St. John’s Recruiting

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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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (8/21/2007)

August 21, 2007

With pressure on Norm Roberts to continue moving the Redstorm up in the standings of the Big East, a new development will make that already tall order even more difficult for the Redstorm this season as the news that Qa’rron Calhoun has opted to leave the program. It does give the ‘storm a second scholarship available for the class of 2008, but you almost begin to wonder if Roberts will be around to coach those players. The league is only getting tougher and if SJU slides backwards in his fourth season, do not expect fans, alumni and boosters to take it quietly.

Elsewhere, a few stories on John Riek and Festus Ezeli and their very different experiences in America since coming from Africa. Riek is being pulled in many directions as he has been hyped as an NBA lock while Ezeli seems more intent on becoming a doctor, but his potential could land him with a shot at the NBA as well.

Dion Waiters, an early SU commit, has changed schools again. Recruiting updates on Lance Goulbourne and Sylven Landesberg are available on the web today. CAAInsider checks out an impressive AAU tournament in Philadelphia. Learn some history of the Providence College program and see what Gerry McNamara’s plans for next season are.

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!

The big news of yesterday, as predicted by the NBE Blogger, is that Qa’rraan Calhoun has broken out this season, literally, as the Johnnies Lose Another as Calhoun Will Transfer (Hoops on Hoops). Well, maybe the breakout we were predicting by Calhoun was supposed to be ON the court with SJU, but Calhoun decided to breakout FROM SJU.

With Calhoun out at St. John’s (NY Post), the Transfer Further Depletes St. John’s (Newsday) as Calhoun was likely to team with junior Anthony Mason at the forward position for coach Norm Roberts this season. The rumors making the rounds are that Calhoun, a New Jersey native, could transfer to Monmouth or explore professional opportunities overseas. No matter what the outcome, the timing of the decision, days prior to school beginning, leaves St. John’s scrambling for this upcoming season.

St. John’s Calhoun Transfers (zagsblog) and continues a disturbing revolving door inside the SJU program that has now seen eight of the 13 players to enroll at the school since Roberts took over the program head elsewhere prior to their eligibility expiring. Dexter Gray and Cedric Jackson were late signees after Roberts took over the program and both left after or during their sophomore seasons. Rodney Epperson was a JUCO who was declared academically ineligible in his first season. Jermaine Maybank was recruited by Mike Jarvis, but suffered a knee injury in his first season with Roberts as coach and played sparingly the next before leaving for Kansas State, leaving the 2004 class as a complete wash. Ricky Torres left last season. Aaron Spears spent part of his senior season suspended, but did close out his eligibility with SJU last season. Mason and Tomas Jasiulionis remain from the 2005 class.

The class that was supposed to bring the Redstorm back was the 2006 additions. With their help, the Johnnies qualified for the Big East Tournament for the first time under Roberts, but the class has quickly fallen apart as Avery Patterson and Calhoun have transferred since the season ended and Derwin Kitchen never saw the floor before acadmic issues derailed his career. Rob Thomas, the highly touted NYC forward, has also had academics delay his career and now must rehab from a major knee injury suffered last spring. Larry Wright could be the only member of the 2006 class contributing next season.

The decision by Calhoun puts added pressure on St. John’s large incoming class, especially frontcourt players Ayodele Coker and Justin Burrell. Both are very promising, but quite raw, players whose best basketball is definitely ahead of them, but they will definitely be thrown into the fire immediately. Sean Evans is another freshman forward who will be concentrating on basketball for the first time after being quite a football prospect as well.

The decision by Calhoun to leave does open an additional scholarship for St. John’s in the class of 2008. Their #1 prospect from early on has been NYC swingman Sylven Landesberg. The Holy Cross star has been given the full court press by the local school and the Red Storm are optimistic about landing their first elite city prep player in the Roberts era, but face stiff competition from Texas, Georgia Tech, Virginia and Kentucky. St. John’s also has been aggressively recruiting the Kevin and Mookie Jones (no relation) show of the Westchester Hawks AAU program. The Jones’ are interested in playing together and SJU now has the open scholarship to make that offer, but Kevin (Mount Vernon) is being recruited by EVERYONE and Mookie (Peekskill) has elite offers from all over the country. Allan Chaney of New London, CT also recently visited the Queens campus and several point guards, Terrell Holloway, Tyshawn Taylor (Westchester Hawks/St. Anthony’s) and Sean Kilpatrick (Westchester Hawks/White Plains) and wing Patrick Jackson remain on the SJU radar.
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Adam Zagoria updates his blog with recruiting news on Landesberg and Lance Goulbourne: Goulbourne Could Add Visits; Landesberg Close to Finish Line.

Goulbourne currently has three official visits scheduled for next month: Marquette (Sept. 15), Virginia (Sept. 22) and Vanderbilt (Sept. 29). The 6’7 wing from The Hun School in Princeton (NJ) is deciding about taking his fourth and fifth visits from among Notre Dame, Michigan and Louisville, who has gotten involved lately with Richard Pitino recruiting him. Goulbourne has been to Rutgers for unofficial visits and he is getting a fullcourt press from Rutgers assistants Jim Carr and Craig Carter.

Goulbourne is not only a basketball talent, but he also excels in the classroom and on the tennis court. You can look for him next week at the US Open in New York, he might not be hard to spot as Goulbourne is known as the tallest ball boy at the Open.

Cracked Sidewalks has a few notes on Marquette’s interest in Goulbourne and their recruiting prospects.

Landesberg, the 6’6 shooting guard from Holy Cross in Queens, is down to Texas, St. John’s, Georgia Tech and Virginia, and may also consider Kentucky. Look for a September decision after visits to Virginia and Georgia Tech. He has visited Texas and is on the SJU campus often.
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The Sacramento Bee profiles UConn target Festus Ezeli as the 6’10 17-Yr Old Tests Basketball Waters in his new country. Ezeli, who received his high school diploma when he was 14, is not your average 6-10 17-year-old. The native of Benin City, Nigeria never has played traditional organized basketball but caught the attention of college coaches while playing with the Sacramento Pharoahs, an AAU team. Ezeli came to the United States in August 2004 to live with his aunt. He has been playing basketball since and now qualifies as a project. Ezeli wants to be a doctor, hence the biology and chemistry courses last year at Yuba College, where he did not play basketball. His recruitment has taken off this summer and his plans to pick a college for this fall could be put on hold as he attends a prep school to weigh the options presented to him:

“This summer, I’ve heard from Ohio State, Florida, USC, Cal and UCLA. I went on a three-way visit to UConn, Vanderbilt and (Boston College) and then also Harvard. I’ve also heard from UNLV and (Pacific),” Ezeli said. “It’s been crazy, but it’s been nice to be wanted.”

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The NY Daily News takes a look at the developing story that is John Riek and his ever-changing status as The Tug of War has begun as school’s battle for Our Saviour phenom, and we are not even discussing his college recruiting in this article!
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Dion Waiters has a new school, again, the incoming sophomore guard from Southwest Philadelphia, who committed to Syracuse this summer without having played a minute of varsity basketball, is enrolled at South Kent School in Connecticut. It was expected Waiters would be at Neumann-Goretti this year, where he finished last season, but the move has been made to prep: Twins Set on College, Unsettled on Prep (scroll down for Waiters info) (Philadelphia Inquirer).
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CAAInsider.com has a report from Day 4 of the Sonny Hill Future Stars Tournament as they break down some prospects that they saw play, including several from the very talented New Jersey Celtics squad.
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Many fans that visit this site are of a younger generation or from schools that are new to the Big East, so many are unaware of the rich basketball history of Providence College. The Providence Journal has the second of three excerpts from Bill Reynolds’ book Our Game: The Story of New England Basketball, published by Hall of Fame Press in todays edition. Today’s excerpt is from the chapter “The Right Coach,” which told the story of Joe Mullaney and Providence College: Mullaney Was Man of Friars First Finest Hours (Providence Journal).
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Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard gives an update on former Orange stars Gerry McNamara and Demetris Nichols in their quest to play at the highest levels. For now, McNamara is Headed Back to Greece for a nice pay raise and Nichols has switched agents as he learned more about the make-up of the Knicks roster.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (8/17/2007)

August 17, 2007

Pretty busy morning on the newswire this Friday. A few follow-up stories on new Cincinnati commit Cashmere Wright shed more information on the future Big East player. Also, a Newsday articles gives us a little more glimpse on the journey of 7’2 native of the Sudan John Riek to his current Long Island home. Adam Zagoria, Hoops Weiss, Jody Demling and the Peoria Journal-Star have articles posted today with various recruiting nuggets on the Big East.

The Charleston Daily Mail updates readers on the Legends Classic that West Virginia will participate in this season and how each team will get a chance to play on Seton Hall’s new home court, which would be a homecoming for Desean Butler and Wellington Smith of the Mountaineers. The article also gives a timeframe when all Big East teams are likely to release their schedules.

CBS Sportsling continues their look into the shady side of the college basketball system, this time looking at ‘recruiting services’ run by AAU programs.

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

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

Next week John Riek, the 7’2 and 240 lb center from Our Savior New American on Long Island, will participate in the second annual Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic on August 24. Summer is the busy season for top basketball prospects. Riek’s summer has been relentless, but nothing too tough on the Sudan-refugee as Riek and his family were driven from their village — a four-day journey from the capital of Khartoum — by civil war to escape the government-backed Arab militias have killed 400,000 and displaced another 2.5 million Sudanese.

Riek arrived at the Centereach school in January last season, where he played in 16 games and averaged 13 PPG, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks, while shooting 68% from the field for OSNA, a school that produced Louisville’s Juan Palacios. This summer Riek earned high praise at the LeBron James U.S. Skills Academy and Amare Stoudemire Nike Skills Academy and has received scholarship offers from the likes of Connecticut and Georgetown, among countless others. Although his journey has taken him from Sudan to Long Island, and next week to famed Rucker Park, it is clear that Riek’s Journey is Only Beginning (Newsday) in basketball.
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Yesterday afternoon we updated our Cincinnati Team Page with the news that 6’0 point guard Cashmere Wright Chooses to Continue Career at Cincinnati (Savannah Morning News) as the rising senior at Urban Christian picks Bearcats over Tennessee.

(photo courtesy of Savannah Morning News)

Wright averaged 36 points a game at the small private school, where his quickness and jumping ability made him an excellent open-court player who also displayed the ability to hit from beyond the arc. Wright is Another Piece to the Bearcat Puzzle (Cincinnati Enquirer) as he joins Withrow High School forward Yancy Gates, who committed in April, to the Bearcat class of 2008. Wright committed to Clemson in February but reconsidered and reopened the recruiting process.

Wright is the nephew of former Kentucky star Derrick Miller.
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Here are the Latest Recruiting Notes courtesy of our favorite blogger, Adam Zagoria (cliff notes of his Big East related items):

Patrick Jackson, a 6’6, 200-pound swingman from Brooklyn, has decided to transfer from Xaverian High School of the CHSAA to Boys & Girls of the PSAL. Jackson will visit Rutgers next week. St. John’s and Seton Hall remain in contact with Jackson, but the Scarlet Knights have been after him a little harder than the other locals, who are limited to one scholarship each for 2008.

Allan Chaney, a 6-8 power forward from New London (Conn.), will soon visit St. John’s.
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Dick Weiss updates his Hoops on Hoops blog with a post on St. Anthony’s Tyshawn Taylor as Taylor’s Stock Soars with his summer play. Taylor has reportedly received offers from Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Kansas, Cincinnati, Memphis, Missouri, St. John’s, St. Joseph’s and Virginia after making tha all-star game at RBK U. He has set up official visits to Va Tech, Kansas and Georgia Tech.

St. John’s has only one scholarship available and the staff is trying hard with forward Sylven Landesberg of Holy Cross along with hosting Allan Chaney for a visit in the near future.
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Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal has an Update on Mason Plumlee, of the Arden (N.C.) Christ School and member of the class of 2009. The 6’9 Indiana native was caught by surprise when Louisville assistant coach Richard Pitino called and offered him a scholarship. Indiana, Notre Dame, Michigan, Iowa, Georgetown, Northwestern, Miami (Fla.) and Stanford are among the other schools already to make an offer. Mason’s older brother, Miles, has committed to Stanford and will sign with the Cardinal in November as member of the class fo 2008.
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The Peoria Journal-Star has an update on Eureka High junior Jordan Prosser, a 6’8 PF, who took unofficial visits to Louisville and Northwestern this week. Others who have made official offers Prosser are Bradley, Illinois State, Indiana, Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Xavier. He’s also received overtures from Illinois, Georgetown, Purdue, North Carolina, Duke, Arizona and Minnesota. The article centers around the recruitment of Matt Roth, who is a little upset with a Jody Demling blog entry: Bradley Still in the Hunt for Washington Shooter.
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Fans at several schools have bemoaned the fact that they are still awaiting the release of their school’s schedule, some have received ticket applications without knowing what they will be paying to see. Remember, the Big East has several programs that play in multi-use arenas where they are not the primary tenant, so as the NBA and even the NHL formulate their schedules, Big East schools have to wait to see the availability of their arenas. As reported in the Charleston Daily Mail, the Big East conference must set its schedule before any of their men’s and women’s teams can release their schedules. Schools expect to announce their men’s and women’s schedules next month (early Septmeber), with a hope that they could come out a week earlier.

The rest of the Daily Mail article focuses on the unique format of the inaugural Legends Classic, a Gazelle Group event that West Virginia will take part in this season. WVU is Guaranteed a Spot in the Semifinals in Legends Classic, which will be played in one of the ‘multi-use’ Big East venues, the new Prudential Arena, aka “The Rock”, in Newark, N.J., which will also serve as the homecourt of the Seton Hall Pirates. WVU, New Mexico State, Texas and Tennessee are early round hosts. Four other teams will fill the field, though they have not been announced. In order to maximize the exempt games for each participant, all 8 teams, regardless of record in the early rounds, advance to Newark so each team will get to play four games, which count as one towards the 28 game maximum schedule mandated by the NCAA.
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Eric Crawford of the Louisville Courier-Journal takes a look at the challenges a new Louisville assistant faces as Richard Pitino Adjusts to Having Dad as His Boss.
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Gary Parish of CBS Sportsline takes a look at the Recruiting Services ‘published’ by those who run AAU programs and the sketchy ‘business’ arrangements that they comprise with college coaches: You Know the Racket: Deny and Take the Money.

CBS Sportsline has been pulling no punches the last couple years with stories on the prep school phenomenon of ‘Diploma Mills’, the practice of colleges scheduling exhibition games with teams run by AAU programs and the business of AAU programs running executive search firms to help colleges hire their next coach. Often, the NCAA is not too far behind CBS Sportsline in addressing the issues. We will see what happens here…
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (8/15/2007)

August 15, 2007

Today, who was the best player at the UConn Elite Camp? One NBA player believes it was a 2008 UConn commit. Also, a former UConn assistant stopped by to see some familiar faces on Saturday. The New England 75 Elite Showcase tips off and expect to see a lot of coverage on some very intriguing players.

