News: Adidas out of summer camp business

A story by Andy Katz at ESPN.com. This is a free story! This came after a meeting of the minds in Indianapolis among all parties involved. Nike may follow suit, leaving Sonny Vaccaro the last one to make a decision. Nothing is set in stone yet, but all sorts of ideas are coming up, such as a national basketball academy. A very interesting story on this topic, and more will for sure come up in the next few days as there is a wind of change, quite possibly triggered by the performance of Team USA in the last few years, which pinpointed at some problems rooted at the grass roots level...

Weekend update

CSTV and Bill Hodges continue their regular recruiting updates with verbals of two seven footers (FSU,KY), and two California recruits committing (LSU, Washington). Other teams involved in recruiting activity: Virginia, St Joe's (Martelli), Albany, LaSalle, Huggins, Nebraska, Drake, Winthrop, USC, Wyoming, Oregon State (not an ex-Yugoslavian this time) and Colorado among many others. To find out who verballed where, please visit their website :-)

Clark Francis and his one single huge page format has some updates in the freebie Visitor section. He talks about his work-in-progress for the class of 2007 rankings, and the controversy he stirred when talking about UCLA recruiting SoCal phenom PG Brandon Jennings (allegedly one and done). There seems to be more to this story since Kevin Love might also be a one and done player given his improvement year over year. As I have mentioned many times in the past, I am not convinced that Ben Howland's is able to recruit consistently at the top-level UCLA alums aspire to be. And this is after a dream run to the NCAA Final. Kevin Love was the exception, not the rule given how many other top talented SoCals have slipped away despite UCLA needing them badly (eg Deon Thompson and Alex Stevenson to UNC). This may sound harsh but look at the facts: 1) UCLA roster 2) UCLA needs 3) number of talented SoCals that UCLA needed right away 4) look at who committed where. Last but not least Clark has posted his Top 500 sophoromores (class of 2009). The list of Top 10 Embryos is still in progress ;-)

InsideHoops covers recruiting news from a local perspective, including Jacob Pullen at Kansas State over Dayton et al, Blake Hoffarber at Minnessoooottta, Omari Johnson at Oregon State, Justin Holiday at UW, and an update on Charles Bronson (not the movie star)

Andy Katz reports on the story that Adidas is pulling out of the summer sneaker camp business. The question remains as to what Nike and Reebok are going to do.

Luke Winn of CNNSI looks into the topic of Activism and recruiting at Illinois, as part of the ongoing mascot debate...

Monday Night Recruits

Mater Dei Dookie Taylor King was featured yesterday on ABC Sports special one-hour show "Who got game" hosted by James Worthy and Paul Sunderland (or Sutherland?). No, he did not change his mind, he is still going to Duke. He acknowledged that he is no longer the #1 of his class (duh!), but he continues to improve. Also featured on that show was the UCLA team, Adam Morrisson's summer in Charlotte, and a 2-minute preview of the NCAA season by James Worthy, highlighting Florida, NC, Ohio State, UConn (!) and others. The cohost mentioned the names of Kansas and Pitt and Arizona.

CSTV and Bill Hodges have the latest updates on new verbals at Washington, Oregon State, Minnessoooota, Colorada, DePaul (this time beating Pitino and Pearl) - watch out for DePaul, it's starting to become the powerhouse that tempted Richard Digger Phelps to come out of retirement a few years ago. But the biggest news is the committment of the one and only Korie Lucious of 2008. Did the Wisconsin star stay in-state or in-conference or went elsewhere? Visit the CSTV page to find out :-)

Coverage of some of the latest recuriting commitment from a local newspaper perspective are provided at InsideHoops. Included are Washington, DePaul, Wake, VaTech, and LSU's next "Big Baby".

Couch Coach and Master Recruiter

You know who you are. You think you know it all. You think you know better than the coaches. You think you can design a better play. Well now you can do it from the comfort of your own couch with these:

Weekend update

Another day at the office for CSTV and Bill Hodges with updates on DePaul (again), Kansas State, LSU (Final Four but still going after JuCos), VCU (no Capel), Dayton and more. And the Idrissi situation has reached a conclusion: he is transfering to Iona.

