame for midnight madness and then his final visit will be to Purdue on Oct. 19 and 20. He’ll then weigh his options. I don’t expect any surprise commitments to this point. He’s been this way throughout his recruitment even when he eliminated schools in the past.

Michael (Chicago): Do you know where Angel Santiago is going to school this year? I think he played JUCO ball last year at Dodge City.

Van Coleman: Yes he was at Dodge City last year and was a top 50 prospect in everyone’s JUCO rankings. He’s a 5′11″ ultra-quick combo guard who can score in bunches. He was being recruited by Illinois, Houston, Nebraska, St. John’s and Texas A&M but didnt sign with any of those five schools. We have a call in currently to coach Hoberecht to find out where Angel is at. But he has not called back yet. We’ll try to have that answer for you at our next chat. We don’t BS you, when we don’t know, we go find out. I’d like to thank everybody for our chat this afternoon. Look forward to answering your questions next week right here at Generation Next.

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Carmelo Anthony returned the the Syracuse campus as Melo Breaks Ground on SU Practice Facility (SportingNews.com). The new $19 million complex will be called the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center as Anthony donated $3 million to get the fundraising under way. The basketball center, to be built adjacent to Manley Field House, will have two courts, offices for both programs, an equipment room and an aqua pool for rehabbing injuries. It will take about 18 months to complete once construction gets under way and Jim Boeheim can’t wait:

“It helps us and will continue to help us as we go forward. That’s a huge part of college basketball as a recruiting aspect,” Boeheim said. “This new practice facility will bring us to the very top of college basketball. It’s the first time we can say that. It’s always been kind of a thought process with me over the last few years that we needed our own practice facility. (Wife) Juli and I talked about it and she asked Carmelo — I was afraid to do it.

“When he (Anthony) came in this door, we knew we had something special right away. We didn’t know how special. Once Carmelo really came on board, it’s not just his gift, which is obviously huge, I think other people decided to get involved.”

The university has accumulated $13.5 million to date and hopes to have the entire amount necessary before construction is completed. Make no mistake, the Future of SU Basketball is Brought to You by Melo (Syracuse Post-Standard)
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Holy Cross is left reeling in attempts to fill their scehdule, just seven weeks prior to the season tipping off, as the UConn Shuffle Strands Purple (Worcester Telegram) as Holy Cross, citing concerns about travel and players missing classes during the midterm of the semester, said no to a change of venue that the Crusaders would be moved to the Oklahoma bracket of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer event. Holy Cross head coach Ralph Willard said in April the Gazelle Group invited Holy Cross to play in the tournament and assured him the team would be playing in Connecticut. HC would not have accepted the invitation had it been placed at one of the other sites (Oklahoma, Memphis or Kentucky).

“I was told by the Gazelle Group we had to be moved, it wasn’t a choice, because Connecticut was adamant about not playing us,” Willard said.

Because of the flip-flop, there are Different Opposing Teams in UConn Event (New Haven Register) as it will be Buffalo, Morgan State and Ohio Valley (a Division 2 program), kicking off the 2007-08 season on Nov. 7 in the UConn bracket of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer at Gampel Pavillion.
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The ESPN Shootaround focuses on the Big East in their latest edition. ESPN previews the conference heading into this season and notes No East Scheduling Solution for Megaconference. Andy Glockner pens a couple preview articles and Jay Bilas predicts the order of finish for the 16 teams.
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Brendon Desrochers of SNY.tv.com continues his preseason look at the teams of the Big East. Up next is Syracuse, who Desrochers feels that the snubbed Orange are loaded with talent that shouldn’t fret this year on Selection Sunday, but then again, they shouldn’t have had to last season.

Here are his previous previews:

16: South Florida
15: Rutgers
14: St. John’s
13: Cincinnati
12: DePaul
11: Seton Hall
10: Notre Dame
9: West Virginia
8: Villanova
7: Providence

5: Pittsburgh

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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (9/24/2007)

September 24, 2007

Too many recruit updates to list them all individually, but there is something about every school in the conference, except Providence. I am not sure if Providence recruits in the fall anymore, maybe they just recruit in the spring…hmmm….

Anyway, CSTV takes a look at lists of all the avaialable talent by position and the usual suspects like Zagsblog and others also update some recruiting happenings around the conference.

Also, team previews galore as more and more sites are rolling out their 2007-2008 previews. In case you missed it, over the weekend we prviewed 15) Rutgers and 14) St. John’s at their respective team sites. Those previews joined 16) South Florida from the weekend before.

Also, Louisville’s frontcourt depth takes a slight hit as Clarence Holloway will have to wait another year to begin his college career due to a health issue. Notre Dame got in some work this Saturday and a review is available. Speaking of the Irish, is the time finally right for them to join a conference?

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

The Louisville frontcourt will lose some of its depth this season as 7′1 frosh Clarence Holloway will miss the season. Holloway, a 7-1 center who made prep stops at Chicago Harlan, IMG in Florida and Boys to Men Academy in Chicago, will Miss the Season Following Heart Surgery (Chicago Hoops). Defects with his aorta, and his aortic valve were discovered during a physical examination last week. Holloway originally signed with Louisville out of Harlan, but academics forced him to prep an additional two seasons. At least report, Holloway was still waiting full clearance from the NCAA Clearinghouse. He is expected to make a full recovery according to ChicagoHoops.com.
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Van Coleman at CSTV.com takes a look at the top players available as we head towards the early signing period for college basketball. He breaks it down in three segments: Backcourt Players, Forwards & Centers. We have cherry picked the Big East-related items from the three stories below:

Greg Monroe : Duke was in the 9th, and that Florida is scheduled to wrap up his home visits on the 22nd. In between LSU, Kansas, Texas, USC, Kentucky, Louisville and Georgetown were expected for home visits. Next up, deciding on which five will get official visits.

John Riek-Suas: Has enrolled at Winchendon, MA School for a post graduate year which now means he’s eligible for the NBA draft next spring which won’t bode well for those who had shown interest this summer. He told CSTV.com this summer that Arizona, UConn, Georgetown, St. John’s, UNC, DePaul, Duke, Pitt, Florida, Ohio State, and Kentucky had all been showing interest.

Tyler Zeller: Was on the North Carolina campus last weekend and he will trek to Indiana over the weekend of the 21st, then head to Notre Dame on October 12th, with his final visit scheduled to Purdue on October 19th. He will then sit down with his family and make his decision.

Eloy Vargas: He has taken a number of un-official visits the latest to Florida over Labor Day, the Gators join Miami (FL), Clemson, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Virginia on his current list of possible college choices.

Terrence Jennings: Had originally committed to Maryland, but just last week decided to open his recruiting up. He has said that the Terrapins will still be one of the schools he is considering along with Kentucky, Louisville, West Virginia, California, and Oklahoma State. He hasn’t set up any timetable for visits to date.

J’Mison Morgan: Has been on the move recently heading to LSU over Labor Day, then Kansas last weekend and is headed to UCLA this weekend. He is considering Alabama, Baylor, Kentucky, and Louisville as possibilities for future visits.

Xavier Gibson: Has been recovering from a bad wrist injury over the summer. Alabama, Florida, Florida St, UNC, Georgia Tech, Cincinnati, Kansas, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Georgia are all among the schools involved.

Chris Singleton: Really blew up this summer displaying great perimeter skills for his size. He currently has scheduled a visit to Tennessee on October 6. He’s looking at Florida State, LSU, Georgetown, UNC, South Carolina, and Kentucky as other possible campuses to visit next month.

Olek Czyz: Has really become a hot commodity this summer. He’s an explosive athlete with intriguing skills. He visited Duke last week, and is going to be on the Louisville campus this weekend. He reportedly will make his decision between those two schools next week. More on Czyz below in this update.

Marcus Morris: He and his twin brother Markieff were originally committed to Memphis, but recently decided to re-open their recruiting. The first schools mentioned by the twins include Kansas, Rutgers, St. John’s, Villanova, West Virginia, and LaSalle.

Matt Simpkins: Has already scheduled visits in the coming month to Washington and Connecticut. He says Washington has a slight edge going into visits. He is also considering potential trips to California, Florida, and USC.

Steve Tchiengang: Moved from Texas to Montverde, FL Academy this fall. Now that he’s settled in at Monteverde he has started visits. He was on the Vanderbilt campus last week, and is heading to Notre Dame this weekend. He has scheduled visits to Baylor October 2, then to Oklahoma October 19. He would like to see Georgia Tech as well so stay tuned.

Kevin Jones: Going to be on the Ohio State campus this weekend. He was at Rutgers a week ago and already met with Louisville, and has home visits scheduled with Syracuse, Marquette, Massachusetts, West Virginia, South Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Seton Hall, and St. John’s. More on Jones’ visit to Ohio State below and his upcomign visit plans.

Terrelle Pryor: This is the No. 1 player in the class for football (Top 100 Class of 2008 Football), but he says he’d like to play both in college. He recently listed a dozen schools that he’s considering with the option to play both sports in college: Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, West Virginia, Notre Dame, Penn State, Alabama, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Michigan State, Texas, USC.

Mookie Jones: Really blew up in the second half of July. He is skilled and an athletic scorer who has scheduled home visits with Syracuse, DePaul, Rutgers, Marquette, Michigan, Louisville, St. John’s, and West Virginia. He visited Rutgers unofficially two weeks ago, and has a campus visit scheduled in November to Syracuse.

Renaldo Woolridge: Has had some big moments this summer. No doubt he has tools to be a big scorer in college. He will be on the USC campus this weekend for an unofficial visit. He has scheduled official visits to Tennessee October 6, then he’ll trip to Georgetown on October 13. He is also considering visits to Marquette, Miami (FL), Illinois, and USC.

Murphy Holloway: Really seeing his recruiting pick up lately. He’s had home visits from Clemson, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisville, Tennessee, Miami (FL), and Florida. He will start taking campus visits once home visits are done and he and his family can sit down and decide which schools look like they fit him the best. More on his recruitment below, which includes mention of a couple close friends and a narrower focus of schools.

Wesley Witherspoon: An explosive scorer off the dribble or with the mid-range jumper. He has taken a visit to LSU earlier this month. He has had home visits from Kansas State, George Washington, and Kansas recently. He has interest from Illinois, Memphis, North Carolina, Connecticut, and Florida State. He may wait until spring to make his decision.

Tyreke Evans: Been pushing for the top spot nationally this summer. He took an unofficial visit to Connecticut last week, and will visit Louisville and Texas in October. He’s been to Villanova a number of times and would like to visit Memphis before the November signing period, but hasn’t scheduled anything yet. Will he sign early or wait until spring?

Willie Warren: Transferred to Mouth of Wilson, VA Oak Hill Academy this fall. This sweet shooting, versatile guard hasn’t reduced his list yet and had home visits scheduled with Oklahoma, Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Marquette. There is more on Warren below that included, reportedly, a final lost of four schools.

Sylven Landesberg: Has excellent size and the tools to be a scorer in college. He visited St. John’s back on September 8 after visiting both Virginia and Texas during the month of August. He trekked to Georgia Tech last weekend. He may be done with visits, unless he decides to look at Kentucky once his home visits end this weekend. He has a press conference set for this Thursday.

Iman Shumpert: Really blew up this spring and summer. He intrigues with his length and athleticism. He’s down to three and visited North Carolina last week, will take a trip to Georgia Tech September 29, and then Marquette October 12 before making his college choice.