We have some recruiting updates on Tyshawn Taylor, Dion Dixon, Verdell Jones, Kyle Kuric, Lance Stephenson, Sean Mosley and Tyler Zeller that are of some interest to Big East fans linked in today’s post.

One of Marquette’s Canadian games is previewed in regards to their upcoming Labor day weekend trip. The Seton Hall assistant coach search continues, but could be coming to an end sooner rather than later.

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

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

Tom Moore was a fixture on Jim Calhoun’s staff for the last 13 seasons before he left UConn to become the head coach at Quinnipiac. However, on day two of Jim Calhoun’s Elite Camp, there was a Familiar Site (Hartford Courant) at Gampel Pavilion as Moore returned to shake a few hands and receive a few hugs from many of the players he had recruited in the last few years.

Despite being limited by a bone spur in his right big toe, Nate Miles did enough to impress Caron Butler who designated Miles as Best Player at UConn’s Elite Camp (Hartford Courant) last weekend. Miles, a 6’7 G/F with a deep shooting range and great court vision, made cross-court, on-the-break passes as well as any camper, showing a creative but controlled offensive ability. Miles plans to attend the Patterson School in North Carolina this coming season after attending multiple high schools in recent years. He said he will be able to graduate in December and hopes to be at UConn for the second semester. We will see if his academic record will agree with that goal.
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I missed this article from earlier in the week as the New England Recruiting Report had an Event Recap on the UConn Elite Camp.

This week is the highly anticipated New England Elite 75 Showcase that will be covered by recruiting services and media outlets such as Scout.com, Rivals.com, ESPN’s Scouts Inc, Hoopville, Tom Konchalski & the HSBI Report, Hoop Scoop Online, RISE Magazine, SLAM Magazine, the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, the Providence Journal, the Worcester Telegram, and the New London Day. Here is the Elite 75 Roster (New England Recruiting Report).
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In an article today in the Kansas Journal-World News (2007-2008 Tip Times Decided), the recruitment of Tyshawn Taylor is updated. Taylor, a 6-foot-3 senior from St. Anthony High in Jersey City, N.J., has decided to make campus visits to Kansas, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. Taylor, who emerged as a top prospect late in the summer AAU season also likes Virginia, Missouri, Marquette, St. John’s, Cincinnati and St. Joseph’s. Taylor has two high school classmates (Travon Woodall to Pitt and Mike Rosario to Rutgers) already committed to Big East schools.

The article also details Kansas’ 2007-2008 schedule which includes DePaul coming to Lawrence for a 1 PM game televised by ESPN on December 8th. Just an FYI, other non-conference games include: Arizona, @USC, @Georgia Tech and @Boston College. Pretty impresssive…
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MidStateHoops.com recently did a story on 6’3 Chicago (Crane HS) shooting guard Dion Dixon (Breakout Dixon) who has garnered interest from Marquette on the recruiting trail is a player that is definitely under the radar despite playing in a basketball hotbed in Chicago.
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Another player MidStateHoops.com recently profiles is 6’4 Champaign Central guard Verdell Jones who has scholarship offers from Kentucky, Virginia, DePaul, Tennessee, Southern Illinois, Marquette, Illinois State, South Florida, and Xavier and Louisville has also been involved.
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Marquette travels north over Labor Day Weekend to play some basketball against a few Canadian opponents and are just one of several NCAA Hoops Teams Coming to Abbotsford (The Abbotsford News) to face the UCFV Cascades. Linked is a preview of th egames at UCFV.
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Here are some Tuesday Nuggets from Jody Demling’s blog at the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Louisville has offered Evansville (Ind.) Memorial shooting guard Kyle Kuric a preferred walk-on spot where he would be a walk-on for a year and then receive a scholarship.

Washington (Ind.) post player Tyler Zeller has set up his four official visits. He’ll go to North Carolina on Sept. 15 and the following week will head to Indiana. He’ll go to Notre Dame on Oct. 12 and then to Purdue on Oct. 19.
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Hoops Weiss updates readers on the school list of 6-5 junior guard Lance Stephenson of Lincoln, easily a top 5 player in the class of 2009. Stephenson’s Six Suitors (Hoops on Hoops) include Louisville, Memphis, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgetown and Indiana. Stephenson will compete in the Boost Mobile Elite 24 game Sept. 24 (7:30 p.m.) at Rucker Park.
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With Syracuse‘s schoalrship situation, I am not sure how much involved they are still with Baltimore wing player Sean Mosley of St. Fances. Nonetheless, the Orange are among his finalists that he will chose from at a noon press conference today. Maryland is the expected destination as the Terps are Close to Landing Hoops Recruits (Washington Post). Seton Hall is also on Mosley’s list.
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Adam Zagoria updated the Seton Hall assistant coaching search, which could wrap up this week, on his blog, but there is No Seton Hall Coach Yet.

BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (8/13/2007)

August 13, 2007

It is Monday…several good articles with plenty of recruiting information stemming from Connecticut’s Elite Camp this weekend where around 40 top players got a first-hand look at the UConn program for about 24 hours.

Also, Marquette’s sophomore guard David Cubillan has had a busy summer playing with the Venezuelan National Team, but he has been hard to keep track of for his college coach.

Also, Adam Zagoria runs down some of the top SHU and Rutgers targets in the class of 2008 and takes a look at the top players in the New Jersey-area in the class of 2009 and their college interests.

Former Big East players Darryl Watkins and Marquis Webb are readying for their next steps in their basketball careers.

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

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

Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel updates his Marquette College Hoops Blog with the story that has the Marquette staff wondering Where in the World is David Cubillan?

Tom Crean and his staff are having a hard time trying to keep track of sophomore guard David Cubillan, who’s spent much of the summer playing abroad for the Venezuelan National Team. While the rest of the team has been preparing for a Labor Day weekend trip to Canada with NCAA-allowed practices, Cubillan has been with the National Team. Cubillan will return to the U.S. later this month along with the Venezuelan team and take part in the 10-team FIBA Americas Championship in Las Vegas. If Venezuela moves into the medal round of the tournament, there is a chance Cubillan could miss Marquette’s trip to British Columbia, but for now, Crean expects the rising sophomore to join the Golden Eagles directly from Vegas and head to Canada with them.

In other Marquette news, it is beginning to sound more and more like forward Lawrence Blackledge will be back with the Golden Eagles for his senior season after academic difficulties cut short his first season with the club. The JUCO transfer who enters his last season of eligibility has apparently turned things around with a solid performance in the classroom over the summer. Marquette still remains one scholarship over the NCAA allowed maximum of 13 for the 2007-2008 season.

In Marquette recruiting news, Marquette hopes to have 6-foot-10 big man Frank Ben-Eze of Bishop O-Connell High School in Arlington, Va. in for an official visit sometime before the end of the month. Diamond Taylor, a 6-3 junior guard from Westchester (Ill.) St. Joseph’s, made an unofficial visit to MU last Monday. On Thursday, 6-4 junior guard Joseph Bertrand from Sterling (Ill.) and 6-5 sophomore forward Marquis Mason of Madison East were on campus, and took part in pickup games following a Golden Eagles practice.
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In Mike DeCourcy’s latest Inside Dish at the SportingNews.com, he notes that Syracuse’s top remianing 2008 target, 6-6 SF Mookie Jones of Peekskill, N.Y.–has more game than reputation and compares to former UConn star Rip Hamilton. Interesting that DeCourcy chose only to list Syracuse as a suitor in the article…
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Jim Calhoun hosted his first elite camp on the UConn campus over the weekend. The Camp Offers Hands-on Visit (Hartford Courant) for about 40 players who attended the overning camp.

One of UConn’s main targets in attendance is Festus Ezeli, a 6-foot-11 center from Nigeria who attended high school in Sacramento, Calif., and is likely to opt for a year of prep school.

Jordan Hamilton, a 6-7 forward from Los Angeles, was joined by Kelly Williams, his AAU coach and the father of former Husky Marcus Williams. Along with UConn, Hamilton is also considering Texas, Syracuse, N.C. State and Florida.

The camp is more influential recruiting tool than a normal official visit because the coaches are allowed to work with the players and it gives Jim Calhoun the Chance to Showcase the Best UConn Has to Offer (New London Day) players as they are also were able to meet Ray Allen, Caron Butler and others.

Next year the elite camp could be even better because it will coincide with Calhoun’s Charity Basketball Classic at the Mohegan Sun, an event that’s basically a UConn basketball family reunion featuring a heavy turnout from the professional ranks.
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Zagsblog also updates the news on the SHU/Rutgers targets that attended the UConn camp, including Allan Chaney, Durand Scott and Dexter Strickland.

Chaney listed Boston College, Florida, Ohio State, Pittsburgh and Texas A&M as his early favorites and plans to visit St. John’s this week.

For the full story, see the post: Chaney, Scott, Strickland Attend UConn Elite Camp.

For Chaney, the Exposure Continues for the New London Star (New London Day).
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Adam Zagoria runs down some Seton Hall and Rutgers recruiting notes as he looks at Scot.com’s Top 100 on his blog:

4-Tyreke Evans - Lists Villanova and Louisville as his top two, but will take an unofficial visit to Seton Hall later this month

24-Willie Warren - Skilled combo guard has numerous suitors, with Seton Hall the longest of long shots

39-Sylven Landesberg - Holy Cross guard has Top 5 of Georgia Tech, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky and St. John’s

49-Kevin Jones - Mount Vernon forward has numerous offers, including Rutgers & Seton Hall

58-Mookie Jones - Peekskill (NY) wing is being courted by numerous Big East and ACC schools, incuding Rutgers

61-Allan Chaney - Seton Hall target has long list of suitors

75-Mike Rosario - St. Anthony sharposhooter is headed to Rutgers

83-Lance Goulbourne - Hun School wing lists Vandy and Marquette as his top two, but RU is involved

93-Quintrell Thomas - St. Patrick big man says Kansas, Maryland and RU recruiting him the hardest.
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zagsblog also gives the Lowdown on the Class of 2009 and their current recruiting interests:

Lance Stephenson: The top of his list includes Louisville, Memphis, UCLA and West Virginia, but Georgetown and Rutgers have also been mentioned.

Dexter Strickland: Michigan State has been the leader for some time, but Villanova, Ohio State, North Carolina, Florida, Rutgers and others are hoping to land this talented and composed young man.

Greg Echenique: St. Ben’s big man has a list including Maryland, Miami, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Vanderbilt and Villanova.

Durand Scott: Has offers from Virginia, Memphis, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Rutgers. UConn is also recruiting him and he was in Storrs last weekend for their Elite Camp.

Brian Oliver: already holds offers from Xavier, Miami, Baylor, Rutgers, Pitt and West Virginia. Georgia Tech also came to watch him work out on the last day of the evaluation period. He’s also hearing from UNLV, Iowa, Notre Dame, Georgetown and Cincinnati since Las Vegas.

Tamir “Pops” Jackson: St. Benedict’s 6’6 shooting guard has Alabama, Wisconsin, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Pitt and Maryland are involved, and Kansas, Auburn and Miami have expressed interest.

Of the non-Jersey area players in the class of 2009, Rutgers and Seton Hall may be involved with a few other players, including Karron Johnson (SHU), Dante Taylor (SHU), Rodney McGruder (SHU), Dane Miller (SHU) and Dalton Pepper (SHU/RU).
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On Northjersey.com, Zagoria has an article on Paterson Alumni Beginning their Pro Hoops Careers as Darryl Watkins and Marquis Webb look forward to the next step in their basketball careers.

The 6-foot-11, 258-pound Watkins is about to sign a one-year, partially guaranteed deal worth an estimated $450,000 with the Sacramento Kings, while the 6-5, 215-pound Webb is headed to play professionally in Hungary. Both players leave around Aug. 20 to being their new lives.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (8/8/2007)

August 8, 2007

Well, a late start today (and a posting error that is now fixed), but still an informative update nonetheless. Hopefully not too much of it is old news by now.

CollegeHoops.Net continues their preview of the top 144 teams of 2007-2008 in 144 days and a Big East team checks in at #99 today. Doug Wiggins has learned that versatility is the key to opportunity, but also brings confusion, but it is his ticket to playing time behind AJ Price and Jerome Dyson this coming season. Marquette will have an early opportunity to prove themselves worthy of some of their preseason hype in Maui, and they are eagerly awaiting that opportunity, already!

Illinoi Prep Bulls-eye takes a closer look at Iman Shumpert’s recrutiing drama of the past few weeks and reports on a DePaul commitment that is headed to a new high school. Also, another Big East school is welcoming Mookie Jones to their campus this weekend. Darryl Bryant has rebounded from a knee injury that sidetracked his summer last year and veteran Xaverian HS coach jack Alesi has seen transfer worries turn his summer into a bummer.

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

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

CollegeHoopsNet.com has entered into their top 100 in their preview of 144 teams in 144 days and a Big East team sits at #99: #99 Cincinnati Bearcats. Joel welser has the Bearcats pegged for 12th in the conference.

The teams previously profiled by Welser in the series include:
#107 DePaul
#131 St. John’s
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The NY Daily News has an article on recent West Virginia-commit Darryl Bryant as last season’s knee injury hasn’t stalled the 6-0 point guard who resides in Bedford-Stuyvesant and suits up for Oliver Antigua’s St. Raymond’s Ravens program in the powerful NYC CHSAA. Instead, Bryant has Kept on Truckin and used a solid summer touring with the NYC Gaucho AAU program into a Big East scholarship.
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Jack Alesi, head coach at Xaverian High School in NYC, has set several players to the Big East in recent years: Chris taft, Levance Fields, Brian McKenzie. He also was slated to have two promising Big East prospects for the 2007-2008 season in James Padgett (2009) and Patrick Jackson (2008) who is considering Seton Hall, Rutgers and St. John’s, among others. However, Transfer Worries A Summer Bummer for the veteran coach of the Clippers.
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As we posted late yesterday afternoon, Iman Shumpert Down to Three Schools (Illinois Prep-Bullseye), but that is not the whole story lately.

