A Yankee Kansas in the rotation (most unusual recruit of the year)

This story broke in the summer, but it wasn't really that big so you may have missed it. The Memphis Tigers have another player on their roaster who we have yet to see play this year. The player is CJ Henry.

The name sounds familiar, because, i) he is the brother of touted recruit Xavier Henry and ii) yes, he was a walk-on in 2005 for Kansas

He is currently nursing injuries but eventually he should be able to contribute. How much we don't know, but at 6'3" he has a slight advantage in that there are no "shorties" in the Memphis rotation, other than Willie Kemp, so that may give him a leg up when Calipari wants a more traditional back-court.

For more on how this came to be, be sure to check this Commercial Appeal article from late August 2008.

Calipari strikes gold once again

After a series of major NBA disappointments way back in the era of high-school freshmen being allowed to go directly to the NBA, John "used car salesman" Calipari has managed to string a trio of lottery pick recruits. The one that started it all was Derrick Rose, and he led the Tigers to being the co-champions of 2008. Next up was Tyreke Evans, who may end up being more of an OJ-Mayo type, meaning he would be more effective in the NBA-game than the college game.

And fast-forward to today, the Memphis Tigers have picked up a huge commit for next season, highly-touted Xavier Henry, and ironically perhaps, the battle for Xavier was a rematch of the 2008 NCAA tournament championship. And Memphis won again :-)

Tyreke Evans commits to the Memphis Tigers

The most highly sought after available super-wing of the 2008 class has finally committed. And the winner is the almost-champion John Calipari and the Memphis Rose-Tigers...

He made the announcement around 330pm eastern on live TV, about half an hour after the 3pm time that was publicized earlier. He revealed his decision to ESPNU's studio host (and boy-band member look-a-like?) Lowell Galindo.

Villanova was a close second. He chose Memphis because of the Memphis offense. The AASAA offense is paying dividends. Calipari is the quintessential used "offense" salesman :)

Meanwhile Jay Wright is an idiot. He was on hold with ESPNews to be interviewed immediately after Tyreke Evans made his announcement, even though he is not allowed to comment on recruiting. So what was the point of Jay Wright getting interviewed if he couldn't talk about the topic he was going to be interviewed about? For that, Jay Wright is the idiot of the week.

The press conference is currently was airing on ESPN-News, ESPNewsHD, and ESPNU among others right now!

We told you yesterday of this plan. And props to Evans for doing this the day after Tax Day! Tyreke had cut down his list to five schools in November 2007, but decided to take his time and see how things played out throughout the college basketball season before making his decision.

CSTV posts their Top 30 classes of 2008!

Van Coleman of CSTV and HoopMasters leads the way as CSTV publishes their latest top 30 recruiting classes of 2008. Oh my!

We won't reveal which school has the #1 class, but here's a hint: They were #1 on April 7, 2008 :) Two is the magic number as this team adds a pair of twins, and two JuCos!

Pitino and Donovan have similar classes, they both bring in a brand new line-up! Also making impact in the Top 10 is Tubby Smith, which will no doubt draw the ire of Kentucky fans. Where were the top 10 classes when he was at Kentucky?

The first non-BCS school in the top 30 is Steve Alford's New Mexico, with five new players. The only other non-BCS team in the top 30 is Nevada.

Also of interest, towards the bottom of the article there is a list of the top unsigned players of the class of 2008.

And in just 30 minutes we will found out where the top unsigned players will be going. Internet rumors say Memphis, but we should really wait to really find out straight from the source!

Of course the coaching carousel is not done yet, so if there are indeed any major coaching changes, recruits could potentially be let out of their letters of intent and look for new destinations. One such move happened today when Doug Gottleib revealed on ESPNews that Travis Ford is leaving UMass for Oklahoma State.

Tyreke Evans to announce on Wednesday April 16, at 3pm eastern!

Tyreke Evans, the most highly sought after player from the list of available recruits from the 2008 class is set to announce on Wednesday April 16, at 3pm eastern, live on ESPN News and ESPNU! Mark your calendars, set your VCRs, Wednesday at 3pm eastern.

And how nice of Tyreke to schedule the press conference after tax day, that way people won't get distracted from the mad rush to finish their taxes :)

The internets are having rumors that he will sign with the Memphis Tigers over the home-town team of the Villanova Wildcats. So Calipari goes from one NBA-ready player (Derrick Rose) to another (Tyreke Evans). Thank you David Stern for the one-year limit! Sincerely, John Calipari!