Verdell Jones: Has size and length that intrigues majors. He is a little on the thin side, but still has them calling. He has tentatively scheduled a visit to Kentucky for October 12. He is hearing from Kansas, Gonzaga, Connecticut, Texas, Oregon, Illinois, Virginia and Minnesota.
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Late last week, Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal gave his recruiting blog readers A Basketball Fix which gave some Big East-relative information, including that Willie Warren has narrowed his college list to four schools: Oklahoma, Kansas, Connecticut and Cincinnati. Also, Richard Pitino was in Irmo, S.C., last week visiting Dutch Fork High standout Murphy Holloway. The 6′7 Holloway is friends with U of L commitment Samardo Samuels and target Tyreke Evans and currently has Louisville, Clemson and Florida are his leaders. Demling also led of the update with news on Olek Czyz’s time table (next two weeks) to decide between Duke and Louiville.

One of the top players in the class of 2009, Indianapolis (Ind.) Lawrence North standout Stephan VanTreese, has trimmed his list of schools to the following: Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Kentucky, UCLA, Florida, Louisville, Wisconsin, Michigan State, North Carolina, Kansas and Wake Forest.
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No recruiting-heavy blog update at the Big East Report would be complete without a link to Zagsblog. I am sure most readers have already bookmarked Adam Zagoria’s blog by now, but in case you haven’t, he has a review of Kevin Jones’ visit to Ohio State as Jones Rates His Visit to OSU Highly and now has official visits are planned to Indiana (Oct. 12) and then likely UMass and West Virginia and will decide on a 5th later. Hopefully, according to older brother Gerard, a decision can be made in time for the November signing period.

Brian Oliver, the 6′6 junior swingman from Bear, Del., who plays for the Playaz Basketball Club, also has been a popular player this fall for Big East coaches to visit, according to Zagoria. West Virginia, Miami, Notre Dame and Georgetown have already been by William Penn and Georgia Tech will be in Monday and Jamie Dixon of Pittsburgh will follow soon afterwards.

After a strong visit to Rutgers the weekend before, the Scarlet Knights were hoping Quintrell Thomas would opt to stay close to home to play college basketball. This past weekend, the 6′8 St. Patrick power forward Thomas Enjoyed a Visit to Maryland (zagsblog) who he has strongly considered for a long time. It was his third time down to Maryland and a decision should be coming in the near future from Thomas.
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Birmingham (MI) Country Day junior center DaShonte’ Riley is one of the top prospects in the Class of 2009 and the 6’10”, 220 pound Michigan Big Man has a Favorite (i95ballerz.com) since growing up as a fan of college basketball:

“I grew up a big Hoya fan and I plan to visit them for their Midnight Madness in October”, shared Riley.

Georgetown, Michigan State, Michigan, Kansas, Memphis and Ohio State are all checking on his continued progress.
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Michael Rothstein of the Journal Gazette updates his Irish Insights blog with Men’s Basketball Practice Observations from this past weekend. Forward Steve Tchiengang from Monteverde, Fla. was one recruit taking in the action this weekend at Notre Dame.

Rothstein believes this year’s Irish team will be Tory jackson’s squad as he is the soul of the club. His backcourt mate Kyle McAlarney also looked good and Luke Harangody is diversyfing his game.
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CollegeHoopsNet.com continues their look at the 2007-2008 college hoops season with a preview of Pittsburgh at #58 in their preview of the Top 144 Teams in 144 Days.

Previously they have previewed:

#61 West Virginia
#65 Providence Friars
#92 Seton Hall
#99 Cincinnati
#107 DePaul
#131 St. John’s

It is safe to assume that CHN’s #15 and #16 teams in the Big East South Florida and Rutgers. Neither made it into their Top 144.
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Brendon Desrochers of SNY.tv.com continues his preseason look at the teams of the Big East. Recently he has profiled Notre Dame who he places 10th in his preview and West Virginia who he pegs at #9 heading into the season.

Desrochers also jumps out of order to preview Pittsburgh who he originally pegged as #5 but now looks uncertain on Pitt with Levance Fields’ future in the air. Most information we have is that it is expected that the charges will be downgraded against Fields, but Pittsburgh is still mum on his status. He was scheduled to be in court today, however, the Pitt Basketball Player’s Court Date Has been Postponed (Tribune Review) until October 2nd.

16: South Florida
15: Rutgers
14: St. John’s
13: Cincinnati
12: DePaul
11: Seton Hall

Pretty good job so far with the previews.
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CollegeHoopsUpdate.com also has their 2007-2008 Big East Basketball Preview complete with a projected order of finish and all-league and all-freshman teams.
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Every year that Notre Dame football struggles, which seems to be more of a common occurence these days, the media covering the Irish come calling for them to forget tradition and join a conference. Brian Hedger of the Gary Post-Tribune says it is Time for Notre Dame to Consider a Big Change and makes reasonable arguments on why they should. In fact, it almosts makes perfect sense and it is likely that the Big East would allow certain concessions to the Irish if they would think about this sooner, rather than later…

If the Irish continue to wait, their leverage could shrink with their mystique on the gridiron.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (9/21/2007)

September 21, 2007

Working late tonight to bring you a update as the weekend is upon us. A couple Big East teams are involved with recent Maryland de-commit Terrence Jennings. Virginia is battling Big East schools on the recruiting trail for players such as Sylven Landesbery, Lance Goulbourne and Assane Sene. There are Marquette links on Frank Ben-Eze, Goulbourne, Iman Shumpert, Josh Crittle, Jeremy Leonard and 2009 recruit Bobby Capobianco. Also an update on Tyshawn Taylor.

Also, we link outside previews on USF, RU, SJU, Cincy, DePaul and Seton Hall. Speaking of the Pirates, they have officially announced the hiring of a new assistant coach.

Check back tomorrow as we continue our 2007-2008 Team Previews with our #15 team. We will unveil #14 on Sunday.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

The Maryland Terrapins got bad news this week when 6′10 power forward and five-star recruit from Mount Zion Christian Academy in Durham, N.C Terrence Jennings withdraws commitment to Terps (Baltimore Sun). Mount Zion coach Tony Fozard said Jennings still has the Terps No. 1 on his list and that he will make an official visit in October for Maryland Madness, however, he wants to look at Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis and LSU, along with other schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
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Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com updates his Good ‘N Plenty College Hoops Blog with a review of John Riek’s recent open workout at the Winchendon School and he lived up to his billing, but again, do not expect him to play college ball. Also of note in his update is the excitement around thr Syracuse program in regards to their freshman class in which assistant coach (head coach in waiting) Mike Hopkins says “It’s as deep of a class as we’ve ever had. The other time we had two McDonald’s All-Americans was when we had Derrick Coleman and Stevie Thompson.” Jonny Flynn and Donte Greene look like the real deal and expect to see the real Paul Harris with good pal, and true PG, Flynn by his side.

A recruiting note on the aforementioned Terrence Jennings, the talented 6′10 big man mentioned West Virginia as another poissible destination.
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Virginia is another ACC school that is in the mix against the Big East for several recruits. The Cavaliers head coach Dave Leitao continues search for recruits (inRich.com – scroll down) for the 2008-2009 freshman class. Among the targets are Sylven Landesberg, a 6′5 guard from New York City, who is expected to announce his college choice Thursday. Landesberg is down to Virginia, Georgia Tech and St. John’s. In Charlottesville for an official visit this weekend is Lance Goulbourne, a 6′7 forward from The Hun School in Princeton, N.J., who has several Big East teams interested, including Rutgers and Marquette. Scheduled to visit U.Va. next weekend is 7′0 Center Assane Sene, a native of Senegal, currently attending South Kent School in Connecticut. Connecticut is among the other schools pursuing Sene.
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Our favorite source of Marquette information, Cracked Sidewalks, has several Recruiting Updates on Frank Ben-Eze, the previously mentioned Lance Goulbourne, Iman Shumpert, Josh Crittle, Jeremy Leonard and 2009 recruit Bobby Capobianco.

In their Latest Recruiting Blurbs on thier Illinoi Prep Bulls-eye site, Roy and Harve Schmidt break down the Iman Shumpert visit flap with the pick-up game at North Carolina, and, as we also believe, it is much ado about nothing. They also mention that Crittle will visit Southern Illinois this weekend with visits to follow to Oregon (at the end of this month) and Marquette in October.

MidStateHoops.com profiles Jeremy Leonard, a 6′2, 175 lb guard attending Thornton Fractional North (IL) who has Marquette, Illinois State, St. Louis, Eastern Illinois, Northern Illinois, and Cornell interested in him. 2008’s Leonard Is a High Major Sleeper according to MidStateHoops.com after averaging 17 pts and 7 assists at De La Salle High School last season and he played well this summer for the Supreme Kings on the AAU circuit.

Capobianco of Loveland, Ohio, is a 6′8, 220 lb banger that got his first offer from Marquette and West Virginia is also after him in the early stages of his recruitment.
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The Lawrence Journal-World has some Kansas recruiting notes, of which several have some Big East interest, leading off with Tyshawn Taylor Starts Planning Visits and has dates set with Virginia Tech (Sept. 28), Marquette (Oct. 12) and Virginia (Oct. 19). He had a recent in-home visit from Bill Self and will likely visit Kansas later in October. Seton Hall is also making a late push to get involved since Chris Smith did not qualify academically.
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Brendon Desrochers of SNY.tv.com Profiles Seton Hall as his 11th-place team from the Big East for the 2007-2008 season (fair placement, IMO). He has also profiled:

16: South Florida
15: Rutgers
14: St. John’s
13: Cincinnati
12: DePaul

Pretty good job so far with the previews. Check back here this weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and we will provide links to previews on our 15th and 14th place teams, and they are both included in the SNY.tv previews as well.
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It has not been much of a secret that Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez found a replacement for departed assistant coach Geoff Billet and it is now official that Scott Adubato Named to Hall Staff (zagsblog). Adubato most recently served as an assistant coach with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (9/19/2007)

September 19, 2007

Not a whole lot of new information out there. Some stories on the recruitment of Tyreke Evans and Adam Zagoria details the current status of Kevin and Mookie Jones and their recruitment. Van Coleman takes a look at 10 players that helped their stock this summer and the NY Gauchos have named a new director.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

Mike Melton had a chance to get Tyreke Evans to shed some detailed light on his recruitment that is focused on six schools: Connecticut, Louisville, Seton Hall, Villanova, Memphis and Texas as Big Time Schools Reach out for Evans.

Here is what Evans told Basketball Spotlight about each Big East school in the mix:

BS: Villanova?
TE: Well Coach Jay Wright keeps it real and his style of play is similar to Memphis. Also it’s close to home and my family can see me play most of my games. Finally, they play in front of a packed house every night.

BS: Seton Hall?
TE: I think they are an up and coming school and really should be making some noise soon. My boys Mike Glover and Chris Smith are going there and I like the way Coach Dermon was recruiting me. Finally, Coach Gonzalez had a lot of good things to say and really kept real about his program. I really listened and enjoyed the things he talked about.

BS: Louisville?
TE: Coach Pintino is a Hall Of Fame coach and knows how to develop players. I like the atmosphere down there in terms of the arena and fans. I could see myself playing for Louisville.

BS: Connecticut?
TE: Well Coach Calhoun has the most pro players right now. They are known for developing professional two guards so I will definitely have to consider going there.

The Louisville Courier-Journal also has a Tyreke Evans Update and the curious part of this, like the articles over the weekend on his trip to UConn, that he is considering five schools, not six.

Anyway, the bar was set last year when the Evans entourage visited Louisville and that remains, to this point, the standard. After visiting Memphis and Texas, the Evans family will decide if another visit to Louisville is needed, according to older brother Reggie:

Right now, that’s up in the air,” Reggie said. “I told Tyreke on this journey that after he sees everything with Texas and Memphis, if he tells me that this is a hard thing, then owes Louisville another shot after what I saw a year ago then we’re going to go back. I saw Louisville. I paid attention. I know what they have to offer and I hope he did. I just want to make sure he saw what needed to see.”

