Where are the top recruits going for Midnight Madness?

Midnight Madness is just hours away folks! Yes, the time has come again for a brand new season, and the wheels of the recruiting engines continue to turn! Attending midnight madness is one of the big things in the world of recruiting, and Making the Dance has posted a list of where the top recruits are going to be visiting for Midnight Madness.

Don't forget the Jordan Classic is on today, Saturday April 18

Don't forget the last of the major all-star games of the season is on TODAY! The Jordan Classic will tip off at 8pm eastern (5pm pacific) on Saturday April 18, 2009. The game will be broadcast live from Madison Square Garden in New York on ESPN2 and ESPN2-HD. In past years, they used to show a tape-delayed edit of the game, but a couple of years ago, thankfully, they switched to showing the game live on ESPN2.

You can check the 24-man rosters at the official Nike page. A number of players affected by the wild coaching carousel of this spring are listed in the rosters, including Xavier Henry, John Wall (who may even be considering a jump to the NBA Draft directly because he may qualify under the rules), and friends.

If you are not going to be near a TV, fear not, ESPN360.com is listing the live broadcast in their schedule, so you can watch it online.

Signing Day is today - check ESPNU for specials

Today is the beginning of the spring signing period, so there may be some hoopla and excitement, so players wanting to make a splash. Make a splash because there will be some specials on ESPNU. Unfortunately not many people have access to ESPNU, and as of a few minutes ago, we didn't notice any of the major ESPN channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN-News, ESPN-Classic) having any recruiting or signing-day programming in their schedule.

But if you don't have ESPNU, you may want to monitor or record ESPN-News, if they are any big news, they will likely feature them there. Hopefully.

We just checked the espn360.com schedule but unfortunately there is no plan to show any of the ESPNU signing day coverage. They do have repeats of the Rise National Invitational and the McDonalds All-star Game and Jamfest that you can watch if you missed them or want to (re)scout some of the players. Especially the "new free agents".

Tax Day means Signing Day

It's always a dramatic April 15, because it's not only the deadline for filing taxes, but it's also a new signing period for college hoops that usually lasts for a whole month.

And with the wild coaching carousel of the last couple of weeks, things have been re-arranged in the world of recruiting, not just for the 2010+ and beyond classes, but also for the 2009-2010 recruits, commits and non-commits alike. Not to mention potential transfers and jucos.

We believe ESPNU will have something, but ESPNU is not exactly easy to get on your cable box because of a childish dispute between ESPN and some cable companies like Comcast. The more silly things like that, the closer traditional cable TV gets to its end as more and more people will shift towards the internet with true pay-as-you-go plans. But that's a different story for a different blog :)

As far as know there's nothing planned for CSTV (CBS College Sports), which seems to have significantly cut its budget on studio-based productions. Their signature "One College Sports Show" has been gone for quite a while now.

But if we do notice any specials, we will certainly post a new blog update!

Rise Invitational Final today on ESPN at 3pm eastern

Don't forget to tune in or record the final of the Rise Invitational today on ESPN and ESPN-HD. The game will tip-off at 3pm eastern (12pm pacific). The girls game is underway on ESPN2 as we speak. In case that game goes to six overtimes, then obviously the men's games will start later than 3pm eastern.

This game is a great way to scout some of the upcoming great players in the world of college hoops, because, let's face it, the only two teams left with any interest in the 2008-2009 season are Michigan State and North Carolina.

Don't forget the McDonalds All American game tonight!

With the Calipari to Kentucky news, and a possible wild ride in the coaching carousel, some of the committed or otherwise unavailable recruits playing in tonight's McDonalds All American Game may become available in the next few days! So, you never know, some of them may end up on your team!

The game will air live at 8pm eastern tonight on ESPN, and will repeat a few times on the ESPN family of networks. But start your VCR an hour earlier, they will air a one-hour highlights package from the dunk and three-point contests at 7pm eastern, also on ESPN!

Kentucky and Calipari were smart in their timing, because now everyone watching the McDonalds game will be hearing about Calipari. I wouldn't be surprised if he calls in during the game and is interviewed on the air :)

Vitale makes outrageous comments about restricting recruits while coaches fly away to millions

Dick Vitale is loud and obnoxious, but this time he was serious when he claimed that players should not be allowed to "follow" a coach if there is a coaching change before they arrive on campus.

This is BULLCRAP! The coaches are leaving the universities just like that because someone offers 2 million instead of 1 million, yet the players, according to Vitale, should not be free to follow the coach.