The last time we had a Tyreke Evans update was when he revealed his final five, not to be confused with the Final Five Cylons of Battlestar Galactica.

More on Tyreke by Dana O'Neil of ESPN Recruiting. And speaking of Calipari, this ESPN story says that he has almost finalized a contract extension at Memphis. Unless of course he decides to pull a Billy Donovan and be the Diva of the Summer of 2008. We know that Calipari loves LOVES the spotlight!

The 2008 Jordan Classic Roster has been announced!

The rosters for the 2008 Jordan Classic were announced yesterday! Who were the lucky hoopsters to be selected to play at this prestigious game with the blessings of Mr #23 himself? And when will this game be played?

The game will be played at MSG, on Saturday April 19, 2008, at 9pm eastern (6pm pacific) and will air live on ESPN2 and ESPN2-HD! In previous years, ESPN2 showed the game a few days later in tape-delayed and edited format. So this is a welcome move by ESPN2.

Some of the stars that will shine at the Jordan Classic: Tyreke Evans, Samardo Samuels, JRue Holiday, Ed Davis, Greg Monroe, Brandon Jennings (is he this year's OJ Mayo?), Drew Gordon, Delvon Roe, Al Faroud Aminu, JaMychal Green.

But that's not all, Malcolm Lee, Iman Shumpert, Willie Warren, Kemba Walker, Demar DeRozan, BJ Mullens, Scotty Hopson, William Buford, and Michael Dunigan will be participating.

And a third game will be added, a battle between some of the top international players in the age-group.

More details at JordanBrandClassic.com.




Live on TV!
Remember, the game will air live on ESPN2 and ESPN2-HD on Saturday, April 19, 2008, at 9pm eastern (6pm pacific) at the storied MSG in NYC! In past years, the game aired tape-delayed and edited on ESPN2, after it aired live on ESPNU or nowhere. This year it got the "ESPN2 upgrade", perhaps to coincide with the end (or freeze) of the RoundBall Classic.

The 2008 Nike Hoop Summit tips off in Oregon on April 12, 2008

The most competitive of the all-star games, the Nike Hoops Summit, will take place in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday April 12, 2008! Technically it doesn't count as an all-star game, because it falls under the umbrella of FIBA and USA Basketball, but it is an all-star game :)

Information directly from the source, at the Nike Hoops Summit website, along with the official USA Basketball mini-site for the game. This is a USA Basketball event, which is why the high school players are allowed to play in this game, along with two other all-star games. The NCAA allows players to only play in two all-star games if they want to retain their NCAA eligibility. But since the Summit is a USA Basketball event, it does not count against the two game limit.

Scout's Tracy Pierson notes that the roster is dominated by four UCLA Bruins. Considering the game will be played in Portland, Oregon this year, the west coast bias is justified :) As you may recall, the previous Nike Hoop Summit games were played at the Fed-Ex Forum, in CalipariVille, Memphis, Tennessee :)

The rosters you ask? Here are the rosters. And if you want to check out the players games the PrimeTimePdx site has assembled videos for each one of the players.

As we mentioned above this team will have a distinct UCLA flavor, considering this is a 10-man roster. Yes, 40% of the team is UCLA Bruins. Why didn't they get Ben Howland to coach them? :) The roster selection is also quite interesting in that some players picked here are not picked by the McDonalds All American game, which features a roster of 24, and it is usually a superset of the Nike roster.

The international roster of the world team has not yet been announced (or we haven't found it). Typically the international roster has players that find their way in the NBA Draft eventually, and also a couple of players that will play college ball in the USA and are currently playing high-school hoops in the USA.

Tip-off is at 1pm pacific on April 12, 2008 and the game will be carried live on FSN and Fox College Sports. If you miss it, it will probably repeat about half a dozen times on Fox College Sports and select regional FSNs.

More on this game at Oregon Sports. A history of the Nike Hoops Summit event can be found at InsideHoops.com.

Is the Roundball Classic cancelled? (looks like it!)

The fourth of the all-star games, the Roundball Classic, seems to have gone the way of Sonny Vaccaro, out of the spotlight, and into the limelight. We did not find any information online about a potential 44th annual Roundball classic.

The Roundball website does not mention 2008, and it doesn't seem to have been updated since the 2007 roundball classic.

This story from last year in the Chicago Tribune seems to hint that that was it for the Roundball Classic, 43 years of all-star games are now in the history books!

Goodbye Roundball :( This also has a negative side-effect on the players, as about a dozen high school players will no longer get to play in a high profile post-season all-star game.

