Slow news day so far

Details at http://interact.cstv.com/recruiting/

* Virginia gets a former Temple commit
* Toledo loads up
* Georgia loses a guard as he transfers out.

You can't stop the Matta express!

The Thad Matta Express is unstoppable. This time, according to CSTV/Bill Hodges they picked up a highly rated Flintstone for 2008.

If there was a recruiting hall of fame, Thad Matta would be an early-entry candidate for sure :-)

Kevin Love feature: Next week on Sports Stars of Tomorrow

Next week the weekly tv newsmagazine Sports Stars of Tomorrow will have a feature on the UCLA-bound Oregonian Kevin Love, one of the top five members of the 2007 class. Check local listings for next week's episode or check their website...

Nick Calathes feature on Sports Stars of Tomorrow

Weekly TV sports newsmagazine Sports Stars of Tomorrow has a feature on Florida commit Nick Calathes, one of the top rated players of the 2007 class and Florida's Mr Basketball as a junior. Check local listings or look for it on their website, Sports Stars of tomorrow

Norcross (GA) vs Oak Hill on ESPN2 (Dec 7)

Thursday December 7, 2006, at 6pm PST (9pm EST) ESPN2 will be broadcasting their first high-school basketball of the season featuring powerhouse Oak Hill Academy and Norcross (GA).

Some high profiles recruits will play in this game:
* Michael Beasley (Huggins State, aka Kansas State)
* Brandon Jennings (2008 class) (USC)
* Nolan Smith (Puke)
* Alex Legion (Meeecheeeegan)
* Julian Vaughn
* Howard Thompkins (2008)
* Terrence Boyd (2009)
* Gani Lawal (Georgia Tech)
* Jordan DeMercy (FSU)
* Tony Neysmith (Oklahoma)
* Al-farouq Aminu (2008)

As of the current standings, this is NUMBER ONE -vs- NUMBER TWO, according to the USA Today poll

Tim Floyd is very thankful this Thanksgiving

Latest news at: http://interact.cstv.com/recruiting/

Big news this Thanksgiving weekend. Tim Floyd of USC is very thanksful as he receives a verbal from Socal super-guard and OakHill-this-season Brandon Jennings. This dude is of the 2008 class, which means he will not play with OJ Mayo since he is very likely to be one and done in 2007-2008. UCLA fans won't like this, but once again Ben Howland, coming off an NCAA Final Four season, loses another high profile SoCal recruit, and this time not to the blue bloods (UNC, Duke) but to LA rival USC which hasn't even made the NCAAs.

Also big news for Bruce Webber, although this may not stick because it is soooo early: 2010 Jereme Richmond (currently 6'6") verballed to Illinois, but 2010 is four years away. I guess that makes losing Eric Gordon a bit less painful perhaps for the Illini fans.

The magic of the Final Four run wasn't enough to keep sophomore Sammy Hernandez at George Mason. He is transferring out and the earliest he would be eligible to play to whereever he transfers is the Spring 2008 semester (late december 2007).

Great holiday gift: Amazon Gift Certificates!

You can select any amount, from $5 to $5000, and it can sent by regular mail, by e-mail, or even as a holiday e-card. Visit Amazon Gift Certificates! for details...




Why is this even remotelly related to college basketball? Because this helps this blog, which unlike Andy Katz and ESPN Insider, it is totally free :-)

Amazon Gift Certificates!

Latest recruiting news

While the OJ Mayo signing (of the LOI) and the Derrick Rose to Memphis continue to be the big stories of the week, CSTV has a few more updates:
* NC State continues to load up on talent as they pick up a 2008 recruit.
* GW has some diplomatic issues with Oregon
* Bigoted U gets a 7-footer
* visit the CSTV Bill Hodges column for the details

Latest updates from CSTV

CSTV reports the latest recruiting news. Visit their site for all the details. Here's a teaser:

2008 commitments for Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun and Ben Howland

2007 recruits for Cincy, Southern Mississssippppi, Indiana, Iowa State, Marshall, USF, etc

A former Clemson guard ends up at New Orleans via a JuCo.

But of course the biggest news of this week was Derrick Rose at Memphis, and OJ Mayo actually signing a letter of intent...

Derrick Rose will play in an NBA arena next year...