Evans and his brothers, Reggie, Pooh and Doc, where visited by the Seton Hall staff for a couple of hours at the Tri State Sports complex in Aston, Pa. yesterday, according to Adam Zagoria who chatted with Reggie Evans on Gonzo’s Visit (zagsblog). Bobby Gonzalez, according to Reggie, continues to show passion in his recruitment of Tyreke:

“It went good,” Reggie said. “That guy, he’s full of energy. He’s so sincere. He’s a good dude. I wish him nothing but the best, turning pro or staying in college.

“It was a great visit. He pulled out a lot of things that a lot of guys didn’t even attempt to do. He said how appreciative he would be to have a guy like ‘Reke, how (‘Reke) should be utilized. He was keeping it real, saying ‘Reke can contribute to the University but he’ll be doing me a favor.

“(Gonzo said), ‘I’m hungry. I’m not a millionaire. I’m not established. Tyreke Evans can help me get to where I want to go, so I can be mentioned in the same breath as those other guys.’

A decision from Evans is not expected until very close to the beginning of the early signing period, around November 12. The visit to Texas is expected to take place in October with a visit to Memphis coming in November. Speaking of Louisville, American Christian, Evans’ high school squad, will play twice this season on the Louisville campus: on Dec. 7 vs. IMG and on Feb. 16 against Findlay Prep of Nevada.
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Adam Zagoria also contributes to HoopsFuture.com and updates readers on the recruitment of Mount Vernon’s Kevin Jones and Mookie Jones of Peekskill as he tries Keeping Up With the Joneses.

Coaches from West Virginia, UMass, Pittsburgh, St. John’s and Ohio State came to visit the house of Kevin, the 6′7 forward from Mount Vernon High School, on successive nights last week. Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson was in on Sunday and Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez, fresh off his visit with Tyreke Evans on Monday night, was slated to visit Kevin last night (Tuesday). After that, Rutgers and Michigan were also candidates to come calling before a potential weekend visit to Ohio State.

Mookie’s list now looks like this: Syracuse, St. John’s, Michigan, Marquette, Kansas, Rutgers and DePaul. “We’re looking for a good academic program that will support him through his years in college; a team that has potential for winning; and a team that he can be involved in and contribute to,” said Peekskill coach Lou Panzanaro, who also coached current NBA players Elton Brand and Hilton Armstrong.

We understand, at this point, Mookie’s official visit plans include one school: Syracuse. Kevin is still sorting out an official visit schedule.
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Van Coleman wraps up some of his thoughts on the 2007 spring/summer AAU scene with an article on 10 players that helped their stock the most and asks Where Did They Come From (CSTV.com)? Players with Big East interest such as Tyler Zeller, Iman Shumpert, Olek Czyz and Dan Jennings are included.
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The NY Gauchos and Rice High School have both been a major source of Big East talent recently and now Maurice Hicks will have a hand with both programs as Rice’s Hicks Goes to Gauchos (Hoops on Hoops) replacing departed director Emmanuel (Book) Richardson, who took an assistant coaching gig at Xavier University last month. The Rice Raiders play their home games at Gauchos Gym, so Hicks insists the new job won’t take anything away from his daily duties at Rice.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (9/17/2007)

September 17, 2007

The news of the weekend is the trouble that Pitt point guard Levance Fields found himself in at a nightclub in the Pittsburgh Strip District.

The recruiting stories continue to come frequently as we are in the midst of visit season. No new verbal commitments to report, yet…however, there are updates on Kyle Kuric, Tyreke Evans, Verdell Jones, J’Mison Morgan, Devoe Joseph, Mookie Jones, Tyler Zeller, Iman Shumpert, Olek Czyz and Sylven Landesberg.

Notre Dame has a strong backcourt with the added experience Tory Jackson received last season. South Florida adds an assistant, Villanova loses an assistant. Bob Huggins’ program will be a lot different than he predecessor and Seton Hall will be without one recruit for at least the first semester as Clearinghouse issues will delay one college career.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

It has been a quiet summer/early fall as far as players getting in trouble with the law, however, over the weekend Pitt Basketball Player Levance Fields was Jailed for Assault on Officer (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Fields was charged with one count each of aggravated assault, disarming a police officer, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. A security officer at Club Pure shot Fields, 20, in the chest with a Taser to subdue the Pitt point guard. Fields was taken to Mercy Hospital before being locked up in the Allegheny County Jail. He was released on his own recognizance, and a preliminary hearing has been set for next Monday.

Pitt basketball coach Jamie Dixon issued a statement through the sports information department last night, saying:

“Earlier today I was informed of an incident at an off-campus location involving Levance Fields. At this juncture, we will let the judicial process run its course before determining what disciplinary action is necessary. We have built a successful program at Pitt, on and off the court, by prioritizing personal accountability and responsibility. We will not compromise when it comes to those values.”

Fields, a 5-foot-10, 195-pound native of Brooklyn, N.Y., is an important member of the Pitt team. He led the team in assists last season and averaged 9.2 points per game in being named second-team all-Big East and was one of 17 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award, which is given to the nation’s top point guard.
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Kyle Kuric’s stock rose with a strong summer and during a recent visit to Louisville to meet with Rick Pitino he was surprised as Pitino Offers Scholarship to Kuric (Louisville Courier-Journal). Kuric, a 6′5 senior guard from Evansville (Ind.) Memorial, saw his stock rise after several strong outings this summer with the Evansville Basketball Club, had talked to Louisville often about walking on and then earning a scholarship. He was going to consider the walk-on offer, but Michigan, Southern Illinois and St. Louis offering scholarships, he was unlikely to do so. Now, he has more to think about…

A few other notes from the article in the Louisville Courier-Journal with Big East relevance:

-Pitino made an in-home visit to prized recruit Tyreke Evans this past week. Evans was making an official visit to Connecticut this weekend.

-Champaign (Ill.) senior guard Verdell Jones told Scout.com he’s still considering Gonzaga, UK, Connecticut, Texas, Kansas, Virginia and Oregon

-UK coach Billy Gillispie made an in-home visit to Dallas center J’Mison Morgan, who is also considering Louisiana State, Alabama, Kansas and Cincinnati.
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Tyreke Evans has been busy as the Prized Recruit Attends Game (Hartford Courant) as Evans Takes a Look at UConn (Connecticut Post)as the Huskeis beat Temple on the football field, 22-17. The 6′5, 200-pound star at American Christian in Aston, Pa., arrived in Connecticut Friday night with his four older brothers. In addition to UConn Evans said he is considering Louisville, Texas, Memphis and Villanova.

Jim Calhoun’s record of getting players to the NBA has impressed Evans:

That shows a lot,” Evans told the Post. “But it’s not just up to coach Calhoun,” the 17-year-old Evans said. “It’ll be up to me. I’ve got to want to work to show I’m one of the best guys around.”

Evans has also been to Seton Hall, but the gist of the articles are that the Evans’ are done to five schools: Louisville, Connecticut, Memphis, Villanova and Texas as his brother Reggie Reggie reminded the Courant that a list of 12 potential schools is now down to five. “That’s saying something for UConn, that he cut other [schools] from the list and they are still there.”

Tyreke Evans Made an Unofficial (Courant) to UConn after being visited in Aston on Thursday by UConn assistant Patrick Sellers. Evans has visited Louisville and will next visit either Memphis or Texas.
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Here are the Big East-related tidbits from Adam Zagoria’s blog on Friday in his post, Quick Recruiting Hits for the Weekend:

-6′6 Canadian shooting guard Devoe Joseph had what was called a “good visit” by Ro Russell, head of Canada’s Grassroots AAU Basketball Club, when St. John’s coaches Norm Roberts and Freddie Quartlebaum came up to see him Thursday. Minnesota, Illinois and Virginia Tech are also involved.

-The Seton Hall board (Piratecrew.com on Rivals) reports that Chris Smith’s paperwork did not meet with the approval of the Clearinghouse and that he, his family and St. Benedict’s coach Danny Hurley are working with the proper people to get him eligible for the second semester.

-St. John’s has an in-home visit Monday with Mookie Jones, the same day Tyreke Evans will host Bobby Gonzalez.
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On Friday, Van Coleman updated some of the visits being made by the top players as Top Fifty Prospects are Heading to Campus (CSTV.com) with more regularity. Here are the Big East-related notes from the article:

-Tyreke Evans, who is making an unofficial (non-paid for) visit to Connecticut. He will also travel to Texas in October, then Memphis and possibly Louisville (in-home this week) in November. His other finalist, Villanova, has been his host on a number of occasions.

-7′0, 220-pound Tyler Zeller, is headed to North Carolina this weekend. He is being joined by another top Tar Heel target, 6′3 point guard Iman Shumpert. Zeller is scheduled to visit Indiana next week the 22nd, then head to Notre Dame on October 12, and on to Purdue October 19. Shumpert is also scheduled to visit Georgia Tech September 29 and then take his last visit to Marquette on October 12.

-6′8 forward Olek Czyz from Reno, Nev was at Duke this weekend. Czyz is a gifted athlete who would have an immediate athletic impact on the Blue Devils. He has two other visits scheduled, one to Florida on September 28, then on to his final visit to Louisville on October 12.

-Sylven Landesberg from Flushing Meadows, N.Y.-Holy Cross High is taking what appears to be his last visit this weekend to Georgia Tech. He visited St. John’s officially last weekend, and had tripped to Texas and Virginia in August. He could make a decision sometime this coming week, so stay tuned for his potential decision.

-6′11, 240-pound J’mison Morgan is headed to Kansas this weekend. He visited LSU one week ago and has this week had home visits from Louisville, Baylor, Kentucky and UCLA, as they battle for one of the other three visits the big man is going to take prior to making his college decision.
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There are a lot of differences between Bob Huggins’ and John Beilein’s philosophies on strategy, scheduling, recruiting, etc. Although next year’s West Virginia squad is stocked with returning players recruited by coach Beilein, Huggins’ Team Will Be Different from Beilein’s (Charleston Daily Mail). Huggins is concered about the size of the WVU team and has them working hard at getting stronger, and they have, but they are still not where he wants them to be. He is impressed with how hard they are working:

Joe Alexander has been great since Day 1,” Huggins said. “DeSean Butler has been terrific. I think those two, on a day-to-day basis, probably have maybe come the farthest.

“Wellington Smith and Alex Ruoff have been good, and Darris Nichols has been terrific. Joe Mazzulla has been great. And the two freshmen (John Flowers and Will Thomas) have made big strides.”

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Villanova by the Numbers blog has Part III of their review of the Wildcats trip to Canada over Labor Day weekend where they concetrate on the Player Summaries. Scottie Reynolds averaged over 21 pts in three games on the trip, but most impressive was his effeciency, scoring 64 points on just 27 field goal attempts, highlighted by his 13-16 performance from beyond the arc (wow)!
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Jeff Goodman at FoxSports.com takes a look at the Notre Dame Fightin’ Irish Two-Pronged Attack in the backcourt with Tory Jackson and Kyle McAlarney. Last year the suspension of McAlarney forced Jackson into the fire and coach Mike Brey saw him mature quickly as Jackson finished with 21 points and seven assists in a victory over Marquette late in the season and had 20 points, eight boards and five assists in a loss to Georgetown in the Big East tournament. Both McAlarney and Jackson have a toughness that has been missing at times in South Bend, Ind. McAlarney has always carried a chip on his shoulder since growing up in Staten Island, N.Y., and Jackson is an inner-city kid out of Michigan who is arguably the best perimeter defender the program has seen in under Brey.