Usually McDonalds game gets the best 24 players, the Nike Hoops Summit, being an USA Basketball/FIBA event gets the best 10 or so, and usually the McDonalds players split between the Roundball and the Jordan Classic. that meant that about twenty more players got to play either in the Roundball or Jordan. With Roundball sidelined, those dozen kids don't get to play anymore...

The 2008 McDonalds All American game tips off on Wednesday!

It's all-star season again basketball fans! The 2008 McDonalds All-American game is set to tip off on Wednesday March 26, at 930pm eastern (630pm pacific) on ESPN and ESPN-HD. The 31st McDonalds game may tip-off a bit later, as there is an NBA game right before it on ESPN, Phoenix visits the Boston Celtics.

According to the tv listings, there will be a repeat at 1230pm pacific (330pm eastern) on Friday on ESPN2. Not sure if this is the Women game or a repeat of the men's game. Festivities are at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee where the NCAA-dramatic-loss tears of the Marquette fans will stain the court ;-)

Here is the official pres release announcing the game, along with the Offiical McDonalds All American website, which is a giant Flash site and plays loud music when it loads, so if you are reading this in the middle of the night, be sure to adjust your speakers volume beforehand, otherwise you'll wake up the neighborhood ;-)


The Rosters
The game will be highlighted by prep hoopster stars like Tyreke Evans, JRue Holiday, Brandon Jennings, Greg Monroe, Samardo Samuels and such.

Super-scout Dave Telep of broke down the field of 24 and also talked about the players left out of the McDonalds game. A couple of players that had committed to Indiana and Kentucky were left out, while Delvin Roe, an Izzo super-recruit was left out on a technicality.

As you may recall, the selections of the players are not entirely "innocent", there are political, regional, racial, and collegiate biases. For example, if a player commits to Duke or Carolina they are more likely to be selected to the game. If a player is "deemed" by the selection cmte to have "issues", they will be left out. And that's just the tip of the iceberg...

But enough time spend in Negative Town, there's also a nicely done page with detailed roster information, and that page is... *drumroll* Wikipedia.


The Conferences
Only two of the 24 players remain uncommitted, which is about right in the post "straight out of high school and on to the NBA draft" era.

North Carolina leads the way with a trio of players, a point guard in Larry Drew (yes, the son of the former NBA and Italian League great), a forward in Ed Davis, and a center in Tyler Zeller. Ole Roy was all over the place, as the three recruits come from California, Virginia and Indiana.

Thad Matta continues to load up the Buckeye Express with yet another center, BJ Mullens, and wing William Buford. Remember the 5/8 rule? Perhaps there should be a rule to limit a school to only two 7-footers every three years ;-) Thad Matta picked up Greg Oden in 2006, Kosta Koufos in 2007, and now BJ Mullens for 2008-2009! Mercy!

UCLA is the other team with two players, super-versatile sensation Jrue Holiday of SoCal, and Riverside wing Malcolm Lee. Is he the next Arron Afflalo, because Chace Stanback isn't getting any PT.

The Pac-10 has a few more players, with USC getting Demar DeRozan, and Arizona speedy Brandon Jennings of Oak Hill. The game is played in Oregon, so the Nike Ducks are abl to "squeeze" in one of their recruits, big center Michael Dunigan.

But the ACC has clearly won this all-star game roster once again, as Wake Forest has Al-Farouq Aminu, Virginia has Sylven Landesberg, Florida State has Chris Singleton, the Pookies have Elliott Williams, and Georgia Tech has supermodel Iman (Shumpert). And of course the UNC trio mentioned above.

The Big Yeast is big in size, but not in recruits! They only have Samardo Samuels (Louisville), Greg Monroe (Georgetown), Kemba Walker (UConnhoun), and Mike Rosario (Rutgers, Mr Jersey paying off). For a 16-team league of high profile programs and coaches, this is not enough!

The SEC is represented by phenom JyMychael Green (Alabama) and the Big 12 by trouble-maker (?) Willie Warren (Oklahoma). The Big Ten is "saved" by Ohio State mentioned above.

And how about the "mid-majors" (aka non-BCS colleges)? Will they get at least one player? Well they did! The Nevada Foxes were able to convice local forward Luke Babbitt (Lorena not included) to stay up!


Don't forget the Other All-star games
There's the 2008 Jordan Brand Classic, which this time will be shown live on ESPN2, instead of hiding on ESPNU, and only getting a delayed repeat run on ESPN2 when everyone forgets about college and high-school hoops. This was a nice touch and kudos to the people who worked to make this happen. You know who you are!