Derrick Rose will play in an NBA arena next year, but not for an NBA team. He will be playing at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, an arena shared by the Memphis Tigers of the NCAA and the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA.

The Memphis Tigers are playing Rose Ball next year. No, not a typo, they are not going to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. They are getting 2007 super-guard Derrick Rose. Calipari surprised a lot of people by getting Rose, who was expected to chose between Illinois (in-state) and Indiana (friend Eric Gordon is there). Perhaps he didn't want to find himself in a similar situation so he decided to go elsewhere...

Reported on the national TV sports magazine show "Sports Star of Tomorrow". That same episode had a feature on DeMatha and one of their IvyLeague-bound basketball players...

Preps: USA Today Top 25 for 2006-2007

USAToday's preseason Top 25 has been published and updated as of November 15, 2006.

No shocker, Oak Hill is the preseason #1.

OJ Mayo propels Patrick Patterson's Huntington of West Virginia to #5

Derrick Rose propels Simeon to #7. You can see them as they compete in the T-Mobile Invitational on December 26-27 on VERSUS. See previous post for details...

Lance Stepheson could become the next OJ Mayo as he leads #18 Lincoln of Brooklyn, coached by HoopScoopOnline associate and radio-show sidekick Ron Neclario.

Mississippi transfer Renaldo Sidney propels Artesia to #10, despite the fact that they lost their head coach to Herb Sendek and Arizona State.

A lot of the usual suspect are in the top 25, including the usual Saints (Anthony, Patrick, Benedict), the SoCals (Fairfax, Mater Dei, Westchester, Artesia), Montrose Christian (sans Kevin Durant) MtVernon, Christ the King, Wheeler (they have a December 7 game on ESPNU), Arlington County Day, Norcross and of course DeMatha. The biggest surprise is Archbishop Mitty of San Jose. Who would have thought that a Silicon Valley team would be a top 25 basketball power? That's because of talent: Drew Gordon (6'9") and Collin Chiverton (6'6").

New High School Basketball Tourney on Versus

Versus, formerly known as the Outdoor channel, usually found on standard cable (towards the end of the dial, channel number in the 70s/80s). Comcast owns this channel and they are trying to turn it into an ESPN/FSN competitor, pairing with the other Comcast sports channels such as Comcast Sports Net. Their main sports packages are the NHL and Mountain West basketball, as well as picking up many basketball games from ESPN+ (ESPN PLUS).

They are launching a brand new high school basketball tourney between December 27 through December 28, sponsored by T-Mobile, and aptly named the T-Mobile Invitational. They will feature some of the top teams in men and women's basketball. The games will take place at the UW campus in Seattle (University of Washington).

On the men's side, four teams competing in the tourney, including Fairfax and local O'Dea. All teams are selected from the USA Today preseason Top 25 ranking.

The official website for the event: http://www.tmobileinvitational.net/

Corporate T-Mobile coverage

OJ Mayo signs with USC and many more!

CSTV and Bill Hodges report the latest, among others...

OJ Mayo the highly touted 2007 prospect signs with USC. What does this mean? It simply means that if he plays NCAA Division 1 hoops he will play with USC. But will he? No one really knows at this moment. But if he does, he will play for USC (unless something dramatic happens at USC that warrants his release from his signed sealed and delivered letter of intent). This was covered by ESPN's Cold Pizza and CSTV's One College Sports Show among many other TV outlets.

USC also got a G/F from Louisianna.

The biggest surprise was Herb Pope who selected a ...TV coach instead of the expected BCS powers. This was a shocker!

Calipari got two twins, who are expected to play for him during the 2008-2009 season.

Kelvin Sampson, unable to make 500 excessive phone calls was probably text-bombing his targetted recruits, and that seems to have worked as he got two more!

Ben Howland got a top 100 in the 2008 class, as he desperately tries to load up on UCLA-level talent. As you may recall Ben Howland was desperate for big men this season, but both SoCal preps Alex Stepheson and Deon Thompson chose to go to North Carolina and be #3 and #4 behind Tyler Hansbro and Brandan Wright. They would have been almost guaranteed to start at UCLA, whose big men are certainly not Wooden-UCLA-level. Howland couldn't even get one of those two. UCLA fans may point at the signing of Kevin Love, but so far that looks more like an exception than the rule...