Dave Telep updates his recruiting buzz at FoxSports with a story on Jai Lucas. If the name sounds familiar, it's because he is the brother of the Oklahoma State PG and son of the former NBA great. At 5-9 he is considered a Top 50 prospect. He has four teams he is mostly considering. Read all about it at Foxsports.com. Mike Sullivan covers the rumor of a Rice HS sophomore commiting to Rick Pitino and stories on a couple of east coast recruits. Greg Hicks has three updates from the West Coast.

TV wise, there is a wisconsin HS basketball all star game scheduled to broadcast on Fox College Sports tomorrow. I have no clue if it is a rerun or a new broadcast. I am assuming there will be some Division 1 signees or prospects, but I don't have any further details.

Midweek update

Bill Hodges reports new commitments for LSU, Vandy, BC, DePaul (over other midwestern powerhouses), East Carolina, St Bonaventure, Larry Bird's college, Colorado, E.Washington and more.

Clark Francis updates the freebie section of HoopScooponline with a preview of his Top 500 Sophomores list (Class of 2009). I kid you not. Clark thinks very highly of the class of 2009. Read more about it at HoopScoopOnline.com. Maybe the list of the Top 100 Embryos will be posted next week ;-)

Super Tuesday

Bill Hodges and CSTV report on a trio of new signings by the General, Robert Montgomery Knight, FSU, GW, Fairfield, LaTech, Rice and Pacific

Jeff Goldman of FoxSports reports that Bridgton Acamedy has been taken off the list of alleged "diploma mills" under investigation. The complete list can be found in Jeff's story. It includes some high profile prep schools, such as MtZion, NDPrep, StTHomasMore, Patterson (if they played in the NCAA they would probably make the Sweet 16 given their roster), and once-mighty Laurinburg.

Andy Katz reports on Sonny Vaccaro's vision for basketball academies (ESPN Insider required to read the whole story)

Reading is fun-damental!

Recruiting Coverage in 2006-2007 College Basketball Preview Magazines

There is a nice amount of recruiting coverage in the new college basketball season preview magazines that have started becoming available. NCAA Hoops are just around the corner basketball fans! I have already picked up two of them and reviewed them in my college basketball blog:

Lindy's Sports: click here

Athlon's Sports: click here

Some of the recruiting coverage included in those magazines:
* Top 100, and Top 300 of the 2006 class
* Top 100 of the 2007 class
* Top 25 of 2008 class
* Top 10 of 2009 class
* Team ranking of recruiting class
* Stories on the effect of the new NBA rule creating "one and done" superstars.

Weekend update

Possible BIG NEWS: Bob Huggins may be able to add super-touted 2007 recruit Billy Walker to this year's squad. Walker is not eligible to play at his high-school (exhausted eligibility), and is looking at his options for the 2006-2007. This would be HUGE for Bob Huggins! Topeka Capital Journal rumor. - requires free registration, or you can always try BugMeNot.com :-)

Dave Telep reports on Billy Walker's plans for the 2006-2007 season. Also included are reports from Greg Hicks, Ron Naclerio, and Mike Sullivan. Teams covered: Kansas State, Oregon, Florida, UCLA, Oregon, Read all about it at FoxSports.com!

Rob Thomas and StJohns: an update from FoxSports

Arizona is gearing up for its next group of recruits. CSTV carries the latest news from the on-campus fish-wrap: Official visits from Kyle Singer and Solomon Alabi. Arizona has no scholarships available as of right now, but as the story points out, Brillmaier is on a year-to-year understanding and M-Will (Marcus Williams) will be a NBA Draft 1st rounder barring anything unforeseen.