And also the Nike Hoop Summit, under the umbrella of FIBA and USA Basketball. This is not technically an all-star game, although it really is :)

The Devin Ebanks sweepstakes

The Kelvin Sampson situation has created a chain reaction of events which led to super-forward recruit Devin Ebanks to use the Kelvin Sampson escape clause in his letter of intent and break free!

So who wants a newly available and super talented Devin Ebanks? Well, everyone of course. But from what is written on the net and reported on CSTV (Brian Curtis), into the mix now are John Calipari and his Memphis Tigers, Rick Barnes and his crazy Longhorns, and Mr Jersey and Rutgers. IU of course is still in the game, but they don't even have a coach for the 2008-2009 season. But they do have a 10-person coaching search committee to help in finding their next troubled coach :)

Not familiar with Devin Ebanks? Be sure to check his profile at Scout.com, and at Rivals. You do not need to subscribe or sign-up to view the profiles.

Kentucky gets Kevin Galloway

Kentucky Ink has posted new recruiting news, Billy Clyde Gillispie, hot on the deals of the amazing in-season burn-in and comeback, has picked up yet another player, Kevin Galloway. For more details and to join in the discussion, be sure to sign-in or register with the KI forums.

Roy Williams on Recruiting

During the episode of "Halls of Fame" on FSN and Fox College Sports that spotlighted the life and career of Roy Williams, Ole Roy made this interesting comment on recruiting:

Recruiting is like shaving. When you take a day off, somebody notices!

How true! And also how crazy is the world of recruiting!

For repeats, check your local FSN and Fox College Sports listings, or check their respective websites for available downloads.

DeMarcus Cousins to the UAB Blazers!

The future looks even brighter for Mike Davis and the UAB Blazers as the highly touted DeMarcus Cousins has committed to play there. DeMarcus of LeFlore is listed as second best center in the class of 2009 by Scout.com.

The details of his commitment at Al.com, an all things Alabama website.

And you know the world of sports has changed with the propagation of the internet, DeMarcus has a nicely designed website devoted to him! Meet DeMarcusCousins.org! It includes a biography as well.

Good news, a new and better template coming this week!

We have some good news for you recruiting fans! This week will be changing this blog to a better template, one that is easier on the eyes, and has more streamlined colors! So fear not, in seven days or less, a much better template is coming up!

It will be about the same size, but it will be easier to read and navigate. It will also be slightly wider, so you can read more text per page. More details when we get closer to the actual changeover.

We expect this to be a very smooth transition, so fear not :)

High school Basketball State Championships on regional FSN and Fox College Sports

Check your local listings basketball fans! High school basketball State Championships are airing or repeating in reruns on your regional FSN stations and on the three national Fox College Sports channels. Be sure to check your local listings as air times are all over the place, and some of them end up on FSN+ or the airtimes in the listings may be inaccurate.

Typically both men and women games are featured, and among others, games from the following states usually find their way on FCS or regional FSNs: California, Texas, Florida, Washington, Oregon, West Virginia, and such. Be sure to check local listings as we can't keep track of the whole nation.

American Christian vs St Anthony's on ESPN, Thursday February 21, 2008

ESPN and ESPN-HD have another high profile high-school basketball game to showcase on Thursday February 21, 2008, at 6pm pacific (9pm eastern). Tip-off may be delayed a bit, as there is a college basketball game right before the high school game.

The teams you ask? American Christian vs Saint Anthony of New Jersey! So who is the star of the game? Tyreke Evans, an uncommitted power-wing! Who is the underrated unassuming star of the game? Mike Rosario of Saint Anthony's! Other D1 players participating in this game, Tayshawn Taylor (Marquette Golden Warrior Eagles), Jeremiah Kelly (DePaul), Jio Fontan (Fordham), and uncommitted wing Dominic Cheek.

More details on this game at RUWT?.

Meanwhile if you want to watch highlights of the American Christian vs Saint Patricks (different Saint, same state), head on to YouTube (video).

And speaking of TV games, Fox College Sports will be showing a rerun of the Cottonwood at Highland game, on Wednesday 8am pacific (11am eastern).

Catching up with some of the latest commitments

Let's take a look at the latest commitments at CSTV's Hodge Report. There we learn that Mr Jersey had picked up NY/NJ area forward, and so did Brey at Ntore Dame, and NC State got a guard, all from the class of 2009.

Meanwhile at least a dozen mid-major conference teams have added new players for 2008 and 2009, quite a few of them of the juco/transfer variety. The coaching carousel is also having its impact, as players are getting out of their commitments as coaches either eject or get ejected.

