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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.

Mid-week recap

CSTV and Bill Hodges have updates on OJ Mayo's high school choice for 2006-07, a 2006 center falling out of the sky and landing in a Division 1 school, and some mid-major verbals.

Clark Francis has a freebie update talking about the players at the Five Star Camp

Pitino on recruiting: In his practice blog Rick Pitino reveals that he is going after 2-3 players when recruiting resumes on September 9. He is also having unofficial visits during the practice sessions.

Baylor: Negative Recruiting?

Gary Parrish writs about Baylor and negative recruiting. A controversial story as he exposes some negative recruiting tactics by Baylor, such as a flyer promo crossing-out (in ink, not temper) Bob Knight and Billy Gillespie. But this comes from multiple sources, at least three separate coaching staffs said so. A couple of other examples highlighted in the story: mis-representing the graduation rates of another Big-12 university, and creating a highlight package of all the problems at Memphis for a recruit considering Memphis.

And this of course comes from Bryce Drew and his staff, Bryce Drew claiming to be a very religious man at a very religious university. Apparently the rules of what is ethical are flexible when it comes to sports? Another case of B.i.g.o.t.r.y from those claiming to be standing on a high moral ground? You be the judge :-)

When confronted by CBS interviews Drew started spinning like a good ole politician and apologized. Essentially apologized for getting caught. While nowhere near as severe as the Dave Bliss situation, Bryce Drew is no saint!

CSTV Top 100 recruits of 2007

CSTV Top 100, 2007. Not ranked however, just sorted alphabetically.