Anyway…the important part for Marquette fans, you are one of the three and he was on campus yesterday in what Illinois Prep-Bullseye calls a visit that could end up having a huge impact on Shumpert’s final decision.
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2009 DePaul Recruit Cully Payne to Transfer from Burlington Central (Ill. Prep Bulls-eye) to Schaumburg High School in Schaumburg, IL according to Mike Weinstein, who is Payne’s AAU coach with the 17-Under Rising Stars. Payne and his family are moving to Schaumburg, which made Cully’s decision to attend Schaumburg High School a no-brainer. Payne will now play for head coach Bob Williams.
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Peekskill (N.Y.) High has produced NBA standouts Elton Brand and Hilton Armstrong, and the next star player looks to be 6’6 forward Mookie Jones who had an eye-opening summer playing for the Westchester Hawks on the AAU circuit. Jones had been slowed previously by a knee injury, but showing coaches he was fully healthy, he dominated at times with his versatile game that translates very well at the college level. Long-time suitors like Rutgers, Syracuse, St. John’s, DePaul, Louisville and West Virginia of the Big East remain in the hunt, but they have company from another Big East power as Jones Will Visit UConn (zagsblog) for a team camp this weekend. The UConn visit might be just one of many in the month for Jones.
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With the Maui Invitational Brackets now set, the Marquette Golden Eagles have plenty to look forward to as possible dates with either LSU or Oklahoma State and Duke could wait in the wings on the island. As a projected top 10-15 team should, the Eagles are Eager to Light Up Maui (journal-Sentinel) come November. The other four teams participating are the host school Chaminade (MU’s opening round opponent), Princeton, Arizona State and Illinois.
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Doug Wiggins learned that versatility was needed to find time in the UConn backcourt as a freshman. With AJ Price and Jerome Dyson slated to start ahead of him once again this season, that versatility will be needed again for Wiggins to earn playing time at either position in the backcourt and force UConn head coach Jim Calhoun to Make Room for Wiggins (Hartford Courant).
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (8/7/2007)

August 7, 2007

In case you missed it, we updated our West Virginia Recruiting update at our West Virginia Team Page to reflect the recent news of a commitment and the breaking news of a transfer out of the program that was announced yesterday.

Other stories today include how Tyreke Evans pulled rank with a strong summer and looks to have set a decision date to announce his college choice. NYC Swingman Patrick Jackson has a diverse list of six finalists that includes three area Big East schools. Phillip McDonald has interest in at least one Big East school and a couple visits arranged for September. Jody demling uses his crystal ball to predict the Louisville class of 2008 and Cracked Sidewalks gives the updated Marquette recrutiing list for their final two scholarships for 2008.

See the final team CollegeHoops.Net predicts NOT to make the Big East tournament as their Preview of 144 teams in 144 days continues. Also, Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard had an article on Sunday about how the SU assistants geared up for the July evaluation period, part of an excellent series on life as a college basketball recruiter.

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

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

Now that Tyreke Evans is back in Philadelphia after a summer in which his strong play has helped rebuild his reputation, he is playing pick-up games at Villanova’s off-campus practice gym against former Wildcats like Mike Nardi and Kyle Lowry as well as current guard Scottie Reynolds. His top five schools are Memphis, Texas, Villanova, UConn and Louisville, who he has been linked to the longest. “Which coaches have come to see me play is important,” says Evans tells SI.com’s Kevin Armstrong, who lists Rick Pitino and Jay Wright as those most frequently in attendance for his games. Rick Barnes has come to watch, and Jim Calhoun has eyed him, too. After spending much of his high school career as the top ranked player in the class of 2008, a year of uninspired play saw that ranking slip from his grasp, but this past summer Evans was Pulling Rank (SI.com) at the USA Basketball Youth Development Festival in Colorado Springs he scored 43 points, showcasing a mature shot selection and sharper ball handling. His AAU Team won the AAU national title in Orlando and then, few days later, he walked away with tournament MVP honors at Nike’s Global Challenge in Portland, Ore.

The Card Chronicle reports that Evans Has Set a Date of November 12th to announce his college decision.
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Adam Zagoria updates readers on the recruitment of Patrick Jackson, a 6-6, 202-pound senior swingman from Xaverian High School in Brooklyn. Jackson has narrowed his list to six schools, half of which are in the Big East, the other three are a broad range from across the country. Jackson Has Rutgers, Seton Hall & St. John’s on his List (zagsblog) along with Colorado, Boston College and Houston. He has been to St. John’s on several occassions, but the Redstorm have just one scholarship open and seem intent on using it on either Sylven Landesberg or a point guard. He hopes to make unofficial visits to Rutgers and Seton Hall “by the end of this month” and also hopes to take official visits to the out-of-state schools. Seton Hall also has just one scholarship open and they seem to be aggressively pursuing some of the top wing/combo forwards on the east coast (Kevin Jones, for example) and beyond (Renaldo Woolridge). Rutgers has a couple scholarships open and are still in need of size upfront as well as a wing to complement all the guards Fred Hill has landed in 2007 and 2008. Jackson will likely first have to decide on a high school as there is a good chance he will leave Xaverian for either Boys & Girls or Canarsie High Schools in Brooklyn.
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Phillip McDonald, a 6-foot-5 senior guard from Cypress, Texas has a couple visits planned for September. McDonald is to Visit (Lawrence Journal-World) New Mexicon September 7-9 and Kansas September 14-16. McDonald is also considering Oklahoma, Oregon, UConn and others.
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Cracked Sidewalks has an Updated Marquette Recruiting List as Tom Crean and his staff attempt to fill the last two slots available after Nick Williams verbally committed last season. There has yet to be a resolution, to my knowledge, on their 2007-2008 situation of 14 players for 13 scholarships.

Obviously, players like Iman Shumpert, Lance Goulbourne and Willie Warren are too good to pass up. However, the definitely are wise to target Josh Crittle at a position of need (PF) and it seems that Center is another position of need as well, but the players on their list are less liekly to be impact players as some of the perimeter names they are in good with at this point.
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Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal has been all around the country during the spring and summer keeping readers informed on the prospects of Louisville, Kentucky and Indiana on the recruiting trail. Admittedly poor on predictions, Demling fires up Jody’s Crystal Ball and predicts the final recruiting classes of Louisville, UK and IU for 2008.

Here is his prediction for Louisville: Melquan Bolding, Samardo Samuels, Tyreke Evans, Olek Czyz and Kyle Kuric.
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Yesterday we posted a link for Mike Waters’ article in the Syracuse Post-Standard about college assistants on the July recruiting trail: In July, SU Recruiters Day is Never Done. We missed the related story on Sunday in the Post-Standard, SU Assistants Have Clipboard, Will Travel. The article covered the planning for the month of July which included the process of Syracuse’s top targets being invited to an Elite Camp; a 24-hour long event at the Carrier Dome on July 2-3. The assistants make the calls to coaches to get the recruits on campus. Among the attendees is Dion Waiters, a 6-foot-2 guard from Philadelphia. Waiters, who will be a high school sophomore in the fall, commits to Syracuse roughly a week after coming to the Elite Camp.
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It has been a long time in between Big East schools with CollegeHoops.Net‘s 2007 College Basketball Preview 144 Teams in 144 days. At #131 St. John’s was profiled and tabbed as #14 in the Big East. Over the weekend, #107 DePaul was the next Big East team to be profiled. The Blue Demons are slotted as the #13 team in the conference. An educated guess would be that South Florida and Rutgers did not make their Top 144 teams and are picked 15th and 16th in the conference. So, it is the opinion of CollegeHoops.net that USF, RU, St. John’s and DePaul will be the four teams missing the Big East Tournament. In our reader poll, assuming Rutgers and USF fall short, it is St. John’s and Seton Hall that poll participants believe will be watching the Big East Tournament on TV instead of playing in Madison Square Garden, just ahead of Cincinnati and DePaul easily outdistances them as ‘safe’ accoring to our un-gallup-like polling system!

BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (8/1/2007)

August 1, 2007

Well, coaches are returning home from being on the road, school starts in the next 3-4 weeks and you can bet some players will be taking their college visits over the next few weeks as we get ready for commitment season! One item of change, for at least a week, college coaches will not be able to text prospective recruits as a new NCAA ban on text messaging goes into effect today.

We have some recruiting stories and updates on Johnnie Lacy, Eloy Vargas, LA Pomlee, Sylven Landesberg, Tyreke Evans, Lance Goulbourne, Desmond Wade, Dexter Strickland and find out who continues to text Jordan Theodore regularly.

It looks like Geoff Billett will leave SHU for his high school alma mater as early as today. Syracuse players gained some international experience this summer and several St. John’s players stayed closer to home for some good competition last week.

Maybe the naming of Syracuse and Rutgers as possible Big 10 additions was a bit premature afterall…

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

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

Johnnie Lacy, a 2009 poiunt guard prospect out of Wisconsin’s Bay View High School, is turning heads on the recruiting circuit. After a strong week at the Marquette basketball camp, Marquette University coach Tom Crean offered the returning second-team all-Milwaukee City Conference selection a scholarship last month. Iowa State, Purdue, Tennessee and Wisconsin, among others, are also expressing recruiting interest as Bay View’s Lacy Parlays Confidence into Success on Basketball Court (Wishoops.net).
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Van Coleman continues to travel as the evaluation period wraps up and he is now in Orlando and updates the action yesterday for him on Orlando Day 2 – Playoffs Underway (CSTV). Among his recruiting notes is that the Eloy Vargas list has changed once again and the 6-foot-10 post from Team Breakdown, has Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Florida, Miami (FL), Indiana, Minnesota, Clemson, Virginia, and South Florida among his favorites. Also, L.A. Pomlee, the 6-foot-8 power forward from Martin Brothers Select, has really blown-up in Orlando now that he’s healthy and back in shape. Schools like Indiana, Kentucky, Providence, Alabama, and Ohio State have joined Iowa State, Iowa, Minnesota, Miami (FL), and Bradley as teams with serious interest in the physical rebounder and shot blocker.

Team Breakdown and Kinf of the Court will battle for the title as the Final is Set for 17-U AAU Nationals (CSTV) in Orlando.
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While most of the top players in the country either hit Orlando or Vegas for the end of the summer evaluation period, Sylven Landesberg was competing in the Empire State Games on the campus of Iona in New Rochelle, NY. That did not stop college coaches from coming in and checking him out as Virginia’s Dave Leito for a day, Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt and assistant Pete Zaharis for a combined three days and St. John’s Norm Roberts all popped in to see Landesberg whose list of potential schools has been whittled down to a final five of Virginia, St. John’s, Texas, Kentucky and Georgia Tech per the SI.com article, Weights & Measures: Landesberg Adds Bulk to His Game.
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Adam Zagoria has a blog update this morning with some Recruiting Notes for his readers. Linden coach Phil Colicchio can’t understand why his 5-9 PG Desmond Wade, who averaged 14 points, 10 assists and four steals last season for the Group 4 state champs, is not being targeted by any Big East schools. To me, this kid screams out as a Providence recruit, think a smaller John Linehan to wreak havoc against guards in the Big East on the defensive side.

Lamont Peterson, an assistant coach at American Christian, says Memphis, along with Villanova and Louisville, is also in the running for Tyreke Evans. I think everyone is waiting for the late pushg from Memphis in the Evans sweepstakes to come soon.

Speaking of Villanova, Zags also mentions that Villanova, which has a history of recruiting St. Patrick players (see Corey Fisher), is also recruiting Dexter Strickland from the school, as well as Dom Cheek of St. Anthony. The Cats are also looking at Lance Goulbourne of The Hun School, although they have not offered.
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Not only does the summer evaluation period come to a close today, but so does the practice of texting recruits as the NCAA’s ban on text messaging begins today. The ban on text messaging, initially proposed by the Ivy League, takes effect today as a result of a 13-3 decision last spring by the NCAA’s Board of Directors that cited the preference of high school athletes. So, the Stream of Texts from College Coaches Ends – For Now (NorthJersey.com). But after 34 schools requested reconsideration within the permitted time frame, the Board of Directors will reexamine the issue during its Aug. 9 meeting in Indianapolis. At that meeting, the Board could opt to rescind or reaffirm the rule.

Although he has been committed to Seton Hall for some time now, Jordan Theodore continues to receive text messages from coaches, especially Maryland, so Theodore would definitely support the rule staying in place:

“I still get text messages,” Theodore, a rising senior at Paterson Catholic, said last month while competing at the LeBron James US Skills Academy. “I get text messages from Maryland. I’m just trying to focus on school and basketball. I get them in class. I get them in the middle of the night. They just don’t care.”

“In a way it’s good,” he said. “I think you would be able to focus more on school because you’re not picking up your phone. You’re focusing on basketball. You’re not worried about talking to the coach. And at the same time, you’re not bragging to the other guys who don’t have the same schools (contacting you).”

Although the Villanova staff is not big in texting recruits, assistant Ed Pinckney believes the rule will be rescinded and believes the high-tech direction is where recruiting is moving and is here to stay:

“I think (the ban) is going to get overturned,” said Villanova assistant coach Ed Pinckney, a member of that school’s fabled 1985 NCAA championship team. “Texting is so much a part of our culture right now that I have a hard time believing it will be banned completely from communicating with the kids.

“I think they’ll have times when you can’t actually text kids, but I don’t think it will be banned.”

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Several members of the 2007-2008 Syracuse University Men’s basketball team used Summer Basketball to Make Orange Worldly-Wise (Syracuse Post-Standard). Incoming freshmen Jonny Flynn and Donte Greene played on the USA Basketball Under-19 team, which won a silver medal in the FIBA U-19 World Championship in Serbia. Junior Andy Rautins played for Canada in the Pan Am Games in Brazil where he ran into, literally, former Pitt star Carl Krauser (Virgin Islands Dump Canada, 74-67).

Junior Eric Devendorf tried out for but did not make the USA’s Pan Am Games squad.

And coach Jim Boeheim served as the selection committee chairman for both the Under-19 and Pan Am Games teams, plus he remains an assistant to Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski on the USA team that will compete for a berth in the 2008 Olympic Games later this month at the Americas Tournament in Las Vegas.

Mike Waters also updates the Syracuse non-conference schedule, which includes the Preseason NIT and a trip to play at Virginia in early December.

Also, early 2010 commitment Dion Waiters, the rising sophomore from Philadelphia who committed to Syracuse in early July, will not transfer to a Syracuse-area high school. Waiters had a desire to join his friend and cousin, incoming Syracuse freshman Antonio “Scoop” Jardine, in Syracuse, but will remain enrolled at Neumann-Goretti HS in Philly for the upcoming season.
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Not sure if this is the best news for St. John’s fans as four members of the 2007-2008 St. John’s squad competed in the Empire State Games Open Division, but failed to medal. Three of the players, Eugene Lawrence, Anthony Mason jr and Justin Burrell are expected to start for the Redstorm and be the Center of the Storm (NY Daily News) squad this upcoming season. University of Buffalo point guard Darwin Young harassed Lawrence on defense, and Roberts Wesleyan College (Rochester) big man Joe Rebisz muscled his way to 18 points in a pool play victory for Western over the team from NYC that also included Mike Cavataio.
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After the firestorm created by of Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany’s relatively innocuous comments to the Des Moines Register about the league’s possible expansion which turned into national headlines and sports-talk fodder, Delaney Expanded on the Issues (Chicago Daily Herald) as all 11 Big Ten football teams fulfilled media responsibilities at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago. Delany felt obligated to call Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese to clarify his stance.

“I said, ‘I want you to know two of your schools were mentioned (Syracuse and Rutgers) in articles, however none of them were mentioned by me,” Delany said. “We don’t plan to expand. We analyze it on a regular basis, and we’ll continue to do that.

“As the stories get reiterated in other media, whether it’s blogs or talk radio, I think one would believe we’re on the cusp of expansion. And that’s probably not an accurate characterization.