Is Bill Self officially on the hot seat? Well take that Jayhawk fans who turned sour on Roy Williams! Two first-round exits with Self's guys... And at least one home loss to a mid-major every year... Well despite all that he managed to get a top 100 player for 2007.

Others getting commitments: Utah State (via Japan!), Joe Pa State (oops! Penn State), Virginia, tragic Dusquene, Nebraska, Iowa State, San Franscisco, UCF, Marshall, and a few more...

Jai Lucas has postponed his commitment to the spring signing period. Hopefully he will not be a sniveling whining dwarf like the Oklahoma State Lucas. (Ouch!!!)

Details at the CSTV and Bill Hodges report

Commitments are flying in...

CSTV reports a handful of new commitments:. Visit their website to get the details :)

Herb Pope is down to five teams, four BCS teams and one non-BCS team with a ...TV coach!

Top 100 forward at NC State

LaTech gets a 7-footer JuCo

Also adding new players: Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Marshall, Idaho, etc...

Cincy gets a top 100 in the 2008

Iowa State gets a 2010 recruit

Last but not least, Embryo #1794004434988503 commits to Duke's 2024 class

Post-Election Recruiting

It seems like Recruiting has become almost as dirty and complicated as politics with mudslinging, negative recruiting, funding and financing "issues", etc, etc. But with the elections in the rearviewmirror (not the Pearl Jam song), we find ourselves in the middle of the Fall Signing Period (November 8 thru 15).

Teams are issues press releases (as if) to announce their signings to their world. And by signings we really mean signings. The players are signing the binding LOI (letter of intent) which binds them to the team, and they have to jump through hoops (no pun intended) to break free of their signed commitment.

As always at this time some major commitments are made/announced. Bill Hodges and CSTV have the details. Here is a teaser:

Eric Wallace commits - he was once headed to Virgina, but now he is heading to a very trendy coach/place

Kentucky borrows a page, not from the Congress but from the Bob Huggins playbook and signs a player eligible to play mid-season (2nd semester) this season

Charles Bronson - not the movie star - commits

Charlotte gets a five-year player

Sutton Jr gets a top 100 forward

Lorenzo Romar "steals" one from the SoCals; This has become an interesting recruiting war with teams from the Pacific Northwest "stealing" SoCal recruits and teams from SoCal "stealing" Pacific Northwest recruits. By "stealing" I mean taking them away from the home team; I do not mean that they are using any dirty tricks - as far as I know anyways.

Herb Sendek continues his international pipeline grabbing one of out the ...Air in Florida

Gonzaga gets a JuCo (what?)

An OJ Mayo and Billy Walker teammate commits to Mike Davis and UAB. The 2007-2008 UAB team on paper looks like a top 25 team already with Vaden and the other local transfer sitting out already

Drew Viney changes his mind but remains in the Pac-10

Others getting new commitments: Marquette, USC, Wisc-GB, Sun Diego, Utah State, Ole Miss, Stanford, Temple sans John Chaney, South Carolina (re-signings), Alabama (re-signing), SUNJ (aka Rutgers), DePaul, Brown (a 7-footer), Richmond, bigoted Liberty, Albany, Auburn, Wisconsin.

All the details can be found at Bill Hodges's Recruiting page on CSTV.com

Latest updates

CSTV and Bill Hodges continue to update us fans with the latest news, which includes another commitment for Ohio State (2008), Herb Sendek uses his Pennsylvania roots to get a new verbal, UTEP gets a big man, and UNI has a decommit.

For those wondering, according to CSTV, the upcoming signing period for basketball is:

Basketball Early Signing period: November 8 to 15, 2006

Basketball Late Signing period: April 11 to May 16, 2007

A verbal commitment can come in any time of the year, but it is not binding. However when a recruit signs a letter of intent (LOI), such as during the two signing periods, the signed commitment is binding and a player cannot backout without losing eligibility and having to sit out - unless the university lets the player out, which usually happens when there is a coaching change or a major scandal.

And in case there are any football fans reading this, according to CSTV and Bill Hodges, the football signing period is:

Early Football Signing period: December 20 2006 thru January 15, 2007

Late football singing perdiod: Ffebruary 7 thru April 1, 2007

The difference obviously has to do with the different time frame of the football and basketball signing periods and the number of players that make up a football and basketball team - among other reasons... I am just pointing the obvious here, I am by no means a soccer analyst. (oooops! football analyst) :-)