A few other Big East related notes from Goodman:

-Marquette coach Tom Crean and assistants Tim Buckley and Bennie Seltzer visited their top target, wing Iman Shumpert, just moments after midnight on Sunday – the first day that coaches are allowed to go into the homes. The trio spoke to Shumpert for about a half-hour

-Villanova assistant coach Ed Pinckney left for an assistant job in the NBA with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but look for him to be a head college coach soon. Wildcats coach Jay Wright will likely fill the opening with another former ‘Nova player. For more, see the Philadelphia Inquirer: Nova Assistant Pinckney Headed to T-Wolves.
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South Florida announced the hiring of Tommy Tonelli as Director of Operations. Tonelli is returning to the USF fold after serving 10 highly successful years as the head coach at Wharton high school in Tampa. Tonelli was a three-year starter at USF during his career (1982-86). He earned the Sun Belt Conference Jerry D. Young Memorial Award in 1986 for “exemplifying sportsmanship, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability.” Tonelli Joins Basketball Staff (GoUSFBulls.com) and will have on-campus responsibilities and will assist a wide range of areas on our staff.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (9/14/2007)

September 14, 2007

The news form the summer of Charles Okwandu committing to Seton Hall may have been a bit premature, according to his coach at Harcum College in Philadelphia. Plus, recruiting updates on the Morris twins, Greg Monrie, Mookie Jones, Daniel Orton, Xavier Henry, Dominic Rutledge, Kevin Jones, Quintrell Thomas, Eloy Vargas, Tyler Zeller and Marvell Waithe.

Jide Sodipo updates the situation with Augustus Gilchrist and gives the names of some schools that Gilchrist is interested in. There is an introduction to another Gachos guard who should be a hot commodity in the 2009 class.

Also, see who is impressive in pick-up action at UConn. The newest Husky tries to assimiliate into the new live style of college and the northeast. Tory Jackson knows what to expect this time around and a Big East team is up next in CHN’s Top 144 Teams in 144 Days preview of the 2007-2008 season.

Later today we will profile American Heritage Prep School as their head coach, Danny Herz, was gracious enough to spend a few moments introducing us to his program. Tomorrow we continue our 2007-2008 Big East previews with a look at the conference’s top front court units and on Sunday, we kick off our team previews with #16.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

Over the summer it was reported that Charles Okwandu, a 7-foot-1, 240-pound native of Nigeria, had committed to Seton Hall and coach Bobby Gonzalez. Apparently that is unclear and news to Harcum College’s head coach Drew Kelly:

“Some of the things being said about him on the internet are flat out, not true,” said Kelly, a Villanova graduate in his third year coaching Harcum. “I’ve read that he’s going to graduate from Harcum in one year. I’ve read that he’s committed to Seton Hall. I’ve read all kinds of things about the kid and none of it is true.”

One thing is true on Okwandu and that is Long Road from Nigeria to the Main Line (The Bulletin) of Philadelphia has been a long, winding journey. The 19-year-old is just happy to have found a place to hone his game. He has never played a regulation game with real referees on the court and fans in the seats.
Nevertheless, he shows so much promise that Division 1 coaches are drooling over the talent and potential that oozes from his pores, including Villanova, La Salle, Maryland, West Virginia, and, of course, Seton Hall, where he took an unofficial visit to South Orange over the summer.

Before a major program gets their hands on Okwandu, he will play two full seasons on the Main Line at Harcum and work on getting his associates degree. Without ever stepping foot on American soil, Okwandu gave a verbal commitment to play for the University of Arizona. Difficulties arose with the acquisition of his visa, the commitment to Arizona quickly dissolved. Running out of options, Okwandu finally received a visa and left for the United States and he enrolled at the College of Southern Idaho for two years of junior college basketball. For a variety of reasons, including the fact that he did not take the Test of English as a Foreign Language, he never suited up at Southern Idaho. A mutual contact of Okwandu and Kelly brought him to Harcum and the rest is history, which will hopefully lead to a Division 1-A schools and/or a stop in the NBA.
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Gary Bedore’s KU Hoops Notebook in the Lawrence Journal-World has a few recruiting tidbits that mention Big East schools, let’s check them out:

Markieff and Marcus Morris of Living Faith Christian Academy in Cherry Hill, N.J will attend either KU, West Virginia, Villanova, Rutgers, St. John’s or LaSalle after de-committing from Memphis.

Greg Monroe, a 6′10 forward from Helen Cox High in Harvey, La., will welcome KU’s coaches into his home on Sept. 22. The country’s No. 1 prospect already has met with coaches from Duke, LSU and Georgetown and has scheduled visits with USC, Baylor, UConn and Texas.

Mookie Jones, 6-6 from Peekskill (N.Y.) High, told the West Paterson (N.J.) Herald-News that St. John’s is back on his list. Others: KU, DePaul, Rutgers, Syracuse, Marquette and Michigan.

Daniel Orton, a 6′9, 275-pound junior from McGuinness High in Oklahoma City, tells Rivals.com he’ll probably visit KU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and some Texas schools unofficially this school year. UConn, UCLA, Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio State are also on his early list.

Also, in a surprising development, Rivals reports that Xavier Henry, 6′6 junior from Putnam City (Okla.) High, said he will visit Memphis, not North Carolina for Midnight Madness. He also likes KU, Oklahoma, Louisville and Ohio State.
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6′7 forward Dominic Rutledge from Edison (N.J.) Academy has some Big East interest. Rutledge has already been on St. Joeseph’s (PA) campus for several unofficial visits and they are a finlaists, apparently with Marquette in the Rutledge sweepstakes. Providence and Pittsburgh have also shown varying degrees of interest. The information was in a Philadelphia daily News article on Forward Bryant Irwin Commits to St. Joe’s.
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The Indianapolis Star checks in on the recruitment of Tyler Zeller, the 7′0 prospect from Washington Indiana as he heads to North Carolina first, followed by trips to Indiana, Notre Dame and Purdue. Coaches Matt Painter of Purdue, Roy Williams of Carolina, Mike Brey of Notre Dame and Kelvin Sampson of IU visited either his high school or home this week as schools continue Chasing Tyler, who is the younger brother of Irish forward Luke Zeller.
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Adam Zagoria updated readers with the Latest on Kevin Jones, whose home has been a must-stop this week on the recruiting trail for Big East coaches. Jones and his family has had coaches from West Virginia, UMass, Pittsburgh, St. John’s and Ohio State in their Mount Vernon (N.Y.) this week, all making their best pitch for the 6′7 forward.

Beginning Sunday, Gerard Jones, Kevin’s brother and advisor, said they hope to have in-home visits with as many of these schools as possible: Rutgers, Seton Hall, Indiana, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Michigan and Kansas.

Gerard runs down his thoughts for Zags on each school that had visited as of yesterday and their thoughts on Seton Hall and Rutgers in the recruiting race.
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Adam Zagoria also caught up with Ro Russell, the coach of Grassroots Canada, who wanted to clear the air a bit on his relationship with the Rutgers coaching staff as internet sites place a lot of blame towards Russell for some of his players not making it to RU. Russell assures fans that he is a “pro-Rutgers” guy and he is not to blame for Olu Ashaolu (Louisiana State) and Antwi Atuahene (Arizona State) not ending up at Rutgers. He also said Marvell Waithe still hopes to come to Rutgers, but is caught up in the red tape of the NCAA Clearinghouse.
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One final note from zagsblog is that St. Patrick forward Quintrell Thomas Will Officially Visit Rutgers this Weekend, and the Scarlet Knights are hoping they can land the 6-8 power forward. After the Rutgers visit comes Maryland (Sept. 21), Kansas (Sept. 28) and UNLV (Oct. 12). It is also possible Thomas could visit Houston sometime in October.
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Jide Sodipo, Director of Scouting at MidAtlanticHoops.com has just learned that former Virginia Tech bound Augustus Gilchrist, a 6′9 power forward/center from Progressive Christian Academy in Ft. Washington, Maryland will enroll in college next semester. The release of his Letter of intent is not official yet and the paperwork is still in his final stage, however Sodipo has learned that Gilchrist will show some interest in Kansas State, Virginia, Georgetown, Kansas, West Virginia and Florida as part of the recruiting process.
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Franz Beard’s Basketball Confidential indicates the race for Eloy Vargas seems to be about over as Florida head coach Billy Donovan is close to locking up the 6′10, 220, Plantation, FL American Heritage forward. Pittsburgh and Louisville have also been in hot pursuit.

We will have more on the American Heritage program this afternoon as Danny Herz,
Head Basketball Coach & Dean of Students of American Heritage, was gracious enough to spend a few moments giving us some insights into his program.
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Mike Melton updates his Basketball Spotlight News blog with On The Come Up with Omari Lawrence, a 6′3 shooting guard from St. Raymond’s in NYC that also played with the NY Gauchos this past summer. Expect Lawrence to be pursued by several Big East schools in the class of 2009.
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The UConn Huskies blog at the Hartford Courant has some Other Pick-Up Observations from recent sessions on campus. Doug Wiggins has been playing very well and there is hope that Stanley Robinson is beginning to put it all together. AJ Price is also looking to be stronger physically, which can only help this coming season.

Mike Anthony of the Courant also profiles UCONN frosh Donnell Beverly as the New Kid in the Backcourt Tries to Fit In. Beverly, a 6-foot-4 point guard, was considered a late bloomer coming out of Leuzinger High, where he averaged 19 points, eight rebounds and eight assists as a senior. UConn, LSU and California came calling in the spring for the Lawndale (CA) native when he decided to become the newest piece of the Huskies’ backcourt. Beverly is trying to get a handle on the rigors of the classroom, a new life in general and a new set of teammates. Beverly, a lefthander, rebounds well and is steady. He gives UConn a slightly different look as a classic playmaker, instead of someone else looking to score.
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Notre Dame’s Tory Jackson surprised the Big East last season on the court when he was thrust into the starting lineup after 12 games when Kyle McAlarney was suspended and subsequently kicked out of school for a semester after being arrested on charges of marijuana possession. Jackson responded by helping the Irish to a surprising fourth-place finish in the conference as he averaged 9.5 points and 5.8 assists after becoming a starter and made the Big East All-Rookie team. This season, Jackson is Poised for More with Irish (Yahoo! Sports) as the sophomore guard from Saginaw (MI) will team with McAlarney in the Irish backcourt.
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CollegeHoops.Net continues their series on the Top 144 Teams in 144 days as a preview to the 2007-2008 college basketball season. They are up to team #65 and it is a squad from the Big East: #65 Providence Friars. They have slotted the Friars at #10 in the conference.

Here are the other schools previously profiled from the Big East:

#92 Seton Hall
#99 Cincinnati
#107 DePaul
#131 St. John’s

It is safe to assume that CHN’s #15 and #16 teams in the Big East South Florida and Rutgers. Neither made it into their Top 144.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (9/12/2007)

September 12, 2007

Quite a bit out there on the wires today, and it took quite a bit of time for us to pull it all together judging from the later than normal post. The parade of in-home visits have become with popular desinations being the homes of Tyreke Evans, Mookie Jones and Kevin Jones. Not only is Rutgers after the package deal of the Joneses, but are also among several Big East schools after another pair with the same last name.

A couple profiles on New England prep programs such as Northfield Mt Hermon and South Kent that Big East fans will find interesting. Dexter Strickland will be among the most coveted recruits in the land for 2009. Sylven Landesberg has one trip left and will decide among three. Dominic Morris has some Big East schools interested in him.

More on SHU transfer Robert Mitchell and Notre Dame looks for more of the same success this season, but will a soft schedule hurt them come Selection Sunday?

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

The Indiana University Basketball Blog, Inside the Hall has the details as the Target 2009 Standout Dexter Strickland who also has offers already from Big East schools such as Rutgers and Villanova.
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Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal takes a closer look at the recent phenomenon of Basketball Prospects Finding a Home in the Berkshires at Northfield Mt. Hermon, a selective academic school in the Berkshires that draws students from around the world and regularly pumps out graduates who attend Ivy League colleges. Maybe known more for academic prowess, the school is also a tough competitor in the Class A New England prep league. The school’s top player last year, Tyrone Nash, is a freshman at Notre Dame this season.