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Now that the summer evaluation period is over, it looks like it is (Still) Geoff Billett to CBA (zagsblog). The rumors have swirled for some time and a source close to the CBA program says Billet will be introduced Wednesday as the new head coach at his alma mater. Accoring to Zagoria, look for head coach Bobby Gonzalez to look at American Christian head coach Tony Bergeron or former Pirate standout Jerry Walker to fill the job.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (7/24/2007)

July 24, 2007

The action in Vegas continues to roll along as the Summer Evaluation Period Part II rolls on. The Providence Journal updates readers on the summer play of some of the area’s Rhode Island hoopsters, including three high school players who have Big East interest and a WVU rising sophomore who looks to excel under Bob Huggins this coming season.

Also, Jody Demling and Dick Weiss give some recruiting updates from Vegas and Adam Zagoria updates some of the news and notes going around the ‘net on the happening in ‘Sin city.’

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

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

Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal updates his readers on the Rhode Island Hoopsters on Fire this Summer. The one who might have raised his stock the most is West Virginia’s sophomore-to-be Joe Mazzulla, the former Hendricken star who averaged 3 PPG in less than 9 minutes a contest backing up Darris Nichols last season in 31 games for the NIT champion Mountaineers. Playing point guard in the Pittsburgh Summer Pro-Am Basketball League, Mazzulla won the league’s MVP award. After struggling personally in his freshman year under John Beilein, Mazzulla looks forward to the future with the Mountaineers and new coach Bob Huggins as Mazzulla says that Huggins’ up tempo, physical style suits his skills much better than Beilein’s patterned, guard-oriented approach. It was the faster-paced style Mazzulla enjoyed in the summer league.

“It’s a blessing in disguise,” Mazzulla said. “In this league, I was able to go up and down the court and take the ball to the basket. Our whole team, we’re a lot more athletic, Huggins-type players than people think.”

On the recruiting front, a couple Rhode Island prospects are getting high major attention, including from Big East programs. South Kingstown’s Erik Murphy, a 6-foot-8 forward who’ll be a junior at St. Mark’s School in Southboro, Mass., is nursing a sprained knee. But that hasn’t stopped coaches from BC, Marquette, Virginia, Syracuse and other high-level schools from expressing their interest.

Smithfield’s Mike Marra, a deep-shooting 6-3 guard, is leaving Smithfield High and is slated to spend two years at Northfield-Mt. Hermon School in the Berkshires. Marra has made a name for himself this spring and summer playing for the Rhode Island Hawks.

“Mike had nine 3-pointers and 40 points against the New York Panthers in New Jersey last month,” Hawks coach Jason Elliott said. “Before that he had eight threes in a game and we won a big tournament in Pittsburgh. PC and URI like Mike a lot, but Ohio State, Syracuse, Louisville and a lot of schools have seen him and like him.”

Coach Elliott will lead the Hawks into the Main Even this week in Vegas and junior center Ben Crenca of West Greenwich has been offered a scholarship by URI and is also hearing from West Virginia, Virginia Tech and Virginia, among others. Crenca stands at 6’9 and weighs in at 280 lbs.
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Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal has a Recruiting Notebook update and centers around Indianapolis Lawrence North junior Stephan VanTreese as VanTreese’s List of Suitors Grows. The 6’11 F/C has a scholarship offer from Notre Dame and is also interested in Georgetown and Louisville, among many others.
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Dick Weiss is in Vegas and updates his Hoops on Hoops Blog with the entry: Gauchos Flying High in Vegas.

Everyone around AAU basketball and recruiting knows that the Gauchos are loaded with guards and that will win you many games on the AAU circuit. It is hard to believe any other program could top their stable of five exceptional guards, if you include Kemba Walker (UConn commit), shooter deluxe Chris Fouch of Rice (every mid-major in the Metro area was there to see him play), Truck Bryant of St. Raymond’s, Jordan Theodore of Paterson Catholic (Seton Hall commit) and Rice’s Durand Scott. However, Weiss gives us some background information on the other Gaucho players that we do not hear enough about, the big men.

6’9 Dan Jennings of Bishop Loughlin (who should be a high major with prep school. UConn and Arizona have already called about him for the class of 2009); 6-9 Devin Hill of St. Luke’s (who has already been on the campus of Georgia Tech, Virginia and been offered by the Seton Hall) and 6-8 Kevin Phillip of Loughlin (UNLV, Nebraska, St. John’s, Pitt and Drexel have all inquired).

Norm Roberts was at the Playaz-Atlanta Celtics games at Cox Sunday night, presumably to watch 6-6 Nolan Johnson of the Celtics. Guard Mike Rosario (Rutgers commit) of St. Anthony’s nailed seven threes in that game, five in an earlier win over Pump and Run Elite. Rutgers is still trying to hang in with 6-7 forward Olu Ashaolu of Christian Life Academy in Humble, Texas, who verballed early but now is wavering. School to beat? We hear it’s Louisiana Tech.
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Adam Zagoria has Vegas News & Notes – Part II (zagsblog) from various internet reports. The main new piece of information is that Renaldo Woolridge, son of former NBA standout Orlando Woolridge, listed Pepperdine, Arizona State, Marquette, Boston College, Tennessee and Georgetown as his favorites. Seton Hall has also been in the picture.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (7/19/2007)

July 19, 2007

Sorry for the unexcused absence yesterday, mysterious forces just kept me away all day! I think we make up for it today with a plethora of Big East information linked for readers to stay up to date on all the latest happenings around the Big East!

Allan Chaney has seen his recruitment skyrocket in the last two weeks. we are talking about going from an offer from Marist to Billy Donovan taking a private plane to see him and offer a scholarship. See how this change has come about.

Elsewhere, UConn sees a top target make the call for another elite program. Olek czyz hosts a private workout for one of the Big East’s most powerful head coaches. Willie Warren narrows his list and takes a longer look at several from the Big East. Lance Goulbourne likes a few from the Big East and Olu Ashaolu’s brother goes on record as the one urging his younger sibling to NOT go to Rutgers.

Providence College readies for their much anticipated 2007-2008 season with a head start. Derrick Caracter’s stay at Louisville might be short, but he must rehab a knee injury first. Pittsburgh and Connecticut make in-house coaching moves and Roy Hibbert makes a refreshing decision that has bucked the normal trend recently.

You can read these stories and more, including a previes of the top 10 players in the Big East next season by ProFantasySports.com, by clicking READ MORE below!

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

Allan Chaney is the classic example of a summer star. Prior to his stint at the RBK U camp in Philadelphia two weeks ago, Chaney, the 6-foot-8, 220-pound forward from New London High School, was barely registering a blip on the high-major recruiting radar. He was seeing interest from Providence and several A-10 schools, but after turning in an impressive 12 days of performances in the first session of the July open evaluation period, Chaney had Billy Donovan, the head coach of the two-time defending national champion Florida Gators making a personal visit to the Hoop Group West Virginia Jam Fest to see Chaney play. Shortly after, Florida Calls for Chaney (Norwich Bulletin) and offers the Whalers’ star a scholarship to join the Gators. Also making phone calls have been Virginia and Boston College with scholarship offers. Before that, Providence, UMass, Rhode Island, St. Joseph’s, Fordham, James Madison and Marist College also brought forth offers — and the list is growing.

“I’ve heard from Ohio State, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, UConn, Indiana, Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, Penn State and Texas A&M,” Chaney said as he rattled off a list of possible future scholarship offers.

Kalvin Bunkley, Chaney’s AAU coach with the Connecticut Phenom Elite team based out of Meriden (CT), said the University of Michigan called about Chaney Wednesday and Georgetown and St. John’s are also voicing some interest. UConn assistant coach Patrick Sellers was in West Virginia to see Chaney play during the weekend and Calhoun talked to Chaney Tuesday. However, the feeling might be that UConn has gotten in the mix late as they have been pursuing other targets, although coming up empty to this point.

Chaney and his AAU teammates head to Las Vegas to wrap up the summer evaluation period and the following is expected to be large for one of the fastest rising prospects of the summer.

The New England Recruiting Report also has an article today as Chaney’s Recruitment Reaches New Levels heading towards the close of the July evaluation period.
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Another player who has used the spring/summer AAU season as a springboard to elite recruiting interest is Olek Czyz, a 6-foot-8, 235-pound forward from Reno High School in Nevada. Czyz, a Poland native, is an athletic forward who has shown his potential while travelling with the Las Vegas Prospects team, part of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) during the open evaluation periods. University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino was in Reno on Sunday night to watch a private workout as Czyz Takes Center Stage (Reno Journal-Gazette) and has received scholarship offers from Arizona State, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville and Nevada.
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As mentioned above, UConn has found little luck this spring/summer on the recruiting trail and with the news yesterday that Ed Davis is a Tarheel (Hartford Courant), the Huskies see another top prospect make a pledge to another program after being courted by Connecticut. This does not really come as a surprise as Davis narrowed his choices to North Carolina, Virginia and UConn. The 6-9 forward from Benedictine High in Mechanicsville, Va. made an unofficial visit to UConn June 14, but it was widely regarded that UNC and Virginia where the two schools he would choose from. UConn also lost out to Louisville with Samardo Samuels and to Arizona with Brandon Jennings.

On paper, the Huskies have 14 scholarships already allotted to the 2008-2009 season, so the crunch on scholarships definitely has an adverse impact on recruiting as they have been after impact players all along. Impact players want to play right away and that picture is cloudy at UConn with the large class from 2006 still intact, for the most part. Even though it is widely expected that Hasheem Thabeet will enter the 2008 NBA draft, that is still 13 players lined up for the 2008-2009 season with depth, on paper, at every position. UConn might have better luck in the spring when the picture becomes clearer on who is staying and going around college basketball.
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Willie Warren Narrows His List (Louisville Courier-Journal blog) according to jody Demling and the list of eight has a Big East feel as Louisville, Cincinnati and Marquette are joined by Oklahoma (leader), Texas, Kansas, Arizona and Kentucky. Warren committed to last month verbally to Baylor, only to have his mother talk him out of the commitment the next day, and the Bears do not even make the list of the final eight for the Texas guard. Warren will take visits to Louisville and Kentucky on his way from Texas to Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., before his first day of school next month.
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Adam Zagoria updated his blog yesterday with the Latest on Olu Ashaolu whose brother, a graduate assitant at Duquesne, seems to be involved heavily in his decision to back off his commitment to Rutgers that was made in May. John Ashaolu does not want his brother going to Rutgers and said so on the record.

Zagsblog also reports on the situation where Lance Goulbourne Got His Shot in Akron and took advantage of it. Goulbourne, a 6-7, 215-pound senior wing forward from The Hun School in Princeton, has settled so far on a list of schools that includes Rutgers, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Marquette, Georgetown, Northwestern and St. Joe’s. Vanderbilt has been considered a leader at times for the extremely brigh Goulbourne, however Rutgers continues to put in the most work and Georgetown has constantly been mentioned. Goulbourne is an outstanding student and tennis player as well.
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The opening of the recruitment of Markeiff and Marcus Morris was short-lived as the Morris Twins Stick with the Tigers (Memphis Commercial-Appeal) and will honor their commitments to Memphis, according to their mother.
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While watching the second of three practices his Providence College hoops team is running through this week in preparation for a trip to Italy next month, Tim Welsh scanned the basketball court at Alumni Hall on Tuesday, he saw plenty of familiar faces. Although PC has just one senior on the roster (Charles Burch), coach Welsh might have one of the most experienced teams in the Big East fro 2007-2008.

PC will take 11 players to Italy next month, eight returnees from last year’s 18-13 squad as well as two redshirts in center Randall Hanke and guard Jeff Xavier and walk-on Chris Baudinet. Welsh Envisions Friar Bonding During Trip to Italy (Providence Journal) which will take the team on a visit to Rome, Florence and then move to the Adriatic Coast from Aug. 22 to Sept. 3. NCAA rules prohibit them from practicing and making the trip, so during yesterday’s light workout, Marshon Brooks, Alex Kellogg and Jamine Peterson, sat along the sideline and watched. All of the players are on campus now for summer school but will return home for a few weeks before coming back to Providence later next month to get ready to travel abroad.
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Another article posted by Adam Zagoria on his blog yesterday was some news on Derrick Caracter from a conversation with Rick Pitino. The 6-8, 270-pound Caracter, a Fanwood, NJ native, underwent surgery last month after suffering a slight cartilage tear in his left knee in a pickup game. Caracter’s rehab is going well and he is keeping his weight under control. Rutgers and Louisville will play twice next season, meaning Caracter and teammate Earl Clark of Rahway will make at least one more collegiate appearance in their home state. The Garden State duo will also make an appearance against Seton Hall at “The Rock” in Newark. After the season, they could both declare for the NBA Draft. One mock draft has them going back-to-back in the mid-20s of the 2008 Draft.
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Andy Katz of ESPN.com writes about Players Turning Down NBA Money for Senior Years, including Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert, is a refreshing change of course.

Without Jeff Green, who decided to stay in the draft and was selected No. 5 overall, Hibbert will play some stretches in which he’ll be a lone big man on the court for the Hoyas. With a glut of guards on the roster, coach John Thompson III might mix in some smaller, quicker lineups around Hibbert. He is prepared for all of it, and he is hopeful that playing in the Pan Am Games in Brazil later this month will prep him for being more versatile.

Hibbert and Scottie Reynolds were the lone Big East players to make Jay Wright’s 12 man roster that will represent the USA.
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The last three coaches to man the Director of Basketball Operations position at Pittsburgh have seen their careers move forward rapidly after serving their time in the job that is mainly administrative with no on-court coaching duties. Manhattan head coach Barry Rohrssen got his start as Ben Howland’s director of operations before becoming Pitt’s ace recruiter. Orlando Antigua, now a Pitt assistant, served in the role for two years before his ascension. David Cox parlayed his one season as director of operations last season into an assistant coaching position at Georgetown. Another familiar name will take the reigns as former Pitt point guard Brandin Knight has been promoted to the position of Director of Basketball Operations from his role of Video Coordinator.

Knight Moves Up the Ladder at Pitt (Pittsburgh Post Gazette) where he will manage the day-to-day operations for the men’s program and serve as a liaison to the athletic department as well as coordinate practice, game and daily schedules. Knight cannot recruit on the road, but he is allowed to develop relationships with recruits once they are campus. Knight surely helped garner verbal commitments from Ashton Gibbs, who plays at Knights alma mater, Seton Hall Prep, and Travon Woodall, who also hails from New Jersey and comes from the same AAU program that Knight once played for, the Playaz Basketball Club.
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Another coaching move occurred at UConn where George Blaney was Named Associate Head Coach (Hartford Courant), joining Tom Moore, Dave Leitao and Howie Dickenman as the only coaches to hold that title at UConn under Jim Calhoun. The promotion doesn’t change Blaney’s role. Assistants Andre LaFleur and Patrick Sellers will continue to do the bulk of recruiting, but with deep roots in New England basketball and countless connections from a coaching career that spanned 34 years, Blaney is now officially Calhoun’s right-hand man.