Gary Parrish and CBS SportsLine cover the story of Myles Brand -vs- the Diploma Mills

CSTV and Bill Hodges report the latest recruiting updates: Wisconsin defeats a lot of midwestern and national programs for the services of a top 100 forward, Reggie Theus gets a trio of recruits, while Nate Minnoy goes JuCO for this year and he can play D1 again in 2007-2008. Other teams getting new talent: UAB, Rice, New Mexico, Turnaround Tom's Houston, BYU, Wisc-Milwaukee, Tulane, Central Michigan, and a handful of mid-majors. Meanwhile former Cal wing player Marquise Kately resurfaces for this season at a smaller school. Read all about it by visiting their site.

Huggins-Watch: Cincinatti (OOPS! Kansas State) added former juco/Johnies guard Jermaine Maybank. Huggie-Bear is a JuCo magnet!

Fascinating how a team adds a recruit while it just happens that at the same time a current scholarship player decides to transfer out, or "focus on academics", or changes sports. Coincidence? I think not :-) I won't name names but you can figure it out by looking at the latest recruiting news!

InsideHoops has local newspaper reports the big signing at Wisconsin (five different stories on this), the Weber State signing, a New Yorked signing up at BYU, a Nigerian pipeline for Turnaround Tom, Bob Huggins getting Jermaine Maybank for this season.





Reading Material

Kyle Singler please don't go to Duke!

CSTV U-Wire is spreading a story by the Dookies on Kyle Singler. Singler is wearing #33 to honor Larry Hick they say. Other than Duke, in the hunt for Singler are: Kansas, U-W (Washington), UCLA and Arizona. Telep is quoted as saying that the pendulum is swinging towards Puke. Coach K was planning at-home visits this week with Kyle Singler as well as W-Va rising star Patrick Patterson. Both will make official Dookie visits later on. Hopefully neither one will sign with Duke :-)

Super Tuesday

Primaries today, although not Super Tuesday. But that's for a different blog :-)

CSTV and Bill Hodges report updates on mid-majors, including a couple of transfer-outs from trendy mid-majors. Meanwhile tough Bucknell gets another verbal, BYU loses one and it looks like Daniel Hackett is good to go for 2006-07 for USC (graduated high-school in three years by taking extra classes)

Weekend rewind

CSTV Recruiting reports that Bob Knight beat out Huggie-Bear and Matt Drama of SMU for the services of a touted 2007 Texan. Others getting new verbals: Charlotte, New Mexico State, Temple and new coach Fran D, Tulane, UCLA (2008 recruit) and UNLV. Meanwhile Oregon State is trying to become Serbia-West with two more Serbian recruits :-) For all the details visit the Bill Hodges daily report at CSTV

Gary Parrish of CBS Sports is becoming another good source of recruiting information. His latest post has a paragraph on the new Charlotte 49ers committment. Also talks about Billy Donovan trying to impress super-forward Patrick Patterson by inviting him to watch the Gators receive their national basketball championship rings in front of 90,000 people. Patterson is considering Florida, Wake Forest, Duke, Kentucky, Virginia and instate power West Virginia. Anything but Duke please!!! And journeyman prepster Roburt Sallie trying to become eligible (now at Nebraska)

Daily Recruits

Big story at CBS Sports! Gary Parrish delves into the glamorous world of sneaker camps. The Godfather hates the Pumps. As Reebok and Adidas merged, they will eventually merge their grassroots branches, and that can be trouble as the Godfather and the Pumps have to co-exist under the same umbrella.

InsideHoops has a couple of updates on Kyle Singler, expected to visit Kansas, Duke and Arizona in the next few days. I have this bad feeling Duke is going to grab this player, despite them having signed Taylor Queen. More stories linked there: Oregon State's comings and goings, Paul Hewitt's pipeline from Memphis (the city).

CSTV Recruiting reports a series of transfers/dismissals, some may be surprising such as Nate Minnoy. Others affected by such moves: Iowa State, Tennessee, and USC.

The New York Post has a story on former Carzodo star Theo Davis ending up at Gonzaga. Will he be there by next April? :-)

Sports Magazines!