This season Northfield welcomes Providence Journal first-team All-Stater in Smithfield’s Mike Marra, a 6-4 deep shooter who averaged 22.1 points and 11 rebounds per game and shattered Smithfield’s school record for 3-pointers by knocking down 111 threes last year. After a strong summer with the Rhode Island Hawks AAU program, coaches from Florida, Louisville, Syracuse and Ohio State are now checking out his game as Marra looks to decide if he will be at the school for one or two seasons. Marra is a full qualifier for 2008 and Providence is recruiting him as a member of their 2008 class, but he could become part of the 2009 class to see what level his recruitment settles in at. The contact period just kicked off last Sunday and Providence has already been by the campus and Notre Dame and West Virginia are expected in the next couple days.
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The Chase for Tyreke Evans (zagsblog) is heating up with Rick Pitino and his Louisville assistant Steve Masiello in for an in-home visit Monday night. John Calipari is on his way or a Tuesday night visit and Rick Barnes comes on Thursday. Tyreke’s brother Reggie was impressed with the Louisville presentation:

“They already put on the table what they’ll do for ‘Reke and how they want ‘Reke to come in and produce,” Reggie said. “They want him to be a freshman and play a lot of minutes and be a big impact for Louisville.”

“He’s probably the only recruit that Rick Pitino has put this time and effort into,” Reggie added. “Hearing that was strong.”

The Evans’ will take an unofficial visit to UConn this weekend and Villanova and Seton Hall are also in the mix, and Reggie continued to talk about how impressed he was with Bobby Gonzalez, the Pirates coach.
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The home visits began for Peekskill G/F Mookie Jones last night as Rutgers Visits Mookie (zagsblog) his father, T.J., and Peekskill coach Lou Panzanaro. Rutgers head coach Fred Hill and assistants Darren Savino and Craig Carter all made the trip across the Hudson to Camp Inc where they met for over three hours where they impressed Jones’ support group with their presentation.

Jones previously sliced his list to include Rutgers, Marquette, St. John’s, DePaul, Michigan and Kansas. Jones has three more home visits coming up in the immediate future with Syracuse on Thursday, St. John’s on Monday and Marquette on the 20th of September.

Rutgers, with two scholarships remaining with the commitments of Mike Rosario and Christian Morris would love to add Mookie’s Westchester Hawks AAU teammate Kevin Jones of Mount Vernon, who we understand was visited by Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon last night.
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Another package deal that Rutgers might find themselves actively pursuing is that of Markief and Marcus Morris, the recent Memphis de-commitments. The Morris Twins are Eyeing West Virginia, Rutgers, Villanova, St. John’s and LaSalle (Philadelphia Daily News) now that they have opened it back up with a major factor being staying close to home. The Morrises know from transfers as they have spent time at Simon Gratz and the old St. John Neumann before popping up at Prep Charter, which they led to PIAA Class AA state championships in the past two seasons and are now spending a prep-school year at Living Faith Christian Academy in Cherry Hill, N.J., which partners with nearby APEX Academies (intensified basketball training).
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Hoops Weiss also reports that the Morris Twins Weren’t Comfortable with Memphis and passes on that Ron Naclerio of Cardozo, the New York correspondent for Hoop Scoop, says 6-6 forward Sylven Landesberg of Holy Cross has narrowed down his list to Virginia, St. John’s and Georgia Tech and Guard Trinity Fields, who is Naclerio’s best player at Cardozo, is considering Virginia Tech, Duquesne, Rhode Island, George Mason and BU.
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In Ron Bailey’s Snapshots Part 8 at i95Ballerz.com he has information on Dominic Morris, 6′5, 250 lb junior power forward of Caravel High School (Bear, DE). Apparently, Notre Dame and Syracuse are among the schools showing an interest in his game.
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The New England Recruiting Report continues their rounds of the New England prep scene as the Profile South Kent where Raphael Chillious is entering his fifth season as the head men’s basketball coach at the South Kent School. With a starting lineup that could feature Washington bound point guard Isaiah Thomas, junior swingman Maurice Creek, super sophomore Dion Waiters (SU verbal), and junior forward Jin Soo Kim all playing around either Christian Morris (Rutgers verbal) or Assane Sene in the post, this team is not just quick, but they are extremely talented and could challenge for a NEPSAC crown.

With the NERR in attendance for Monday’s workout, Waiters was the story of the day during Monday’s workout as the 15 year old sophomore was the best player on the floor. There doesn’t appear to be anything he can’t do with the basketball in his hands and according to NERR, he is a special special talent who is almost undoubtedly a future professional if he continues to work hard and make good decisions.
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The New Jersey Star-Ledger has the story on Duquesne’s Top Scorer Transferring to Seton Hall as Brooklyn native Robert Mitchell moves from the A-10 to the Big East. Mitchell, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native, started 18 games as a freshman with the Dukes last season. After scoring a team-high 16.4 points per game, ninth in the nation among Division 1 freshmen, and recording 5.4 rebounds per game, he was named the Atlantic-10 Rookie of the Year.

“It’s an unbelievable ‘get’ for us,” SHU head coach Bobby Gonzalez said. “He’s very tricky. He’s a thin, athletic guy who is perfect for the style we’re playing.”

“We’re not going to be Transfer U, but if you get the right transfer, it’s a way to build your program,” Gonzalez told the Star-Ledger. “You’ve got to be creative.”
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A few eyebrows were raised when Notre Dame released its schedule and head coach Mike Brey said he chose not to burden Notre Dame with a heavy workload before the conference schedule kicks in during January as the Big East expands its schedule to an 18-game regular season.

“With scheduling, I always sit down with [Big East Commissioner] Mike Tranghese who is former head of the committee and [Associate Commissioner] Dave Gavitt and say, ‘Here’s what I’m thinking, what do you think?’ I always sign off on guys that are experts with strength of schedule and strategy,” Brey told the Observer as Brey Reacts to ND Schedule.

The Irish begin with two exhibitions and a game against Long Island before heading to the U.S. Virgin Islands to play in the Paradise Jam tournament. Notre Dame will also take on Kansas State at Madison Square Garden in New York City, but the rest of the Irish schedule is filled with easy wins.

with the schedule known, CSTV previews this season’s Notre Dame team as the Upstart IrishLook for More Success in 2007-2008 (CSTV.com).
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (9/10/2007)

September 10, 2007

For Monday morning’s update, we will refer you to catch up at ZAGSBLOG where updates on Sylven Landesbery, Devin Hill, Mookie Jones, Kevin Jones, Patrick Jackson, Quintrell Thomas, Greg Echenique, Tevin Baskins, Isaiah Epps, Tyreke Evans and David Bruce can be found. Below you can find the cliff notes version, or check out Zags site for all the details.

Although not Big East targets quite yet, expect several Big East schools to try to get involved with Marcus and Markief Morris after the twins have, again, de-committed from Memphis, just days after the Tigers received a verbal commitment from Angel Garcia. Iman Shumpert is moving up on the recruiting lists and one Big East school hopes he moves on over to Wisconsin for his college home. Eloy Vargas might have a new leader in the recruiting process, is it good news for a Big East school? He is supposed to be visiting a Big East program this weekend.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

First thing today is to visit ZAGSBLOG as Adam Zagoria keeps readers updated on all the recruiting news happening in the NJ/NYC area from the last several days. Here is a brief synopsis of his latest posts and the pertinent information for Big East fans:

Sylven Landesberg’s weekend visit to St. John’s went well (Landesberg, Hill, USA Today Rankings of Class of 08) over the weekend. The 6′6 Holy Cross star recently had a great visit to Virginia and a decision could come soon.

6′9 senior PF Devin Hill of Stamford (Conn.) St. Luke’s reportedly had in-home visits set with DePaul Sunday, Bradley today (Monday) and St. Louis on Tuesday. He has an official visit set to DePaul on the 13th of this week.

After originally cutting his list to six schools, Peekskill (NY) 6′6 G/F Mookie Jones has reconsidered and added a seventh school back to his list as St. John’s is Back in it with Jones and a Busy Week is Ahead (zagsblog) as DePaul comes Monday, followed by Rutgers Tuesday and Syracuse on Thursday for in-home visits. Next week, St. John’s comes the 17th, followed by Marquette on the 20th. Jones was at Rutgers friday night checking out the Rutgers/Navy football game with several other recruits. Kansas and Michigan are also in the mix for Jones.

Also on hand for the Rutgers/Navy game was Mount Vernon 6′7 F Kevin Jones. Jones Enjoys RU Visit During Football Victory over Navy (zagsblog) and now will look to have a series of in-home visits in the next couple weeks and look to cut the lengthy list down some. Jones has a home visit slated Monday with West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. After that, Georgetown, UMass, Memphis, Indiana, Michigan, Virginia, Miami, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Rutgers have also expressed interest in home visits.

The complete list of attendees at the RU/Navy game included On hand were Kevin Jones, Mookie Jones, Greg Echenique, Tevin Baskins, Isaiah Epps and Patrick Jackson, as well as Rutgers freshman Mike Rosario and Pitt-bound guard Travon Woodall of St. Anthony.

With visits in full swing and decisions coming left and right for players, it is Coming Down to the Wire for Recruits (zagsblog) and Adam Zagoria takes a closer look at several players who are still sorting through the process prior to this past weekend. Here is a brief summary on those with Big East interest:

QUINTRELL THOMAS, St. Patrick: As reported by Zagoria last week, the 6′8 Thomas cut Seton Hall from his list and is down to Maryland, Kansas, Rutgers, UNLV, with Houston a potential dark horse. Thomas takes an official visit to RU this upcoming weekend.

TYREKE EVANS, American Christian: Evans recently had a positive visit at Seton Hall, and his brother Reggie said UConn is up next. Although Louisville and Villanova have been considered the leaders for a long time, the possibility of being a star player immediately with the biggest impact at SHU has become very intriguing to the Evans support team.

PAT JACKSON, Boys & Girls: Jackson is considering Rutgers, St. John’s, Houston, Colorado and Iowa State. He visited Seton Hall but that school is likely now out of the mix with the transfer of Robert Mitchell, even though the two are friends. Jackson was at Rutgers Friday night.

DAVID BRUCE, Linden: Linden coach Phil Colicchio says the 6′9 Bruce has no offers but interest from Rutgers, Seton Hall, Villanova, Miami, Houston and Missouri among others already in the class of 2009 developing big man.
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After briefly re-opening their recruitment in July, forwards Marcus and Markieff Morris have de-comitted a second time from Memphis as the Twins End Their Commitment to Tigers (Commercial Appeal). The twins, who are currently attending post-graduate prep school at Pennsauken Apex Academy in New Jersey, signed letters of intent with Memphis last November, they were clear in their desire to take a year of prep school, primarily for their basketball development. Look for several Big East schools to try and get involved in the twins’ recruitment.
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Oak Park’s Iman Shumpert is one of the Chicago Sun-Times Two Local Stars Movin’ Up the 2008 recruit rankings ladder. Shumpert is the top priority of Tom Crean and the Marquette Golden Eagles in the class of 2008 as they hope to convince him to be the latest Chicago star to come to the Milwaukee school. Just like Dwyane Wade, Jerel McNeal, etc.
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Franz Beard’s basketball Confidential has an update on Eloy Vargas, who had a great visit to Florida over Labor Day weekend and apparently Vargas has it down to Florida and Pittsburgh and the Gators have the lead. From all indications, even the Gillion brothers, who head up the Team Breakdown AAU program which Vargas led to the national championship, have seen the orange and blue light. For the longest time, there has been speculation that the Gillion Brothers might steer Vargas to Pitt because of the close relationship with Pitt assistant Orlando Antigua, a native of Dominican Republic. Vargas is supposed to be visiting Pittsburgh this coming weekend as well.