Well, here is a newsflash. When it comes to committing to colleges, with collegiate sports, it is more like graduate school. In Graduate School, students want to do research under a certain professor, that's why they pick a certain graduate school. Similarly, a basketball student-athlete is like a graduate student in terms of basketball, they are "learning" and doing "R&D" under the coach.

If the coach leaves, their "R&D" is not what they signed up for. They signed up to do "R&D" with the said coach. If anyone is to be held accountable, it is the coach for leaving.

Of course no one is going to do that, because coaches (and colleges) make the rules and everyone gives coaches the golden glove treatment.

So who is left to screw? Why, who else, the student-athletes!

Dick Vitale, you are an IDIOT!

How do you get two big centers to commit together?

If you have been watching Louisville play in the Big East, you would ask yourself, "how did Rick Pitino manage to get two top freshmen centers"? You would be asking of course about Samardo Samuels and Terrence Jennings. Both have their specialties and skills set but they are both very very promising collegiate players. So how do you manage to convince both of them to commit together in the same recruiting class?

One way to do this is if you are Rick Pitino. Not necessarily because you are Rick Pitino, but because you point them to the scoreboard. About ten years ago, there was a certain Pitino era at Kentucky who won 2.5 national championships. And during that era one would find two very good centers in the team, Nazr Mohamed and Jamal Magloire. They may have played split the position when they played, but they certainly did not split their big NBA paychecks later on.

So Pitino (or other coaches) can sell the Nazr/Magloire potential to their prospective recruits.

Oak Hill Academy vs Montrose Christian (March 6)

ESPN2 is planning to show another high profile high-school game on March 6, at 7pm eastern (4pm pacific). The game will feature the "high school team" of the college-star-factory Oak Hill Academy visiting Montrose Christian of Bethesda (Maryland, not Israel).

The stars colliding in these game are two Villanova forwards, Isaiah Armwood and Mouphtaou Yarou, going up against Stephen Smith's crew, which is headlined by Keith Gallon who is planning to go to Oklahoma.

This is also a good way to scout future stars, so you can be the first to know in your sports bar or blog when people hear their names next year!

Classic High School games on ESPN Classic

There are two classic high-school basketball games scheduled to be shown on ESPN Classic in the next few days, so set up your VCRs and VCRs!

First up, tomorrow, Sunday February 22nd, at 11am eastern, you can watch a one-and-a-half hour edit of the classic 1954 game of Milan vs Muncie, a true Hoosiers story. That's right, the game is from 1954. Don't expect the footage to shine on your 50" HDTV, but you are watching living history!

Next up, a much more modern game, from 2002, LeBron James goes up against the Oak Hill Academy. This game will be shown on ESPN Classic at 1:30pm eastern time on March 6.

ESPN Classic has a live feed like ESPN and ESPN2, so there is no east/west-coast time like cable channels that offer "canned" shows.

McDonalds all-American selection show recap on ESPN2

Tonight, well actually, Thursday very early in the morning, ESPN2 will be showing a 30-minute recap of the 2009 McDonalds All-American selection show. The show will air (obviously tape-delayed) at 4:30am (Thursday) on ESPN2.

We do not have access to ESPNU, so we don't know if there is a longer special or a live special there. Sadly ESPN and Comcast continue their petty squabble and until they behave like grown-ups and FIX IT (to quote the guy from "SNL") we are boycotting ESPNU listings.

T-Mobile Showcase 2009 highlights on CSTV (CBS College Sports)

If you missed the 2009 version of the T-Mobile Showcase (Invitational) that aired on CBS College Sports (CSTV) during the holiday season, fear not!

CBS-CS has created a one-hour highlights special and it is showing it multiple times on CSTV. Check CSTV.com or your local tv listings for the exact dates and times. Or if you have a localized edition of CSTV, eg "the Mtn".

There were four men teams and four women teams, including Lawrence North (without Greg Oden!), South Atlanta, Duncanville and Garfield featuring some of the top recruits of 2009 and beyond. This please note was a high-school tournament, not an "all-star" type of game, so you don't get all the recruits in one place.

But a number of people think the high-school games can be more informative since you can see the recruits in a regular team environment where wins and losses actually matter and count.

Teamate star-wings end up being over-rated?m

We have seen this theme in the last few years. Look at Henderson and Ellington. They are nowhere near as good as their hype coming out of high-school.

And ask the Oregon and Kentucky fans about Hairston and Crawford, not exactly the players that were supposed to be when they were playing together in HS.

We are only talking about two wings on the same team, not any two teammates; for example, Oden and Conley continued to be awesome and awesome-r later on in college!