Blaney, 67, was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. He coached Holy Cross, his alma mater, for 22 years, going 357-276. Blaney, who also coached at Stonehill, Dartmouth and Seton Hall, has a career record of 459-382. He was a fourth-round selection of the New York Knicks out of Holy Cross in 1961 and played for the team in 1961-62.
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Just for fun, I linked a post from ProFantasySports.com where they have an article serving as a Big East Preview on their top 10 players for the 2007-2008 season. One thing to keep in mind with fantasy sports, they do not take into account wins and losses, if your a stat accumlulator, your a wanted man in fantasy circles. One of the most productive players from the Big East the last couple seasons was McHugh Mattis from USF…

Here is their top 10:

1) Roy Hibbert
2) Kentrell Gransberry
3) Scottie Reynolds
4) Geoff McDermott
5) Eugene Harvey
6) Jeff Adrien
7) Terrence Williams
Jerel McNeal
9) Deonta Vaughn
10) Austin Freeman
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (7/16/2007)

July 16, 2007

We were tipped off last week that the Big East would announce the conference scheduling details on Friday. By the time Friday came, many of the repeat opponents for several teams had begun to leak out, but of course, the official word came after we left for a busy weekend! So, be now, much of the schedule talk is old news to most of the readers. We do have some linked articles and the Big East official release of the schedule. Later today we will publish our schedule analysis and have an early pre-season ranking of the 16 conference schedules for each team. In the past, the biggest disparity in schedules was usually determined more by who you did NOT play, moving to the 18-game conference schedule, the Big East has done away with that problem.

There are plenty of AAU recaps from the Reebok Summer East, Joe Brown Memorial Tournament and the Peach Jam. All of these also come with some recruiting tidbits on some of the top targets in 2008 and 2009. There are also articles today on the Pan Am team coached by Jay Wright and the Big East connections with that squad.

A busy weekend has past, we will try and have our FULL scheudle analysis posted by late this afternoon, but no promises as things are really busy and exciting! It is nice to have a little break from the evaluation period. A little bit of a chance to catch your breath!

You can read these stories and more, including some summer league articles from action taking place in New Jersey and Cincinnati, by clicking READ MORE below!

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

RECRUITING & AAU NOTES:
As more and more kids are deciding on a college during their junior year in high school, 16-U AAU teams are becoming more of the attraction to college coaches and popularity of Jerome Smart is a big indication of this trend in recruiting. Smart is the head coach of the Playaz Basketball Club’s 16-and-under team and is the current point man for nearly a dozen college basketball prospects in the class of 2009. College is a Smart Choice (NorthJersey.com) for his players and three players are responsible for making Smart’s phone light up like a Christmas tree as Dominic Cheek, a 6-6 guard/forward from St. Anthony in Jersey City who currently has a sprained ankle, is ranked among the top 10 players nationally in the Class of 2009. Brian Oliver, a 6-6 forward from Bear, Del., is popular with numerous Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference schools. And Paterson’s Tamir Jackson, a 6-2 guard from St. Benedict’s Prep who was recently named MVP at the Reebok East event, has garnered interest from various ACC and Big East programs.

Dominic’s recruitment is that of an All-American,” Smart said. He’s rated in the top 10, top 15, in every poll, so he’s got the Carolinas, the Floridas, the Ohio States ready to take him now.

“You have other guys like Brian (Oliver), who West Virginia’s at almost every one of our games. Pitt’s at almost every one of our games. Rutgers is following him. Maryland’s following him, Virginia, Virginia Tech. He’s got a lot of schools who are following this guy around.”

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One look at the Playaz 16-and-under roster reveals a team comprised almost entirely of ballers from New Jersey. Brian Oliver, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound junior forward, was born in the Garden State, but he stands out now because his family lives in Bear, DE. Playing on such a high-profile team, despite being from a low-profile area, and playing very well means Oliver Has Options, Including RU (zagsblog). He has already received scholarship offers from Rutgers, Pittsburgh and West Virginia, and Rutgers assistant Darren Savino and Pitt assistant Orlando Antigua watched him at Seton Hall this weekend in the Brown Memorial.
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It was only fitting that the NJ Playaz Basketball Club’s 17-U team came away victorious at the Joe Brown Memorial Tournament over the weekend. Mike Rosario, Playaz Rule at Joe Brown Memorial (zagsblog) with a 66-37 win on Sunday afternoon over Team Breakdown of Florida at Seton Hall. Rosario drilled seven 3-pters as part of his 23 points and Travon Woodall added 17 for the champs.
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Here are some Big East related recruiting noted from Dick Weiss on his Hoops on Hoops Blog since we last posted an update:

Darryl Bryant of St. Raymond’s is still open. We hear USC and St. John’s are both looking at Bryant.

Tyshawn Taylor of St. Anthony’s, who plays for the Westchester Hawks, is now hearing from Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Miami, Marquette, DePaul and Cincinnati after his strong play at RBK U. Bob Hurley Sr. has five Division I guards on his roster.

Lance Goulbourne’s stock is also soaring, based on his play at the Nike Peach Jam, where the 6-8 forward, an exceptional student from the Hun School, scored 30 against the Charlotte Royals. Jamie Dixon of Pitt, Fred Hill of Rutgers, Rick Pitino of Louisville, John Belein of Michigan and assistants from Vandy, St. John’s and Marquette were in the audience watching.
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Canton (Ga.) Cherokee forward Chris Singleton, who averaged 19 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, four blocks and 3.5 steals as a junior, was once considered a heavy Tennessee lean is now interested in opening his process up a little more. The 6 feet 8 and 210 pound forward, said he was “on the verge” of making a visit to Louisville and also has interest in Cincinnati, Louisiana State, Tennessee, Florida State, North Carolina, South Carolina and the University of Kentucky. With the Cards, Cats on the forwards List (Louisville Courier-Journal) he might not be the Tennessee lean many once believed he was.
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The Memphis Commercial Appeal has an interesting tidbit buried in their article Separating Fact from Tiger Tales, that prep school-bound twins Marcus and Markieff Morris announced to the Philadelphia Daily News that they would take a look at other schools before re-signing with Memphis in the fall, essentially re-opening their recruitment. The twins, still only 17, will head for prep school as academic nonqualifers, but are said to be close to reaching the necessary test score. When they announced in November, a National Letter of Intent spokeswoman said that if they enter prep school as nonqualifiers, the letters are null and void. So, for now, the Morris Twins are Still Shopping (Philly.com), but with many potential suitors, including Big East schools, not having room set aside for a package like the Morris twins, expect Memphis to be an inviting option in the end.
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During the summer, recruiting dominoes tend to fall left and right and one that could have a trickle down effect on several Big East programs would be Angel Garcia when he makes a decision. Inside the Hall, a Indiana fan blog wonders Is Florida the New Leader for Angel Garcia? Louisville, Indiana and Memphis were expected to be his top three.
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College basketball recruiting and glad-handing can take a coach to destinations far and near, especialluy during the July evaliation period. Take Louisville’s Rick Pitino for example who was a special invitee to this year’s Jamaica Basketball Development Incorporated Star Search camp at GC Foster College in Spanish Town on Wednesday. From there Pitino headed to the Peach Jam in North Augusta, GA on Thursday and to Morgantown, WV for the Harley Jam to close out the evaluation period over the weekend. The Star Search Camp Was a Hit with a Visiting Pitino (Jamaica Observer), who has a commitment from Jamaican Samardo Samuels and he has done very well with Otis George from Dominica, Edgar Sosa and Sacramento Kings’ Francisco Garcia, both of Dominican Republic, and Juan Diego Palacio from Medelin, Colombia in the past on his roster.
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The Peach Jam was also a very popular stop for head coaches wrapping up the first session of the July Evaluation period and the Aiken Standard has a small article on three games of interest as their Writer Takes a Gander at Some Peachy Prospects, including efforts from the Metro Hawks, Team Melo and others. In the end, it was the Guards Leading Gauchos to Gold (Augusta Chronicle) at the Peach Jam.
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Brian Crownover of CAA Insider has reviews on MANY Big East targets (Allan Chaney, BJ Monteiro, Mookie Jones, Wally Judge, Eloy Vargas, etc) from the action at Reebok Summer Classic. From there he moved on to the Joe Brown Memorial Tournament and filed Part I for his readers which included reviews on John Riek, Patrick Jackson, Darius Gabriel and others.
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Pan-Am Team Notes:
As Jay Wright narrowed the candidates from 30 to 14 over the weekend for spots on the USA Pan Am game roster, the US Coach Opts for Experience (Philadelphia Daily News) with a roster heavy on college juniors and seniors because most of the opposing teams will mix a heavy dose of senior national team players on their rosters.

Only two college sophomores made the 14-player roster and both have ties to Jay Wright as Two Local Players Survive first Pan Am Cut (Philadelphia Inquirer), Wayne Ellington and Scottie Reynolds. The rest of the team includes: Texas A&M forward Josh Carter, Memphis forward Joey Dorsey, Vanderbilt forward Shan Foster, Maryland forward James Gist, Georgetown center Roy Hibbert, Oregon forwards Maarty Leunen and Bryce Taylor, Washington State forward Kyle Weaver and guard Derrick Low, Virginia Commonwealth guard Eric Maynor, Michigan State guard Drew Neitzel, and Indiana forward D.J. White.

The list will be pared down to 12 before the team leaves for practices in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert was the only other Big East player joining Reynolds to make it past the first cuts. Hibbert is Big on Getting Better (Philadelphia Daily News) after returning to school and turning down the chance to be a high lottery pick in the NBA draft. Marquette’s Jerel McNeal and Wes Mathews were Both Cut from Pan Am team (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). Dominic James was also expected to try out for the squad bu James Decided to Stay Home (Journal-Sentinel) after spending so much time on the go auditioning for the NBA Draft since the end of the season.
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MISC Big East and Schedule Notes:
Much is anticipated this year from the Louisville Cardinals and that weighed on the mind of Marvin Menzies when New Mexico State’s head coaching job came open in June. Although Menzies Says it Was Tough to Leave Louisville (Louisville Courier-Journal), the opportunity to be a head coach with a solid program was too much to pass up.

The article also has some insight from Tom Odjakjian, who is in charge of scheduling men’s basketball games for the conference. Odjakjkian, the deputy commission of the Big East, has to satisfy TV demands for high-profile matchups, juggle availability for the league’s many multi-purpose arenas and maintain competitive balance among the 16 teams.
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Here are some SHU OOC schedule notes from a post from zagsblog that appeared above:

-Nov. 11 vs. Monmouth, at “The Rock”

-Nov. 18, Robert Morris, at “The Rock”

-Nov. 20, Loyola, at “The Rock”

-Nov. 23, vs. Navy, at The Palestra

-Nov. 24, TBA, at The Palestra

-Dec. 1 at St. Mary’s (California)

-Dec. 8 at Penn State

-Dec. 27 vs. North Carolina State, at “The Rock
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The much-anticipated coaching return of Bob Huggins to the University of Cincinnati campus will likely have to wait a year as UC Will Visit WVU This Season (Cincinnati Enquirer).
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With the Big East Returning to an 18-Game Scheudle (Hartford Courant) it seems a bit odd that Connecticut is not having a top-heavy schedule as UConn Men Play Heavyweights Just Once (Connecticut Post) with their ‘mirror’ opponents being Notre Dame, Providence and Cincinnati.
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Syracuse took a lot of flak last year when they were left out of the NCAA Tournament for their lack of quality appearances on the road in their out of conference schedule last year. Jim Boeheim has taken a big step in correcting that perception this season as Syracuse is the Latest Marquee Opponent for Virginia at JPJ Arena (Roanoke.com) on the UVA campus.
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Hopefully everyone had a chance to read our article on the Pittsburgh Pro-Am Summer League that was posted late last week. We are attempting to do similar profiles on a few other summer leagues taking place in the Big East area. The Cincinnati Post reports that for $3 you can go to Woodward High School in Cincinnati and see many area Division 1-A talents play in the same building in the middle of July, hoop junkie heaven, in the Deveroes Summer League. And, like most players in this atmosphere, UC Looks Strong in July when everyone looks to have improved since last season, gotten stronger in the last four months and added something new we did not see last year. Anyway, these leagues are always fun, if you can, the tournament action starts this Tuesday in Cincinnati.

The more athletic you are and, in many cases, the more shot-happy you are, the best chance you have to shine in the summer league atmosphere. Combine that with an endless bundle of energy and you get a glimpse at why Alvin Mitchell, an incoming UD frosh, is creating quite a buzz in Cincinnati. Mitchell is a Definite Bundle of Energy (Cincinnati Post) even if he still has to work on learning the game and finding his timing within it.

Just like the Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and West Virginia players, the current and incoming players at Rutgers are getting their work in this summer in a competitive summer league against other local D1-A talent. Rutgers Stars Continue to Impress at the Barn (Yahoo! Sports) League on the RU campus this summer.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (7/13/2007)

July 13, 2007

Hope you caught our article posted last night on the Pittsburgh Pro-Am Summer League which gave an in-depth look at a new summer league in the Pittsburgh area that features many Big East players since both West Virginia and Pitt send nearly their entire rosters to the league. We hope to have a coupl emore of these summer league reviews in the next couple weeks.

We also had a correspendent on hand for the RBK U Championship Game as well as some of the action at the Reebok Summer East Classic that just concluded at Rider University yesterday. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we will have his views on those events and some detailed summaries from the Hoop Group Event’s championship games at Rider from yesterday.

Also a heads up…the Big East will announce home and away schedules today, as we expected. Some of the mirror games are starting to trickle out. If we have a release from the league prior to signing off early this afternoon, we will post it.

In other posts below, Adam Zagoria updates readers on Seton Hall’s remaining targets which include several Big East school lists for many players, including Kevin Jones, Quintrell Thomas, Tyreke Evans, Allan Chaney and others. Brian Oliver is a player out of Delaware that many Big East schools are targeting for 2009. In addition to their strong Big East interest, Sylven Landesbery and Greg Echenique have increasing interest from a SEC power. Trinity fields might be a player to watch later this summer if he makes the radar of a couple Big East teams. Also, the Pitt/Duke game at Madison Square Garden this December looks like a go.

You can read these stories and more, including some inklings from a NY Daily News interview that Sonny Vaccaro will not be on the sideline come September, by clicking READ MORE below!

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

After the recent commitment of Charles Okwandu, a 7’2 Nigerian, Adam Zagoria takes a look at What’s Next for Seton Hall (zagsblog) as Bobby Gonzalez will look to regroup and find the versatile wing his club needs in the second half of the July evaluation period. Here are the players that seem to be on the SHU radar, currently:

Kevin Jones, 6-7, Mount Vernon (N.Y.) (2008): Jones listed just about every major college in North America: Indiana, Memphis, Miami, UConn, St. Joe’s, Rutgers, St. John’s, Seton Hall, UMass, UCLA, Ohio State…

Quintrell Thomas, 6-8, St. Patrick (2008): His mother said she likes Wake Forest. Maryland, Pitt and Kansas are a couple of the major powers involved.

Tyreke Evans, 6-5, American Christian (2008): Louisville, North Carolina, Villanova or Arizona.