From the looks of it, neither Pitt nor Florida have an open scholarship for 2008. Pitt has verbal commitments from Nasir Robinson, Travon Woodall and Ashton Gibbs. Florida has commitments from C/BF Kenny kadji and BF Allan Chaney as well.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (9/6/2007)

September 6, 2007

Yesterday was ‘Schedule’ Day around the Big East as the league realeased the 2007-2008 Composite Big East Schedule (BigEast.org). With the official conference schedule released, the individual team’s of the conference followed with the release of their schedules. We have MANY links of the individual team schedule releases listed below.

Also, EVERY Big East conference game will be televised, in one for or another, by the ESPN Family of Networks. That is all 144 games! For the listing of nationally televised games (CBS, ESPN or ESPN2) as it stands now, check out our earlier post from this morning: 2007-2008 Big East Preview: Big East TV Schedule.

Quite a bit also going on. We have some recruiting news posted that we have found on Connecticut’s broadening search for another big man, brief updates on J/Mison Morgan, Mookie Jones, Willie Warren, Wesley Witherspoon, Andrew Fitzgerald, Frank Ben-Eze, Wally Judge, Isiah Armwood, Darius Miller, Sylven Landesberg, Greg Echenique and in introduction to Zeke Marshall. Also, a profile on Dalton Pepper and a recruit from Ohio picks a school just prior to a visit from Bob Huggins.

Also, a couple reviews on the play of Villanova and Marquette on their recent exhibition trips and Tim Welsh breaks down what he saw from his Friars overseas. St. John’s adds a new assistant to the staff and some Seton Hall updates on everything that is going on in South Orange.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

Connecticut is focusing their recruiting efforts on big man and a new name has emerged, according to a Register Citizen article today (Huskies Should Benefit from Trip to Disney) that we feature below in the SCHEDULE STORIES section. Obod Oman, a 6-foot-9 forward from Sudan is currently working on his visa situation, but he could be in the U.S. within the next couple of weeks, where he may be attending the Winchendon (Mass.) School. Oman is said to be very athletic and strong and is on the UConn radar, along with another Sudanese native, 7-2 John Riek, who is attending Our Savior New American in Centereach, N.Y.
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Scrolling down in the Lawrence Journal-World article, Case Flashes Other Athletic Talents, several recruiting updates are included, a few with Big East interest:

J’Mison Morgan, a 6′10 center from Dallas’ South Oak Cliff High, will visit LSU this weekend. His other finalists are KU, Kentucky, UCLA, Louisville and Alabama.

Willie Warren, 6-3 from Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., will be visited by coaches from KU, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisville next week.

Mookie Jones, 6′6 from Peekskill, N.Y., cut his list to KU, Syracuse, Michigan, Marquette, DePaul and Rutgers

Wesley Witherspoon, 6-8 from Berkmar High in Lilburn, Ga., will visit LSU this weekend. He has scheduled an in-home visit with KU. He’s also considering Texas, Kansas State, Georgetown, Arizona and others.
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Over the year’s, Pittsburgh has had little help on the recruiting scene in their own backyard because there simply has been a lack of top tier talent. However, things seem to be changing a bit, the Panthers recently added DeJuan Blair in last year’s recruiting class, and although the 2008 class boasts top talents like Terrelle Pryor and Jonathan Baldwin, it looks like football will be their sport of choice at the college level. But the talent isn’t ending there, Zeke Marshall, a 6′11+, 209-pound junior at McKeesport says he now has scholarship offers from Pitt, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Akron withmany more schools interested. Marshall is a member of the class of 2009 and with his play for the Pittsburgh Storm AAU club this summer his Stock is Growing for McKeesport Star (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
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The Baltimore Sun’s Matt Bracken updates his Recruiting Report with ‘Five questions’ for Jide Sodipo, a fixture in the Maryland high school basketball recruiting scene for the past decade. I have cherry picked some of the notes with Big East interest:

Center Andrew Fitzgerald transferred from Towson Catholic to Owings Mills and has Maryland, Pitt, Clemson high on his list. Forward Wally Judge has moved from Bladensburg to Arlington Country Day School in Jacksonville, Fla and has West Virginia, Georgetown and Pitt high on his list. Both players are in the class of 2009.

Isiah Armwood, 6′8 combo forward whose stock has raised considerably of late, is being heavily recruited by Louisville, Maryland and Villanova to name a few. Louisville has a slight edge right now and Rick Pitino will be visiting the school in the upcoming week.
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St. John’s turned to former player Bill Singleton as their new Director of Basketball Operations. Singleton, 39, was born in New York and played for the Johnnies in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Most recently, he played for the Chester Jets of the British Basketball League. With Singleton to St. John’s (zagsblog), Norm Roberts hopes to make more of a case to the local talent surrounding the Queens’ school, especially Holy Cross shooting guard Sylven Landesberg, who comes to campus this weekend. St. Benedict’s junior big man Greg Echenique was on campus this past weekend for an unofficial as well.
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The recruitment of Darius Miller, the Mason County guard, takes a slight turn with kentucky hiring Tracy Webster as their third assistant. Webster was most recently on Bruce Weber’s staff at Illinois and was the main recruiting contact that Miller and his father had with Illinois. For now, Miller is Still Open, But Likes New UK Coach (Louisville Courier-Journal). Could that be the deciding factor between Louisville and Kentucky?
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Basketball Spotling News has a Profile on Dalton Pepper, the 2009 combo guard prospect from Pennsbury High School. Pepper has, according to the profile, offers from Villanova and Pittsburgh.
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Matt Kavanaugh had Big East schools such as West Virginia and Pittsburgh interested in the 6′9, 230 lb Center coming to their school as part of the 2009 class, in fact, Bib Huggins was scheduled to make the trip to Ohio this friday to visit with Kavanaugh. However, Centerville’s Kavanaugh Commits to Dayton (Dayton Daily News) as the Flyers continue the trend of securing local commits.
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Providence coach Tim Welsh gives the breakdown, player by player, on their performance form their recently completed 10-day, six-game jaunt through Italy as the Friars Form a Nucleus on Italian Road Trip (Providence Journal). Welsh still seems to be searching for some consistency, especially from juniors Geoff McDermott and Weyinmi Efejuku, as well as more rebounding from Randall Hanke. However, the team is deeper and can cover some of the inconsistent performances with help from players like Jeff Xaiver, Brian McKenzie and Dwain Williams on the perimeter and the emergence of Jonathan Kale will help on the boards.
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After a few weeks of not posting, Jerry Carino is Back in the Saddle of his Hoops Haven blog and updates everything around Seton Hall that has occurred the last few weeks, including their addition of Robert Mitchell, the transfer from Duquesne, the hiring of Scott Adubato (and a mention of Rick Pitino’s clout in Shaheen Holloway’s decision to stay at Iona), continued recruitment of Kevin Jones and Quintrell Thomas (despite the perceived lack of scholarship available for 2008) and the new season ticket plan.
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Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com has More Labors of Love: Marquette, ‘Nova, James Madison on his blog. Goodman gives some inside scoops on the trips that the Golden Eagles and Wildcats took last weekend and some individual player notes from their coaches.
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SCHEDULE STORIES:

Connecticut will take advantage of a little lull in their schedule when they fly to Florida on December 25th to prepare for a non-conference game with Central Florida on December 28th. A nearly weeklong stay of practices, sightseeing and just getting to know each other a little better down in Orlando has UConn coach Jim Calhoun hoping the Huskies Benefit from Trip to Disney (Register Citizen). Jim Calhoun tries to schedule such a trip each season. In the past, the destinations have been more exotic (Hawaii) and more international (London), but the emphasis is always the same – melding the team together as a unit, more off the court than on it.
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Many Cincinnati fans immediately looked for the placing of West Virginia on the Bearcats schedule when the 2007-2008 slate was announced. However, Mick Cronin was not one of those as Cronin is Focused on UC, not WVU (Cincinnati Enquirer) and former Bearcat head coach Bob Huggins.

Cronin can’t afford to look to far ahead, the Bearcats face a tough non-league slate that includes a stretch of games at UAB, at Illinois State, vs Xavier at the Cintas Center, vs Memphis and at NC State. Three tough road games, one game against the corss town rival and a visit from a top five team…good luck!
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Mike Anthony of the Hartford Courant spends some time Breaking Down the 2007-2008 UConn Schedule.
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Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has an Informal Analysis of Marquette’s 2007-2008 Schedule.

Out of conference, the Golden Eagles participate in the Maui Invitational and after a 1st Round game with host Chaminade, they will meet either LSU or Oklahoma State and could face Duke in the finals. Illinois and Arizona State are other high profile teams. Their annual in-state battle with Wisconsin is also on their early seasons schedule.
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USF Announces Men’s Basketball Schedule (Bradenton.com).
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Duke, Washington of Pitt’s Non-conference Schedule (SportingNews.com) as the Panthers have a challenging out of conference slate which also includes road games against Dayton and Duquesne and a home tilt with Oklahoma State. Pitt will visit Washington in December and meet Duke at Madison Square Garden.
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North Carolin, Georgetown, Florida Dot Rutgers Men’s Basketball Schedule (Courier News).
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Big East Hoops Schedule Set (Tampa Tribune).
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Seton Hall Releases Schedule (zagsblog).
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ND Has its Big East Basketball Schedule Set and Michael Rothstein of the Journal-Gazette notes that the Irish could be better, but have a worse record than last year.
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Huggins Excited About Big East Schedule (Charleston Daily Mail) as he gets his long awaited chance to coach in the Big East!
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Complete Louisville 207-2008 Hoop Schedule (Louisville Courier-Journal).

“This is probably the most difficult schedule that I have encountered as a basketball coach,” said U of L head coach Rick Pitino. “Most of the preseason rankings have Georgetown, Marquette and us among the top teams, plus Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Providence return most of their players and all of those games are on the road. We will have to be up to the task to get through this challenge.”

Brian Bennett breaks down the UL schedule in his Wednesday Business Blog post for the Courier-Journal.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (9/5/2007)

September 5, 2007

Quiet day for the most part. We start with an update on the recruitment of Mookie Jones as he has pared his list down to six schools. Rutgers has a visitor coming in this weekend and a shift in perception is underway at Seton Hall.

Syracuse had a couple new names emerge on their recruiting radar after weekend trips to campus for a couple players from the midwest. An article projecting teams to step up this year includes a couple Big East programs not used to missing the NCAA Tournament. Also, Basketball Spotlight takes a look at several Big East freshmen and projects their impact this coming season.

Also, there was no vacation to Canada for Marquette last weekend, and one player found that out clearly from Tom Crean.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

Last week Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard gave the news that Peekskill (NY) G/F Mookie Jones was in the process of cutting his school list down from approximately 12 schools to a more reasonable number of six. Yesterday, Waters had More on Mookie as the list of six has been revealed: Syracuse, Marquette, Rutgers, DePaul, Kansas and Michigan. Rutger’s Makes Mookie’s Final List (zagsblog) over a few schools we thought were strong in West Virginia and St. John’s, both of whom were actively pursuing Mookie and Kevin Jones, a Forward from Mount Vernon and AAU teammate of Mookie with the Westchester Hawks. It is widely believed that Syracuse is very strong with Mookie, but zags mentions DePaul as a darkhorse with Gary DeCesare, the former head coach at St. Raymond’s and current DePaul assistant, has strong ties to Jones’ AAU program.