Look for more of that perhaps with LSU. Although right now Butch Pierre, the top assistant, has taken over, if the 2008-2009 head coach is someone who was not involved with the recruitment of those players, don't be surprised if they look elsewhere. I would!

For all the updates, details, and free player profiles and databases, be sure to visit the excellent CSTV recruiting page.

Catching up with some of the high profile recruiting news

We've slightly fallen behind the latest recruiting news, so we'll make an attempt to catch up and summarize! We can only hope :)

A great resource for all recruiting updates, without a membership fee, is the Hodge Report at the CSTV website! Be sure to bookmark and visit!


High profile commits
I got the rings baby! And I got them just yesterday! Take that smugface ratface Roach K! Okay, Billy D wouldn't say that, but I would! Florida beat Duke for the services of Erik Murphy. Great decision Erik. Anything but Duke is always a great decision in my book :)

Roy Williams may have prayed to Saint Patrick because he got Saint Patrick's super guard Dexter Strickland. And he's probably going to need him, especially if they have a Final Four appearance.

More over Lopez twins, here come the Wear and Tear twins! Except they don't go to Stanford, but they go to North Carolina. A two for one special for Ole Roy!

No bollocks here, Ole Roy continued to load up as he picks up a local 2010 wing and a top 30 2009 player. We assume no relation to the Muppet Show creator :)

Meanwhile Ben Howlin' Defense Wolf Howland picked up a top 20 player from the class of 2009 from the city of Modesto, beating a number of other top tier programs for his services.



Transfers and Change of Heart
Ma'ca's (Marcus in Calhoun-speak) has left the Hall of Fame Tyrant for a return to SoCal, and the Tim Floyd Trojans. He should be able to play next december or so, and would be a boost to USC given the expect "transations" after the end of this season.

The waves of de-commits are flying in in waves for the Pepperdine Waves after the departure of their AASAA head coach, Vance Walbert. AASAA being his Attack, Attack, Skip [Pass], Attack, Attack offense.

Calhoun leaves the Big East and goes to Houston! But fear not, we are not talkign about UConn head coach Jim Calhoun, but St John's forward Q. Calhoun. Gotcha! :)

Meanwhile The Gary did not have to go through a ...maze to get this transfer!


The remaining big men of 2008
CSTV has assembled a list of the top big men that had not committed as of the time of writing of that post. Here is the list! The biggest name of course being John Riek, who may never commit anyways. The list was assembled in mid-December 2007.

Scotty Hobson update at Kentucky Ink

Kentucky Ink has posted an update on Scotty Hobson. Since that is a membership-supported forum we will not spoil the news, visit Kentucky Ink to find out more!

Helen Cox vs Norcross on ESPN2 today!

We have a high-school basketball game on ESPN2 and ESPN2-HD today, Thursday, January 10, 2008. Helen Cox of Louisiana squares off with Norcross of Georgia.

RISE Magazine has a nice preview of the game. Greg Monroe, a Georgetown commit, and voted #4 best player in the class of 2008 in our informal poll (see right sidebar of this blog) squares off with Wake Forest-bound Al Farouq Aminu.

More on this game at Scout, AJC, Rivals, and ESPN Insider.

If you miss the live airing, it will repeat later on on ESPNU. We are boycotting ESPNU TV listings until ESPN and Comcast and other cable companies reach a compromise agreement to carry ESPNU.

For more TV games, Be sure to check the college and high-school hoops tv schedule at NHT.

Four High school games on Saturday on Fox College Sports

Fox College Sports along with some regional FSNs will be showing a four-pack of high school games on Saturday January 5, 2008. The games will begin airing at 11am eastern, with Long Beach Poly squaring off with St Paul Central.

Then at 1pm eastern we have Le Flore vs Princeton (not the university obviously), and at 3pm eastern we have Cass Lake vs White Station. Finally at 5pm eastern, DeMatha squares off with Hopkins.

And as a bonus, Fox College Sports (FCS) will show an episode of "Future Phenoms", narrated by Pat Summerall, at the end of the four game marathon.

The Long Beach State vs St Paul Central game will repeat after midnight on Fox College Sports. Other ones may repeat later on as well. FCS's published schedule can be a bit iffy at times.

Also don't forget to TiVo or watch the high school game on ESPN2 on Thursday January 10, 2008, with Helen Cox of Louisiana squaring off with Norcross of Georgia. One of the top players in the nation will be showcased: Greg Monroe who has signed with the Georgetown Hoyas of JT3!