Lamar Patterson, 6-4, McCaskey (Pa.) High School. (2009)

Sean Mosley, 6-3, Baltimore (Md.) St. Francis (2008): Much of the ACC is after him.

Allan Chaney, 6-8, New London (Conn.) (2008): He said he holds offers from Providence, Rhode Island, UMass, James Madison, Duquesne and Fordham.

Renaldo Woolridge, 6-7 , North Hollywood (Calif.) Harvard-Westlake, (2008)

Brendan Montario, 6-5, Waterbury (Conn) (2008): Solid Atlantic 10 prospect and could be going home with high-major chasers.

Chris Prescott, 6-3, Bloomfield (Conn.) Northwest Catholic (2008): Reportedly holds offers from Fordham, UMass, St. Joe’s and Rhode Island, while Seton Hall, Wake Forest and Pitt are looking at him.
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As the summer period of recruiting moves along, players in the class of 2009 are becoming more and more of a priority for recruiters because of the early commitment craze which has limited the field of available 2009 talent. One hot commodity for Big East schools is Brian Oliver, who has Enjoyed Big Time Exposure for a Small-State Star (delawareonlione.com) while playing with the Playaz Basketball Club of Paterson, N.J. Oliver has received athletic scholarship offers from Big East schools Rutgers, Pittsburgh and West Virginia. He also has been contacted by Notre Dame, Georgetown and Syracuse. Oliver, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard, was selected third team All-State after averaging 16.5 points, seven rebounds and three blocks a game. He was the only sophomore to make first, second or third team All-State. He is one of the best shooters in the class of 2009.
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We have talked a bit recently about Sylven Landesberg, who is St. John’s most coveted target with their lone 2008 scholarship, and 2009 Newark, N.J., junior Greg Echenique of St. Benedict’s Prep who has many in the Big East after him. Any Big East school hoping to sign either of these to LOI’s are going to have to hold off the elite of college basketball, including Kenutcky, as UK is Looking at Two NYC-area Recruits (Louisville Courier-Journal).

Sylven Landesberg, a senior-to-be from Flushing, N.Y., has the Wildcats in his final list of five schools. Originally, the 6-foot-5, 185-pound Landesberg had narrowed his list to Georgia Tech, Virginia, Texas and St. John’s, but recent inquiries from UK will not be ignored by Landesberg.

The 6-8, 250-pound Echenique said he’s wide open as far as colleges. He also listed Rutgers, Villanova, Syracuse, Miami (Fla.), Florida and Pittsburgh as schools that with which he’s been in contact this summer.
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Look for Trinity Fields to draw some looks this summer as he finishes out the AAU season with the Westchester Hawks (who also feature Mookie Jones, Kevin Jones and Sean Kilpatrick). However, his name will be very much under the radar as he never made it to one of the sneaker camps. The Sneaker Camp Snub No Big Deal to Fields (Queens Courier) as the Cardozo star said he did get a late invite to Reebok U, but lacked the means to get to the city of brotherly love. Talent evaluator Tom Konchalski, publisher of the High School Basketball Insider, has called Fields the PSAL’s best returning lead guard, which means he can certainly ball.
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Missing from the summer camp scene this year has been Sonny Vaccaro, however, do not expect him to be out of the scene for long as Exile Has Not Silenced Sonny (NY Daily News) as Vaccaro thinks he has been made a scapegoat in the whole crusade against summer basketball that the NCAA and high school associations have seemingly been on. Here is Vaccaro’s last quote, which seems to be accompanied with a black cloud:

Now the media can’t say I work for Nike or Reebok. I walked away on my own. If I’m going to stand up to these people – the NCAA – then I can’t have an affiliation. I’m not retired, but I’m not employed by any shoe company or anyone.

I’m not going to say what I’m going to do, but I’m going to cause a ruckus in

September. I’m going to have things to say because I think the whole system is flawed.

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It has been confirmed, Duke, Pitt to Play at Madison Square Garden (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) on December 20 on ESPN. The first meeting between the two schools in 27 years came about after some determined rescheduling by Pitt, which switched dates for games with Dayton, Buffalo and Lafayette to accommodate the matchup. The Panthers will also plat on the road against Washington and will host Oklahoma State in December. A nice job of scheduling by Pitt.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (7/11/2007)

July 11, 2007

Syracuse gets onthe board with a commitment from the class of 2010 and they head to a familiar school in Philadelphia to get that commitment during their recent one-day Elite camp on their campus.

Adam Zagoria has a nice article on Big East recruits Travon Woodall and Mike Rosario and how they have grown up together, along with Jio Fontan. Kevin Jones led his team to a championship at RBK U. St. John’s has one scholarship for 2008 and have a couple locals interested, but they are hoping to land a big fish first if he opts to stay home. CSTV’s Van Coleman and Pat Stevens have the action covered from the last two days in Philadelphia at RBK U. They have some interested Big East recruiting updates as well. Fin out which new member of the Big East was in on Maurice Hubbard prior to the summer camp session.

Now that the new camps are over, see how they were received by players, such as Kemba Walker, and coaches like Norm Roberts, Jamie Dixon and Jim Calhoun. Connecticut and Providence have announced they will be participating in an impressive OOC event against high-profile opponents and Pittsburgh will also be facing a tough December slate in preparation for the Big East. South Florida may be without their best returning player and best incoming player because of participation in a non-sanctioned summer event.

You can read these stories by clicking READ MORE below!

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

The highly ranked Syracuse 2007 recruiting class includes a pair of prospects from powerful Philadelphia’s Neumann-Goretti High School: Antonio ‘Scoop’ Jardine and Rick Jackson. Yesterday, the Orange took a big step forward another high ranked recruiting class for 2010 by dipping back into N-G as SU Lands Elite Hoops Recruit (Syracuse Post-Standard) Dion Waiters, who has yet to play his first high school basketball game. Waiters, a 6-foot-2 guard, is very close friends with Jardine. Next year, he’ll team up with highly-touted sophomore Tony Chenault, another Syracuse recruiting target, in Neumann-Goretti’s backcourt. Is another N-G duo on the way to Syracuse?
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Jio Fontan, Mike Rosario (Rutgers) and Travon Woodall (Pitt) are considered three boys born to different mothers who ultimately became brothers and the St. Anthony’s Trio forms a Strong Bond (NorthJersey.com). Fontan, Rosario and Woodall have been virtually inseparable since they were 11 years old and have successfully navigated the obstacle course of the inner city to earn Division I basketball scholarships. Heading into their final high school season they are intent on coming together to win a state championship before they split up and go their separate ways to college.
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It was an experience Kemba Walker will never forget as two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash pulled him aside two weeks ago at Kean University in Union, N.J., to demonstrate the proper way to play off a screen. Walker was one of the invited point guards to take part in one of Nike’s newly formed Skills Academies and it was clear that Nash Gives Nike Some Class (NY Daily News).
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It is becoming more rare that a high school senior-to-be has something left to prove during the summer camp season, but as Darryl (Truck) Bryant tries to prove he is Big East-worthy, that is exactly what these camps can be used for. In his latest installment of Truck Stop for the NY Daily News, Bryant checks in on the latest from his summer travels which included a stay at RBK U in Philadelphia.

St. John’s currently has just one scholarship open for the class of 2008 and Bryant is Countin’ on Redstorm (NY Post) to be there for him as he indicated St. John’s remains at the top of his list. Norm Roberts may be anxiously waiting to hear from Holy Cross star Sylven Landesberg, who could go virtually anywhere he wanted, but is considering staying in Queens with the last available scholly. Brooklyn native and St. Benedict’s guard Dwan McMillan also is very high on St. John’s, who would like to add another PG if Landesberg opts to leave the area for college.
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The Varsity Insider Blog updates Kev Jones at Reebok as the Mount Vernon star saw UNC, Villanova, and Illinois getinvolved in the recruiting sweepstakes for his services after an 18-point performance in the camp’s championship on 7-of-9 shooting (2-for-2 from 3s) with eight rebounds. Jones plans to narrow his list to five schools at the end of the summer and take official visits to those finalists in September. The late (for this day and age) timetable for a decision could determine which five schools are left, rather than him deciding on the five he likes the best, in my opinion.

Mookie Jones of Peekskill and Sean Kilpatrick of White Plains were also at the camp and had a solid showing.
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Pat Stevens of CSTV.com blogs on the Reebok U Camp Final where he summarizes the Championship Game and gives his Top 10 Players at the camp. Here are some highlights of his info:

Tyshawn Taylor led his team to the camp chip and gave a list of Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, Marquette, West Virgina, DePaul and St. John’s.

Eshaunte Jones says it’ll be Hargrave or Patterson for his prep year. Oregon State, Memphis, Illinois, Georgetown and Indiana’s still in the mix. Look for Missouri and Cincinnati to get more involved.

Courtney Fortson’s another one headed to prep, to Patterson, and his list currently looks like Tennessee, Mississippi, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Kentucky and Cincinnati.
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Van Coleman spent his first day at Reebok on Monday and had an article at CSTV about his Reebok U Top Performers which included a look at Big East commitments and targets such as Kenny Boynton, Eloy Vargas, Olu Ashaolu, Olek Czyz, Karron Johnson, Mike Rosario, Clarence Trent and Maalik Wayns, among others. He also offers up a couple recruiting lists:

Brandon Moore lists Louisville, Kentucky, Baylor, Tulane and Texas A&M.

Quincy Acy, a 6-foot-8 PF, lists Baylor, UNLV, Connecticut, Florida, Texas and Arizona.

Ari Stewart, a 6-foot-7 (2009) WF, lists Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Miami (FL), Minnesota, Florida State, Clemson, Mississippi, Xavier, Georgia, South Florida, Cincinnati, Michigan State, Arizona and N.C. State.
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After seeing the amount of stories that came out contradicting Adam Zagoria’s story on Lamont Jones de-committing from Louisville, there seemed to be a good amount of Louisville fans believing that Zags had some explaining to do. However, these young kids are tough to cover with many adults in their ears, so things probably change often and inexperience with the media is (on the recruit’s part) one of the areas of ‘Life Skills’ that these academies are trying to help these youngsters with. On his zagsblog, Adam updates readers on the MoMo Jones Saga: Day 2.
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i95ballerz.com introduces us to Maurice ‘Mo’ Hubbard, who has been a player of note in Northern Virginia since his freshman year, starring at Westfield High School throughout his career, and making fourth team All-Met last year, as a junior. The 6’5”, 205lb swingman is playing with Boo Williams’ 17 and under squad after supplying 15 points, 10 rebounds, plus four assists per game season, and boasting a very impressive athletic resume, Hubbard attended last month’s NBA Player’s Association’s Top 100 Camp. DePaul was one Big East school interested in the promising prospect prior to the summer camp season, more are likely to take a look throughout the month.
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University of South Florida senior center Kentrell Gransberry and incoming freshman guard Dominique Jones may have violated NCAA rules by playing in Tracy McGrady’s annual basketball tournament last month at Auburndale High School. If they are deemed in violation (the tournament doled out cash prizes to the top three teams) USF’s Gransberry, Jones May Be Sidelined (Tampa Tribune) by the NCAA, most likely at the start of the season. South Florida coach Stan Heath indicated the USF Duo Made a Poor Choice (Bulls Report Blog) by participating and they will have to deal with the consequences handed down by the NCAA.
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We expect to hear more from the Big East conference, maybe by the week’s end, on the 2007-2008 Big East schedule, which will be increased from 16 to 18 games next season. Also, more and more teams are lining up some impressive out of conference dates and one that hit the newswire yesterday is that UConn will be Meeting Up With Gonzaga Again (Hartford Courant) December 1 at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Challenge, a doubleheader that includes a game between Boston College and Providence. So, a pair of Big East teams will have high-profile out of conference tilts in the event.

Another school that over the last two years have gone out of their way to shed their ‘soft scheduling’ reputation is Pittsburgh. We have learned that the Panthers juggled several games on their out of conference schedule for next season in order to accomodate a date at Madison Square Garden with Duke next December. The Panther will also face Oklahoma State (home) and Washington (in Seattle) during the month of December with a road game in Dayton as well. They are also playing at an improved Duquesne this year and are also likely to welcome Rick Majerus’ St. Louis team to the Peterson Events Center.
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This year’s version of the ‘sneaker camps’ has ended, but at RBK U Team Play Draws Top Marks at ABCD Spinof (NY Daily News) and will hopefully make a bigger impact on the players going forward.

In Akron, the Stars Shine and Align on King James Court (NY Daily News) as Big East coaches Norm Roberts, Jim Calhoun and Jamie Dixon all noticed the differences that they new approach of the camp attempted to make, although it was not a radical departure from previous editions, but progress is being made.

The RBK U Director was Impressed With First Year of Camp in Philly (Philadelphia Daily News) as Chris Rivers ran the camp after working under Sonny Vaccaro at the previous editions of the ABCD Camp. The article also mentions Quintrell Thomas, a Big East target, as one of the five most impressive players who entered camp under the radar and gave a review of Maalik Wayns’ all-star game performance.
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (7/9/2007) PM UPDATE

July 9, 2007

The whispers of Olu Ashaolu opening up his recruitment have been confirmed and the de-commitment bug was caught by another early Louisville commitment. Coaches are also making their way from Akron to Philadelphia as the Lebron event begins to wind down. Also, learn more about Montrose Christian’s Isaiah Armwood and what two Big East programs are in hot pursuit early on and another profile on recent ‘Nova commitment Maalik Wayns.

You can read these stories, as well as Hoops Weiss Observations from his 2007 Camp Travels, by clicking READ MORE below!

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

Adam Zagoria continues to blog from Akron, Ohio and he has an interview with Ro Russell on his blog. Russell coached Ashaolu in Canada, said at Rbk U in Philadelphia that “(Ashaolu) is pretty much still set on going to Rutgers, but he wants to do a little bit further research on a couple things just to make sure it’s the best possible situation.”

Before he committed, UConn, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Washington and other schools were all involved, Russell said. I guess a sticking point is what position Ashaolu will play in college, the three or the four. At 6’7, his future in the pros is likely on the wing, but his game screams undersized four at this point.

The second bit of news is a little more surprising as Lamont “Momo” Jones, a 5-11, 170-pound shooting guard from Rice High in New York who had committed to Louisville, also has decided to open up his recruitment. The 2009 U of L commitment joins 2008 former commitments Martez Walker and Jeff Withey as players who have taken back an early pledge to Rick Pitino’s program. From the sounds of it, Jones is not happy with the situation at Louisville and their recruitment of him:

“I’m opening up my recruitment,” Jones said Monday morning. “There were a couple of other things that were promised that never came through. Me and my mother sat down and we spoke about it, and she’s not happy with the situation so we decided to open my recruiting. There’s a lot of things preventing me from going there.”

Jones said Georgetown was now his top option, but that other schools, including Seton Hall, St. John’s, Rutgers, Virginia Tech, Gonzaga, Syracuse and others had offered scholarships.