Kevin Jones is visiting Rutgers this Friday for the Scarlet Knights’ home football game with Navy. Also, this weekend also will be big for St. John’s as Sylven Landesberg, the 6′6 shooting guard from Holy Cross of the CHSAA in Queens, will visit Norm Roberts’ program after officially visiting Virginia last weekend.
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Adam Zagoria writes of the Shift at Seton Hall (HoopsFuture.com) since Bobby Gonzalez has been on the job. Just having Tyreke Evans and Kevin Jones on campus for unofficial visits in the last few weeks has gotten plenty of people to notice the change in perception of the Pirates. Gonzo’s passion has been noticed by the recruits and gives them something to think about when looking into SHU.
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Mike Waters also updates readers of his blog at the Syracuse Post-Standard with some Hoops Happenings around the Syracuse progam. Some of the more interesting news was a pair of unofficial visitors checking out Syracuse last weekened as the Orange football squad opened their season against Washington. Glenn Bryant, a 6′6 wing from just outside of Detroit, Mich is a fast-rising prospect in the 2009 class who averaged 14 points, nine rebounds and six blocks per game as a sophomore at Macomb Dakota High School last year made the trip to Syracuse. Bryant had a breakout summer and is now heading to Oak Hill Academy to continue his career. Also visiting with Bryant was Anthony Fields, a 5-foot-9 point guard in the Class of 2010 that attends Lake Orion (Mich.) High School.
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Tom Crean let it be known to one of his better players that their trip last weekend to Canada was not a vacation. Jerel McNeal was withheld from Sunday night’s win over University of Victoria by coach Tom Crean after the two had a disagreement regarding McNeal’s play during the third quarter of MU’s game against Douglas College earlier in the day, particularly about McNeal’s effort. So, chalk McNeal’s boxscore line up as Jerel McNeal – DNP Coaches Decision (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).
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March Madness All Season takes a look at Syracuse and Connecticut as two Teams Trying to Make Great Leap Forward into the NCAA Tournament this coming season.
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Basketball Spotlight News takes a look into their crystal ball to forecast the impact of several Big East freshman for the 2007-2008 season. In their Class of 2007 Crystal Ball Part I they take a look at Corey Chandler (RU), Corey Fisher (VU), Antonio Jardine (SU), Mike Coburn (RU), Rick Jackson (SU) and Corey Stokes (VU). In their Class of 2007 Crystal Ball Part II the concentration is on Chris Smith (SHU), Brandon Walters (SHU), Malik Boothe (SJU), Paris Horne (SJU) and Brad Wanamaker (Pitt). Check out th eimpact that Mike Melton projects for each player this season.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (8/29/2007)

August 29, 2007

Missed a day yesterday and things seem busy around the newswires today. Recruiting updates/news on players such as Tyshawn Taylor, Dominique Keller, Kevin and Mooke Jones, Patrick Jackson, Lamont Jones, Wally Judge, Maurice Creek, Roscoe Davis, James Southerland, Dan Jennings, Frank Ben-Eze, Iman Shumpert and more. Also, some prospect breakdowns from the Hoop Magic Back to School Classic, Boost Mobile Elite 24 Game and the BMore Hoops Third Anniversary Event.

There is news on Marquette’s top incoming recruit and his qualifying status. A little more background on the news of a possibile developing rift between a couple Big East coaches and players changing locations all over the high school landscape.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

Fantasy Football Anyone?, see our post from last weekend for an invitation to NBE Basketball Report’s 1st Annual Fantasy Football League. This is a free league that will play for prizes donated by the Big East Basketball Report. So, if you are a football fan that likes to compete in fantasy football, sign up today!

STILL 11 SPOTS LEFT!

The Lawrence Journal-World & News has a couple Recruiting Updates that have connection to the Big East:

Tyshawn Taylor, a 6-foot-3, 160-pound senior point guard from St. Anthony High in Jersey City, N.J., tells Rivals.com he has scheduled three of five campus visits. Taylor, who will hold an in-home meeting with KU coach Bill Self on Sept. 12, will travel to Virginia Tech on Sept. 14, Georgia Tech on Oct. 11 and Virginia on Oct. 20. He also will visit KU and Marquette at yet-to-be-determined dates.

Dominique Keller, a 6-7, 225-pound sophomore forward from Lee (Texas) Community College, will visit UNLV on Sept. 14 and Kansas State on Oct. 5. He also is considering KU, West Virginia, Texas A&M and Charlotte. He played high school ball at Memorial High in Port Arthur, Texas.

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Throughout the summer, Kevin Jones has seen his stock rise. And, while being one of the top uncomitted 2008 seniors left on the board among the top prospects in the country, the recruiting race continues as Jones seems to remain as open to being recruited as anyone. From the beginning, Indiana has been a team interested in the 6′8 forward from Mount Vernon (NY) and Jones is Still High on the Hoosiers (Louisville Courier-Journal). West Virginia will be the first school to make an in-home visit over the next few weeks and Jones will also likely get visits from Indiana, Virginia, Rutgers, St. John’s, UMass, Georgetown, Ohio State and Kansas.

Jones has also been making the rounds of the local schools with unofficial visits recently. Jones and his brother, Gerard, tripped over to Seton Hall earlier this week and will check out Rutgers later this week. Jones’ SHU Visit Went Well (zagsblog) as Bobby Gonzalez pitched him the opportunity to replace Brian Laing as the starting wing next season (2008-2009). Jones played with Rutgers incoming frosh Mike Coburn and will likely make it over to see the RU campus later this week.
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One team that many do not seem to mention highly in the race is West Virginia. New head coach Bob Huggins has been on Jones’ AAU teammate and good friend Mookie Jones (no relation), the 6′6 G/F from Peekskill (NY) for a long time. Recently, more and more chatter have come from the Jones’ that they would be very interested in playing together and they would fit very well in the system Bob Huggins has always utilized. WVU will be getting an in-home visit with both in the near future and it seems almost a definite that they will also be one of their first official visits this fall as well.

In another WVU recruiting note, Bladensburg (MD) High forward Wally Judge has reportedly left home for the Arlington Country Day School in Florida as one of the local DC-are Hoopsters Hitting the Road (Washington Post) with a transfer. Judge had a very good spring AAU period where he saw interest from schools like Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Maryland, West Virginia and others. With Billy Hahn on staff, expect WVU to be very involved in the DC-area for recruits and ACDS is also a school that Huggins’ has found to be very friendly to him in the past with recruits. Other Big East targets from the DC-area heading to new destinations include 6′10 Roscoe Davis of Wise HS to Hargrave Military Prep, joined, reportedly by Georgetown commit Chris Braswell from Dematha, and Oxon Hill standout guard Maurice Creek, a rising junior, is bound for South Kent (Conn.) Prep. Creek was one of the standout at a recent event, according to i95ballerz.com who named him to one of the Back to School Showcase All-Star Teams.

CAAIndsider.com also broke down several of the top targets of Big East schools in their reporting from Hoop Magic Back to School Showcase and Brian Crownover also spend time at the BmoreHoops 3rd Anniversary Celebration last weekend. Some players of note that they evaluated that are Big East calibre: Isiah Armwood, Isiah Philmore, Terrell Vinson, Gus Gilchrist, Rodney McGruder, Daryl Traynham, John Wall, Maurice Creek and others.
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Another player Seton Hall is recruiting as the heir to Brian Laing on the wing is Patrick Jackson, a 6′6 forward who will play this season at Boys & Girls HS in the NYC PSAL after spending the last couple years at Xaverian. Jackson Likes SHU Visit (zagsblog) that he took this week and also has Rutgers and St. John’s, as well as Houston, Colorado and Iowa State among his finalists. Jackson’s AAU coach Nate Blue suggested that Seton Hall might have the “inside track” because of assistant Derm Player.

Another note in Zags’ update is that Lamont “Momo” Jones of Rice is in the process of transferring from Rice HS (NYC) to American Christian (Pa.) to play for Tony Bergeron and alongside Tyreke Evans. Jones is a Louisville commitment for the class of 2009 that caused a little stir this summer with a commitment, a de-commitment and a ‘de-de-commitment. As the Rice Guard May Jump to Prep School (NY Post), he is just one of the recent transfers around NYC as Xaverian might lose up to five players, including Patrick Jackson mentioned above, and Dan Jennings of Bishop Loughlin could end up at powerful Oak Hill Academy.
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Iman Shumpert, the 6′4 guard from Oak Park High School in Oak Park, IL has set the dates for all three of his official visits. Shumpert’s Official Visits are Set (Ill Prep Bulls-eye) up as to the University of North Carolina on September 15, Georgia Tech on September 29 for their football game with Clemson. Shumpert’s final official visit will come the weekend of October 13 when he visits Marquette, which will include watching the team practice and attending Marquette’s midnight madness.
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James Southerland, a 6-foot-6 wing player from New York City, who committed to Syracuse University in June, will attend Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., his father told the Syracuse Post-Standard Monday night. Southerland is not the first SU Recruit to Attend Notre Dame Prep as Sean Williams (2007) and Paul Harris (2006) have played for the prep powerhouse the last couple seasons. Southerland averaged 17.6 points and 11.2 rebounds per game as a junior at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Queens and hopes that the academic environment at ND Prep will keep him on track to be at Syracuse in the class of 2008, not as part of the 2009 class that some have rumored.
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Slam Online offers Elite 24 Player Breakdowns from last Friday’s Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic at fabled Rucker Park in Harlem.
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Marquette still is waiting to hear the final word on Trevor Mbakwe, the 6-foot-7 freshman forward from St. Bernard’s Prep in St. Paul, Minn., as the NCAA Clearinghouse has not yet OKd Mbakwe for the season. Mbakwe allowed to take part in team activities for the first two weeks of the semester while his case is being reviewed and MU remains hopeful Mbakwe will be cleared by Friday, which is when the Golden Eagles depart for a trip to Canada (A Word on Trevor Mbakwe from the Journal-Sentinel).

Also, 6-10 recruit Frank Ben-Eze was on campus for his official visitand was in attendance for an open practice last night. It seems as thought the internet rumors that Ben-Eze had committed to Harvard were inaccurate.
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Hoops Weiss touches on the situation that has evolved as Seton Hall courts Shaheen Holloway to return to the Pirate staff to replace Geoff Billet. According to ‘reports’, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino Urges Holloway to Stay at Iona (Hoops on Hoops), where former UL assistant Kevin Willard is the head coach. Holloway left a position at SHU earlier this spring to join the new Iona staff.

We can’t take credit for this report as it was zagsblog’s post, Seton Hall Notes that got this story started, citing Seton Hall message boards. So, before anyone else e-mails us, that is where we linked the beginnings of this story, which originated from the Seton Hall Rivals site, PirateCrew.com, where one of our regular NBE Big East Blogger Power Poll contributors, SPK, is a regular poster.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (8/24/2007)

August 24, 2007

Busy day on the newsreader this morning. Adam Zagoria has tons of notes from visiting yesterday’s Boost 24 Mobile Workout at Columbia University and several items are very interesting to Big East fans. Marquette has one recruit out for this coming season and another still waiting to hear back from the NCAA Clearinghouse. However, their recruiting rolls along with a busy Fall for visits ahead.

Syracuse loses a key contributor for the season and the Redstorm are trying to bulk up for the upcoming season.

A key PF target of several Big East schools cashes in as his stock is the highest with the two-time defending champion. Van Coleman updates the recruiting status of a couple key Big East targets in his latest chat at CSTV.com.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

Fantasy Football Anyone?, see our post from over the weekend for an invitation to NBE Basketball Report’s 1st Annual Fantasy Football League. This is a free league that will play for prizes donated by the Big East Basketball Report. So, if you are a football fan that likes to compete in fantasy football, sign up today!

This weekend we will begin our annual look at the Big East by position. As always, when you attach a ranking to the players, you spark a lot of conversation, so I look forward to reading everyone’s thoughts and viewpoints, let’s just remember to be respectful to everyone’s opinions, but I really encourage the participation from EVERYONE!