A great way to catch-up with sports while away from the TV and the Internet, while at the same time supporting this blog:

Sports Magazines

Hoops Magazines

RSS feed for this blog

The RSS feed for this blog is right here :-)

Talent by State (Sportings News/Rivals)

Sporting News in collaboration with Rivals.com has some 2006 rankings available. Not only they post the Top 150 players of 2006 and 2007, but they also break them down by position and by state. For example, here are the Top California recruits of 2006 according to Rivals.com

Looking at that list reveals a few things:

UCLA was desperate for big men these year, but Roy Williams was able to take TWO So.Cal big men from under the nose of Ben Howland. A Final Four apperance later UCLA managed to strike back with Kevin Love but nobody else (they lost Marco Spica even)

In-state schools continue to struggle against the national and regional powers with the exception of the Lopez twins.

Mid-week Recap

CSTV reports the latest recruiting news. Well, the rich get richer as Texas gets two more, Steve Alford grabs one, with three ACC teams also getting a 2007 verbal. Meanwhile Iowa State plans ahead with a 2008 verbal. And two "old" faces at new places: Well traveled forward Theo Davis (once coached by Clark Francis's radio show sidekick Ron Neclario at Cardozo) is ending up at the ZAGS and will play this upcoming season. Yes, Theo Davis to Gonzaga!. The Zags need bigs to deliver this season, especially since Burgess and Downs won't be eligible until the 2nd semester. Marco Spica thought he was heading to UCLA but academics got in the way. Now he is heading to Central Michigan. New Orleans rebuilds with six new players, a variety of transfers. Two more players take advantages of the graduate-senior "free agent" transfer rule, Vance Walhberg's son joins him at Pepperdine (from St Mary's) and Tim Tillman (Drexel to New Orleans).

Gary Parrish rounds up the latest recruiting news as well. He also talks about the next target for Texas, forward Anthony Randolph (no relation to the former Duke whiner/flake). Among others chasing him are LSU, Georgetown, Bill Self and the new Cincy. Also covered is the visit of Derrick Rose and Eric Gordon to Indiana last weekend. Bad news for Bruce Webber who may have thought he had his next great great guard duo (D. Rose/E. Gordon; Dee Brown/Deron Williams). If Gordon is indeed as good as gone, Webber will have to rebuild/rethink and the fans won't be very happy.

Some more recruiting coverage thru local newspapers at InsideHoops

TV alert Fox College Sports will be showing a Wisconsin all-star basketball game at the HS level in the next few days. Not sure when this was recorded but it may have some Division 1 recruits/prospects. Check local listings.

Weekend Update

Gary Parrish thinks that Kelvin Sampson punishment had something to do with in-state star Jeff Teague verballing at Wake Forest instead.

CSTV has a report on the Elite 24 Hoops Classics by Bryan Graham held at the world famous Rucker Park in NYC. This was sneaker-camp-agnostic, so lots of high profile recruits played. MVP honors were shared by Huggins-bound Michael Beasly, Arizona-bound (sort of) Jerryd Bayless, SoCal AllStar Brandon Jennings and JJ Hickson out of a total of 24 players (which explains the Elite 24 name!).

Ken Cross at Lindy's Sports has a story on Big East recruiting, including Calhoun, Pitino, Nova, W.Va and the rest of the 200-team Big East :-)

Also at Lindy's, Victoria Sun has a story on a battle between Florida and Kentucky, Tubby -vs- Billy-the-Kid for two talented forwards of 2007: JJ Hickson and likely OJ Mayo teammate Patrick Patterson.

Also at Lindy's, a summer recap of Pac 10 recruiting

Gary Parrish of CBS Sports talks about whether the current process of Verbal Commitments should be changed

Gary Parrish of CBS Sports is a very busy writer! His latest story is on Recruiting at a BCS school.

Bill Hodges and CSTV have more updates: ironically a back-to-back update on OU and IU, both getting a player, an East Carolina transfer finding a new home, and a series of mid-major commits for 2006 and 2007

Just updated with a post on the Top 600 (!!!) juniors (Class of 2008) is the freebie section of Hoop Scoop.