You can get the full story at Zags blog: Ashaolu, Jones Open Up Recruitment.
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With the Lebron James camp coming to a close tonight in Akron, many coaches are making their way to Philadelphia for Reebok U and coaches arriving at Reebok U Monday (CSTV.com) included Jamie Dixon and Bob Huggins. Dixon had a chance to see recent commit Ashton Gibbs score 13 points in his team’s 76-73 win against Kenny Boynton and Brandon Knight’s squad. Gibbs often gets high praise for his defensive efforts and neither Boynton nor Knight were very effecient on the offensive end.
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i95Ballerz.com offers up Snapshots, Part 4 with a look at Isaiah Armwood and Maalik Wayns. Armwood is a 6’8, 200 lb class of 2009 forward from Montrose Christian that already has Maryland, Syracuse and Villanova in HOT pursuit. Wayns is a recent Villanova verbal commitment from the class of 2009 and is nnother tough Philadelphia guard, Wayns impressed greatly at the NBA Player’s Association Top 100 Camp in June.
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Also, Hoops Weiss has been sampling the camp circuit between New Jersey and Philly and caught up with Bob Hurley Sr on his stud 2009 prospect Dominic Cheek who impressed all observers at Reebok U in his first outing despite playing limited minutes before injuring his ankle: Cheek Among Best Jersey City Prospects Ever (NY Daily News).
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (7/9/2007)

July 9, 2007

Well, the crazy camp season is upon us and we have a TON of updates from the Big Three events of last week: Adidad it Takes 5ive, Reebok University and the Lebron James Skills Academy. Adam Zagoria, Jerry Carino, CSTV and the Louisville Courier-Journal have the recruiting news covered for their readers and we try to summarize the Big East notes from their articles.

With the big three sneaker companies scaling back a bit, some of the overflow talent has ended up at the Eastern Invitational. Also, will the NCAA changes in the rules governing core courses taken at prep schools impact Dwan McMillan? McMillan has some strong Big East interest. Mike Waters gives us some of the big names that recently took time to attend the Syracuse Elite Camp last week on the SU campus. Karron Johnson is a name i95ballerz wants us to remember and he has one Big East school looking at him already.

Tom Crean has filled out his coaching staff as a head coach leaves his current job to take a position with Marquette.

So much to read…so little time…so, I will let you get to it!

You can read these stories, as well as some player reviews from CAAINsider at the Eastern Invitation Camp, by clicking READ MORE below!

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

Jerry Carino of the Courier News is in Philadelphia covering the Reebok Camp, keeping a eye on all the happenings with Seton Hall and the local New Jersey players. He also has some news regarding Rutgers commit Olu Ashaolu in his first update from the camp: Reebok Camp: Ashaolu News & More.

The cliff notes version of his excellent update is that Ashaolu sounds to be on the verge of de-committing from Rutgers and opening the process up again. This will be a story to follow this month.

B.J. Monteiro, the 6-foot-5 wing from Connecticut, is on the SHU radar. Seton Hall’s Geoff Billet has been recruiting Monteiro, who has offers from only Penn State and Fordham and the other schools to express interest are Clemson, Virginia and St. Joseph.

Lamar Patterson, a 6-5 shooting guard/wing from Lancaster, Pa., is a Seton Hall target. Carino also gives readers an update of the early play of locals Travon Woodall (Pitt), Mike Rosario (RU), Ashton Gibbs (Pitt), Quintrell Thomas, Kevin Jones. Mookie Jones, Tyshawn Taylor and Dominic Cheek, all have intense Big East followings.

In yesterday’s Asbury Park Press, Carino has an article on the New Home, Fresh Faces Mark Start of Reebok University.
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As expected, Adam Zagoria has GREAT in-depth coverage from the Lebron Academy in Akron Ohio. He has tremendous updates from the first three days at his Zagsblog. Here are the daily updates with a brief summary for Big East items of interest:

Lebron James Notes Day 1:

Rutgers has offered a scholarship to Fuquan Edwin, the 6-5 rising sophomore from Paterson Catholic, and may be close to offering one to T.J. Clemmings, the 6-5 power forward who transferred to Paterson Catholic from Paramus Catholic.

Rutgers coaches spent part of the day watching the half of the 80-player group that included Lance Goulbourne of The Hun School, Dexter Strickland of St. Patrick and Sylven Landesberg of Holy Cross. Goulbourne was a late addition to the camp that seems to favor Vanderbilt, but has been to Rutgers a few times of late and also has high interest in Georgetown.

Lebron James Notes Day 2:

Sylven Landesberg of Holy Cross (NYC) says he has a list of Top 5 schools: Georgia Tech, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky and St. John’s. Landesberg, a 6-5, 193-pound wing, said he anticipates making a decision “toward the end of the summer.”

Even though he has committed to Seton Hall, Paterson Catholic point guard Jordan Theodore says he still gets contacted by schools trying to recruit him, including Arkansas and Maryland lately.

Durand Scott of Rice, a 6-3, 180-pound wing from the Class of 2009, has offers from Virginia, Memphis, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Rutgers. UConn is also recruiting him.

The local banter is that Louisville rising sophomores Derrick Caracter and Earl Clark will both enter the NBA Draft after their sophomore seasons.

Lincoln High star Lance Stephenson, a 6-4 wing is looking at Duke, West Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Texas A&M, Georgetown, Georgia Tech…

Lebron James Notes Day 3:

Dexter Strickland’s stock is taking off like a rocket and the 6-3, 175-pound guard from St. Patrick of Elizabeth lists Michigan State, Florida, Ohio State, North Carolina, Rutgers and Villanova among his suitors. Michigan State is considered the leader for Strickland.

Also, for the Herald News today, Zagoria has an article on what these ‘new’ camps aim to accomplish this week and the tone they hope to set for the future. It also gives players like Jordan Theodore a glimpse of stardom as PC’s Theodore Rubs Elbows with Lebron James.
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The Lexington Herald-Leader has a story on a recruiting battle between a couple SEC teams for Scott Hopson (A cat-and-Bulldog Fight?). The article also reports that Greg Echenique, a native of Venezuela, enjoyed an unofficial visit to UK earlier this year. He attends St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J. and the 6-8, 270-pound junior-to-be, does not expect to make a choice for another year is considering Rutgers, Villanova, Syracuse, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Miami and Florida as well.
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CSTV.com also has ramped up their recrutiing coverage this year. Van Coleman reports on the Nike Lebron James Skill Academy Day One with his listings of the top performers by class.

Coleman hit Akron after spending a few days at the Adidas It Takes 5ive event on the Cincinnati campus. Here are his reports from Day One and Day Two. Below are the Big East Notes of interest:

Chris Singleton, 6-foot-8 CF (Atlanta Celtics): coaches from South Carolina, Wake Forest, Tennessee, Miami (Fla.), Kentucky, Cincinnati, and Georgia Tech were at his game.

Damier Pitts, 6-foot PG (Carolina Raptors): South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest were among schools at his early morning game.

Kevin Menner, 6-foot-5 WF (Juice All-Stars): He will draw some real interest from Big East schools if he continues to play with this level of intensity this summer.

Kris Joseph (6-foot-5 SG, DC Assault), the SU commit, showed that he can knock down the deep three to go with his quick first step and great elevation off the floor. He’s a finisher who can explode in traffic.

Tyler Zeller (7-foot C, Indiana Elite): Coaches from North Carolina, Purdue, Iowa, Kentucky, Iowa State, Notre Dame, Tennessee and Indiana were in the stands at his game.

Patrick Stevens is blogging from Reebok U for CSTV and offers Two Scoops related to the Big East in his Reebok U Sunday entry:

Olu Ashaolu opening back up with Rutgers still in the picture.

Eshaunte Jones back open (known already) with Cincinnati the early leader.
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Brian Crownover of CAAInsider.com checked out the action at the College of New Jersey last week at the Eastern Invitational. Many Big East coaches spent time there with the Nike and Reebok camps scaling back their numbers and more quality players were in New Jersey this year. Here are his player reports from Eastern Invitational Day One and Eastern Invitational Days 2 & 3 (Part I).
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With the influx of talent the Eastern Camp Steps Up (NY Post) with Big East targets Christian Morris and Omari Lawrence among the talented players in attendence. Steve Demeo, associate head coach at Providence College, is a fixture evaluating players at the camp annually, had company with assistants from Florida and Duke also in attendence.
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i95Ballerz.com has an article, Snapshots, Part 3, that includes a review of 6’8”, 220lb junior forward, from from Richmond, VA, Karron Johnson. Georgetown is one school interested in the Mt. Zion Academy player who runs with the Richmond Squires.
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Jody Demlong of the Louisville Courier-Journal has a ton of recruiting updates to his blog including an article where Willie Warren Talks Cats & Cards. The 6-foot-4, 195-pound Warren’s list of schools is rather lengthy, including Baylor, Texas, Kansas, Cincinnati, Florida, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Arkansas among others. Warren was once looked upon as a Kentucky lean, but now the pendulum might have swung towards Louisville and he would not be bothered by their recruitment of Tyreke Evans.

Demling also visited the It Takes 5ive Classic up the road in Cincinnati and here are his Big East related notes (mostly Louiville-related):

Georgia guard Trae Golden‘s (2010) stock just keeps going up and it appears Kentucky is still the leader for his services. Clemson, Louisville, Georgia and Georgia Tech are among the other suitors.

Chris Singleton, the 6-foot-9, 220 pounder is the real deal and was the best player on a solid Atlanta Celtics team. U of L assistant Richard Pitino was in attendance and watched Singleton have a really good game in the early evening session. Singleton also lists Cincinnati, LSU, Florida State, Miami (Fla.), Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina among the schools he;s looking at. He will unofficially trip to Louisville soon.

Washington (Ind.) center Tyler Zeller said nothing has changed in his recruiting status with nine schools still in the race. Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Purdue and Tennessee are still in the mix.

Louisville appears to be in good shape with Texas junior standout Shawn Williams, whose mother is from Louisville and attended Shawnee High School. The 6-foot-6 Williams said he’s considering the Cardinals, along with Kentucky, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas and Baylor. He is a top 30 player from the Class of 2009.

Here are Demling’s notes from the Lebron James Skills Academy (Sunday). Of course, it has a bunch of Louisville recruiting observations.
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NBADraft.net has a 2007 RBK U Day One review on their site as well. Here are some key Big East observations:

Darryl Bryant (Bronx, NY) exhibited quintessential New York point guard skills as he used his strong body and good quickness to get into the lane and score 11 points. Bryant, being sought after by the likes of St. Johns and Villanova. The NBEBlogger has heard that SJU leads for Bryant’s services.

Michael Rosario (Jersey City, NJ) needed 18 shot attempts to score his team-high 16 points. Travon Woodall, a 6’0’’ PG out of Paterson, NJ was much more efficient, scoring 15 points on 5/7 shooting from the field and 3/4 from three-point range.

Clarence Trent, a SF with tremendous size and talent, continued to struggle as he put up a goose-egg for the second straight game. Trent had been high on the radar’s of UConn and Arkansas, but his stock is likely to drop if he continues to perform at such a low level.
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Dwan McMillan plans to attend college next year. He’s thinking about schools such as Clemson, Cincinnati and Memphis, as well as St. John’s. Despite his plans, the Brooklyn native’s whereabouts after he leaves St. Benedict’s (Newark) after the upcoming season remain very much in doubt because NCAA’s New Rules May Hurt McMillan (NY Post) as he spends an extra year in the prep system.
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Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard gives an update on the recent SU Elite Camp with SU Recruits and Summer Plans on his Orange blog. Here are some of the big names that were on the SU campus: Gregory Echenique, Mookie Jones, Kevin Jones, Assane Sene, a 7-foot center at South Kent Prep in Connecticut, James Southerland, the Syracuse commit from Cardozo High in Queens, Dion Waiters, a rising sophomore guard from Philadelphia; Brandon Triche, the rising junior at Jamesville-DeWitt High; and Mike Goodman, the junior forward at Christian Brothers Academy.
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Buzz Williams was 14-17 in his first year as the Privateers head man at the University of New Orleans. Williams resigned on Friday afternoon, according to numerous sources close to the situation as Williams Heads to Marquette (FoxSports.com) to become an assistant coach for Tom Crean
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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (7/6/2007)

July 6, 2007

SOOOO much to get to today. We basically have, in one form or another, a recruiting update on every school in the Big East from linked articles below in reference to MANY players, some are new names, some are old names.

There is a developing story on the Tyreke Evans recruitment whcih brings to light some of the past big names that Memphis has landed and is making Louisville fans, and their basketball office, very nervous as they have made Evans their ‘must’ get of the summer period. Also, nice stories on Najee Hibbert and Sylven Landesberg and introductions to a couple New England prep underclassmen that have burgeoning Big East interest.

So much to read…so little time…so, I will let you get to it!

You can read these stories, as well as a link for the first Big East team profiled in their 144 teams in 144 days at CollegeHoopsNet.com, by clicking READ MORE below!

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

The Tyreke Evans recruiting battle, which many people thought would be wrapped up by Louisville at any time, has just gotten MUCH more interesting after a GQ article on William Wesley, a middle-aged mortgage broker and an e-mail sent out from the Louisville basketball office to other members of the league.

Who is William Wesley? Well, GQ asks Is This the Most Powerful Man in Sports?. It is a fascinating article on how ‘Worldwide’ Wes has become a power broker in the college and pro basketball landscape and nobody knows what he does for sure, but he certainly seems to know everyone.

The Louisville basketball office certainly has an idea of what William Wesley is up to as a Louisville E-Mail Calls Worldwide Wes a ‘Runner’ (Good n’ Plenty Basketball Blog), and they forwarded the other basketball offices in the conference the GQ article and refer to Wesley as:

This individual is a “runner” but disguises himself as a friend or an “uncle” or an employee of NIKE. Last year we had an issue with another individual. The article is lengthy.

Rick Pitino’s assistant director of athletic compliance, Nicholas Ojea, sent this to the Big East office. Ojea and the Cardinals quickly sent a retraction to the Big East office just days later – probably in fear of retribution of a lawsuit from Wesley.