Props, as always, to Zagsblog once again as it is the place to be to get all the latest information on the happenings around Friday’s 2nd Annual Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic. Yesterday the teams worked out at Columbia University and Adam Zagoria was there and filed three reports:
Lance Stephenson’s List & Boost Mobile Notes
Boost Notes #2: Kevin Jones Has 3 Officials in Mind
Boost Notes #3: Tyreke Evans on Seton Hall Visit

Here are the cliff notes involving notes of Big East interest (put, check out the posts, lots of great info on the whole experience taking place):
* Lance Stephenson’s father, Lance Sr., says the list for his son includes West Virginia, Memphis, Louisville, Indiana, Georgetown, UCLA and North Carolina. Asked who the most aggressive suitors were, he said West Virginia and Memphis.

* 6′7 forward Kevin Jones of Mount Vernon definitely take official visits to Ohio State, West Virginia and Indiana sometime in the coming weeks. Georgetown, Seton Hall, Rutgers, UMass, Miami, Kansas and UCLA are also involved. Kevin could take unofficial visits to Seton Hall and Rutgers. He recently took an unofficial to St. John’s. Kansas, Miami, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Georgetown and UMass — are also trying to recruit Kevin as a package deal with Mookie Jones of Peekskill (I believe that WVU is also heavily involved with Mookie).

* Tyreke Evans will be taking visits to Louisville, Memphis, UConn, Texas and Villanova. The 6′5 Evans will also visit Seton Hall unofficially Saturday.
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Former NBA coach Paul Silas, who Cleveland hired to be a mentor to Lebron James, believes that Lance Stephenson’s Future Looks Bright (NY Post) and he is good enough for the NBA right now, but the 2009 rising star should take heed to the stories of other phenoms whose star dimmed quickly after leaving high school or college.
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The answer on the Marquette roster, which had 14 players for 13 spots through the summer has finally been revealed as incoming freshman forward Damian Saunders Wont Play at MU (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) as the 6′8 forward from Waterbury, Conn. won’t be admitted to Marquette University due to academics. Saunders, who played last season at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., had been on shaky ground with MU since late June after he was arrested in his hometown for possession of a controlled substance.

Saunders was the final member of MUs’ four-player recruiting class for 2007-’08, joining Scott Christopherson, Pat Hazel and Trevor Mbakwe. The the 6′7 PF Mbakwe, one of MU’s most integral recruits in recent years, is still awaiting a final determination from the NCAA Clearinghouse regarding his eligibility. Hazel and Christopherson are on campus and cleared.

Todd Rosiak also updates Marquette’s recruiting prospects as Iman Shumpert, the touted 6′4 guard from Oak Park High School in suburban Chicago, has an official visit scheduled for the annual ‘Marquette Madness’ Oct. 12-13. Shumpert also has Georgia Tech and North Carolina among his final three. The Golden Eagles also expects to have 6′7 Lance Goulbourne of The Hun School in Princeton, N.J., 6′3 Tyshawn Taylor of St. Anthony’s in Jersey City, N.J. and 6′7 Renaldo Woolridge of Harvard Westlake in North Hollywood, Ca. in for official visits sometime over the next two months and they remain a leader for Chicago’s 6′8 Josh Crittle.
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Here are some Big East notes of interest from Van Coleman’s latest Chat at CSTV.com:

Scott (Salem,IL): With Shumpert and Zeller having cut down their lists now, how likely is it that they become Tar Heels?
Van Coleman: Until Shumpert starts taking campus visits we’re not going to know. At this point he says he’s taking three. Marquette’s going to be tough to beat. They’ve been there the longest and they are the closest to home. As far as Zeller’s concerned, they’re the only school of his outside the midwest but they’re also Carolina. I think when you’re UNC, you’ve got a great shot to get a kid once you get them to visit Chapel Hill. Roy Williams is great at closing on campus, and did so with guys from out my way Raef LaFrentz, Nick Collison and Kirk Heinrich.

Mack (NY): What schools do you think have a good chance of landing Mookie and/or Kevin Jones?
Van Coleman: Mookie’s list is definitely starting to change a little. I think Louisville is very strong, locally St. John’s and Rutgers have an excellent chance, but don’t discount West Virginia and DePaul as schools with a chance. We could maybe see some other schools filter in right now. Maybe Villanova’s also in there with that group. As far as Kevin Jones, he seems to have a much more national list with Big 10 schools involved. When all is said and done, my feeling is it’s going to be hard to beat those that are close to home. It’s just a gut feel.

Caleb (WV): What can you tell me about Frank Ben-Eze? I’ve noticed he now has offers from Marquette and West Virginia but I haven’t heard much about him.
Van Coleman: He’ll be in our next tier of 2008 talent that we update later this week, the 101-200 group. Athletic but raw and runs the floor very well. Some of the big schools are staying with him because he’ll be a good four year player and he’ll almost definitely end up in the Big East and ACC.

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One of the fastest rising targets this summer was PF Allan Chaney who raised his stock all the way from an Atlantic 10 recruit to on the radar of every major school in America. And, the summer of success paid off as New London’s Chaney Selects Florida (New London Day), the two time defending national champion. Chaney, a 6-foot-8 forward, averaged 24.5 points, 14 rebounds and three blocked shots for the Eastern Connecticut Small Division champion Whalers and pledges to the Gators as Billy D Adds Fourth Recruit (Palm Peach Post) as he picked UF over others, including Big East schools Pittsburgh, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s and many others.
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Hoops Weiss also reports on the news of Chaney Heading to Florida and adds some notes from around the Boost Mobile 24 Classic in his blog.
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When Andy Rautins went down Wednesday night playing for Canada in the FIBA Americas Tournament in Las Vegas against Brazil, you could tell his knee was injured pretty severely and that was confirmed yesterday with the announcement that Rautins Will Miss 2007-2008 Season (Syracuse Post-Standard) due to a a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a partially-torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee.

Rautins, who started 20 games and averaged 7.2 points per game as a sophomore, will redshirt the upcoming season and have two years to play. Rautins, a 6-foot-5 guard, had been in the middle of an incredible summer of international play and the news is a Crushing Loss (Post-Standard) in the preseason for the Orange as they will miss their best perimeter shooter this coming season, a role that is likely under-appreciated. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, an assistant on the USA team that was to play in the following game, was a few rows up in the stands and was in the locker room to check on his junior-to-be guard. On a team with just one scholarship senior, Rautins was expected to provide leadership along with fellow junior Eric Devendorf. Rautins picked up his play last year in conference action averaging more than 9 PPG and shooting over 41% from 3-pt line.
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St. John’s is workign hard in the weight room this summer as new strength and conditioning coach Patrick Dixon has them hitting the weight five times a week as they work on improving the Strength of the Storm (Times Ledger). One interesting note, and much needed for the Redstorm in light of Qa’rron Calhoun’s decision to withdraw from school last week, is Rob Thomas, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament and lateral collateral ligament of his right knee in March, is ahead of schedule and could be back by January.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (8/23/2007)

August 23, 2007

Late posting today, some recruiting information on Quintrell Thomas, Isiah Philmore and Jakub Kusmierik. Also, an introduction is needed to Long Island star Tobias Harris, but I am sure we will all be hearing plenty fro him in the near future.

SprtingNews.com takes a look at a couple Big East players among their five sophomores to watch this coming season. Syracuse might have suffered a key loss months before the season begins. Providence has departed for Italy to prep for a season with high expectations at PC. Another look back at last week’s New England Prep 75 Showcase. Rutgers faces a couple high profile opponents in the OOC this season. Also, Hoops Weiss reminds us of the action to take place this Friday at Rucker Park.

You can read these stories and more, by clicking READ MORE below!

Click on ‘Read More’ below to view the rest of the article.

Fantasy Football Anyone?, see our post from over the weekend for an invitation to NBE Basketball Report’s 1st Annual Fantasy Football League. This is a free league that will play for prizes donated by the Big East Basketball Report. So, if you are a football fan that likes to compete in fantasy football, sign up today!

Gary Bedore’s KU Basketball Notebook in the Lawrence Journal-World reports that Quintrell Thomas, the 6′8, 225-pound power forward from St. Patrick High in Elizabeth, N.J., will visit Lawrence on Sept. 28-29. Kansas, Maryland, Rutgers, UNLV and Houston were the schools mentioned by Thomas in the article that he was considering.

Adam Zagoria also has the Latest on Quintrell Thomas (zagsblog) after speaking with his AAU coach, Derrick Bobbitt, who wanted to clear up some misinformation on his visits. Thomas currently has five visits set up: UNLV (the wknd of Sept. 7), Rutgers (Sept. 14), Maryland (Sept. 21), Kansas (Sept. 28) and Seton Hall (Oct. 5). Thomas may also visit Houston and could change one of the local trips to an unofficial if he decides to.
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The Recruiting Report blog penned by the Baltimore Sun’s Matt Bracken takes a look at a John Carroll team Loaded with D1 Talent.

Isaiah Philmore, a 6-foot-7, 210-pound junior (2009) and the star of John Carroll in the eyes of college coaches. Virginia Tech, Loyola, Delaware, Miami (Fla.) and Marquette have all offered Philmore scholarships, although he remains open to all suitors.

Jakub Kusmieruk, who measures in at 7 feet 4, 275 pounds – came to the U.S. from Poland two years ago, enrolling at John Carroll as a sophomore. Central Florida, LaSalle and Loyola are among several schools to step forward with scholarship offers. Georgetown, St. John’s, Syracuse, N.C. State, Florida State, South Florida and Marquette are some of the high-major schools keeping on eye on the big man.

The Patriots will get plenty of exposure this season with scheduled dates for the Charm City Classic, the Primetime Shootout in New Jersey and the City of Palms Classic in Ft. Myers, Fla
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Tobias Harris of Half Hollow Hills West on Long Island is a player you might not be very familiar with. However, this summer, Harris Has Been making a Name for Himself (newsday) as he has stared down Ray Allen, hit the winning basket in an all-star camp all-star game and even lit up Las Vegas. It was part of a summer that saw him attend Reebok U, along with camps at Indiana, Rutgers and Syracuse. That’s when he wasn’t barnstorming with his AAU team, the New Jersey Playaz. He’s grown four inches to nearly 6-7 and weighs 205 pounds. Combine his size with the skills and attitude of a point guard and you’ve got a unique talent.
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The action took place a week ago, but Slam Magazine breaks down the top players at the New England Top 75 Camp.
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Mike DeCourcy of the SportingNews.com lists five second year players that If These Sophomores Star, Their Teams Are Going Places this year. Two of the key players are Earl Clark of Louisville and DaJuan Summers of Georgetown. Clark was one that the NBE Blogger projected as a break out star in 2007-2008 in the Big East and Summers is likely to place high on our preseason all-league teams and position rankings.
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Tough break for Syracuse last night as Andy Rautins likely tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during opening round action in the FIBA Americas Tournament in Las Vegas. Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard has a Rautins Update today and a torn ACL would keep Rautins out of action for several months. He would likely miss the 2007-08 season.
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The Providence College Friars departed for a trip to Italy this week and two of the most excited players about the trip are likely Randall Hanke and Jeff Xavier, both of whom sat out last season. The Game Has Become Foreigh to PC Pair (Providence Journal) as Xavier sat out last year as a transfer from Manhattan College and Hanke, the junior big man suffered a preseason wrist injury and personal issues kept him on the sidelines all year. The Friars will play six games over 10 days against Italian professional teams. The first games come tomorrow and Saturday just outside Rome. Providence finished 18-13 and played in the NIT last winter, and hopes are high at PC for the coming season.

Jeff Goodman of Fox also profiles Providence as the Friars Depart for Italy.
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Rutgers will be sprinkling in a couple formidable foes in this year’s out of conference schedule with a date with North Carolina as a stand-alone game and a meeting with Florida in Gainesville as Rutgers To Compete in Inaugural Blue Ribbon Challenge (official RU website).
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Hoops Weiss takes a look at why Rucker Will Be Rocking on Friday.
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