So how does this involve Evans and Louisville? well, Wesley was instrumental with one of his ‘nephews’ when he got Dejuan Wagner, son of one of Louisville’s all-time greats, to head to Memphis for college, passing up the NBA. Wesley was also in with Derrick Rose, who chose Memphis last year and last January at the Nike Super 6 Wes was seated courtside between a man named Reggie Evans and Eric Goodwin, the muscle-bound brother of LeBron’s former agent, Aaron Goodwin. Tyreke Evans, Reggie Evans’s brother, was showcasing his talents that afternoon and at one point, Tyreke stops to show Wes some love. Suddenly, Louisville does not seem like such a lock for Evans…
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Erik Murphy (class of 2009) has the more established reputation among the lethal frontcourt duo at St. Mark’s in New England. However, coach Dave Lubick has another stud to pair with Murphy, 6’8 class of 2010 forward Nate Lubick, the son of the coach. Lubick Recently Returned from an Unofficial Visit (New England Recruiting Report) to meet John Beilein and see his Michigan program, but Lubick is also fielding early interest from Virginia, Michigan, Duke, Georgetown, UCLA, Marquette, Notre Dame, Stanford, Northwestern, and URI.
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Murphy and Lubick are not the only New England underclassmen boasting significant high-major attention from Big East suitors as Trevor Baskin is Receiving a Good Deal of High-Major Interest (NERR) himself as Arizona, Clemson, Pittsburgh, St. John’s, Virginia Tech, Rutgers, Miami, and Auburn, to name a few, have been showing interest in the 2009 prospect who enjoyed a fine week at the NBPA Top 100 camp recently. The 6’7 forward out of Trinity Catholic High School a rare blend of size, athleticism, and skill has gone from a player who was considered primarily an interior force in the beginning of his career to one who is getting more and more comfortable stepping away from the hoop.
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Adam Zagoria updates us on Mookie Jones as Mookie Enjoyed Syracuse Visit (Zagsblog) last week. His AAU coach Tom Jennings of the Westchester Hawks referred to it as a “monster” visit to Syracuse the Orange have a standing offer to Jones. Mookie also had an ‘excellent visit to Rutgers last week.
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Dexter Strickland, Dominic Cheek and Gregory Echenique are a trio of NJ products in the class of 2009 that will be on everyone’s ‘high priority’ list to make some progress with this summer on the recruiting trail. Recently Strickland, Cheek and Echenique made Scout.com’s Top 40 (Zagsblog) for the class of 2009 and Adam Zagoria gives a brief school list for each player:

Dexter Strickland, 6-3, 175, SG, St. Patrick: MIchigan State, Florida State, Ohio State, North Carolina, Rutgers, Villanova and Indiana.

Dominic Cheeck, 6-5, 175, SG, St. Anthony: Villanova, Ohio State, Syracuse, Rutgers, Miami, Kentucky and North Carolina.

Gregory Echenique – 6-9, 240, C, St. Benedict’s: Kentucky, Memphis, Rutgers, Maryland, Villanova, Florida and Syracuse.
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Zagoria also writes for the Herald News and today he has a summer camp article where he takes a look at how RU, SHU Search for Next Star (NorthJersey.com) to take their teams deep into the NCAA Tournament. The Seton Hall and Rutgers staff begin the July whirlwind today and their schedules are hectic.
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For the past two seasons Najee Hibbert, a 6’5 180 lb guard from Baltimore, has been an important player for Baltimore’s Saint Frances Academy on that city’s Eastside. Now, Hibbert is Headed to DeMatha, Ready for the Challenge (i95ballerz)to play for one of the nation’s top schools in one of the top leagues. DeMatha Catholic High School will challenge Hibbert athletically and academically, but also the travel could take a toll on the 2009 top prospect. In recruiting Maryland and Marist have offered, while Clemson, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Texas and others have and are starting to recruit him.
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In honor of the opening day of the July evaluation period KUSports.com from the Lawrence Journal-World has an article on Kansas Recrutiing Heating Up. Here are the key parts that pertain to Big East recruiting:

Phillip McDonald, 6-5, Cypress (Texas) Springs High School: KU, Oklahoma, Cincinnati and New Mexico

Greg Monroe, 6-10, Helen Cox High, Harvey, La: KU, Duke, Florida, Georgetown, LSU, Louisville, Southern California, Texas, North Carolina, Baylor, Connecticut and Kentucky.

Rotnei Clarke, 6-0, Verdigris High, Claremore, Okla: KU, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Oral Roberts, Marquette, Gonzaga, Arizona State, Arkansas, Missouri State and others.

J’Mison Morgan, 6-10, South Oak Cliff High, Dallas: KU, Alabama, Arizona, Georgetown, Baylor, UCLA, Louisville, Kentucky, Florida and UNLV.

Tyler Zeller, 6-11, Washington (Ind.) High: KU, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Notre Dame, Iowa, North Carolina and others.

Murphy Holloway, 6-7, Dutch Fork High, Irmo, S.C.: KU, Clemson, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, West Virginia and others.

Quintrell Thomas, 6-8, St. Patrick High, Elizabeth, N.J.: KU, Maryland, Pitt, Rutgers, Seton Hall, West Virginia, Wake Forest and Miami.

Clarence Trent, 6-7, Gig Harbor (Wash.) High: KU, Arkansas, UConn, Florida, Gonzaga, Washington, Illinois, Arizona and Louisville.

Verdell Jones, 6-4, Central High, Champaign, Ill: KU, Illinois, Southern Illinois, Kentucky, DePaul, Louisville and others.

Iman Shumpert, 6-4, Oak Park (Ill.) High: Clemson, Notre Dame, Illinois, Georgia Tech and others.

Michael Dunigan, 6-9, Farragut High, Chicago: Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Georgetown and KU

Darius Miller, 6-6, Mason County High, Maysville, Ky: Louisville, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois, Tennessee, Miami, Kansas State and Indiana.
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Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier-Journal begins the summer evaluation period with some Kentucky, Louisville and Indiana Recruiting Buzz. He believes that Angel Garcia is likely to commit to Memphis this summer and he has a source telling him that Tyreke Evans will be a Louisville commit by the November signing period over Villanova, no Memphis mentioned here…
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St. John’s has one scholarship remianing for the class of 2008 and they would love to land Holy Cross HS (NYC) standout Sylven Landesberg, a 6’5 wing. However, Landesberg Will Not Rush His Decision (NY Post) and might spend more of July relaxing rather than playing for a scholarship. Despite recent calls from Duke and Florida, it looks like he has a set list of schools, which include Virginia, Texas and St. John’s still remaining as a long-shot possibility.
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CollegeHoopsNet.com has kicked off their 144 teams in 144 days as a preview to the 2007-2008 season. Always a popular segment on the internet, they recently previewed their first Big East team: #131 St. John’s. They peg the Redstorm as #14 in the conference.
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Whew…lots of stuff out there today! Thank you for visiting and we will try to keep up on all of it through the month of July!

BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (7/5/2007)

July 5, 2007

Hardly know where to begin after being away for a week. Almost need a vacation from the vacation…but, here we go as we tip off July:

Villanova got a commitment that was expected from a local 2009 point guard. Kevin and Mookie Jones have been on a Big East campus for a few days earlier this week, who are the favorites to land them? Their AAU teammate Sean Kilpatrick also has a Big East school among his favorites. Matt Kavanaugh is a 6’9, 240 lb 2009 prospect out of Ohio who recently took in the sites of a couple Big East campuses. Quintrell Thomas is the latest St. Patrick standout that is coveted by several Big East schools, see who is in good with the 2008 power forward.

Marquette will trip to the great north over Labor day and are taking advantage of the 10 practices allowed for their trip by getting a head start, ready who looks good early on. Also, a prospective incoming Marquette recruit has his scholarship situation up in the air as he ran into some legal problems at home. A former Georgetown member of their final four squad has found a new home for his last two years of eligibility and learn more on Mike Brey and his hoops program at Notre Dame.

You can read these stories, as well as news on a new AAU event sponsored by Adidas tipping off on the Cincinnati campus tomorrow, by clicking READ MORE below!

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

As expected, Maalik Wayns decided to stay close to home as the 2009 prospect from Roman Catholic in Philadelphia made an oral commitment shortly after visiting a Big East school last week. Roman’s Wayns Decides on Villanova (Philadelphia Inquirer) over St. Joseph’s, Temple, West Virginia, Virginia and Pittsburgh. He teamed with 2007 Pitt recruit Brad Wanamaker to lead Roman Catholic to a 28-3 record last season.
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Kevin and Mookie Jones have been on the Big East recruiting radar firmly since the schools turned their attention to the class of 2008. Earlier this week, the Travelin’ Jones (Varsity Insider), along with Sean Kilpatrick took the trip upstate to Syracuse for their Elite Camp. Although none of the players have yet to tip their hand on the recruiting scene, here is what Kevin Devaney Jr feels as the currently possibilities:

Mookie Jones
My guess Syracuse
Won’t surprise me: Louisville
Darkhorse: Rutgers

Kevin Jones
My guess: Ohio State
Won’t surprise me: Indiana
Darkhorse: UConn

Sean Kilpatrick
My guess: Fordham
Won’t surprise me: St. John’s
Darkhorse: Miami

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The state of Ohio has been the hot state of late when it comes to producing high-major Division 1-A talent from a non-traditional source. The next name to keep in mind comes in from under the radar as 6-foot-9, 240-pound Centerville High School standout Matt Kavanaugh is a 2009 prospect that has gotten plenty of interest already from a couple Big East programs of note.

The Dayton Daily News reports that UD Wants the Centerville Big Man Kavanaugh as one of their priority 2009 recruits, already offering him a scholarship. Kavanaugh grew five inches between his freshman and sophomore seasons, so he still has the perimeter skills to go with the sturdy 240-lb frame. After averaging about 13 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks as a sophomore last season, Kavanaugh confirmed he has received a scholarship offer from Dayton and has made an unofficial visit to Pittsburgh last weekend and then attended a basketball camp for elite players at West Virginia, meeting new coach Bob Huggins.
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St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth, N.J. routinely produces high-major basketball talent and this past season was no exception as Corey Fisher (Villanova) and Jeff Robinson (Memphis) led the squad to another outstanding season. As those players leave, look for Quintrell Thomas, a 6’7+ hard-nosed forward to step into the spotlight for the 2007-2008 season. On the recruiting front, Thomas is Trying to Find a Fit (Yahoo! Sports) and while Kansas and Florida have been to knock on the door, it seems like Thomas might have three leaders right now:

“Maryland is real high on my list. Pittsburgh is as well. Rutgers, too.”

Thomas has been to Maryland’s campus for an unofficial visit. Same goes for nearby Rutgers and Seton Hall. At this time Maryland looks like the team to beat and Seton Hall and West Virginia are also showing interest from Big East.
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It is that crazy tome of th eyear for college basketball recruiting as the July evaluation period kicks off. In the past the three largest sneaker companies in the grassroots basketball business (Adidas, Nike & Reebok) held their All-American camps. This year, things will be a little different during the early part of the month and one school that might get a nice boost from the subtle changes is Cincinnati as as AAU Event Kicks Off Friday (Cincinnati Enquirer) on the UC campus.

Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Arena, the site of the inaugural adidas “It Takes 5IVE” Classic, an invitation-only event for AAU teams is being billed by Adidas as its “premier event of the summer.” Among the players who will compete this weekend are Jrue Holiday, who recently committed to UCLA; B.J. Mullins (Ohio State), Howard Thompkins (Georgia) and Withrow High School’s Yancy Gates, who has committed to UC as part of the 50 invited teams.
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We have mentioned a couple times that Marquette still has 14 players slotted for scholarships next season, one over the NCAA limit of 13. However, last week, Damian Saunders might have put his status in jeopardy as the Marquette Recruit Arrested on Drug Charge (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) and Saunders still awaiting scholarship, which will be sorted out after his legal issues are resolved. According to a police report in the Waterbury Republican American on Friday, Saunders, 18, was charged by Waterbury Police with possession of a controlled substance other than a narcotic or hallucinogen, or less than 4 ounces of marijuana.
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Over Labor Day weekend the Marquette Golden Eagles will take a trip to the great northwest of Canada to play a series of exhibition games in Vancouver. The NCAA allows schools to have 10 practice session in preparation for these trips and on Tuesday Marquette used the first of these allotted practices and Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has 7/03 Practice Notes 0n his Marquette Basketball Blog.

The most impressive player in the practice might have been 6’8 sophomore Lazar Hayward who showed a new confidence in his offensive game that if he can parlay that practice session success into the regular season would give Tom Crean’s squad a huge lift. Although incoming freshman are not allowed to participate in these practices until the fall semester begins, Crean gives Rosiak some updates on his frosh. Transfer Maurice Acker also looks to give Marquette another jet at the guard position to add more pressure on opposing defenses.
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Michael Rothstein of the Journal Gazette has a long conversation on his Irish Insights Blog with Mike Brey and the Hoops Program. It is a very nice and candid piece that gives a lot of insight into Mike Brey’s program at ND.
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Former Georgetown player Octavious Spann has picked his future college destination as Marshall Gets Another Basketball Transfer (Charleston Daily Mail).
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Thanks for stopping by!

BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (6/26/2007)

June 26, 2007

AFTERNOON UPDATE

Is Mike Rosario opening up his recruitment? See what Adam Zagoria found out when he talked with Rosario’s head coach at St. Anthony’s, Bob Hurley. Rosario is one of the fastest rising players in the class of 2008. Also, some of the names for this week’s Kobe Bryant Academy are known and a Pitt-commit will get his shot to ‘ball witht he stars’.

Rice High School teammates Kemba Walker and Durand Scott have been very impressive on the spring/early summer AAU circuit. Walker parlayed that performance into a scholarship offer from Connecticut which he accepted with a verbal commitment and the class of 2009 Scott’s phone was ringing often when coaches were first allowed to call him. Who called? See below…

You can read these stories, an article on Darryl Bryant’s summer this far, by clicking READ MORE below!

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

Historically, Bob Hurley’s players do not commit eary and they do not de-commit. The early commitment craze that has been sweeping college basketball has changed the way Hurley and his players handle the recruiting process and in the past several months, several of his players part of the class of 2008 have made their college decisions, including Mike Rosario (Rutgers) and Travon Woodall (Pitt). There had been some rumors that Rosario could open up his recruitment, but Hurley said that is highly unlikely as Rosario Remains Committed to Rutgers (Zagsblog) according to coach Hurley.
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Pitt-commit Nasir Robinson will attend the Kobe Bryant Shooting Guard Academy in Los Angeles which features 20 of the top rising junior and senior players in the nation this week as Kobe & Vince Rosters are Out (Zagsblog). The players will get to spend a few days training with two of the best players in the NBA before heading off to the LeBron James US Skills Academy in Akron, Ohio July 6-9, which replaces the former Nike All-American Camp held each year in Indianapolis.
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Like Mike Rosaria, Kemba Walker has turned in a terrefic spring and early summer on the AAU/camp circuit and watched his recruiting go from regional interest to in-demand from some of the nation’s top programs. One such ‘top program’ won the recruiting battle and now Kemba Can Relax Now That He Has Settled on UConn (NY Daily News). Walker averaged 14 points for Rice last season and quarterbacked a team that many thought would struggle with the loss of Curtis Kelly (future UConn teammate), Louisville point guard Edgar Sosa and Iona transfer (former SHU recruit) Kashif Pratt.
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Great Scott! (NY Daily News – scroll down), this kid can play! And, judging by the phone calls Durand Scott, Rice’s junior-to-be G/F, received from Pittsburgh, UConn, Cincinnati, Miami, St. John’s and Rutgers on the first day coaches could call last week, the secret is out after an impressive spring with Walker and the NY Gauchos. Scott will attend Nike’s Kobe Bryant and LeBron James skills camps in July.
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Another of the talented NY Gauchos is Darryl ‘Truck’ Bryant who has Big East schools like Providence and St. John’s keeping tabs on him this AAU season. All summer long Bryant will check in with the NY Daily News on what is happening on the summer trail and here is the latest version of his Truck Stop.
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